Chapter 292 — The Simulation Grounds
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
After all, a repulsion acceleration rail was unlike any similar accelerator on Earth: its inner face was not smooth but studded with slanted, protruding repulsion points, and because of the peculiar nature of repulsion magic those points could not be shielded by anything—so the accelerated object had to be secured additionally within the track to avoid collision.
A shell in a floating state could also minimize friction losses against the launching mechanism, preserving kinetic energy—further improving the "cannon's" range and energy efficiency. It was the best solution Gao Yang could devise with the technology at hand.
Gao Yang opened the protective cover at the starting section of the acceleration track and set a grooved "shell" between the rails. After confirming that both its upper and lower grooves made proper contact with the "floating rails," he closed the cover and engaged the master rune trigger of the whole apparatus.
With a peculiar humming, the shell, under the action of the floating rails, broke direct contact with the launching device and was driven forward by the first-stage repulsion mechanisms into the acceleration zone between the side rails. There it accelerated savagely, and in a mere flash every accelerating whistle was compressed into a single shrill crack—Gao Yang saw a metal object shoot from the front of the track, screaming as it tore the air; seconds later a bloom of fire flashed on a distant metal platform, and only afterward did the thunder of the report reach his ears.
As he had expected, the shell completed its acceleration successfully, but the crude "aerodynamic runes" scrawled over it did nothing, so its flight fell far short of his hopes, and moreover…
Gao Yang glanced at the acceleration track, its power already cut. He could see that all four rails were skewed and misaligned to varying degrees—because in accelerating the shell the repulsion points acted not only upon the shell itself but also exerted powerful thrust upon the other rails. So many repulsion points interacting at such close range generated tremendous force; rails without effective reinforcement could hardly avoid being knocked out of line.
Beyond that, the irrational arrangement of the repulsion points was another major cause—if their positions could be readjusted, then surely the stress borne by the rails could be dispersed…
Looking at these results, the delight in Gao Yang's heart gradually cooled, and he began to analyze what use this simulated test site might truly serve.
Without question, this was the true purpose of the "virtual space" the Sleepers had created. Those cultists treated so marvelous a tool as a bogeyman's illusion and a pipe dream for escaping reality—a colossal waste. This thing… was meant for scientific research!
But this virtual world was not omnipotent either.
Gao Yang could simulate his "repulsion railgun" here, but he could not make the crude runes scrawled on the shell take effect.
Which meant this space could for now serve only as a testing ground: bring in concept objects already more or less perfected and run them through trials, and with the space's highly realistic properties he could harvest a great deal of valid data in the process.
This would unquestionably save enormous research-and-development costs. Many costly, time-consuming field tests could be moved into the virtual space, and many things far too dangerous could be tested here first, then taken outside for actual production once most parameters were tuned. Of course, Gao Yang reckoned the "realism" of this virtual space had its limits; tests run here would inevitably diverge from the real world, and the more complex an object—the more it touched on the deep arcana of magic—the greater the simulation error would be. The Sleepers were only mortals, after all; even if they had built this place with dream magic akin to divine art, they could not reproduce every law of the real world within it.