Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 213: Magic Devices for Long-Distance Communication 2
“…It doesn’t move.”
“…It doesn’t.”
“…It isn’t moving.”
The three of them tilted their heads, staring at the unmoving arm.
Even after trying to move their fingers several times or even attempting to move the entire arm, the result remained the same.
“From the way the magic circles are lighting up, the magic information seems to be reaching the arm’s magic circle, right?”
“Yeah, both the pillars and the base are lighting up.”
“This flat ‘cable’ thing is glowing too, so it looks like the magic information is definitely reaching the arm.”
As the three had said, the magic was indeed reaching the arm, but it wasn’t moving.
“Hmm, maybe the format is different…?”
“Format?”
“Oh, sorry. How should I put this… It’s hard to explain with the word ‘form.’ Maybe it’s better to say that the problem lies in the way the information is interpreted, like how it’s understood differently?”
What Isamū was referring to here was the data format.
In fields using Earth’s computers, there are various types of formats.
For example, in music data, MP3 and WAV are quite well-known.
Both become music when played, but they have completely different data formats and are not compatible with each other. If the data doesn’t follow the specifications and rules of each format, it won’t play.
“It’s like understanding a different language… You might not understand modern words, but if it were a language from a thousand years ago, you’d get it?”
“Hmm. So, if we don’t know the language that works, there’s nothing we can do about it, right?”
“Yeah… But there’s no mention of translation or conversion anywhere…”
“If you can’t understand the language, we’re stuck… Is there any other possible reason?”
“Other reasons… maybe data errors, error-checking bits, encoding, or security encryption… Wait a minute?”
Isamū, answering Willem’s question, suddenly began pondering deeply, as if realizing something.
“The first generation was fine since we went directly, but what about the second generation? Oh, right, we registered the magic pattern first. So, what about this one? Even though it’s a prototype, it was designed with the idea of using multiple units, right?”
Muttering to himself, Isamū sank deeper into thought.
At this point, he couldn’t hear anything around him, so Eto and Willem could only watch with wry smiles.
“Ahhh!! That’s it!?”
“Whoa!”
After several minutes of muttering, Isamū suddenly shouted, causing Eto to flinch.
“That’s what the mysterious string of characters was!?”
After appearing to have come to an understanding, Isamū began pointing and following the magic circle on the control seat platform with his eyes.
“Good grief, you’re as busy as ever.”
Eto and Willem chuckled again, shrugging.
“Uh, I think it’s around here… Found it! This is it!”
While crawling on the platform to inspect the magic circle, Isamū raised his voice in excitement.
“It’s a word… and… this is a number. I thought this was a string to convert the data into a transmittable form, but I think this is an identifier…”
“Identifier? What’s that?”
Willem, who had come closer to Isamū after he stopped the magic device, tilted his head.
“It’s like a name or code that helps identify where the information came from. You usually specify it so it doesn’t overlap with anything else.”
“Huh. Let me see… Ah, I see, this is probably a ‘registration number’ written here.”
“Oh!? Amazing, Willem! You can read this too!?”
After hearing Isamū’s explanation, Willem, who had looked at the part Isamū couldn’t read, muttered.
Isamū’s skill is perfect when it comes to understanding the part of magic related to activation, but when it comes to simple notes or variable names, he can tell they’re variables, but he doesn’t know exactly what the name is.
He understands numbers since they’re often used as parameters, but when it comes to other words, he’s completely lost.
“This character has appeared a few times before, but there seemed to be multiple meanings. With this issue, I’m now certain that one of my hypotheses was correct.”
Willem nodded slightly and began writing in a thick book he carried.
Willem didn’t have a skill like Isamū’s, but after nearly a year of studying the meanings of magic circles with Isamū, he had started to understand some of the magic language.
The thick book he carried under his arm was the result of his research on the topic.
In a way, this might be even more valuable than magic items in this world of Ethersia.
“I see, a registration number… yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think that’s definitely it.”
“So, what happens once we know this identifier?”
“Well, I think, first, the receiver checks if the identifier matches theirs, and then determines if it’s correct.”
The identifier is a code that shows who the information is from, so the receiver first checks if it’s for them.
For example, if a piece of data with the identifier “Registration Number 01-Right Hand Move” is sent from the control side,
“Registration Number 01-” would be the identifier, and “Right Hand Move” would be the data needed to activate the magic device.
Then, the magic giant golem side would receive the information, compare it to its own registration number, and if it’s correct, it would know it’s a command directed at it.
“Once it’s confirmed that it’s correct, the identifier part would be excluded, and the action would be replicated. I think the reason it didn’t move was because we used the entire string, including the identifier.”
The data received was “Registration Number 01-Right Hand Move,” but to make the movement work, only “Right Hand Move” was necessary.
If the entire string, including “Registration Number 01-,” was used, it would result in unnecessary data, causing the failure to move.
In modern Earth, too, there have been countless instances where programs malfunctioned due to unnecessary data being included.
“So, if we add a process to exclude the identifier from the magic circle on the receiving side, it should work.”
As he said this, Isamū began editing the board connected to the arm.
“Alright! This time, it should move!”
After reviewing the added parts several times, Isamū moved back to the center of the platform, putting on his rings again.
“Okay, here we go!”
Once the magic device was activated again, Isamū moved his right index finger.
As before, the light flowed through the system.
And then…
Gyuui
With a faint creaking sound, the large index finger of the arm placed on the desk moved.
“““Whoa!!!”””
The three of them shouted in unison upon seeing it.
“It moved!”
“It moved!”
“It really moved!”
They smiled at each other with joy.
“I’ll move it a bit more.”
After a moment of celebration, Isamū continued to move his hand.
Every time Isamū opened and closed his hand, the arm on the desk also repeated the same movement, making small squeaking noises.
“That’s moving pretty accurately.”
“Yeah, it really is. When you look at it again, it’s incredible.”
“By the way, this hand only has three fingers. How does that work?”
“Uh… yeah, it seems to be responding only to the thumb, index, and middle fingers.”
After moving his fingers in various combinations to answer Willem’s question, Isamū confirmed that the arm only responds to these three fingers.
The fingers on this arm part are specially designed, with a thumb and index finger, while the other fingers are integrated into a single structure. It might be easier to imagine it as something like a thick leather glove used for welding work.
How the movements are traced was a bit of a mystery, but it turned out to be quite a reasonable design.
Also, after moving the arm a few times, Isamū realized that the arm shape automatically adjusts the first time it’s moved.
For example, if the golem’s arm was bent at the elbow initially, and the operator moved the arm and only activated the fingers while keeping the elbow straight, the golem’s arm would also extend at the elbow while the fingers moved.
Since the golem’s movements aren’t fed back to the operator, the operator’s movements take priority.
With the general setup understood, the experiment moved on to the next step.
Three days after managing to make the arm move, the second step of the operational test was underway.
“Wow, it’s looking good.”
“Well, for now, it’s just been fixed in place.”
Next to the data-receiving base was a heavy metal base, with a support pillar attached to the shoulder of the arm piece.
The connection cables, looking like thick udon noodles, were left exposed.
“Eto, do you have a thin stick to put in this hand?”
“Yeah, hold on a sec. I also made a prototype pen, so wait a minute.”
In response to Isamū’s question, Eto brought over a stick-like object about 30 cm in length from his workbench.
“Here, this is the ‘pencil’ you were talking about before. It’s bigger than the one people use, so it’s okay if the precision isn’t perfect. It should be perfect for testing.”
What Eto showed him was exactly what could be called a large pencil.