As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 186 Manchester Central Station
To develop a popular game in a year requires cultivating a group of loyal players, which is a huge test for Chen Ran.

Chen Ran previously only had experience as a producer and had no experience in running a business.

Games are not just about development, but also about post-production distribution and operations.

This is an unknown area for Chen Ran.

The game development was supported by the computing power and engine provided by Zheng Li, so the difficulty was not so great that it could not be completed.

At least there is hope of completion, the only difference is whether the work is good or bad.

However, distribution, operation and obtaining a publishing license are much more difficult than developing a game within a year.

For Zheng Li, investing in Chen Ran is another way for him to interfere in the Blue Star society in different ways.

Kechuang Bio's intervention in Blue Star society is more on the material level.

The Magic Coin system was previously known only to senior management. After receiving a lot of exposure at the end of 23, the response has only begun to emerge this year.

Netflix released a large number of fantasy works in the first quarter, and the works with wizards as the protagonists received enough attention as they expected.

But in the end, your ability to stand out from the crowd depends on your products. Riding on the popularity of others can only help you gain the first batch of audiences.

HBO's fantasy masterpiece with Merlin as the protagonist and George R.R. Martin as the screenwriter has begun casting in Hollywood.

As for why HBO dared to openly use Merlin as the protagonist, it was because their senior management judged that Merlin was on the side of order and would not attack humans without reason.

Moreover, in the TV series they are going to shoot, Merlin is an absolutely positive character, without even a dark side.

A completely fantasy protagonist.

The task that Zheng Li gave to Chen Ran was for him to personally participate in the development of entertainment products.

Deep down, Zheng Li also hopes to bring some classic works of the Mage Alliance to Blue Star.

There will be unexpected risks in using Ke Chuang Bio to do this, so it would be best to find another person to help in front of the stage.

Moreover, the story background given by Zheng Li is quite grand, even if Chen Ran's work is not very good.

Zheng Li can let BioCloud's primary artificial intelligence optimize the game graphics.

It can attract enough players with its grand story background and exquisite graphics.

Domestic players have a strong desire to support domestic masterpieces.

It was only after Luo Shu started working in a big company that he understood why so many Chinese people wanted to work in Silicon Valley.

There is little pressure and high income. Apart from the lack of social interaction, there are no other disadvantages.

I clock in at the company at 10 o'clock every morning, observe today's data, then pull out the abnormal data, review it, and report to my superiors.

In the afternoon, I will observe the superior's task objectives again, and the day's work is over.

This workload is even less than half a day's work in the laboratory when he was studying in China.

"Luo, pay attention to observe the TeV gamma rays of the Crab Nebula today."

"The supernova remnant and pulsating wind nebula northeast of Zeta Tauri?"

"Yes, do some imaging after the observation. Remember to observe its Cherenkov radiation.

The results were processed with a flux of 1.8 x 10-0.7 photons squared centimeters per second above 11 TeV.”

It is so easy to work under a big shot. He tells you exactly what to do.

You don't need to think for yourself.

Luo Shu seriously doubted whether he would be able to find the same job if he returned to China if he continued like this.

"it is good."

"Also remember to perform routine observations with the reflecting Schmidt telescope in the afternoon."

Luo Shu replied again: "No problem."

Apple recruited a lot of big names this quarter, and most of the astronomy professors at Berkeley were poached.

So much so that Berkeley was forced to increase the salaries of astronomy professors.

Big companies simply don't care about money when they poach talent from universities.

Among them, Musk is the craziest. The magic coin mining department established by SpaceX has become an independent company.

The salaries offered to professors generally exceed one million US dollars.

You have to know that astronomy and mathematics are relatively poor subjects, and the annual salary of an average professor fluctuates between $100,000 and $200,000.

Apple has developed a new space observation strategy, which is to turn its attention to deep space.

If you observe targets that are too close, there is a high probability that the easy targets will be poached.

In this case, it is better to start with a more difficult goal.

The Crab Nebula is 6500 light-years away from the blue star.

This is Apple's new target, and they suspect that there is civilization in the Crab Nebula.

Although the Crab Nebula is the expanding remnant of a supernova, the dense stellar remnant of a pulsar is spinning at a rate of 30 times per second.

They emit high-energy radiation, primarily in the form of X-rays and gamma rays.

But the Crab Nebula has a very special structure. It is the only celestial structure discovered by humans with four magnetic poles.

At the same time, there is a neutron star inside it that releases a large number of high-energy particles like a cosmic generator, forming a high-energy particle storm.

Apple's team of astronomers turned their attention to the Crab Nebula. They suspected that there might be a civilization in this nebula with much more powerful technology than that of Blue Planet.

The civilization of the Crab Nebula created these strange sights.

The big guys have pointed out the direction, and low-level errand runners like Luo Shu can only follow it.

Although Luo Shu felt that there was little hope.

He looked through this week's work records:

“Three X-ray bursts were observed from the direction of Circinus X-1 and were found to have all the characteristics of a Type I burst.

These bursts are thought to come from Cir X-1.

Therefore, it was determined that Cir X-1 is a neutron star rather than a black hole.

The properties of its bursts, such as the ratio of energy released between bursts to energy released during a burst, and the blackbody radius, differ from those of earlier bursts of Cir X-1.
The pattern is more similar to the -0748 found in EXO676"

"."

Luo Shu felt that he was useless and could only use some fixed tools to observe and then write reports.

Fortunately, this era gives him the opportunity to get the salary and benefits of the Silicon Valley Internet industry, which he never thought of when he chose astronomy.

When Luo Shu chose astronomy, he was already prepared to live off his parents.

Luo Shu updated the work diary in his hand and prepared to start the day's work.

"Are you sure we can find anything here? Why do I feel like our attempts to find traces of magic are in vain?"

Herman regretted listening to Lawrence, for they had come a long way to gain nothing, and his visibly red nose had become even redder with exertion.

Another white man, Lawrence, shook his head and said, “No one can guarantee that we can find any trace of magic.”

Lawrence, who wore round-framed glasses, had a square face, so much so that he always felt that if he had a round face he would have received an admission letter to Hogwarts when he was twelve years old.

Yes, they are freshmen at the University of Manchester, a school with a large number of Chinese students.

After Merlin's performance, Lawrence spent a long time searching in the library, and then claimed that they should take advantage of the long vacation to look for traces of magic. "But this is the route I am most confident in!"

Herman touched his nose and asked, "I'm still curious. So many people have tried to find the train route from Manchester to London, but no one has ever found any trace of magic."

The flock of crows that Merlin summoned at the Stockholm Concert Hall at the end had a form that reminded all Blue Star people who saw it of Expecto Guardians.

So much so that everyone believes that Rowling has accidentally come into contact with the magical society.

English reporters interviewed Rowling and got first-hand interview materials.

They focused on what Rowling had said in the media:

"In 1990, Rowling was sitting on a train from Manchester to London that was four hours late when she saw a boy wearing round-framed glasses flying by on a broomstick outside the window.

This gave her the inspiration for the Harry Potter stories.”

This statement was brought out again by the media today and the outside world unanimously believed that perhaps she really saw it at that time.

Therefore, the media asked this question repeatedly in the interview, trying to make Rowling recall more detailed details.

She also went from being a media outcast to being a media darling again.

Sometimes public opinion can be manipulated so powerfully.

But because it happened so long ago, more than 30 years ago, Rowling's statement has not changed from when she was interviewed.

She really couldn't remember it clearly.

It was because of this incident that many internet celebrities in England tried to find traces of magic along the train route from Manchester to London.

Lawrence adjusted his glasses. "No, no, no. Too many people focus on the train line from Euston Station to Piccadilly Station."

"In their view, Rowling was broke in 1990 and Euston to Piccadilly was the cheapest ticket available."

“It only costs a little over fifty pounds, so the others have put too much effort into this route.”

Euston Station is a train station located in the back of central London, east of Regent's Park and very close to King's Cross Station.

Piccadilly Station is the only mainline railway station in Manchester city centre.

"But remember that 30 years ago, there was an abandoned station in Manchester - Central Station."

"Central Station was listed as a Grade II building during the 1963 Industrial Buildings Census."

"It was subsequently reopened following renovations, but its conservation status was upgraded again in 1994 and it has not been in operation since then."

"It was sold to a private individual by the English Railways and then bought back by Manchester City Council to become the City Exhibition Centre."

Herman interrupted, "So Grand Central Terminal was in operation for a brief period of time, sometime after 1963 until 1994?"

Lawrence nodded and said, "To be precise, it was between 1987 and 1994, and it was briefly operated for seven years."

"It's now called Manchester Central, but it used to be cheaper to get from Central Station to King's Cross in London."

"I went to the Manchester Railway Museum to find the tickets from that year. The cheapest ticket from Central Station to King's Cross Station in London was only thirty pounds!"

“And I went to Manchester Central specifically to find the station staff from that time and asked them about it.”

“As Central Station was a Grade II listed building, there was often repair and maintenance work to be done.”

"So the trains to London from Central Station were often delayed, and the tickets were cheaper than at other stations."

Herman clapped his hands suddenly: "No wonder others can't find any trace of magic, that's why!"

Many people in England tried to find traces of magic.

"Not the Picardia Station but the Grand Central Station."

"And the train to London should be at King's Cross Station in London."

Lawrence wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "That's right."

"And because at that time, only King's Cross Station was managed by London City Hall, and Central Station was also managed by Manchester City Hall at the time."

"So only London King's Station can tolerate the constant delays at Central Station."

In fact, the privatization of British railways was in 1994. I believe you can understand that there are certain deviations in the history of Blue Star England.

"There were very few trains from Central Station to other stations in London at that time."

Herman applauded, "Nice reasoning."

"No wonder Platform 9 4 13 is at King's Station in London."

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Lawrence smiled and said, “I just thought of it by chance.”

"I came across a book about the history of railway architecture in Manchester by chance in the library."

"I took it out and read it carefully, and then connected it with Harry Potter, and I found many coincidences."

“When there are too many coincidences, they are no longer coincidences.”

"You have to know that Manchester was the site of the earliest urban trains."

“The winner of the Urban Train Competition that year was Stephenson, the father of modern trains.”

"The train that Stephenson won the prize for is called: Rocket."

"The rocket's departure point is Grand Central Station."

"Rocket, Firebolt, do you think they are very similar? And in Rowling's official setting, the speed of the Firebolt is exactly 150 kilometers per hour."

"Similar to the speed of trains in 1990."

The English name of Firebolt is firebolt, and the English name of Rocket Train is rocket.

What Lawrence means here is that the two have similar meanings.

"The Rocket served between Manchester and Liverpool."

“That’s where Grand Central Terminal was.”

"And in the novel, the Firebolt went out of control, and a similar incident happened to the Rocket as well."

"When it opened, it killed William Huskisson, a member of the Liverpool Parliament."

After speaking for a long time, Lawrence, who was already out of breath, felt very thirsty.

He pulled a water bottle from his backpack.

Herman was fascinated: "And then?"

Lawrence took a big sip of water and said, "Then there are so many coincidences when comparing the novel with history."

"I think Central to King's Cross is the most likely route."

"I think maybe Rowling knows something and she puts it in the book and tries to let us discover it ourselves."

"So what we're going to do today is retrace this line from Central Station to King's Cross."

"As for whether we can find anything specific, I don't know."

"But this is the route where we are most likely to make a discovery."

Over the years, many of the railroad tracks have been covered by regrowing vegetation.

Herman added: “It’s a great adventure!”

(End of this chapter)