Everyday Life of a Top Student at Hogwarts

Chapter 317 Inspiration for Optimization

The brief commotion caused by Director Kettleburn's enthusiastic letter, bearing the prominent seal of the Department of Physical Education and Sports of the Ministry of Magic, quickly subsided at the Ravenclaw table. Although the surrounding students were curious, seeing Cullen swiftly put away the letter and resume her usual calm expression, they continued eating or chatting. Although Wesley had just spoken, the noise in the Great Hall drowned out his voice, so it didn't attract the attention of those around him.

Back at the Eagle's Nest, Wesley was still buzzing with excitement: "Merlin Second Class! Karen, just think about it! You're only a sophomore!"

"And the Hawthorne Hawkeye system," Ernesto added, with a hint of pride in his voice, "is now associated with Quidditch, which is a truly great honor."

Fabian was more pragmatic, focusing on the later issues: "The optimization needs mentioned by the director are also very practical. While the existing transmitters are effective, for professional athletes, it's always better to be lighter. Lightweight, easy to install, even stealthy, while also enhancing tracking capabilities, requires significant modifications."

Karen nodded, having fully recovered from his initial surprise, his mind racing. "Honor is secondary," he said calmly, as if the Order of Merlin mentioned in the letter was merely a routine homework grade. "The key lies in the question Director Kettleburn raised itself. Optimizing the transmitter—that's an interesting technical challenge."

He walked to a small whiteboard he often used to deduce formulas and rune structures, and picked up a pen. "Our current plan is to have the broom carry an active signal transmitter that continuously emits a specific magical wave that can be detected and located by receivers around the court. The problem is that this transmitter needs an internal magic source—although it doesn't consume much energy, it still requires maintenance and replacement, and its structure itself has a minimum size limit, so installing it at the end of the broom is indeed a small hindrance."

"Then how else can we change it?" Wesley scratched his reddish-brown hair. "We can't just not use the transmitter, can we?"

"Why must it be launched?" Karen countered, a thoughtful glint in his eyes. "Why can't it be detected?" His gaze involuntarily drifted to the Marauder's Map on the desk beside him. Although he couldn't replicate the underlying secrets connecting it to the Hogwarts magical network, the map's incredibly subtle and almost imperceptible tracking and manifestation magic gave him a new direction.

"Marauder's Map—" Fabian immediately understood what Karen was referring to.

“That’s right,” Karen drew two diagrams on the whiteboard. “What if we change our approach? Instead of installing anything actively emitting signals on the brooms, we implant an extremely tiny, almost magic-free, and incredibly difficult-to-detect passive marker—perhaps just a special magical rune, or a micro-carving containing specific magical characteristics. Then, we significantly enhance the sensitivity and detection capabilities of the receivers around the court, allowing them to actively scan and identify these passive markers. Like this—”

"That solves almost all the weight and size problems of the launcher!" Ernesto added, his gray eyes gleaming. "The markings can be as small as a postage stamp, or even directly engraved inside the wooden broom handle using magical micro-engraving techniques! The impact on the broom's performance and balance can be reduced to almost zero!"

"Exactly," Karen affirmed. "The challenge has shifted from the broom end to the field receiver. We need to upgrade the receiver arrays on all the fields to enable them to capture these weak and unique passive signals more accurately and sensitively, and to identify them precisely from the complex magical interference of the field environment. But this investment is worthwhile. Once the upgrade is complete, subsequent maintenance costs will be reduced, and the overall reliability of the system may be higher, since passive markers are almost impossible to damage."

This sudden idea silenced the Eagle's Nest for a few seconds as the three of them processed the feasibility of the plan.

"It sounds—very Ravenclaw," Fabian concluded with admiration. "Ingenious, elegant, and fundamentally redefines the problem."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Wesley rubbed his hands together, eager to try and create that passive marker.

Karen was always efficient. He immediately retrieved some spare thin copper sheets, small pieces of walnut wood, and fine alchemy tools for micro-carving from the materials cabinet. "I have the idea; the key is how to create that subtle yet recognizable mark." This requires a combination of ancient rune variants related to "concealment," "solidification," and "resonance," and perhaps a bit of the technique I reverse-engineered from the Marauder's Map's manifestation magic—"

He became engrossed in his work, a faint magical light shimmering at his fingertips as he carefully etched fine, hair-like runes onto a copper sheet the size of a fingernail. Wesley, Fabian, and Ernesto stood nearby, watching intently, occasionally offering tools or suggestions based on their knowledge.

Preliminary testing quickly began inside the Eagle's Nest. Karen placed a miniature copper marker in a corner of the room and then attempted to probe it with a modified endoscope set to maximum sensitivity. Initially, the endoscope did not react, as if there were no objects there.

"Did we fail?" Wesley asked, a little disappointed.

"No, quite the opposite." Karen adjusted a rune connection point inside the endoscope. "This shows that it is very well concealed. Now, I will try to activate the recognition resonance frequency of the receiver—" He gently turned a small, newly added knob on the endoscope base.

Buzz! The endoscope suddenly vibrated violently, the pointer firmly pointing in the direction of the copper plate mark, emitting a stable and clear signal.

"It's a success!" Ernesto exclaimed softly.

"It's just the most basic principle verification." Karen remained calm. "The long-term stability of the marker, its performance on different materials, its ability to resist violent movement and environmental magical interference, and most importantly, how to achieve large-scale, low-cost production and upgrade the receiving end magic circle—all of these still require a lot of work and testing."

But in any case, the direction and method were already determined and there were no problems. Karen looked at the small copper piece, and he already had a complete plan in mind; all that remained was to implement it. He returned to his desk, spread out the parchment, and began to draft a reply to Chief Kettleburn.

"Dear Director Kettleburn:

Thank you for your letter and your high regard for the Hawkeye system. A nomination for the Merlin Medal is a great honor, and I will continue to dedicate myself to improving this system to ensure its impartiality and reliability.

Regarding your optimization request, I have a completely new technical solution that might completely solve the problem of the transmitter's bulkiness.

Karen then elaborated on the principles, advantages (extremely lightweight, zero performance impact, and maintenance-free) and disadvantages of the "passive tagging" scheme, which requires a matching upgraded receiver. She promised to produce a prototype sample and send detailed technical documentation as soon as possible.

After finishing the letter and having Phoebus send it away, Karen took a deep breath. His life had become noticeably more hectic: he couldn't fall behind in his daily classes and studies, the Slytherin Labs data needed to be continuously researched and organized, the second exploration in May required careful preparation, and now he had added the project of optimizing the Hawkeye system, although if the latter went smoothly, the focus would be mainly on practical performance.

In addition, he needed to find time to find Harry and continue collecting data on Parseltongue's magical fluctuations in preparation for research into unlocking Slytherin's access lock.

He began to make more efficient use of every minute: during Professor Binns's tedious history of magic class, he secretly deduced the stable structure of passive runes under his notebook; when searching for ancient rune materials in the library, he would also look for any clues related to the records in the Slytherin Laboratory; even when chatting with his roommates over meals, he would occasionally discuss the interference problems that the receiver array might face.

His three roommates also provided their full support. Based on Karen's conjecture about the origin of tracking magic techniques on the Marauder's Map, after his research, he believed that the pillagers might have drawn on some ancient magical traditions, especially since Karen knew of the lineage of two of them. Ernesto used his pure-blood family connections to write home and ask for help in finding some obscure books or notes about ancient tracking magic.

“My father replied,” Ernesto said a few days later, bringing several thick, old-fashioned books to the Eagle’s Nest. “He said these were dusty things from the family library, about some medieval secrets used to track rare magical beasts or enemies, and he hoped they would be useful to you.” Although his tone still carried a touch of his habitual arrogance, his actions were completely unreserved.

Karen gratefully accepted the document and quickly flipped through it. Sure enough, he found some ancient techniques on how to perfectly conceal tracking marks inside objects and how to activate identification through resonance at specific frequencies. These techniques coincided with his ideas and even provided several feasible rune combination schemes, greatly accelerating his research progress.

"Great, Ernesto, this is very helpful!" Karen thanked him sincerely.

A barely perceptible hint of satisfaction flashed across Ernesto's face as he shrugged. "It's good that it's come in handy."

Although he was as busy as a spinning top, Karen felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment. All sorts of knowledge—ancient, modern, spellcasting, alchemy, and even the dark biology from Slytherin—were intertwining and colliding in his mind, sparking new inspiration and ideas.

He was like a greedy sponge, absorbing everything and integrating it into his work, applying it to each challenge at hand. He was captivated by the feeling of swimming in an ocean of knowledge and constantly breaking through his own limitations.