Chapter 3 - A discovery

No one to love except his brother, who to be honest doesn’t count because it’s not a romance sort of thing; No real income, this week just being a measly 16 crystals, 4c under minimum wage; A crap job that means that he has to do the same thing again and again, for hours on end; No company around him, no one at all. He could give a request to someone, or he could make up a false friend (like an imaginary friend except real), but in the end the only person in his world was his brother and it’s all because of this job. Today had to be a good day, otherwise the job just isn’t worth it.

He thought to himself about a computer from their world and how he would love to use one, not a cheap clone made in our world, but an original from yours. He made a keyboard appear with amazing concentration like only experienced mages can, and it grew to twice the average size so that he could compensate for his lack of any practice with one. He didn’t intend to use it, in fact even if he wanted to it was nothing but false plastic and it’s not connected to anything because there’s nothing to connect it to. It was simply recreational, like showing himself the reason why he should connet to their world. That’s when it occured to him: what if we could program the computers using some of the knowledge of computers?

I mean, why not? If we’ve got everything that we could possibly need to make the computers themselves, then all we would need would be one single computer to create the system that could ensure that the mana is created and goes where it needs to as fast as lightning, and electricity is a really easy way to generate mana because all it needs to do is have a chance of generating mana. No one knew exactly where mana came from when using electricity, but eventually mana generated regardless when the electricity had a conductor and nowhere to really go. Electricity can conduct mana if it’s embedded onto it, and you can use something enchanted to enchant the electricity. Part enchantment, part machine...

Part enchantment, part machine!
“Part enchantment, part machine!”

He heard himself shouting, but not before everyone else would have. It’s just lucky there was no one else to hear him, otherwise that would have been embarassing. But forget embarassment, this was an amazing though, and it’s amazing how this hasn’t already been done before, never in history. There are some mock computers made to represent real computers from your world, and ones made of magic that would pretend to work, and there may even be a working emulation of one somewhere in the world, but never, ever, in the history of the planet, had anyone thought of creating a hybrid computer-enchantment that would be capable of using mana mechanically.

He held his hands together, excitedly, and he called his boss

“Boss, I’ve had a eureka moment here!”
“What?”
“I’ve had an apiphany!”
“Just tell me already”
Unable to contain his excitement, he shouted at his boss: “Part enchantment, part machine!”
“...”. He was stunned.
“Part enchantment, part machine!”
“What?”
“Part en-”
“I know what you said, but... what?”
“We could make a machine that uses electricity and mana at the same time”
“Mana isn’t electricity, you dumbass”. He was clearly about to end the message, but Jack interrupted him quickly before he could.
“No, but we could enchant the electricity with mana”
“That... Wait, do you actually think that would work?”
“Yes, we could make it so that we have some thing enchanted to enchant the electrons as they pass through, so we could have an electricity generator one side and pass it through this enchanter, then when it comes through enchanted then we could use the electricity to carry the mana and use it on a frame where the electricity would make an amazing current, and the mana that comes through it would form a loop...”
“How...”
“...Then once it makes a loop we could use a computer to interact with that voltage making a binary sequence within...”
“Shut up a minute”
Just like that, he stopped himsel from blurting out his excitement, which was very difficult to do.
“So you think you could actually do this? Actually make a machine that uses enchantments like that?”
“Well, not on my own, but...”
“You’re promoted to project manager, and I’ll employ anyone that you’d need to make this possible. You find them, you can put them to work, and you can work with them to make this thing. Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you”
“Really? Do I get a raise as well?”
“80c If you come with me to the snuff party as my guest, 70 if you don’t”
“80! I... Can I think about that?”
“Call me back when you think about it, I’ll give you a 20 crystal bonus if you can get Jacob along as well and I’ll make sure you’re safe”
“Do we have to eat?”
“Nope, but at least one of you has to kill someone”
“Okay”
“Okay you’ll think about it or okay you’ll come?”
“I’ll think about-” And the message went.

What he had to do was obvious.

Jacob appeared up before him, for a third time in an hour, not that he was, although it was a close call.
“Jacob!”
“What?”
“You’ll never guess!”
“You got a raise?”
“There’s more!
“You figured it out?”
“Part enchantment, part machine”
“Part enchantment, part machine?”
“Part enchantment, part machine!”
“Part machine?”
“Part enchantment!”
“Oh my god...”
“70c, 80 if I go to the snuff thing, a 20 bonus if I take you as well”
“Oh my god...”
“Do you want to go?”
“Oh my god...”
“I know! It’s such amazing news, isn’t it? You don’t have to go, but I don’t need the crystals anymore”
“I was hoping you would go with me, but oh my god...”
“I think I’ve got more than you now”
“I’m only on 30, you’re going to be on 70?”
“You’re rich and you’re on 30?”
“Do you have any idea what this means?”

Almost as if he knew exactly what to say, A stranger came into view, another hologram. This guy was a tall, well dressed lizard with an ill-looking green set of scales, looking stiff and impressive in his black suit which covered the majority of his body. Jack felt as if he should have been kneeling.

“This is an alarmingly impressive idea, young man”
“I... My name’s Jack, this is Jacob and he’s from human resources. I take it my boss has told you about my apiphany?”
“Yes, and he’s given you anyone that you could need. You might not realise it, but you’ve actually got the right to be above your boss. You’re earning far more than he is right now, and if I had the right to change things then I would ensure you’re owning the company and earning a solid 100c per week”
“One... I think I might pass out”
“I’m going to go now, you’ll want some privacy.” Jacob said, as he left”
“Yes, this must be difficult news to take, quadroupling your pay like this” The lizard said with a smirk.
“Yeah, you could say that... Oh, and it might be 70c, It’s 80c if I go to a snuff party with your boss”
“That’s a hard deal, and I really don’t think that you deserve any less than 100c. I’ll see what I can do about that. In the meantime, I am yours and I am already hired unless you find a problem with this arrangement. I’m worth 40c if that means anything to you, and I’ve come from a job worth 60c”
“Why would you give up a job worth 60c for one worth 40?”
“I don’t know if you realise the chain of events that you’ve started, but I assure you that losing a third of my salary is well worth being a part of this. I’m the world’s lead researcher into electricity and I know that what you propose is certainly possible, but it will be difficult and will need a lot of research and maybe even an additional employee as a researcher. Besides that, I think we’d also need an experienced enchanter so that we could ensure that every single particle that goes through the enchanter is enchanted properly. Lastly, a conjurer and an alterer to ensure we have the correct parts for the machine and that we have something appropriate to enchant as an enchanter. Maybe an engineer or a specialised scientist would be appropriate as well.”
“Are you sure that we need that many people? All I need is a little help to speed things along considering the concentration that we would need”
“Two people is most definitely not enough, I still don’t think you undestand the seriousness of your situation. The instant you called your boss with those four words, you changed this universe permanently”
“I think you’re over exaddurating a bit”
“Actually, I’m under exaddurating the situation to make you more comfortable, this would affect the entire multiverse if it works, and I intend to see that happen”
“That... the multiverse?”
“You’ve single-handedly become the link from one to another and this means that you could change the way that every single one of them works when the machine is operational.”
“But no one has ever done this before, and I’m hardly anything special”
“Granted, as far as I know you’re not superior in any major way, but I doubt that a person that can change the multiverse would need to be special in any way. As long as you have the life in your veins, you’re able to contribute anything to the world, to the multiverse”
“What I mean is, surely someone has caught onto this before, and if they hadn’t then how come I’ve suddenly had an apiphany and I’m the one able to do this?”
“It doesn’t matter, the odds are against us but we can get any number of employees to assist us, and we have all the time in the world”
“We really don’t need much though, we can start tomorrow and it would take only a week, all we need is an enchanter and a conjurer”
“My, my... That’s surprisingly ambitions for someone who can so easily say that they’re ‘nothing special’”
“I don’t think that’s ambitious, although we would need to make a circuit and that would take a week as well, and we’d need the help of someone that can make some simple circuits”
“You really think that two weeks is a possibility?”
“I think that two weeks is enough for a working prototype, and that if we want a fully finished, well polished model then we would need a month”
“I hope that you’re smarter than you are optimistic, because you’d need to be to ensure that this works”
“Do you think I could get my brother’s help? He’s not especiall gifted in anything relevant, but he can help me with casting because I can fixate my emotions on him and that would help me to concentrate and make the magic more powerful”
“Your vocabulary is a little inaccurate, you sound like you’re in one of their fictions.”
“Sorry”
“Don’t be, we don’t truly have a word for the effects of mana so it’s appropriate anyway. As for your brother, if you believe that he could truly help you then I would consider it important and I’ll ask your boss this when I am discussing your wages”

Not left with anything to say, he stared into space for a while, only finally refocussing to ask the lizard his name. “I never caught-”
“Zack. Zack W. I have the initial W to signify not my bloodline, but my position as one of the great scholars of our time and I’m the first Zack of the great scholars. There are only around 200 of us, but that is enough to mean that we are an elite and private society dedicated to the persuit, exploration and expression of knowledge. Your boss was right to notify us, we’re already in the process of updating our books as history is being written.”
“I’m going to need to take a lie down...”
“I’ll tell your boss that that’s the case, you certainly deserve it. Might I also ask if you’re going to this snuff party? I would be there too, considering that it would be a chance to interact better with one another”
“If I do go, will you protect me and my brother?”
“Protect you? I should imagine that this party would be held in your favour! I’ll make that the case.”