Chapter 377: Chapter 376: Seventeen-step Rubik’s Cube

“Click, click, click…”

After fiddling with the deformed metallic ball, Richard roughly figured out the situation with the metallic ball.

First was the ball’s first state, which was just an ordinary metallic ball and nothing special. However, once it suffered a strong external impact, it would transform into the second state and emit an extremely terrifying destructive aura as a warning.

This warning wasn’t meant to scare without cause–Richard strongly suspected that if the metallic ball suffered enough of an impact or could sense its destruction approaching a certain threshold, it would unleash a destructive power with an explosive force of at least thousands of T-levels, which is the equivalent of thousands of tons of TNT. It would be almost like a large-scale ammunition depot exploding.

By then, the destructive force released by the metallic ball could easily destroy everything. Not to mention a First-level Wizard, even Second-level Wizards or Third-level Wizards wouldn’t be able to withstand it; the metal ball would be obliterated without a trace remaining.

This design was most likely intended by the creator of the metallic ball to prevent forceful disassembly or destruction, ensuring that the second state of the metallic ball could be correctly and safely unlocked by someone.

As for the activated metallic ball’s second state…

“Click, click, click…”

Richard twisted the transformed metallic ball a few more times, squinted his eyes, and muttered to himself, “A Magic Cube.”

Yes, a Magic Cube!

…

“Magic Cube?” Pandora asked with a curious face after hearing Richard’s words.

“Magic Cube? What Magic Cube? What’s with the Magic Cube? What Cube?” The Golden Mask was also extremely puzzled.

Taking a glance at Pandora and the Golden Mask, Richard tried to explain, “Magic Cube, that’s the Magic Cube. You could consider it a toy or maybe a tool for mental exercise, but this thing, the Magic Cube…”

Richard’s brows gradually furrowed as he spoke.

The second state of the metallic ball in his hand was indeed a Magic Cube, unquestionably a Magic Cube. All six sides had different symbols–although there were no color divisions, each side was carved with long vertical lines, short horizontal lines, short left diagonal lines, short right diagonal lines, left half-circles, and right half-circles–forming the six elements of the Black Spirit Empire pattern.

It was a six-sided Magic Cube, which appeared spherical because it was seventeen-step.

Yes, Seventeen-step!

The most common six-sided Magic Cube is the third order, meaning each side has three rows and three columns totaling nine small cubes. The current one, however, had seventeen rows and columns amounting to 289 small cubes. With so many small cubes densely packed in a volume only the size of a fist, it was hair-raising to behold.

This meant that a casual twist on this metallic ball didn’t move just a single layer of cubes but possibly three or even four layers. Precise movements could only be made with a needle or a fingernail.

To ensure smooth operation of these densely packed small cubes, some of the edge cubes were very close to the center of the Magic Cube, varying slightly in size and undergoing some deformation, ultimately transforming from a cube into an almost spherical shape.

Seventeen-stage, indeed!

Richard held the transformed metallic ball in his hands, feeling its heavy weight, and his heart felt just as heavy.

The Magic Cube on modern Earth was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a professor at the Hungarian Budapest Architecture College.

Setting aside how the Black Spirit Empire from hundreds of years ago possessed such an object, it was clear that solving a Magic Cube was a difficult task.

The solution of a Magic Cube involved many mathematical principles. If a person, unfamiliar with any mathematics, didn’t know any techniques or mnemonics, and didn’t possess especially outstanding thinking abilities, just relying on instinct to solve it could take days, weeks, or even months.

That was no exaggeration.

In fact, the slowest solving Guinness World Record for a standard three-layer six-face Rubik’s Cube on modern Earth was set by a British man named Graham Parker.

Graham Parker bought a Magic Cube in 1983 and, after first making contact with it, spent approximately 26 years totalling 27,000 hours to restore the cube after he scrambled it.

This was still just the simplest three-layer six-face standard Rubik’s Cube. As the level of the cubes increased, the difficulty of restoring them rose sharply.

Fourth-order, Fifth-order, Sixth-order…

And now there are Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen– a full Seventeen-stage!

Richard pursed his lips but wasn’t shocked by the seventeen-step Rubik’s Cube.

He knew the mathematical principles involved in restoring a Magic Cube and also understood some common methods of solving it. Even for a seventeen-stage cube as complex as this, he was confident in his ability to restore it.

In fact, not just seventeen-stage, but even a twenty-seven-stage was not a big deal– the record for the highest level of Magic Cube manufactured on modern Earth was at thirty-three layers. Once the level of a Magic Cube reached a certain magnitude, continuing to increase it didn’t have any special meaning, because it didn’t add to the intellectual difficulty of solving, only to the amount of work required for restoration.

The most common method of solving high-level Magic Cubes was reduction.

First, twist the cube so that the center colors on each face match the original state, restore the center pieces, then match the middle edge pieces, combining them.

In this way, no matter how complex the high-level cube, it could gradually be reduced to a three-layer cube– a large three-layer cube. Then, apply the formulas for solving a three-layer cube, and it could be easily restored.

The reason he felt a bit of a headache now was that he was pondering how many twists and how much time it would take to restore a seventeen-stage Magic Cube, especially one as small as this metallic ball?

On modern Earth, if he remembered correctly, the record for solving a seventeen-stage cube was about seven and a half hours, yet this metallic ball would probably require at least ten hours.

“Ten hours, huh.” Richard said to himself, relaxed.

He could guess that only by successfully restoring the Magic Cube would he be able to open it in the correct way and then obtain some key information hidden inside.

With that in mind, not just ten hours, but even twenty hours would have to be spent manually operating it.

Richard took a deep breath and was about to start twisting when he suddenly remembered something.

Could it be possible… that the Magic Cube was actually restored at the beginning, and by carefully opening it in a certain way, one could obtain some information? While now, it was…

Richard turned his head to look at Pandora and asked, “Pandora, have you touched this Magic Cube at all?”

“Ah, this Magic Cube? I think… I think I might have touched it… a little.” Pandora said with wide eyes, looking very concerned, “What’s wrong?”

“I… well, nothing.” Richard managed a strong smile, shook his head, then patted Pandora on the head and ruffled her hair, saying, “You go clean the test tubes.”

“Okay.” Pandora cheerfully walked away.

Richard reminded her, “By the way, next time if there’s a similar situation, make sure not to fiddle with it.”

“Why… why not?”

“Because… it could be dangerous.”

Pandora tilted her head as she thought about what had just happened, then looked at Richard and nodded earnestly, “I’ll remember that.”

“That’s good.” Richard said, rubbed his temples, flexed his fingers, and began to work on the Magic Cube.

“Click, click, click…”

“Click, click, click…”

…