I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 456 (Patreon)

Chapter 456: This is the ruthless work of magic and technology, the ultimate secret of the food war - the art of bread-making!

In the afternoon, dozens of wizards from the Iyeta Academy gathered in a spacious magic laboratory, pondering the deeper meaning behind the words of this magical prodigy.

However, the young and vibrant Elok didn't have so many concerns and immediately answered, "Food is of course wheat, beans, and corn..."

Lydia also raised her hand high and answered, "We need to plant seeds in the ground, then water them, fertilize them, repeat the process until they grow out of the ground!"

"Yes, you could say that!" Lynn nodded, then continued with a smile, "But do you know how plants transform various elements into nutrients that we can absorb?"

Elok and Lydia were speechless for a moment, even three-ring wizards like Philip, who focused on elemental studies, were stumped by Lynn's question.

They had never paid attention to how wheat absorbed various elements from the soil during its growth process and eventually became edible food.

Fortunately, Lynn didn't expect them to be able to answer and directly revealed the answer.

"It relies on photosynthesis!"

This was common knowledge known to all in the federation in his previous life!

As the bottom layer of the entire ecosystem, plants convert carbon dioxide and water into energy-storing organic matter through photosynthesis, which is the source of biological energy!

In the distant ancient times, humans, like wild beasts, obtained food through gathering and hunting, greatly affected by the environment, weather, and luck, and hunger was a frequent occurrence.

It wasn't until the skills of farming and animal husbandry were developed that stable access to food was possible, laying a solid foundation for later large-scale settlements and the formation of nations.

However, this stability was limited; perhaps a drought or a large-scale war could destroy everything in an instant!

It wasn't until the twenty-first century that humans, for the first time in a laboratory, synthesized starch directly using carbon dioxide, water, electricity (light), and a special catalyst enzyme!

This achievement was undoubtedly revolutionary!

It meant that from then on, food production directly broke away from the reliance on land, sunlight, and the environment, and could be produced batch by batch like assembly line work!

Efficiency was raised by several levels!

It's worth noting that natural photosynthesis in plants involves dozens of extremely complex biochemical reactions, takes months, and the theoretical energy conversion efficiency is very low, about 2%.

While artificial starch synthesis only required eleven steps, and the energy conversion rate was raised to seven percent.

After entering the twenty-second century, based on the needs of interstellar navigation and the establishment of nuclear fusion reactors, artificial starch synthesis once again experienced a technological explosion, and the energy utilization rate directly soared to about twenty percent, reducing the eleven steps to six!

In addition, there were also technologies in the smart brain related to artificial synthesis of wheat flour, cornmeal, and so on. After all, these were just some inorganic synthesis, although the technical difficulty was higher, it was still fundamentally the same!

As Lynn explained the principles of magic, he extended his right hand.

The water vapor and carbon dioxide in the air were quickly stripped away, followed by a strong flash of lightning, and various trace elements merged into it under the control of spiritual power.

Using the void as a pot, and magic as a spatula, transforming inorganic into organic...

Lynn demonstrated his art of making bread in front of dozens of wizards like this!

About fifteen seconds later, fine powder began to appear in the void, floating and accumulating together, forming a spherical shape.

This scene of creation from the void made the wizards from the Iyeta Academy marvel!

"Water!"

Lynn spoke again, and more water vapor was converted into liquid water and poured into the powder. Then, using Mage Hand, he rapidly kneaded the dough. Under pressure, the sphere quickly deformed and twisted, and finally, direct microwave heating technology was used for baking.

The originally thin dough immediately expanded under the heat, becoming as thick as four fingers, a square bread brick!

It took only about three minutes and a few seconds!

"This is my magic bread!"

Using Mage Hand, Lynn placed the bread brick on the square table.

Elok, Kevin, Philip, and others immediately crowded around, staring at the bread brick on the table, amazed at the magical skill Lynn had demonstrated...

"Can we eat it?" Lydia reached out and touched it, feeling soft, unlike the bread she bought in the market, which was hard enough to be used as a shield and weapon.

"Of course!" Lynn said with a smile. Otherwise, why would he bother making these things?

Hearing Lynn's affirmative answer, Lydia immediately tore off a piece and put it in her mouth.

"How is it? Does it taste okay?" Lynn quickly asked. Although he had added many trace elements to enhance its nutrition, it was hard to say how it tasted specifically.

Lydia frowned and thought for a long time before finding an adjective.

"It tastes like a cloud!"

The girl's evaluation made Philip and others feel extremely curious, so they each took a piece and tasted it, and then understood why Lydia said so.

Because this kind of bread was soft to bite into, not hard at all. The texture was even better than white bread, the only drawback was that it didn't have much taste.

If you could dip it in some bean paste to eat, it would definitely be a great delicacy!

"It seems that from now on, we don't have to worry about food anymore!" Philip said excitedly.

Lynn's art of bread-making was really amazing. This meant that in the future, when wizards went on long trips, they didn't need to carry any food anymore. When they were thirsty, they could extract water vapor from the air, and when they were hungry, they could cast a bread-making spell, which was incredibly convenient.

"I wonder if this counts as third-tier magic, and can apprentices use it? How much magic power does it need to consume?" Kevin asked a substantial question again, which was about its universality.

This concerned the scope of application of this spell.

"From the difficulty of casting spells, casting the complete Bread-Making spell should be considered third-tier magic!" Lynn pondered and said.

Kevin furrowed his brows slightly. Even if all the three-tier wizards in the Parliament were counted together, it would not be enough to supply the entire kingdom with this spell!

Fortunately, Lynn soon added, "We can separate each step of the spell and build corresponding alchemy arrays to make it, which will greatly reduce the difficulty."

"If it's just synthesizing starch, it's even simpler!"

Using only starch naturally couldn't make bread, but as a daily food for the poor, it was definitely no problem!

Only carbon dioxide, water, electricity, and magic power were needed! Before the last two were everywhere, the first two needed to use the Parliament's thunderstones and magic stone reserves.

"But... won't this consume too much?" Kevin hesitated again and said, the daily food for three million people would definitely consume a huge amount of energy!

"Don't worry, before long, we won't need to worry about energy anymore," Lynn patted Philip's shoulder reassuringly, saying with a smile.

They had recently discovered a new magic stone mine, and as for electricity, wasn't there a nuclear fusion reactor about to be completed?

In fact, the technology for artificial food in the federation was only widely used after the development of nuclear fusion and the technology of matter-antimatter annihilation!

After dispelling the doubts of Kevin and others, Lynn turned to the door and spoke.

"Loude, come in!"

Receiving the command, Loude, who had been waiting outside the door for a long time, hurriedly walked in, striding with his prosthetic leg.

Upon entering, his first glance fell on the half-eaten bread brick on the square table.

With extremely limited knowledge of magic, Loude seemed to see the bread brick as something Lynn conjured out of thin air!

It was a miracle of void creation!

No wonder Lord Lynn dared to instruct him to sell nearly half of the wheat reserves in just a few days!

"You should taste it too!" Lynn reached out and handed the remaining half of the bread brick to Loude.

The latter was also excited and directly took a piece into his mouth, which melted away soft and fluffy.

"Just like a cloud!" Loude exclaimed. "If this kind of magic bread could be mass-produced and put on the market, perhaps no one would buy wheat anymore."

It's just that Loude wondered what expression those wealthy merchants and nobles who were frantically hoarding grain would have when they saw this?

Loude thought to himself, but didn't forget the main point, immediately taking out a secret envelope from his pocket.

"Lord Lynn, this is the list of personnel collected by the council's psychic wizards. They are the ones responsible for raising grain prices this time, attempting to blame the kingdom's cholera outbreak on them."

Those nobles concealed themselves and relied on remotely controlling various caravans to buy up grain in large quantities, even killing many trusted aides responsible for the operations in an attempt to cut off any traceability.

However, under soul searching, there were no secrets to be had. After spending several days, those psychic wizards still followed the clues all the way up. After all, the nobles intended to continue causing trouble, which inevitably required further contact with the caravans.

Grand Duke Gade, Count Mortan, Count Bell, Count Held...

The list was long, covering almost all the major nobles in the northern part of the kingdom. If it had been a year ago, each name on it would have been enough to affect the stability of the entire kingdom.

"And about that person, according to the investigation of the wizards, he seems to have also participated in the plan to plague the kingdom!" Loude said discreetly.

Lynn nodded, not particularly surprised. Without the other party's consent, how could the nobles dare to make such a big fuss?

But it's also good that it saves him the trouble of finding excuses...

"Now, how much grain has been released?" Lynn put away the scroll in his hand and casually asked.

"It's about ninety thousand tons of wheat, totaling one hundred and seventy-three thousand six hundred imperial coins..." Loude reported excitedly.

This is simply robbing money!

Most importantly, this is just the beginning. They still have half of the wheat to get rid of, which is the real big deal. After all, at the current rate, flipping the price of a kilogram of wheat a couple of hundred times would be a breeze.

Lynn thought for a moment and felt it was probably enough.

Although the accumulated wealth of those nobles was very rich, the amount of cash they could come up with was probably only around a million imperial coins, which might not even be enough to buy all the wheat.

After sharing the happy news, Loude carefully reported some bad news. "Due to the skyrocketing price of wheat, large-scale famines have already occurred in the western and northern territories of the kingdom."

Although the council ostensibly controlled the entire kingdom, in reality, it only had absolute control over the 'cleared' southern, central, and recently conquered eastern territories, while the rest of the territories were still under the control of the nobles.

Now that the nobles are busy buying grain to make money, naturally, no one can care about the lives of the poor people in their territories.

Loude was very aware that this magical star still cared about the poor, so he carefully worded his sentences when mentioning the scenes of starving people everywhere, gnawing on grass and trees.

However, to his surprise, Lynn showed no sign of anger or worry. Instead, he smiled and gave orders.

"Good, let Redell handle it. Bring some grain over and distribute the flintlock rifles we've exchanged to them!"

This... this... rifles?

Loude was astonished. He had not expected Lynn to use such a brutal method to solve the problem.

Or perhaps Lynn had already planned the follow-up strategy when gradually releasing grain and getting those nobles involved.

"Your wisdom is as vast as the sea..." Loude hastily flattered, but there was also some sincerity in his tone.

With the nobles messing around like this, which was equivalent to completely losing the people's hearts, coupled with the distribution of grain and rifles, they could easily reclaim the kingdom's western and northern territories without any effort, and incidentally gather popular support.

Lynn didn't pay attention to Loude's flattery, continuing to inquire about the progress of the grain collection plan he had instructed.

"It's true that a small number of caravans have sold their grain, but more are still the kingdom's subjects selling grain to us at low prices," Loude replied truthfully.

"This is indeed... surprising." Lynn couldn't help but smile wryly. However, it also proved that their strategy of improving the living standards of the people had achieved good results.

You should know that the current market price of wheat is several times the purchase price, but the subjects are still willing to sell grain to them at low prices.

A hint of a smile appeared on Lynn's face, then he suddenly spoke in a cold tone. "Tonight, let's lower the purchase price of wheat to fifteen copper per kilogram!"

"Yes, Lord Lynn." Loude couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. Before, he had always been puzzled as to why this magical star wanted to buy grain at prices far below the market, but now everything was clear.

This wasn't the price of buying grain, it was clearly the countdown to raising the butcher's knife!

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