Chapter 114: The Dark Wizard's Secret Base

"Come on, give it a try. I remember you did well in your spellcasting class," Murphy said, without much emotion. To be honest, although the other person seemed to be a peer, for Murphy, who possessed an adult's mind, he never really considered his classmates as his equals during his school years.

"Okay, Murphy... cough, boss," Winston Robinson approached the test bench, observing the wafer and the drawn circle's size.

"The ratio is five times," Murphy reminded.

Winston nodded, took a deep breath, and exclaimed, "Enlarge swiftly!"

The wafer instantly enlarged several times but still fell short of the fivefold circle when it finally stopped expanding.

Murphy glanced at the edge of the wafer, "18.65 inches, a gap of 1.35 inches, not bad. Use the spell 'Ystop' to cancel the change."

He was recording the radius.

On the second attempt, Winston's enlargement spell exceeded the fivefold circle again, with worse accuracy than the first.

However, on the third try, Winston managed to reduce the enlargement gap to within one inch.

Murphy encouraged him, then let the second person proceed with the test.

After all ten individuals had been tested, Murphy sighed in relief.

From the test results, someone managed to reduce the radius discrepancy to approximately 0.4 inches (about 1 centimeter) without any targeted training.

He believed that with intensive training, this discrepancy rate could be significantly reduced, even to the millimeter range. By dispelling and reapplying the spell on wafers with large discrepancies, stabilizing the enlargement discrepancy at the millimeter level should not be a problem.

The millimeter-level discrepancy in the enlarged wafers, when restored to normal size, would result in a processing error of a few nanometers, which is unlikely to affect the normal function of a micrometer-level chip.

Such chips, although possibly having slight differences in power consumption, could function normally with some adjustments to the packaging process.

The chip's yield rate should be sufficiently guaranteed.

Murphy selected the three individuals with the smallest discrepancies, including Winston Robinson, and after sending the others back, he presented three contracts.

"Your upcoming work involves highly confidential product development, so you must sign this confidentiality agreement. Please review the agreement, and feel free to ask me any questions," Murphy said.

He also warned, "To ensure compliance with the agreement, after signing, I will cast a spell on everyone. It's best to thoroughly understand all terms because once the spell is released, it will be almost impossible to back out."

Murphy disliked coercion, always stating the unpleasant aspects upfront. If they were unwilling, he could easily find someone else who was.

After carefully reviewing the agreement, which mainly involved not disclosing work secrets and lacked overly harsh terms, their only concern was a special clause: the agreement lasted one year, during which they could not leave the workplace. After a year, they could choose whether to renew the agreement. If they chose not to, a forgetting spell would be cast, erasing all work-related memories.

Restrictions on personal freedom and the forgetting spell were concerning, but given the high salary of two hundred Galleons per month—payable upfront for a year—they hesitantly accepted after asking about personal safety guarantees.

Each signed the contract and chose the upfront payment for a year.

Murphy, without hesitation, stacked piles of Galleons in front of each person, allowing them to send the money home and concoct a simple excuse for their whereabouts for the next year.

Then, after casting the Thought Imprint Seed of Mind on them, they were escorted by house-elves to the thirteenth floor of the magical research institute, the western area of the spell laboratory.

This was the location of the chip research team.

They quickly understood why the agreement required secrecy and closed work here, and why they must forget the work content upon leaving.

Because Murphy was collaborating with Muggles!

Murphy was indeed a dark wizard, blatantly violating the Wizarding Secrecy Act!

And this was the dark wizard's secret base!

Help, they wanted to run...

But now that they were on board the "thief's ship," it was impossible to easily disembark.

The house-elves handed them over to Derrick Preston, the head of the chip research team, before leaving.

The three wizards, with tense faces, listened to Derrick assigning tasks, determined to draw their wands and teach the Muggle "fatty" a lesson if they heard anything potentially harmful.

Unexpectedly, the work content was almost identical to the agreement, merely involving using enlargement and shrinkage spells on smooth, circular mirrors.

It seemed... not so bad after all.

The dark wizard's secret base wasn't as terrifying as they thought...

Moreover, the Muggles were quite polite and respectful, far more approachable than the wizarding bosses who used to scold them at work.

Even when they made excessive requests, such as claiming they couldn't release too many spells in a short period and needed frequent rests, the Muggles took notes seriously and discussed rest plans in detail.

The three wizards felt valued for the first time since graduation.

The thought of escaping gradually shifted to a wait-and-see attitude, thinking, "Let's see how it goes, I've already got the money."

...

"Although they seemed quite resistant at first, they didn't show much opposition and seemed to quickly accept the situation. After showing them their rooms and visiting the cafeteria and various entertainment facilities, making them understand we are conducting legitimate work and not deceiving them for abuse, their concerns were alleviated, and they relaxed," reported a Muggle researcher to Murphy, who nodded in approval, "Good job."

Murphy was somewhat worried about bringing three wizards into the research institute, so he had arranged for staff to secretly observe and report.

"Remember, wizards are extremely valuable talents. Although most haven't undergone comprehensive logical training and may not be as intelligent as you, sometimes even appearing foolish, they possess irreplaceable value. I hope they receive the respect they deserve."

"Yes, director. I'll pass on your message to everyone."

In the future, the number of wizards in the magical research institute would increase. To reduce conflicts between wizards and Muggle researchers, a harmonious environment must be created to fully motivate everyone.

Treating followers like Voldemort, as tools to be abused or even killed at will, would only lead to isolation and abandonment.

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