Inside the innermost stall of the abandoned girls' lavatory.
Back in his element, Allen quickly tossed his backpack onto the toilet and eagerly began his experiment.
However, his excitement always made it difficult for him to concentrate, leading to several failed spells in a row, so he had to stop and calm himself down.
After composing himself, Allen focused his attention, imagining a sphere of light tracing an "S" shape in the air, with a loop count of 1. He then decisively waved his wand and calmly chanted the incantation, watching the tip of his wand with anticipation. But things didn't go as he wished; only a familiar sphere of light appeared motionless on the tip of his wand.
WTF???
Allen instantly began to doubt himself: "Why? Did I make a mistake in my reasoning somewhere?"
Allen was very unwilling to give up and cast the Lumos spell again: "Lumos!" Another lone sphere of light appeared on the tip of his wand.
But the more this happened, the calmer Allen became. There must be a problem somewhere. Where could the problem be? The trajectory should be fine, so the problem must be with the loop count parameter. Could there be a minimum value limit, where values below a certain number are considered invalid parameters? Allen quickly racked his brain.
Never mind, I'll just try it!
This time, Allen cast the spell again, setting the loop count to 10. It failed! Allen recorded the parameters he had tried.
He set the loop count to 100, and it failed! Recorded again.
The loop count was set to 1000, and it failed! Recorded again.
The loop count was set to 10000, and it failed! Recorded again.
Trying this, Allen felt something was wrong. The value was definitely too large. The spell surely couldn't last that long. He quickly adjusted the parameters down...
Time passed by minute by minute. Allen sat weakly on the toilet, looking at the test parameters in his notebook, feeling a bit desperate. Where exactly did it go wrong? But the notebook didn't answer him.
Allen weakly counted his experiments—64 times.
"What a good number! Two to the power of six!" Allen mumbled, his eyes vacant.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Allen. He quickly drew his wand, imagining a sphere of light tracing an "S" shape in the air, with a loop count of 64!
"Lumos!"
Then, a sphere of light appeared as expected. It left the tip of the wand without hesitation, flew into the air, traced an "S" trajectory, and then slowly began to repeat its path.
Allen's heart was filled with ecstasy. "It really is like this! It really is like this!" Allen wished he could slap himself twice for his foolishness just now. As a programmer, why was he limited to decimal? Binary is the GOAT!
Allen was greatly invigorated and cast the Lumos spell again, this time with a loop count of 1024!
He succeeded once again. A sphere of light traced a "B" trajectory, flying in the air. Combined with the previous "S," it formed a classic word, as if mocking someone.
But that someone didn't mind, loudly exclaiming, "Hahaha! I'm an S-B!" And then burst into laughter.
Allen continued his efforts, experimenting with several more parameters. The result was that the loop count had to be a power of 2, with a minimum value greater than or equal to 64 and a maximum value less than or equal to 1024.
Allen was instantly speechless at this result. This parameter design was a bit anti-human!
Who would have thought that the Lumos spell would have a loop count, and that it would be related to the trajectory parameter? Even if someone did, the value design is anti-human—it must be a power of 2 with a range limit. Who could have figured this out? No wonder such a common spell hasn't been improved in over three hundred years; this parameter design is truly too bizarre.
Allen looked at the "little stars" dancing all over the sky, feeling very satisfied, but suddenly another thought popped into his head:
These spheres of light are flying so slowly! Why can't they fly faster? Can they fly faster?
As this thought appeared in his mind, another thought also jumped in: "Rotation speed!"
Allen eagerly drew his wand, imagining the sphere of light rotating and flying in the air, then cast the Lumos spell again.
Sure enough, a sphere of light rapidly shot out of the wand and quickly flew around in the air.
"It's true, these parameters are all complementary!" Allen said happily, like a child who had received a new toy.
Then he cast another Lumos spell. This time the sphere of light rotated even faster, and its flying speed increased with the rotation speed.
"There's one more parameter. With this parameter added, Lumos will be an incredibly complete and perfect spell!" Allen said, gazing at the dancing sphere of light with fascination.
This time, he had a faint premonition that something was about to happen, but he still firmly drew his wand, thinking of various casting "parameters" in his mind, and softly chanted the incantation:
"Lumos!"
Allen only felt a rumble in his mind. His soul seemed to fly out of his body for an instant, briefly intersecting with a vast will in the endless high sky, and then instantly returned to his body, so fast that Allen felt he had just imagined it.
What Allen didn't notice was that at that instant, a symbol on his forehead suddenly lit up fiercely, then quickly faded away...
By the time Allen recovered, all the spheres of light on the ceiling had disappeared, leaving only one sphere rapidly flying in mid-air, flickering on and off. It was late by then, and the lavatory was very dim. Allen's face flickered in and out of the light from the sphere, and at this moment, Allen felt a sense of familiarity again.
But even after the sphere of light dissipated into the air, Allen couldn't grasp the inspiration in his mind.
He walked to the lavatory door, and the brilliant lights of Hogwarts outside caught his eye. He suddenly understood.
"Why do the spheres of light have to be white? Is it just because the standard casting procedure for Lumos doesn't specify otherwise?" Allen thought, self-mockingly.
Allen didn't know how many times he had drawn his wand and chanted the same spell today, but his mind had been completely opened.
He summoned a red sphere of light that flickered in mid-air while following its predetermined trajectory...
But Allen didn't stop. He summoned six more colorful spheres of light, making up the colors of the Calabash Brothers. In the process, he was also pleasantly surprised to find that the flickering speed of the light spheres was also linked to the rotation speed, which meant that the flickering speed could also be controlled...
The sky full of flickering spheres of light immediately changed the atmosphere. Allen stared blankly at the light and shadows cast on the ground and his body. BGM automatically played in his mind, and he felt his legs start to tremble, feeling his DNA also start to stir. His whole body was filled with the urge to dance...
"So this is the correct way to use Lumos!" Allen said in an almost groaning voice.
So, should I dance the Wild Wolf Disco now, or the Pure Land of Bliss?
Waiting online, it's urgent!