Everyday Life of a Top Student at Hogwarts

Chapter 297 Abnormal Data Streams

Chapter 297 Abnormal Data Streams

After obtaining all the data, Karen couldn't wait to begin the data reading and analysis work. He locked himself in the workshop and first neatly arranged all the collected data cores according to their collection locations.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, then began the tedious inspection process. He first picked up the monitor core from the castle's internal nodes, which Ernesto had salvaged during his previous vacation, and carefully embedded the first one into the groove of the reading base. With a slight hum of magic, the crystal conduit on the base lit up with a soft white light, and the data stream began to be extracted, decoded, and projected into the air, forming a pale blue, meandering band of light, with corresponding digital readings and waveform charts automatically generated alongside it.

Karen scrutinized the scene intently. The fluctuations in the light band were smooth and rhythmic. "West corridor of the Ravenclaw Tower," he murmured, quickly noting in his logbook, "Stable magical base, fluctuation amplitude of 0.3 standard units, peak period of approximately 12 hours—synchronized with the main magical cycle of the castle, no anomalies." He switched between several different time scales for observation, and the waveform maintained a consistent regularity throughout. Next, he read data from several other nodes within the castle, the results of which were identical to the data Ernesto had previously transmitted to Karen during his vacation.

"Everything is normal inside the castle," Karen muttered to herself, filing the data and labeling it "Mode 1: Castle Steady-State Fluctuations".

Next was the underground waterway node. The data band here was noticeably different, with increased fluctuations and a more varied rhythm. "Underground waterway hub, weakly affected by the Black Lake's tidal forces, fluctuations of 0.5~0.8 standard units, dominant period of approximately 24.8 hours, superimposed with multiple unknown high-frequency harmonics—" Karen carefully analyzed. These harmonics could originate from water flowing in the pipes, trace amounts of magical waste discharged from the castle, or even some creatures living in the sewers. Although complex, after comparison, its pattern highly matched the data recorded before the holiday, belonging to another predictable "normal" pattern. He labeled this data as "Pattern Two: Tidal Disturbance Fluctuations."

Then, he picked up the data core retrieved from the ash tree node in the Forbidden Forest. The data band he read was almost a thin, straight line close to the baseline, with occasional extremely subtle, almost negligible fluctuations. "Forbidden Forest Node 7, Ash Tree," Karen recorded carefully, "The magic flow intensity remains below the perception threshold, with fluctuations almost zero. Consistent with the data characteristics of the scattered nodes within the castle transmitted back during Ernesto's vacation. This further confirms that the ancient monitoring network to which this node belongs has essentially failed, with only extremely weak energy residue remaining, unable to effectively transmit information." This result was not unexpected, and even relieved him. An abandoned system usually means less uncertainty, but it also means it will be difficult to find any further clues from this direction.

After completing the initial sorting and classification of all this data, Karen took a deep breath and turned his gaze to the last few data cores recovered from the bottom of Black Lake, still faintly carrying a trace of moisture and coldness. These were the main focus of this recovery operation, and also the part most likely to bring about changes. He cleared the workbench, and then carefully picked up the first lakebed core and embedded it into the reading base.

The data stream began to transmit, and the light band slowly extended through the air. The initial portion appeared similar to the lakebed data he had previously read, exhibiting a slow and heavy undulation pattern characteristic of deep-water environments. The intensity was significantly higher than inside the castle, but still within the expected range based on previous records. The waveform showed the same regular tidal cycle as before, superimposed with some inexplicable but small-amplitude random fluctuations. Karen nodded as he recorded these characteristics; the situation seemed to be under control.

However, as the data timeline smoothly progressed to a certain point during the Christmas holidays, the light band in the projection suddenly changed dramatically!

The previously relatively smooth waveform was suddenly gripped by an invisible giant hand and violently thrown upwards, abruptly creating a steep, almost vertical peak! The intensity reading instantly skyrocketed, the numbers fluctuating wildly, easily exceeding the normal fluctuation limit threshold set by Karen, reaching an astonishing value, several times stronger than any fluctuation he had ever recorded before! This abrupt peak lasted for a while before plummeting back down as if it had lost its support, but it did not completely return to the previous baseline. Instead, it continued to fluctuate at a level significantly higher than usual, as if some kind of energy had been released but had not yet completely subsided.

Karen's breath hitched, and his body instinctively lurched forward, his elbow nearly knocking over the ink bottle beside him. His brows furrowed, and his eyes sharpened instantly as he stared intently at the unusually glaring stream of data, as if trying to see right through it.

"This isn't right—" he muttered to himself, his voice unusually clear in the suddenly silent workshop. "This peak—it's too abrupt, the shape is unusually sharp, and the intensity far exceeds any previous record. What happened? Some kind of energy eruption? And it just so happens to be during the Christmas holidays?"

He immediately paused the data projection, his heart pounding slightly. He precisely rewound the timeline to the moment the first anomalous peak appeared, magnifying the waveform to its maximum, carefully examining every minute inflection point and fluctuation. The peak began almost without any transition or warning, as if a switch had been flipped instantly, while the decay process was accompanied by a peculiar, high-frequency oscillation in the aftershocks. This could not be simply explained by a single impact event, such as the collision of a large underwater creature or a nearby magical explosion.

He quickly brought up the monitor's own status log sub-item and carefully checked the auxiliary data records such as temperature, pressure, and external impact sensors. Everything was normal, ruling out the possibility that the equipment itself was malfunctioning and falsely reporting an alarm or being affected by external physical interference.

"It's not a problem with the equipment—it's a real magical phenomenon," Karen muttered, her mood growing even heavier.

He remained calm and quickly read the remaining two lakebed data cores. The results were both unsettling and exciting: all the cores showed a completely consistent sequence of anomalous peaks, appearing at the same time points and exhibiting nearly identical terrifying intensity and waveform characteristics. This meant that the anomaly was real and its impact covered the entire lakebed monitoring area, rather than being a false alarm or a localized event from a single monitor.

He leaned back in his chair, his fingers unconsciously tapping the table, producing a dull thud. His gaze returned to the strange, eerie waveforms in the air, like glaring scars. A mixture of intense confusion, heightened vigilance, and an irrepressible curiosity spread through him. Beneath the Black Lake, during his Christmas break away from school, while he spent quality time with his family, something unexpected and powerfully magical had clearly occurred in those dark waters.

Is this anomaly related to the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin? Or has some unknown ancient magical mechanism been accidentally triggered?

He needs to figure out what this is, what triggered it, and whether it will happen again, as this could be crucial to Karen's ability to unlock the secrets at the bottom of the lake.