The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician

Chapter 223 - 166: Magic Instruction and Night Raid on White Eagle!_2
Chapter 223: Chapter 166: Magic Instruction and Night Raid on White Eagle!_2Baglas, which was without any faults except for luck, could only be explained by miracles.

Including Qian’s Baglas, which wasn’t entirely clean, his method of selecting the third audience member was different from before and was also questioned by some.

Magic, the process of unraveling secrets is actually the most uninteresting time because it is ultimately not magic but will surely disappoint many people.

Even if...

These people knew the secrets, they could not perform with the same stunning effect.

Jiang Shu admitted to himself that his Baglas technique wasn’t very clever, but the idea and creative leap were excellent. Following this train of thought, perhaps a cleaner and purer magical effect could be developed.

”Alright then.” Su Xiaoou didn’t get an answer and sighed somewhat dejectedly, but she could understand what Jiang Shu was thinking.

The teacher definitely wasn’t hiding his skill; he truly hoped she could study on her own and conquer this effect.

Anyway, at least she knew it wasn’t magic, that it was achievable by normal people, right?

Su Xiaoou told herself this, feeling an inexplicably kindled fighting spirit.

”Then the second one, this magic called ’Fear,’ do you have any thoughts on it?” Jiang Shu moved on from that topic; the next three magic tricks were indeed the real problems Su Xiaoou had to solve.

To tell the truth, the effect was quite strong, but the principle wasn’t difficult.

”The second one is probably...” Su Xiaoou thought for a bit, ”audio marking?”

”Hmm? Explain in detail.” Jiang Shu’s expression didn’t change; he merely prompted Su Xiaoou to continue.

”You’ve mentioned many marking methods, like the common visual cues and the uncommon scent markings,” Su Xiaoou noticed Jiang Shu didn’t correct her, so she continued, ”I was wondering if there could also be audio cues, like listening to determine what the audience member really wrote.”

”Hmm, and then?” Jiang Shu nodded his head.

”Just by listening to determine her greatest fear, you, teacher, might be able to do it, but there’s no need to use such a high-failure-rate method, so I guess... you peeked!” Su Xiaoou expressed her guess as she exhaled, ”Turning around gives the audience a sense of security, but peeking often happens under such circumstances, like you could see reflections from your wristwatch.”

After pondering for a while, Jiang Shu neither said it was wrong nor right, but simply nodded and said, ”You passed this question.”

”Mhm, mhm.” Su Xiaoou’s eyes lit up; such a reaction from Jiang Shu indicated that even if the magic’s effect didn’t come from that method, at least it proved her approach was highly viable.

That is to say, she could perform this effect herself!

Of course, this would require a lot of practice, otherwise getting caught peeking...

It would be a total loss of the magician’s coolness!

After all, Jiang Shu had said long ago, magicians don’t lose coolness by peeking; they lose it by being caught peeking.

”The third one...” Su Xiaoou thought and displayed two lists on her wristwatch: one of adjectives and the other of nouns.

She pointed to the only outstanding adjective on the list, ”furry,” and said, ”This one has four characters.”

Then she pointed to the only outstanding noun, ”teddy bear,” continuing, ”This one has three characters.”

”They stand out too much and match; it’s very easy to strong-select this one in a short time, then you prepare a teddy bear and fire paper in advance,” Su Xiaoou spewed out her understanding, ”It’s probably like that.”

Having said that, she carefully lifted her eyes to glance at Jiang Shu, but she didn’t see the satisfaction she hoped for in his eyes.

”You know, I’ve told you before,” Jiang Shu slowly said, ”Very few of the words and procedures I design are completely useless.”

He continued, ”If that were the case, there would be too many redundancies in the script; that is not my style.”

”This...” Su Xiaoou blinked and then lowered her head in distress, ”I didn’t see it.”

”It’s okay, you are not the only one who didn’t see it.” Jiang Shu smiled. His words, which seemed casual, might hurt many people, ”What you said sounds reasonable, but they are actually not crucial.”

”The emphasis on these two words will catch the audience’s attention, but they will not produce a strong selection effect. Even if it is just a very brief glance, that’s enough for them to see the other words.” Jiang Shu continued, sharing his magic performance experience, ”This might increase the probability that the audience chooses ’fuzzy’ and ’teddy bear,’ but to execute a trick with a high hit rate, this slight increase in probability is far from enough.”

”Why is that?” Su Xiaoou keenly sensed that the principle behind this magic was important, and it seemed that Jiang Shu had not mentioned it before.

So this time, he would explain it to her.

”The principle is actually simple. Look at the first column of adjectives.” Jiang Shu pointed to the several adjectives in the first column, his finger sliding down the list:

Cute

Dangerous

Fuzzy

Metallic

Brown

Bloody

”These words seem different, but if you compare them with the second list you can find that their direction is very clear.” Jiang Shu slowly said, ”It’s either a teddy bear or a pistol. ’Cute,’ ’fuzzy,’ ’brown’ refer to a teddy bear, and ’dangerous,’ ’metallic,’ ’bloody’ point to a pistol.”

He pondered his wording at the time before continuing, ”I said to make associations from adjectives to nouns, and that is a psychological suggestion for a strong selection process. Unseen, I had already narrowed the range down to ’teddy bear’ and ’pistol.’”

”Then, I asked a question,” Jiang Shu said next, ”I asked him, ’Is it hard?’”

”This is a question that doesn’t need an answer. Before he replied, I changed my statement, so most people would ignore the importance of this question,” Jiang Shu earnestly explained to Su Xiaoou the great tactic of acquiring information in spirit magic, ”His subconscious reaction upon hearing the question is the real answer. From his reaction, I could tell that his choice was not a pistol but a teddy bear.”

”Ambiguous questions,” Jiang Shu raised a finger, ”often I use these kinds of questions to probe for answers.”

Jiang Shu thought about it and decided to clarify this linguistic technique in this situation, ”But what I use even more are ambiguous rhetorical questions. Take, for example, the phrase ’You’re not left-handed, are you?’ If the emphasis is on ’not,’ the meaning is ’I think you’re not left-handed.’ If the emphasis is on ’left-handed,’ then the meaning becomes ’I think you are left-handed,’ which would have entirely different outcomes.”

”Often, I will blur the emphasis, meaning when I say this phrase, the audience tends to interpret it according to their own wishes,” he continued, explaining very thoroughly and seriously, ”They think I guessed they are left-handed or not, but really I am collecting information based on their reaction. Similarly, this question could be replaced with the suit or value of a playing card, etc., to reap unexpected delights. The audience will think you know it all.”

”I understand,” Su Xiaoou nodded, her eyes filled with admiration as she looked at Jiang Shu.

So many mysteries are hidden within a simple question. The study of magic looks simple, but it’s actually quite profound.

Afterward, the Magic House fell silent.

Su Xiaoou held back for a long time before she embarrassedly voiced out, ”For the next telephonic card guess, I can’t figure it out. Teacher, how do you manage to read the mind of the person on the other end of the phone?”

”You...” Jiang Shu sighed, ”Actually, that should be the simplest. Just go back and practice it a few more times, I’m too lazy to explain it to you. Remember, it’s just a small magic trick, don’t perform it too many times. And it’s better to do it over the phone. Doing it face-to-face is kind of lame.”

”Uh... I got it,” Su Xiaoou nodded gravely.

”Alright, then you can go back. Digest what I told you today.” Jiang Shu coughed lightly, effectively issuing a subtle dismissal.

The Invisibility derivative entry had already been obtained, and the Spirit Technique derivative entries were ready as well.

Next was the exciting night raid on White Eagle!

Yes, I’m just going to verify something. Even if I see Sister Ruo, I can’t go looking for her, I must absolutely not let her discover me!