The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician

Chapter 263 - 181 Magic: Paperman_2
Chapter 263: Chapter 181 Magic: Paperman_2”You...” he exclaimed in shock.

The fox quickly stepped forward, swinging the prison guard’s baton with lethal precision and rapidly hypnotizing the prisoner with the Physical Hypnosis Technique before they hurriedly left the second underground level.

Without incident, the group worked with clear roles, systematically completing the entire operation in about an hour and a half.

”Boom—” Suddenly, a thunderous explosion accompanied by firelight reached them, causing Fox and the rest to freeze in place.

They had now reached the perimeter wall of the Special Prison.

”This is...” the Electrician muttered to himself as he watched the flames rise in the distance.

”There was an explosion over there,” replied the Brewer, equally stunned.

”It’s not aimed at us; let’s get out of here first,” Fox quickly recovered and turned to the Courier, ”Lead us out of here.”

The Courier nodded silently, and after a ripple in the space, the group disappeared within the Special Prison.

On another side of the Special Prison.

”Cough cough.” The man with golden curls coughed twice, carelessly discarding the rocket launcher he had been carrying on his shoulder, his face expressing sheer boredom, ”Mermaid, why do I feel like there aren’t many living people around here? We haven’t encountered anyone on our way, and the underground is equally dead.”

However, Mermaid extended a tentacle to stop him, shaking her head slightly.

”Danger below?” Yaxi paused as he received the information from Mermaid, ”Isn’t the most dangerous thing below you?”

”Hmm.” Mermaid turned her head, her round eyes narrowing into sharp semicircles, seemingly displeased with Yaxi’s words.

Yaxi also promptly surrendered with his hands up.

Ever since they had left, he had been using his methods to take care of Mermaid.

First of all, he removed the cloth covering her eyes, forcing her to use her normal eyes to observe the world instead of the strange eyes embedded in her tentacles.

According to him, this would make Mermaid more like a person, rather than some kind of monster.

Now, his various methods seemed to be very effective as Mermaid’s personality traits had become more human-like in just a few weeks.

After receiving Yaxi’s signal of surrender, Mermaid then moved her body and found a piece of clothing, which she tore into shreds, then moistened the fabric with a water sphere she conjured out of thin air. Finally, she handed the wet cloth to Yaxi.

”Is the air down there toxic?” Yaxi asked as he took the wet cloth, covering his mouth and nose with it.

It seemed the toxicity wasn’t too strong, otherwise, Mermaid wouldn’t have relied on such a simple protection method.

That is to say, someone had been here before them.

Interesting.

Yaxi began to smile.

However, the more interesting stuff was yet to come.

---

”Paperman?”

On Wednesday evening, as if touching a biological clock, Du Yuyi opened the drawer beneath her office desk, retrieved the Magic Performance ticket, and murmured to herself as she read the white text on it.

Against the black shadowy background, a paper figure stood there from a high angle, sporting a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, exuding an indescribable eeriness.

Du Yuyi chuckled, unable to resist commenting, ”Playing god and ghost.”

She had a high resistance to such things; after all, she grew up in a place teeming with various ghosts and monsters.

Lonely City was not a place of confusing internal logic and disorder; at its core, it valued science, so there was no fertile ground for all sorts of ghosts and deities.

”Forget it, I don’t have anything better to do, might as well check it out,” Du Yuyi muttered to herself, stepping out of the Tarot Meeting’s consultation office, locking the door, and heading downstairs.

She rubbed the ticket, which was made of plastic and had a texture of raised granules, feeling quite nice in hand.

The ticket contained a chip for identification and authentication, which would be used to get through the Black Currant Theater’s ticket review.

”By the time you touch these words, I might already be dead,” Du Yuyi felt the granule-formed words on the ticket and mouthed them word for word.

”Why does this person love to play god and ghost more than I do?” she instantly rolled her eyes and shook her head in resignation, took the elevator down to the first underground level, then remotely called her coupe.

It was a red two-seater sports car, its wild color and cool design matching well with the black trench coat she wore that evening.

With a low roar, half an hour later, Du Yuyi arrived at the street near the Black Currant Theater, elegantly stepped out of the car, pressed her wristwatch, and watched the red sports car find a nearby parking space on its own.

She scanned her ticket, walked into the theater, and after a brief moment of light, the hallway gradually grew dim.

The glass cases in the corridor, once filled with various art pieces, had been replaced with paper figures of various forms. The light from underneath the cases cast flickering shadows on the paper figures’ faces, making them appear even more mysterious.

Fortunately, it wasn’t candlelight; otherwise, it would have been even more eerie.

Du Yuyi said this to herself as she walked deeper into the corridor. The audience along the corridor was not scarce, and amid the crowd, no one exhibited much fear.

At most, they felt a bit uncomfortable being stared at by the paper figures.

After all, the paper figures hadn’t shown anything strange yet; they could at most be considered a manifestation of Jiang Shu’s macabre sense of humor.

However...

As Du Yuyi reached the end of the corridor, she suddenly felt puzzled.

Why did it still feel like something was watching her?

She turned her head and then saw that all the paper figures were uniformly staring at her.

”...” Du Yuyi frowned. Was this targeting her?

However, the conversation of a young couple nearby suddenly enlightened her.

”Do you feel like these paper figures are always looking at us?” the girl in the couple tugged at her boyfriend’s sleeve.

The boy wrapped his arm around the girl’s slender waist and whispered something into her ear.

Du Yuyi nodded to herself, realizing something.

The reason here was probably some kind of visual illusion; these specially made paper figures seemed to look at you no matter where you stood in the corridor.

That was still quite scientific.

But from these simple scene arrangements, it was clear that Jiang Shu’s team had strong setting skills, with harmonious lighting and paper figures that captured the essence of a horror film, reflecting their deep understanding of ordinary people’s psychology.

Being equally adept at trickery, Du Yuyi could easily see through Jiang Shu’s arrangements. At this moment, her office’s layout shared a subtle commonality with the setting here.

And this was obviously just the preamble of the magic performance; at this moment, Du Yuyi felt a bit of interest in the main act of the performance.

Perhaps...

It could elevate her own level?

With the intention of exchanging knowledge with peers, Du Yuyi proceeded into the performance hall.

In the performance hall, a ring of candles was lit along the walls, and the only other light source was the ceiling lamp directly overhead.

Since the hall wasn’t very bright, staff members continuously guided the audience to prevent any accidents.

Passing by the hall’s wall, Du Yuyi leaned in to look at the flickering candlelight.

It wasn’t real candlelight, just a projection.

However, the paper figures holding candles at the lower end were indeed real.

Sitting in her seat, Du Yuyi looked towards the stage which was concealed by a dark curtain, revealing nothing.

As the audience gradually entered, the hall strangely fell silent.

In this hall shrouded in an aura of terror, the audience maintained silence, quietly awaiting the start of the magic performance.

At seven-thirty.

All light sources in the hall disappeared in an instant, candles and ceiling lamp alike lost their glow.

But if one observed closely in the darkness of the hall, one could still see a faint green luminescence.

These were expressions of varying emotions; by location, these green glowing eyes, noses, and mouths belonged to the paper figures.

Soon after, these green eyes slowly moved towards the stage, in a rhythmically enchanting way.

The curtain was drawn, and dim lights shone upon the stage.

Four silhouettes carried a heavy black coffin up from below the stage.

”Bang—” They set down the coffin, the intense sound echoing as if striking each audience member’s heart, causing their bodies to involuntarily shudder.

Du Yuyi casually drew a tarot card, looked at it, then froze.

The tarot card was blank.

This result meant...

There was no one on the stage.

Not a single person.