The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician

Chapter 546 - 287: Face the Gale!_2
”Well...” Su Xiaoou blinked, still seemingly puzzled.

”For example, take the magic trick you just performed,” Jiang Shu thought for a moment, feeling it was better to improve directly on Su Xiaoou’s magic, ”If it were me, while having Li Yuntang think of a name, I might say, ’Now we need a name, but we only need to say its initial letter. Just say any letter, and it would be best if he is someone you’re focused on, someone by your side.’”

Jiang Shu’s tone was light and airy as he spoke this sentence, except he emphasized the words ”someone by your side.”

”Eh?” Su Xiaoou froze upon hearing this, her brow furrowing as she carefully pondered Jiang Shu’s words.

”First, the first two sentences give Li Yuntang the illusion that the name to be used later isn’t that important, it’s just conveniently needed for the magic performance,” Jiang Shu raised a finger, ”Then comes a leading phrase, ’someone by your side,’ which is quite ambiguous. It could be someone she is close to, possibly someone sitting near her at the moment, or someone she is ’focused on.’ With the vocal guidance given earlier, she would think you are hinting at her to say my name.”

”But in the eyes of the audience, it’s not the same thing,” Jiang Shu continued, ”They would simply think you are asking Li Yuntang to casually think of a name of someone important to her and say it out loud.”

He explained to Su Xiaoou, ”This is the multilayered truth, the instructions received by Li Yuntang differ from what the audience below perceives.”

”This way...” Su Xiaoou mused, as she seemed to hold a different view, ”But then, Li Yuntang wouldn’t be surprised by my prediction of ’JS,’ right? Only the rest of the audience would think I successfully predicted it, so wouldn’t that weaken the effect of the magic?”

”Indeed, this is a small drawback of the multilayered reality. The isolated audience member might even find the other audience members’ shock strange, but what does it matter? As long as the vast majority of the audience is amazed, that’s enough,” Jiang Shu continued his explanation, ”Besides, this is just an example of an inducing phrase. After hearing it, Li Yuntang would only have two outcomes. One, she understands your instruction and says ’JS,’ making your prediction almost 100% successful, and multilayered reality is achieved; two, she does not understand your instruction, and speaks a name of her own thinking—the multilayered reality fails, but isn’t that the same situation as your performance just now? Anyway, that prediction... you guessed it right, didn’t you?”

At this point, Su Xiaoou finally understood Jiang Shu’s intention.

With the use of this technique, even in the worst case, she would face the same situation as during her performance, having only to guess, but once Li Yuntang grasped her instructions, the prediction would be almost 100% successful, and appear incredibly magical from the audience’s perspective.

Although complicated, Su Xiaoou managed to untangle the relationships.

Needless to say, the experienced Jiang Shu’s method was definitely more secure.

”What about the semi-public prediction?” Su Xiaoou cleared up the previous point and turned to the next one.

”As for predictions, they are actually a kind of magical effect, not really a magic principle, but they are often associated with the packaging content of the magic, so I’m discussing them together,” Jiang Shu spoke as he led Su Xiaoou into a taxi terminal. He swiped a card with practiced ease and then walked toward the parking area with her. His travels were primarily by these driverless taxis.

He thought for a moment, then activated a Simulated Light Screen, maintaining it about half a meter in front of him and allowing it to move with his footsteps, which made it look like he was carrying a blackboard with him.

”Predictions are divided into public predictions and semi-public predictions,” Jiang Shu wrote notes in the empty space before him with his finger, ”Public predictions, as the name implies, mean you publicly show a prediction before the performance starts. The content of the prediction is clearly disclosed to all the audience members—it is what will happen later. Such public predictions are often packaged as the magician’s Psychological Suggestion or hypnosis, aiming to convince the audience that they’ve been ’controlled’ by the magician.”

”Uh-huh, and then?” Su Xiaoou nodded, looking at the writing that appeared on the virtual blackboard, somehow feeling a certain pressure from it.

”However, with this kind of public prediction, you must pay attention to one thing: your script design, process design, and performance ability must be very strong,” Jiang Shu said seriously, ”These three are indispensable. If any of them fails, the whole flow of the magic collapses. The audience might not find it magical and might think, ’After all, you could only make them choose a particular option.’ By making the prediction public, you must face a problem—the magician’s Prediction Ability may become something taken for granted, and that is a big taboo.”

He sighed, his words revealing a sense of resignation, ”Just like the magic I perform now, I’ve always been deliberately avoiding such things. When I, as a person, am deified, all the magic I painstakingly design is taken for granted as Magic, and then the audience won’t find the ’magical effect’ to be magical at all.”