The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician
Chapter 41 - 40 Forced Choice

Chapter 41: Chapter 40 Forced Choice

"A complete magic performance relies fundamentally on the Magic Principle, process, and dialogue," Jiang Shu scribbled and sketched on the Simulated Light Screen, as three new terms appeared in front of Su Xiaoou.

He continued, "Remember, compared to the Magic Principle, in fact, dialogue is the source of the effect of Spirit Magic."

"Dialogue?" Su Xiaoou didn’t understand, "Isn’t it just memorizing?"

"No, no, no." Jiang Shu shook his head, speaking seriously, "The dialogue in Spirit Magic is very important, extremely important. In the future, when you perform, I require that all your dialogue must be personally crafted and you can’t plagiarize mine."

The last sentence was key; dialogue was part of one’s style, and Lonely City only needed one Jiang Shu, while Su Xiaoou should carve her own path.

"Ah?" Su Xiaoou said, distressed. After thinking for a moment, she quickly realized that with her own command of language, she had no idea what to say on stage, "But..."

"I know, you haven’t received a basic education." Jiang Shu said understandingly, as basic education in Lonely City cost money. While not as expensive as elite education, it was still unaffordable for some poor families.

Su Xiaoou breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, I will find a good teacher for you, and from now on, you will attend extra classes every week." Jiang Shu revealed a smile.

"Ah?"

"Stop with the ’ahs’. You’ll need to catch up on language, as well as natural sciences, basic artistic cultivation, and so on," Jiang Shu began to count on his fingers again.

Su Xiaoou protested, "Wait, I have to study physics and chemistry too? I just want to be a magician..."

"Many magic tricks use scientific principles. Basic scientific literacy is essential. As for artistic cultivation, since magic is also a performing art, naturally, you must study it." Jiang Shu was not open to negotiation on this point; if it were only about learning magic, these wouldn’t be necessary.

But Su Xiaoou was different; magic didn’t exist in this world, so she was set to be a pioneer of magic in this world. That meant she had to not only learn magic but also embrace magic thinking, innovate magic on her own, and become a true Great Magician, rather than living in his shadow.

This was also why he had put so much effort into organizing these things.

For a moment, Jiang Shu saw light within himself.

Of course, he had another purpose—that was, he wanted to see if, three years later when Su Xiaoou awakened her Character Card, the term "Deception" would emerge, in order to determine whether he or magic was special.

"But do you have money?" Su Xiaoou poked Jiang Shu’s sore spot, "I saw that you only have three to four hundred in your account balance."

Jiang Shu: "..."

He suddenly withdrew into himself.

Right, if Sister Ru disappeared, this wasn’t the world he once knew, he couldn’t exactly call himself penniless, but at least he was strapped for cash.

Eh?

Jiang Shu’s eyes suddenly brightened; forget about artistic cultivation, wasn’t there already a ready-made tutor for natural sciences?

Wasn’t there the adorable Kirie-chan?

If she could do anything, then teaching shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Of course, this was after he would win against her tomorrow.

"Cough cough." Jiang Shu coughed and then pretended to be profound, "That’s none of your concern, I’ve already found a teacher for natural sciences, and the classes are expected to start this week."

"Alright." Su Xiaoou sighed.

"Let’s continue. Anyway, you must take dialogue and performance level seriously." Jiang Shu went on, "A strong foundation in dialogue will make the atmosphere better on stage, more conducive to influencing the audience’s emotions, and the magic’s effect will be stronger."

"I got it, I got it." Su Xiaoou nodded continuously, indicating that she understood.

"Not just that, as I just said, Spirit Magic is unlike others; dialogue is the source of the magic effect." He looked around and said, "Let’s do this, I’ll give you a demonstration."

"Go find two books," Jiang Shu said slowly, "Paper books, just grab any two."

"Books? Those might be hard to find." Su Xiaoou frowned, but quickly, she had an idea, "The library has books, I’ll go get some."

"The library?" Jiang Shu was taken aback, "The theater has a library?"

"Yeah, to improve cultural quality," Su Xiaoou pursed her lips, "but not much, Lonely City rarely has paper books now."

"Right, your Employee Card." She stretched out her hand, "You need an Employee Card to borrow books, we apprentices can’t borrow them."

"Oh." Jiang Shu took it out and handed it to her; this card was given to him a few days ago by Sister Mei.

Su Xiaoou then ran off in a flash, soon returning with two books in hand.

"Here." She handed one over.

Jiang Shu took a book and checked the pages, "It’s best if the page numbers are close. See how many pages your book has."

Su Xiaoou flipped through her book and said, "402 pages."

"Fine, now, pick one." Jiang Shu took the two books, "Left, or right?"

"Right." Su Xiaoou casually picked one.

"Okay, we’ll keep the one on the right." Jiang Shu placed the other book on a nearby table, "Now, I’m going to flip through the book quickly, and you tell me when to stop."

"Okay." Su Xiaoou agreed.

So Jiang Shu began flipping through the pages.

Su Xiaoou shouted, "Stop!"

"Page 274." Jiang Shu glanced at it, closed the book, and looked up at Su Xiaoou, "Now, open the book that we left on the table to page 274 and remember the first word of the main text."

"Okay." Su Xiaoou did as instructed, quietly memorizing the word.

"The book was your choice, and so was the page number. And I haven’t looked at the book in your hands from beginning to end, right?" Jiang Shu spoke solemnly, his expression serious.

"Right."

"When thinking of a word, the brain generates an extremely weak electrical current that can be captured by others. While most people can capture it, they can’t decode it. But I can." Jiang Shu explained earnestly, then closed his eyes, stretching out his hands, "Now, don’t say the word out loud, just keep repeating it in your mind."

Su Xiaoou continued to do so.

"Is it ’I’?" Jiang Shu suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze shining.

"Right." Su Xiaoou nodded, then froze.

This magic trick was incredibly simple and casual with no preparation process at all, which made her realize that her past view of magic was probably wrong.

She picked the book herself, and everything was as Jiang Shu described: both the book and the page number were her own choices.

So, how did Jiang Shu know the first word on that page?

Was it really Mind Reading?

No, that can’t be right—he said all magic is false...

Su Xiaoou fell into deep thought, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t figure it out.

"It’s simple." Seeing that she couldn’t understand, Jiang Shu didn’t keep her guessing and directly said, "A basic magic technique, Strong Selection."

"Strong Selection, Forced Choice, Force. It doesn’t matter what you call it." He picked up the two books and continued, "Choose again."

"Left." This time Su Xiaoou said it without hesitation.

"Okay, then I’ll give you the book on the left." Jiang Shu smiled and handed her the left book.

"Oh." Su Xiaoou took the book, but then thinking back on the choice she just made, she suddenly felt something was off, "Why do you still have the right book in your hands?"

"That’s the Strong Selection." Jiang Shu shook the book in his hand, "I didn’t tell you beforehand what the results of the two choices would be, so no matter what you choose, the outcome would be the same."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Your choice was meaningless, but it will make you firmly believe that I didn’t tamper with anything."

"This is a basic technique, but the effect is very powerful."