Dancing on the golden ashes - Chapter 280: A perfect copy?

Reminiscent of no mere illusion within a world of urban supernatural abilities, the art of magic herein is one of rigorous objectivity and precision!The Magician's Code:1. Unwavering belief in science2. Never perform magic in front of muggles3. Never break the magician personaRemember, if someone asks, tell them it's sleight of hand, that magic is surely a farce, a complete farce!One day, Jiang Shu discovers he can gain corresponding supernatural abilities through his magic performances. Thus, on stage, he believes in science, but off stage, he strikes with mighty blows.Simple magic tricks, solving minor mysteries, this is the ordinary day-to-day life of an average magician in a cyberpunk world.(This cyberpunk setting has no direct connection with any game and doesn't present any barriers to reading)(This story includes logical reasoning, magical detective work, magic analysis, and a light-hearted everyday routine, all of which will be featured.)

Lu Yu has been given a gift from his friend-- a game headset that can simulate reality at one hundred percent and that allows him to enter the Divine Martial Realm. However, unlike other games, this one could be really dangerous and cost a fortune.“If you die in the game, it may cause the brain to mistakenly believe the body is dead in reality, leading to a false impression of brain death, which could become real death.”“... A hundred bucks just to send a message? This game is nuts!”

A thousand years have passed since the Variants first appeared from the Rifts. God answered the prayers of the human race and gave them a chance to fight back.He bestowed special marks called crests upon twelve who were worthy, granting them unfathomable power to fend off the wave of attacks.Well… that's what the church wants us to think.Man, being man, found a way. And in the present day, large numbers of the population have crests, and those that don't are treated as second-rate.This was the case with Marcus, who spent most of his life doing odd jobs—until one of those jobs led to his demise.At the hands of whom??The son of a major crest-bearing house.Marcus is reincarnated into the body of his killer and soon finds that despite being from a major house, the boy did not have a crest.At least, not one that was bestowed upon him by God.

I was some twenty-something woman dying of stage four cancer.I got obliterated by the “Truck-kun” you nerds are always joking about. Turns out it's a lot less funny when it's your guts splattered on the pavement. Crap.Next thing I know, I'm floating in the dark and this thing pops up in my face.[A choice is now available to you.][Option One: Fade.Cease to exist.][Option Two: Reforge.Begin anew.]You think you can just erase me? Hah. As if.Fueled by pure, uncut spite, I slammed the reforge button. Turns out the universe has a totally sick sense of humor, though.I woke up as a male elf. A seriously hot elf —a mage, of all things. Let's just say I was working with some… unfamiliar hardware downstairs.And Jonny? My best friend, my bro, my lifelong meat shield? The universe decided he'd look better as Yael—a stunningly beautiful elf chick with a charisma stat that was probably maxed out.For a while, we weren't just getting by. We were crushing it. It was awesome.Our new life was shattered by the arrival of Vex, an overpowered demigod who saw our world as a resource to be harvested. He was a cosmic-level threat.My pride, the same stupid pride that always gets me into trouble, wouldn't let me kneel. So I told him where he could stick it.Big mistake.The price for my big mouth was paid in her blood. Vex decided to make an example of her. He didn't just defeat her; he shattered her legs into pulp right in front of me.After that, she just… erased me. Walled me off. I went from being her best friend to a ghost she looks right through. Her hatred isn’t loud; it's a permanent debuff, and the silence is a thousand times worse than her screaming would have been.Broken by my failure and rage, the System offered me another choice.I accepted. The System laid out the cost in cold, hard code:The friendly blue “Overwhelming Pride” interface shattered, overwritten by a brutal, blood-red OS running one program: The 'Overlord Slayer'. My personality was stripped for parts. My charm and pride were forged into an 'Aura of Dread.' My guilt became a damage buff called 'Pain Eater.' My grief is now, literally, my mana pool.My quest is no longer about survival. It is brutally simple: Kill Vex. Absorb his power. Fix what I broke.But to become strong enough, I have to grind this new 'Slayer' class, and every level up feels like I'm deleting a piece of myself.The real question is, by the time I'm strong enough to squash him, will there be anything left of the person Yael knew?And even if I can fix her legs… what's she going to think of the monster who comes back?