The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician-Chapter 544 - 286: Su Xiaoou’s Magic Deconstruction_3

The area around the TV station was the central business district of the city, with pedestrian streets all around and a constant flow of people.

"What kind of magic, you’re being so dismissive!" Su Xiaoou immediately puffed up with anger. She raised an eyebrow and deliberately provoked, "Is it because you can’t figure it out either?"

"Peeking, Time Misdirection, Psychological Suggestion, mathematical principles, fully automated process, semi-public Predication, and some whimsical ideas." Jiang Shu continued to focus on the people coming and going on the street, his pupils reflecting the colorful lights. His tone was casual but he explained Su Xiaoou’s meticulous arrangement using terms of Magic thoroughly.

He donned a half-face mask, as he dared not show his face in public since it had become known in Lonely City.

"Eh?" Su Xiaoou was slightly taken aback, yet she still stubbornly asked, "No way, that answer is too general. You usually don’t test me like this."

It seemed that Su Xiaoou came prepared this time, intending to give Jiang Shu a hard time.

Yet as Jiang Shu turned his attention back to the little girl beside him, he couldn’t help but find her naive, yet adorable.

What was she doing?

Challenging the greatest Magician in the world?

But having someone to discuss Magic with was also good, after all, how long had it been since he had studied Magic with another Magician?

For someone as obsessed with Magic as he was, this was undoubtedly a pain, the pain of not being able to share a passion.

"First of all, I don’t know how you got that paper money’s Sequence number, but if it were me, just peeking would do," said Jiang Shu. "Actually, I was sitting there and managed to peek at the Sequence number, too. Let me think... that was part of your design, wasn’t it?"

"Hmm?" Su Xiaoou blinked, feigning ignorance.

"The year and Sequence number on Feather Coin are printed on both sides of the paper money. You had Li Yuntang look at the year, and at the same time, you could see the last digits of the Sequence number," Jiang Shu explained lightly, "As long as you’re subtle, there’s no chance of being caught, and later you even deliberately had Li Yuntang fold it up, giving the audience an Suggestion—that you had no way of knowing the last Sequence digits, but in fact, you had already obtained them at that time."

"Uh..." Su Xiaoou pursed her lips with an expression suggesting she’d been found out.

Indeed, that’s what she had done.

But it was quite easy to figure out, so Su Xiaoou didn’t feel much pressure.

After Li Yuntang folded the paper money into a square, Su Xiaoou definitely had no way of knowing the last Sequence digits.

A swap?

The square was continuously in Li Yuntang’s hands; that woman may have been clueless about Magic but she wasn’t a fool. How could something she held the entire time be switched?

So, learning the last digits of the Sequence could only have happened before folding the bill. Following this thought, it was highly likely she had peeked.

"What else?" Su Xiaoou snorted lightly.

"Then, there’s the imaginary cup Magic trick," Jiang Shu smiled and continued, "I rehearsed it in my mind at the time. It’s actually quite simple, using mathematical principles. I just don’t know if it was Kirie who taught you."

"Of course not, I discovered it by myself," Su Xiaoou replied somewhat defiantly.

"Okay, anyway, if Li Yuntang had initially chosen cup number two, she just had to pour an even number of times to get back to cup number two. No matter what she picked, the result would be the same; and if she picked cup one or three, pouring an odd number of times would lead to cup number two," Jiang Shu said succinctly. This use of mathematical principle was quite clever, and something he was rather pleased about, "And Li Yuntang’s first dice roll was a five, an odd number, so she rolled again. The second was a three, which adds up to eight, an even number, so definitely cup number two. If it was still odd after the second roll, she would keep rolling until the total was even."

"Uh... yeah." Su Xiaoou nodded, that was her clever plan.

"Then, then..." Jiang Shu continued, he thought for a moment and praised, "Then comes the most brilliant part of the show, a point that I must commend you for, it took me a while to realize." Jiang Shu’s face showed a satisfied smile, "That text message—it looked like it was automatically split, but actually, you sent it in two parts, right? It’s just that the interval between the two messages wasn’t long, so it only displayed the time of the first message sent."

"Ah!?" Su Xiaoou’s secret was pointed out directly, and she immediately became somewhat frustrated, "Ah..."

But then again, of course, old Jiang would be slick; it would be strange if Jiang Shu couldn’t figure it out.

Jiang Shu just laughed again.

That message was divided into two parts, the first containing a hundred characters, giving the impression that it was a limit on word count, and the first hundred characters of the Prediction were always accurate—for example, the year 2087, or the final result for Li Yuntang being cup number two. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

When sending the first text, Su Xiaoou had not yet seen the last Sequence digits, and the paper money was even still in the audience’s pocket; of course, she couldn’t have known the Sequence digits.

There was no problem in sending the first text at that point; these were predictable Predications. It was after she obtained the last Sequence digits that she secretly composed and sent the second message.

Because the end of the two messages included "(1/2)" and "(2/2)" symbols, the audience naturally assumed the message was auto-split into two parts. And the Magic effect was that Su Xiaoou had predicted the last digits of the paper money’s Sequence before it was even passed up.

If Jiang Shu wasn’t wrong, the content of the second message was all prepared in advance, and Su Xiaoou just needed to enter the last Sequence digits "3681" she had peeked at to send the message, which would take very little time and not be noticed for any irregularity.

This was Time Misdirection.

By arranging the Magic sequence in such a way that the cause and effect seemed inverted in the audience’s mind, the "effect" happened before the "cause," which, of course, was extraordinary.

The average audience member wouldn’t know if there was a character limit for messages anyway, and even if they tested it themselves, they wouldn’t think it was a Magician’s fault but would assume it was because the watch model was different or because the software was different—never suspecting this aspect.

Very clever indeed.

"And as for the last part with the clothes, that was a ’non-public Prediction’, right?" Jiang Shu mentioned the final element of the Magic.

"Ah? Non-public Prediction?" Su Xiaoou was confused, unsure of what that meant. She had meant to ask when Jiang Shu had mentioned it before, what is that?

"Oh, it seems I haven’t taught you that yet," Jiang Shu paused, remembered, and realized he had not taught her that Magic Principle.

Su Xiaoou: "???"

Is that how you’re supposed to teach?