"Magician?"
"What’s a magician?"
"Magic Power... Magic Technique? Magic?"
The prisoners in the dining hall were sowhat puzzled, but most were just quietly watching, not saying a word.
"Then, let’s welco the magician..." Clo suddenly bent down, asking in a low voice, "What can you do?"
"Performing, I specialise in the Entertainnt Series," Jiang Shu replied. "You know, mixing truth and falsehood, deception, blindfolds, Illusion Techniques, and stuff like that."
"Please welco Mr. Jiang the Magician, to bring us a segnt of..." Clo stretched out his arms, slightly turning his body in a wide arc so that everyone could see his face, "an exceptionally brilliant performance!"
The prisoners clapped sporadically, and Clo too jumped off the dining table, patting Jiang Shu, "Go on, everyone’s waiting for you."
Jiang Shu nodded, stepping onto the dining table with the help of a bench. He rubbed his hands, and in them appeared a black card—the three of spades.
What he was about to perform, well, wasn’t magic.
Although there was nothing here—no props, no assistants, not even a complete deck of cards—he could still perform Spirit Magic using pure techniques or psychological thods.
However, his Derivative Entries were full at the mont. Performing here might randomly replace one of his entries, and if it replaced his Paper Card Technique...
That would be bad; returning to the city was his final step.
Relying solely on process and psychological thods, he feared being seen through on the spot by these people.
It would be a bit embarrassing.
So he decided to use his Derivative Entry "Paper Card Technique" to muddle through.
Of course, this wasn’t magic; the essence of magic is to create an illusion of reality through deception.
Performing magic with a Derivative Entry, even if the effect is the sa, has a completely different essence. Not only would the Main Brain not acknowledge the legitimacy of such "magic," but he wouldn’t acknowledge it either.
If it’s inherently real, it’s not creating an illusion of reality, and thus, it isn’t magic.
On this issue, Jiang Shu’s views aligned with the Main Brain, using a superpower in a magic performance was just rubbish.
Perhaps the Main Brain’s view was based on his understanding—after all, there was no such thing as magic in this world, which is why the Main Brain prohibited recursive usage within the entry "Deception."
So Jiang Shu began his Superpower show, and there was nothing much to say about it; with re human wisdom, he could perform such miracles.
Now, it was just the body of a god standing shoulder to shoulder with mortals.
As the performance ca to an end, a wave of applause erupted in the dining hall, and amid this applause, Jiang Shu stepped off the bench and back to the ground.
Clo wiped the dirtied table and chairs with a napkin provided with the al, then looked at Jiang Shu, "Let’s go, ti’s up. Back to the dormitory."
"Dormitory?" Jiang Shu was puzzled.
"Yeah, the dormitory." Clo nodded, heading towards the direction of the cells with a proud and confident stride like a victorious general, "It’s not us who are imprisoned. We are more free than the people outside."
Jiang Shu’s shoulders drooped, showing the helplessness of the protagonist, then he followed Clo.
It seed this guy was sowhat interesting.
—
In the middle of the night, Jiang Shu was awakened by faint rustling sounds in the dormitory. He opened his eyes and turned slightly towards the source of the sound.
Clo was intently carving sothing on a thumb-sized rubber sleeve with a homade small knife, not taking his eyes off his work.
Soon, he made the final cut and laid down the knife, slipping the thumb sleeve onto his thumb.
Then he pulled out four similar fingertip sleeves, one after the other, placing them on each finger of his right hand.
Stretching out his hand, Clo turned it in the light filtering through the small window in the iron door, as if admiring his handiwork.
He looked towards Jiang Shu, showing a surprised expression, "Ah, you’re awake."
"Mhm." Jiang Shu sat up.
"I was thinking of calling you after I finished," Clo murmured, then climbed out of bed, "Co on, let’s go out and have so fun."
"Go outside?" Jiang Shu was stunned.
"Yeah, I’ll tell you a secret," Clo whispered mysteriously, glancing at the small window on the iron door, "Actually, there is a secret fourth underground level here that hasn’t been made public."
A fourth underground level? A hidden fourth underground level?
Jiang Shu was intrigued. He asked, "What is it used for?"
"I don’t know," Clo shrugged, "but we’ll find out soon."
"We?" Jiang Shu tilted his head.
Clo nodded as if it was the most natural thing, "Otherwise, why do you think I’m asking you? You definitely want to check it out too, right?"
Jiang Shu sighed helplessly—he indeed had been hit right on the mark, as his interest had been piqued.
In so ways, he was soone who tended to court danger; the curiosity of a magician was sothing he couldn’t suppress.
"Don’t worry." All of a sudden, Clo pulled out a dagger, brandishing it in front of him, "Even if we get caught, you just say I forced you."
Jiang Shu looked at the dagger and replied, "Okay, then what should I do?"
"You don’t need to do anything," Clo moved towards the locked iron door, "Just stick close to ."
"Isn’t there surveillance along the way?"
"Of course, there is." Clo stretched his hand through the small opening at the bottom of the iron door used to deliver als, trying to reach sothing, but failed due to the angle of his bones; his hand wasn’t long enough.
"Then what do we do? Won’t we be caught on cara?" Jiang Shu asked, puzzled, "Also, what about the surveillance in the room?"
"It’s okay, I sneaked into the surveillance room today and took care of the footage for these few hours in advance." Clo seed quite familiar with the process; he clicked his left hand onto his right shoulder and detached his right arm.
"I have certain privileges here because they need my help in managing the prisoners. Even a small amount of privilege can enable to do many things." He spoke nonchalantly as if nothing had happened, while Jiang Shu watched with an ache in his bones.
Helping his right hand into the right position with his left, Clo slowly stood up and pressed the fingerprint-engraved thimble onto the fingerprint scanner at the door, then rapidly entered the passcode.
"Click—"
The iron door opened, particularly conspicuous in the silent corridor, but neither Jiang Shu nor Clo showed any reaction.
"Just like that, it’s open?" Jiang Shu was sowhat surprised.
"This prison was built many years ago; its internal security system indeed has a few flaws. They pay more attention to the defenses above ground; they just need to prevent any prisoner escapes." Clo replied and then asked in a low voice, "Do you know sign language?"
"A little," answered Jiang Shu.
Clo nodded, "Good, after we go out, follow my hand signals."
"Actually, you don’t really need to do anything, just stick close to ," he added, reattaching his arm in passing.
Having said that, Clo walked back to his bed and took out two flat leather bags from underneath the mattress—ugly, homade ones. He blew them up, and two inflatable dummies appeared.
He laid the dummies on the bed, covered them with blankets, adjusted the angles, and from the small window in the door, it was definitely not possible to spot any flaws.
Jiang Shu watched with a heavy heart; this series of maneuvers confird that Clo indeed knew he would co and was prepared to take him on an adventure.
Now it seed that Kro was just an ordinary person with extensive knowledge. In case of an ergency, Jiang Shu felt confident he could control him.
Let’s take a look then.
"Let’s go." Clo carefully pushed open the door, peeked out for a mont, then gestured and quickly stepped out of the room.
"Crouch and walk, don’t let the caras in the other rooms catch you through the iron windows," Clo reminded.
Jiang Shu followed closely behind.
Dim lights illuminated the corridor outside, and the two of them hugged the wall, alternating between quick and slow paces, occasionally stopping to listen for the sound of patrol prison guards around the corner.
Soon, the two reached a secluded spot under the faint lights, where a duty prison guard stood not far from a strange-looking elevator, seemingly in charge of guarding it.
The guard was slouched, facing away from them, and from his posture, he looked listless.
The elevator was distinct from others in the prison, appearing extrely old and basic.
Clo turned his head and gestured to Jiang Shu, but quickly realized that Jiang Shu’s face was full of question marks, so he whispered, "Do you know how to hypnotize? Can you knock him out? I only know a little, and I’m not sure if it will work."
"If not, knocking him out works too."
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