The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician

Chapter 45 - 46 House of Cards
Chapter 45: Chapter 46 House of CardsThe next day, Jiang Shu woke up early. He called for Su Xiaoou, and after the two had breakfast, they set about arranging the stage.

Today the theater had only one performance on the schedule, and that was his magic show in the evening. Therefore, he had a whole day to set up the stage.

To call it setting up was actually quite simple, for instance, adjusting the position of the magic table according to the camera angles, because the magic he was performing today was close-up magic. The audience in the back rows would definitely only be able to watch the details on the big screen, and if the angles were wrong when the time came, and the details were exposed, if the audience were to heckle, even an old hand like him would feel like he had died socially.

Other than that, there were some elements that helped create a mysterious atmosphere on-site, like lighting and sound.

Besides, he walked on the stage several times, rehearsing his magic tricks in his mind, watching the simulated recordings of ”A”, ”B”, ”C”, and ”D” several more times, imagining what he would see if he were in the audience, and experimenting to find the best rhythm of the performance to ensure that the audience’s attention was focused on the magician on stage every second, rather than on their dates or the restroom.

He was well aware that this time’s magic was different from the ”Past Life and Present Life” he performed last time. This time there was no need to worry about dialogue, but it was crucial to firmly captivate the audience. This time, the emphasis was on the miraculous visual effects of the magic, not allowing the audience any opportunity to ponder deeply.

So, to capture the audience’s curiosity, he had to consider many more things to ensure everything was fail-proof.

After fussing around until the afternoon, he quickly ate a bowl of rice then went to bed to conserve his energies. The magic show that evening was a full hour long, which demanded a great deal of mental focus and physical endurance from the magician.

——

At seven in the evening, nearly three thousand people poured into the theater on time. Unlike the past, the people of this city were hearing about the form of entertainment called magic for the first time. With the sensational rumors online reaching a fever pitch, not only did the residents of the Seventh District buy tickets out of curiosity, even those from several other districts traveled long distances to see the show.

Of course, among these nearly three thousand spectators, not all were there solely for entertainment. Mixed in with the audience were various types of people – YouTubers and streamers looking to catch some heat and eyeballs, reporters from entertainment electronic publications, or conspiracy theorists trying to reveal secrets. Their purposes were both simple and not so. They all wanted to witness the birth of history.

Whether it was the establishing or shattering of a myth of magic, those on the front lines could set the tone with this opportunity and suck in plenty of blood.

In any case, a magic show that gathered nearly three thousand people was enough to make Jiang Shu leave a bold and vivid mark in the history of the Entertainment Series. It was worth noting that the Black Currant Theater had to add seats three times to just barely accommodate so many viewers.

At 7:25 pm, the theater stopped admitting spectators, and everyone took their seats. Although they spoke in hushed tones, waves of intense murmuring filled the theater.

As the broadcast prompted, the theater turned off the lights. After a brief disturbance, the audience also quieted down and waited in the dark for 7:30 to arrive.

At 7:30, a beam of light focused on Jiang Shu, standing in the center of the stage. He respectfully bowed in three directions to the audience. Behind him on the curtain, three characters faintly surfaced – ”House of Cards”.

The stage was pure black, the curtains were pure black, the table was pure black, the high chairs were pure black; even Jiang Shu himself was dressed in a pure black suit.

He walked slowly, sat on the tall chair, and looked from left to right across the audience. His gaze swiftly searched for that figure which had accompanied him for three months before suddenly disappearing. But he knew, Liu Tingruo would not appear here.

Jiang Shu redirected his focus back to the magic itself. Casually, he pulled out a deck of cards from thin air, opened the empty card box, showing the flattened box to all the viewers.

Then, he folded the box back into shape. The flat box became three-dimensional again. He shook the box, and a deck of cards with black backs fell out.

”Oh!” A gasp arose from the audience, clearly, the first minor climax—the appearance of cards from an empty box—had successfully captured the audience’s attention.

Kirie Tsukimiya sat in her seat, just like last time, her prosthetic eye emitted a faint blue light, continuously recording Jiang Shu’s performance onstage.

Due to the size of the prosthetic eye, Kirie’s was only capable of recording at 45 frames per second, but this was already the result of her technical improvement. If it were a regular person’s prosthetic eye recording function, it could only achieve 25 frames per second.

Meanwhile, Black Currant Theater had a rule that devices recording over 60 frames per second were not allowed inside.

Jiang Shu discarded the card box and performed several long pulls with the deck of cards in his hand. Although not particularly useful, the visual effect was quite impressive.

He split the deck into two piles, took one pile in each hand, and deftly fanned them out with one hand, showing the audience that these were just ordinary playing cards.

Next, he brought the two piles back together and placed them on the magic table, then pressed his palm over the cards, drawing a large circle. Simultaneously, the cards evenly fanned out into a circle.

Jiang Shu removed a black decorative object from the lapel of his suit and placed it in the center of the circle of cards on the table. It was a spinning top, which he began to gently spin, and the top rotated on the table.

The big screen displayed the scene on the table, but at this moment, no one in the audience knew what he was going to do.

Jiang Shu did not concern himself with the top on the table any longer. He pulled out a black handkerchief from his coat pocket, shook it out, then turned to the side and slowly folded it over and over again. Before the eyes of all, a handkerchief transformed into a black playing card.

The audience blinked, collectively doubting their eyes, yet the playing card in Jiang Shu’s hands continued to change.

He displayed the card, holding it with one hand, and rubbed his thumb over the playing card, one card turned into two, transferring the new card to his other hand. His hands rubbed the cards simultaneously.

Two became four, four turned into eight, and eight into sixteen. Jiang Shu brought together this stack of reproduced cards and fanned them, still facing the audience.

Every card was identical, the spade of three, its profound black hue exuded a mysterious charm.

It was very quiet below the stage, everyone gazed unwaveringly at the performance, only during such a display would thunderous applause breakout.

Jiang Shu remained serene, taking one three of spades in his right hand and holding the rest in his left, then shot the card from his right hand. The card circled behind his back and spiraled half a circle towards his left hand.

In those brief two seconds, he rubbed the stack in his left hand and upon opening his hand again, the fifteen cards had vanished, and he just so happened to stretch out his left hand, catching the arriving card. When he pinched the card between his index finger and thumb, it had already turned into a three of hearts.

His right thumb slowly moved forward, pressing on the back of the three of hearts, circled half around, and a single three of hearts instantaneously turned into a fan of sixteen three of hearts.

This series of maneuvers dazzled the audience, who were stunned by the transformation of the cards and deeply enthralled by the flashy action, prompting applause that once again thundered through the theater.

But the clapping quickly ceased, for a simple reason; on the big screen, the spinning top on the table had stopped, its sharp point indicating a specific card within the circle.