"Have you gotten a prosthetic eye?" Jiang Shu suddenly asked Su Xiaoou.
Su Xiaoou was startled and replied subconsciously, "Not yet, I’m still saving up, I’m thinking..."
"Then forget about getting a prosthetic eye," Jiang Shu interrupted her flatly.
"Huh? But why..." Su Xiaoou frowned. She’d been considering a prosthetic eye for a long time, and it was also the reason she was earning money—so she could install a high-quality prosthetic eye.
It could be said that before she knew Jiang Shu, she was saving money to buy that powerful revolver, but after she got her revenge, she was saving for a quality prosthetic eye.
"A prosthetic eye will affect magic," Jiang Shu told her seriously, "On a small scale, it will affect your hand speed and movements, and even hamper your thinking; on a larger scale, the data transmission of a prosthetic eye will interfere with the magical elements in the air, thereby affecting the success rate of your magic."
"Huh? Really?" Su Xiaoou blinked.
If that was the case, it might be better not to get a prosthetic eye.
"Fake." Jiang Shu shrugged, "You believe that kind of talk? What happened to all the magic you’ve learned?"
"But..." Su Xiaoou was confused as to his meaning, hesitating.
"But in the future, this will become true," Jiang Shu said with a smile, leisurely, "Most people in society are still ignorant; as long as you can come up with a complete, logically consistent explanation, most will believe it."
"Then... what’s the purpose of doing this?" Su Xiaoou still didn’t understand Jiang Shu’s point.
"To adjust the magic venue, I plan to arrange signal jammers around the main hall," Jiang Shu explained, "The first reason, of course, is to mislead the audience, to establish the authority of spirit magic."
In the past life, many great magicians of spirit magic generally fell into two factions—some presented spirit magic as a "superpower," while others as "principles of psychology." In fact, the magicians might have just glimpsed some information, complemented by certain verbal techniques, plus a bandwagon effect of the magicians’ mysterious and powerful image, the audience is often fooled.
In spirit magic, the magician’s authoritative image is very important; there is no doubt.
Unlike other magics that are so direct, in spirit magic, aside from the selected audience member, other viewers won’t have much of an immersive experience, because the magician isn’t reading their minds.
This is also the main reason why many large-scale spirit magic shows are criticized as "actually using stooges, the whole audience is acting along."
But in reality, most spirit magic has nothing to do with stooges, and for regular magicians on legitimate stages, if they have emphasized there are no stooges, then, of course, there are no stooges—professional magicians have that much professional integrity.
At this point, Jiang Shu couldn’t help but think of the Great Magician Qian, who always repeated that there were no stooges in his spirit magic performances...
How ridiculous yet sad.
And this, too, proved the importance of a magician’s authority.
For example, *Past Life and Present Life* relied on misaligned procedures, and if it weren’t for finding Li Yuntang, the outcome was predictable; for example, *Three No Hypnosis,* if not for everyone automatically considering him an incredibly skilled hypnotherapist, someone might have noticed the small movements of his hands.
Like *Three No Hypnosis,* the principle is simple, and the operation is not difficult, but if a regular person were to perform it for friends in daily life, it’s likely they’ll be caught by the details and exposed on the spot.
One aspect is a lack of skill in misdirection and verbal technique; another aspect is a lack of authority.
"As for the second reason, I think that starting with the next performance, we need to restrict the use of prosthetic eyes," Jiang Shu offered two fingers.
All prosthetic eyes available on the market have a shooting frame rate between 30 and 45 FPS; anything higher is unnecessary for everyday life.
With the rate of change in Jiang Shu’s magic, as long as he covers up well, such frame rates won’t capture anything.
That was also the case in the past life; many magic videos had high frame rates, but when watching, the audience often felt a flicker and then didn’t see clearly; they could only compensate by blinking.
"Some people have been streaming my magic live with their prosthetic eyes," Jiang Shu stated bluntly, informed by the Tablet Spirits, "Just like with Lonely City’s cinemas, I think I need to take protective measures."
"That’s right, the audience that comes here to watch the performance, they aren’t here to appreciate the art...no, how should I put it, they are here for the spectacle..." Su Xiaoou also had this feeling, but she couldn’t express her thoughts well.
So Jiang Shu translated for her, "You mean, these viewers are more curious about magic than they are interested in artistic appreciation?"
"That’s right, that’s what I mean," Su Xiaoou quickly nodded.
"Of course," Jiang Shu nodded as well, "Magic, after all, is about watching the bustle, seeing something novel. The same magic won’t be watched over and over by viewers."
From ancient times to the present, from street tricks to magic, it has always been this way.
"Then, since that’s the case...do I also need to learn magic signals?" Su Xiaoou realized this point.
Jiang Shu walked over to where Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Ding were playing military chess, tapped on their table to signal that it was time to work, and continued, "Of course, even if you don’t need it for the principles of magic, you still have to learn. Sometimes you’ll also need to convey other types of information on stage that can’t be spoken aloud."