Chapter 1141: The Key Elements of a Successful Performance
The person he pointed to was a bodyguard. The man looked grimly at the young master, and only stepped forward slowly after the other nodded.
He intentionally kept his distance from the magician, seemingly unwilling to end up like the yellow-haired player earlier, who couldn't even move a muscle before being "disappeared." However, the magician, now standing straight again, crooked his finger, and the bodyguard was stiffly moved in front of the paper box.
The magician, two meters away, revealed the small ball again and placed it into the black paper box this time.
The two boxes moved rapidly and stopped after ten seconds. He again held up the two boxes empty-handedly and asked the bodyguard, "Please choose the box containing the ball."
The bodyguard swallowed hard, his eyes quickly scanning back and forth between the two boxes. At that moment, one of his hands regained freedom. After gesturing vaguely over the boxes, he suddenly reached out and slapped the black paper box, then made a clever guess: "I bet there's no ball in this box!"
The black paper box slowly unfolded. As he had said, there was no ball inside. Just as he thought he had guessed correctly, the magician let out a strange laugh, raised his right hand high, and snapped his fingers.
That bodyguard disappeared just like the yellow-haired player!
"What gives!" the young master roared. "Did he guess wrong?"
The magician said with feigned regret, "The rule of the performance is to choose the box with the ball. Did the audience buy tickets just to see an empty box? A magic show that can't stir the audience's emotions is a failed performance!"
The players were furious but dared not speak out. However, the magician didn't care what emotions these "audience members" harbored. He raised his hand again and selected another "lucky audience member."
This time, the person wasn't as fortunate as the previous bodyguard. Like the yellow-haired player, he failed to pick the box with the ball and was sent out of the magic show with another snap of the fingers.
"I don't think he ever put a ball in those boxes!" the young master gritted his teeth.
Trying to exploit a loophole by choosing the box without a ball didn't conform to the "performance rules," but clearly, neither box contained a ball, so it was impossible to choose correctly. This whole performance was just toying with the players!
"Esteemed magician, I have a question." A seemingly small and thin female player standing at the back suddenly spoke up.
The magician seemed very pleased to have a player cooperate. He pointed forward with his gloved hand, "Please, this audience member, come forward!"
The female player walked up and asked politely, "If we choose the box with the ball, can we leave the show?"
"How could that be?" the magician deliberately twisted her meaning. "In a magic performance, being expelled from the show is the greatest punishment. An audience member who completes the magic trick is, of course, lucky enough to advance to the next round!"
These words made everyone's heart sink.
"Can you reveal what the next round of performance is like?" the female player continued. "Does the performance automatically move to the next round once someone picks the ball?"
The magician rested his chin on one hand, pretending to think before answering, "The items in a magic performance are confidential. Where's the surprise if I reveal them in advance?"
"As for your second question, if a performance show ends successfully, of course, it can proceed to the next performance."
The female player nodded and volunteered, "Then let me choose this time."
"Clap, clap, clap!" The magician applauded vigorously and urged the other players to join in. "Welcome our first lucky audience member today who volunteered to participate!"
Lonely applause echoed in the cabin. No one joined in. The magician didn't mind. He walked around the paper box to the female player, reached behind her ear, and produced a rose. "A beautiful flower for someone who loves magic."
"Thank you." The female player accepted the flower gracefully. When the magician returned to his original position, she was also pulled by the force to the front of the paper box.
"Dear audience members, we are about to witness a small climax of the performance show. Will this lucky audience member, who volunteered to participate, choose the correct box? Let's wait and see!"
*
"Has the plane been found?" After learning that the Ting City flight had disappeared, Minister Fan specially arranged for a group of players with tracking expertise to go to Ting City. A fighter jet delivered them within an hour. After ten minutes of information gathering and action strategy discussion, these players set out along the plane's original route to search—if they couldn't find the intact plane, at least they could find the wreckage.
An hour and a half after Team Leader Wu reported the news, Minister Fan called again to inquire about the progress.
"The plane hasn't been found," Team Leader Wu said, somewhat at a loss for words. "But the official radar monitoring system has shown three flashes. Based on the position and altitude, the plane is still flying along its original route, but we can't contact the flight crew."
"Three flashes?" Minister Fan said. "So it's not an instance?"
Team Leader Wu couldn't be sure either, because each time the plane flashed, a person fell out, all dying from the high-altitude fall.
For ordinary players, even if they couldn't escape into an instance, landing safely shouldn't be a problem. Falling from the plane to their death... it was as if these three people had fallen completely involuntarily, so it couldn't be that they had successfully left the instance.
"Given that this hasn't happened before, we can't determine exactly what's going on," Team Leader Wu said. "Zone 014 also has no precedent for an airborne random instance... This situation is actually rare in the other districts we primarily study."
"Now we're considering whether someone brought a random instance onto the plane."
"If it's flexibly controlled by a player, it's possible that other players on the plane can't easily exit."
"Our instruments can't detect it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's an instance," Minister Fan said. "It's time to consider other extreme situations..."
"Are you sure Xu Huo is on that flight?" After a moment of silence, he asked again.
"Positive," Team Leader Wu said. "We checked the airport surveillance footage. It's him, and his documents are in order."
"Then wait a little longer," Minister Fan said. "If there's no clear progress in half an hour, Jing City will consider taking other measures."
An invisible, uncontrollable plane was a disaster for any city. The Special Defense Department couldn't change its plan for a single player. Team Leader Wu was well aware of this, so he didn't try to buy time for Xu Huo. He just hung up the phone and urgently contacted the players who had gone out to search, asking them to find another way to pinpoint the plane's location, ideally boarding it mid-air.
"At least determine what's happening inside the plane," Team Leader Wu said, looking at the analysis chart on the screen. He helplessly closed his laptop and muttered to himself, "Hopefully, he can get out within this half hour."
(Chapter End)