The pinnacle of magic

"Friends in the audience, you are watching the fourth extra game of "The Showdown". In the performance just now, our magician Clifford Wyshe has successfully reproduced the famous mind-reading girl Elaine Nikolaevna Romanova's performance. Afterwards, Elaine expressed her desire to further compete with the magician, and Clifford readily agreed to the request. A reading The duel of minds of the century, please keep your eyes on the screen and don't walk away!"

During the extra game, the seats on the stage were slightly adjusted. The magician and Elaine were no longer sitting side by side on the same side of the coffee table on the right side of the stage.The dark glass coffee table was moved to the center of the stage, and the staff removed the flowers on it, and replaced it with two black instruments and two laptops connected to each instrument.This time, the magician and Elaine were sitting at opposite ends of the coffee table, with their seats facing the auditorium.Two staff members were doing the final check beside them, and behind them each sat a man in a suit and sunglasses staring at the laptop screen.

"Friends in the audience, since the accuracy of mind reading has a lot to do with the honesty of the person being tested, we specially invited FBI agents to test the lies for both sides of the challenge. Now what you see is the whole country. One of the most advanced lie detectors, LTM2012. It can simultaneously test fourteen sets of data, including skin resistance, blood pressure, chest breathing, abdominal breathing, pulse, blood oxygen saturation, movement, brain waves, voice, facial expression, and facial temperature. The accuracy rate is as high as 99.5%. Different from traditional lie detectors, except mentally ill patients, even habitual offenders and specially trained people cannot fool its 'eyes'. Another remarkable advantage is that the judgment is very simple. After a series of processing by the software, the final conclusion will be a real-time curve. After a while, we will connect the data of both parties to the big screen so that everyone can distinguish. Agent Fox, as long as the data reaches the red zone, it is under test People are lying, right?"

The man sitting behind the magician nodded.

"Okay, it looks like the lie detector is all connected. Now you can see the curves of both sides on the big screen. Please note that once the curve rises to the red area, it means a lie. Let's try a few first Simple question?" The host turned to the magician, "Clifford, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue," said the magician, smiling.The data representing him fluctuated slightly up and down in the green field on the screen, and there was nothing abnormal.

Host: "Would you like to try lying? Clifford, what's your favorite movie?"

The magician smiled: "Scream." His data instantly rose to the red area, drawing an acute angle.The magician couldn't help touching his nose: "This thing does look very sharp. Well, my favorite is the "Alien" series." The data fluctuated slightly in the green area.

Host: "Okay, Your Highness, let me ask you a few simple questions. What is your favorite animal?"

"Cat." Elaine replied blankly.Her numbers jumped into the red zone almost immediately.The girl frowned. "I don't like any animals." Data immediately dropped.

"It's really a magical instrument, isn't it?" The host laughed, "Your Highness, the second question, how old are you?"

Elaine: "14 years old." There is no abnormality in the data.

The host breathed out: "I believe that the audience and friends have already seen the role of the lie detector. Now, let's start the most exciting part! Tonight's rule is that the first round will be given by Her Royal Highness, and the second round The magician will set the question, and the two sides will take turns to guess what the other is thinking until one of them gives the wrong answer. Your Royal Highness, please start!"

The girl in Russian costume glanced at the magician, lowered her head and fiddled with the crystal ball in her palm, as if thinking about what question to ask.With lie detectors attached to both the index and middle fingers of one hand, her movements were jerky.

"Let's continue to use playing cards!" Elaine raised her head, "There are four suits, hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades. Please choose any one."

The magician pursed his lips.He didn't look in Elaine's direction.He is well aware that the so-called mind-reading technique largely affects the answers of the questioners through language, facial expressions, body movements and subtle visual stimuli.In fact, he roughly used the same method as Elaine in the performance just now.For two people who are well versed in this, the choice of the answer becomes a kind of overlapping trap.He doubted that Elaine could fully guess his train of thought.

"Have you chosen yet? Spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds, which one do you want?" The mind-reading girl smiled and watched the expression on the magician's face.

Magician: "I have chosen."

"I guess it's hearts." As soon as the magician finished speaking, Elaine immediately expressed her guess.

magician:"……"

Elaine: "Did I guess right?"

Magician: "Yes, I did choose hearts." The data on the screen is still in the green area, which means that Elaine temporarily leads in the first game.

A slight smile appeared on the mouth of the mind-reading girl: "Okay, you can continue!"

The magician touched his lower lip and said with a smile, "Okay, I'm starting to ask. Please choose one of the four suits in a deck, and don't forget to let me know when you've chosen."

Elaine frowned slightly.Usually at this time, talking about the order of the four suits, pauses, and intonation can all be used as a means of implying the other party, but the magician does not have the type of repeating suits at all!Could this be a trap?

The magician was in no hurry to speak and urge.He put his hand that was not connected to the lie detector on the coffee table and tapped it lightly, while his eyes searched for Shi Rui's figure under the stage.Although Shi Rui's lips were tightly pursed, he caught a hint of a smile in his lover's eyes.

Rui really deserves to be the sharpest person he has ever met, he should have seen the means he used, right?There was a smile on the corner of the magician's mouth, especially when he found that Elaine was secretly observing his expression, the joy in his heart couldn't help but amplified further.

There is no doubt that we will win!

The sound alone may not be enough to completely sway Elaine's judgment, but the 14-year-old girl's heart has begun to be gradually disturbed under the pressure.

"I've made up my mind." Elaine lowered her head, staring at the crystal ball in her palm.

"Oh? Don't you need to think about it again?" The magician raised his eyebrows.

"unnecessary."

"It's peach blossom."

The two sentences almost overlap each other.

A brief silence.

Elaine bit her lip and turned her head unwillingly: "You got the answer right."

"Let's continue to the next round!" The magician moved his body closer to the coffee table, "There are 54 cards in a deck of cards, please choose one at random."

Elaine was visibly overwhelmed by the magician's question.Obviously, choosing one of 54 is far more difficult than choosing one of four. Don't say she can't do it, she thinks that no one in the world can do it!

However, it is theoretically possible.

Elaine's heart tightened after thinking about a few cards.If the magician has left hints from the beginning, perhaps the amount of information accumulated up to now is enough to influence his choice.

There must be a way to overcome the instinct in the subconscious.

"I've made up my mind." Yi Lian let go of her fingers while speaking, and the crystal ball in her palm hit the ground with a bang, breaking into countless large and small round glass beads. "Sorry, slipped a bit," she said, looking the magician straight in the eye.

The magician secretly clenched his fists.According to his original thought, he had more than [-]% chance of making Elaine choose the card he had chosen for her in advance.But anything in the process of imposing the suggestion may affect the result of the suggestion.Elaine deliberately smashed the crystal ball, such a strong external stimulus may make all previous efforts in vain!

Will the answer be that card?

As he scanned the auditorium with his eyes, he calculated all kinds of possibilities in his heart...

A familiar figure suddenly jumped into his eyes.

Lawrence!

The sudden appearance of the world's number one magician made Clifford's heart beat faster.On the screen, the curve belonging to him also fluctuated violently up and down in the green area.

A black magician in a striped suit stood in the last row of the auditorium, almost merging with the darkness.Yet Clifford could see his every movement and subtle expression.A series of whites consisting of the whites of the eyes, teeth, nails, and a handkerchief exposed from a suit pocket caught his eye like a dynamic puppet painting.He clearly saw the world's number one magician raised his empty right palm towards him, and then a seven of diamonds stayed in his palm for a second before disappearing suddenly.Finally, the black magician smiled, turned and left the auditorium.

Was Lawrence hinting at his own answer?

You must know that although magic is developing in a high-tech direction, this black magician who has been the chief for ten years has never wanted to catch up with the "trend".Lawrence will always perform only classical magic.But his technique is faster than all of them, and his technique is better than all of them.Although the form is old-fashioned, no one can see through his magic tricks until he tells the specific method.Even Clifford had to admit that even if he knew the method, he couldn't give a perfect performance like Lawrence.It is an innate sense of rhythm and appeal. Lawrence only needs to use a look to make the audience fall into his rhythm obediently, while everyone except him has to rely on the effects of light, shadow and music.

"The Great" Lawrence...

Could it be that this opponent that I have always wanted to surpass has come here to give me a reminder?

Anger and resentment were Clifford's strongest feelings at the moment, besides being ridiculous.

Really...

Hateful! ! !

In the control room, the producer took one last look at what was happening on stage. "Release the news, publish all the evidence at hand and the black history about the 'disclosure boy'. Everyone act for me, I will launch a full-scale counterattack!"

"Yes, sir." A staff member hurried out.

"So, this 'Secret Revealer' really did it?" Reid narrowed his eyes and looked at Fira.

"Yes." The Latin beauty nodded, "The Internet experts said that fortunately, the investigation was done in time, and it will be untraceable in another 10 minutes. In addition to finding out that he posted those two blogs, we also found some interesting things .” Fira handed the detailed report to the producer. "This kid is probably related to the building opposite. Otherwise, it would be impossible based on his financial situation." In this TV station, the building opposite is always used to specifically refer to their competitor, Channel N.

Reid couldn't help showing a sneer: "Can't they sit still?"

"Since the second show of "The Peak Showdown", our ratings in this period have been far higher than theirs. The advertising price has been soaring, and it is estimated that three more shows will squeeze out their three percent market share. They If they don’t take action, let alone this time slot, they won’t even be able to keep the time slot for TV dramas.”

"Are you going to start a war of words again?" The producer ordered after pondering for a moment, "Go and inform everyone, and speak vaguely first, I want to use this matter to further hype, as long as this Just keep the votes above 50.00%.”

"In doing so, the image of Clifford..."

The producer laughed: "It's okay, I believe our magician can still handle the pressure. It's time for him to work hard for a while, do you think 50 a game is so easy to get? Controversy is better than no one cares about it." , I chose a shortcut for him."

"But even if we don't take the opportunity to hype, with two or three more games, we can..."

"The audience is always the most prone to aesthetic fatigue." The producer cut off Fila's words, "Go and inform!"

"Yes, sir."

The magician has not spoken for a full 3 minutes, and his opponent has no intention of urging, but started playing with his fingers.The host had to ask in a low voice: "Clifford, have you thought about it yet?"

"Seven of Diamonds," said the magician rather annoyed.

Now it was Elaine's turn to fluctuate violently, and her peak was even close to the red zone.The mind reading girl blushed and clenched her fists tightly. "You, you..." She took a deep breath and looked up at the big screen, "You answer..." The curve began to jump in the red area, and Elaine had to lower her head.

After a moment-

"you are right."

The curve back to the green zone proved that Elaine's words were not a lie.Even the host beside him couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Shall I choose the cards now?" the magician asked coldly.

Elaine snorted coldly: "Choose one!" She didn't even bother to make any effort to influence the magician's answer.

Magician: "I think about it."

The mind-reading girl stared at the magician's face for a moment, then played with the beads on the hair ornament and said, "Five of spades."

Everyone is waiting for the magician's answer.

"You got it wrong."

The curve was as gentle as the voice of a magician, and after a while, warm applause broke out in the auditorium!

The challenge ended with the magician taking 65.3 percent of the vote.

But the trouble was just beginning.