I Am Not A Mage Lord - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Uncanny Valley, Chain Set
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
That day in prison, after Lin Qi personally blocked the “Phantom Killer” spell, the only price he paid was a nosebleed and cracks in his memory palace.
After that, Mage Mo Feng gave him a lesson on the illusionary characteristics of Phantom Killer.
Illusionary spells were meant to deceive.
It made people see things that didn’t exist or couldn’t see things that did exist. It could even extend noises and sense of touch.
Essentially, illusions were divided into five categories: “False Illusion”, “Facial Illusion”, “Spiritual Illusion”, “Shadow Illusion”, and “Phantom Illusion”.
Among them, the Phantom Killer spell, as the name suggested, belonged to Phantom Illusion.
The special feature was that the “illusion” created by such spells was only limited to the caster and the target. It existed only in the hearts of those two and were not perceived by the outside world.
This was also a spell that attacked the mind.
Lin Qi was not born to be the kind of bold, crazy man whose heart was numb.
When he was young, he was so scared by the horror movie “The Ring” that he did not dare to answer calls at night. He was so scared by “The Curse” that he did not dare to cover his head with his blanket. He was so scared by “A Wicked Ghost” that he did not dare to take a bath.
But at this moment, Lin Qi was calmly pondering and analyzing whether the ‘supernatural’ phenomenon before him was an illusionary spell and whether it matched the characteristics of the Phantom Illusion.
The key to the illusion was “believe”.
Once they believed it, the illusion would become “real” and could cause harm or even death.
This was also why illusions needed to be realistic.
The previous fourth-level spell, Phantom Killer, had manipulated his subconscious fear.
It would let this “fear” materialize in his consciousness into the most terrifying monster he could imagine.
It was similar to Bogart, who could transform what human beings feared the most.
Therefore, Lin Qi was also puzzled. The ones who appeared at that time were not Sadako, Kayako, or Cho Yan-may, but the reaper-shaped specter with the huge scythe in its hand?
Even the hero he controlled in the game Overwatch was scarier than this.
However, Lin Qi immediately shook his head and abandoned such peripheral thoughts to refocus on the “him” in the mirror.
The other party still maintained a terrifying smile and looked at him maliciously.
If it was an illusion, then the key now was “not to believe”!
And it must be the kind of disdainful disbelief.
A complete denial was the key to survival.
Lin Qi immediately controlled the tremor in his voice and said slowly, “You won’t scare me like this.”
“First of all, the mirror itself is connected to too many terrifying phenomena. It’s very easy to make terrifying connections.”
“Secondly, according to the Uncanny Valley theory, the more similar a robot is to a human, the better the human’s impression of it will be. However, during the process of getting closer, once it passes a certain point, the favorability will drop drastically. It will only return to its original peak when it is especially similar to a human. And this turning point in the middle, like a sunken valley, is the Uncanny Valley.”
“You exaggerated the reflection of me in the mirror on purpose to force the ‘authenticity level’ into the Uncanny Valley.
Lin Qi analyzed calmly.
When the authenticity level was close to 75%, the favorability would suddenly drop to 0%, then negative-100%.
When the degree of authenticity exceeded 90%, the favorability would rise again to -50% and then to 85%.
That was why the puppets in “Dead Silence” and “Chucky” were so scary.
Because their likeness had fallen into the Uncanny Valley.
After thinking this through, the restraints on Lin Qi were immediately loosened.
He lifted his hand. “Play a game of scissors, paper, stones?”
“I’ve never lost to my reflection before. You can try to beat me.”
At this moment, the Lin Qi in the mirror, who had a ferocious expression on his face, appeared somewhat stunned.
Lin Qi challenged further, “Come out of the mirror and beat me to death if you have the guts.”
With that, he walked out of the toilet room without looking back.
It was only toward the end that he noticed that his back was drenched in cold sweat.
With good knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry, one would fear nothing under the sky.
Lin Qi quietly told himself that the best way to defeat magic was naturally to use stronger magic.
But right now, he didn’t have any magic, so he could only pull out the banner of the “Church of Science”.
Seek the protection of Maxwell, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Einstein and others.
At that moment, Lin Qi saw the clock ticking on the wall and started walking back in a counterclockwise direction.
“Dong dong dong, it’s me, I’m back.” Outside the door of the room, “Mo Feng’s” voice rang out.
Immediately after that, the originally empty wardrobe suddenly shook as if something was violently shaking inside.
With a buzz, the television switched on automatically. After a flurry of static, a Word document appeared on the screen and a series of words were typed out repetitively—
Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, …
A sharp scratching sound rang out from the toilet, as if someone were continuously scraping their nails against the glass.
“The budget for this illusion has exploded.” Lin Qi commented.
Then he shook his head and said, “Forget it, since I have the time now, I’d better finish the whole ‘Feynman Physics Lectures’ first.”
He kicked his slippers away.
Lin Qi froze.
With slight astonishment, he swept his gaze across the room once again.
He then submerged himself into the memory palace in his sea of consciousness and switched his vision to what he saw before he went to bed last night, as if it was a video recorder.
Yeah.
When he got into bed to sleep, he left his slippers facing inward.
But when he woke up in the morning, his movements were very smooth, indicating that his slippers were facing out.
Simultaneously, he continued comparing everything in the room in his memory to the details in the room in front of him.
Lin Qi walked quietly to the bar. “This ‘cup’ I drank hot water from last night moved by 5cm. The angle of the painting on this wall to the television was 30 degrees, now it’s 10 degrees…”
Lin Qi was now commenting on the flaws in this room one by one.
He put his hands on his hips, his expression growing serious.
“These changes mean that I am not under an illusion.”
“I am in a specially-created space—dream realm.”
“I’m still in a dream, and you’ve clearly invaded my dream.”
Lin Qi could not help but sigh. This was the only reason to explain Mo Feng’s disappearance!
“Throughout the entire process, you didn’t make a move. It was as if you were patiently waiting for me to take the initiative to counterattack, eagerly awaiting my methods, so I was suspicious.”
“How long do I have to stay in this controlled dream before you can launch a fatal attack?”
Lin Qi was calm. In this case, the problem was simplified into one solution—
He needed to wake up from this “dream.”
