Chapter 224 NO00df: Upgrade Path Orpheus

Chapter 224 NO.00df: Upgrade path·Orpheus

Shukuchi, a dojutsu that turns ten steps into one step and can perform space jumps, or a flash skill that is sublimated from swordsmanship. Such a metaphysical thing...of course it doesn't exist.

Jim Leiter thought so after taking control of the Hispanic arms smuggler named Donata Guzman.

Although he had just joked that it was Taoism on a whim, this girl who looked to be in her early twenties seemed to really believe her lies.

As she walked along the corridor to the first floor of the resettlement area, she no longer had any intention of struggling or escaping - anyone faced with a person who could ignore bullets like a ghost and could reach her side in ten steps at a time When you encounter a "superpower", you will naturally lose the idea of ​​resistance.

But as Jim himself said at the beginning, they are just some boring "cover-ups" - adjustments and transformations that may allow individual soldiers to make space jumps or transform themselves into quantum ghosts do exist. But no matter what, those levels of things are too far away from me, at least it is impossible to install them on an adjuster with a mere depth of 2 like me.

In fact, in terms of combat effectiveness alone, I may not even be as good as many depth 1 adjusters - that is not the upgrade path I am on and the area I am good at.

Thinking of this, Jim couldn't help but glance at the drone that was about the size of a ping pong ball floating near Donata's head.

The little thing under his control was the "smoke-swallowing mirror" he used to confuse the audience when he performed "magic" before.

It has no optical cloaking equipment and is simply suspended in the air driven by its propellers. In the quiet corridor, the drone made a faint but very clear "buzzing" sound.

At this moment, it was swaying back and forth constantly under Donata's eyes, and the air flow raised by the blades even blew her curly hair from time to time.

But Donata didn't even notice the thing surrounding her head, dancing like a golden snitch.

It was as if she were blind and deaf.

But it was clear that Donata, who had just shot Jim, was not blind or deaf. She could see everything except this drone.

The two of them continued walking down the dim corridor. Suddenly, Donata, who was leading the way, turned around as if she wanted to confirm whether Jim was still behind her.

And at the moment before she turned her head, the micro-drone predicted the opponent's movements in advance. In the moment her eyes moved, in the space between her blinks, it accurately flew to a special position in her vision at an extremely fast speed.

So, when Donata looked back at Jim, Jim's figure was reflected in her eyes. And the drone was moving close to the blind spot of her sight, as if it was stuck to a grain of white rice outside the corner of her eye—it was clearly within reach, but the other party couldn't see it.

"Take a turn ahead and walk about two hundred meters down, and you will reach the negative level. There will be drone patrols nearby, and they all have the authority to fire directly if they find illegal immigrants."

Donata reminded him.

"Will lethal fire be authorized?"

Jim didn't look at the drone anymore, but looked directly into the other person's eyes and asked simply.

"They are equipped with microwave weapons, with power levels ranging from making people feel dizzy and vomiting, to directly roasting the brain into brain flakes through the skull. However, it is recognized that upper-class citizens are generally in non-lethal mode. After knocking out the stowaway, I will call the police and hand him over to the Public Security Bureau to send him back.”

Donata replied, but she forgot to mention that she would have to pay a large fine in the meantime.

Jim frowned at this.

The negative level serves as an isolation zone and is the only underground level in the Nord resettlement area with a Public Security Bureau. But in his impression, the Public Security Bureau usually does not work so meticulously - if they know that there is a channel nearby that can be used as a smuggling channel, they will usually choose to block it directly instead of sending drones. Come on patrol.

Thinking of this, Jim asked:

"Then how do you avoid them when you usually smuggle weapons?"

Donata sneered and replied:

"To put it simply, if you encounter a drone unfortunately, there will usually be a payment QR code hanging under them."

Jim's frown instantly relaxed.

It turns out that this is in line with his understanding of the work style of the resettlement area government.

After all, the Public Security Bureau is a unit that is responsible for its own profits and losses, so it is really unjustifiable that it does not have any revenue-generating projects.

So Jim nodded and replied:

"Then if you are discovered, then do as you normally would."

My usual price for taking on a case is 70 Ore per day. To reimburse additional expenses, you need to present an invoice. With this meager salary, it was not his turn to pay the bribes to the Public Security Bureau on behalf of the arms dealers.

Donata nodded, then turned her head and continued walking forward.

From beginning to end, she didn't notice the ping pong ball-sized drone at all - even though the drone was surrounding her head like the stars that suddenly appeared in front of her eyes after the character in the old cartoon hit the wall. Make a circular motion.

Or maybe she actually saw it, but she was completely unaware of its existence.

It was just like a speck of dust, a gust of wind.

So the two of them turned the last corner peacefully. About two hundred meters further ahead, they would enter the territory of the underground floor.

At this point, it was almost time to end this magical enchantment and stop playing his [Lyre].

Looking at the faint light at the end of the corridor, Jim thought.

After all, magic tricks are like this. Once the audience changes their angle to observe, their tricks will be seen through instantly.

[Come back]

So he raised his hand slightly and gave an order to the [Lyre Accompaniment Machine]. The ping-pong ball-sized drone flew back to Jim like a golden snitch and got into the sleeve of his classic double-breasted khaki windbreaker.

During this process, Jim had been staring at Donata who was walking in front of him nervously, praying that she would not look back during this period - once it was exposed, it would be too embarrassing.

However, the phrase "Don't look back" has a very deep connection with Jim Leiter's path of ascension.

His path of ascension is called "Orpheus", named after the greatest musician in Greek mythology. It is said that the sound of Orpheus's harp can make birds, beasts, insects, fish, and even trees and rocks intoxicated. On the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece, it was Orpheus's singing that silenced all the Sirens.

The most famous legend of Orpheus is the story of him going down to the underworld to save his wife. After his beloved wife Eurydice accidentally stepped on a poisonous snake and was bitten to death, this great musician resolutely chose to go down to the underworld to rescue his wife.

During this period, he used his harp to appease the fierce Cerberus, moved the stingy ferryman Charon, and let the three fair judges of the underworld let her go. In the end, he even moved the hard-hearted Hades, the god of the underworld, and made him agree to let Orpheus' beloved wife Eurydice return to the world. But Hades put forward only one condition - on the way back to the world, he must not look back at his wife.

Like many heroes in mythology who do not listen to advice, Orpheus was overwhelmed by the unknown fear and immense longing before he stepped out of the underworld, and bravely looked back.

And this look was the last look he and his wife looked at each other - his beloved wife Eurydice fell back into the creepy abyss, and could never leave the prison of the underworld again for eternity.

Fortunately, Donata, who was walking in front of him, did not look back when Jim took back the [Lyre·Accompaniment Machine], and the girl did not notice the trick Jim had played before.

The Orpheus path is a specialized path that strengthens "consciousness hacking". Its depth 1 adjustment will give the adjuster the ability called "representation topological structure observation".

To put it vulgarly, this ability can be regarded as the ability to read minds by observing the target's physiological representation, language structure and compulsive behavior.

Of course, saying that "representational topological structure observation" is mind reading is like saying that the power generation principles of steam boilers and nuclear power plants are both boiling water. It is correct but biased, and it seems to be a quibble to professionals.

In fact, not only humans, but also the adjusters of the Orphic path can analyze the behavioral patterns of AI - the concept and algorithm of the mental index were originally proposed by the adjusters of this path.

As the adjuster of this path, Jim can even estimate a person's mental index directly with his naked eyes. And the longer he stays with the other person, the more information he collects, and the more accurate the value he estimates.

In addition, another enhancement of the depth 1 of the Orphic path is "mirror neuron enhancement".

Mirror neurons are neural circuits that make humans empathize and feel the same way as others - when you see or imagine someone inserting a bamboo stick into a toenail and then kicking it against the wall. You will feel that your toes are also uncomfortable, or even have phantom pain, which is the mirror neurons at work.

And the enhancement of mirror neurons can enable Jim to turn on, off, enhance, and weaken his empathy at will.

With just one command, he can abandon all his empathy and become a completely antisocial lunatic whose pulse rate will not exceed 85 even if he bites off the other person's face.

Similarly, he can also fully open his empathy ability. Just standing at the crime scene, he can almost flash back to the criminal's most subtle emotional changes at the time of the crime.

In short, these two abilities are what Jim uses to make a living now. He only needs to find the suspects, chat with them for a while, and ask a few questions casually; or go to the crime scene and restore the situation at that time, and the truth of the whole case will be almost completely clear.

In fact, Jim's biggest opponent in handling cases is often the law itself - the law of the Nord Resettlement District Government does not accept the testimony of Orphic Path Adjusters as evidence. But even if they can accept it, in order not to become the target of government surveillance, Jim has never exposed his identity as an adjuster.

So, in most of his cases. Jim can often see the truth at a glance, but he has to spend countless energy and time to find evidence that ordinary people can understand for the truth that is obvious to him.

Compared to the depth 1 which only enhances the ability to read minds, the Orpheus path's enhancement of [Lyre] at depth 2 gives the path adjuster two "consciousness hacking" abilities.

"Blindsight Concealment" and "Alice Illusion".

"Blindsight Concealment" allows the Orpheus adjuster himself and the [Lyre Accompaniment Machine] controlled by him to accurately grasp the blind spots of the other party's "three senses".

Whether it is vision, hearing or touch, even if the other party observes it, the brain will subconsciously ignore it when processing information. And this is also the reason why the previous drone was not discovered right under the other party's nose.

Its flying position was stuck in the blind spot of the other party's vision, the sound of the flight was stuck in the frequency that was just regarded as background sound by the brain, and the wind it raised was stuck in the intensity that was just ignored by the skin receptors.

So even if such a large drone was hanging in front of Donata's head, she was completely unaware of the existence of such a thing.

As for the "Alice Illusion", it was the reason why the opponent failed to hit Jim after several shots.

Through the precise magnetic field generated by the [Lyre Accompaniment Machine], the visual perception center of the brain is affected. Jim can temporarily cause the opponent to have symptoms similar to "microscopy" - including but not limited to confusion in distance control, disharmony in the cognition of object size, and confusion in the perception of time.

Under the "Alice Illusion", the opponent will distort the perception of time and space, especially space, but she is completely unaware. For example, she saw the opponent in front of her, but she would shoot to the left front; for another example, the opponent was one step away from her, but she would see the opponent as ten steps away.

The so-called "ghost form" and "shrinking the earth" that I had previously called were actually the effects of applying the "Alice Illusion". And these are just the most preliminary applications.

There are other common uses like...

"I'll go outside and see if there are any patrolling drones. Don't get me wrong."

At the exit of this corridor, Donata pushed the gate upwards and looked back at Jim.

Her words interrupted Jiang Zhou's thoughts of recalling Jim Leiter's specific abilities.

Jim observed the topological structure of the other party's representation and did not find any signs of escape, but his nervousness was very obvious. It seemed that she really believed that she could "shrink the earth" and could flash to her side and subdue her in ten steps.

But it might be that she simply had a gun in her hand, while the other party did not - Jim needed to ask questions and collect more representation information before making a judgment.

But he was not interested in this now.

"Okay."

Jim nodded.

Then, at the moment when Donata leaned out of the gate, all her biological representations disappeared.

She fell straight down from above.