Joker's Trick

Inside Artisan's Labyrinth, the puppet sat in a chair, the corners of its mouth curved up, looking as if it were waiting to enjoy the show.

A wooden face did not have much in the way of expression to begin with, but that knot in the wood just happened to sit in a subtle spot.

No matter what expression it made, it made people feel as if a trace of ill intent were hidden inside.

Like a mischievous child clutching some trick in its palm, waiting to watch you make a fool of yourself.

Selna was the first to speak, her voice crisp and decisive:

"Alexander, I need to take a look at the structure of your Void Shell."

Alexander said nothing. He merely unfolded his Void Shell in silence.

To most people, it was an uncomfortably organic structure.

It existed somewhere between creature and machine, its boundaries blurred.

Its texture was somewhat old, like the sealed edge of a tin can, with the dull, muted luster unique to aged things.

But the petite witch beside him, with red hair and red eyes, watched with her eyes shining.

Her gaze swept through the structure, quickly passing over several key nodes.

Then she started moving, casually shifting aside the tools piled beside the low table and clearing enough room to work.

"Among you, who knows anything about neural signal encoding?"

"I have a little foundation, senior," Elena said cautiously.

"But as for the line of thought you mentioned, I'm not sure whether we're heading in the same direction."

"The materialization of emotional information," the red-haired witch introduced briefly.

"And the logicalization of neural signals are essentially two ends of the same road.

Set out from different directions, and you'll arrive at the same intersection."

Elena froze for a while.

She had