Chapter 6 Black Currant Theater

At that moment, the bank manager approached with a smile on his face, "This must be Police Chief Wolf and Deception consultant Mr. Jiang Shu, right this way."

The two exchanged a glance and thus ended their discussion about the aberrant Sequence, following the manager towards the depths of the bank to the vault. Along the way, they encountered three levels of security: employee cards, fingerprints, and iris scans all required verification.

"The vault requires the on-duty manager and cash counter to open it together, entering and exiting at the same time. Any violation of procedure triggers an alarm," the manager explained the process of the morning and evening vault checks to them.

"When did you find out the money was missing?" Jiang Shu looked at the manager.

"I was the on-duty manager that day, and I entered the vault as usual. When I reached the cash area inside the vault, I saw that in the central area, where the cube of paper money should have been, there was nothing," the manager sighed, "The cash counter was also present, which can confirm that the cash was there during our morning inspection, but by the evening count, it had disappeared."

The manager continued, "Around ten million was missing."

"Other than that, you found nothing?" Jiang Shu frowned slightly, "The money just vanished into thin air?"

"It seems so, sir," the manager said helplessly.

"Any ideas?" Wolf looked at Jiang Shu, who was frowning.

"None, but from my point of view, there is one method that could achieve this." Jiang Shu asked the manager, "How do you transport the cash here?"

"Huang Kong Seventh Bank is the main branch of Lonely City in the Seventh District. We transport cash from the branches to the main bank's vault for storage every day," the manager said. "However, the new notes in the central cash area generally do not take part in the daily transportation."

"How long ago was the new cash brought in?"

"Over a month ago, it was transported here from the Banknote Printing Factory," the manager replied, somewhat puzzled, "Is that relevant?"

"I'd like to take a look at the surveillance footage from that time," Jiang Shu said slowly, "I suspect that this ten million was swapped out more than a month ago."

"Ah?" The manager was taken aback and then frowned, "The surveillance videos are regularly deleted monthly. The footage from last month... has probably already been cleared."

Jiang Shu, unable to do anything, said to Wolf, "It seems these people anticipated this."

"So, how did they do it?" Wolf understood that Jiang Shu already had a rough guess in his mind.

"Flash paper, a magic prop. It burns quickly, brightly, and produces no smoke, leaving only a small amount of water," Jiang Shu explained the process he thought was possible. "First, create ten million in fake money soaked in a concentrated solution of nitric and sulfuric acid to create nitrocellulose. After drying, replace it in the vault. When needed, ignite—"

"Whoosh—the money disappears." He made a firework gesture with his hand, "Your stacks of money are placed far apart, the flash paper doesn't burn at a high temperature, and it burns too quickly to ignite the other stacks."

"As for who ignited it, both you and the cash counter are suspects," Jiang Shu continued, "Of course, it's possible that you were just hypnotized, but you'll still need to come with him."

Wolf took out handcuffs and approached the manager, who was still in a daze, and with a "click," cuffed him, "Come with me."

"By the way, ten million in paper money weighs over a hundred kilograms. Creating it isn't trivial. You could check the ink used a month ago, there might be traces left." Jiang Shu reminded Wolf.

"Understood, leave this work to us," Wolf nodded, this was naturally not something Jiang Shu needed to worry about. With a lead, they knew exactly what to do.

"You're busy, I'll be leaving." Jiang Shu walked out of the bank; he needed to take a look at his future place of work.

After his awakening, he had chosen to have the Main Brain assign his work, after all, he didn't know anyone in the Entertainment Series industry.

Thus, Jiang Shu honorably became a resident Magician at the Black Currant Theater, striving hard for the entertainment life of the Lonely City inhabitants.

"Black Currant Theater," he hailed a taxi and then said to the artificial intelligence.

The taxi industry in Lonely City had been fully taken over by autonomous vehicles. Most people would choose the driverless option when there were no special requirements, which also facilitated the Main Brain's traffic management and reduced accidents.

Soon, he arrived at the Black Currant Theater in Entertainment District D. It was a good forty kilometers away from Sister Su's place, but the location was not too bad, at least the neighborhood was safe, unlike the southern part of the Seventh District, which was in utter chaos.

The Black Currant Theater had four floors, with the fourth being the office area and the other three for the audience. All floors would be open for use during performances. The theater was a black dome shape with a hollow design and a glass globe top, paired with unified color-shifting lights. At night, the theater resembled a disco ball, filled with a Cyberpunk vibe.

Standing at the entrance of the theater, Jiang Shu contacted the theater curator, and soon, a plump woman in a bright red robe scurried out from the side door.

"Are you the new... magician?" The woman sized up Jiang Shu and smiled, "Well-built, aren't you? Come on in."

The woman led Jiang Shu up to the fourth-floor office area, flipping through his materials and introducing herself, "My name is Yu Dongmei, just call me Sister Mei. I'm in charge here. Your main role is performing magic, and what is magic?"

"Magic, it's kind of like Deception," Jiang Shu said, helplessly. He had only appeared two months later, and now it seemed like magic was a knockoff of Deception.

"Deception? That's good stuff," Sister Mei approved, "T4 level is also enough. Tomorrow night's intermission is yours, fifteen minutes. I don't expect anything spectacular, just don't screw it up."

"Ah? That soon?" Jiang Shu was a bit baffled. He had to go on stage tomorrow?

"Yes, you've still got today to get ready. Remember, don't screw it up." Sister Mei's bushy eyebrows knitted together as she repeated, "Miss Li will be there tomorrow, so you better take it easy, don't screw it up."

"Miss Li?" Jiang Shu blinked.

"You, mixed up in the Entertainment Series, don't even know Miss Li?" Sister Mei seemed about to faint as she launched into a rapid-fire explanation,

"Miss Li Yuntang, the City Lord's younger daughter, the one who ascended to Second Level T2 actress not long after coming of age. She's the one the Entertainment Series of Lonely City has to impress. She really likes to visit the entertainment quarter incognito, or so I've heard. But don't be nervous, not many people watch during the intermission, just go through the motions."

"Uh, got it," Jiang Shu said, scratching his head and accepting the task.

"You can use this office for now, and as for an apprentice, we happen to have one left, though he's got sticky fingers. Keep him in line." Sister Mei prattled on and then pushed open the large door deep in the fourth-floor corridor, indicating that was his office.

Jiang Shu paused, "Apprentice?"

"T4s with the title 'Master' can take on apprentices—to assist you," Sister Mei rolled her eyes as if exasperated by his ignorance, "Alright then, tidy up, and later give me the name of your act so I can register it."

"Okay." Jiang Shu nodded dumbly, watching Sister Mei sashay down the dark hallway.

Sister Mei is a good person, really. If she were truly testing him with tomorrow's performance, she wouldn't have bothered arranging an apprentice for him. Right from the beginning, she had no intention of driving him away.

Or maybe I should try a little harder to drive myself away?

Psh! What am I thinking!

"Room 401, huh?" Jiang Shu murmured the office number, then walked into the room covered in dust from long neglect.

However, he was quite satisfied with the size of the room; it was as big as a classroom, a space of nearly a hundred square meters where he could play around to his heart's content.

Having cleaned up for a bit, Jiang Shu caught a glimpse of a sneaky head poking around the doorway and called out, "Come in."

The person at the door slipped in and surveyed Jiang Shu with a curious gaze.

"So you're the apprentice? What's your name?" Jiang Shu glanced over without stopping his cleaning.

"Su Xiaoou." Fifteen or sixteen, with neat short hair and an arrogant look on her delicate face that didn't belong there, she evaluated Jiang Shu, "So you are my master? Not that impressive."

"A tomboy," Jiang Shu discerned from her voice and couldn't help but laugh, "How do you know I'm not impressive?"

"You can tell at a glance that you're not cut out for it. Loose in muscle tone, lacking in poise, your voice is mediocre; you're neither a dancer nor a singer, what use could you be in this theater?" Su Xiaoou said with disdain, "You don't have any real skills; you're just another one in the traffic-following crowd."

"Pretty sharp of you to figure that out." Jiang Shu tossed her a cleaning rag, "Then you know about the Deception Group?"

"Of course, they're my idols!" Su Xiaoou's eyes sparkled, "Mysterious and omnipotent!"

"Heh, I just caught Fox last night," Jiang Shu chuckled, "As for magic, I'm their ancestor!"

Fair's fair, I don't flatter or slam for no reason.

That's the truth.