Watching the anime from Madoka Magica and writing the rules

"You're the one interrupting now, Carolina. Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"

"Ha, you know what he said..."

The sound of fingers tapping on the table startled the twins who were about to get into an argument.

Carolina and Christina fell silent and stood at their posts with their backs to the paper bank.

Seeing this, Iger asked:

"From your tone, does it mean that you already knew about the contract? Or have you seen similar situations before?"

Seeing Iger's still smiling expression, Zhixing did not answer immediately.

Instead, he digested the information for a moment, then spoke to the twins:

"Don't worry about exposing anything. Even if you return to your original form, it won't do anything to you anymore, so feel free to resist."

After saying this, Zhi Xing saw that the two of them just glanced at him and turned back, with no intention of speaking at all, so he looked at Iger and said:

"Although you could be considered an enemy from your perspective, it's undeniable that you possess a deep knowledge of this world. Could you offer me some advice?"

Iger didn't say anything. Instead, he supported his face with his left hand and stretched out his right hand, indicating that Zhihang could tell his story first.

Zhi Xing closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then put his hands on his neck and turned his head to relax himself before speaking:

"When you expressed your wish, it reminded me of a group of people I knew."

"They made a pact to help others fulfill their wishes, and gave them the power to become Persona users."

"And tell them that the existence of many temples will threaten the lives of ordinary people."

"In order to protect the ordinary people who were killed by the temples, the girls fully utilized the power of their personas and destroyed one temple after another."

"However, this power is not complete."

"When a girl uses the power of this persona, she will develop a desire called despair. This desire will take over her own desires, thus reducing the desires she originally had when the mask was awakened."

"What a coincidence! This kind of desperate desire can be channeled away by the girls through the secret treasures they occasionally encounter in the palace."

Having said that, Zhixing paused and looked at Eagle.

Iger nodded, indicating that he understood what Zhixing said, and gestured to continue.

"The situation then might be slightly different from the current situation."

"Since all the girls' knowledge comes from them, they are completely unaware of these changes."

"The girls only knew that the secret treasure would regain possession of the palace when they had enough desire, but they didn't know that when desperate desire infected the entire mask, it would also break free from the constraints of the flesh and become a new palace."

"And the reason this happened to the girls is because they had already laid a treaty when they signed the contract, which I am not aware of yet."

"And their purpose is to release the energy released when the girls transform from Personas into Temples."

In order to make Iger understand, Zhixing deliberately localized the technical terms, but as he spoke, he felt that it was very appropriate. So after telling the whole story in one breath, he asked Iger:

"What do you think of it?"

The sound of fingers tapping on the table rang out, and after a brief moment of contemplation, Iger responded:

"That's an interesting metaphor."

"But there's a huge mistake in this story."

"Oh? What is it?"

"That's why you took the liberty of calling it a desperate desire."

Zhixing couldn't help but walk to the railing and stared at Eagle very seriously, waiting for the next explanation.

"From your description, you should know what kind of thing can be called a secret treasure, right?"

"That is a private treasure that only the master of the temple can use, not a rare treasure."

"In fact, only by making preparations in advance can each hall be able to manifest this secret treasure. Conversely, as long as there is no advance preparation, then even if you raid it many times, you will not be able to encounter the secret treasure belonging to this hall."

"So, since the corresponding object is not a secret treasure, and this object combined with what you call desperate desire can form a new temple."

"Then you must be referring to cognition and soul."

"Cognitive...soul...?"

Zhi Xing repeated these two words and asked:

"Can you tell me the reason?"

"The answer is actually very simple. It's just that you know too little about the cognitive world, so you can only say what you know."

"But even you should know the difference between a cognitive being and a real person."

"Uh... a cosplay? One with... a soul?"

"Hmph~!"

Perhaps because her own existence was involved in the topic, Carolina didn't say anything, but she still hummed to express her thoughts.

"That statement is too one-sided."

"Although the cognitive existence in the hall is just a cognitive artifact provided by the shadow itself, aren't the people in the impression space also artifacts in the eyes of others?"

"In the cognitive world, every shadow is born from the cognition of others."

"It was this kind of existence that gradually formed a temple through desire, and finally relied on the power of the temple to recognize other people one by one."

"In this case, do you also think that it is just imitating someone else's image?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhixing reacted immediately.

Everyone in the impression space should be recognized by others, but the place where they are recognized is not on the first floor of the subway.

Instead, it was at the bottom of the impression space, and then, according to its own desires, it began to gradually approach the human surface, and then surpassed the surface, was promoted to the palace, and was then used as an experience bag by the Phantom Thieves.

But there is a glaring flaw in this apparently sound logic.

"Indeed, if every shadow begins as a result of the accumulation of other people's cognition, then it fits with the idea that as long as someone praises you, you will see significant progress."

"But then, why would they be related to my real self?"

“Just because other people think it’s you, does that make it you?”

"In the palace... no, even if it's just in the memory space, the dead Distortion-level shadows will have an impact on the real person."

"Furthermore, this type of distortion exists on almost every level of the Impression Space, and there are quite a few of them. But strangely, the difficulty seems to decrease the higher you go. Can this also be explained?"

Facing Zhihang's questioning, Iger looked very satisfied, so he changed his hand to support his face and continued:

"That's because of the second key element in forming the temple—the soul."

"In the final analysis, the so-called self in our cognition is actually false. No matter how many times it is eliminated, it will reappear again."

"What really makes it unique is that in the impression space, it is pulled up from the ground by its own soul's cognition of itself."

"The more powerful the soul, the stronger the pull it can provide, thus drawing its own cognitive shadow closer to the surface."

"But before the temple is formed, no matter how powerful the soul is, its self-awareness is just a perception."

"So even though I dragged my shadow to various places in the Impression Space, I didn't give it any effect, nor did I create any contract."

“To achieve the transformation from the shadows to the temple, what is needed is the communication between the recognition from others and the recognition of oneself.”

"Only in this way can the shadow become more like a soul and then use the power derived from the soul."

When Zhi Xing heard this explanation, he quickly put himself into the various halls he knew.

Kamoshida, who plays a role among teachers and lords it over students;

Madarame Ikryusai, a modest artist in public but a peddler of fake paintings in secret;

Jin Chengjunya, who has many gangsters under his command but secretly works for others;

Sakura Futaba, who was slandered as her mother's murderer but was actually able to establish the hacker Megido;

There is an image that many people know, and there are even more people who know the other side of the image.

Although both sides have independent intelligence about this person, in the impression space, they are integrated together to provide the other party's shadow with enough power to allow it to own the palace.

"But something's wrong... Where are the little... uh... Phantom Thieves?"

"Are you trying to say that the Temple was built through the knowledge of others, while the Phantom Thieves relied on their own desire for resistance, which reached a temporary peak, to pull the shadows above the ground?"

I feel that according to this explanation, it is easy to explain why the public recognition indicator of this game must finally reach 100% before it can unleash the power to defeat the hidden boss.

But the witch is a power from another world brought by Zhixing himself. How can such an unknown existence be recognized by others and form a temple?

Even the space-distorted shadow closest to the ground is far from capable of transforming into a palace.

So even if the witch's shadow was born within the witch's barrier, this cognition should be exactly the same as the private cognition in other halls, and it is unlikely to form a hall. Even based on the witch's cognition, the shadow should not even be normal in mind.

But Zhixing changed the subject of the questioning in time, replacing Little Bear with the Phantom Thieves.

After all, we are still making an analogy with the special case of Futaba Sakura.

Futaba relies on the cognition of others to form a temple, and then awakens the personality mask through the temple.

Since she needs this level to do it, then the others should be about the same. After all, there is also a young lady who can enter the palace directly.

But this time it was not Iger who responded to the question, but Christina who was not supposed to interrupt.

"Foolish question! Since you're fully aware of the situation surrounding Velvet, you must also be aware that as prisoners, they can't voluntarily awaken."

"Their ability to gain power is entirely thanks to their master. Don't you know this?"

Although it wasn't Iger's answer, Zhixing saw that he didn't deny it, so he turned his attention to Ristina and responded:

"I know they were able to become the Phantom Thieves because of the Otherworld Navigation app the Velvet Room gave them, but didn't I just say that the app is just a mask power, not a contract?"

"From what I just heard, becoming a temple only requires the cognition of others to be consistent with one's own soul cognition."

"And to awaken a personality mask, one needs to make a contract with oneself. This contract should be between the soul and one's own cognition, right?"

"Can a mere contract replace the cognition of others?"

Seeing that the twins had spoken, Carolina couldn't wait to speak:

"Idiot, you've missed the point!"

"Ok?"

"Ristina's point is that the prisoner was able to awaken his power because of a contract he signed with his master, and his companions were also able to use this power because the master gave it to them to ensure smooth rehabilitation."

"What are you talking about? Shouldn't the contract between it and Amamiya Ren be made after Ryuji awakens the mask?"

Ristina shook her head and corrected Zhi Xing:

"The true contract is made the moment the prisoner steps into the Velvet Room."

Zhixing felt that there might be some misalignment in the information between him and the twins, and he couldn't help but start to think like the other person.

After Takamaki An awakened, she informed him of the setting of the mask fusion.

After Long Si awakens, he tells people that socializing with others can improve Tarot cards.

After Amamiya Ren awakens, she tells him about the existence and purpose of the personality mask and the app.

This is a very normal game process, and the corresponding functions are deployed step by step.

If memory serves me correctly, the Velvet Room should not have appeared before this, otherwise Amamiya Ren would not be unaware of the use of the app.

Feeling that he had sorted out the time, Zhixing looked at the left and then the right, and was thinking about which one to refute, when he suddenly realized something.

"No, that's not right. That day wasn't the first time!"

"Before the assistants were split into twins and the old man was replaced, the Velvet Room had already chosen Amamiya Ren. That's why Morgana was tasked with finding the Trickster."

Thinking of this, Zhixing did not look at the reactions of the twins who heard this, but looked at the old man named Eagle sitting in the middle, and recalled his true identity.

A false god who is formed by collective cognition, can make decisions on behalf of collective cognition, and can always pay attention to the actions of Amamiya Ren.

"Is it your understanding of the Phantom Thieves that makes their images unified as historical Phantom Thieves?"

Chapter 257: Skip the Magical Girl and Go Straight to the Witch

The awakening of a personality mask is rare in the Velvet Room, or in this world, but it is not a rare event.

But now this world can be said to have experienced 5 rounds of personality mask awakening, or at least 3 rounds.

However, the protagonists who awaken in each round all use the same type of personality mask to call themselves, which is really too much of a coincidence.

It is somewhat reasonable to say that they were all personality masks of the mythological system before.