Watching the anime from Madoka Magica and writing the rules

But this is not the focus of the paper industry.

"Why are you also drawn in the 2D style?"

"You mean I look different than I do in real life? It's like how you always dress up as an adventurer in a different world. A pixelated figurine looks drastically different when it's remade into 2D, and vice versa."

[Gamer] did notice that his skin was different, but he didn't care too much about it. Rather, he seemed a little excited that it was more similar to the character in the game.

"You know your image is different?"

Zhi Xing looked at Hinata Hajime in surprise, causing Hinata Hajime to explain with some embarrassment:

"Of course. After all, cognitive beings appear to fulfill a certain desire. If they could appear simply by being seen, then they would have filled up the entire hall with just one train ride."

"Hmm? I think I was asking you about your appearance..."

"Stop chatting at the door. You want to rest early, right? Let's go inside and talk."

Zhixing watched the other person's back as he quickly left, turned his head to look at the corridor and the area outside the building, and when he saw that he didn't feel Kamizuru's gaze, he walked into the corridor.

Just like in an RPG game, as soon as you enter the elevator, the entrance behind you automatically closes.

Then, the [gamers] who were playing multiple games simultaneously in God Mode saved their games and turned back into normal people. Then, with their two-dimensional faces, they pulled the backpack on the table in front of them.

"Hey, this is it."

[Gamer] casually pulled out a black notebook, turned to a certain page, and handed it to Zhixing.

"I can't read."

Zhixing blurted out without thinking, then felt that he had said something wrong and added:

"I mean foreign languages. Well, I failed foreign languages."

"It's okay, this one is written in Chinese."

"Oh?"

Zhixing took the note and found that it was indeed in Chinese. He turned to the front and asked:

"What do I need to see?"

"This is a method Nanami-san developed based on actual situations. It's a guide on how to extract specific desires from other people's perceptions..."

"It's a strategy guide! This is the game guide that Mr. [Observer] wants the most right now, because the shadow of [Idol] should be gone by now."

The [Gamer] corrected Hinata Hajime's name, then looked at the [Observer], watching the paper-throwing movement of the notebook as if he had entrusted an important skill to an NPC.

"To be honest, although I asked the second generation...your classmates to help me find the [Idol] Shadow, I still haven't found any clues. Even the only one I saw, the one who entered Hope's Peak Academy, couldn't find him."

"Now that time has dragged on, I'm more interested in how to keep Shadow alive than his whereabouts."

[Idol] is different from [Baseball Player] whose shadow did not disappear but was taken away by [Despair]. As the only victim still unconscious, almost 7 days have passed until now.

In the world of Zhou, a person can survive if he only drinks water. He will just consume a lot of body fat and other substances as energy. He can still survive by slowly adjusting his body after it is safe.

Obviously, the idol's body instinctively allows him to drink water after becoming a vegetable. In addition, since he has not been exercising, his energy consumption is very low. Logically, he should be able to maintain this for a longer time.

But I don't know if it's because the witch treated him, or because being disabled is more than just having no desires.

After the execution of the [bosozoku], Zhixing returned to the witch's barrier to replenish their water, and suddenly found that the [idol's] body had become visibly whiter.

Although the witch's barrier was clear enough to see people and objects, the subtle color changes were still not very obvious. Therefore, after hesitating for a while, Zhixing chose to half-extend his arm out of the barrier to take a look.

As a result, when Zhi Xing used the brighter light of the impression space to look at the [idol], he found that from the appearance alone, there was no blood, but compared to those corpses, some of them had a pale face, which was a sign that they were still alive.

Therefore, Zhixing did not dare to delay and carried the [idol] out of the witch's barrier, then carried him on his back and started weight-bearing exercises towards the [health worker].

After this period of contact, Zhixing also understood that the shadows of the second-generation protagonists had gotten rid of the influence of brainwashing, and there was no need to worry that people other than himself would be led to death in the impression space by the other party.

The paper business was lucky, and there was no problem of the [Health Worker] being absent, or being attacked by the black and white bear monsters on the way.

However, Zhixing still learned some bad news from the health worker who checked the idol's condition.

"Unfortunately, the shadow of [idol] classmate is gone now."

"Not only did the idol's subjective desire disappear, but even the subconscious desire to breathe and function as a body organ disappeared."

"Perhaps because of the second execution, everyone has completely lost their understanding of the [idol], or perhaps it's once again confirmed that the [idol] is dead."

Zhixing still didn't understand and asked:

"If breathing and heartbeats are controlled by the subconscious, then wouldn't I have died long ago? After all, I rushed here quite a while ago. Not only did I not have an IV, I didn't even have an oxygen tube. And suffocation only requires..."

"Huh? Mr. [Bystander] doesn't know yet?"

The [Health Attendant] blinked and explained to the paper bank as if this was common sense:

"In the cognitive world, there might be the possibility of starving to death, but there is absolutely no possibility of being unable to breathe~ Because..."

"...Everyone has the desire to breathe, so as long as they are in the cognitive world, no one will have problems with breathing."

Hinata Hajime added as he listened to Jixing's explanation of the current situation of the [Idol].

"Desire?"

Zhixing looked at the notebook with the experimental conditions and methods attached, and suddenly felt like he was looking at the encrypted information he wrote in Madoka Magica. However, whether in terms of layout or level of detail, Kamizuru Izuru's information was much better than Zhixing's own information which was full of speculation and isolated evidence.

"It's not just the desire to breathe. The desire to see, the desire to hear, the desire to touch, the desire to smell—every way a person can interact with the world carries with it a corresponding desire."

“Precisely because these methods are very similar to the way we understand the world, they are mistakenly regarded as the way we understand the world.”

After Hinata Hajime's explanation centered around desire, the [Gamer] added:

"But the reason we realize that this world is about desire, not cognition, is because of things like temples and personas."

"If you don't maintain consistent actions within the same group over a long period of time, it will be difficult to leave a unified impression on so many people."

"But although everyone's understanding of themselves is different, just like the various skill books in the game, only the skill allocation path chosen by the individual will form the corresponding shadow image and palace situation."

"In other words, this world is a new game that's currently being developed, and all we can do is choose our own career from the options that are currently being developed."

Zhixing nodded. Regarding the matter of the temple, it would be more reasonable to say that the power of this world comes from desire rather than cognition.

After all, from the perspective of cognition, even an individual's cognition of himself will be more accurate.

But in the face of social cognition that follows the crowd, no matter how strong your cognition is, you cannot withstand the cognitive coverage of so many people.

Just like calling a deer a horse, if a person insists on saying that something is a horse, there is no doubt that it is still a deer.

But when cognition can construct the image of others, if everyone points out that this is a horse, then its image will directly become that of a horse, just like the soldiers in the hall are all various strange-looking creatures.

Seeing a leopard through a tube or a blind man touching an elephant, the biased cognition of strangers can have an impact on people.

The popularity and latest news of the Phantom Thieves, even if influenced by these strangers they have never met.

But if it is changed to [Desire], although other people have some knowledge of the Lord of the Hall, they do not have much desire for him. Only those who really come into contact with him will have enough desire for his knowledge.

Once the desires of others in the palace are controlled and made to submit, then this desire will instead prompt his shadow to leap from one person's distorted space to become the master of the palace, and gradually develop into a king with more than a hundred mercenaries.

This also explains why the Lord of the Temple can decide whether the Temple is a [grave], [casino], [bank], or [cruise ship] based on his own desires.

After all, no one would think this way except me.

"Since the essence of this world is [desire], all it takes is a similar place, coupled with one's own desire, to transform the dead Phantom Thieves who originally existed in stories, novels, and history into recognizable Personas."

"And if nothing unexpected happens, the more you understand each other, the greater the power you can wield."

"So if you want to revive a person's shadow, the first thing you need to do is to find the target's desire from the desires of others. Using this as a foundation, you can then invest your desire to recreate it."

Zhixing looked at the contents in the notebook, and combined with the supplements from Hinata Hajime and the [Gamer], he had a general understanding of the situation.

Simply put, it is to find the person who knows the deceased, and then replenish the other person's dissipated desires, and then they can be recreated.

And the more you find them from different people, the more real they will be.

"But even if it reaches your level, it doesn't count as resurrection, right? How is this different from simply cloning a shadow?"

Zhi Xing looked at the "Game Player" in front of him, then looked at the screens around him, each one passing or failing the game, secretly guessing:

Even if she is a [game player], she should not devote herself to the things she likes in the palace. After all, it is the real entity that has desires, and the shadow does not enjoy all this, so Kamoshida wants to kill the real Takamaki An.

So what if it’s not about playing the games, but about understanding [gamers’] past experiences through these games?

Zhi Xing looked past the screen and towards the passage leading to other places, and couldn't help but sigh at the power of Kamizuru Deru.

Palace-level desires, methods of extracting corresponding cognition from numerous games, and all of this is not for one's own use, but for [game players], so how high will the desire of Shenzuo Chuliu itself be?

"Indeed, no matter what, the cognitive shadow is only a part of the soul. It cannot completely replace the soul. It merely gives the soul the [motivation] to act."

"I'm surprised I still believed I could reincarnate successfully. It seems that even the omniscient me still knows too little."

Zhi Xing looked at the person who had failed to maintain his first wish of [Omniscience] and had instead been reborn as an incompetent [Preparatory Course], and couldn't help but sigh inwardly:

What am I thinking? Although Kamijou Izuru's performance is indeed far beyond my expectations, the upper limit of this world is still ordinary people. If that's the case, how can it be possible to elevate it to the level of being able to utilize supernatural things like souls?

Even if the power of the cognitive world is utilized, the cognitive world itself cannot prevent the shadow from dissipating with death.

If you want to be able to control the soul, you either have to go into a world like the God of Death where everything is made up of spirit particles, or... it's like Kyubey, where the black technology that controls the existence of the soul is set up.

But apart from Kyubey, even the girl who can make wishes and the witch born from the Soul Gem cannot master the power of the soul. That's why one was concealed from the truth about the gem, and the other was forced to split her soul and become a familiar...

Zhi Xing suddenly discovered a blind spot and couldn't help but mutter:

"A divided soul... and... endowed with [desire]?"

Chapter 334: Personality Mask [Desire]

A familiar is a magical power derived from a witch and is used to serve the witch.

For example, the rose gardener and butterfly, the mermaid's band and audience, the Nutcracker's guards and tears.

All the transformations are to please the witch, just like the shadow soldiers under the Lord of the Hall who can transform into personality masks.

Although compared to the desire to enjoy the palace, the witch seemed to be comforting herself, and there was even a situation where the snack witch could never eat cheese.

But the witch has an ability that no one else in the temple can achieve, and that is the ability to resurrect through her familiars.

But from the perspective of combat capability, familiars are only slightly stronger than ordinary people, but for witches at this level of combat power, their role is just to consume magic power by numbers, which is no different from ordinary soldiers.

But there are also core familiars among the familiars, such as the one who plays the violin for Kamijou, the familiar Hitomi who loves Kamijou, and so on.

Although there won't be too many of these core familiars, they are still enough to deal with the elite BOSS monsters in the hall.

However, this kind of verified familiar can exist independently outside the witch's barrier, plunder other people's lives as nourishment through the witch's kiss, and then grow into a witch.

If we only look at it from this perspective, then these familiars that can independently form barriers and go out hunting are the existences that contain the witch's soul, so they can recreate the witch.

So, in order to raise a familiar with a residual soul into a complete witch, what is needed is several lives persecuted by the Witch's Kiss.

This means that familiars can transform other people's souls into their own souls.

Zhixing felt that his original inspiration was gradually buried after such a long analysis, and he could only come to such a useless conclusion.

Zhixing could not help but look at this unsuitable environment for thinking with a complaint, but he heard Hinata Hajime continue to say after noticing that Zhixing had stopped thinking:

"The so-called personality mask is actually to find the part of yourself that is similar to the desires of others from your own desires, and then give it a lot of desires, so that it can be transformed into your own actions."

"But everyone's shadow corresponds to a real person, so the only things that can synchronize with this desire are those that are dead or exist in fantasy."

"Using the commonality between your own desires and the other person's, once a contract is signed, the other person will identify with you in the form of a personality mask. Once this shared desire disappears, the other person will be unable to identify you and will return to their normal appearance."

"Wait...wait, did I miss something? Why am I so distracted that I can't understand anything?"

Zhixing quickly interrupted the other party's explanation.

We were just discussing how to revive the shadow of the [idol], how come it suddenly became the awakening of the personality mask?

"What's wrong? These are the basic rules of this game world."

"No, didn't you say that cognition is only a part of the soul? Then, if the soul dies, cognition should also be gone. How come in the Persona, it has become something that can be transformed into a Persona and come to the Phantom Thieves at any time?"

"Also, it sounds like the Persona is also an external object? Can they come and go as they please? And what does positioning mean? The Persona is somewhere else, not on them?"

"Hmm...it's a little complicated to explain."

"If you use games as an example, I should be able to understand some of it. I play a few games myself, so it's okay if the terms aren't too complex or abbreviated."

Seeing that [Gamer] wanted to help him sort out the meaning, Zhixing quickly suggested.

"Listen to me, in addition to having desires for our own and others' shadows, everyone also has desires for other things every day."

"These desires can strengthen the shadow of the other party when facing a shadow-bearing being. But for a being without a shadow, where do these desires that are emitted daily go?"

"If killing monsters in the game gives you experience points and levels up, then where does the experience points go for those creatures that die alone without being killed?"

"And if a player's final blow before death kills the opponent, then as an online game that allows reloading, will this experience be counted for the deceased player?"

Zhixing became even more confused after hearing this. This kind of unclear statement, which could lead to several possibilities, exactly which possibility was it referring to?