Both Kenjaku and Kinji Hakari were stunned.
What Mahito wanted to utilize was the black box of the Construction Technique.
Among all Cursed Techniques, the Construction Technique was the most special, because it was one of the very few techniques that could ignore all conditions to construct things from one's imagination.
And once created, they would exist permanently and wouldn't disappear due to the loss of Cursed Energy.
In the original work, the representative figures were Zen'in Mai and the ancient sorcerer Yorozu.
Setting Zen'in Mai aside for a moment, she completely used her own life to complete the replication of a Cursed Tool, which could still barely be considered within common sense.
But Yorozu was different.
After being inspired by how insects like butterflies and bees mobilize energy within their bodies, she created the heavy biological armor Insect Armor, with a degree of absurdity far exceeding Mai's.
Mai at least had seen the process.
Yorozu relied entirely on her own imagination.
One could only say that this was the Construction Technique.
You had to accept it.
Of course, unconditional imagining wouldn't work either.
Because Kenjaku had taught him everything, Mahito also had a considerable understanding of the Construction Technique.
There was a reason why he hadn't thought of using the Construction Technique to create his own body before Kinji Hakari brought up the concept of cloning.
No matter how absurd the Construction Technique was, it couldn't leave out an important element—
imagination.
The Construction Technique cannot create something the user cannot imagine.
Yorozu's peak creation was a sphere called the True Sphere.
This sphere possessed infinite pressure and could crush everything it touched along its path.
And this kind of sphere was a concept Yorozu had received during her education.
She completed this concept, thereby constructing the sphere.
This well illustrated the characteristics of the Construction Technique.
It wasn't that you could just think of anything and construct the work you wanted.
You had to have a basic understanding of the creation you were constructing, so you could extract the elements you wanted from that understanding, and only then could you begin to create.
If you couldn't imagine such a thing, you couldn't construct it.
For example, a blade that can cut anything.
You can imagine this blade being able to cut steel.
You can imagine this blade cutting mountain ranges.
You can even imagine this blade being able to slice a planet open with one strike.
Then you really can use the Construction Technique to precisely create this blade.
But can you imagine this blade cutting away the concept of lifespan and granting eternal life?
If not, then this blade cannot do it, and you cannot create it.
Similarly, before this, Kenjaku had asserted that a human shell could not possibly adapt to a Cursed Spirit's soul.
No matter how Mahito adjusted a human shell, he couldn't create an incarnation body that perfectly suited his own soul.
Thus, the Construction Technique could never create a perfect incarnation body for Mahito.
This was the reason Mahito had never thought of using the Construction Technique to manufacture his own incarnation body.
He couldn't imagine it.
But after Kinji Hakari's mention of cloning, Mahito's horizons suddenly broadened.
Of course it wasn't cloning.
Kenjaku had already well explained why cloning couldn't succeed.
What was important was the line of thought.
The Construction Technique was a technique of imagination.
As long as there was enough imagination, even biological armor could be realized, and even the theoretical True Sphere could be constructed.
So, imagine.
Imagine a body of your own.
"Human transmutation is the transmutation of a human using flesh, soul, and spirit."
"In other words, as long as these things can be transmuted, a human can be born without relying on a mother's womb,"
Mahito said.
Kenjaku frowned deeply.
"I've never heard of such a thing."
Something that a thousand-year-old Curse User hadn't heard of likely truly didn't exist in this world.
"It's a setting from a manga," Mahito said.
"Fullmetal Alchemist."
"This manga should be quite famous in this country."
It was indeed famous.
The current year was 2018, and the Fullmetal Alchemist manga was still popular.
"How can you take things from a manga seriously?"
"Reality isn't a manga,"
Kinji Hakari retorted, putting his beach sunglasses back on.
What nonsense is a manga character like you talking about?
Mahito couldn't help but laugh.
That's right.
This was Mahito's ultimate move.
Even now, Mahito still felt as if he were living in a manga.
Everyone around him seemed vivid and lifelike.
Kenjaku had even told Mahito ancient secrets that were never revealed in the original work.
Logically, Mahito should have recognized reality long ago.
But once a first impression is imprinted, it cannot be changed in a short time.
Everything and everyone around him told him this was reality, and he intellectually acknowledged it as reality, but in his heart, a subconscious thought always told him he was living in a manga and had become a manga character.
Normally, such thoughts were optional.
As his time in this world increased, that sense of incongruity would likely soon vanish.
But for now, that sense of incongruity remained.
And it would indeed become an ultimate move.
Mahito said with deep meaning,
"Although it's a setting in a manga, as long as I believe it's real—then isn't it real?"
"What are you babbling about?"
Kinji Hakari complained loudly.
"No, wait, it might actually work," Kenjaku said.
"Huh?"
Kinji Hakari looked back at Kenjaku as if looking at an idiot.
"A Cursed Technique is a world of perception."
"It is an existence that changes with a person's cognition."
Kenjaku raised his hand and pointed to his forehead.
"A Jujutsu Sorcerer's Cursed Technique is engraved in the sorcerer's brain, roughly right here."
"Therefore, the Cursed Technique reacts to a person's thoughts and undergoes massive changes."
"Kinji Hakari-san, isn't your Cursed Technique exactly like that?"
Kinji Hakari was stunned and frowned deeply.
"Are you referring to my Domain Expansion?"
Kinji Hakari's Domain Expansion was vastly different from traditional ones.
If one didn't actively recognize it, no one could imagine the two were the same thing.
In fact, the development of Cursed Techniques follows the development of civilization.
Kinji Hakari is just one example.
Other exceptions exist.
It's conceivable that as Cursed Techniques continue to develop, exceptions like Kinji Hakari will only increase, eventually becoming not exceptions, but common sense.
Kenjaku nodded.
"I know a modern Jujutsu Sorcerer who needs to use her cell phone to take pictures to activate her Cursed Technique."
"This was an absolutely impossible technique a thousand years ago because cell phones simply didn't exist then."
"You're the same, Hakari-san."
"Your Domain Expansion reproduces a rolling high-speed train."
"You don't think there were any high-speed trains in Japan a thousand years ago, do you?"
More than that.
In the original work, when it reached the later stages and Kenjaku launched the Culling Game, various ridiculous Cursed Techniques emerged one after another.
There were courtrooms.
There were airplanes.
These concepts are exactly what would appear in modern times.
Such Cursed Techniques could not have appeared in ancient times.
Just as Kenjaku said, the development of civilization also promotes the development of Cursed Techniques.
These Cursed Techniques that manifest according to the era will only grow more vigorous over time, eventually evolving from one-in-a-million exceptions into common sense seen everywhere.
Because the essence of a Cursed Technique is human self-perception.
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