Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 154 What is ability? It's a commodity!
"I'm sorry... everyone, I'm not feeling well today, so I'll end the live stream here."

Please continue to watch my channel tomorrow.

Seeing the screen filled with mocking and jeering comments, Jiang Siqi managed a final smile to say goodbye to her fans before closing the live stream.

The moment the screen went black, she angrily raised the mouse, wanting to smash it on the ground.

It's all that damned criminal's fault. Participating in the wildly popular TV show should have been a turning point in her life, but instead, a crime turned it into a farce.

I am very lucky to have survived.

But afterwards, when she browsed the video that had been uploaded online, she wished she could die immediately!

What are all those things?!

She fell to the ground with an exaggerated expression, wriggling around like an earthworm, her hands shaking like a sieve, her skirt almost completely soaked. Even she herself was too ashamed to finish watching this ugly scene.

What's even more infuriating is that, even when the atmosphere was so tense, someone was still filming her, with a telephoto lens locked onto her face, not missing a single detail.

She even suspected that the photographer must have had a grudge against her in a past life.

"Aaaaaah! You all should die!"

It would be better if the poison balloons fell and killed everyone in the filming studio! That way, no one would have time to laugh at her.

Jiang Siqi's hand was halfway through its swing when it abruptly stopped in mid-air.

She spent over two hundred yuan on this wireless mouse, and if it were to break, she would suffer the greatest loss.

The emotions she hadn't been able to vent surged back, turning her anger into resentment in an instant. Her nose stung, and she almost burst into tears on the spot.

Those who criticize her are only concerned with typing away, and none of them have ever really thought about how they would react if they were in that situation and watched a living person's skin flip over, their internal organs crawl out, and they became one with the floor.
She was so terrified because she was standing closest to that mutated criminal's accomplice!
In the past, she had also acted impulsively and typed many comments online that implied she needed to practice more. Now that she was receiving the same treatment, she realized how frustrating that feeling was.

And that man who inexplicably appeared on stage… what was he trying to prove?! Jiang Siqi put down her mouse and slammed her head on the table, her head buzzing. She hated this man for making her look so foolish in front of the camera, but at the same time, she understood that, in a sense, he was her savior… not just her, but everyone in the studio at the time owed him a debt of gratitude for saving their lives.

They're all superpowered, so why don't I have such powerful abilities?

Thinking about this, she even began to hate herself.

No, no, you are the cute and energetic magical girl Sitian, how can you give up like this?
In a sense, Jiang Siqi knew this wasn't entirely a bad thing. After all, even haters are fans. Although many people came to watch the spectacle, the number of viewers in her live stream was steadily increasing. The variety show's label of her an internet celebrity was merely a publicity stunt. In the superpower category, she was at most moderately famous. Previously, her live streams averaged around four or five hundred viewers, but now it was approaching thirty thousand.

If she can withstand the pressure, or simply become a comedian and make people laugh, she might be able to capitalize on this wave of online popularity.

However, that was not Jiang Siqi's original purpose for live streaming.

She wants to become an internet celebrity.

But she also wants to be an upright superhero!

Just then, an in-app message popped up at the top of the website she frequently streamed on. With so many people mocking her these past two days, naturally, there were also many more people following and sending messages. Jiang Siqi was about to close the message when her attention was drawn to the message's brief title.

"Do you want to join the organization?"

A mechanism? Her mouse stopped before she closed it.

What else can these two characters refer to now... except for government agencies, right?

Jiang Siqi was well aware that, apart from the frequent trending topics about television stations' ability to commit crimes, another hot topic recently was the government's decision to recruit externally.

If you were to ask her if she wanted to join a super-secret organization that truly understands what abilities are and how to train those with abilities, the answer would undoubtedly be yes!
It's good that she hasn't been on stage and compared herself to others. Now Jiang Siqi clearly knows where she stands. Even if she's not afraid of being ridiculed in public on the day of the open recruitment, and she's scrambling to apply with a group of peers, it's highly likely that she'll be rejected in the end.

So she simply replied, "No, thank you."

There was no response or friend request from the other end, and the conversation seemed to have ended there.

What?! Isn't this person here to mock her?
As if possessed, Jiang Siqi clicked on the other party's default profile picture.

She quickly noticed something unusual about this user; their nickname and public information were both a string of asterisks, clearly a privilege reserved for internal website accounts. She then opened the private message—not just to read the title, but to see what it contained.

And indeed, there were clues!
Most people treat the title as the body of the message when using in-app messaging, since it's only a sentence or two anyway. But this message actually included a contract!
Jiang Siqi rubbed her eyes and realized she hadn't misread it.

Its first line is the contract title: "Superpower Rental Contract"

The client listed it as the World Center of Competence.

The second party is their own name.

The contract was short, only about a thousand words, and she spent a few minutes reading it through completely.

She couldn't help but laugh after reading it.

Who came up with this new prank?

Simply put, this client, the World Ability Center, will rent her one or two abilities. As everyone knows, having more abilities means more chances of passing the selection process, much like having various professional certifications when applying for a job. So, regardless of what abilities she gets, it will at least be stronger than her current solitary fire magic.

The second party does not need to pay money for this; the rent is for "continuously recording life and work after joining the organization" and sending it to the first party, which feels like a vlog from a special perspective.

If she fails to join the organization or violates the rental terms, her abilities will be revoked.

Apart from that, there are no additional penalties.

The contract even had a blank section at the very end where she could choose whether to rent one or two abilities.

If you rent one, you only need to provide the recording video.

Renting two indicates a willingness to cooperate deeply with Party A. If the work performed satisfies Party A, the lease agreement will be converted into a transaction agreement.

In other words, this ability will belong to her forever.

"If only the world were this simple." Jiang Siqi shook her head self-deprecatingly, checking the box for option two and typing "Sitian" in the signature field. And then? It's just a document; even if she signs it, nothing will change.

If I don't reply, what can you use to mess with me?

The moment the thought crossed my mind, something unexpected happened.

The words on the document disappeared line by line, as if someone had pressed the undo button for her. She quickly raised her hands away from the keyboard, but the text continued to vanish rapidly.

Then, the integration of all parties disappeared!
Then, the in-site text messages also disappeared.

What's going on? Jiang Siqi stared at the screen in surprise, wondering if she was dreaming, when the monitor suddenly went black.

The next second, a video image took up the entire desktop.

The environment there was dark and blurry, with a cold blue filter that gave it an inexplicably eerie feel. Apart from a strange lens pointing at the center of the screen, there was nothing else in the picture.

In an instant, Jiang Siqi felt the hairs on her body stand on end!

She sprang up from her chair and reached for the monitor to turn it off, but before her hand could touch the button, the video cut off, leaving only a line of text in the center: "Contract in effect."

Then the familiar desktop wallpaper returned to her view.

What just happened?!
The contract's in effect? ​​Are you kidding me? Aren't skills something you acquire through chance? You can't just give them away like that—

Jiang Siqi suddenly froze!

Because she realized that she did indeed possess two different abilities... and they were even different from the original fire magic, and she could clearly understand how to use them!

Even more incredibly, they have their own names: "The Great Method of Invoking the Gods" and "The Heart-Burning Curse".

(End of this chapter)