Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 42 Methods to Verify the Truth

While customers are certainly valuable assets, that refers to those who can continuously provide the means to trade, such as Liu Shuyue.

Some guests may have limited abilities at the moment, but they have considerable room for improvement and will gain new abilities in their future growth. It is also necessary to maintain a good relationship with them, such as Joan of Arc.

The new guest in front of them, however, was neither.

She comes from a fairly advanced future, yet she only has three abilities in total, and one of them was temporarily traded away, which is truly disappointing. Chen Xuan has already confirmed with the barcode scanner that she now only has the abilities "Mental Fortress" and "Free Will".

Liu Shuyue judged that the damage to her body was too severe, rendering any possibility of cultivation impossible. Lin Qing herself also admitted that cybernetic technology could replace abilities, indicating that there must be some conflict between the two. When she was attacked by the armed mech, she used her body to withstand a 30mm bullet, which, in terms of ability, would amount to indestructibility. However, the barcode scanner did not detect any relevant information, indicating that the store does not consider the advantages brought by cybernetic technology as abilities.

Chen Xuan certainly didn't consider himself the kind of cold-blooded businessman who only cared about profit. Even if the business deal fell through, the friendship remained. If Lin Qing had nowhere to go, it wouldn't be a problem for her to stay at the shop for a month or two for free. But the other party insisted on taking on the heavy responsibility of saving the world and wanted to drag him into opposing a mysterious organization he had never even heard of, which made things more difficult.

If... he meant if that crazy Judy really did belong to the Dimensional Organization, and this organization could keep all information about ability users completely under wraps, then its hidden underwater power should not be underestimated.

Faced with such power, Chen Xuan would rather avoid it than provoke it.

Even if the end of the world really happens, it will be a century from now, and it might not even exist anymore.

After being rejected, Lin Qing didn't make a scene, nor did her expression turn cold or show great disappointment. A glint of light flickered in her eyes, as if she were thinking rapidly. She also clenched her hand back, holding onto Chen Xuan's wrist tightly, as if afraid he would run away.

A few seconds later, her eyes lit up. "Found it."

"What are you looking for?" Chen Xuan asked.

"Since you're running an ability shop, you must need a lot of abilities, just like a supermarket needs to restock regularly, right?"

"Hmm." He had no reason to deny that.

"I can help you solve part of the procurement problem," Lin Qing said confidently.

Chen Xuan looked at her suspiciously, but the voice of trust remained positive. "Oh? How do you solve it?"

She pointed to her head. "My memory contains a lot of declassified information from the Dimensional Restriction Agency, including recorded intrusion incidents and related ability users. You can get supplies from them."

"...Who should I ask to come in?" He thought he had misheard for a moment.

“Find those who are connected to the intrusion incident.” Lin Qing repeated. “Threate them or coerce them, use any means necessary to extract their abilities. Most of these people are undocumented and have serious criminal records. Even if you kill them all, no one will care. I don’t know how you usually acquire your abilities, but I believe you definitely have a way to ‘persuade’ them.”

This girl is quite ruthless.

Chen Xuan suddenly became curious, "Have you ever killed anyone?"

“Of course,” Lin Qing answered decisively. “In my time, the city was full of madmen, criminals and mentally ill people. Public security was practically non-existent. To survive, you had to use force to protect yourself. I could only try my best to ensure that I did not harm innocent passersby during the fight.”

It seems my guests are no pushovers.

He seemed to be thinking. "So you were looking for intrusion records just now?"

“That’s right. The most recent intrusion happened in two days, right here in this city. There was only one person involved, and the location was quite secluded, perfect for testing the waters.” The girl gestured twice with her hand. “I’ve already sent the information to your phone.”

Then his cell phone rang.

Chen Xuan took out his phone in surprise and found that the sender of the text message was "10089". "You didn't hack the telecom provider, did you?"

"No, I just used overlay transmission technology to simulate this frequency band to send you a message," Lin Qing explained with a hint of pride. "The protection of personal electronic data is still quite weak in this era, so there's no need to go through the trouble of hacking suppliers. By the way, if you want to call me, just dial this number followed by a hashtag."

Was the object that blocked that bullet also a prosthetic body?

"Yes, military-grade subcutaneous armor is quite expensive. Most people can only get a flexible carbon fiber armor, which can only stop pistol bullets at most."

Prosthetic bodies are really convenient... all you have to do is pay for implantation.

Chen Xuan stared at Lin Qing for a long time.

The latter shrank back uncomfortably. "Installing these things requires a special operating room, and there are also immune compatibility issues. Even if you dismantle mine, others can't use it." "If I really wanted them, I would have dismantled them while you were unconscious." Chen Xuan waved his hand, opened the information provided by the other party, and saw a headshot of a charming woman, with her name below: Fei Wu Niang, SC-104-C1, deceased.

Chen Xuan did indeed recall the place where this person appeared.

It was an abandoned building located outside the Third Ring Road, which seemed to have once been a very popular club.

"If you can catch her, it will prove that what I said is true." Seeing that he didn't refuse outright as before, Lin Qing pressed on, "Mr. Manager, everything you've experienced is the past of that destroyed world. Nanobug technology has only been around for about thirty years. Once it gets out of control, it will be too late to change anything, and billions of people will die because of it! To prevent humanity from repeating the same mistake, I beg you to help me one more time. The reward is the abilities of those invaders!"

……

……

Two days later, based on the photos provided by Lin Qing, Chen Xuan took a taxi to the abandoned building.

"Are you here for an adventure too?" the taxi driver asked, turning around. "The fare is 85 yuan."

"It's so expensive. Driving from the first ring road to outside the third ring road is really costly." Chen Xuan said while scanning the QR code, "Yeah, a lot of people come here to play?"

"A couple of years ago, people who chose to get off the highway here were usually coming for this place. I heard it's haunted, and some even spent the night together." The other person smiled and said, "It's quite rare to see someone like you coming alone."

That's normal, since you can find videos of its adventures online.

After the taxi left, Chen Xuan turned his gaze to the abandoned house not far away.

It has four floors and is located next to a field. Its square shape makes it look quite solemn, if you didn't know that it used to be called Lushui Club.

Anyone with eyes could see what a club built in such a remote place was for. When it was at its peak, Chen Xuan was still studying at university. Unfortunately, by the time he graduated, got a job, and had money, the club had already closed down.

Lin Qing did not come along.

It's not that she doesn't want to, but that she can't.

The damage to her body was more severe than she had anticipated. After so many days of recuperation, she could manage a walk in the neighborhood, but fighting like before was out of the question. So, she heeded advice and didn't insist on coming along, instead providing intelligence support through her earpiece.

"They really are exactly the same..."

Chen Xuan compared the photos and found that the damage was almost the same in both cases, and even the tilt angle of the Lushu Club sign at the main entrance, which was about to fall off, was basically the same.

This proves that the photo was taken recently.

Could everything Lin Qing said be true? The world where the Crystal Palace fell... is the future of this world?

Walking across the parking lot to the door, the doorknob was chained shut, and a sign reading "Closed Area, Do Not Enter" hung above it. But this did nothing to stop curious explorers. Chen Xuan noticed that the floor-to-ceiling window next to the door had been smashed, and the opening was wide enough for one person to pass through.

"I'm going in."

"Hmm," Lin Qing said in the earpiece, "The intrusion point is on the second floor. But you have to be careful, the capture record only records Fei Wu Niang's movement locations and time of death, it doesn't mean that she only entered the club at that time."

"Was her death...because of her arrest by the Security Agency?"

"Yes." There was a pause on the other end. "However, I must explain that Fei Wuniang does have dozens of lives on her hands, which are unforgivable crimes. But the main purpose of the organization is to control rather than eliminate. So even if the other party is a ruthless villain, the execution team will prioritize capturing them alive. After all, the Weixian Organization is not a legal organization, and it has no intention of upholding justice... Of course, the idea of ​​maintaining world stability will inevitably attract people who are inclined towards justice or who consider themselves to be righteous."

Chen Xuan stepped over the window frame, treading on the shattered glass on the floor, and entered the lobby. "In the end, she still died."

"That's how battles are. If the other side is extremely determined to resist or uses very dangerous methods, casualties are inevitable. This applies to both sides as well."

To be honest, Chen Xuan was willing to believe that.

When he encountered the mad Judy in the castle dungeon, the first bullet she fired at him was an injection needle, not a metal bullet.

Chen Xuan wasn't too worried that Fei Wuniang was hiding on the second floor and ambushing him. Before even entering the club, he used the Heavenly Cloud Technique to scan the building and confirm that the abandoned building was empty.

(End of this chapter)