Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 142 If You Dare, Come On!

The moment the show entered its intermission, many audience members jumped out of their seats and rushed to the stage, as if they were afraid of missing out on a registration spot if they were even a little late.

Their enthusiasm inspired even more people to try. Chen Xuan casually counted, and there were at least thirty or forty audience members gathered around the stage.

Are there really so many capable people?

No... I'm afraid many people are just there to get on camera. After all, this isn't a serious assessment, so there's no real loss if you fail. Some viewers might even be planted by the TV station to create a buzz.

Moreover, even if you have absolutely no ability, you are not necessarily eliminated immediately.

This is evident from the challenge scenarios set up by the production team. There are five scenarios in total: a balance beam obstacle course, testing physical coordination; puppet destruction, testing aggressiveness; indoor hide-and-seek, testing tracking and hiding abilities; a mechanical dodgeball, testing dynamic reaction; and a live arena, where participants spar with bodyguards hired by Jiang Wenbin. The difficulty is arranged from low to high, with a maximum score of 100 points.

It must be said that these challenges do fit the atmosphere of a variety show; even an ordinary person could compete against those with special abilities. The problem is, using them to select protectors suitable for combat with special abilities is clearly a bit frivolous.

However, Chen Xuan could understand... After all, apart from the Weixian Agency, no one else had the means to detect the ability, so they could only demonstrate it through performance.

"Why don't you sign up?" Lin Qing joked. "If you participate, you should be able to easily get an annual salary of 20 million."

"Forget it, I don't want to embarrass myself." Chen Xuan pouted. "Besides, the battles between ability users are not what they imagine at all. Even if the Limit Authority were to handle it personally, they probably wouldn't be able to make a name for themselves."

Because he had seen them, and had actually fought against people with special abilities.

If someone doesn't pull out a gun right off the bat, they'd be embarrassed to call themselves a superhuman.

In other words, if you can't shoot farther or faster than a gun, then you might as well just use a gun.

The ten-minute break was over quickly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the final list of contestants has been released!" As the host exclaimed joyfully, a new table suddenly appeared on the large screen behind her. In addition to the original ten contestants, there were forty-five more audience members, whose names were densely arranged in five rows below.

These applicants also stood on one side of the stage, waiting for the challenge to begin.

How long does the recording of the show take?

Chen Xuan overheard people around him talking.

"I remember it was only four hours, how could so many people finish the competition?"

"This is truly beyond my expectations! I didn't expect forty-five enthusiastic audience members to sign up. Tonight is going to be quite lively!" Huanxin said with a smile. "However, this means we'll have to change our original selection process."

By this time, the props from the first two stages had been moved from backstage to the stage: an inflatable pool filled with rolling balls and seven or eight mannequins commonly found in clothing stores.

She walked up to the model, gave her a gentle push, and pushed the model off the stage.

Then came the second, the third... Soon, all the dolls fell to the ground, and two of them even lost their heads.

Seeing this, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, completely baffled as to what the production team was trying to do.

"Wait... Huanxin, what are you doing?"

A man wearing headphones ran out from backstage, staring angrily at the female host, seemingly demanding an explanation.

"Director Shen, didn't I make it very clear? There are too many applicants. The previous plan won't work. We need to optimize the selection method."

The man laughed in exasperation, "Are you kidding me? Who's the director here, you or me? Who taught you to act like this?!"

"What happened? Did the production team have a conflict?"

Everyone immediately became interested.

"Aren't they supposed to be quite professional? How could they make such a basic mistake..."

"Quick, take a picture! This part will definitely be cut." Many audience members pulled out their phones and pointed them at the two people on stage. Soon, someone else made a new discovery: "Wow, there's a signal now!"

"I can connect to the internet now, have they lifted the block?"

"This is going to be interesting!"

It's obvious that in this situation, some busybodies would definitely broadcast it live.

"Anyway, I'm the host of the show, just do as I say." Huanxin seemed to ignore the director's reprimand. "The cameras are still rolling!"

"Stop, stop, stop! Stop it all, you fucking!" Director Shen roared. "And you, give me the microphone and go get some rest!"

He walked angrily up to the female host and reached out to grab her microphone.

Something was wrong. A bad feeling rose in Chen Xuan's heart. Jiangcheng City Channel was not some small TV station. It was a nationally renowned satellite TV station. How could it not even have a record of having too many people? Moreover, the people who could host such a hit program were definitely professionals in the station. How could they not know that the director's decision-making power was above their own?
He picked up the barcode scanner and aimed it at the female host, Huanxin.

Four abilities popped up on the screen all at once!

One of them was "forcible seizure".

"This is really serious..." he murmured.

No sooner had she finished speaking than Huanxin roared at Director Shen, "Who gave you permission to stop? This is my program, you can't interfere!" With that, she reached out and pushed him, just like she would push those puppets—and the man, who was over 1.7 meters tall, was sent flying backward in the blink of an eye, crashing heavily into the screen and creating a large hole in it.

For a moment, sparks crackled and popped.

The scene suddenly fell silent.

"Hey...wait, what's going on?"

"Someone got blasted away?"

The audience was completely stunned!
Is this still the recording site for the "Ability Showdown"?

"Okay, the troublemakers have taken a break. Let's continue our challenge." The host put on a beaming smile again. "Turn on the cameras, don't let anyone outside miss this exciting show."

"The new challenge rules are simple, there are only two, and you can choose one of them - choose a contestant on the stage to fight, or choose me as your opponent. There are no restrictions on the means, the one who survives is the winner."

The crowd erupted in uproar!
"What the hell!"

"Are you crazy? What kind of bullshit rules are these?"

"That's enough, I'm not recording this show anymore!"

Several people on stage immediately wanted to leave.

"Then you'll all die." Huanxin smirked. "Look what's above your heads?"

Everyone looked up—there was nothing unusual about the ceiling except for the fan ducts and the robotic arm that suspended the camera, as well as many decorative balloons hanging from it, which they had noticed when they came in.

"Actually, those aren't ordinary balloons," the host explained cheerfully. "They're filled with enough poison gas to kill someone in thirty seconds, and ordinary masks won't protect you from it. If anyone on stage dares to leave my sight, I'll make these hundreds of balloons burst, and none of you here will make it to the ambulance."

Those audience members who were about to leave were frozen in place.

"You say so, so it is?" one of them retorted, his tone fierce but his voice weak.

"Then why don't you try it? I can prepare a special gas just for you." Huanxin chuckled as she grabbed her cheek and ripped off a thin layer of skin, revealing another woman's face. "Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Lu Lixin. My ability is to alter the composition of gases. I can turn air into deadly poison or flammable and explosive substances. Didn't President Jiang mention before that the explosion at the pedestrian street mall two weeks ago was the work of someone with this ability?"

At this point, she specifically looked at Jiang Wenbin, who was still in shock, and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Jiang, I did it."

(End of this chapter)