Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 343: Tracking in the Deserted City
The journey to the future went smoothly. After going up to the second floor, entering Lin Qing's room, and then passing through the back door, the group was already standing in the dilapidated apartment building.

The sky outside the window was still a hazy yellow, and the strong wind, carrying sand and dust, howled incessantly between the buildings, as if it would never stop.

Chen Xuan first scanned his surroundings with his mental cultivation technique before cautiously pushing open the door. The corridor was empty, and the crack that had been smashed by the giant four-legged monster was still clearly visible. The advantage was that the lighting had increased, and the corridor was no longer dark. The disadvantage was that the entire building had been cut in half, and the building structure had been severely damaged. It wouldn't be surprising if it suddenly collapsed one day.

This is absolutely a terrible situation.

Lin Qing's house is the only way for the store to connect to the future; if the building collapses, the entrance will also cease to exist.

"Have we... really arrived in the future?" Wang Baihu gazed at the city of yellow sand through the steel-reinforced cross-section, still feeling a sense of unreality.

This was also the thought shared by the other three.

Time travel is simply stepping through a door and arriving a hundred years in the future; this ridiculously simple concept makes it difficult to immediately immerse oneself in it.

At least give us some negative effects like dizziness or magical light effects that make us feel awe and wonder.
Chen Xuan could only feign agreement, saying, "I was even more shocked than you when I first came here, but that's the power of worldly desires, which cannot be measured by common sense."

"Wow, that's amazing..." Jiang Siqi exclaimed while taking pictures around with her phone. "No wonder the authorities see you as enemies. Colleagues really do understand each other best."

"Sister Siqi, please don't post this online," Xiaojiu reminded her.

"Ah...no, I just habitually want to keep a memento."

"Is this Jiangcheng?" Honglian asked.

"I don't know," Chen Xuan answered truthfully. "My knowledge of this place is limited to this floor."

“If the future really turns out like this, then wouldn’t the Dimensional Authority have accomplished nothing?” Wang Baihu muttered to himself. “I even doubt whether they still exist.”

"This is also something we need to investigate. If the organization exists, then we need to gather intelligence on it; if the organization has disappeared, then we need to find out why it disappeared."

"Shall we start our search from this building?"

"No, let's go downstairs first." Chen Xuan had thought it through very clearly. If they attracted another giant monster, everything would be over. So even if there was a risk in staying away from the exit, they had to take that risk.

After Honglian set up a marker that allowed them to exchange abilities, everyone split up to find a way downstairs.

Soon, Liuli found an elevator shaft in the dilapidated building.

The elevator was unusable, but the steel cables suspending it could still serve as a zipline. Since everyone here was no ordinary person, gliding down more than ten floors was a piece of cake. Even if Guagua couldn't glide, it wasn't a big problem. Chen Xuan summoned three qi swords to form a small platform, which the zipline could use to support Guagua as she slowly descended.

"Ah!" Honglian recognized the move. "You used it to attack me in the medieval dungeon!"

"Hey..." Chen Xuan coughed twice, "It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. Shi Xin hadn't discovered you yet back then."

"So it was you who fought Sister Honglian back then!" Wang Baihu revealed a look of sudden realization. "There aren't many people who can make her suffer... No wonder such a powerful Wanderer suddenly appeared in Jiangcheng."

"Oh, really?" Kobato also became interested.

"Really, that was one of the few missions that allowed us to enter the intrusion point, which proves that the Doctor took it very seriously, but Sister Honglian messed it up."

"You'd better shut up!" Honglian said in a muffled voice.

"Dr. Jiang values ​​it highly?" Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"It's because a world that's closer to history has appeared... It seems the higher-ups intend to use this intrusion point to verify the issue of historical disturbances," Wang Baihu recalled. "However, in retrospect, the changes there don't seem to have had any impact on us."

"I see." Chen Xuan immediately understood. At that time, the agents didn't know that historical fluctuations wouldn't cross the world's boundaries. Honglian was willing to play the witch to frame Joan of Arc because she was afraid that he would distort history beyond recognition. "Now you've figured it out?"

"I don't know how far the research has progressed, but since then, we have indeed relaxed the control over the intrusion points quite a bit. For example, the encroachment space in the botanical garden has been developed in cooperation with the government."

"Did you help Joan of Arc... also at Shi Xin's behest?" Honglian asked hesitantly.

"I guess so," Chen Xuan nodded.

This is the advantage of "worldly wisdom"—all inexplicable problems can be attributed to worldly wisdom. "If you ever have the chance to see Joan of Arc again, please say sorry for me..." she muttered softly, "I almost... ruined her life."

Chen Xuan was slightly taken aback, then smiled, "Don't worry, she won't blame you."

"really?"

"Hmm, her..." The image of the blonde girl appeared in his mind, "She's not a stingy person."

After everyone landed on the first floor, they quickly found the apartment entrance lobby by following the corridor.

Behind the dilapidated door panel were also piles of various obstacles.

Chen Xuan swept away these obstacles with a single sword stroke, severed the iron chains binding the door, and pushed the door open to leave.

The sandstorm outside suddenly swept over us.

“That’s strange…” Wang Baihu put on his mask and said, “Such a severe sandstorm should have covered the ground with fine sand. But look… outside, there’s only a thick layer of dust, not much sand.”

"Is the air poisonous?" Little Dove asked, somewhat worried.

“It’s unlikely,” Liuli replied. “The building isn’t sealed. If there were toxins in the air, we would have been infected when we came here last time.”

"How do you plan to find someone?" Honglian asked Chen Xuan.

"First, choose a direction, and then everyone will search along the streets together, mainly looking for buildings where people can hide, such as shopping malls, underground parking garages, and subways, while also determining the specific coordinates of the city." The latter explained his plan, "In addition, we also need to search for water and food supply points and draw them on the map, otherwise the food we brought will run out very quickly."

She thought for a moment and then nodded. "No problem."

If anyone survives in this city, they will most likely hide together, and the vast underground spaces are ideal for concealment. Furthermore, modern cities take a long time to go from paralyzed to abandoned, and large supermarkets and supply warehouses can store ample survival supplies, serving as resupply points for exploration. Of course, such places are also likely to harbor nanite organisms, making it a place where risk and opportunity coexist.

"Then let's search to the north first," Chen Xuan said.

This is purely a matter of luck.

Perhaps we should summon a witch from the assembly hall to perform divination, he thought to himself. Divination, judging from its description, is mostly based on luck, but who can say for sure about ability?

The houses lining both sides of the road were mostly shops, and their condition wasn't much better than the apartment buildings. Doors, windows, and cabinets were mostly damaged, the shelves inside were empty, and chairs and tables were overturned; almost nothing was intact. This meant that the city hadn't become so desolate overnight; it had undoubtedly experienced a long period of chaos before its decline.

“It’s terrible…” Kojiu said with a worried look. “The locals must be terrified by this disaster.”

"The nanobug plague was caused by the organization, right?" Honglian asked with a solemn expression.

Before setting off, Chen Xuan had already warned them to be highly vigilant about large mechanical objects, as the latter could be disguised nanobots. Since Hong Lian brought it up, he might as well elaborate, "Yes, nanobots can continuously repair the damage to the nerves caused by prosthetics, and prosthetics are the key products that the organization uses to seal abilities. The organization's large-scale and unrestrained use eventually led to its loss of control, the typical manifestation of which is nanobots—a type of machine that exhibits life characteristics. It could look like a washing machine or a huge metal monster."

"Have they mastered this technology yet?" Jiang Siqi asked curiously.

"I don't know." Chen Xuan shook his head. "Considering the timeline, nanobots should still be in the laboratory stage. Fortunately, there are nearly twenty years between their entry into the market and their large-scale proliferation, so we have plenty of time to stop them."

"You just said that nanobots must reach a certain scale before they can be transformed into living nanobots. How large exactly is that scale?" Wang Baihu suddenly asked.

"There's no clear standard, but according to Lin Qing... it should at least be the size of a person, right?"

"Are you sure?" His tone was slightly hurried.

"What's wrong?" Chen Xuan frowned, turned around, and saw the other person staring at a dilapidated shop window and slowly backing away, as if he had seen a ghost.

He followed Wang Baihu's gaze and saw several dusty mannequins standing in the shop window.

“Just now… a model winked at me,” Wang Baihu said, his lips twitching. “A model… shouldn’t be considered a machine, right?”

(End of this chapter)