Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 41 Main Quest: Save the world again!

It took ten minutes for the girl to calm down.

"Feeling better?" Chen Xuan rubbed his shoulders... Don't be fooled by the fact that although this person's arms are thin, they are incredibly strong. If it weren't for the Heavenly Cloud Skill that he had, he was afraid that she would have broken his ribs.

"Sorry, I was so happy that I didn't control my strength," Lin Qing said apologetically.

Chen Xuan believed this.

Before the conversation even began, he removed the Thousand Thoughts Sword and replaced it with the Voice of Trust to gauge the new guest's attitude. From the beginning until now, the feedback from his ability had been mostly positive, indicating that her actions were not deliberately feigned.

"I want to ask what exactly happened back then? On the space city."

Chen Xuan had been curious about this for a long time. Looking back, there were many strange things, such as the first thing the other person said to him was "survivor." N43 was indeed empty; he couldn't see a single person besides him. But it hadn't suffered any major damage. At least before the armed mechs broke through the partition and stormed into the hall, it was perfectly fine, and the cleaning was quite thorough, with the floor so shiny you could see your face reflected in it.

"Our enemies are trying to destroy us, and Crystal Palace is their weapon." Lin Qing stared at his neck for a moment. "It seems you haven't installed the Individual Interconnection Protocol, so I'll have to resort to words. Mr. Shopkeeper, did you see that six-legged mech chasing me?"

Chen Xuan nodded; the scene of the mecha breaking through the wall was quite impressive.

"It is the enemy, or rather, one of the enemies."

He noticed the other party's choice of words—"one of the enemy"—rather than "mechs in enemy formations." "Could it be that the AI ​​has rebelled?"

“It’s not AI; it’s alive, with a certain degree of self-awareness, more like a life form composed of microscopic machines. We call it a nanobiomacrobioma,” she explained.

"You mean it's actually made up of many nanometer units?"

Lin Qing shook her head. "This explanation isn't entirely accurate, but it will help you understand. It originates from nanobot technology, and nanobots are indeed very small. These tiny individuals have brought about many technological changes. However, when they gather together, they develop a certain degree of self-awareness, much like how multiple nerve bundles can form a brain. This awareness cannot be arbitrarily divided, so each large nanobot has a unique consciousness... Do you understand now?"

"Almost there, you can continue."

“Back then, nanobot technology was being used everywhere because it could be made large or small and was very flexible. So by the time we noticed that some of the larger living organisms were showing signs of intelligence and emotion, it was too late. Riots broke out in some cities. For example, a washing machine that was still in use yesterday would swallow its owner whole and turn him into mincemeat today; traffic lights turned into monsters and led a bunch of self-driving cars off a cliff.” Lin Qing couldn’t help but press her forehead as she said this. “And these so-called ‘signs of rebellion’ were all a smokescreen. Their target was very clear from the beginning: the Crystal Palace.”

"Why?" Chen Xuan knew the main event was about to begin.

"Because the Crystal Palace's energy comes from a cold fusion core, or an annihilation reaction core. If it were to fall intact into Earth, it would be a super meteorite, ten times more destructive than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs! According to experts, the entire biosphere on the Earth's crust would be rebooted, and the Earth's surface would return to a molten state."

An annihilation reaction core? Capable of directly destroying Earth's ecosystem?

Chen Xuan didn't believe that his hometown could develop this level of technology a century later.

Moreover, wouldn't doing this be a suicidal move? But then he thought about it again. The current biosphere is dominated by carbon-based life forms. For unclassifiable life forms like nanobots, overturning the carbon-based table wouldn't be digging their own grave. On the contrary, it could eliminate all potential competitors in one fell swoop.

“I understand now. The fall of the Crystal Palace was intentional, and you were trying to prevent it from happening.”

“It wasn’t just me. There were twenty people on the spaceship at the time, but all our comrades perished on the way…” Lin Qing said sadly. “The Crystal Palace is too big, and it has its own defense system. It’s difficult for ground missile attacks to break through its defenses. Our team was humanity’s only hope. You know the result later… We failed. There was no chance left. If you hadn’t been there, everything would have been over.”

Chen Xuan now understood why she considered him a survivor, and why the shop was located in that place.

She herself may not have realized that when she saw that the mission could not be accomplished and she was in a life-threatening situation, she must have made the most desperate plea from the bottom of her heart.

However, this is completely different from the problem Liu Shuyue is facing. The Crystal Palace has already fallen, and even if the Earth isn't shattered, it will regress to the primordial era. To expect him to turn the tide with his stored abilities is giving him far too much credit.

Of course, he wouldn't refuse the other person's gratitude outwardly, saying, "Anyway, it's good that you survived. This world might be a bit boring, but at least it's safe—"

“No, what happened in the future will definitely happen again if we do nothing!” Lin Qing grabbed his hand again and said, “Our enemies still exist in this era!”

From a psychological perspective, this is a manifestation of fear that he will withdraw and leave.

Could this child have been traumatized to the point of becoming obsessed?
"Where's the evidence?"

“I’ve connected to your network, and all the information I found online matches up with the data in my memory bank!” she asserted. “You said you’re the manager of the Ability Shop, right? Although there’s no detailed record of that, there was a period when abilities were indeed dominant, especially in the fight against otherworldly invasions… You must have heard of the Dimensional Authority, right?”

Invasion from another world? This word made Chen Xuan's heart skip a beat.

He couldn't help but think of the red sky that Liu Shuyue had cleaved in two with her sword, and the gun-wielding witch who insisted on killing Joan of Arc.

"Unfortunately, not really."

"Huh?" The girl paused for a moment, then slapped her forehead and said, "I misunderstood. You definitely weren't captured by the Dimensional Authority, otherwise there would definitely be a record. Sorry, I didn't personally experience that period, so all the information can only be obtained through comparison. Have you ever been attacked or chased by any mysterious people?"

Chen Xuan frowned. Was she referring to people like Crazy Thursday? "Why do you ask?"

"The Limitation Agency, officially known as the Agency for Maintaining World Stability and Limiting the Proliferation of Abilities, has been dedicated since its inception to secretly managing those who acquire abilities to prevent them from abusing them for personal gain." Lin Qing's answer greatly surprised him. "If you're not a member of the agency, you'll be targeted by it sooner or later. According to declassified intelligence, in 2025, the agency was still operating underwater, without any public activity. Wild ability users were often controlled without their knowledge."

She looked around. "Of course... people who are controlled will also leave traces, so I guess you haven't been exposed yet, but that doesn't mean you're absolutely safe."

seriously?
Should he complain about this matter first or about this unorthodox name?
Chen Xuan looked out the window. The neighborhood remained as peaceful as ever. Birds chirped in the trees, and occasionally a few elderly men would sit on the benches along the tree-lined road, basking in the sun. He had lived for over twenty years and had never felt that anything was wrong with the world.

Or was something wrong with him from the moment he started dreaming?
"I'm curious how you know these things?" Chen Xuan said after a moment of silence. "Even if it's no longer a secret in the future, I don't think this organization would reveal the dirty work it has done to the world."

"Because I am a member of the Security Agency!" Lin Qing introduced herself, pressing her hand to her chest.

Chen Xuan's gaze toward her suddenly turned strange.

The girl seemed to realize something and quickly corrected herself, "Don't misunderstand, I won't arrest you. Thirty years later, unstable abilities have all been replaced by various kinds of cybernetic implants. Besides, I don't think this kind of arrest is right... no," she paused, her tone becoming more resolute, "that theory must be wrong, because the facts prove that the Dimensional Organization ultimately failed to prevent the disaster, and the entire world was razed to the ground. Now it's different. Thanks to you, I've returned to a century ago. This time we have enough time to stop the Dimensional Organization and thus change the fate of humanity!"

Chen Xuan frowned. "Us?"

She extended her hand, "With me possessing all the intelligence and you having such powerful abilities, if we work together, we will definitely not fail!"

Chen Xuan pushed her hand back. "Go find a job. You're half responsible for the damage to the shop. Once the costs are settled, you'll be free."

Lin Qing looked incredulous. "This world is going to be destroyed!"

He shrugged, dismissively saying, "So what? Putting aside how similar the two worlds are, I run an ability shop, not a world-saving association. Who can control what happens a hundred years from now?"

(End of this chapter)