Welcome to Ability Store

Chapter 137 - 136: Pioneering Team

"The Immortal Alliance has a request from you, and the French King and the Witch Gathering Hall also have a request. Next time you make an appearance over there, you might be welcomed with a fan club lining the path," Lin Qing joked.

"Sigh, this is why I want to slip away early, after all, I’m a bit of a social anxiety person; I can’t handle too much praise," Chen Xuan sighed.

Lin Qing had already mastered the communication style of this era. She slightly curled her lips and uttered two words, "Hehe."

However, Chen Xuan paused inwardly.

Indeed... France is now a dominant force in Europe, and not to mention the Immortal Alliance, whose influence almost extends to the Middle East. If he becomes well-known in these two camps, wouldn’t he be famous worldwide?

Thinking of this, he suddenly became excited.

The requirements for the store manager’s promotion do not specify that it must be in this world!

If he can meet the requirements, the milestone reward of an additional ability placement slot for a level 5 store manager is attractive.

Chen Xuan hurriedly returned to the bar and opened the store manager rating panel to begin filling out an application email.

Now he finally understood the benefit of handwriting emails, which is having a lot of space to boast about his achievements; anything related to fame could be written in, and he could even attach a few photos of himself chatting with world leaders.

Ding-a-ling...

At this moment, the bell at the door rang.

"Welcome."

As Chen Xuan looked up, Lin Qing had already spoken the welcoming words for him.

The scenery outside the house hadn’t changed—it was still December in the Celestial Ridge District.

"Hello." The guest nodded to Lin Qing, but didn’t walk toward the shelves. Instead, she came straight to the bar. Chen Xuan recognized her as an acquaintance; if he remembered correctly, her name seemed to be Qiao Xi, the daughter of the elderly man who frequently visited the store.

"Are you buying cigarettes for your dad?" he asked.

"No, I came specifically to find you," Qiao Xi shook her head. "Last time when the zoo had an incident, I heard from my dad that thanks to your warning, they left quickly when they sensed something was wrong, so nothing major happened. That’s why I’m here to express my gratitude and thank you for helping my family."

The zoo incident... wasn’t that three or four months ago?

Chen Xuan smiled and waved his hand, "It’s nothing. We’re all people from the same district, so it’s normal to give a reminder."

"But my dad says that reciprocation shows generosity." Qiao Xi placed two colorful tickets on the bar. "There’s a recording event at the station about a superpower awakening variety show. Would you like to attend?"

He glanced at the ticket and saw the words "Ability Showdown" written on it, with the entry time being tomorrow evening.

"Wow, isn’t this the show that’s been really popular lately?" Lin Qing leaned over to Chen Xuan, looking over his shoulder. "It’s been trending several times!"

"You actually watch TV shows?" Chen Xuan asked in surprise. The last time he watched a variety show was ’Who is the Singer.’

"Why not? It’s also part of online entertainment."

"Ability Showdown is indeed very popular," Qiao Xi said with a light laugh. "I’m not just promoting our station; it’s the first comprehensive show in the country that focuses on superpowers. Every episode attracts many ability users to participate, both genuine and fake ones. The lack of pre-arranged scripts and high interaction with the audience is its biggest highlight."

"Are you not going yourself?" Chen Xuan asked.

"Hmm... I have an interview scheduled for tomorrow, so I’ll likely miss it in the evening."

"What about your parents? Aren’t these two tickets perfect for them?"

"I asked; my dad disagrees, saying expressing gratitude should come first," Qiao Xi shrugged. "Actually, neither of them is very fond of watching TV. My dad occasionally watches soccer matches, and my mom uses her tablet to watch TV dramas. If there’s no program with me on screen, they basically wouldn’t pay attention."

"I see..."

"If you really can’t attend, you can give the tickets to a friend," Qiao Xi waved goodbye. "Anyway, thank you for your help last time, I’m off now."

After she left, Lin Qing showed the information she found on her phone to Chen Xuan, "The tickets for the show’s live recording have been sold by scalpers at two thousand five hundred each. Her giving you two tickets at once is quite generous."

"What, do you really want to go?" Chen Xuan noticed that Lin Qing seemed quite interested.

"Why not? It’s fun to watch, and there won’t be shows like this in the future," she nodded without hesitation, "Besides, many of the ability users appearing on this show don’t belong to the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, so there’s a possibility of finding like-minded partners!"

Chen Xuan felt skeptical about this.

He saw that she merely wanted to find a legitimate reason to go out for fun.

But then Chen Xuan thought, ever since Lin Qing came here, she spent most of her time in the store and hadn’t really explored Jiang City. Now she wanted to go out and explore, which was perfectly natural.

Moreover, she was both a store employee and a customer. When the store manager runs errands outside on customer-related matters, it’s considered as being continuously open for business and won’t be forcibly pulled back to the store.

In other words, even accompanying a customer for shopping counts as business hours.

"Alright, then we’ll go and take a look in person," Chen Xuan agreed.

"Great!" Lin Qing cheered with her fist.

...

...

Wanshan Wilderness, Hot Pepper Village.

The development team was digging deeper into the forest. Just two months ago, they pushed the border line five kilometers into the mountain and discovered gemstone-like minerals at the foot of a rocky mountain. Once polished, these shiny stones were sold at a high price to a merchant caravan from Zhangwei City, and in exchange, they received many urgently needed supplies for the village, such as fabric, cotton, and ironware.

Food wasn’t lacking here, and the caves by the mountains could be used as housing; however, clothing, bedding, and other daily necessities were severely scarce. They either had to rely on the esteemed store manager to transport them from Jiufeng City or gain them through trade.

Everyone knew not to overly rely on the abilities of the Immortal Master and the store manager. If they could solve problems themselves with their own hands, that would be ideal.

Therefore, the discovery of the development team greatly stimulated the village’s enthusiasm for expansion. Currently, the most prestigious position was to join the Hunting Team; the second choice fell to the development team.

Liu Shuyue was happy to see this situation.

She wasn’t particularly hoping for more gold, silver, and jewels but developing the Wanshan Wilderness was originally about the village’s safety. Clearing one mountain pillar after another, identifying more territories with demon activity, and eliminating or driving them into the deeper mountains would make the village increasingly safe.

After investigating a mountain pillar, villagers would assign it a number and plant a blue flag on its peak to prove it had no safety hazards.

The current number had reached the 99th mountain pillar, located twelve kilometers from the wilderness border.

The team leader was named Huang Ting, leading a group of roughly ten people.

"Is the Demon Exorcism Array set up?" He raised his head, examining the mountain.

This mountain wasn’t too large or too small, completely different from the mountain ranges seen outside, almost all standalone entities. Running a lap around the base would take at least half a two-hour period. The mountain’s middle contained many gaps or caves, and the development team’s task was to explore each one to prevent beasts and demon fiends from hiding there.

"Talisman papers have been placed at the four corners: southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest. No sense of Great Demons’ aura for now," said the talisman master Xiaomai within the team.

She had no surname; when she came to the village, she was already an orphan, so Huang Ting generally treated her like his own daughter.

"If that’s the case, let’s start checking from the lowest cave. Stone Monkey, go pull the rope," Huang Ting instructed.

"Alright!" A tall, thin man replied, shouldering a bundle of nylon rope and rushing up the mountain wall. He stuck close to the mountain, his fingers hooking into those protruding rocks, swiftly climbing over ten meters.

This was one of the benefits cultivation brought them.

Once he climbed to the cave mouth, he would drive in rock spikes as anchor points and then throw down a tightly secured rope, allowing the others to reach the exploration area via the rope.

As for flying like Immortal Liu... that’s impossible — Wind Riding Talismans are precious resources. Even the elite hunters team wouldn’t use them lightly, let alone the development team.