Welcome to Ability Store

Chapter 153 - 152: "Double

Lin Qing suddenly turned and ran upstairs!

This action left Chen Xuan somewhat puzzled.

Half a minute later, she returned to the first floor, slightly disappointed, "The door still won’t open."

It turned out she had gone to try and open the back door of the room.

"What... Is this the moment of historical change?"

At the mention of this, Lin Qing’s disappointment quickly vanished, "Yeah! The original Dimensional Limit Mechanism never openly recruited, it only supplemented manpower after the split, but that was not staff recruitment, rather hiring Ability Users to act as their muscle, basically outsourced company mercenaries. Even so, the time points between the two differ by at least fifty years!"

When the Dimensional Limit Mechanism was forced to go public before, they mentioned participating in societal operations, taking on some obligations and responsibilities. It seems now they’re planning to implement it.

Never thought Jiang City would be the first to tackle this.

Will history change because of this?

Chen Xuan switched to another channel, discovering the same content—who knows how much coverage the other party bought, almost every TV station was reporting the event, and the coverage varied too.

"They’ve already been bought by the mechanism," Lin Qing sneered, "Publicity channels are what the mechanism values most, otherwise they could never have remained hidden until now."

"So, the online popularity of discussing TV station cases has never waned, with the mechanism pushing it behind the scenes?"

"Certainly, they hope more people pay attention to ability-related crimes," Lin Qing circled between the shelves, "This way they are justified... History will definitely change, and my database’s records of major events likely won’t match anymore... This isn’t good..."

"What are you murmuring on about there?" Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow.

"I’m going to apply for the job too!" Lin Qing suddenly halted.

"Huh?" He doubted he heard correctly for a moment, making a comeback through the ranks after traversing a century? "You want to go back to the mechanism?"

"This might be an opportunity..." She approached the bar, staring intently at Chen Xuan, "If the Dimensional Limit Mechanism makes a major decision or strategically shifts, we might miss the chance to defeat it. Forcing its appearance was definitely a great move, but if we can’t get internal information, it’s essentially still opaque. In military confrontations, information and intelligence are always the top priority."

"No." Chen Xuan vetoed directly, "Intelligence can be obtained through other means. If you go to apply, you’d have to undergo their tests. Who knows what methods they use to detect abilities. What if they scanned your synthetic body? Or do you think the mechanism’s inspection methods are no higher than an X-ray machine?"

Lin Qing actually considered these issues, "... Routine scanning shouldn’t be a problem, but no weighing, and blood sampling must be prepared in advance. As for abilities... From their perspective, I should be an impostor. Shopkeeper, why don’t you lend me an ability..."

"Don’t even think about it!" Chen Xuan wasn’t stingy about abilities, the stockroom was full. But sending Lin Qing on such a mission seemed like sending a lamb to the slaughter. What if there’s an Ability User who can see through things? Or one that’s forced to make others speak the truth? This kind of situation is completely unpredictable. "You’re still not rearmed, if discovered, you’d be a sitting duck, even if you managed to escape, your entire future synthetic body situation would make them more alert, it’s just not worth it."

"Uh..." Lin Qing anxiously scratched her head, knowing he was right, "But we really need firsthand information from inside the mechanism. Especially now, a new invasion point is about to appear."

"What, is there another Wanderer to deal with?"

"The Wanderer is insignificant; what’s important is the invasion point itself," Lin Qing said, "As far as I know, the world connected to this invasion point is critically important to the Dimensional Limit Mechanism; it is a more advanced future world, and it has a significant impact on the mechanism’s rapid advancement in warfare synthetic technology."

"Is it that impressive?" Chen Xuan picked up his phone and checked the invasion records, "Why isn’t it written above?"

"Because it is a top-secret matter of the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, there is no public record. Even after the mechanism split, it’s still a mystery... Our upper echelons know of its existence, but are unaware of its specific location and opening time."

"So, it’s heavily guarded by the mechanism."

"Exactly, but we are the ones with foresight, while the mechanism is not. So from them discovering the invasion fluctuations to realizing this invasion point is crucial, there is certainly an intervening time!"

Chen Xuan understood what Lin Qing meant... Erasing records, a strict lockdown, those things happen later; initially, it might just be a regular invasion event, handled by only an execution team.

That provides them an opportunity.

"Do you want to enter that world first?"

"Yes." Lin Qing replied candidly, "Over there, I can find the repair tools, neural surgery equipment, and even High-Level synthetic bodies that I need most. Memory storage and auxiliary thinking chips Miss Liu needs should also be obtainable there. Combined with your branch features, we can quietly establish a foothold in the new world."

No wonder she was so eager to join the Dimensional Limit Mechanism.

"Why didn’t you tell me about something so important before?" Chen Xuan was puzzled.

"Because I initially had no hope for this matter." Lin Qing said brightly, "Standing from a future perspective, that invasion point has always been under the mechanism’s control, outsiders not only can’t enter, it’s difficult to even scout for intelligence. But now history is different! The closed Dimensional Limit Mechanism has opened up some access to the outside, this is their first mistake, if I can mingle into an execution team, the timing would be just right!"

"I understand... This matter is indeed quite important." Chen Xuan nodded, agreeing with her analysis.

"You agree I can go?" Lin Qing opened her arms, seemingly about to embrace.

"Stop! That’s a different issue!" He immediately interrupted, "You absolutely cannot go, the reasons are those aforementioned points, your exposure wouldn’t just alarm them, it could also implicate the Ability Store. And we don’t have means to prevent exposure, we’re simply handing the initiative to the enemy."

"Aw..." Lin Qing murmured in frustration.

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but laugh at her pouting look, "But infiltrating the enemy definitely is a good strategy; we could support a few people to apply."

"Finding others isn’t more reliable than me?"

"These people are certainly less reliable than you. But we don’t need to get deeply involved with them, right?" Chen Xuan briefly outlined his idea.

What is the greatest advantage of the Ability Store? It’s the ability to offer competitive advantages.

With outstanding abilities, someone who might otherwise be screened out can have a complete transformation and get a chance to shine on stage.

Will such a person betray him?

Of course, there’s always this possibility, but with the secretive trading capabilities, even if the other side betrays, it won’t pose any threat to the store, at most it’s a waste of one ability.

Moreover, Chen Xuan doesn’t need the other party to sell themselves entirely, he just needs some internal information from the mechanism. If planted properly, these insiders could be used for quite a long time, while allowing him and Lin Qing to keep out of it.

"That... It might actually work." After listening, she pondered for a moment before speaking, "But selecting people becomes crucial. Do you have a good target?"

"Actually, I do."

Chen Xuan picked up his phone and sent a video to her.

Lin Qing’s eyes flickered with blue light—she saw a young woman live-streaming in front of the screen, with lots of comments scrolling past below, seeming quite lively. But look closely, and you’d see all those comments were actually insults and ridicule.

"Do you even qualify as an Ability User?"

"No better than a stray on the roadside."

"Get lost, your abilities are only fit for circus tricks, stop boasting about how great you are!"

"I just want to ask, did you wet your pants at the time?"

Lin Qing was slightly taken aback, suddenly remembering, wasn’t this girl called Si Tian one of the participants in the ability showdown program back then?