Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 44 - 43: Superpower Showdown
A musty smell permeated through the dim air.
The reception desk and sofa in the lobby remained, covered with a thick layer of dust, and the floor was littered with garbage. Every couple of steps, one could spot a few instant noodle packets or plastic water bottles, indicating that someone had once used this place as a temporary refuge.
"Why hasn’t the mechanism detected this invasion point sooner?" Chen Xuan asked in a low voice.
Over the past two days, he had received a lot of inside information from Lin Qing about the Otherworld invasion and ability users. No one knew when this anomaly first began; by the time it had a fairly severe impact on the present world, it was already the early 21st century. It must be said, this timing was somewhat unexpected for him, meaning the age of the Dimensional Limit Mechanism wouldn’t be much older than him.
"There’s a machine in the Dimensional Limit Mechanism that can detect the gravitational disturbances upon invasion. But most of the time, it only records noise," Lin Qing explained. "Only when the invasion scale expands and occurs repeatedly, and the same waveform appears multiple times, does the machine recognize it."
"So aren’t there undiscovered invasion points all over the world?"
"That’s why there’s a saying within the agency: the world is already riddled with holes, and only the agency is doing the patchwork. But don’t worry too much; invasion points have peculiar adherence effects, tending to appear concentrated in one place, like the city you live in."
He had also heard Lin Qing mention this before.
The concept of invasion sounds mysterious, becoming concrete like a door or a room, where passing through leads to another world. Moreover, it has corresponding relationships, like the rescue of Joan being more likely to appear in a European medieval setting. Upon hearing this at first, Chen Xuan immediately thought of the city’s much-criticized World Window, where everyone joked about the owner being a bumpkin, yet surprisingly, the underlying concept was so trendy.
The so-called Otherworlds are essentially Earth... various versions of Earth.
At least he didn’t have to worry about hosting aliens.
Climbing the stairs next to the lobby to the second floor, the lighting suddenly grew much dimmer, and the musty smell intensified. The corridor was scattered with slippers and towels everywhere, clearly items not worth moving, just abandoned in place. Chen Xuan curiously glanced into a room and found a few unopened condoms on the coffee table.
Invasion points have adherence effects.
That adhering to an illicit establishment on the other side is likely not a respectable place either.
"Am I guessing this right?" Chen Xuan thought about it and decided to ask.
"It’s not written in the intel, but judging from Fei Wuniang’s abilities, she should be a pleasure-seeking expert."
"Has the Dimensional Limit Mechanism ever checked over there?"
"Intervening in another world has always been taboo in the agency’s view. Ability users’ back-and-forth travels can also expand the invasion point, so unless it’s for capturing or any special reason, they generally don’t delve deeply inside."
In other words, Mad Judy transforming into a witch to disrupt the court was indeed targeted at him, Chen Xuan thought.
But they didn’t know that he didn’t need to rely on an invasion point to travel back and forth between otherworlds; staying in the shop allowed him to instantly reach the guest’s location. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
And opening the shop seemed not to be detected by the Dimensional Limit Mechanism. Otherwise, considering the frequency of his contact with Liu Shuyue, he should have been caught long ago.
He asked Lin Qing whether ability users brought about the invasion, or the invasion created ability users. The answer from Lin Qing was the latter.
The reason behind the appearance of invasion points remains a mystery to this day, but it can be confirmed that every otherworld invasion brings transformations, with personal abilities being one of their manifestations. Many people, even if they gain abilities, lead quiet lives because they’re unaware of how different they’ve become, and these people are called Hidden by the mechanism.
In contrast, Awakened will actively use their abilities for personal gain. Among the Awakened, there are rare figures, induced to the mutation of the invasion point, who traverse two or more worlds, making their whereabouts harder to detect, called Wanderers by the mechanism.
According to the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, the danger level of these three types of people increases sequentially.
Fei Wuniang is a Wanderer.
She was most likely born in that world, and if she hadn’t traveled back and forth multiple times, causing the invasion point waveform to be filtered out by the machine, she wouldn’t have attracted the execution squad from the Dimensional Limit Mechanism.
Chen Xuan paused at the door at the end of the corridor.
Behind the door was a spacious private room, accommodating over a dozen people moving simultaneously. The "invasion point" mentioned in the intel was right on the bathroom door of the private room.
"I’m here."
"Hmm, next is waiting for her to appear," Lin Qing replied.
To be honest, Chen Xuan quite wanted to open that door and take a look at the world on the other side. However, knowing this would prematurely attract the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, he ultimately decided against it.
Looking around, he found a slightly complete chair and sat down, "How long do we have to wait?"
Fei Wuniang’s death time was recorded at 9 PM.
"She’ll definitely appear today anyway."
"If she doesn’t show up, that would mean your theory is wrong, right?"
The other side remained silent.
For some reason, Chen Xuan suddenly felt a bit sympathetic towards her. After all, her mission is to prevent humanity’s extinction, and she firmly believes she can achieve that here. But if the two worlds aren’t consistent, it would mean the foundation supporting her belief could disappear.
Can someone who has lost their faith still live well?
"Ah... It’s troublesome." He suddenly sighed.
"What’s happening?" Lin Qing’s voice suddenly tightened.
"I looked around and found that only this compartment has a bathroom, but the bathroom has already turned into the Otherworld. If I want to use it, wouldn’t there be nowhere to go?"
"Huh?" The girl’s voice instantly rose by eight degrees, "I thought the Dimensional Limit Mechanism had arrived! For small matters like this, you can just find any open space!"
"True."
"...Mr. Manager, are you deliberately teasing me?"
"It’s coming."
"You don’t need to inform me if you want to use the bathroom."
"It’s Fei Wuniang."
Chen Xuan suddenly noticed that the broken door opened, and even if only a crack was exposed, he could see that the scene beyond should never belong to a discarded restroom. Then a woman flashed out, standing in front of Chen Xuan. She was taken aback the moment she saw a stranger in the room, and they just stared at each other without making any further moves.
"..." After a stunned moment, she asked, "Are you sure?!"
Her tone was even more excited than Chen Xuan’s.
The person certainly wouldn’t present an identification card or introduce herself. However, Chen Xuan knew that the woman before him was Fei Wuniang from the intel—she looked more beautiful and alluring than in the photos. Even standing there motionless, she exuded an enticing aura that made one want to get close.
She wore a waist-cinched long skirt. Just looking at its style, it was hard to discern which era it belonged to, though the neckline was pulled very low, connected only by a thread, as if it could be fully opened with a tug.
"You..." The woman, coming to her senses and showing some panic, covered her chest with one hand and said, "...Who are you?"
"No matter what she says, don’t let her deceive you!" Seeing he hadn’t responded yet, Lin Qing urgently emphasized, "She is quite skilled in enchantment, masking herself as a weak victim."
Chen Xuan felt it.
Though she didn’t display a hint of threat, with only panic and fear upon seeing a stranger, the Voice of Trust conveyed boundless malice that made one’s skin crawl. This sort of intense malice was something he had never experienced before, even stronger than the colleague who blacklisted him, by tenfold.
He didn’t plan on fully trusting the intel provided by Lin Qing. To understand what kind of person the other party truly is, he must observe firsthand before making a judgment. Nonetheless, now Chen Xuan admitted that Fei Wuniang’s inner self and appearance were as different as night and day.
"You’ve killed so many people; didn’t you consider there’d be a day like this?" Chen Xuan deliberately questioned sternly, while taking out a scanning gun and aiming it at himself, replacing the Voice of Trust with Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell. The Thousand Thoughts Sword, Divine Eye Technique, Celestial Mist Skill, and Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell formed the most suitable combat combination he could assemble at the moment.
"Killed people? I don’t understand what you’re saying—" The woman feigned incredulous surprise, yet a sinister gust quietly brewed, with something bursting forth from behind her, circumventing the roof and pouncing towards Chen Xuan from above!
Already getting physical?
She truly isn’t courteous at all...
Chen Xuan saw it clearly—a semi-transparent chain.
Looking rather concealed and swift, but under the gaze of the Divine Eye Technique, it seemed as slow as a frame-by-frame animation.
This is probably the "Strong Robbery" ability.
If a normal person is caught, they would die without illness, with the cause seemingly sudden cardiac arrest. If an Ability User is caught, they would lose one ability, which becomes usable by the opponent.
To resort to murder after being asked one question, Fei Wuniang’s nature is already self-evident.
Chen Xuan pretended to be indisposed, staggering forward to dodge the sneak attack and barely avoiding the claw strike.
The woman didn’t miss this opportunity, pulling out a handgun from her waist, raising her hand to shoot at the staggered Chen Xuan!
Clearly, it’s a superpower battle, yet everyone loves using firearms.
Fortunately, now the Divine Eye Technique has reached Level 3 alongside the manager level, sustaining time distortion for almost two seconds. Before Fei Wuniang fired, he had already predicted her aim direction: the first shot would miss, the second would target the shoulder. Leaning his shoulder to dodge both shots, before she could pull the trigger for the third time, he clasped her wrist with one hand, pulling her towards him, while his right fist swung out, landing solidly on her cheek!
Fei Wuniang was directly dazed by the punch, her body spinning half a circle, knees buckling to kneel on the ground, vomiting a large mouthful of fresh blood, mixed with several broken teeth.
Their positions happened to switch as well.
Now Chen Xuan stood before the entrance to the invasion point, while Fei Wuniang was located in the center of the room. Even if she realized the unfavorable situation, there was no way to escape back to the Otherworld through the invasion point.
