Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 51 - 50: Strike While the Iron is Hot
"Did you find any traces?" Chen Xuan asked calmly.
"Yes, take a look at these posts." She placed her finger on the monitor, and the screen content instantly shifted—this ability to control the computer without connecting through any port was truly astonishing. "Their contents are basically similar, all pointing to the afternoon event as a movie publicity stunt."
For example, the headline in the discussion that Chen Xuan read.
—"Didn’t expect the response to be so good, looks like the promotion for ’Ascension’ is really effective."
The first post provided several photos, showing hidden cameras, staff recovering cables from the water, and the back of a woman in a white long coat getting into a reception vehicle.
The discussion within the post was quite "professional." Although some netizens were joking around, many replies took on an industry insider’s tone, identifying what the equipment in the photos was used for.
Another post was even more outrageous, directly posting a snippet of a secretly filmed rehearsal video, seemingly corroborating that this incident was entirely a premeditated promotional activity.
There were also quite a few self-proclaimed independent-thinking netizens ridiculing those who treated the Immortal as real.
"Seriously, you believe this stuff, but not that I’m Qin Shi Huang?"
"Can those who believe leave their contact info? When you get old, I’ll sell you insurance."
Chen Xuan realized that both belief and disbelief were normal, but those actor photos and pretend-busy crew members were evidently not the work of ordinary netizens.
He zoomed in on the photo of the woman in white, scrutinizing it repeatedly, and found that her figure and face contours resembled Liu Shuyue somewhat. Most witnesses, seeing this photo from afar, would unconsciously associate her with the Immortal.
"Are you sure this is all the handiwork of the Dimensional Limit Mechanism?"
He had heard Lin Qing introduce this organization, summarizing that although the Dimensional Limit Mechanism was enormous and possessed unfathomable abilities, its long submersion in secrecy made its style secretive and low-key. Each region had a logistics department mainly responsible for handling information leaks, with expertise in blurring truth and fiction, making fake drama appear real.
However, during Lin Qing’s active period, the mechanism had already been divided for decades, with organizational structure, ideology, and policies vastly different from the past. Also, because the organization was highly secretive then, she could only understand roughly based on past information.
Lin Qing affirmed, "It’s better to guide intentionally than to completely ban. The resources they can call upon are quite astonishing. If my guess is correct, this hastily put-together ’Ascension’ is probably already in production. In a few days, you’ll find that the theaters will actually release a trailer, and the cost is minimal for them."
"Certainly, I have even more precise evidence." She added, "I’ve recorded all the agreeing replies and handed them over to Lv for analysis—"
"Wait a moment, who is Lv?" Chen Xuan interrupted.
"Efficiency model E63, my personal AI assistant. In the future, everyone with an auxiliary thinking chip installed will have an AI system."
How advanced... He became respectful, "Please continue."
"Lv discovered that over 85% of these replies were AI-generated, matching the language output model of ’Cow,’ one of the AIs developed by the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, still in use after the split."
Unable to resist, Chen Xuan applauded softly.
This is the future... using AI to fool humans, then using AI to catch AI, encompassing all in one.
"But why call it ’Cow’?"
"Is the name that important? It merely means it eats grass and produces milk." Lin Qing shrugged, "The AI doesn’t mind, why should you?"
"True enough." Chen Xuan returned to the main topic, "I have to say, doing it this way makes it quite easy to deceive people. If I didn’t know Liu Shuyue, I’d certainly think the actress in the photo was the woman who jumped off the bridge at the time."
"I wouldn’t let them off that easily. This is the time to strike while the iron is hot."
"You’ve thought of a good idea?"
"Humph, I’m no pushover either." The girl’s eyes sparkled, showing eagerness, "The network security in this world has too many vulnerabilities, perfect for me to exploit. Even if this trick can only be used once, it’s enough to cause them quite a stir."
...
...
The door to the supervisor’s office was tightly closed, occasionally emitting a few subdued answers from inside.
Outside, everyone at the cubicles was pretending to be busy but could actually only browse the web and check for any new information.
"The captain’s probably getting a real dressing-down this time." Someone muttered softly.
"Our Execution Team actually being overshadowed by the logistics team is a huge humiliation!"
"Shh, they’re right next door, be careful not to be overheard."
Wang Baihu idly twirled his pen, his gaze fixed on the video of the woman in white jumping off the bridge. He felt that recent tasks were not going well, ever since Honglian risked entering the C102 breach point, only to fail, no mission had been properly closed. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
He dragged his mouse, rewinding the video to the middle—"That’s best, saves me from searching through one world after another... let’s end this." When the woman said those words, he paused the video and placed another image side by side.
It was an "exclusive photo" bought from other sources by the logistics team, with the photographer only five or six meters from the woman in white, clearly capturing her profile.
Even without facing the camera directly, one could see her extraordinary beauty, belonging to the kind that is very distinctive and unforgettable once seen.
"Did you find anything?" Someone asked behind him.
Without turning around, he knew the speaker was Honglian.
Wang Baihu stretched, having sat in the chair all day, even a strong back couldn’t help but feel a bit stiff, "No clues at all. The intelligence team checked all day and night with no results, how could I see anything wrong. If these people are authentic, then it means they are all experienced Wanderers. Looking on the bright side, the woman has already returned to her world after eliminating those three opponents, and poses no further threat to us."
"But that doesn’t make sense." Little Pigeon peeked over from the adjacent cubicle, speaking softly, "Four people entering and exiting the world would need to pass through the breach point, which would certainly cause repeated frequency-consistent oscillation waveforms. Even if we haven’t found this breach point, the machine would record it as a significant feature, yet the intelligence department says there’s no such trace."
"You’re a newbie, so don’t take everything written in the guidebook too seriously." Wang Baihu pouted, "The machine missing or misrecording is commonplace, who knows what the real situation is like. Even if they’re still in Jiang City, judging by her appearance... she’s probably not the kind that loves creating chaos or bloodshed, right?"
"Just because she’s pretty?" Honglian sneered.
He coughed twice, "Uh... appearance reflects the mind."
"I want to ask a question." Little Pigeon looked at the two.
"Go ahead." Honglian was rather courteous to the junior.
"What if... she truly remains in Jiang City and refuses to cooperate with the agency, frequently entering and exiting the breach point, should we consider her an enemy too?"
The two exchanged a glance.
Finally, it was Honglian who nodded and replied, "Correct."
"Even if she’s nice? Just doesn’t trust us but doesn’t want to fight us..."
"Then we must at least expel her, ensuring she never sets foot in this world again." Honglian sighed softly, "I understand what you’re worried about. It seems like we’re unreasonable hosts, rejecting all foreign visitors, but it’s a necessary measure to safeguard our world. The expansion of the breach point devours the space we rely on for survival and enables more people to acquire abnormal abilities. Can you imagine everyone possessing the abilities of ’Strong Robbery’ or ’Hidden Kill’?"
"That kind of society would be too thrilling." Wang Baihu lightly patted the young girl’s head, "For everyone to stroll along happily and have night snacks, such rules are absolutely necessary."
Little Pigeon initially acknowledged, but soon looked at him in shock.
Uh, did I say something wrong?
He turned to look at Honglian, finding the other staring wide-eyed, staring intently at him.
Wang Baihu abruptly realized, and turned back, discovering the computer screen had turned black, displaying a giant "5" in the center.
Other colleagues in the office also exclaimed in surprise.
"Hey, what’s happening, my computer seems to have been hacked!"
"Mine too, can’t operate it anymore!"
Then it was 4, 3, 2, 1...
When the numbers ended, a masked person appeared on the screen. "Greetings to everyone watching the broadcast. As you can see, I am an Ability User."
