Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 61 - 60: The Only Path to Peace

The day after the Dimensional Limit Mechanism gave a public speech, Chen Xuan unexpectedly received more than ten phone calls early in the morning.

All of them were from places where he had previously worked.

Whether from a fast-food restaurant or a big IT company, they all asked the same question: Are you willing to come back to work?

"What’s going on? Can the mechanism actually boost the employment rate?" He was utterly puzzled.

"It’s not raising the employment rate; it’s dramatically reducing the number of people willing to work." Lin Qing sent him a video link, "Take a look at this."

Chen Xuan clicked on the video and saw the square full of tents, where people who couldn’t set up tents simply sat on the ground, doing nothing but chatting and playing cards. With today’s pleasantly cool autumn weather, the cozy lifestyle vibe was off the charts.

The problem is, today isn’t a weekend.

Chen Xuan suddenly realized that these people weren’t flocking to the zoo or any other park; their purpose for gathering here was likely just one thing—"abilities"!

He was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry, "Do they think abilities are like radiation? The closer you are to the intrusion point, the higher the chance of mutation?"

"Look at the city’s real-time map, that area is already gridlocked." Lin Qing shrugged, "Perhaps half the residents of Jiang City have gone there to join the fun. If it weren’t for the Botanical Garden being locked, they’d probably storm into another world in droves."

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but lament that common people are so practical. What is erosion, and what are wanderers? Why should I care? I just want to gain my own superpower; is that wrong?

More importantly, people are not as troubled by scarcity as by inequality. If some people get abilities just by sunbathing in the square, while others work themselves to the bone at their jobs for nothing, isn’t that a huge loss? No wonder the previous workplaces are calling to check on employment status; it turns out they’re seriously understaffed.

He hadn’t expected such a side effect from forcing the Dimensional Limit Mechanism into the open.

"Didn’t your local agency face this situation when it went public?" Chen Xuan curiously asked Lin Qing.

"Not at all. Robots and AI have replaced most jobs, and prosthetics are easier to acquire than ordinary abilities. Idleness among the populace is the norm, with or without the agency going public."

Alright, seems like we can only wait for this wave to pass, Chen Xuan thought. Once people have the proper understanding of the probability of gaining abilities, perhaps societal order will return to normal.

Of course, there’s also a possibility that society may never go back to the way it was.

For example, there are plenty of discussions online—The industrial era is over, and humanity is about to enter the age of abilities. But he knew in his heart that the new era in the next ten years was more like a fusion of both.

"Mr. Chen, right? I left your package here."

A delivery boy placed a square cardboard box on the small table at the store entrance, then quickly sped off. His electric tricycle was so piled high with packages that it seemed like they might spill out at any moment.

"Some people are still diligently working." Chen Xuan opened the package and found a dark blue fabric wallet inside.

When did I buy this? Who even uses wallets these days?

He glanced back at the box and found that the sender’s address was the same as the recipient’s address. He then realized this was sent from the Ability Store.

Opening the wallet, Chen Xuan indeed found a "pay stub" and five hundred-yuan bills.

The pay stub detailed his September salary: Level 3 store manager base salary of 15,000 yuan + chaotic performance bonus of 0 yuan + disability subsidy of 0 yuan + other allowances of 0 yuan, totaling 15,000 yuan.

He nearly threw the wallet on the ground!

Could this salary be any stingier? A job with a 15,000 monthly salary sounds good, but he earns more than ten times that just selling some Immortal Pills!

And weren’t there only five hundred yuan in the wallet?

Chen Xuan took out all the money and counted it again in his hand; indeed, there were only five 100-yuan notes. Where was the remaining 14,500 salary? Had it all been embezzled by accounting?

However, when he opened the wallet again, he found that there were five more bills inside.

Chen Xuan was slightly stunned, and then he belatedly took out his phone, finding a withdrawal text message in his mailbox.

After fiddling with it for a while, he finally understood how to use the wallet. It could only withdraw, not deposit, and the maximum amount he could use was his entire salary. To say this thing was magical, it really was; a seemingly ordinary wallet could hold cash far exceeding its volume. But to say it had any practical use, it wasn’t particularly useful at all, as its convenience and ease of use were far outdone by electronic payments, at least Chen Xuan couldn’t think of a use for it right now.

One could only say the store had a knack for pranking the store manager.

"Manager," Lin Qing’s call interrupted Chen Xuan’s internal venting, "Your guest has arrived."

He looked up towards the staircase entrance and saw that the visitor was indeed Liu Shuyue.

...

"Is Miss Lin’s condition still not fully recovered?" Liu Shuyue sat on the sofa, watching Lin Qing, who was helping pour tea, and asked, "You didn’t trick her into giving you a large sum of money under the guise of a trade, making her work for you to pay off the debt, right?"

"Why would I do something so unscrupulous as a store manager?" Chen Xuan coughed twice, "Her situation is rather special. She can’t return to her own world and is currently homeless, so I’ve let her temporarily stay in the store and help out as a clerk."

"... That’s really nice."

"What?" The voice was too soft, and he didn’t catch it.

"Nothing, the situation in Yunzhou is even worse than I expected. The King of Qi isn’t just making empty threats; he genuinely intends to act against the Liu Family and surrounding towns. I saw troops stationed outside Jiufeng City, and there were attacks on the Liu Family from loose cultivators inside the city." Liu Shuyue narrated her observations thoroughly, "Before I went there, they were already restless, and now that they know I’ve joined forces with the Liu Family, the King of Qi might escalate his actions."

"Do you still feel that you have no relation to the Liu Family?" More than the commotion caused by the King of Qi, Chen Xuan was more concerned about this.

She nodded slightly, "If I were a baby taken from the Liu Family, then growing up in the Lotus Cloud Sect for over a decade, I surely would have seen other infants. Anyway, I never really thought about the issue of my parents before; the sect never taught these things. It seems I’ve been practicing cultivation techniques in the main hall since my memories began. If I’ve got it wrong..."

"I can actually help you confirm it."

"How?"

"Just a little blood will do," Chen Xuan said, "Your blood, Liu Zhiyuan’s blood. If possible, a bit of Liu Qing’s blood as well."

"A blood test to verify kinship?" Liu Shuyue immediately felt uncertain, "Can this folk method be reliable?"

"It’s not kinship verification, it’s a DNA test!"

"Di En Ai?" Liu Shuyue thought for a moment, "Alright, what you’re saying should be reliable. I’ll get you the blood shortly."

"Hey, there’s no rush. I need to prepare some syringes first; the blood will be useless if it’s contaminated." Chen Xuan quickly stopped her, "Let’s first solve the problem with the commoners in Yunzhou and the Liu Family. Do you have any plans?"

"I originally thought the King of Qi wouldn’t actually harm innocent civilians, and that sending me to Yunzhou was to gather a group of loose cultivators to capture me. If it were just a cat-and-mouse game, I could maneuver on my own. But now his actions have indisputably disqualified him from being a king... His threat level even surpasses that of an ordinary demon fiend."

Liu Shuyue paused, then slowly said, "In my view, he’s become someone that must be eliminated."

"But regrettably, I have limited abilities; I can’t storm the Royal City under the heavy guard of the Forbidden Guard and cultivators, especially now that many handy combat spells need to be relearned..." At this point, she glanced silently at Chen Xuan.

Chen Xuan slightly averted his gaze, pretending nothing had happened. He knew the other party wouldn’t go back on their word, but it couldn’t be ruled out as emotional groundwork for their next trade.

She continued, "Moreover, the commoners of Jiufeng City aren’t like the refugees fleeing famine in Qing State who are willing to abandon their homes and land to migrate to the Wanshan Wilderness. People always hold onto a fluke mindset because the blade hasn’t truly fallen on them yet. Even if it did fall, they would hope that King of Qi would spare them after killing all the Liu Family members."

"So I thought long and hard and realized there was only one option—to frontally crush the enemy’s threat in Yunzhou!"

"No matter how many troops they send, no matter how many cultivators they gather, we must let the enemy crash and bleed!"

"If I can’t defeat the King of Qi’s forces here, then it’s even more impossible to win in the Royal City."

Such events are also recorded in the Encyclopedia of Ancient and Modern.

However, most of those accounts ended in failure because it has never been easy to win against superior numbers with fewer and weaker forces.

Yet now she has unwavering support from Hot Pepper Village, the obedient Liu Family, and a store manager capable of solving any thorny problem. This most challenging path doesn’t seem so difficult to walk anymore.