Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 41 - 40: Wish Fulfilled

"System self-check... passed."

"Failure rate, 43%. Repair time: unpredictable."

Lin Qing slowly opened her eyes, her vision filled with remnants of red error reports. Above her was a wooden ceiling, with dim light seeping in from its edges, not at all piercing.

This exquisite yet fragile style of decoration was something she rarely encountered anymore.

I’m actually still alive...

She was a bit incredulous, because the last image in her memory was her being thrown into the silent and cold space. What happened afterward was a blur to her.

Wait... has the Crystal Palace already fallen!?

The moment this thought surfaced, Lin Qing involuntarily shivered! She shot up suddenly, only to be choked by the intense pain from her abdomen, almost failing to catch her breath.

Is the pain inhibitor damaged too?

She almost bit her lip until it bled to barely suppress the pain without shouting out loud.

The moment she sat up, she also saw her surroundings—she was lying on a couch in a semi-open space, covered with a thin blanket, clearly cared for by someone. The room was a mess, with numerous broken pieces of furniture scattered on the ground, and holes everywhere on the walls. Lin Qing was quite familiar with this situation. Places active with nanobugs resembled war zones; most buildings were dilapidated. The destruction was not only from nanobugs but also from gangs rampant after the loss of order and control.

But Earth shouldn’t exist anymore!

"Check gravity."

"Gravity measurement is 9.821."

At this number, Lin Qing’s nose tingled, and her eyes moistened. The Crystal Palace had simulated gravity, with a set value always at a whole number of 10, while other space stations had virtually no gravity.

Wave detection also had no alerts, no deviation intrusion was present.

This must be Earth!

Everyone’s efforts and sacrifices were not in vain!

But is this all real? Am I not dreaming?

Though she thought so, a hint of doubt lingered, unable to be dispelled. Because she personally watched the Crystal Palace fall, and in the end, she couldn’t reach the control room.

What on earth happened after N43 was torn apart?

Thinking about this question brought a splitting headache to Lin Qing.

Cheap things are never good, she thought. Had I known, I would have bought a more expensive memory storage device!

Suddenly, she heard a string of light footsteps.

Following the sound, Lin Qing saw a woman in white descending the stairs. The moment their eyes met, the woman was slightly taken aback, then turned her head and called, "Manager, your guest is awake."

Guest?

Is she referring to me? 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

She then saw a man follow the woman down the stairs.

"You’ve been unconscious for two days, so I asked someone to take a look at you," he said, coming to the couch with a concerned tone, "By the way, I’m Chen Xuan, the manager of this store. Welcome."

Manager...

Welcome...

"Get yourself together, I came to rescue you!"

"Since you’ve despaired, why not give it a try?"

Sudden bursts of clear memory flooded Lin Qing’s mind, a rapid montage of images flashing—suspended in the silent space, someone held her, saying there was still a chance to save everything!

And that person was the man right in front of her!

"It’s you!" She grabbed Chen Xuan’s hand.

"Hmm?"

"How did you do it!?" Lin Qing asked excitedly, "Did the Crystal Palace not fall, or was it destroyed midway?"

"Calm down, we’ll talk about the situation up there later on." Chen Xuan turned to Liu Shuyue, "Is she out of danger now?"

"Yes, her pulse and everything are normal, there shouldn’t be any sudden worsening," Shuyue said, checking her pulse. "I’ll leave you a Heart-Protecting Pill, in case of cardiac arrest, slip it under the tongue. However..."

"However, what?"

"I’ve never seen anyone mutilate themselves so thoroughly," Shuyue spoke more softly, shaking her head. "Her Mechanical Techniques are indeed exquisite, yet they disrupted the balance of Circulation Qi, and none of the Three Souls and Seven Spirits are intact, completely cutting off the possibility of cultivation. Pills can only serve as a temporary relief."

"Well, she probably had no choice." Chen Xuan coughed twice, "Anyway, you’ve been a great help to me. Without the lifesaving Pill, she probably wouldn’t have woken up."

"Not at all, seeing how you take care of the guest is comforting to me too," Shuyue smiled, "Besides, helping you on those matters, this little favor is nothing. And such a case, it’s my first encounter; certainly an eye-opener."

"Are you returning to Hot Pepper Village?"

"Time waits for no one. I don’t feel safe leaving the door open."

Chen Xuan nodded, "Alright, call me when you’re about to set off."

"Yes, even if I reach Yunzhou, I’ll have to scout the situation before making a decision," Shuyue waved her hand, heading upstairs. "If you run into any tricky problems, feel free to call me."

What on earth are they talking about?

Lin Qing felt a bit confused... she understood the language, and they weren’t avoiding her, yet every sentence had an oddity to it.

The woman seemed like a doctor, but why was she performing pulse checks and Alchemy? Circulation Qi and the Three Souls and Seven Spirits—what could they be? Even if she were a scam artist, this rhetoric was too cliché.

But she knew her own condition very well; with so many system malfunctions in her body, she wasn’t feeling as much pain as she expected, and her mental state was far better than anticipated, which was not something a scam could achieve.

Once Liu Shuyue left, Chen Xuan brought a cup of coffee to the new guest, then sat down and asked, "What’s your name?"

"Lin Qing, Lin as in forest, and Qing as in clear day." Lin Qing responded factually.

"I have two pieces of bad news for you. I hope you’re mentally prepared."

"Please, go ahead." She took a deep breath.

"The first is, you might not be able to go back." Chen Xuan sighed internally as he said this. This guest’s satisfaction was going to plummet, he presumed. Over these two days, he hadn’t been idle; apart from asking Liu Shuyue for the Pill, he had registered Lin Qing as a VIP guest, using her room card to open the door to check on her world’s state. Surprisingly, the back door of room 202 was completely locked.

The only possibility he could think of was that a great calamity occurred in that world, and to ensure safety, the shop had closed off the door’s passage function.

If her wish was for the world to avoid destruction, then his existing stock capacity felt strained.

Lin Qing showed no reaction, seemingly waiting for his second piece of news.

"The second is, I didn’t reach the control room, and the space city you mentioned, Crystal Palace, did indeed fall. At least, it was so when I took you away. So, when you ask how I did it, the answer is I did nothing."

"Where is this place?"

"Earth, but perhaps with slight differences," Chen Xuan chose a cautious reply, for fear of startling her.

"Differences... what differences could there be?" She frowned.

"The River of Space-Time is continuously flowing, every splash differs from the last; it’s okay if you don’t understand. When you’ve gotten used to this world..."

Lin Qing suddenly widened her eyes, "You mean—time? I indeed never considered such a possibility, but... how can that be?"

Chen Xuan sighed lightly, are you thinking that time could have flowed backwards, but time reversal is unlikely?

She indeed asked, "May I ask what year it is now?"

"Here... it’s 2025." Chen Xuan shrugged, "But it might not be of reference value, as the worlds aren’t—"

Before he finished, the girl seemed to confirm something and directly embraced him fully.

Even though the broad movement made her wince in pain.

"Uh... dear guest?"

"I really returned a century earlier; everything makes sense now!" Lin Qing not only didn’t let go but hugged even tighter, her voice brimming with excitement and a hint of choked emotion, "Thank you... though I don’t know how you did it, there’s no doubt you’ve given me a chance I’d never dared dream of... if this world can be saved because of this, you would be the most crucial savior!"

"... Are you mistaken?" Chen Xuan looked baffled.

He ran a legitimate business and wasn’t into that world-saving MLM stuff!

"No." Her response was firm, "My error was once deeply doubting you, but now the facts have proven, you’ve met all my expectations!"