Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 38 - 37: Above the Starry Sky

Yunzhou is approximately six hundred miles away from Qing State. Liu Shuyue calculated that if she traveled at full speed, she could reach there in about two days. So she didn’t need to rush to set off; she could spend a few extra days tidying up the follow-up matters of Hot Pepper Village before leaving.

She had made an arrangement with Chen Xuan to connect with room 201 once she arrived in Yunzhou, allowing him to meet her directly at the destination.

Chen Xuan readily agreed to this plan.

No matter how many days it takes there, the time experienced over here remains entirely unknown.

Thus, the shop must continue to operate as usual.

Returning to the shop, Chen Xuan found the internet still abuzz with discussions about the mirage from two days ago. Many people had uploaded the videos they captured to Douyin and Lv’s Book, each garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Enthusiasts of pseudoscience clashed with weather buffs, UFO fans joined in to promote alien theories, and every place with a comment section buzzed with activity.

Only Chen Xuan knew what had truly transpired at that time.

Initially, he thought that the otherworldly scene had occurred solely above the Wanshan Wilderness. But when he learned that the entire Lu Mountain city populace could witness this spectacle, he was dumbstruck.

Why could Liu Shuyue’s dragon-slaying strike be projected into this world?

This question left him utterly clueless.

Browsing through conversations online, Chen Xuan couldn’t help but recall the "red-haired witch" he had encountered in Joan’s World.

She accused him of being an evil person who brought chaos and sin to the world, a claim he believed to be nonsense. Joan survived, history remained unchanged, and he thought everything he did was irrelevant to this side. But Liu Shuyue’s dragon-slaying incident profoundly shook this belief.

Fortunately, the past two days passed peacefully. After the mirage faded, the city remained unchanged. Chen Xuan spent four to five hours daily on local forums and message boards seeking any suspicious clues, yet thus far, he found nothing.

This outcome brought him a bit of relief.

Ding!

A notification from his inbox popped up.

Chen Xuan opened his email and discovered it was indeed the reply to his rating application. The message was simple, containing only one sentence: Congratulations on passing the review to elevate to the next store manager tier, and may you continue to excel.

Switching to the capabilities page, that colorful icon had already transformed into Level 3. As was customary, he clicked on the details—"Grow stronger and achieve new heights."

"The third floor dining department is now open; the store manager’s invitation has been unlocked: one guest can be designated to arrive at the store each day, regardless of how far or challenging the journey might be. The store manager’s return has been unlocked: you can return to the store once at any time each day, despite how distant or arduous the travel may be."

"Ability synchronization limit increased to Level 3."

"Non-transferable, non-assignable. Current status of the store manager: still alive."

Chen Xuan silently rolled his eyes.

It really did create a third floor.

But what’s the use of the dining department? Is it for serving food to guests? The issue is, the second floor only has Liu Shuyue as a tenant, and she often isn’t in her room. Besides, guests don’t necessarily need to eat cooked meals delivered from the kitchen—instant noodles and sausage from the small supermarket on the first floor can suffice if they’re truly hungry.

The newly unlocked features are quite convenient, though. Chen Xuan picked up the scanner gun and examined it, finding that indeed it had corresponding options on the small screen behind it. This meant he could use these features wherever the network coverage reached.

This implied that he would no longer need to wait until 8:30 to return when traveling far away.

"Right, there’s no shortage of performance points now, so I can proceed to apply for the next level of store manager."

Chen Xuan opened the store manager rating page full of anticipation, only to be stunned after a glance. Achieving the Level 4 store manager required not only increasing performance points to 100 but also meeting an additional condition: recruiting an employee to start the dining department.

What?

This requirement posed a challenge for Chen Xuan.

Hiring someone is easy; hiring a chef isn’t difficult either, as long as an attractive salary is offered. But how should he explain the origin of this shop?

From the outside, it appears to have one floor, but inside, there are three layers?

The store’s entrance occasionally drifts to the Otherworld?

The guests of this place enjoy wielding swords and casting spells?

No way could he say any of that!

Even if the person is willing to believe, he should never disclose the shop’s secrets to a third party, considering his own safety.

It seems the upcoming conditions for promotion will only become increasingly difficult to satisfy.

Chen Xuan looked at the sky outside the window; it was only three in the afternoon and the peak of customer traffic was still a bit away. He planned to make a trip to Lu Mountain to gather some herbs for alchemy.

But just as he bent over to pick up a basket, the scenery at the door suddenly changed, and the light through the window brightened significantly.

Ah, a new guest has arrived!

Chen Xuan had experience in this, and he calmly put down the medicine basket, straightened his collar, and leisurely waited for the guest to enter.

Meanwhile, he observed the new scenery outside the curtain—once again an indoor scene, yet the space was quite vast, and the floor was so pristine it could almost be used as a mirror; its sheen resembled some sort of metallic panel.

After waiting for 10 seconds, the guest was still nowhere to be seen.

He’s been through situations like this before.

For instance, the second time he met Liu Shuyue, she was involved in discussions with the Governor.

Anyway, since I’m free, if no customers come, I’ll just go look for them.

Thinking like this, Chen Xuan walked out of the shop’s door.

But in an instant, his steps were welded to the threshold.

Where the heck am I...?

He looked up, and above his head was a magnificent glass curtain wall, almost covering the entire dome, with an area about the size of a pedestrian square! However, what froze his steps was not the enormous curtain wall, but the vast Xingyu outside the wall!

That’s right, he saw a magnificent blue planet, so much so that he subconsciously recognized its identity: Earth.

Earth occupied only one-third of the dome’s view.

Outside the view, he could see several circular frameworks extending from where he stood into the bottomless space, each framework wider than the roads outside the Third Ring. Countless small machines shuttled back and forth closely attached to the framework, he couldn’t discern whether they were container ships or some kind of modular transport robots.

The areas the framework couldn’t conceal were filled with stars.

Where he was, was now beyond question.

He and the shop were now in space.

More precisely, they appeared inside a gigantic creation above Earth. He wanted to call it a space station, but just this hall with glass curtain walls could fit a soccer field, calling it a space station seemed a bit stingy.

At least, currently, no one on Earth can build something this extravagant.

"Amazing... it’s a world with such advanced technology."

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but marvel.

Human civilization has reached this level. What kind of abilities could he trade for?

Maybe I should take a photo and post it on my moments!

Chen Xuan pulled out his phone, aiming at the glass dome overhead. He even found that there were still fireworks celebrating on Earth, as if welcoming his arrival.

Look, another spark shot up. It was like a meteor, only flying backward, finally exploding in space, shining like a small sun.

Such brilliant sparks came one after another, tending to increase in density.

"Hey... so close."

Chen Xuan suddenly saw a firework flying especially close, almost brushing against those circular frameworks.

He immediately aimed his camera at the fireworks, trying to get a clear shot.

As the fireworks exploded, the hall turned as bright as daylight! Extremely bright flames expanded outward, the edges even engulfing one track.

Chen Xuan saw with his own eyes that track breaking apart, and the machine speeding along it suddenly bolted into space like a runaway horse.

These fireworks were really wild!

He realized something was amiss.

Just then, the ground suddenly shook violently!

Oh shit, are there earthquakes in space too?

Chen Xuan instinctively lowered his center of gravity, bending while grabbing the door frame with his hand.

However, the vibrations did not calm down, they grew even more intense! He felt as if he were in an old car racing down a country dirt road, threatening to fall apart at any moment.

What made his scalp tingle was that this worry wasn’t unfounded because those frameworks on the dome had become closer than before, expanded from the Third Ring four-lane to expressway six-lane... according to the relativity of view, either they were approaching the dome, or the dome was approaching them, neither was good news!

Scrrz!

With a piercing sound, Chen Xuan was astonished to see one wall in the hall suddenly shatter! Amidst the flying metal fragments, a mighty and tall six-legged robot stormed into the hall with an overwhelming stance, its lower half like a spider, its upper half like a tank turret, those shiny silver fences were as fragile as paper before it.

Whoa, could this be the new customer the shop selected?

One of its feet alone was enough to fill the entire shop’s door!

"Warning! Airseal imbalance, a leak has occurred in N43 District!"

"Warning! N43 operational speed declining, simulated gravity might be limited!"

A variety of warning sounds immediately echoed in the hall.

But then a series of violent gunfire overwhelmed the alarms in the hall. Chen Xuan finally noticed that apart from the giant mech breaking through the wall, there was also a slim figure wearing a one-piece bodysuit. But that figure was so small, in front of the six or seven-meter-high war machine, it was like a mosquito, at first, he couldn’t even distinguish between this person and the flying debris.

Judging by the silhouette, she should be a young girl, not forgetting to crazily shoot at the robot while dodging and maneuvering, the bullets creating colorful light trails falling on the steel shell, then scattering everywhere. This level of attack wasn’t without effect, the steel shell was like a cream cake being melted and peeled away, but almost simultaneously, it was urgently and quickly being self-repaired—the metal seemed alive, splitting then closing back again, the lost parts supplemented by components emerging from within, causing damage to form a balance!

The robot continued to charge forward, crushing the steel pillars and seats in its way, the girl traversed the flying floorboards with an exceptionally eerie body technique, looking almost like teleportation. The next moment, she suddenly jumped to Chen Xuan’s front, their gazes clashing.

The girl was visibly stunned.

"Su... survivor?"

"What survivor, I’m the shop owner." Chen Xuan grabbed her hand, and she didn’t dodge in her stunned state, "Let’s talk back in the shop, welcome!"