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When a ray of sunlight shone into the store through the window, Chen Xuan slowly opened his eyes.

Yawning, he climbed off the sofa and stretched.

Everything that had happened last night was still vivid in his mind.

He had been right in the middle of a battlefield, watching a cold-weapons war unfold firsthand... though calling it entirely a cold-weapons war would not be accurate, at least not for Joan of Arc. She had been enveloped in light, and every flash of her sword had cut dozens of meters away, sending swarms of enemies crumbling like fresh snow. Though the enemy outnumbered Joan of Arc's forces by more than ten to one, they had still been crushed by that utterly unreasonable countercharge.

Chen Xuan and the store had become Joan of Arc's temporary rear base.

The wounded had constantly been carried over from the front lines for emergency treatment at the entrance. The store really did have hot water and strong liquor, and Chen Xuan had even found a first-aid kit stuffed with gauze and tape in a cabinet.

He could have ignored them.

The ability trade had already been completed. Whether those people lived or died had nothing to do with him.

But every one of them had looked at him with reverence. Wherever he went, more than five cavalrymen followed closely behind, as if terrified that something might happen to him. One look at their expressions told him that if enemies bypassed the front line and charged toward the store, those guards would absolutely use their bodies to block the swords aimed at him.

Chen Xuan could not remain unmoved, so he had no choice but to lend a hand.

The towels strewn across the floor, the bloodstains, and the shattered armor were proof—he had indeed taken part in the war that changed the Saint Maiden's fate.

Joan of Arc had won without suspense.

A hundred men had defeated a thousand, cleanly and decisively.

She had not been defeated and captured, and Compiègne would not be her end.

"Wait!" Chen Xuan suddenly smacked his forehead. History had not just been changed, had it!?

What would France become with Joan of Arc still alive?

He hurriedly opened a browser and searched for relevant information, only to find that this stretch of history seemed unchanged... Joan of Arc had still died at the stake at nineteen, for exactly the same reason as before.

"Whew..."

Good. It seemed he had overthought things. This Joan of Arc probably came from another world, and what happened there would not affect the present world.

That made sense. They could use banners to raise morale and combat power over there, so it was only natural for the two worlds to differ.

Chen Xuan opened his inventory and found that two new abilities had appeared inside.

Getting a gold-rarity ability from only his second trade after opening the store—did that not mean he was quite talented at business?

It was a little regrettable to lose the Spirit Sword Technique, but it had only been an ordinary-tier ability.

Besides, it had been the only thing capable of turning Joan of Arc's situation around at the time.

What he had never expected was that the Spirit Sword Technique had been an entirely different concept in her hands than in his. In theory, they had used the same ability... the difference between them should not have been this vast.

Pushing that question aside, Chen Xuan dragged the two new abilities onto himself and began personally testing their effects.

After all, the descriptions in the trading app looked highly unreliable.

"Hmm... this gold ability is a bit like causality. As long as your ideals align with the other party's, no matter what you do, you can gain their favor and support."

He silently sensed it for a moment, then picked up his phone and found the number of a former coworker from a major company.

"Hello? Brother Xuan, long time no see! What made you suddenly think of calling me? Got a good position to refer me for?"

"It's nothing. I've been a little short on money lately. Could you lend me—"

"Beep—"

Before he could finish, the call had already been disconnected.

Chen Xuan shrugged. Sure enough, not just any ideal would work.

He wanted to make money, and his coworker surely wanted to make money too. In that sense, their ideals should have aligned. Yet the new ability had not worked, meaning it had certain restrictions.

He closed his eyes and tried to find clues about its use from Joan of Arc's experience, but no inspiration surfaced in his mind. He soon realized that a trader's mastery of an ability could not exceed that of its original owner. Joan of Arc had never noticed this ability and had relied entirely on instinct to drive everything, so he could not gain any relevant experience from her.

This was different from Herbalism and the Spirit Sword Technique... Liu Shuyue had clearly known about both abilities and had put considerable effort into practicing them.

Still, it was not too big a problem.

He could make bold assumptions.

Looking back on Joan of Arc's life, she had fought to liberate her homeland, and the soldiers and commanders who followed her had shared the same belief. Borrowing money, however, was a zero-sum process. Everyone wanted more money, but if one party borrowed it, the other would have less. So having the same ideals did not work.

Perhaps it required an ideal that did not harm the shared interests of either party?

If so... the range of applications for this ability was undoubtedly much narrower.

Chen Xuan thought about it, but could not find a suitable use for it for the moment. Although Liberty Leading the People was a gold ability, in terms of personal applicability, it might not even be as useful as many white abilities.

Next, he switched to Voice of Trust, found that coworker on WeChat again, and made a WeChat call.

"Hello? The signal was bad just now..."

"Don't call me again. I just bought a house, and I was about to ask you for a loan."

The call ended abruptly.

When Chen Xuan looked at his phone again, WeChat was already displaying: "Please add friend first."

Right. During their second conversation, he had been able to hear the other party's rejection even through the phone. If disdain and indifference could count as a form of hostility, then he had experienced it firsthand.

This ability... was practically the nemesis of telecom scams.

"Ding-dong."

An email icon suddenly popped up in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Chen Xuan opened it and found that his earlier rating application had been approved. He was now a Level 2 shopkeeper.

He had nearly forgotten about that.

Chen Xuan switched back to the abilities page and found that the colorful legendary ability had indeed become LV2. There was also an additional "Change Details" option underneath. When he moved the cursor over it, several lines of text immediately appeared.

—"You are more like a shopkeeper now, and your store looks more like a proper store too."

"The second-floor lodging section has been unlocked. You may follow up with customers; the ability synchronization limit has increased to LV2."

"Cannot be traded. Cannot be transferred. Shopkeeper's current status: Still alive."

What did that mean... second floor?

He had explored the entire store on his first day. There had only been a shopping area and an employee restroom. Where could a second floor possibly have come from?

Half doubtful, Chen Xuan stepped out from behind the counter and was immediately stunned by what he saw—a staircase had somehow appeared on the left side of the counter, where there had clearly been nothing but a white wall before!

There really was a second floor now.

When had this change happened? He had clearly not seen it when he woke up earlier.

Could the stairs have appeared the instant he opened the email?

Filled with curiosity, Chen Xuan walked up the stairs to the second floor... like the first floor, it was exquisitely decorated. The ground was carpeted, the surrounding walls were paneled with raw wood, and recessed spotlights hidden in the ceiling created an exceptionally warm atmosphere. The staircase led to a three- or four-square-meter lounge area, with corridors and rows of doors on either side. The doors even bore numbers such as 201 and 202.

This was practically a hotel setup.

Chen Xuan could not help laughing.

He was not laughing at anything else, but at the absurdity of it. The residential buildings in the complex all shared the same design: only the ground floor was turned into storefronts, while the second floor onward consisted of apartments. In other words, no matter how well this second floor was hidden, it should have been impossible to stuff such a huge space between the floors out of thin air.

If his shopkeeper level kept rising, would it keep adding floors? He would have to pay those utility bills himself.

Chen Xuan stopped in front of one door, wanting to see what the room inside looked like, only to find that he could not push it open.

The door was locked tight.

The electronic lock's display even showed a prompt: Please scan your keycard.

The facilities were quite complete.

Back on the first floor, Chen Xuan tinkered with the management app for a while, only to discover that there was no universal keycard. He had to register a guest as staying overnight before he could obtain that guest's corresponding keycard. Moreover, the app would not allow the shopkeeper to register himself as a guest, so he had no way to open the doors at all.

This was completely backwards.

If only guests could open the doors, how was housekeeping supposed to work? If anything in a room was damaged or stolen by a guest, how was he supposed to inspect it?

Forget it... he would drop it for now if he could not figure it out. Otherwise, he would just be making trouble for himself.

Chen Xuan chose to make peace with the problem.

The other change at LV2 was easier to understand. Although he no longer had the Spirit Sword Technique and could not verify it immediately, he could connect it to why Joan of Arc's use of it had been so vastly different from his own. It was most likely due to this synchronization limit—he had previously been a Level 1 shopkeeper, so the Spirit Sword Technique had been limited to LV1, while Joan of Arc had wielded a genuine LV5. That was why the difference in actual performance had been so immense.

Thus, raising his Store Manager Rating became especially important.

Chen Xuan also did not forget to check the requirements for the next rank. The required performance points had risen to 10... clearly, the standard would only grow higher and higher.

Assuming the store had not gone bankrupt by then.