Promotion

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

He yawned as he climbed off the sofa and stretched.

Everything that had happened last night remained vivid in his mind.

He had been on the battlefield at zero distance, immersively witnessing a war fought with cold weapons... though calling it entirely a cold-weapon war would not have been accurate, at least not for Joan of Arc. She had been shrouded in radiance, every flash of sword light cutting dozens of meters ahead as groups of enemies crumbled like first snow. Though the enemy outnumbered Joan of Arc's forces by more than ten to one, they were still routed by that utterly unreasonable countercharge.

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

Wounded soldiers were constantly carried over 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 Transaction had already been completed. Whether those people lived or died had nothing to do with him.

But everyone looked at him with reverence. Wherever he went, at least five cavalrymen followed closely behind, seemingly terrified that something might happen to him. One look at their expressions told him that if enemies had bypassed the front line and attacked the store, those guards would absolutely use their bodies to block the swords aimed at him.

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

The towels scattered 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 had defeated a thousand, cleanly and decisively.

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

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

What would France become with Joan of Arc still alive?

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

"Whew..."

Thank goodness. It seemed he had overthought it. This Joan of Arc had probably come from another world, and what happened there would not affect the real world.

Come to think of it, they could use flags to raise morale and combat strength over there. It was only natural that the two worlds had differences.

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

Getting a gold-rarity ability on the store's second transaction—did that not mean he had quite a talent for business?

Losing the Spirit Sword Technique was admittedly a bit of a shame, but it had only been an ordinary-grade 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 was an entirely different concept in her hands than in his. In theory, they were the same ability... there should not have been such an enormous gap between them.

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

After all, the descriptions in the Ability Transaction app looked extremely unreliable.

"Hmm... This gold ability is somewhat close to causality. As long as your ideals align with the other party's, no matter what you do, you can gain their goodwill and support."

He silently felt it out for a moment, then picked up his phone and pulled up the number of a former colleague from a major corporation.

"Hello? Brother Xuan, long time no see! What made you suddenly call 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 other end had already disconnected.

Chen Xuan shrugged. Sure enough, not just any ideals would do.

He wanted to make money, and his colleague surely wanted to make money too. In that sense, their ideals should have aligned, yet the new ability had not worked. That meant it still had certain limitations.

He closed his eyes and tried to find clues about how to use it 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 driven everything through pure instinct, so he could not gain any relevant experience from her either.

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

Still, that was not too much of a problem.

He could make a bold assumption.

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

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

If that was the case... the ability's range of application was undoubtedly much narrower.

Chen Xuan thought about it, but could not find a suitable use for it for the moment. Though Liberty Leading the People was a gold ability, in terms of personal applicability, it was probably inferior to many white abilities.

Next, he switched to Voice of Trust, found that colleague's 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 to lend me money."

The call ended abruptly.

When Chen Xuan looked at his phone again, WeChat was already prompting him to add the other person as a friend first.

That was right. During their second conversation, he could hear the other man's rejection even through the phone. If disgust and indifference could count as a form of malice, then he had felt it firsthand.

This ability... was simply the nemesis of telecom scammers.

"Ding-dong."

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

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

He had nearly forgotten about that.

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

—"You are more like a shopkeeper now, and the Ability Store looks more presentable too."

"The second-floor accommodations have been unlocked. You may conduct follow-up visits with customers; the ability synchronization limit has increased to LV2."

"Non-tradable, non-transferable. Shopkeeper's current status: still alive."

What did that mean... the second floor?

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

Chen Xuan walked out from behind the counter in disbelief, only to be immediately stunned by the sight before him—a staircase had appeared to the left of the counter at some point, where there had clearly been nothing but a white wall before!

There really was a second floor now.

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

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

Curious, Chen Xuan went up the stairs to the second floor... It was as exquisitely decorated as the first floor, with carpeting underfoot, walls made of joined raw wood all around, and Spotlights hidden in the ceiling. The overall atmosphere felt quite warm. The stairs led to a three- or four-square-meter lounge area, while corridors and rows of doors lay on either side, numbered things like 201 and 202.

This was basically a hotel layout.

Chen Xuan could not help chuckling.

He was not laughing at anything else, but at how absurd the whole thing was. The residential buildings in the complex all shared the same design: only the ground floor was made into commercial storefronts, while the second floor onward contained apartments. In other words, no matter how well hidden it was, there was no way such a large space could have been crammed between floors out of thin air.

When his Store Manager Rating continued to rise, would it keep adding floors? He would have to pay the utility bills himself.

Chen Xuan came to a door, wanting to see what kind of room was inside, only to find that he could not push it open.

The door was locked tight.

The electronic lock displayed a prompt: Please swipe your key card.

The facilities were quite complete.

Back on the first floor, Chen Xuan fiddled with the management app for a while, only to find that there was no universal key card. He had to register a guest as staying there before he could receive the corresponding key card. The app also would not allow the shopkeeper to set himself as a guest, so he had no way to open the door at all.

Everything was backwards.

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

Forget it... If he could not figure it out, he would leave it alone for now. Otherwise, he would just be asking for trouble.

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 had been so much stronger with it than he had been. 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 had felt so enormous.

Raising his Store Manager Rating was therefore especially important.

Chen Xuan did not forget to check the next rank either. The required Performance Points had risen to 10... clearly, the standard would only get higher and higher.

Assuming the Ability Store had not gone bankrupt by then.