All Down to Ability

Chen Xuan never imagined he'd have a day where he'd be saving someone in space.

He had no space suit, relying entirely on his own abilities. If any other spacecraft or astronauts witnessed this scene, they'd surely be stunned.

He pretended to take a deep breath, calming his rather tense nerves. There was still enough time, but the two of them had been flung in different directions. The longer he waited, the further apart they'd drift.

First, he needed to get closer to the girl.

That meant using the Thousand Thoughts Sword.

Chen Xuan summoned a qi sword behind him and grabbed it as it swept past his side!

His body abruptly stopped, halting his backward momentum.

Just as he'd predicted, the qi sword could not only appear within his line of sight but also serve as an anchor point! The moment the hilt solidified, it provided him with a leverage point strong enough to alter his trajectory.

Chen Xuan roughly estimated the girl's direction and then pushed hard with both hands—the qi sword remained "nailed" in place, while he flew in the estimated direction due to the reaction force.

After chasing for half a minute, Chen Xuan found this method too inefficient. He made another qi sword appear directly behind the girl, hitting her with its hilt.

This action was clearly effective. Not only did she stop tumbling, but her drifting speed also slowed considerably.

Through this back-and-forth pursuit and intervention, their distance gradually closed until they were right next to each other.

Chen Xuan grabbed her hand and pulled her close.

The girl showed no reaction.

Seeing her pale face and the blood foam at the corner of her mouth, Chen Xuan knew the situation was dire. This guest could withstand a direct hit from a 30mm Gatling gun with her bare body, clearly indicating she wasn't ordinary. However, she clearly couldn't endure the vacuum of space as well as he could and was now obviously disoriented.

Chen Xuan placed his hand on her ear and then bit his own hand, shouting, "Snap out of it! I'm here to save you!"

Sound couldn't travel in a vacuum, but it could be transmitted through mechanical vibrations. When it reached her eardrums, it would be like drumming underwater.

She weakly opened her eyes, glanced at Chen Xuan, and then slowly shook her head, her eyes seemingly devoid of any will to survive.

"Back in the N43 hall, you must have hoped someone would reach out and help you, right? I'm the hope you prayed for!" Chen Xuan didn't have time for theatrics and shouted concisely, "Since you've given up, why not try what I say? The worst outcome can't be any worse than this!"

She stared blankly at Chen Xuan, her lips moving slightly.

Chen Xuan couldn't discern her meaning at all. Acting on a desperate hope, he said, "I'll take that as a yes!"

With that, he took out a scanning gun with one hand, pressed the button towards the girl, and then dragged Eight Trigrams Palm from his inventory and placed it on the transaction.

She still showed no reaction.

However, in the next second, three items suddenly appeared in the transaction window.

"Mind Fortress" LV5.

--You build high walls around your mind, convincing yourself you are still a normal person, but who knows? To gain power, this is the price you must pay.

"Protocol Birth" LV1.

--Born with a mission, to grow and to die, your life's trajectory is like an arrow shot from a bow, unable to turn back.

"Free Will" LV1.

--The degree to which life understands the mysteries of the universe. The broader the cognition, the freer the will. Note: Forbidden knowledge must be approached with caution, as it may bring unpredictable destruction.

All three abilities were purple-tier.

Chen Xuan let out a soft "Hmm," as this was the first time he'd seen abilities with the same name but different tiers. Compared to his own LV2 white-tier ability, these LV1 purple-tier abilities were much more dazzling.

When he was allocating abilities for the villagers of Mala Village, he discovered that he could only process a same-named ability once, meaning one entry and one exit. Even if others possessed the same ability afterward, he couldn't add it to his inventory again. This prevented him from exploiting the shop's performance points by repeatedly trading a single ability. Seeing a purple-tier ability of the same name placed in the transaction window now answered a question he had—level and tier were likely two independent evaluation standards.

An ordinary person wouldn't trade three purple-tier abilities for one white-tier ability.

Even if they were encountering such a transaction for the first time, they would easily discern that the two were not equivalent.

While the format of what buyers and sellers saw might differ, the essence was fundamentally the same.

Her offering so much at once meant either she had lost her judgment or she had a "what the hell, might as well" attitude, leaving herself to Chen Xuan's disposal.

Chen Xuan, however, had to carefully consider which ability would have the least impact on her. After hesitating for two seconds, he selected "Protocol Birth" and clicked the confirmation button.

Then, without hesitation, he used Shopkeeper Recall!

In an instant, he returned from space to his dilapidated shop.

The ability trade itself wasn't the main point; the key was to make the girl a true guest! This way, he could use Guest Summon again to "invite" her into the shop!

The shop's condition wasn't much better. It was tumbling along with N43, with floating debris of merchandise everywhere. Half of the hall had already collided with the broken ring-shaped skeletons, the entire dome had collapsed, and it risked complete disintegration at any moment.

Fortunately, despite the shop's interior being riddled with holes from the Gatling gun, the main door remained intact.

Chen Xuan pulled down the rolling shutter with all his might.

The moment the steel plate locked with a click, he swiftly sent an invitation to his new guest.

The vibrations instantly ceased. The merchandise that had been floating in the air plummeted down. Chen Xuan then heard a dull thud and turned around to see the girl sprawled in the center of the shop.

After waiting a moment and confirming everything was normal, he slowly approached the window and cautiously peered outside.

The silver hall vanished like a bubble, replaced by the old buildings and narrow alleys of the neighborhood.

Only then did Chen Xuan finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"This broken shop is going to get me killed one day."

Last time he teleported to the halfway point of Joan of Arc's escape, this time he went straight to the falling space city. Who knows where he'll end up next. What's more, the shop isn't an invincible domain. If the shop door gets smashed, he won't be able to get back!

But grumbling aside, he still couldn't bring himself to abandon his duties as shopkeeper and go back to being an employee.

Besides, this trip was indeed exciting enough.

Even now, the excessive secretion of adrenaline and dopamine still made his head feel a little dizzy.

Returning to the girl's side, she seemed to have already fainted. She lay motionless on the ground, with only a slight rise and fall of her chest.

Her most obvious wound was still the gunshot wound on her stomach. The entire surface of the skin was charred and curled up, looking quite terrifying. But if one knew this wound was inflicted by a 30mm caliber firearm, it would be even more frightening.

Although Chen Xuan didn't understand medicine, he knew that a gunshot wound was definitely an external injury, and taking a Blood Orange would surely help.

After forcibly prying open her mouth to feed her the pills, he suddenly felt that her appearance was inexplicably familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before.

He thought for a moment and then removed the girl's hood.

The hood was attached to the bodysuit. Before, he had only thought it was very form-fitting, almost perfectly displaying her curves. Now, he realized it was probably a type of undergarment. The hood was likely meant to be worn with a helmet, and the bodysuit would be easier to tuck into a spacesuit.

The ports with sockets on the clothing proved that it was clearly not as simple as it looked.

The moment the hood was removed, a head of brilliant hair cascaded down.

Calling it brilliant wasn't an exaggeration. The hair shifted between pink, light purple, and deep blue under the light, like a car wrapped in a color-changing film. Yet, its color was very natural, not stiff or dry like dyed hair at all. Almost every strand felt as smooth as silk to the touch.

Chen Xuan adjusted her damp bangs, and the girl's face was fully revealed.

Like her hair, her face was adorned with obviously exaggerated makeup. Rose-colored eyeshadow almost completely covered her eye sockets, and her eyelashes were as long as if they had been implanted. Her lips were very small, and her lip gloss had a strong metallic sheen. Theoretically, such heavy makeup would easily smudge during intense combat, but she managed to maintain her appearance throughout. It could only be said that the cosmetics were worthy of being created with future technology.

Chen Xuan also noticed that there were several data ports below her ears, and a nearby indicator light flashed from deep yellow to green. This might indicate that her condition had improved, and at least her life was not in immediate danger.

Why would someone like this be sent into space, and what kind of plea would bring her to the Ability Store? These series of questions would probably have to wait until she woke up to be answered.