Chapter 56 Public Declaration

Chen Xuan had figured it out. As long as a branch store had a storefront, it could be opened, and the exact location of that entrance did not matter.

In other words, it could be opened in this world, or in the worlds of other customers.

Once a branch store was established, it was equivalent to opening a wormhole connecting to the main store, allowing travel back and forth between the two locations. This was indeed a very convenient feature. Even if he stopped selling supernatural abilities, it would still be quite suitable for delivering cross-ocean express packages.

The premise was that it would cost a large sum of money to prepare.

Now that he already had a stable channel to monetize, saving up money by practicing alchemy a bit more wasn't too difficult. The only issue was that the lease agreement had to be legal and compliant, so the location of the shop still required careful consideration; setting up a shack on the roadside wouldn't count as a branch store.

Besides, there would be no loss even if he didn't open a branch store, so he didn't need to rush into testing this function.

Jingle-ling~

The windchime on the door curtain rang as another customer walked into the shop.

"Welcome." Chen Xuan put down the manual, looked toward the door, and saw that the visitor was none other than the old man who bought cigarettes, followed by several people behind him—adults and children alike. Without any introduction, it was obvious this was his entire family.

"Young man, did I hear that you went to the pedestrian plaza today as well?" The old man routinely picked up a pack of Furongwang cigarettes.

Another woman was pretending to look at the shelves, but the corner of her eye kept glancing toward the counter.

Who else could it be if not the old man's daughter?

Chen Xuan felt a slight surprise. When he was following the dinosaur, he had concealed his face thoroughly; how could she still notice him? But he quickly realized that what made the connection wasn't her recognition of his appearance, but his voice. Dozens or hundreds of customers visited the shop every day. Perhaps she had previously run errands for the old man and had briefly exchanged a word or two with him.

"Who did you hear that from? I was sleeping at home all afternoon."

He adjusted his vocal cords and replied with a smile.

The voice was something very easy to alter; just by slightly constricting his throat, he could produce an entirely different tone.

"Oh, I heard it from old Zhang next door. He must have mistaken someone else for you." The old man's acting skills were top-notch. "I figured you wouldn't go either. Based on your usual temperament, you seem like the type who dislikes joining in the bustle. But you definitely missed out this time! The scene there was something else—more spectacular than any Spring Festival Gala I've seen in my entire life!"

"A dinosaur, right? I saw it on TV. It felt a bit unreal."

Chen Xuan noticed that the daughter had already looked away and was no longer paying attention to this side.

"Sigh, who's to say otherwise, but it turned out to be real!" The old man said with lingering fascination, "That one with the extra-long neck..."

"Auntie said it's called a Brontosaurus!" shouted the little boy in their family.

"Right, right, right, it's a Brontosaurus. When the Brontosaurus stretched its neck over the railing to eat the trees beside the zoo, everyone on the spot saw it. It was definitely the real deal, drool still dripping from its mouth!"

Chen Xuan deliberately exclaimed in amazement, "That's too magical. Did you guys stay there watching until just now before coming back?"

"How could that be? There was a massive traffic jam on the road. All four cross-river bridges were completely gridlocked, probably all because people rushed out to rubberneck. You have no idea, the vehicles on the street were lined up from beginning to end, so far you couldn't see the tail end."

***

While chatting, they finished checking out. Just as the old man's family was about to leave, the wall-mounted television suddenly cut into an unusual broadcast.

"We interrupt with an emergency news flash!"

"This station has received a notice that an organization calling itself the 'Limitation Authority' has broadcasted a message globally and will make a public statement in three minutes."

Then the screen changed to a three-minute countdown.

The customers in the shop couldn't help but look at each other in dismay; this was the first time they had ever witnessed such a situation.

The same went for Chen Xuan. In the past twenty-six years, he had never seen a television station halt all programming and waste a precious three minutes to broadcast a color-bar countdown. He had seen this standby screen filled with grids and colorful lines on the internet before, but that belonged to scheduled programming intervals rather than cutting off existing programs specifically to wait for an upcoming news release.

"What's going on?"

"No idea, let's watch in a minute."

Those short three minutes felt as long as thirty.

Not only did the old man's family not leave, but more and more neighborhood residents squeezed into the shop, gathering in front of the television and discussing the hidden meaning behind this emergency news.

Lin Qing also walked down from the second floor.

She exchanged a glance with Chen Xuan and stared silently at the television.

The moment the countdown ended, a new feed came on. Judging by the background, it seemed to be some formal assembly hall with a podium, a backdrop, seating, and many reporters gathered below.

A man was standing at the podium.

He looked to be around forty, wearing glasses and having a very scholarly appearance. Facing such a formal occasion, he wasn't wearing a suit and tie, but a white laboratory coat, as if he had just walked out of some research facility.

"Why is it him?" the old man's daughter let out a surprised whisper.

"Who is he?"

"You know this person?" neighboring customers immediately asked.

"His name is Jiang Yiheng, a well-known heavyweight across several academic fields," she explained. "Anyone who pays slight attention to today's cutting-edge technology knows who he is. He graduated from a top domestic university, pursued his Ph.D. at a top American university, and later became a Yangtze River Scholar, holding research projects in many countries. Especially in nuclear physics, superconducting physics, bioelectronics, and bionic machinery research, the laboratories he leads are at the world's leading levels."

Hearing her say this, Chen Xuan faintly recalled him as well.

Back when he was still working at a major tech company, he had heard colleagues chat about such a titan, but as a coder, it had little to do with these fields, so he hadn't paid much attention.

"Hello everyone, I am Jiang Yiheng, the current head of the Limitation Authority," the man on the stage pushed up his glasses and said in a brisk tone. "I apologize for taking up everyone's rest time tonight. What happened at the Jiangcheng Fauna and Flora Park—I only learned about it an hour ago."

"Lies."

Chen Xuan heard Lin Qing mutter softly.

***

"Things have reached this point, and it is no longer appropriate for me to beat around the bush. That's right, those so-called 'abilities' on the internet do indeed exist, and they might manifest in any one of you."

As soon as these words were spoken, the camera flashes below lit up continuously!

The customers in the shop were also in an uproar!

Jiang Yiheng continued, "However, I dislike generalizing it as an ability. In my view, it is more like a curse—a poison that allows people to taste sweetness in the short term, but becomes like a lingering disease clinging to the bones over time. It comes from the erosion of other worlds, or gravitational pull; the specific reasons remain unclear, but the intuitive feeling is that our world is becoming riddled with holes."

He pressed the remote control in his hand, and a video appeared on the large backdrop behind him.

"Isn't that the botanical garden in our city?" someone immediately recognized.

"The primeval forest landscape area, right? I went there just last month."

From the video, a space completely out of place appeared among the trees cultivated to mimic a rainforest. Its edges twisted incessantly like sawteeth, while the interior presented a dim, murky green color. This green merged with the surrounding forest, interpenetrating each other like a watercolor painting ruined by water.

"This is erosion," Jiang Yiheng spoke again. "As everyone can see, the space of our world has decreased and been invaded. Even with strict controls, medium-level and above intrusion points are very difficult to eliminate in a short period of time; they might persist for five years, ten years... or even longer. Here, I must strongly condemn those thugs who activated and expanded the intrusion point in the Jiangcheng Botanical Garden! They intentionally lured a large number of residents to the location, wanting to create a sensational effect, which fundamentally placed tens of thousands of ordinary people in extreme danger!"

"Regardless of the intense radiation and gravitational distortion generated when two worlds overlap, countless dangers exist on the opposite side of the intrusion point, such as unknown bacteria, viruses, harmful species, and so on. It also makes the public more prone to mutation... This utterly callous disregard for life is no different from terrorism, with the only difference being that they not only kill people, but also bring severe chaos and destruction to social order! What is even more hateful is that they are well aware of these side effects!"

"The Limitation Authority has always chosen to conceal the relevant news precisely out of this concern. Having guns in everyone's hands is already terrifying enough, let alone those unpredictable abilities? According to our statistics, for every additional intrusion event that occurs, the crime rate in that region rises by 2 points. I can assert right now that crime phenomena in Jiangcheng will increase significantly over the next three years, and a considerable portion of them will be related to ability-related crimes."

Upon hearing that crime would increase, everyone became somewhat restless. "Is that true? Can the police catch those people committing crimes with abilities?"

"You're overthinking it, aren't you? What else do they do besides gloss things over?"

"If they could be caught, the gang stirring up trouble in the botanical garden would have been caught long ago."

Chen Xuan coughed twice. "Keep it down, the broadcast on TV isn't finished yet."

Jiang Yiheng raised his hand, signaling the reporters to quiet down as well. "Additionally, I must emphasize one point: the Authority has never persecuted or controlled ability users. Instead, it has always maintained a good cooperative relationship with them. A simple fact is that some members within the Authority are people with abilities themselves; how could they persecute themselves? This is an obvious slander by the enemy, yet pathetically, many people who don't know the truth have taken it for truth."

"Therefore, starting today, the Limitation Authority has decided to change its original course and display the necessity and legitimacy of our work to everyone with an open attitude. We welcome cooperation from governments and agencies of all countries to jointly combat intrusions and increase the prevention and crackdown on ability-related crimes. The Authority is also willing to share past research achievements on abilities, turning them from a curse into something that can genuinely benefit humanity."

"Likewise, to avoid the abuse and blind use of abilities, we plan to open recruitment to the public. Anyone who suspects they possess abilities, as well as those who have abilities but do not know how to use them, can come to the recruitment centers to participate in testing, have their questions answered, or even join the Limitation Authority family and contribute together to protecting the stability of the world!"

His final sentence was powerful and resolute.

Thunderous applause instantly erupted from the audience below!