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Chapter 352: Chapter 352: Breaking Through the Heavens

"Great, great, great!" Du Pingzhang clapped his hands and said joyfully, "With your participation at Sha River station, we will surely gain more power to protect ourselves in this chaotic world. Now then... Sasha!"

A voluptuous woman entered from the side door, "Leader, I’m here."

She wore a classic black blazer and a knee-length skirt, appearing to be around thirty years old with long wavy hair cascading down her back, her expression between her brows was quite charming.

"This is my secretary." Du Pingzhang introduced, "Sasha, take our guests to have their abilities tested and help them complete the registration process."

"Yes, please follow me." The woman gestured to them.

Just as Chen Xuan pondered how the tests would be conducted, familiar door frame-like machines appeared in the next room.

"Ah," Jiang Siqi exclaimed softly, "aren’t these the gadgets used by the agency?"

"Yeah, is there a problem?" Sasha asked puzzled, "The QB107 detection machine is considered the best in precision among its generation."

"Which generation are we using?" Wang Baihu asked Honglian quietly.

"Who knows." Honglian replied.

"It’s QB102..." Little Pigeon reminded softly, "Xiao Canong had it airlifted from headquarters specifically."

"I scored 178 last time..." Jiang Siqi seemed eager, "I wonder how much I’ve improved now."

"Oh? Miss Jiang has such a strong ability response?" Sasha looked at her with some surprise, "200 is considered the threshold between outstanding and top-tier."

"Uh... it was a long time ago, and I might have used a different machine..." Jiang Siqi’s confidence waned slightly at Sasha’s words, "The base score should be 50, right?"

Below 50 indicates that the probability of that person having abilities is almost zero.

"Yes, all brands of detection machines have adopted this standard, but the ranges above that differ." Sasha laughed, "For instance, detection machines from companies like Allspirit and Aishin favor more exaggerated numbers, which makes customers happy. Now then... the machine is ready, who wants to step up first?"

Everyone’s gaze turned to Jiang Siqi.

She suddenly became nervous, "I-I’m not ready yet..."

"I’ll go first." Liuli adjusted her hat calmly and stepped onto the machine.

The result came out quickly.

"Score: 0." The machine reported briskly.

Sasha’s smile froze on her face, and a hint of doubt appeared in her gaze, "Even an ordinary person scores at least a dozen points... are you really all Ability Users?"

She really wasn’t ordinary, which suggested the machine’s accuracy was quite high. Chen Xuan shrugged, "I don’t know what Zhuang Yu told you, but I never claimed we were all Ability Users."

"I see... then this Liuli lady can’t enjoy the special treatment." Sasha skeptically drew a line through a name on the list, "Resources are precious nowadays, and fairness is essential in resource allocation at bases. I’ve seen many who weren’t Ability Users pretend to be and come to bases to freeload, but eventually, they ended up on the Refugee Mutual Aid Association’s blacklist."

Jiang Siqi’s brows furrowed immediately.

"You have no idea of Miss Liuli’s capabilities. Fine... I’ll go next." Her dissatisfaction overcame her hesitation, and as soon as Liuli stepped off the machine, she got on immediately.

"Score: 223."

"See!" Jiang Siqi was delighted instantly, "I knew I had improved!"

"You’ve surpassed the top-tier threshold." Sasha was quite surprised, "With talents like yours, why haven’t you joined any Ability User organizations?"

"Uh... you mean the agency?"

"Not just the agency... Evangelical Association, World Heart Association, Fate Guild... didn’t any of those organizations approach you?"

Indeed, coming to the future to gather intelligence was a correct decision, Chen Xuan thought, utterly unexpected to hear the name "World Heart" from someone else’s mouth. Such is the power of time... Information that was highly classified a century ago has become common knowledge after a century’s baptism.

"Do you think being an Ability User means you must align with them?" Chen Xuan interjected before Jiang Siqi could speak.

He knew now wasn’t the right moment to delve further.

"That’s not what I meant." Sasha quickly waved her hands, "But they have great influence and claim that Ability Users are the hope of the world... they’re certainly more appealing to newly awakened individuals."

"Ability Users are the hope of the world?" Honglian sneered, "Unbelievable that the agency would say such a thing."

"Does that include the Evangelical Association?" Wang Baihu couldn’t help but ask, "Miss Zhuang said they have already betrayed humanity."

"Well... I can only say everyone has different opinions. Moreover, the Evangelical Association and Evangelicals aren’t completely equivalent." She shook her head, seemingly reluctant to delve deeper, "In any case, as long as they don’t provoke our base, I don’t think there’s much need to criticize their choice."

No need... to criticize much?

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow, which was a drastically different stance from Zhuang Yu’s opinion.

According to the Searcher’s description, the Evangelicals committed all sorts of evildoings, attracting nano-living bodies to attack them by deliberately not wearing protective gear, attacking transport convoys and plundering base residents, spreading evil thoughts in Jiang City, and luring desperate people to join them...

Whenever Searchers encountered Evangelicals in the wild, one side inevitably wouldn’t survive.

A lot of residents paid the price with their lives for this, yet the leader’s secretary was unwilling to criticize them?

And usually, secretaries often represent their boss’s intentions.

This attitude seemed quite subtle.

While pondering this, the scores of the others came out as well. Little Pigeon scored 140, Wang Baihu 201, and Honglian 198, all exceeding the baseline of 50.

"Amazing... incredible talents!" Sasha exclaimed, "With such ability responses, if coupled with some basic physical modifications, I think you’d all fit right into the strike team."

"What does the strike team do?" Honglian inquired.

"It’s the elite squad under the Refugee Mutual Aid Association, all core members are Ability Users, and they receive the best treatment and resources in the base." The secretary explained, "If any base is threatened by nano-living bodies, they’re the main combat force."

"This machine must be faulty, no way is my score lower than Jiang Siqi’s?" Wang Baihu kicked the machine’s frame, "She shouldn’t be able to beat me."

"Not necessarily." Jiang Siqi immediately retorted, "Can you beat the team leader? She hasn’t said anything, why are you complaining!"

The former was momentarily speechless.

Little Pigeon wasn’t bothered about his score, "This scoring doesn’t equate to specific ability effectiveness, and this isn’t your first test. It indicates the likelihood of awakening as an Ability User, higher scores merely mean greater potential."

"You’re both right and wrong." The secretary added pleasantly, "Reliable research shows that the stronger the ability response, the more effective a person uses the same ability. It’s indeed not suitable for cross-ability comparisons, but as a talent standard, it’s quite accurate."

Jiang Siqi’s lips curled upwards, "Am I truly a genius?"

"Yes, that’s indisputable." Sasha finished recording their scores and turned to Chen Xuan, "One person left... please step up for detection."

Chen Xuan nodded, moving under the archway.

He intended to discard all abilities before stepping up, unfortunately, the base couldn’t connect to the shop inventory, so he’d have to undergo testing as is.

"Score: 9..."

The machine emitted an odd report.

9? Chen Xuan frowned, surely he wasn’t so lacking in talent as to not even count as an Ability User? Or could it be this thing could precisely exclude shop-given abilities, assessing his true level?

He looked at the others and found everyone was staring in shock.

Even Honglian showed a disbelieving expression.

"9... 99?" Little Pigeon gasped in amazement.

What?

Chen Xuan realized something was amiss, hurriedly jumped off the machine, and looked back, only to see the screen flashing with garbled data, yet faintly showing three "9"s.

Soon after, a puff of blue smoke emerged from the door frame, and with a soft pop, the machine fully broke down.