Chapter 383: Chapter 383: Probing
"Thank you for your invitation. I barely had lunch because I was waiting for this banquet." Liuli naturally wrapped one hand around Chen Xuan’s arm and covered her mouth with the other as she chuckled softly.
"Hahaha... The chefs here will surely not disappoint you," Du Pingzhang said cheerfully. "I have other guests to attend to, so please excuse me."
One has to admit... she’s really good at this.
Chen Xuan initially thought he was the one guiding her into this deal, but it turned out she was guiding him instead.
"Where did you learn all these things?" he asked in a low voice.
"Time teaches everything." Liuli winked at him. "You didn’t think all I could do was wield a blade, did you? The seal consumed most of my years, but even brief moments of activation are eras beyond your human comprehension."
Alright, alright... As expected of a strange artifact, she speaks with such confidence.
"Now you’ll tell me the real reason you brought me here, right?" she asked.
"I want to confirm something. You don’t need to do anything, just follow me to say hello."
Chen Xuan scanned the room and quickly located the Arbitration Court officer among the crowd. To his surprise, Lin was not the center of the party; she sat alone at the bar, without even a companion, while other mechanical officers had at least two or three people from the location company. This clearly wasn’t a station master’s arrangement.
If it wasn’t intentional, it simply meant... she wasn’t particularly interested in these parties either.
This was a good opportunity.
Chen Xuan led Liuli briskly to her back, coughing lightly twice, "Good evening, Miss Lin."
She turned her head with a frown, surprised to see Chen Xuan, "It’s you."
Her face quickly shed its boredom, and Lin couldn’t help but smile slightly, "You finally made it, have a seat. This is..."
Her gaze turned to Liuli.
"She’s my partner, also an Ability User, named Liuli."
"Hello, nice to meet you." Liuli proactively shook her hand.
At the same time, Chen Xuan activated the Divine Eye Technique, observing her every move.
"Ah... oh." Lin seemed a little distracted, nodding perfunctorily, and after shaking hands, she immediately shifted her gaze away, seemingly losing interest in Liuli, "Hello."
Chen Xuan laughed internally.
Perhaps Lin herself didn’t even realize that the moment their eyes met, her pupils contracted sharply. After withdrawing her hand, her fingertips quivered slightly, and she even subconsciously covered the hand she shook with her other hand afterward.
There was no doubt she didn’t recognize Liuli.
Her memory shouldn’t have any trace of Liuli.
Yet, in reality, she had an almost instinctual reaction to a stranger.
Chen Xuan felt instantly confident about his plan.
He gestured to Liuli, "Go get some food, and bring me some too."
"Alright." The latter agreed straightforwardly.
"She’s quite good-looking." Lin waved her hand with some doubt, her peripheral vision catching her back as she left, "What’s your relationship with her?"
"We’re partners."
"I meant something else."
Chen Xuan was slightly taken aback by her inquiry, "No, there’s nothing."
Lin seemed quite satisfied with this answer, "Then it seems she might be clinging to you. She lacks the talent of an Ability User, at best just a bit stronger than an ordinary person. You made the right choice not picking her."
Chen Xuan almost choked on his drink, what kind of logic is that?
"Is talent...so important?"
"Of course, it’s the most crucial asset for an Ability User. In the organization, if you want to gain attention, having talent is essential." She poured a drink for Chen Xuan, "Through generations of nurturing, we will eventually welcome the Omnipotents. This group will represent humanity in winning the war against the nano-living bodies."
He feigned a surprised expression, "Omnipotents? What kind of people are they?"
Lin smiled without giving a direct answer, "People beyond your imagination. If you join the organization, their birth would also have your contribution."
How ironic.
The organization once utterly mistrusted wild Ability Users. Not only did they want to monopolize abilities, but they also attempted to completely block the path of newly awakened individuals through cybernetic technology.
Now they’re pinning all their hopes on Ability Users.
Artificially cultivating super Ability Users? This almost indirectly confirms that the Dimensional Limit Mechanism has the means to inherit and unify abilities.
"I’m curious, how do you determine if we have talent?"
Chen Xuan asked the question on his mind.
It made sense that she couldn’t gauge Liuli, as the latter wasn’t even human.
Did I pose a threat to her? That’s clearly a falsehood; if her instincts were that sharp, Liuli should have been her primary concern.
He’s already reviewed all of Lin’s abilities, and none belong to the detection class.
"Does that bother you?" Lin pointed to the glass, "Drink, and I’ll tell you."
Chen Xuan didn’t hesitate, raising his head to down it.
After all, he was no longer a mere mortal; the effects of alcohol on his body were negligible.
She raised her eyebrows in surprise, then burst out laughing, "Alright, alright, you’re quite straightforward. The answer is simple, my eyes are equipped with the latest detection device, capable of automatically evaluating the talents of nearby Ability Users. You’re the only one here capable of setting off its alarm."
So that’s how it is.
"So how much am I worth?"
Lin snorted with laughter, "Our people have investigated. You were rated 999 on the QB107, but that was actually a bug in the old machine – certain standard weights are set too high, causing value errors. The new generation of equipment no longer uses numbers for measurement, so you don’t have a so-called score."
Chen Xuan felt slightly disappointed, "Is that so..."
"Don’t be disappointed. I think your talent level is sufficient for you to become an Arbitration Court officer." Lin looked at the people attending the banquet, "Most of the people here are no different from mud; whether they live or die makes no impact on the world."
Her demeanor was entirely different from when she stepped off the spaceship.
Clearly, her prior courtesy was just a facade.
"What about the people you came with?" Chen Xuan pointed to her companions, "What level of Ability Users are they?"
"Mid-level, their greatest use is interacting with ordinary people. If I were to do it, I might end up killing them all one day." Lin joked half-heartedly.
Chen Xuan chuckled, not engaging further, "What’s a liaison officer supposed to do? I’ve never done this kind of work before."
"It’s simple. Tell us what we want to know, take us where we want to go, not much different from a guide." She replied easily, "Any local can do this job. I just prefer dealing with Ability Users."
"Quite a few members of the Evangelical Association are also Ability Users."
"Don’t mention those lunatics." Lin’s face immediately changed, speaking with disgust, "They can even give up their human identity to serve the nano-living bodies. What’s there to talk about with such traitors of humanity? If it weren’t for them creating the earliest batch of weapon-grade nano-living bodies, the world wouldn’t be in this state."
This wasn’t just an excuse from the organization; Chen Xuan could confirm from Ma Kang’s account: the nano insect disaster was the Evangelical Association’s creation. It was this power that completely shifted the balance of power between the organization and the Evangelical Association.
But the question is... the organization should have been the first to develop the nano insects.
According to Lin Qing, the Dimensional Limit Mechanism was responsible for the nano insect infestation as part of their push for universal cyberneticization. Theoretically, the nano insect technology was already in the organization’s labs before the mass adoption of second-generation cybernetics.
Why was it the Evangelical Association that weaponized it in the end?
Chen Xuan couldn’t comprehend but dared not ask casually.
As an "outsider," he couldn’t possibly know the origins of the nano insect technology.
So he could only ask questions that a common person might be curious about, like "What is the state of the rest of the world now?"
"Want to know?" Lin filled his glass again, "Drink."
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