Chapter 395: Chapter 395: Scheming Hearts
It wasn’t just her posture. The adornments on the other party were also pitifully few—no earrings, no rings; the exposed skin showed no tattoos. Her ten pale fingers were interlaced on the table, nails neatly trimmed, with only a ladies’ wristwatch on her wrist.
Even Honglian seemed a bit fashionable and avant-garde compared to her.
The Black man beside Abigail, however, looked much more "normal": about forty, with a close-cropped buzz cut, exaggerated tattoos all over his neck and arms, and a bullet necklace hanging on his chest. He was also sizing up the two people who had just entered the room—seasoned features, eyes sharp as a hawk. One look and you could tell he was not some random street punk, but someone who had been through real battles.
"Abigail... your eyes..." Honglian froze for a moment at the sight of her old classmate’s appearance.
Obviously, she hadn’t been wearing this kind of thing ten-plus years ago.
"Don’t worry. My eyes don’t lose their ability to observe just because of this strip of cloth. Or rather, this way I can see even more clearly."
Abigail raised her hand. "Let me introduce you. This is Reid, same as me, a member of the Discipline Inspection Group—consider him my adjutant."
"Nice to meet you."
Reid stood up and took the initiative to shake their hands.
Chen Xuan had already equipped "Linguistics" in advance and could now understand English fluently. The man’s palm was very broad, calluses clearly felt, almost wrapping his entire hand inside.
But at the moment of contact, Chen Xuan immediately sensed a change in his abilities.
He withdrew his hand and touched his glasses.
Sure enough, the Thousand Thoughts Sword slot had been squeezed out and replaced by a new ability: "Curse: Trembling Bomb."
He took the opportunity to glance at the man.
"Bomb Curse" LV5, blue.
—Set a condition, execute the condition, and from that moment on... both parties will be bound to the same primer. Who blows up first? Of course, the coward!
"Veteran" LV2, white.
—A guy who’s crawled through the mud of the battlefield always carries a kind of "fear nothing" swagger. But swagger doesn’t increase your bullet resistance; it just makes you die more gloriously.
Not bad... opening move is a Curse. Is this a reunion with an old classmate or a meeting with hostiles? And Honglian still trusts her this much.
Chen Xuan sneered twice in his heart.
No way this guy wasn’t specially handpicked by Abigail.
Honglian’s "King’s Castle" ability lets her instantly escape danger.
And this Bomb Curse was clearly designed to counter teleportation abilities... Although he still didn’t know its exact mechanics, judging from the description given by the Ability Store, even if Honglian teleported away, the bomb would still remain attached to her.
Chen Xuan glanced at Honglian and found that her ability panel indeed had an extra Curse ability.
Looks like the handshake is the casting channel.
Too bad they’d never imagine there exists something as unreasonable as the Ability Store in this world.
Without changing his expression, he dragged the Curse into storage.
Removing Honglian’s was a bit more troublesome. He needed to open the butler app on his phone and then change her abilities in the staff management interface.
Over there, Abigail was still introducing, "Honglian... my fellow trainee, who performed outstandingly during training—a bona fide top student. The other one... according to her, is a Wanderer."
"Shixin." Chen Xuan nodded coolly, already heightening his guard against the two. He was "doing as the Romans do," switching to a cowboy hat and mask look, and he also casually borrowed the abbreviation of the "World Ability Center" as his codename.
Honglian looked at him with some surprise.
Back at the hotel, they had discussed how to address each other. Chen Xuan’s real name definitely couldn’t be exposed to the Mechanism, so only giving a surname was reasonable enough. But "Shixin" was clearly a codename made up on the spot; add the concealed face and his cold reaction, and it easily gave off an insincere impression to the other side.
Once everyone sat down, the atmosphere in the room felt stiff for a moment.
Old classmates who hadn’t met in ten years should, upon reunion, be full of emotion, pouring their hearts out. But after that introduction of Abigail’s, any sense of nostalgia was gone. The two sides were practically conducting a negotiation.
And the kind where, if talks fell through, they’d go straight into a kill-or-be-killed showdown.
Chen Xuan couldn’t help but feel aggrieved on Honglian’s behalf. She really had come here sincerely to seek help from an old classmate, even preparing a gift in advance. Yet the other side had been plotting against her from the start. If he hadn’t been around, she would probably have been hit and not even realized it.
"How long has it been since we last saw each other?" In the end it was Honglian who broke the deadlock. "Didn’t expect you’d already become a leader at Headquarters."
"Twelve years, six months, and seven days," Abigail replied flatly. "With your performance, getting into Headquarters wasn’t a problem at all, but in the end you chose a branch. Back then you said Headquarters was an island—if it strays too far from the world, it can no longer witness the chaos of the world first-hand."
"Uh..." A hint of surprise flickered across Honglian’s face. "You still remember that?"
"Of course. Not many people outperformed me during assessments. I respected your choice, and I thought you’d become one of the key figures in the Dimensional Limit Mechanism’s external expansion. So when I first heard news that you’d betrayed the Mechanism, I immediately assumed it was a rumor." At this point, she turned toward Chen Xuan. "But the facts in front of me are that you did indeed withdraw from the organization and are collaborating with an illegal Wanderer. Because of this, the Jiang City branch collapsed... quite an ironic outcome."
Chen Xuan frowned, just about to speak, when Honglian reached out under the table to stop him.
"If you really thought I was a traitor, you wouldn’t have asked to meet me here," Honglian said disapprovingly. "What I acknowledge is the Dimensional Limit’s理念, not blind loyalty to the Mechanism itself—especially after some things I’ve been through. It’s no longer as pure as it used to be."
She then briefly recounted what Elorie and the Jiang City branch had done in that other world.
Unexpectedly, after listening, the other party only gave a small nod. "That’s it?"
"What..." Honglian was stunned.
"It’s not just the Jiang City branch. Similar incidents have happened across various branches: unreasonable detention, interrogation of Ability Users... and if they’re hostile Ability Users, their treatment is even harsher. In addition, many of the corporations nurtured by the Mechanism have, in turn, started exerting influence on it—using abilities to leap beyond the boundaries of the law. In reality, that’s already a common occurrence."
"Since you know all this, how can you still think it’s no big deal!?" Honglian couldn’t help raising her voice. "Is that so-called justice of yours no longer important?"
"It is important, but some things are more important." Abigail replied without hesitation. "You’re not the first person to question the Mechanism. But you have to admit—it’s still the best maintainer of order we currently have."
Honglian stared at her for a while, as though she were getting to know this classmate all over again.
"Maybe I shouldn’t have come to you for help." She shook her head, stood up, and said to Chen Xuan, "Let’s go."
"Wait. You have nothing else you want to say?" Abigail, however, called her back.
"What, am I supposed to persuade you to reclaim the justice in your heart?" Honglian said irritably.
The other woman remained silent.
It was Chen Xuan whose thoughts stirred. "I’m guessing what your classmate wants to ask about is... Ascension?"
Abigail and Reid immediately turned their gaze to him in unison.
So he’d guessed right.
Chen Xuan shrugged. "The Mechanism can’t lead to true Ascension. Your approach won’t work. In the end it’ll only push the world toward destruction."
For the first time, Abigail’s hands clasped tightly together. "...Do you have evidence?"
"Sure, but I can’t show it to you." He curled his lips in a smirk and said in a mocking tone, "Just like how you lot always hide your own secrets."
"And you?" She looked to Honglian again. "Have you seen it?"
"I’ve seen it," Honglian said crossly. "He’s not wrong."
"I see. Then your defection is at least understandable." Hearing this, Abigail suddenly adjusted her wording. "Even though I’ll reserve judgment until I see the evidence with my own eyes, this at least lets me understand your resolve."
Honglian looked utterly confused.
Abigail didn’t explain further and instead continued, "Next, I still have to rule out one possibility—that is, that neither of you belongs to the Evangelical Association."
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