Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 192 Past Events in Xincheng

"Those two... one is called Chen Xuan, and the other Liu Shuyue. Although they are powerful Wanderers, they were very approachable and easy to get along with," Elori said frankly. "...Later, I searched for something with them in the abandoned city, it seemed to be a barcode scanner, but I'm not too sure...after all, they were obviously hiding a lot of secrets, and I was too embarrassed to ask them..."

Lin Qing was overjoyed!

I didn't expect to find out their whereabouts so easily!
Keeping the guests here was definitely the right choice.

In other words, the world the store is currently connected to is where Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue are. If she weren't completely unaware of the outside world, she would have rushed out to find them immediately.

However, Lin Qing maintained a faint smile on her face and continued to listen to the customer's story.

"...It wasn't until I entered the Second New Paris that I realized over a century had passed since I entered the world I knew," Elori said, reminiscing. She knew she didn't need to go into such detail, but she just wanted to—otherwise, it felt like a heavy stone was pressing on her heart, making it hard to breathe. Everyone in the palace was a complete stranger, and the two wandering companions she had finally become acquainted with weren't there. She had nowhere to confide in, so she left her bedroom late at night and wandered aimlessly.

"The demons are gone, the angels are gone... but a new enemy has descended from the sky and destroyed all of Europe. Perhaps other continents have also been devastated, but due to the global communication blackout, people here are unaware of the situation elsewhere."

Falling from the sky?

Lin Qing couldn't help but think of the fallen Crystal Palace.

However, given their technological level, they probably can't build something like the Crystal Palace, which is close to a space city. Theoretically speaking, the Crystal Palace can be continuously expanded and assembled; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it the first astronomical megastructure in human history.

Wait a minute... Elori's world and Jiangcheng's world are very similar. Considering the major events of the same period in history, could it be that pile of nuclear bombs launched by extreme environmentalists?

"Is it a nuclear strike?" Lin Qing asked.

The other person shook their head. "The attack came from the moon. The enemy's method of attack... was with rocks."

Elori's thoughts seemed to drift back twelve hours...

……

“Do you want to know about the Angel Alliance? If so, get in the car,” Raphael whispered in her ear.

Elori was stunned; she hadn't expected to hear that name from the other person.

Everyone knows that angels exist, but the Angel Alliance is a secret society, completely different from organizations like the Dimensional Authority that publicize their superpowers.

Of course she did.

If she could contact the Angel Alliance, she would have found a powerful backer, which would undoubtedly make things much easier, whether it was to repay the two wanderers or to find a way back to the past.

After much deliberation, Elori finally decided to say goodbye to Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue for the time being and board the bus again.

After driving for about twenty more minutes, the car stopped in front of a magnificent palace. She got out of the car and immediately saw the familiar glass pyramid in the palace square. There was no doubt that this palace, along with the surrounding landscape, was a replica of the Louvre. Not only was the architecture a one-to-one replica, but even the pigeons hopping around in the square were preserved exactly as they were. Someone was feeding them, and every now and then, a silly pigeon would come up to her feet.

Seeing this, Elori was deeply moved. The city on the surface was already abandoned, but the Second New Paris had truly been reborn underground.

“It’s not easy to get birds to adapt to this environment,” Raphael said with a laugh. “They are particularly sensitive and seem to know that they are far from the sky.”

"Are these pigeons trained?" she asked curiously.

“Training can’t change their nature. Their genes have been modified so that they can reproduce underground.”

Elori was taken aback. "Huh?"

“From a species perspective, they are already two different species from the flock of pigeons outside… of course, assuming those wild birds haven’t gone extinct.” Raphael patted her shoulder. “Come on, our consul is already waiting to see you in the Louvre.”

The Louvre that Elori was familiar with had gradually transformed from a royal palace into a comprehensive museum open to the public. However, history seems to have come full circle, and the Louvre in the second city of Paris has transformed back into a luxurious palace.

She wasn't sure if it was for royalty or nobility, but the armed guards standing at the entrance meant that it would no longer be open to the public.

After passing through several long corridors and checkpoints, Elori followed Raphael into a hall resembling a courthouse. On one side of the hall were seats that rose in tiers, and on the other side was a long table for the "judges."

The angel's heart skipped a beat. She suspected that Raphael was about to push her to an empty seat at the long table to be interrogated by the officials of the new Paris.

Fortunately, the people behind the long table did not glare at her.

The governor, who was sitting in the chief seat, even stood up and smiled kindly at Elori, saying, "Don't be afraid, child, come to us and let me take a good look at you."

“This is our consul, Lady Nymph,” Raphael said. “Go, she will answer all your questions.”

The other person looked to be in his seventies or eighties, with completely white hair and a face full of wrinkles, but he was in good spirits, and his smile made Elori feel a touch of warmth.

The girl walked to the table and placed her hand in the other person's palm.

The governor squeezed her hand and said with a look of relief, "I never thought that after so many years, I would still be able to see an awakened angel. This is truly a miracle created by God. May I ask first, child, where do you come from?"

“I…I don’t know how to say it.” Elori hesitated slightly. “I was chasing a demon one second, and the next second I was transported here. I can recognize that this is the city where I used to live…but it was fine when I was here.”

She omitted her journey to Jiangcheng.

“What a wonderful Paris?” Nymph looked around, exchanged glances with her colleagues, and then sighed after a moment. “I see… Although the Angel Code did mention this possibility, I never thought I would see it happen with my own eyes one day.”

"The odds are small, but not zero," another person exclaimed, clapping their hands excitedly. "Haven't we been waiting for this miracle to happen all this time?"

"Time travel...it's incredible..."

"The city of Paris was still intact at least in the last century."

Seeing that they were actually discussing it, Elori couldn't help but ask, "Excuse me, where is the Angel Alliance... now?"

The private chat paused for a moment.

Everyone looked at her, and many covered their mouths and chuckled.

“The true Angel Alliance ceased to exist a hundred years ago, because apart from you, there is no other angel on this continent.” Nymph looked at her with mixed feelings. “However, it did not completely disappear, because the creators of the Second New Paris were the Angel Alliance… ordinary people who dedicated their lives to the Alliance built this last human fortress with their own hands.”

"A hundred years ago... there were no more angels?" Elori was stunned by the news.

She could accept that this was the future of her hometown, but it was hard to believe that angels had disappeared.

"Indeed, many things have been completely changed since the demons ganged up to attack the treasure vault."

Demons banding together... that sounds equally absurd.

Those people are nothing but a bunch of profit-driven scum who will never miss an opportunity to cheat and swindle in order to satisfy their own thirst for spiritual fulfillment. How could such degenerates possibly cooperate?

But what shocked Elori even more was the second half of the sentence—the treasure vault could be said to be the Angel Alliance’s biggest secret. Even she didn’t know the exact location of the vault, and it must be heavily guarded. How could it have been invaded by demons?

“Child, you should know… what the Angel Alliance protects on a daily basis, right?” Nymph asked softly.

Elori was naturally aware of this.

Destroying demons does not require forming alliances. Angels often act alone because they can enjoy the fruits of victory on their own and use the soul power accumulated by the demons for their own benefit.

The origin of this organization is inextricably linked to "strange objects".

Strange objects have existed since the dawn of the world—they are even older than life on Earth. Some are hidden deep within the Earth's crust, while others are as readily available as flowers and plants. However, systematic research into these strange objects came relatively late, probably after the electrical revolution. After all, before being activated, a strange object might just be an ordinary coin or a plain stone. Even if someone unintentionally used them, history rarely records it.

And what can activate it... is the power of the soul, or what the dimensional limit mechanism calls "ability".

(End of this chapter)