Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 197 A Day Trip to the New City
On the other side, Chen Xuan woke up early in the morning and found that there was only one guard left outside the compound.

"Good morning." Liu Shuyue's voice came from behind.

She was also holding two plates in her hands.

Chen Xuan discovered that the plate contained fried eggs!

"You did this?" He was quite surprised.

Because he clearly remembered that Liu Shuyue couldn't cook. When she was fighting demons in the Great Qi Kingdom, she either packed dry food at the post station or just starved. In any case, cultivators are very resilient and can survive for ten or fifteen days without dying.

"Miss Lin taught me; she said that cooking occasionally is a kind of fun."

Is it fun? Chen Xuan sensed a conspiracy. Lin Qing was clearly using Xiao Lü to control her body to do these things.

Seeing Liu Shuyue's expectant eyes, he felt embarrassed to refuse, so he sat down at the table, picked up a fried egg and took a bite.

Well, overall the taste was pretty good. Besides the aroma of the eggs themselves, there was also salt and a little pepper for garnish.

Of course, it's quite difficult to make a fried egg taste bad, and seeing that it wasn't a culinary disaster, he felt a little disappointed.

"How is it?" Liu Shuyue asked.

"Delicious, very delicious." Chen Xuan swallowed both fried eggs whole.

"That's good." She smiled happily, which made Chen Xuan momentarily dazed.

"Ahem... I didn't expect you to know how to use the kitchen utensils here."

"It's not difficult at all, it's similar to what you get in stores, and if you don't understand anything, just ask Amy."

"Amy, your best smart assistant." A mechanical voice came from under the table.

Chen Xuan was startled. When did this thing get under the dining table?
He told Liu Shuyue about his discovery.

The latter nodded, "I noticed that too. They left after 7 o'clock, and no replacements have been made since."

"Did the person taking over slack off?" Chen Xuan said half-jokingly.

“The quarantine period has ended,” Amy suddenly interjected. “Quarantine usually only lasts 12 hours; any longer could be a violation of human rights. And since you didn’t mutate within 12 hours, the probability of subsequent mutations is infinitely close to zero, so there’s no need to undergo quarantine anymore.”

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Really?"

“Of course it’s true. As an intelligent assistant, Amy never lies.” Its monotone mechanical voice sounded very serious. “You can stay here temporarily, or you can choose to rent a place yourself, but either way, you’ll need euros. So Amy suggests that you start working as soon as possible to make a living in this city. If you want to check job postings, just tell Amy ‘Find me a job.’”

“I won’t say.” Chen Xuan rolled his eyes at it. What’s wrong with this thing… It’s clearly a high-tech product, but the words it says are so suffocating, “Working? I’ll never work again in my life.”

"The new Parisian city does not support idlers. If you do not work for an extended period of time, you may be deported."

"I won't say either."

Amy remained silent, seemingly having never seen such an outsider before.

"By the way, are there any repair shops in town?" Chen Xuan changed the subject.

"Yes, we do. Would you like to have mechanical or electronic equipment repaired?"

To be honest, he wasn't sure what category the store's items fell into, but let's just assume it's the latter... "electronic products."

“I’ve calculated the best route for you,” Amy replied quickly. “Would you like me to call a taxi for you?”

Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue exchanged a glance, then decisively shook their heads. "No need, we'll walk!"

Ten minutes later, the two walked out of the courtyard.

The guards did not stop them, and even nodded politely to them.

Chen Xuan took the opportunity to admire the large house, which was built like a villa, but was intended for the quarantine of outsiders. He wondered if New Paris City was ridiculously rich in resources, or if they were continuing their previous practices towards refugees. "If I don't rent a place, how long can I stay here?"

He asked Amy. "One month," the cylindrical machine replied, leading the way. "Extensions are possible in special circumstances, but a written application must be submitted to the ruling court. Of course, the room rate has already been charged starting today."

"What should we do? We don't seem to have any money..." Liu Shuyue muttered softly.

She didn't want to owe anyone even the slightest thing.

Chen Xuan calmly pulled a roll of banknotes from his pocket. "Don't worry, I have some."

"This is... money from the jewelry store?"

"Hmm~" he smugly hummed.

While everyone was focused on the insect-faced monster, he casually picked up two rolls of banknotes in decent condition and put them in his pocket. He didn't intend to use them; it was simply because he encountered an abandoned city environment that triggered his passive ability to scavenge.

The view of New Paris from the cable car is one thing, and the view from below is quite another.

From a ground-level perspective, it looks almost exactly like a normal city. Cars come and go on the roads, and plane trees and ginkgo trees line both sides. Many shops are open as usual, except that they are selling everyday goods instead of luxury items.

The ceiling is composed of a blue sky and fluffy white clouds—of course, these are all fake, "animation effects" created by holographic projection. The real dome is only a little over a hundred meters above the ground, covered with artificial light strips to provide a continuous source of light for the crops.

That's right, all the crops here are grown on the rooftops of buildings, just like multi-story parking garages, with many levels.

The light exists 24 hours a day and will never go out.

So the nights in the new Paris belong to each individual house – their windows automatically change their transparency and at night they simulate nighttime lighting, so once you open the window, you'll find it's still bright outside.

These messages all came from Amy's introduction, and Chen Xuan had already verified the latter point last night.

It's clear that even though humans had no choice but to flee underground, within the limits of technology, people still want to make their lives as normal as possible.

It was as if the escape had never happened.

On the bright side, this helps maintain morale and ensure social stability. On the other hand, a stable life can easily lead to complacency and a gradual loss of the courage to fight back.

That being said, Chen Xuan enjoyed himself without any qualms—after all, he wasn't from this world. Once he fixed the barcode scanner or found a way back to the intrusion point, he could just pack up and leave, and whatever became of New Paris would be none of his business. So he took Liu Shuyue shopping and browsing, trying drinks, ice cream, pastries, fish fillets… whatever looked decent, the two of them tried it all.

Moreover, Chen Xuan hadn't spent those banknotes yet.

Because any outsider entering Paris automatically receives a credit line of 2000 euros; all they need to do is scan their face.

After walking around for two hours, the two of them, along with their guide, finally arrived at the repair shop.

This is also the only electronics repair shop in the entire city.

Its name is "Atoms and Electrons," which, regardless of how awkward the pronunciation is, immediately exudes scientific value. Its storefront doesn't resemble a small workshop; rather, it's more like a lavish museum, boasting a hall of at least 1,000 square meters in the center of a commercial plaza, filled with various glass display cases.

Chen Xuan walked into the store and found that there were many people queuing in front of the counter, and there were more than a dozen reception windows.

In this respect, its working model is very similar to that of a bank.

"Does that mean there's a repairman sitting behind every counter?" Chen Xuan muttered. "I guess I can just find a line and wait in line."

"Hello, is there anything you want to fix?" Just as he hesitated, a man in a suit and white gloves walked over and asked him.

Chen Xuan noticed that the other person was also wearing a translator on their ear.

"Yes, should I just queue up or pay first?"

"It seems you haven't been in New Paris long..." the other person explained. "If you want to get something repaired, you first need to get an item rating. The rarer the item, the higher the window rating you'll get."

"I see, so repairmen are also divided into different levels." Chen Xuan immediately understood. "Thank you."

To his surprise, the man chuckled, "A repairman? No, no, no... We don't have any repairmen in our shop. This is actually a factory for curiosities."

(End of this chapter)