Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 293 Hostile Ability Users

"...Should we go in?" Wang Baihu hesitated as he faced the dark entrance. No one knew when the fire would spread. If this place was also covered by flames and thick smoke, their situation would be extremely dangerous. Even if they weren't burned to death, they would most likely die from smoke inhalation and suffocation.

However, before he could ask the question, Honglian had already stepped into the underground area. "Ten minutes. Whatever we find, we'll come back out in ten minutes."

"Alright... don't forget the time you set yourself." Seeing his team leader say this, he could only helplessly follow suit.

Lin Qing patted Guagua's head, signaling it to wait outside the factory, and then she also crawled into the entrance.

This is a steep staircase; after descending about five meters, the ground begins to level out.

This is clearly not normal.

If it's a pre-designed basement, it should only be separated from the ground floor by one floor slab. This simplifies construction and makes it convenient to use. Five meters is higher than a single floor, so digging that deep is unlikely for storage.

This part seems to be a space that was temporarily renovated later.

Knowing beforehand that someone was imprisoned underground, all three carried lighting equipment, making it easy for them to see the area—it was far more spacious than expected, and a maze of interconnected paths, with a main passage branching off into numerous smaller ones. The floors and walls were hardened with cement, unlike the prison Zhang Zhiqi remembered. The acrid smell of smoke in the air indicated that air was circulating between the inside and outside.

“I bet these underground rooms have nothing to do with production,” Wang Baihu muttered. “But they don’t look like places to imprison people either.”

"why?"

"Because it's so quiet. Think about it... suddenly the smell of smoke seeps in, and it gets stronger and stronger, they'll definitely panic, right? If they panic, they'll inevitably shout and yell for them to be let out, but right now we can't hear anything..."

pat.

Honglian suddenly stopped.

She felt as if she had stepped into a puddle.

Pointing the flashlight at her feet, Honglian frowned. It was clearly flowing blood, originating from a side path to her left. Judging from the freshness of the blood, it had probably only recently left her body.

"Shh." She made a shushing gesture and stepped into the side road.

The scene before her changed again—this road led to an underground hall, about three and a half meters high, just enough to accommodate the shipping containers placed on both sides. The moment Lin Qing saw the pile of containers, she realized that this was where Zhang Zhiqi and Lu Lixin were being held.

Chen Xuanmeng actually got it right.

The metal cages I remember were indeed assembled from these boxes!
Honglian approached one of the cages and shone her flashlight inside. "There's someone inside, dead."

Lin Qing followed and saw a man lying in a pool of blood, his body twisted like a pretzel.

“There are bodies here too, more than one,” Wang Baihu said in a low voice. “My God… if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed that this could happen in Jiangcheng. Jiang Wenbin… he’s finished.”

Illegal imprisonment, murder... Such a large-scale heinous crime, and the use of a factory as a cover, if this were to be exposed, it would definitely cause a sensation across the internet.

"Arson and murder are all for destroying evidence..." Honglian said through gritted teeth, "If we had arrived a little earlier, we might have been able to save these victims..."

“A victim? I doubt it,” Lin Qing disagreed. “When I interrogated Zhang Zhiqi in the consciousness space, I found some things that differed from his confession. In his deepest thoughts, he came here voluntarily.”

"what?"

"Voluntary?" The two were both taken aback.

“That’s right, Lu Lixin’s situation is probably the same. They knew all along that this drug could awaken their abilities, and no one forced them to take it. On the contrary, they were the ones who craved the drug, afraid of missing this chance to change their fate.” Lin Qing told the two the truth.

Wang Baihu was taken aback. "So, according to you... doesn't that mean..." Lin Qing nodded gently. "The people who can come here are likely carefully selected. They are full of resentment towards the world, and it's easy to predict what they will do once they gain their abilities. They are like pawns that can be manipulated. This place is not a prison, but their 'holy land' for awakening. The so-called imprisonment is more like a form of isolation to prevent accidents from happening during the drug injection process."

Snap, snap, snap...

Rhythmic clapping could be heard from the darkness.

"Very imaginative, and basically correct..."

"Who goes there!?" Honglian and Wang Baihu raised their flashlights and shone them together, discovering an extremely tall figure at the other end of the passage.

"Unfortunately, you are wrong about one thing: Zhang Zhiqi and Lu Lixin are just inferior products and cannot be compared with true awakened ones."

A figure emerged from the light—a robust woman over two and a half meters tall, with glossy bronze skin and sharply defined, stone-like muscles on her arms. If giants truly existed, they would look exactly like her.

Honglian noticed that the other person's hands, hanging at their sides, were shockingly large; the fingers alone were as thick as an average person's bowl. Not only that, her hands looked as if they had been soaked in blood, with drops of blood still dripping from her fingertips. Recalling the twisted corpses in the cage, she asked coldly, "Did you kill those people?"

“Yes, they missed their chance to awaken; they’re even worse than inferior goods,” the woman readily admitted.

"We are enforcers of the Limitation Agency. You have been arrested for a crime involving your abilities!" Wang Baihu drew his specially made pistol and ordered, "Surrender now, or else—"

"Or will you kill me?" The woman clasped her hands together, rotating her wrists as if warming up before exercise. "Sounds like something a mechanical being would say. Very well, whoever is stronger will survive. After all, all grand principles are just bullshit in front of a power user! Watch closely, I alone can crush you all into dust!"

"Stop talking nonsense." Lin Qing suddenly interrupted in a clear voice, "You acted very well, but you are not one person, but two."

As soon as she finished speaking, a dark shadow suddenly swooped down from the top of the passage, its cold light aimed directly at her head.

Lin Qing crouched down, dodging the cold glint of light, and at the same time kicked out, sending the attacker flying backward.

The enemy rolled to dissipate the impact upon landing, then disappeared into the darkness, as if the sneak attack had never happened.

“He ran into another side road. I’m going to find him, you guys deal with this one.” Lin Qing said and chased after him.

"Miss Lin!" Honglian called out.

Lin Qing paused slightly and turned her head.

“If it’s not necessary… don’t kill him. He should be tried… either side will do.”

She didn't answer after hearing this, and quickly left the passageway.

Although the exchange just happened in the blink of an eye, the whole process was quite clear—the burly woman was shouting to attract attention, while another ability user took the opportunity to ambush them. If the three of them had been even slightly careless, they would probably be decapitated by now.

"Tch, he actually managed to spot a monkey... How useless." The woman spat. "Could that person's ability be reconnaissance-type?"

“I don’t know, but you wouldn’t expect us to fall for that kind of trick, would you?” Honglian said expressionlessly. “His ability seems to be mimicry, his body almost blends into the environment. It’s a pity that he makes a lot of noise when he attacks, and his clothes are not completely silent. If you look closely, it’s not hard to notice.”

"You're pinning your hopes on this guy, which shows you're not exactly capable yourself," Wang Baihu shouted. "This is a final warning. Resistance is pointless; surrender now and you'll suffer less!"

"Hahahaha..." The woman couldn't help but throw her head back and laugh. "I must clarify one thing: I never considered the monkey as my trump card. It's just that he enjoys the feeling of sneaking around and stealing chickens, so I always let him make the first move. But... that doesn't mean what I said before was just to fool you..."

She leaned forward slightly. "My name is Yang Tieshan. Remember that. It's also the name of the man who will soon tear you apart with his bare hands!"

(End of this chapter)