Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 346 Squeaky Searching for Frog
However, when they climbed down the emergency staircase to the first floor, they did not see Guagua.

A corner of the mall had collapsed, clearly where the monster had just trampled it. The entrance was a mess, with collapsed beams and concrete slabs even blocking the doorway.

Although this didn't affect their entry and exit, Honglian and the others showed obvious disappointment. No one expected that they would lose a "teammate" just an hour after arriving in the future.

“I remember it was following us when we were running away…” Little Dove said with some self-reproach, “If only I had kept a closer eye on it.”

"Don't take it too seriously. Maybe it's been waiting for a chance to be free, and it just happened to get it." Liuli was the most dismissive of them all. "After all, no matter how smart it is, it's still a dinosaur."

Although these words sounded cold, they inexplicably cheered up the members of the Crimson Lotus Group.

While it was well-fed and clothed when Wang Baihu raised it, it was unable to leave the mansion most of the time. And though the world was full of dangers, there was no wall that could stop it anymore.

"Can you sense its location?" Honglian asked Chen Xuan.

Chen Xuan shook his head. He couldn't sense any spiritual energy points other than theirs within the range of his cultivation technique. Since he hadn't registered Guagua as a guest, he naturally couldn't contact it. "We can go back to the place where we fought the nanobots. If we don't find Guagua along the way, it at least means that it wasn't killed by the four-legged monster, and that's the best we can find."

The implication is that they don't need to focus all their energy on finding dinosaurs; searching for cities is their top priority.

If an intelligent being wants to leave, a few of them alone cannot bring it back.

"Huh? That's strange..." Just as everyone was about to turn around, Jiang Siqi suddenly stopped.

Everyone looked at her.

"What's strange?" Chen Xuan put on full alert again.

"This place... I feel like I've been here before," Jiang Siqi murmured, looking around.

"what?"

"Really?! When did you come to the future?"

Everyone immediately erupted in uproar.

“Not the future… I’ve been here before, more than once.” She slowly walked to one side of the hall, pointing and saying, “This is the luxury shopping area, with Gucci and LV stores… Across the street is Starbucks, and further in there are Chow Tai Fook and Qilin stores…”

The place Jiang Siqi was pointing to was empty, with only a few dilapidated partition walls and concrete pillars. Even in some rooms where a few shelves remained, nothing was left on them.

"Are you sure?" Chen Xuan asked doubtfully.

"Hmm!" Jiang Siqi walked faster and faster. "There's no mistake, this place should be an elevator. The lower level is the middle floor, where you can eat lamb chops, barbecue, and Sichuan pepper bullfrog; the upper level is the clothing section, and there's also a big supermarket... Have you really never been here before?"

"Should we...come?" He suddenly had a vague answer in his mind.

“Yes, it’s the Shijin Building! It’s considered the best commercial area in Jiangcheng!” The other person looked back at them with a questioning expression. “Are you really people who live in Jiangcheng? You’ve never even been here before?”

"What? This is Shijin?" Xiaojiu was shocked. "I don't recognize it at all!"

“Sorry… I basically don’t go to places where parking costs twenty yuan an hour.” Honglian shrugged. “What about you, Young Master Wang?”

Wang Baihu scratched the back of his head. "I don't know... I always go to Shanghai to buy things. And please don't call me that, okay? When have I ever missed a day when I patrolled with you?"

Chen Xuan fell silent.

When he had a regular job, he was almost always on the go. Later, when he took on temporary jobs to relax, he went back and forth between home and work, rarely going out to wander around. He relied on takeout for meals and essential supplies. If he absolutely had to go shopping, he would definitely choose the shopping district closest to his residence.

Besides, even if you removed all the signs and shops from the shopping mall he frequented most, leaving only an empty shell, he might not be able to recognize it.

Then the problem is coming.

How many times have you actually been to Shih-Chung?

"Not many... maybe twice a week at most," Jiang Siqi replied. "My live streams here were most popular before I awakened my abilities."

"Oh, I see!" Xiao Jiu exclaimed in realization. "I thought Sister Siqi was a hidden rich woman too!" "No, I don't think so." She smiled sheepishly. "I have to prepare my own lunchbox when I'm live streaming because it's so expensive to eat here."

"So this city is Jiangcheng?" Wang Baihu pondered. "Shijin Building is in Fenglin District, which can be considered a secondary core area of ​​Jiangcheng... If Jiang Siqi is not mistaken, then we can directly filter out valuable search locations nearby."

"..." Chen Xuan frowned and remained silent.

He kept asking himself, why Jiangcheng? He had considered many possibilities, but he never imagined that Lin Qing would live in Jiangcheng.

The reason is simple: the future city of Jiangcheng will have neither a space elevator nor a space launch station.

Lin Qing and the resistance fighters must first settle in a city with the facility in order to reach the Crystal Palace.

Whether they rent a house or stay in a hotel, it will be regarded as their "last resort".

Chen Xuan even considered whether the back door of room 202 might lead directly to the Crystal Palace.

More importantly, Lin Qing never mentioned that she had lived in Jiangcheng—knowing Lin Qing as he did, if she discovered that this city was the same as her future residence, she would definitely point it out with curiosity.

Thinking further... Chen Xuan considered two possibilities.

First, historical fluctuations caused Lin Qing's birthplace to change, from a certain city to Jiangcheng.

However, there is a contradiction in this speculation: if the time and place of her birth have changed, can this "new Lin Qing" and the future warrior still be considered the same person?
Another possibility is that Lin Qing was born according to the original historical trajectory, but she did not join the resistance army, but moved to Jiangcheng due to some changes.

The second hypothesis avoids the birth issue, but upon closer examination, it's even more chilling. Of all the cities in the world, why did she choose to settle in Jiangcheng? Was it a mere coincidence, or were the seeds of those events sown a century ago?
If it is the latter, then the possibility that Lin Qing is still in Jiangcheng has greatly increased!
"Squeak..."

Suddenly, everyone heard a few faint hissing sounds.

Chen Xuan subconsciously turned his head and saw a group of rats emerging from not far away.

"No wonder they're pests; even if the world ends, they won't disappear," Wang Baihu muttered.

"These must be the first living creatures we've seen, right?" Little Dove reached into her bag. "Let me see if I have anything to feed them..."

"Stop feeding them! The fact that they dare to show their faces in broad daylight means there are no natural predators here!" Wang Baihu quickly stopped them. "Do you think they'll lack food? The dead people alone are enough for them to eat for a long time."

Xiao Jiu instinctively shuddered. "Do...do rats eat dead people?"

“They eat everything.” He paced back and forth, then shouted at the rats, “Get out!”

The seven or eight rats were immediately frightened and scattered, quickly disappearing into the shadows of the building. But a moment later, they resurfaced and gathered together again.

"You've got some nerve." Wang Baihu bent down, picked up a pebble, and impatiently threw it at the swarm of rats.

The mice scattered, but a strange thing happened: this time they regrouped in an even shorter time, neither approaching the group nor leaving.

"They wouldn't be waiting for us to die so they could eat us, would they?" Jiang Siqi felt a chill. "I've heard that African hyenas have a habit of stalking their dying prey..."

“No,” Chen Xuan suddenly realized that these rats had come specifically to find them. “Let’s follow them.”

"Huh? With a mouse?"

Before anyone else could react, he had already walked towards the rats.

The rats were naturally terrified and ran away in a flash. But to everyone's astonishment, when Chen Xuan stood where they had originally gathered, the rats stopped approaching and instead moved to another spot to regroup. The two spots were about fifty meters apart, neither too far nor too close, just enough for the group to see clearly!

"How is this possible..." Honglian exclaimed in astonishment.

"It's the ability of the 'Frog'," Chen Xuan asserted. "It's commanding the mice to guide us!"

(End of this chapter)