Chapter 280: Chapter 280: The Perfect Choice

If you say this to a passerby, chances are they’ll just laugh it off.

After all, with only a 3000 yuan salary, what does the world’s destruction have to do with me?

But for the Dimensional Limit Mechanism Officers... especially someone like Honglian, they wouldn’t so easily dismiss warnings.

The reason is simple: the Dimensional Limit Mechanism really has witnessed the destruction of multiple worlds and has had direct contact with worlds on the brink of collapse. The organization itself was established with the idea of maintaining world stability—in their eyes, this issue isn’t as distant and abstract, and preventing the world from heading towards destruction is indeed one of their responsibilities.

Apocalypse is not a legend but something that happens constantly.

For countless world lines, there is nothing particularly special about this world.

Honglian looked at Elorie, "Is it the same in the Angel’s world?"

"That’s right. A hundred years later, a natural disaster destroyed the entire surface, killing billions, and the survivors were forced underground, building gigantic cities beneath the surface. Even so, there’s no sign that the disaster is ending; one day, humans will lose all living space," Lin Qing said slowly, "...and what I’m describing is not hypothetical but a fact that once occurred; it is the first world you arrived at after the Erosion at Five Rings Machinery Factory happened."

"Ugh!" Suddenly, Honglian felt a splitting pain in her head.

She clutched her forehead, visions flashing before her eyes.

Team members clad entirely in protective suits...

A dead, silent city in ruins...

A blue crystal towering in the middle of skyscrapers...

But just as she tried to think more about it, these fragments vanished like sand slipping through fingers.

What is happening?

Have I really been to such a place?

"To change the future, Elorie made a series of attempts and did achieve this point... You’ve heard of what happens afterward," Lin Qing continued, "That’s why the World Ability Center takes care of her. For her world, she is the key figure."

By now, Honglian finally understood the ins and outs of the matter—provided that the other party wasn’t lying. Besides, she couldn’t pick out any problems with it for now... Emotionally, she thought these claims were complete nonsense, yet rationally she tended to believe they were true.

"I don’t understand, why does this so-called ability consciousness collective issue a warning to us?" She asked the question she most wanted to know, "Has it tried to save those already destroyed worlds?"

Lin Qing shook her head, her answer surprising Honglian, "It won’t save us; only the people of this world could save themselves. As for why it issues warnings, it’s probably because of its reason for birth—only with humanity’s existence can abilities be diverse, thereby strengthening the consciousness collective itself."

Honglian found it hard to imagine such a scenario, abilities not as a kind of talent or curse, but as an alternative life coexisting with humanity?

She had heard that when the data amount of a computer cluster reaches a certain level, consciousness may emerge, and such consciousness would not be limited to a specific hard drive or memory stick, but span across all machines in the cluster, even spreading across networks, condensing into an unprecedented life form. As long as a chip engaged in computation, it could be considered part of it.

But computers at least have a physical entity, could abilities do the same?

"If you can’t comprehend it, there’s no need to fret," Lin Qing shrugged, "For instance, I don’t care what Shixin actually is; as long as it can provide valuable intelligence, it’s worth believing in. Oh, next month on the first, Xiao Canong will have a meeting with the Demons, likely about deep collaboration, you can personally confirm it then, and see what Dimensional Limit Mechanism is like behind closed doors."

"In Jiang City on the other side?" Honglian frowned, "Now the erosion points have entered a resting phase. Without permission, any officers possessing abilities are prohibited from crossing that space."

Ability Users would cause the expansion of the Erosion Zone, so after the exploration phase ends, they’re banned from traveling until it returns to a stable phase.

As for ordinary people, it doesn’t matter.

"There isn’t only one passage to that world... Of course, this is also thanks to the convenience brought by Shixin."

Entering and exiting other worlds freely without relying on intrusion points? This was yet another piece of information overturning Honglian’s understanding, but she was already growing numb to it, "You said earlier... our world has already stepped on the edge of destruction, what is the reason? Is it also connected to the organization?"

"You’re very smart. The answer is yes; after monopolizing abilities, the Dimensional Limit Mechanism gradually became a gigantic organization. While it indeed achieved the goal of ability non-proliferation by replacing abilities with high-tech prosthetics, this was actually not a good thing."

Lin Qing roughly explained the future situation—anyway, this part wasn’t necessary to keep secret, the more Honglian knew, the more convenient for future verification.

"In conclusion, under blind development and excessive arrogance, a technology called nano worms got completely out of control, eventually destroying the surface ecosystem, leaving no one able to survive."

Evidently, this was intelligence provided by the World Ability Center.

Honglian was momentarily silent; having witnessed so many worlds on the brink of destruction, was her own world about to become one too, and the prime culprit was the organization itself? The irony was palpable. She couldn’t confirm the information’s authenticity, but she remembered the opening remarks Xiao Canong made when he was parachuted into the Jiang City branch...

"The organization headquarters is attempting to solve the problems brought by abilities, maybe soon, we’ll truly be able to ban abilities..."

This nearly prophetic description clearly couldn’t be brushed off as mere coincidence.

She also realized that Lin Qing had brought Wang Baihu and her here not to save Elorie, but to persuade them to resist the organization.

Or rather—to convince her alone.

Wang Baihu was merely a catalyst set by the other party.

Honglian didn’t want to ask "why me" at all.

Because from the results, the other party’s choice was almost perfect: if the organization really conspired for profit by collaborating with the Demons that had massacred hundreds, it would not be worthy of being called a protector of the world, and she wouldn’t stand by. If it was just a scam, she wouldn’t take rash actions without fully investigating, while other officers unable to withstand pressure might have immediately reported it to headquarters.

"I will go to confirm." Honglian said solemnly.

"I knew you would," Lin Qing smiled with relief.

Ignoring her hair, accessories, and makeup, Honglian vaguely felt she was conversing with herself. Also, she inexplicably sensed that this woman seemed to regard her quite significantly.

"Have we met before?" she couldn’t help but ask.

Lin Qing shook her head, then amended, "No, maybe once."

"When?"

She found a piece of white paper, casually drawing on it, then held it up.

Instantly, Honglian understood her identity.

"You’re the Masked Woman!"

No wonder she had felt the person had an uncanny understanding of the organization... 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

At first, Honglian intended to rebuke her for allowing the zoo intrusion point to expand, causing that area to be devoured by overlapping spaces, but recalling the subsequent implications of the event, she suddenly fell silent. Firstly, it hadn’t caused any casualties; secondly, its most direct effect was bringing the Dimensional Limit Mechanism to public light, from backstage to front stage. If the other party had long regarded the organization as an enemy, it was a tactical maneuver hardly failing in precision or lethality.

She hadn’t expected that the target Xiao Canong had long wanted to capture was still active in Jiang City, blatantly undermining the organization’s foundation, the irony left Honglian quite conflicted.

It was undoubtedly a serious dereliction of duty by the intelligence team!

"Are you a Wanderer from another world? Is the White-clothed Immortal and Blood and Flesh Butcher with you?"

"No, I belong to this world, not the Wanderer you refer to. As for the others... I don’t know much about them," Lin Qing admitted, agreeing with the idea of being part of a group, "but there is one thing I am sure of, they too have received a call from the World Ability Center."