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The moment he saw the black coin, it was as if a flash of lightning passed through Chen Xuan’s mind!

It seemed he had indeed forgotten something.

This wasn’t a personal oversight but a restriction imposed on him by this world.

"So... this is the method of intelligence analysis?" Chen Xuan belatedly picked up the coin with his fingers, but felt no weight or friction at his fingertips, as if there was nothing there, and what his eyes saw was merely an illusion.

"Analysis... intelligence?" Xu Enya tilted her head and asked, puzzled.

But Chen Xuan paid her no attention.

He sat back on the sofa and raised his head, "I know you are watching, come out and talk."

"Eh?" The girl was taken aback.

Luo Dan also had a surprised expression on his face.

"There’s no need to calculate the information of other store managers, I can reveal a crucial piece of information to you right now: my personal understanding of the adversary of ascension."

There was still no response, as if it was just a monologue he was performing alone.

But Chen Xuan was no longer confused.

He let out a cold laugh, "If you don’t plan to come out, then I’m going to use the forbidden power. Although abilities can’t be used here, it doesn’t mean past experiences are meaningless. Just as you know, the soul itself is a form of power—"

Before he finished speaking, time stopped.

Though Chen Xuan didn’t check a watch, he could feel the subtle changes in the surrounding space: the gentle breeze from the air vent stopped mid-air, fine dust ceased to fall, and the expressions of the two store managers froze in a state of surprise, only their heartbeats had vanished without a trace.

Immediately, the house and furniture in his vision rapidly faded, an endless white space appeared once again, leaving only the sofa set and a glass coffee table.

Zhao Qian appeared opposite him.

She was still wearing a lab coat, looking exactly the same as a week ago. However, Chen Xuan knew that time in the Computation Well world had no meaning, and perhaps from her perspective, their last meeting was only fifteen minutes earlier.

Her tone carried a hint of anger, "What did you just see?"

"Can’t you analyze it?" Chen Xuan countered.

"There’s no matching information in the database." Zhao Qian replied, staring into his eyes, "It appeared suddenly, very small in size, but with a vast amount of information. It requires some time to decode it."

"Don’t hide it, you actually know very well what it is, and you’ve even assigned it a unified label: forbidden."

Chen Xuan held the coin in his hand, watching it float on its own and emit a black light from its center. Even though it was such an unbelievable phenomenon, Zhao Qian seemed to ignore it entirely, showing no sign of surprise.

No, of course they would ignore it... because what they see through the screen is not the real themselves but countless lines of jumping code.

To the researchers on the Salvation Ark, this coin is probably just a jumble of garbled data mixed in with orderly information.

For such difficult-to-decode "data," they tagged them uniformly as forbidden.

"..." Zhao Qian fell into silence, probably consulting her colleagues’ opinions. After a moment, she spoke, "You mean a forbidden object suddenly appeared in your hand? Can you elaborate? For example, its shape, origin, or function..."

"I could tell you, but your true purpose isn’t that, is it?" Chen Xuan smirked, "You just want to know its characteristics and then block its influence on me as much as possible, so I quickly forget about it..."

Zhao Qian frowned and interrupted, "Sorry, Mr. Chen, I don’t understand what you’re saying."

"That’s alright, let me be more detailed then." He shrugged and changed to a more comfortable sitting posture, "Professor Liang probably discovered long ago that Thought Power is an energy beyond common sense. Unlike electrical energy, magnetic energy, or nuclear energy, which can be manipulated once the rules are mastered, it continually influences the user as it’s being used—’what’s deeply remembered will surely echo.’ This characteristic is undoubtedly a significant threat to your plans."

Through the efforts of hundreds of store managers, Liang Mingzhe must have recognized that in humanity’s pursuit of ascension, there would inevitably be corresponding resistance. The more people who master and use Thought Power, the fiercer this resistance will become.

So, they can’t create a world accommodating all the store managers, not even a virtual world, as this would undoubtedly be playing with fire. Store managers are the people most knowledgeable about Thought Power... or abilities, and gathering them would greatly increase the likelihood of breeding the adversary of ascension.

Continuing like this, it’s possible that humanity might provoke a backlash before they’re ready for ascension.

Hence, they have only one choice left—to extract all the valuable information from the store manager and then completely eliminate them.

Xu Enya, her extraction sequence number was 766, while Luo Dan’s was 905.

The moment they receive this number, the store manager loses their value of existence.

And with the Salvation Ark’s technological means, they can fully reconstruct a realistic image of a store manager from this information.

"All of this is just your imagination, Mr. Chen." Zhao Qian’s tone was rather disappointing, "You are too resistant to your own fate, which is why you have such anxious thoughts."

"Are you going to ask if I have any evidence next?" But Chen Xuan was indifferent to her response, "Indeed, I’m not very familiar with the advanced technology of the Computation Well, and all of this is just my speculation, but it’s certainly the method with the least risk and best aligns with your interests."

Xu Enya and Luo Dan came to visit him not to comfort a new store manager—whether it’s guidance or making friends, it’s all part of a set program. "Communication between store managers" is itself the main way for the Salvation Ark to gather information.

The reason isn’t hard to deduce; the research team on the Ark cannot directly search for the intelligence they want from the soul entity.

Just as humans cannot completely control Thought Power from its principle like controlling electrical or nuclear energy, they can only take this compromise approach.

Of course, this can’t be said to be inefficient and backward.

When a large number of store managers gather together, just letting these souls communicate, share, and collide with each other can obtain an information volume far exceeding that of parsing a single individual.

Thus, to minimize research risks, having only one active store manager soul at a time becomes the most reasonable choice.

Once they believe they have completely acquired the store manager’s information and can use it to create a simulated consciousness, the outcome for the soul is archiving—there will be no rebirth of ascension, nor will they be hailed as heroes by the people of this world. The countless qualifiers for the Ability Store in the past were just vessels for collecting intelligence on ascension. Once the intelligence is obtained, the vessel naturally loses its necessity of existence.

"..." Zhao Qian, after a moment of silence, spoke again, "Do you call this phenomenon the adversary of ascension?"

"That’s right." Chen Xuan nodded, "It can be either a physical entity or a concept, depending on the way humans pursue ascension."

"Thank you for your explanation, this is valuable information." She exhaled deeply, "We have indeed observed the backlash phenomenon of Thought Power in dozens of worlds, but it is difficult to verify. Now, with your observational evidence, Professor Liang might be able to establish a convergence boundary model for it."

"So you admit to interfering with my memory?"

"I didn’t say that." Zhao Qian spread her hands, "Besides, what difference does it make whether I admit it or not? You’ve already fallen into a quagmire of suspicion, and this stubborn way of thinking will make you subconsciously reject all truths."

"Actually, I didn’t think so badly of you all at first." Chen Xuan put away his smile, his expression turning cold, "If I hadn’t seen this Star God coin, I might almost have thought I was gradually adapting to the environment, starting to accept reality."