Chen Ke changed back into his own clothes at the motel and got ready to head to Pihom's gun shop.
The Python revolver and the M1911A1 would not be needed for the time being, so he stowed them away in his assault pack. A Glock 17, with its silencer removed, was tucked in his holster.
The Holy Relics Diamond and spare Glock magazines were in the inside pockets of his trench coat, and an ARK folding knife was clipped to the pocket of his jeans. As for spare clothes, Chen Ke didn't pack them, after all, he needed to leave space for ammunition.
Pulling out a red E63 from his pocket, Chen Ke finally had the chance to go online and learn about this world.
Before this, he had already learned that spiritual energy incidents had been occurring frequently in this world for a very long time, and in 1910, countries around the world had established their own Spiritual Ability Administration Bureaus in response.
Just as the steam engine was to the industrial revolution, what was the milestone event of the Spiritual Era? In which year did it originate? There seemed to be no consensus on the internet.
1910 was a generally recognized year when the governments of the world began to formally acknowledge the existence of "monsters," "Holy Relics," and "mutated creatures."
In this year, "Transcendent" phenomena were no longer secrets and urban legends passed among civilians but became a "new normal."
Also, in this year, the nations of the world no longer hid or blocked information on spiritual energy and transcendent phenomena; instead, they began large-scale public education and propaganda regarding this new phenomenon in the world.
Chen Ke also specifically looked up related historical information of this world, such as dates, key historical events, and historical figures.
In fact, apart from the additional spiritual energy-related incidents, other events that had occurred were not much different from the world he knew.
But that's not to say there were no differences, such as this world having gone through three world wars.
The causes and outcomes of World War I and World War II were largely the same, but between these two conflicts, there was another brief yet intense global conflict.
In the year 1917, the then unaligned Allied Powers and the United Federation briefly fell into a fierce conflict. But within just a year, all parties ended the war.
The units involved in the war were not military forces but investigators and first-generation Spiritual Ability Users from different countries' Administration Bureaus.
The cause of the war was not a scramble for colonies but a dispute over the ownership of Spirit Explosion Spaces.
After World War I, the numerous battlefields turned into vast Spirit Explosion Spaces. The Administration Bureaus of various countries had just been established and lacked experience in dealing with Spirit Explosion Spaces. At that time, there was also no technology to make spiritual power bullets and firearms, so Spiritual Ability Users and investigators had to fight unknown enemies under extremely tough and dangerous conditions.
After helping the Allied Powers deal with many Spirit Explosion Spaces, the United Federation's Bureau believed that they should also have the right to utilize these resources.
At that time, although the progress of spiritual energy research topics was limited, everyone was very clear about how great the potential was, moreover, these Spirit Explosion Spaces were on their own territory—who would willingly share with other countries?
After negotiations and coordination had all failed, relations between the countries' Bureaus became deadlocked. And the match that lit the fire of war occurred on a very ordinary afternoon.
On April 12, 1927, during routine exploratory missions in Spirit Explosion Spaces carried out by several teams of investigators, an investigator from the United Federation accidentally discharged his firearm, injuring an investigator from an Allied country who was in front.
Subsequently, colleagues of the injured investigator drew their guns and attacked all the United Federation investigators present, resulting in a terribly brutal casualty event.
The escalation of the conflict was quicker and more intense than anyone expected. If the combat among investigators was another version of a feud, it was when Spiritual Ability Users entered the fray, tearing each other apart, that countries saw the broad prospects of spiritual power in the military field.
The war ended with both sides suffering heavy losses; the combatants lost a significant number of Spiritual Ability Users and investigators. The Allied Powers from then on formed a stable multinational alliance, sharing resources in various fields. And the United Federation no longer entertained the idea of eyeing other countries' Spirit Explosion Spaces.
This war was known as the first Spiritual Energy War or the Spiritual Ability Users War; some also directly referred to it as the 1.5th World War.
This brief, almost farcical war profoundly influenced the outcome of the next world war.
Because in this world… there were no nuclear bombs.
There was no so-called Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but rather it had been replaced by the Spiritual Power Non-Proliferation Treaty.
After the first Spiritual Energy War, countries began to value their Spiritual Ability Users greatly, as not everyone could become one. This involved an entire set of technologies related to infusing spiritual energy into the human body.
In this world, there was no such thing as the "Observation Method" or "Cultivation Method," to obtain spiritual energy one had to resort to complex and unstable medical procedures that liquefied spiritual energy from the atmosphere and then injected it into the spines of ordinary people.
Not everyone could withstand this power, and combined with the rudimentary injection techniques of the early days, many people became disabled. A person able to withstand larger doses of spiritual power would become a target for competition among countries.
The grading for spiritual power injections was also stratified, similar to investigator licenses, but it was not distinguished by letters, rather simply by numbers. Energy Level 1 was the most basic level of spiritual energy, and Energy Level 5 was the highest.
In fact, there was not much difference between investigators and Spiritual Ability Users in essence; the former could use spiritual power weapons, relying on the spiritual energy within their bodies, and Holy Relics were summoned through spiritual energy as well. But why couldn't investigators use Holy Relics?
Because the amount of spiritual energy in an investigator's body had not reached the level to summon Holy Relics.
Investigators were Spiritual Ability Users with less than 1 level of spiritual energy; correspondingly, their injection surgery was also relatively easier.
When the Second World War in this world reached its most critical stage, the United Federation sent a Level 5 Spiritual Ability User codenamed "Superman" from the nation of Sunrise to end the war.
Due to the performance of "Superman" in the war, all capable countries launched a "Spiritual Arms Race." After millions were sacrificed, hundreds of new "Supermen" emerged around the globe.
In 1947, the Suluo Union and the United Federation began the Cold War, both sides continued to invest tirelessly into the nurturing of "Supermen," and the whole world lived in the shadow of "Supermen exterminating the world."
It wasn't until 1968 that countries, realizing the severity of the problem, began to sign the Spiritual Power Non-Proliferation Treaty in succession to limit and reduce the number of "Supermen" worldwide. The Cold War finally ended in 1991, after the Suluo Union went bankrupt and split into more than a dozen smaller nations.
Chen Ke searched for the word "Superman" in the search bar and several entries came up.
Entry 1: United Federation's DC Comics launched this superhero series in 1938, the world's best-selling superhero comic.
Entry 2: Clark Kent, Superman. A character in the United Federation's DC Comics series, the world's most popular comic book hero NO.1.
Entry 3: United Federation rock singer Damian Wayne released the lead song of his third solo album in 2001.
Entry 4: Weber Spirit Production launched a spiritual fitness drug series in 1969.
Entry 5: In 1948, Warner Brothers Entertainment Company of the United Federation adapted an action movie based on the World War II story.
...
Entry 24: Kirk Meiling (1910-1967), a citizen of the United Federation, the hero who ended World War II. The first generation "Superman."
After browsing through this information, Chen Ke was shocked. The existence of "Superman" allowed him to understand the immense power of Spiritual Ability Users in a direct way. It also clarified the relationship between investigators and Spiritual Ability Users.
Combining the existence of Holy Relics and the powerful effects of multiple Holy Relics when used together, a "Superman" fully equipped with a complete set of strong effect Holy Relics and Transcendent skills indeed represented a truly terrifying humanoid war machine.
With human intelligence, capable of following orders, and as long as nothing outrageous was done, they could infiltrate almost any area, much more practical than a nuclear bomb. No wonder this world did not invest resources into developing nuclear weaponry.
"Superman" was the ultimate goal of national monopoly on Holy Relics and Spiritual Power Injection Skill.
So what were Transcendent skills? Chen Ke moved his fingers, trying to find the answer. But no matter how much he searched, he couldn't get any relevant information. The information about Holy Relics was also very uninformative.
"A unique little stone from the Spirit Explosion Space, similar to a diamond, unworkable and unutilizable, a useless stone," is how Wikipedia described Holy Relics.
In reality, the group of people who could come into contact with Holy Relics was very limited, and ordinary people had no chance to see the true form of Holy Relics, not even in their diamond form possibly not even once in their lifetime.
And the content of spiritual energy in the bodies of investigators was simply not enough to summon Holy Relics, so even if they saw those little diamonds every day, they would not be able to learn more valuable information.
Most spiritual ability users who knew the true power of Holy Relics were part of national institutions, and they had no reason, nor did they dare to disclose information casually.
So, this explanation of Holy Relics on Wikipedia was indeed the common people's existing perception: pretty but useless stones.
Chen Ke turned off the screen. This was the end of the useful information the search engine could find. The more essential things were all blocked up, either a lie or pretending not to exist.
And now, he had to reassess the strength of Si's consortium.
To be able to train professional Assassins with Transcendent skills on a large scale like himself and to have branches in every state of the Federation meant that they were indeed a spiritual energy giant! With his current state and resources, he could not directly confront them.
And to tell the truth, Chen Ke still could not determine where exactly his strength fell.
In his mind, he imagined a line with Parker at the far left and "Superman" at the far right.
Starting with Parker, Rank: D investigators could be said to be almost indistinguishable from ordinary people.
Ending with "Superman," though not as badass as the one in the comics, they might still be considered the strongest beings on Earth currently.
Between them, there were Rank: C, B, A, S investigators and Energy Level 1, 2, 3, 4 spiritual energy users.
In actuality, investigators were simply Spiritual Ability Users below Energy Level 1.
Chen Ke tried to find his own place on this line, but he had no clues.
He believed himself to be much stronger than Parker; at least he wasn't bitten to death by a human-faced dog, and he could hold his own in a fight with that toad from the sewers, which could not be considered bad by any measure.
But Chen Ke was not sure if Transcendent skills were exclusive to Spiritual Ability Users.
D-level Parker likely had no skills; otherwise, he would have used them. So, would higher-level investigators have skills? He could only guess and hope to find another investigator later to ask clearly.
He hoped the threshold for possessing Transcendent skills was as low as possible because then finding and dealing with Pankia would be much easier.
Too many questions, too little information, Mad Fak.