Lance lay on his side atop the beam, his gaze fixed on Thora below. "I figured things would be more interesting over here, so I came." He smiled warmly, as if stating the most natural thing in the world. Thora lay on the bed with her hands behind her head, completely still. "I don't like having strangers around when I sleep." She looked at him, her voice slightly cold. Lance was completely unfazed. Instead, he asked with evident interest, "Do you have any idea how many ability users actually exist in this world?" Thora frowned. She genuinely didn't know the exact number. She had looked through relevant files before, and the probability of awakening abilities was already extremely low.But as she learned more about this world, she discovered that almost every secretive or powerful organization had ability users among them. The numbers weren't huge, but they still exceeded her original expectations. "Starting to notice that ability users are popping up more often?" Lance hit the nail on the head. Thora nodded. "I originally thought it was just because the circles I moved in happened to have a higher concentration of ability users. But it seems like that's not the whole story." Lance watched Thora, seemingly enjoying this way of chatting with her. "You're not wrong about that. Ordinary people would never come into contact with these circles." Lance's tone carried a little more patience than usual. "But the number of ability users has indeed increased. Of course, 'increased' is relative. Compared to the total human population, it's still a drop in the bucket."Thora caught a whiff of conspiracy in Lance's words. "Are you saying this is man-made?" Thora asked in a low voice. A flicker of light passed through Lance's eyes. "That, I don't know. "But I do know the background of those people who had self-destruct programs implanted in their bodies during the second round of the entrance exam." When Lance said this, his tone shifted. It was as if this was what he had really come to say, and everything before had just been small talk. Thora's expression remained unchanged, but her gaze turned a few degrees colder. "Easy there, kid. Don't look at me like that. I know you've already figured it out too, haven't you?" Lance propped his head up with one hand, looking down at Thora from above. One on the beam, one on the bed. Both were strangely relaxed in their positions.... Since Lance knew those people's backgrounds, he must have had contact with them before. Based on Thora's guess, he was probably on some kind of mission that required him to hunt down targets like them. And the island trial had been the perfect opportunity. Running into those people during the process would have been completely normal. She had only been in this timeline for a little over two years. During that time, she had only actively gathered intelligence on targets and related forces when carrying out World Missions, Training Missions, or Empire Missions. For everything else she hadn't encountered, Thora remained in the dark. However, she was certain those people were the same group that had attacked her back in Astralis. And their objective had been that stone capable of enhancing ability users. ... "The Blue Star Federal Science Research Institute. You've heard of it, right?" Lance asked unhurriedly. Thora nodded. "Yes." The first time she had heard that name was when she was investigating Samuel. Later, while carrying out World Missions, she had also picked up scattered rumors about it. Wait! Her brow furrowed. Could those people be...