Re: Evolution Online

When Liam returned back to the booth, both Shen Yue and Mei Mei looked at him anxiously. 

"Brother, what happened? Did he do something to you?" The young girl's eyes were almost tearing up as this was a past trauma in her heart.

Instead of the giggling childish smile, she had a sad helpless look.

Considering that until recently Liam was someone who was always bullied and beaten up, she couldn't help but worry if the same thing had happened again.

Liam's heart ached a little seeing her like this. He sighed softly and sat down next to the girl. "No, no one can ever hurt us, ever again." He kissed her forehead and patted her.

The little girl immediately became flustered and pushed Liam away. "Brother, why are you teasing me all the time!"

"What? What did I do now?"

"Ah. Never mind that. So what did he call you for then?" Mei Mei was confused. Those entitled jerks were definitely up to no good. It was written all over their face!

"Mmmm." Liam casually picked up a fruit that was on top of one of the dishes and tossed it into his mouth. "You don't have to concern yourself with them. They are nobodies."

If anyone, especially from their city had heard him call the members of the Gu family nobodies, they would have assumed he was an idiot.

However, Liam did not seem to care at all. "Alright. Are you both done eating? Let's go. We still have some more shopping left to do."

"Huh? More shopping?"

The two women looked at each other in shock as they were already bored of shopping. They couldn't understand how Liam still had the enthusiasm for it.

But a few minutes later, they understood the real meaning of his words. 

Along with Liam, the duo found themselves hauling away bottled water, tissue paper, dry rations, canned food, and several other miscellaneous necessities.

"Brother, what is this? Are we preparing for the apocalypse or what?" Mei Mei grumbled.

Liam staggered slightly on hearing her words but did not say anything. He was going to explain everything in a couple of hours after all. So he just smiled and nodded.

"It's a secret."

Both Shen Yue and Mei Mei rolled their eyes at his bad joke and then continued working. 

After giving the order for the whole bunch of stuff, Liam instructed the manager of the place to deliver it to his house. 

Usually, this particular grocery store did not have any delivery service but he had bought so many things almost clearing out the warehouse that they had to make an exception for him.

After the supplies trip, the trio finally called for a cab and returned back to their apartment complex. 

However, there was still work because all the deliveries began to arrive one after the other.

Liam had rented beforehand a few storage rooms in their apartment complex itself to store all the supplies. So everything was quickly and conveniently put away.

If they hadn't thought that his behavior before was suspicious, the two girls now were quite sure that something was going on.

Well, either something was going on or Liam had a severe case of hoarder's disease. Even the delivery guys gave him odd looks.

When everything was finally finished, Liam had actually ended up stocking 10 big storage rooms full of supplies.

"Brother, seriously. What is going on? This is… I mean what is all this…" Mei Mei walked closer, held Liam's hand, and asked slowly. There was a lot of anxiety in her voice.

Obviously, her brother was not stupid. So what the hell was going on? Shen Yue also stood behind her, with the same questions written on her face.

Seeing the two looking at him as if they were worried about his sanity, Liam chuckled wryly. "Mmmm. Let's go inside first and talk."

"Ah… should I go home?" Shen Yue asked hesitantly when they reached their floor as she did not want to intrude on something personal but Liam firmly shook his head, "Why don't you also join us?

"Ummm. ok." She walked in after Mei Mei and Liam closed the door of the apartment. He then sat them both down, even giving them each a glass of water beforehand.

How was one supposed to break the news about the end of the world?

He sighed and directly jumped right into it. "Earlier that joke about the apocalypse…"

"Ya. I was just joking." Mei Mei restlessly fidgeted. "Brother! You are scaring me. What is it? Please tell me quickly. What happened?"

"Ok. Ok." Liam nodded and then broke the news. He could see it in their eyes that they already doubted the same thing. 

"I think there is really going to be an apocalypse."

"Huh?"

"What are you saying, Liam?" Shen Yue gripped her shirt anxiously. This was clearly not a prank or a joke, so what the hell?

"Sigh. I can't give you any proof or any solid evidence. The only thing I can say is that this apocalypse should be related to the game 'Evolution Online'"

"It's just like what the name of the game suggests. It's helping us human beings evolve. Does that make sense to you?"

Hearing him, Mei Mei's eyes went wide and she nodded dazedly. 

She was always used to taking Liam's words at face value so she didn't doubt what he was saying and was rather trying to process and digest this big piece of news.

Shen Yue, on the other hand, couldn't believe it at all. More like she did not want to. "No, how is that possible? I mean how do you? Liam, stop it. Stop messing with us."

"Do I look like I am joking?"

"Then how do you know?"

"Hmmm. For starters, how did this game happen? Who made it? Don't you find it strange that no one knows anything about it?" 

"I mean our technology is developed but it is not so developed that virtual reality is the same as reality right? How did this sudden jump happen?"

Shen Yue gulped, slowly nodding. She couldn't answer any of his questions. The more she thought about it, the more everything made sense.

The game suddenly taking over the world... Everyone becoming involved with it so much so that their whole life seemed to be revolving around it...

It just didn't feel like it was about making money anymore. It was almost like this was another life. Sometimes it felt more real than their real life…

Liam sat down and patted her. "There is another thing. Haven't you read about all the mysterious deaths happening all over the world?"

"What do you think caused them?"

"The world as we know it is coming to an end and there is nothing we can do about it." Liam sighed.