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Chapter 426 - Aren't l a genius?

Gu Donghai couldn't believe it. The woman in front of him was simply too mesmerizing.

She was only wearing a simple t-shirt but that contoured her obscene body and tempted him to no end. She had the perfect ratio among all the women he had ever laid his eyes on.

Big melons, slender waist, and a face that was incomparably beautiful. How is a woman like this sitting here?

Shen Yue moved closer to Liam as she felt uncomfortable with the guy's obvious staring.

Mei Mei as well felt very irked. "Brother…" She also moved closer to Liam from the other side.

Snapping out of his trance, Gu Donghai finally noticed the other two people also present in the booth. His eyes first hovered on Mei Mei, looking at her from top to bottom.

Obviously, this one wasn't as developed when compared to the goddess in the room but one could tell that she would also be great beauty if she grew up.

Donghai licked his lips in anticipation finally paying attention to the third person in the room. At first glance, he suddenly felt weird. He had a feeling as if he had seen the face somewhere.

But that wasn't really a surprise because if it was someone eating here, they must be quite affluent and belong to one of the main families in the city.

So he might have seen the guy at one or the other parties and that was not what was important at the moment.

How the hell did this random plain-faced guy manage to get not one but two beauties to eat with him? What the hell was happening here? Was his family rich?

If so then he was even richer! Hmph!

Only then did Gu Donghai remember the term brother. Now that made sense. He was probably just a loser who was simply accompanying these two beauties like a servant.

He continued looking at Liam as he was thinking about something deeply.

His hands itched to take action now itself but that wouldn't be wise. He was already on thin grounds with his father thanks to the assholes from the main family.

He couldn't afford to create a commotion here and make a scene. Then his father might truly disown him, but that didn't mean that he was going to let this beauty slip out of his hands.

He would rather die than do that!

Gu Donghai's eyes once again flitted over to the goddess in the room and his body began heating up like a furnace.

For a second, he forgot all the reasoning he had earlier and all he wanted to do was grab her, rip her clothes apart and take the woman right then and there.

He even started moving and took a step forward but before he could go any further, another hotel manager arrived at the scene.

"Sir, please. The VIP booth at the window with a view of the city is available. Please forgive my subordinate. Please follow me so that we can serve you well and make up for the blunder."

Gu Donghai trembled for a moment and then coughed violently hacking up a lot of stuff. He then turned around to leave along with his mother who was silently eying everyone with contempt.

The manager and the receptionist sighed in relief for narrowly having avoided a commotion and Mei Mei was about to let out a sigh when suddenly the guy stopped.

Gu Donghair turned around and pointed his index finger at Liam, signaling him to follow him.

"Hmmm? You want to talk to me?" Liam smiled. His smile was very polite. In fact, unusually so.

Liam then casually stood up and walked over to him. Donghai nodded at him smugly and then asked his mother to get seated first.

"I have some business to talk to my friend here. You go ahead first."

He placed his fat arm around Liam uncomfortably even though it was difficult considering their height difference and ushered him into the restroom. Two of his lackeys also accompanied him.

The three stood toweringly in front of Liam or at least tried to and Gu Donghai cleared his throat threateningly. "Do you play the game 'Evolution Online'?"

"Yes?" Liam's face twitched but he managed to answer with a straight face.

"How would you like 5000 gold coins? Ke Ke Ke?" Gu Donghai tried to sneer like a villain but he only ended up with another bout of cough.

"What? 5000 gold coins?" Liam gave a purposefully exaggerated response.

He could already see where this was going… the only issue was that he didn't know why fate was tempting him like this?

And of course, the next second just like he expected, Gu Donghai started revealing his true colors.

"Brother, you know much money is 5000 gold coins right? Right now the time is ripe. If you exchange it for dollars you will become a millionaire in an instant. Ke Ke Ke. Don't you want it?"

Seeing that the person was sufficiently impressed, Donghai knew that he had him where he wanted him to be.

"ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR. FIVE. FIVE THOUSAND GOLD COINS."

He furled out his fingers and added, "And the only thing that you need to do is bring along the two girls with you to a tavern."

"Ah, wait before that. This is important. Are you in the Gresh Kingdom? How about those two? Which Kingdom are you three in? They are also playing the game right?"

Gu Donghai started panicking because this was a crucial detail that couldn't be helped. Otherwise, things would become complicated.

And lately, he had been very unlucky as well. Failures after failures and him getting always sick. Surely, he would at least have some luck in this aspect? He begrudgingly waited and…

ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏ ʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ ᴛᴏ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴀsᴛᴇʀ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ sᴘᴇᴇᴅ.

Just like he wanted, the guy nodded positively!

"Yes," Liam replied, no expressions or emotions visible on his face.

Gu Donghai visibly became overjoyed. Finally! Things were going his way!

"Phew! Good then! See we are meant to be good brothers. He He He. Why don't all three of you head over to the Big Mug tavern in the Misty city?"

"We can meet up and I will give you 5000 gold coins alright?"

Gu Donghai saw that the person was still staring at him so he added, "No need to worry. I don't need anything from you."

"I will be very honest here. I just want to go on a date with your sister, that's all. Ha ha ha."

"Ah. Is that so…" Liam sighed. At first, it was simply a low-hanging fruit that was tempting him but now this fruit was already in his mouth. How could he still not bite it and devour it?

"Ok." He agreed even acting a little reluctant.

"Don't worry. I will give you 5000 gold coins. I will also introduce you to the Jade Mountain guild's main team. They will take you under their wing and you will earn even more."

"Do you understand now?"

"Ah. Ok. Thank you. Thank you so much, brother." Liam once again nodded, this time appearing much happier.

"Hmmm… Let me see. Why don't we meet up in 5 days?"

Though he was a little impatient to get his hands on the goddess, Gu Donghai still gave a conservative date because he was deep down still scared of his father.

But he was not at home often so five days should be good. He nodded and confirmed it.

"Ok, brother." Liam as well nodded.

"Alright. You can go back now." Go Donghai waved his hand away.

The two lackeys ushered Liam away and came back to Donghai with confused expressions. What was happening? Why was their boss being so nice?

5000 gold coins was an astronomical sum of money! Especially for people like them stemming from middle-class families.

"What? You guys still don't understand? Too dumb! Cough Cough." Gu Donghai cleared his throat and explained.

"See for girls like that… cough… outside world is a bit too inconvenient."

"Ahem. It's not like she wouldn't agree to be my girlfriend. Heh. Who could resist this young master's charms? But it is such a drag to be tied down by one chick."

But inside the game world, we can make things more interesting. Do you understand? Ke Ke Ke. There she won't be able to get away from me and there will be no one to help her."

"Do you understand now? Aren't I a genius? Just one look at that joker, I knew instantly that spineless idiot would sell off his women."

"Ke Ke Ke. Sure, I will date them. In a very special way."

"As for the gold coins he can dream on. Idiot. Did he really think I was going to give him 5000 gold coins? Ke Ke Ke."

"Boss, what if he doesn't show up?"

"Eh? Not possible. But in case he doesn't show up, he should be living in our city only. Where is he going to run and hide from me?"

He coughed some more and then cleaned his mouth before walking back to the booth where his mother was sitting.

Chapter 427 - End of the world

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.

Chapter 428 - Are they all dead?

"There is nothing we can do…" Shen Yue dazedly repeated Liam's words.

The two girls blankly stared at Liam holding their breath and waiting for him to say something that made sense and but it looked like that was not going to happen.

Liam also wanted to give them some space and time to process things but the two seemed as if their brain was going to shortcircuit.

So he quickly moved on to the next half of his speech.

"So that was the bad news…" He sat between the two women on the couch. He pulled over Mei Mei patted her and gently kissed her on the forehead again.

"There is also some good news."

The duo sharply turned and looked at Liam, their eyes widened like a deer in front of the headlights. Their whole world was collapsing, so there was also good news here?

How was it even possible?

"What are you saying, brother?" Mei Mei squeaked like a mouse. She was almost afraid of this good news.

"Eh! What? Did both of you forget?" Liam smiled, planting another kiss on the girl's head. "So what if the game is going to influence the world and change everything?"

"Did you both forget that you are also playing the game? If there can be good things, there can be bad things also."

"According to my theory, we should be able to get stronger in the real world if manage to become stronger in the game world. Does that make sense?"

Ah. The duo gasped and then the realization dawned on them.

"Brother, but how do you know all this?" Mei Mei wrinkled her nose, her entire face filled with anxiety.

"Sigh. Look here. I also don't know anything for sure. These are just hints I gathered. Bits and pieces of news from here and there."

"In any case, this game has already become our livelihood, and we are already playing it quite seriously. Nothing changes now, alright?"

Liam wanted to give the two some encouragement instead of scaring the crap out of them and this was really the best he could do.

"I mean I am sharing with you guys this piece of information because you two looked at me as if I was a madman for buying supplies."

"Tell me, what should I do? Isn't it best to be prepared?"

Liam stood up and sternly looked at the two women listening to him like little children, hanging onto each of his words.

"If I am correct, then our future is very unpredictable. So what can we do about that now?"

"All we can do or anyone can do is be prepared as best as we can. That's all correct?"

"Sigh, if I knew that you two would become so worried, maybe I shouldn't have said anything in the first place."

Liam acted like he was regretting his actions and closed his eyes. Almost immediately Mei Mei jumped up, becoming energetic.

"No. No. I am not scared. Brother, I will also work hard. We will do our best." The little girl tugged at Liam and hugged him.

"Brother, you must have been carrying this burden all by yourself all these days. I am so sorry. I didn't know. I was just messing around."

"I should have played it more seriously from the beginning. I am sorry. I really did not know."

"That's okay. Of course, you did not know idiot. Because I am only just telling you now."

Liam smiled lightly. Of course, just like he thought, this route was better. For a long time, this girl had always been all about protecting him.

She hadn't hesitated standing up against children twice her size back then and now, she was not going to hesitate and become stronger, all to protect him.

He could see the innocent determination in her eyes. Liam hugged his sister tightly, patting her on the back.

This was why I told you guys not to die. Now, do you understand everything? Don't worry. Everything will be fine if we become stronger. Trust your brother. Alright."

"Ok." Mei Mei nodded and then continued hugging Liam. He did not say anything the two remained standing like that for a few minutes.

Near them, Shen Yue was still silent as she absentmindedly stared at the floor deeply engrossed in her thoughts.

Even after Mei Mei became better she was still lost in her space. "Sis, are you okay?" Mei Mei asked her. She walked over and patted her.

"Ah. No. I mean, Mei Mei sorry, can I talk with your brother, alone for a moment? Do you mind?"

Mei Mei looked shocked after hearing that but then she realized something and quickly ran over to her room.

"Sis Yue, brother, I am going back to the game. Aha ha ha ha. I am not here. Don't mind me. Carry on. Carry on."

Shen Yue awkwardly fidgeted with her fingers as she could see that the little girl had mistaken her words, but she could not care about that right now.

After she heard her room's door closing, she turned toward Liam but she continued looking at the ground without mustering the courage to look up at him directly in his eyes.

"You want to talk to me about something?" Liam let out a long sigh of relief and sat back on the couch.

The thing that he was dreading was telling his sister the truth and her reaction to it and now that that was over, he felt as if a huge burden was lifted off of his shoulders.

Shen Yue also should be fine? Though he thought that she looked a little stiff. What did she want to talk about?

Suddenly Liam had a bad feeling.

It was because he could see that the woman was neither sad nor shaky from fear. Rather she looked very serious as if she had something weighing heavily on her mind.

"What happened?" He asked again.

ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ꜰʀᴇᴇ ᴡᴇʙ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ

Shen Yue took a deep breath, lifted her head, and slowly spoke, "Back then, near that graveyard…"

"When those five people assaulted us… you killed them repeatedly. Again and again and again. Until they no longer appeared… Are they all dead?"

Liam's eyes instantly narrowed as he gazed at the woman in front of him with a strange glint in his eyes. "What are you implying?" His voice became cold.

He stood up and stalked over to her, standing right in front of her. His eyes casually flitted over to the other side to make sure that this sister was really inside her room because...

Depending on what happened next...

Things could get really messy.