Path of Evolution - Chapter 37

Chapter 37






'But if you really want a 2nd tier crystal that badly, then I think I might be able to find some for you.' Lily voice broke put a stop to all of my thoughts in an abrupt manner.

'What do you mean by that? Please explain carefully.' I asked in anticipation. I felt like a child who was denied his candy from his father, but just as he was feeling down, his mother turned to him and offered him another candy.

'Well… I am not sure if you'll be able to buy the 2nd tier crystals. But you can definitely give it a try.' Lily said.

'Can you be a little more clear. Where can I buy the 2nd tier crystals?'

'You can try to buy them at the 'Buy and Sell Worldwide' icon that recently opened up. Although I'm not sure if you'll be able to find some 2nd tier crystals in there, there's still a possibility that you might.' Lily said.

'Oh! So that's what you meant.'

Finally I got the point that she was trying to convey.

In fact, the idea was rather simple and I felt a bit ashamed that I was not able to think about it myself.

People can sell just about anything in the B&W Worldwide. So it was possible that someone might have tried to sell a few 2nd tier crystals as well.

Although the chances of such a thing happening was not very high, there was no problem in checking the interface for once.

Leaving such thoughts aside, I opened up my hologram and quickly pressed on the 'B&S Worldwide' icon.

Just as I opened the icon, I was met with an interface which resembled that of the Online selling sites like Amazon and eBay.

There was an icon on top left which said 'B&S worldwide' beside which I could see a long search bar.

Below that, I could see a list of options like Home, Buy, Sell, Today's Deals, All Departments and Account.

When I hovered over the Account section, it showed me in image of my own face and the amount of wealth I had.

User name:- Ashok Singh Rana (Enhanced Human I )

Wealth:- 14 white coins, 156 Crystals (1st tier)

It also showed other options like Setting, History, Orders, etc. But I had no history and I've never ordered anything so those didn't interest me.

As for Setting, I decided to leave it be for later on.

Below these things, I could see a large slider and after gazing the slider for a few seconds, I realized that my perception of the world had suddenly changed.

In the slider bar, I could see a tank, a RPG launcher, a set of 100 grenades, a set of 3 rifles and 3 ammunition crates, wait! Why does this sound so familiar.

I quickly clicked on the last option and my was shocked when I saw the image of the seller.

'Isn't that Big bro?' I asked incredulously.

Besides Rahul's name, I could see the (Second timer) tag, but this time, there was one more tag attached with his name. It was (Enhanced Human I).

'It is.' Lily replied. 'Why are you so surprised?'

'Why am I so surprised, don't you see that his products are on the first page. Have you ever sold something in the ebay or a similar site. Let me tell you right now. It's downright impossible to get your products in the homepage of sites like these.'

'Well, now that you put it that way, that does make kind of sense. But maybe not many people know about the B&S Worldwide right now. If they did, then I'm pretty sure that people from the military could definitely sell much more guns and ammunitions without putting their own life in danger.'

'Yeah. I guess that a lot of people don't even know about this stuff at this point.' I controlled my shock and looked at the prize of the set.

The whole set of 3 rifles and 3 ammunition crate was prized at 500 white coins.

I had no idea if it was a fair price or not. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. I won't know until I go through a lot of other options.

I searched a bit more and realized that the Tank was being sold at a prize of 4000 white coins.

Damn. Does anyone even has so many white coins at this point.

Even if someone had 4000 white coins, it would be rather foolish to buy a tank with it.

Although a tank could be use to crush the abnormals, their crystals would get crushed along with their heads so it could not be used for harvesting crystals.

It could also be used as a moving fortress but 2nd tier abnormals are very fast and once a tank is caught between them, it would not be able to get out of the encirclement no matter how much it tries.

As for the 3rd tier abnormals.

Judging by how smart and powerful those 3rd tier abnormals were, I felt that a single 3rd tier abnormals would be able to sabotage a tank.

Maybe not really wreck it upside down, but it would probably be capable of breaking the turret or wreaking it's tracks.

'Others are welcome to buy it. But personally, I would never do such a thing.' I sighed and scrolled down the site.

Below, I could see a large amount of medical supplies, probably sold by someone who broke into a hospital after the apocalypse.

After that section, I was able to see highly expensive communication devices like walkie talkies, radar, flares, etc.

There were many gadgets in that section but there was one in particular that caught my attention.

It was a set of four walkie talkies and was priced at around 300 white coins. It's description said that it had a range of 50 kilometers which was considerably more than the walkie talkies I got from the army.

In a world where there's no electricity and the no other method of communication, such a thing might prove to be very useful.

I kept the set in my wishlist and told Lily to remind me about this later on.

With that out of my mind, I started browsing through the page once again. After browsing for a while, I was slowly starting to understand the value of these things.

'Wait! I still have the heavy machine gun. Don't I?'

'Yeah. Why? You want to sell it?' Lily asked.

'I do. It's not like I can use it anyway.' I thought and started to run in the direction where I had hidden the Heavy Machine Gun.

I quickly found it and put it on the B&S Worldwide.

After tagging it as a weapon and giving it a rough description, I priced it at 200 white coins.

I had no idea if I had put the right price or if someone will buy it or not. But the process was indeed exciting.

I suddenly had the urge to infiltrate the Army camp and steal all of their weapons and equipments but I stopped the thought as soon as it emerged because I knew that doing such a thing would be suicidal.

After putting up the Heavy Machine Gun for sale, I started scrolling down the site once again and just like before, the next assortment of things surprised me even more.

It was not a weapon. Nor medical supplies or anything like that.

In fact, it was a single info page.

The whole section was nothing but a list of pages.

The names and description of these pages were even more interesting.

Basic info about the Apocalypse:- Reading it will give you a general idea of everything that's going on around in the world.

Price:- 10 white coins

Info related to Mutant Beasts:- Gives you a basic information about the mutant beasts. What to do to avoid them. Their kinds. And how to deal with them.

Price:- 50 white coins

General info about useful Skill books:- A list of Skill books that are cheap and will be very useful for your survival in the apocalypse.

Price:- 30 white coins

'The hell, who uploaded all of these pages. And how the hell does this person know so much about he apocalypse.' I thought.

'Something wrong with that?' Lily asked. 'Doesn't your brother also knows about all of these things already.'

Her words shocked me for a bit and this time, I was not able to avoid thinking about it.

Why would Big bro know so many things?

Why is he skilled at fighting?

Why does he seem so neutral in this apocalyptic world, as if it is just another normal day?

Why?

I had many questions. And I had many answers. But I did not knew which one was right.

'Is it possible that Rahul had seen the future.' It was the thought that came to my mind before anything else. But I shot it down as soon as it came. Such a thing would not explain how he became so skilled at fighting all of a sudden.

'Or maybe someone had taken over his body. Someone who knew about the apocalypse and was very skilled at fighting.' But if such were case, then why would that guy help me and protect little Neha.

'Maybe he has come from some other dimension?' This thought was a bit scientific and something I could live with. But was that really the truth?

I had no idea.

Beside all of these, I had one more theory. But the theory was so absurd that I decided to ignore it as it changed everything that I've believed in, in my entire life.

But even though I tired hard to not think about it, once the thought entered my mind, I was not able to stop thinking about it no matter how hard I tried.

'Is it possible that…'

'Is is possible that Rahul lived this life before and after he died, he came back to life at the moment when he got in the car accident.'

'Is it really possible that he reincarnated in his own body?'

If that was the case, then that would explain a lot of things. It would explain his behaviour the day when he regained his consciousness.

It would explain his fighting skills.

And it would explain why he knew so much about this Apocalypse.

'Is that what Second timer meant. That he had lived this life before and now he has to live it again.'

'Is such a thing really possible.'

'How can such a thing be possible?'

'What about science. What is all of this?' I thought and thought and soon I realized that although I had come to conclusion, I did not want to believe in it.

Such a thought was far too ridiculous for me to believe in.

But even though I did not wanted to believe in it. I realized that deep in my heart, I had already accepted that conclusion as the truth.

But I did not wanted to think about it anymore. Because thinking in this direction gave rise to horrible thoughts.

'If he's died once and come back, then is he really our big bro?'

'And if he died in that world, then does that means that me and Neha died as well.'

'But I'm quite well and alive right here. Then does this means that he came from a different dimension or something.'

The more I thought, the worse I felt so I decided that I would rather not think about it anymore.

My mind was a jumbled mess so I slapped myself a few times and the crazy thoughts went away. Not completely, but it gave me enough space and time to recompose myself.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the thing in front of me. Which was the hologram.

'Let's focus on the task at hand.' I thought and looked at the long list of info pages sold in the W&S Worldwide site.

I was intrigued by the person who was able to collect so much information about the apocalypse.

I clicked on the person's name and soon her information came in front of me.

Her face was hidden by a black veil for some reason. And as I looked at her name, I was shocked.

But even though I was shocked, I realized that deep inside my heart, I had already anticipated such a thing.

The name of the person was Rose Valentine.

She had a tag beside her name which said (Enhanced Human I)

But she had another tag beside that.

The tag read (2nd timer)

I looked at the tag intensely for a long time before I finally looked away and sighed deeply.

'Does that mean that she is a person like my Big bro.'

'Someone who came from some other dimension. From the future.'

'If that's the case, then that would make sense.'

'How else would a person be able to know so much about the apocalypse?'

I looked at the message tab beside the person's name and had the sudden urge to contact her.

I clicked the message tab and typed in a few word.

To:- Rose Valentine

Subject:- Enquiry about something

Hey Rose, I looked at the info pages that you were selling and I was wondering about something.

How do you know all of these things?

Does this has something to do with the (Second timer) tag beside your name?

If you can't answer for some reason then that's fine as well.

- Ashok Singh Rana

After I typed the message, I pushed the 'Send' button and pretty soon, I got the 'Sent' notification and sighed a bit.

I did not knew if what I had done was stupid or ingenious.

In fact, I had not really meant to ask her such a thing. And when I sent the message, I was not expecting her to reply either.

Just that, I wanted to ask her about this because I knew that I would not be able to ask such questions to Big Bro.

I closed her Profile and was about to scroll down but soon, a 'Bing' sound rang out and I saw a '1' pop up in my message tab.

I opened it up and saw that it was a reply from Rose Valentine.

I was a bit surprised that she give me a reply. And her reply was rather fast on top of that.

After all, it had been a mere few seconds since I sent her the message.

I clicked on the message with trembling hands and the message opened in front me.

Just that it's content were a bit… ahem… different then I had imagined.

Subject:- Price for info

20 1st tier crystals for answering the question-

'Does this has something to do with the (Second timer) tag beside your name?'

Price is non-negotiable.

- Rose Valentine

I gritted my teeth a bit when I saw the price.

'Oi oi… Isn't this girl a bit too much. I only have a total of 156 1st tier crystals in my possession. If I give away 20 of them just for a single question, then won't I become bankrupt by asking her a few more questions.'

I gritted my teeth and felt my heart bled as I attached 20 white crystals and asked her for an answer.

I did not want to part with the crystals, but I wanted to know the answer.

I did not had to wait for long before I got her message once again.

Subject:- Answer

Yes

- Rose Valentine

I felt the anger rise within me as I looked at the one worded half assed answer in front of me.

'This bitch!' I cursed angrily and felt that I had been scammed of my crystals.

(Can you be a bit more specific?) I typed and sent her the message.

Soon I got another message and reading it made me feel so angry that I almost wanted to punch her in the face.

(50 1st tier crystals for a more detailed answer.)

'Damn it!' I cursed in my heart.

(No thank you.) I wrote and closed the whole damn thing right away.

If it was possible then I even wanted to block her profile so that I would not have to talk with her again.

'Damn it! This bitch!' I cursed and kicked the car in front of me in anger.

Although she did gave me an answer, it was something that I had already guessed.

Losing 20 1st tier crystals for a single worded answer really made me feel quite bad for my purse.

But I slapped myself a few times and got out of the bad mood.

'If I got scammed then that's that. I won't feel down because of it anymore.'

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down after which, I started scrolling down once again.

And this time, I finally found what I was looking for.

It was a set of 5 2nd tier crystals.

I felt a bit elated when I saw them but when I looked at the price, my excitement died down at once.

It read 400 white coins.

'Damn this mother fucker. 400 white coins is the amount I would get if I sold 50 1st tier crystals. Is this guy saying that one 2nd tier crystals is equal to ten 1st tier crystals.' I cursed in my mind for a few moments but then I calmed down once again.

I had 136 1st tier crystals left in my possession. But 0 2nd tier crystals. That right there made me realize how rare the 2nd tier crystals were.

If I take my time and put in the efforts, then I would be able to gain a lot 1st tier crystals from the horde, but the same couldn't be said for the 2nd tier crystals.

Although I did not want to pay the price of 50 1st tier crystals, I knew that given enough time, I would be able to get more of these.

The same cannot be said for a 2nd tier crystal.

'Damn it!' I cursed and opened the profile of the guy who was selling these crystals.

I was not sure if you could get scammed in the B&S Worldwide app, so I went ahead and checked his profile and his selling history for a while.

I wanted to make sure that he was legit seller and wouldn't sell me damaged 2nd tier crystals.

In truth, when I opened his profile, I had expected him to be some low level guy who luckily got his hands on these 5 crystals.

If he sold these 5 2nd tier crystals and gained 400 white coins in return, then that would be a very good exchange for him.

Or so I thought when I opened his profile.

But what I saw next shocked me so much that everything that I had been thinking so far seemed to have become nothing but a joke.

The thoughts in my mind became chaotic and I trembled at the words in front of me.

I concentrated at the guy's profile with a solemn look on my face.

It read…

User name:- Chen Li (High Human) (3rd timer)

CHAPTER NAME:- 3RD TIMER