Re: Evolution Online

"Hey! Can we talk?" Alex chirpily exclaimed with a smug grin as if she had a huge scoop and couldn't wait to tell Liam about it. However, the other party was still standing still, not even acknowledging her.

"Hmmm? What happened to him?" Alex walked around to stand face to face with him and snapped her fingers. "Hello! I have something to tell you!"

Liam smiled bitterly. He also had something to tell her, but he was still debating whether or not it was the right thing to do. The person in front of him was extremely capable except for when she was all riled up.

And telling about Mia would definitely get her all worked up. There was no way for him to know what she would do or how she would react.

The enemy this time was not a normal one. Liam had a feeling that he was dealing with someone powerful this time. Very powerful. Much more powerful than him. So they had to be extremely cautious and careful with this. Otherwise, there could be irreparable damages.

But then again, Alex was not someone weak. She was strong and perhaps he needed her strength to deal with this. It was her family after all. She deserved to know.

"What is it?" He asked her, still debating what the right decision was.

Alex could sense that something was off. She frowned slightly and then continued, "So…I told you I formed my mana core right… I got a lot of stats bumps and I decided to check my affinity again. Guess what?"

"What?"

"My divine affinity is now SS-grade!" Alex beamed in response. "I know. Not as good as Mia but I am getting there. Thanks to you. When she finally gets her ass back here, she is in for a surprise." She punched her fist in excitement.

"Good job." Liam awkwardly replied. "About-"

"Wait. Wait. I am not done yet. I have another surprise for you." Alex grinned and pointed to one of the elite beasts charging towards their group. "It's about those guys."

"Hmmm?" Liam raised a brow. "What about them?"

"Well… since we had some time on our hands, I was messing with some elites and trying to figure out how they were so strong and got such huge buffs all of a sudden. Guess what?"

Liam immediately had a bad feeling. He did not have to hear the rest of her words. He could already tell what was coming. "What?"

"These beasts have a divine buff!" Alex exclaimed. "I mean some sort of divine energy buff. I am sure of it. I can just sense it on them. There is a faint mark of divine energy on every single one of these berserk beasts."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. They are so strong because they have some sort of divine spell boosting their health and stats."

Liam's face changed. His cold gaze shifted to one of the elite beasts near them. Was this also their doing?

Meanwhile, Alex continued to talk about her conspiracy theories. "So now I am thinking there could be some sort of deeper power play here. Maybe someone from the divine temple is corrupted. Maybe they are trying to take charge of something. Maybe-"

Liam, on the other hand, remained silent. He did not expect this at all. 

So far, everything was fine and normal as the experience from his previous life dictated but now suddenly in every direction he turned, there was the divine temple doing something from the sidelines. They seem to have a hand in everything.

What was happening? Weren't they simply just another faction inside this world? Or were they the ones governing everything?

Imprisoning one prisoner was a coincidence but all of these things happening around them couldn't be ignored. Everything pointed to the divine temple being the one managing all the events in this world.

But even if that was the case, what happened to Mia? Why was Mia under their grasp?

She acted as if she was brainwashed and all her memories had been removed. Everything about her had changed. 

She was cold and aloof before not letting anyone get close to her except for Alex or Rey but she was still a kind person. And now there was nothing left of her previous self. 

More importantly, all of this happened only after she visited the divine realm. Just what happened while she was over there? How did everything come to this?

If these beasts were buffed by a divine spell, then were the barbarians buffed by the same divine spell?

Liam silently leaned on a tree nearby. His mind was swirling with questions and it was a lot for him to simply ignore and keep sticking to his original plan. What was he missing here?

And there was also one thing that was mainly bugging him. 

In both this life and his past life, he always thought that this game, the tutorial was something that was meant to help everyone. Get them accustomed to mana and prevent them from becoming mindless mana zombies. 

It was a second chance for everyone. They could be reborn and change their fate. Become someone strong and powerful even if they were poor and helpless in real life. 

But… what if that was not case?

What if that was not what the tutorial was mainly intended to do?

Liam couldn't shake this thought away. Whatever angle he thought about things, this tutorial seemed to be doing more harm than good. 

For instance, in his last life, everyone's soul was extremely compromised. 

This time the news spread sooner that deaths result from the game so people were cautious not to die a lot but last time this information only spread a little later so everyone was weak when the tutorial ended.

If they really meant to help then wouldn't this have been declared explicitly right from the beginning?

Liam had always taken this as an unspoken rule that was intended to be found out by the players or perhaps as the penalty for being weak. But now that he thought about it, he wondered if this was hidden on purpose.

What if this tutorial that was meant to be helpful was secretly meant to be harmful behind the scenes? What if they were all being set up to fail right from the beginning?