The cashier continued scanning the items quickly, his hands moving almost on autopilot. He had been working at this hypermarket for only four months, but he had already gotten quite skilled. In his free time the young man loved playing shooters, and that habit unexpectedly helped him here — his fingers deftly found barcodes and scanned them one after another without missing a single can or package. Beep… Beep… Beep… The sounds of the scanner merged into a continuous rhythm.
While he processed the endless stream of canned goods, grains, and bottles of oil, thoughts swirled in his head.
This guy has already come for the third day in a row and bought several carts each time… At first I thought he was just crazy or preparing for some weird challenge. But today he brought along a whole gang of muscular guys. Six big, serious-looking dudes. They can't all be crazy at once, right? Or is this some kind of cult? Or do they really know something I don't?
He glanced quickly at Lin Wei, who stood calmly at the checkout counter watching the growing total. The guy's face was completely calm and composed.
The cashier was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when he finished scanning the last items. All six carts were completely emptied. The total amount on the screen looked impressive.
After receiving cash payment from Lin Wei, the cashier counted out the change and was about to hand it over when he suddenly froze. He thought for a moment, looked around nervously, and lowering his voice to almost a whisper, asked:
"Um… excuse me, can I ask a question? Why are you buying so many products? Are you planning a big party or something?"
The question sounded awkward even to himself. The cashier immediately realized how stupid it was — the purchased goods were completely unsuitable for a party. There were no chips, no soda, no alcohol. Only rice, canned meat, grains, and water. But he couldn't just ask directly, "Have you gone crazy?" He wasn't sure how stable this customer was, especially considering these massive purchases.
Lin Wei looked at the cashier and narrowed his eyes slightly. Instead of answering immediately, he leaned closer to the counter and whispered quietly so that only the young man could hear:
A crisis is coming. You'd better buy at least some supplies yourself. Just in case.
The cashier froze with the change still in his outstretched hand. His eyes widened slightly. He stood there silently processing what he had heard until a loud, irritated voice came from the queue behind:
"Hey! Are you going to work or just stand there looking pretty?!"
"I've already waited long enough, and the cashier is still wasting my time!"
From the group of impatient middle-aged customers, an elderly woman with a cane stepped forward. She was limping but moved quite energetically. She placed her small bag of groceries on the belt and immediately raised her voice:
"Hurry up and do your job, or I'll complain to your manager! Young people these days are completely brainless. You can't even handle such a simple job! In our time we worked from morning till night and didn't complain! You have no shame, no conscience…"
The woman continued grumbling loudly, listing all the sins of modern youth. The cashier flinched, quickly handed the change to Lin Wei, and began scanning the old woman's items while muttering apologies in a trembling voice.
Lin Wei took the change, nodded to the cashier, and quietly said to his friends:
"Let's go. No need to linger here."
They pushed the six heavily loaded carts out of the store. Once outside, Zhang Hu couldn't hold back and laughed quietly:
"Did you see that poor guy's face? When you whispered about the crisis to him, his eyes almost popped out of his head."
Xiao Min shook his head while pushing his cart:
"You were pretty harsh with him, Wei. Now the kid's going to be nervous for the rest of his shift."
Lin Wei shrugged and continued pushing his heavily loaded cart toward the parking lot exit.
"Maybe someone will actually listen. Since he asked, it was worth warning him. Anyway, we did a good thing today."
Li Wei glanced back at the store entrance and snorted:
"Did you notice how everyone was staring at us inside? A little more and they would have started filming us for the local news with the headline 'Suspicious group of young men preparing for the end of the world.'"
Everyone laughed. Even the usually serious Wang Lei smiled.
"Let them film," Lin Wei replied calmly. "Today's supplies will serve as a solid foundation. We need to find a place to store everything. And gradually I'll tell you more."
Zhang Hu nodded as he pushed his overloaded cart:
"We're with you, Wei. So far everything looks strange, but you've never been the type to panic for no reason. If you say we need to prepare, then we need to prepare."
They slowly made their way toward Lin Wei's apartment. The six heavy carts rolled along the sidewalk, attracting curious glances from passersby. But now the guys barely paid attention to the whispers and chuckles around them. They walked with confidence, feeling that they were doing something important.
After turning the corner, Lin Wei quietly fell back a few steps without anyone noticing. He mentally opened his inventory and activated the cargo van he had received earlier. White rank or not, it didn't matter right now. The important thing was that it appeared exactly when it was needed.
When the guys turned the same corner, an unexpected sight greeted them: a fairly spacious used gray cargo van was parked there. Lin Wei was already standing beside it, opening the rear doors.
The guys stopped dead in their tracks.
"What the hell is this?!" Xiao Min exclaimed first, his eyes widening.
Zhang Hu froze with his cart still in his hands.
"Wei… Is this your van? Where did it come from? You came here on foot, just like us!"
Li Wei also looked stunned:
"Are you serious? When did you manage to bring it here? We were together the whole time!"
Lin Wei calmly opened the rear doors of the van and turned to his friends with a slight smile.
"It doesn't matter how it got here. The important thing is that we have it now. Let's load everything inside. It will be much faster and easier than dragging the carts all the way home."
The guys stood in stunned silence for a few more seconds, exchanging confused glances. Their faces showed a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and growing curiosity. However, no one asked any questions yet.
Zhang Hu was the first to recover. He pushed his cart toward the van.
"Alright… Let's load it up. You'll explain everything to us later. Because the number of questions is only increasing."
Lin Wei simply nodded silently and began helping load the heavy boxes and bags into the spacious cargo area of the van.