As the lights began to shine, the street lamps appeared intermittently among the sparse tree shadows. On the benches along the forest path, couples had already taken them.
Under the cover of night, from time to time, a couple would embrace each other tightly under the dim light, their heads touching, faces close together, arms linked, legs entwined, starting a long night of "intimate communication".
Alistair's apartment is located deep in such lush greenery. The surrounding environment of Vitalis Medical Academy is renowned for its tranquility. Many people who want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city are willing to purchase a house here. The reason why Alistair chose to buy the apartment here was, in essence, that it was close to the school, which made it convenient for him to attend classes, and also made it easier for him to carry out bounty hunting missions in his other identity without causing any trouble.
However, reality is never as perfect as one might expect. This statement precisely captures the true situation after Alistair purchased this apartment.
Even two years later today, Alistair still couldn't figure out how Sebastian and Vane, his two close roommates, managed to knock on his door on the very second day he moved into this apartment. In the end, Alistair could only attribute the discovery of his residence to Vane's dog-like acute sense of smell, and reluctantly accepted that this place became the gathering spot for the three of them.
At the moment when the moon was high above the willow tree, Alistair's two close friends barged in as usual. The muscular Vane was stirring five bowls of steaming beef noodle soup, placing two of them in front of Alistair and Sebastian respectively, while himself enjoying the three bowls of beef noodle soup in front of the air conditioner, feeling very comfortable. Sebastian took out an infrared telescope from his backpack and began to appreciate the passionate drama being staged by the love-stricken men and women in the woods through the window.
Alistair was leaning against the sofa. He had grown accustomed to the actions of his two best friends. In fact, he wasn't so heartless as to be completely indifferent. During the mission, even if Vane brandished a knife and attacked people in front of him, and Sebastian held a beautiful woman in his arms and fought on naked in the battlefield, Alistair wouldn't even lift his head to pay attention for a moment.
Holding three pages in his hand - the game background of "Midnight Nobles", the profiles of game experts, and the "Survival Guide for Game Beginners" written by Sebastian during the day - Alistair was now furrowing his brow as he was summarizing, organizing and memorizing all of this. In fact, the first two pages of the materials were not difficult for Alistair to understand. However, after browsing through this "Survival Guide for Game Beginners", he remained in a state of confusion. Eventually, he had no choice but to give up, secretly thinking that he would have to wait until he entered the game and verified the information through practice, gradually understanding and comprehending it.
Alistair carefully placed the three pages of materials in his hand, sat down at the table and opened the beef and noodle soup to start eating. At the same time, Vane sitting opposite him had also finished three bowls of beef and noodle soup. After Sebastian sighed that there was nothing new, he shook his head and put down the Russian-made military infrared telescope.
"AL, are you going to play a game? 'Midnight Nobles'?"
Alistair was eating the noodles while nodding his head: "Well, the e-level bounty hunter assessment mission."
Vane's face was serious as he agreed, "This is indeed a difficult task!"
When Sebastian, who was happily enjoying the beef and noodle soup, heard this, he choked on the soup in his throat and almost choked to death. He rolled his eyes and glared at his two best friends, saying to himself: "Another complete newbie."
The past of Vane and Alistair has many similarities. Their lives are completely different from those of ordinary college students. Alistair spent his leisure time learning the knowledge of various subjects at Vitalis Medical Academy. In his own words, he learned how to save lives. This not only enables him to better protect himself when carrying out bounty hunting missions, but also only by mastering the art of saving lives can one better commit murder!
While Vane's leisure time was much simpler. Apart from fighting, it was all about killing people. He was known as "having no equal in the three mountains and five peaks", or when the male hormones had nowhere to vent, he would go to a high-end club to deal with his business.
In comparison, Sebastian is the most normal among the three. He always achieves excellent grades, is good at flirting and picking up girls, and is proficient in all kinds of games. However, in his backpack, apart from the rubber cover, everything else is various sophisticated military machinery equipment. It's hard to say it's anything other than normal.
However, in the eyes of the others at Vitalis Medical Academy, their perspectives on Alistair, Vane and Sebastian were all the same.
"Awesome, stylish, and handsome - these are the evaluations given by the women around them for the three of them. As for the men's opinions, they are basically the same, except that after these three adjectives, they would add the sentence, 'Why don't these three bastards just die already?'"
Taking the last noodle into his mouth, Sebastian pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth. Then he suddenly remembered something and asked urgently, "AL, haven't you gone to buy the virtual game helmet yet?"
"Huh? What's going on?" Alistair looked up, puzzled by how excited Sebastian was.
"Midnight Nobles is about to go live at midnight. But you haven't prepared the most crucial thing. This is truly a case of putting the cart before the horse!" Sebastian shook his head with a sigh, then with a heroic air, as if ready to face any danger, he said, "As a former hardcore player and your best friend AL, I'll accompany you to the city center. With my professional eyes, I'll help you choose a virtual game helmet."
Vane gave Sebastian a glance and then pursed her lips, expressing uncertainty.
When Alistair heard this, he lowered his head and continued to eat the beef and noodle soup in the bowl. Without thinking, he said, "I heard that at the place where helmets are sold on the main street, there are many models doing live runway shows..."
"Uh..."
Sebastian, having his true identity exposed, grinned mockingly. His eyes twinkled as he feigned submission. "Comrade! The helmet issue must be resolved before dawn. If you don't move now, you won't be able to join the server by dawn. How about this? The cost of the ride will be split evenly between us. What do you think? Are we being very generous? I'm a poor student after all!"
"Thump, thump..."
Just as Sebastian was insisting on following Alistair to the city center, the door suddenly creaked open and someone knocked on it. Sebastian dutifully opened the door.
"Mr. Alistair? This is the limited edition 'Midnight Nobles' game helmet you reserved. Please sign for it."
Sebastian stared blankly at the delivery person outside the door. Then, he witnessed Alistair walking over, signing the order form, and receiving a beautifully wrapped package.
"Such waste of resources!" Sebastian wailed. "AL! How could you possibly develop such a passion for 'Midnight Nobles' without experiencing the scene of people crowding together to purchase virtual game helmets at the actual event? Do you not realize that your actions are leading you astray?"
"Sebastian, your intention is actually to crowd the girls together and watch the models on stage give their show. While enjoying physical and mental satisfaction, you also get to feast your eyes?" Vane looked disdainful and bluntly exposed Sebastian's true nature.
"You, this uneducated muscular guy, what right do you have...?"
"All right," Alistair interrupted the quarrel between the two, his expression stern: "I have to go to work."
Sebastian and Vane exchanged a glance, then worked together seamlessly to tidy up the mess on the table. They quietly closed the door and left. They knew that when Alistair was on a mission, he was always extremely cold towards others.
With the lights turned off, Alistair sat quietly on the sofa, breathing deeply at first, then gradually becoming shallower and fainter, until finally there was no sound at all. The darkness in the room helped him to focus better. He needed to regain his best condition before dawn in order to handle the upcoming task.
Originally, Alistair had planned to relax and enjoy the "Midnight Nobles" game after completing the e-level bounty hunter assessment task. However, now he can only approach this upcoming century-spanning masterpiece - "Midnight Nobles" - with the mindset of fulfilling a task.
"Ding-ding-ding..."
The midnight bell rang from the bell tower of Vitalis Medical Academy. Its sound echoed far away. Alistair opened his eyes, a glint of determination flashing in his eyes. He picked up the exquisite virtual game helmet beside him and used his hands with extraordinary steadiness to scan three pages of materials and store them in the external data port of the helmet.
Then, Alistair put on the virtual game helmet and the indicator lights on the outside of the helmet began to flash in a circular pattern.
"The power is on, the game port is connected. Now, we enter the starting interface of 'Midnight Nobles'. The 5-second countdown begins..."
"5"
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"...
"Entering the starting interface of 'Midnight Nobles'..."
Alistair felt that his vision was always in a state of darkness. Suddenly, there was a burst of light, and brilliant colors seemed to fall from the sky, enveloping him in a strange scene.