United States, Watson, Prince Virtual Athletics, Room 250.

A burly blonde man was lying in the virtual stealth cabin. The man was wearing a short-sleeved tights and his bare left arm was clearly muscled, but there was only half of his arm on the right side of his body.

The blonde man fell asleep and suddenly opened his eyes at some point.

......

Thomas woke up from the virtual sneak, and immediately felt a violent feeling of hunger in his stomach, his body was extremely stiff, and he gently twisted his neck and made a crisp "creaking" sound.

He looked at the schedule in the stealth cabin and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

“Twenty hours.”

Even though the one-minute pre-war preparation time was cancelled through the homeowner's early setup, more than a thousand battles were held and a long time was "reprimanding" the little guy, which eventually took a full twenty hours.

This was the first time Thomas continued to sneak in the virtual world for twenty hours, his body and spirit were exhausted, but for some reason the strength kept coming from his chest.

"Shi Xiaobai, this name seems to be from Xia."

Thomas said to himself, climbing out of the stealth cabin. The food was almost cold when it was already prepared on the table, but he was hungry for twenty hours and was not in the mood to pick on it. He picked up a fork with his left hand and inserted a steak into his mouth and started chewing it quickly.

I put down my fork and poured a glass of valuable red wine with my only left hand. I sipped it. The taste was mellow and slightly astringent, but this time I felt a little bitter.

"This bottle of red wine is worth a head."

Thomas sighed lightly.

The bounty that a F-level reward criminal can get can only be bought with a bottle of such red wine.

Those heroes who claim to be justice but are unwilling to risk their lives to fight the disaster star beast will use the hero salary they receive every month to support their families, so the money they buy alcohol will naturally be exchanged for the heads of these criminals.

The reward for criminals is evil.

Eliminate evil and drink it with a few bottles of red wine. This is... very heroic.

"It turns out that the taste of red wine is bitter."

Thomas put down his wine glass, suddenly took out his phone, clicked it a few times on the touch screen, and entered the address book page, with his fingers hanging gently above a certain name.

He hesitated for a moment and pressed hard.

It was a number that had not been called for for twenty years, and he thought he would never try to dial it again in his life.

"Dou...Dou...Dou..."

The regular ringtones were very similar to his heartbeat at this moment.

"Hey, who?"

The next second after the phone was connected, a more mature but still gentle magnetic sound came into his ears, and Thomas' breath paused slightly.

"It's me, Thomas."

Thomas's voice suddenly became a little dry, and his throat, which had been moistened with red wine, made such a nearly hoarse sound.

"Ha, it turns out that I'm a junior. I haven't contacted you for a long time. It's been twenty years, right?"

There was a little surprise and joy in the sound on the other end of the phone.

"Well, it's been twenty years, Senior Aris."

Thomas said silently in his heart, to be precise, twenty years, one month, and seven days.

......

Once, he and Aris attended the same school.

At that time, Aris was just a funny senior who was ridiculed by his classmates for practicing the crab step, and he was the innocent junior who followed Aris' butt.

One day, he said to Aris: "Senior, one day, I will surpass you."

Aris smiled and replied, "Then I have to run faster. I feel very embarrassed to be caught up with by my junior brother!"

Thomas thought that if Aris continues to use the crab step stubbornly, he will be able to surpass Aris sooner or later.

After graduation, the two of them joined different hero organizations and began their respective lives, but their deep friendship allowed them to contact each other frequently, meet frequently, compare their current situations, and then catch up with each other.

However, the two interlaced lines finally separated one day twenty years ago and no longer intersected.

That day, twenty-five-year-old Thomas lost his right hand in the rescue of the meteor shower, and his proud gun-carrying right hand.

However, in that meteor shower rescue, Aris elevated the crab step to a "other world" state and was praised as a genius who shocked the world.

After that day, Thomas could no longer catch up with Aris, and soon, he could not even see his back.

.....

"How are you doing?"

Aris's soft greeting pulled Thomas back from his memories, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly. He lost his right hand, except for relying on the remaining power of the seventh level of the Spirit Realm to kill some low-level reward prisoners, he could only experience the false satisfaction of having his right hand in the virtual world. Will he live like this...will he be fine?

"Well, it's a good life." Thomas replied softly.

He pondered on the other end of the phone and fell into silence.

Thomas let out a light breath and suddenly said, "I called you this time because I met a little guy... He looks very similar to you."

"Oh? Tell me."

"Well, that's a Xia Guoren named Shi Xiaobai. He uses crab steps like you. Haha, that funny look reminds me of...reminds..."

Thomas seemed to have a fish bone choked in his throat, and his words were stuck for a moment before continuing: "He used the crab step like you, and he said what you once said, he said he liked to fail..."

"Then the hero is unparalleled, senior must have heard of it, well, a...it's just a...nothing game...I met him in that game..."

"Well, you're right. I've been a scoundrel...Okay, I admit, I've been a scoundrel..."

"Senior, this is not the point. The point is that the little guy was shot by me in the head... Now, I admit that it's not interesting to abuse vegetables, and you don't have to laugh so exaggeratedly..."

"And the point is not to shoot the head in one shot, but he didn't quit the game...what? You said he was stupid? Yes, he was just a fool...but, he was not an ordinary fool..."

“…”

Time passed little by little, and before I knew it, the phone call between the two had lasted for more than an hour.

Because of Aris' various troubles, Thomas worked hard to tell the story of his encounter in the hero Wushuang. He finally concluded: "In short, I feel that he is very similar to you. Of course, this may be just an illusion caused by 'the funny guys in the world'."

On the other end of the phone, Aris suddenly fell into silence after hearing this non-malice teasing.

"Senior, I've been talking for so long, you always have to feel a little bit, right?"

Thomas complained naturally, and even though he had been sneaking virtually for twenty hours, he should have been exhausted, but Thomas felt surprisingly sober and inexplicably excited.

"You mean, that little guy named Shi Xiaobai failed more than a thousand times and was full of fighting?" Aris suddenly said.

"Yeah!" A smile appeared on the corner of Thomas's mouth.

"Can you still stick to it after being scolded by your sarcastic tongue hundreds of times?" Arist continued to ask.

"Yeah!" Thomas slightly emphasized his tone.

"Can you still understand the essence of the Crab of God by being misled by your cheating theory?" Aris's voice was filled with a hint of incredibleness.

"Well...what? What is the theory of cheating? Okay...I admit that my theory doesn't sound very realistic...but practice is the only criterion for testing truth, and Shi Xiaobai proved my correctness." Thomas could no longer hide the smile in his voice.

"Haha...you said that he realized the crab phantom is also true?"

"Um!"

"It's true to force you to use the Ghost Void Gun?"

"Um!"

"That last arrogant monologue is true?"

"Um!"

"Alien Thomas, is ‘Well’ the common language of your planet?"

"Um!"

As soon as Thomas finished speaking, he immediately realized something was wrong, and he suddenly had a black thread and said speechlessly: "Senior, do you know how old you are now?"

Aris smiled and suddenly fell into silence again. After a moment, he said, "Thomas, you said that child looks very similar to me, right?"

Thomas whispered: "Yes, he reminded me of you once."

"You're wrong, Thomas."

Thomas was stunned, was he wrong? It turned out that it was just his wishful thinking?

Aris suddenly said, "Do you know how many times I failed to challenge the teacher?"

When Thomas was stunned, he only remembered a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, but he didn't know how many times Aris had defeated in the hands of the teacher.

"Fifty-one! Only fifty-one!"

Aris himself gave the answer.

Has it only been fifty times? Compared with that guy's more than a thousand times, it seems...

wrong!

"No, that's different. Every time you challenge the teacher, you will be seriously injured. That little guy can fail almost once in a few dozen seconds. And in the virtual world, he doesn't have to bear physical pain...he..."
To be continued...