Xu Qingnan returned to his room, preparing to log off, but the system intercepted him. A dialog box then popped up: “Please leave a sweet, heart-throbbing goodnight message for the person you had the most favorable impression of today~”
Below were the avatars of the other five people.
It looked like he wouldn’t be able to log off without making a choice.
Xu Qingnan finally clicked on Cheng Yanzhi’s avatar and simply sent, “Nice to meet you.” Just then, Deng You, who shared the same living quarters, pushed open the door and entered.
The others could not see the virtual dialog boxes in front of him. Though it wouldn’t matter even if they were seen, Xu Qingnan calmly raised a hand to close it. Ignoring Deng You’s expression as if he wanted to say something, Xu Qingnan re-enabled the log-off function and successfully exited the system.
The flow of time online and offline was identical. When Xu Qingnan logged out, the outside world had already turned pitch black. He removed his helmet, closed his eyes to rest for a moment, and his optical brain vibrated. With a snap of his fingers, a holographic panel appeared in front of him.
In the upper right corner of the colorful interface, a small envelope icon flickered on and off.
It was from the forum editor in charge of him: “XU, there is a bidding project. Would you like to try it?”
An attached link was placed below.
Dream Painting Forum was currently the largest illustrator forum, where most buyers with specific demands placed their orders. A portion of these orders flowed into the public pool, allowing illustrators to freely choose and accept them. The compensation for this category wasn’t very high, and the forum would also deduct a fifty percent transaction service fee from it.
Alternatively, one could choose to sign an exclusive contract with the forum. The threshold for this category was quite high, but the compensation for the orders was also greater, with the forum only taking a ten percent cut. Correspondingly, such contracted illustrators had mandatory monthly tasks that must be completed. If buyers were dissatisfied with three consecutive orders, the illustrator would be required to pay a breach-of-contract penalty.
There was yet another category: bidding. It was a matter of being available only by chance and impossible to force.
The compensation had to reach six figures before a bidding project could be initiated. Both contracted and non-contracted illustrators could participate, with thousands of works competing in an examination-style selection made by the buyer.
Xu Qingnan had been in this industry for three or four years and had only encountered it once before.
This was the second time.
It was for illustrating an upcoming book, requiring about thirty illustrations in total, each with meticulous requirements. From the background atmosphere down to which button on a character’s clothing and what texture it should be, the document spanned a dense five pages of A4 paper.
The client’s requirement was for one of the illustrations with medium-to-high difficulty to be submitted for the bidding process.
After Xu Qingnan clicked to participate, “Flying Little Carp” appeared on the interface this was Xu Qingnan’s code name for this assignment. To protect contracted illustrators, the forum generated a different code name for every order accepted.
Sending a simple period back to the editor, Xu Qingnan put his helmet back on. With a flash of his optical brain, he logged into another page.
A Beta’s innate spiritual power was inherently weaker than that of an Alpha and an Omega. Previously, this weakness only manifested in certain specific fields, meaning the strength of one’s spiritual power had no major impact on daily life.
Coupled with the fact that spiritual power training was an extremely tedious and painful process where one had to simply push through blindly, unable to see progress during each practice session, and varying from person to person while waiting for a qualitative change that appeared out of nowhere
Therefore, unless driven by strict self-discipline, very few people were willing to spend time training it.
However, in the current era of high-speed holographic technology development, almost all design engineers intentionally or unintentionally overlooked the needs of Betas. When setting thresholds, the spiritual power of most Betas could only log into the basic version, and only Betas with the highest talent could barely manage to step into the threshold of the complete version.
Xu Qingnan’s talent wasn’t the top tier among Betas either, standing only at B- minus. This was because Xu Qingnan had dreamed of joining the military since childhood, so he had always worked very hard to train his spiritual power.
Although that dream eventually fell through due to certain reasons, Xu Qingnan had retained the habit.
His spiritual power transformed into streamlines, controlled by the user to complete an embroidery piece. Every single movement had to fall precisely onto the designated location, and the familiar stabbing pain returned to Xu Qingnan’s mind, dulling and stimulating the upper limit of his spiritual power.
In just half an hour, beads of fine sweat covered Xu Qingnan’s forehead.
Two hours later, the optical brain indicated that it was precisely eleven o’clock, and Xu Qingnan finally exited the page.
His entire body felt as though it had been run over by a steamroller, yet Xu Qingnan found this feeling immensely grounding.
After a ten-minute shower, Xu Qingnan logged back into the dating reality show channel.
Waking up once more in the room, the bed beside him belonged to Deng You’s virtual avatar, lying on his side with his face turned toward Xu Qingnan’s direction.
Xu Qingnan got straight up, and the dialog box popped up directly before his eyes, causing him to instinctively take a step back.
It was the “heart-throbbing goodnight” message received tonight.
While called anonymous, it was practically equivalent to real names.
“Thanks for looking out for me, the motion sickness medicine was very timely~”
This was Deng You.
“It was love at first sight for me.”
This was Ren Xubai.
Both messages were fully expected.
“Thanks for the hospitality.”
It was impossible to tell who sent this one.
With an unchanging expression, Xu Qingnan closed the dialog box and stepped outside.
At this moment, the small villa was pitch black. Xu Qingnan first turned off the surveillance function; all of them possessed surveillance permissions for any room in this villa.
The art studio on the second floor was quite large, the paintings hanging on the walls blending seamlessly with the oil paintings on the walls themselves. With the lights shining down, the shimmering picture frames looked just right.
“Xu-ge,” Ren Xubai sat on the sofa by the window in a lazy posture, his eyes drowsy, “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
The man wore a pure black lounge set. Because he had just taken a shower, the fabric clung to his body in an ambiguous way, outlining the full shape of his pectoral muscles not entirely revealed, yet full of room for imagination.
His red hair was damp as it rested across his forehead, and his handsome face still retained a sparkling layer of moisture, making his naturally dark eyebrows appear even blacker.
Clearly, it was an ambiguous post-bath scenery, but the protagonist’s expression was cold to the extreme, and his condescending gaze made one tremble.
Xu Qingnan sat down behind Ren Xubai, glanced briefly at the medicine on the coffee table, and cut straight to the point: “Take it off.”
The simple two words seemed to sprout dense, fine velvet, carrying an irresistible magic as they burrowed into Ren Xubai’s heart to wreak havoc. The beating frequency became completely irregular, forcing the master to submit to these two words.
His hands trembled as he unbuttoned the shirt, barely managing to undo them.
The sea breeze drifted in through the window, carrying a hint of saltiness that landed on the ferocious wound, causing Ren Xubai to shudder.
With his back facing the man, exposing the most vulnerable part of his body at present, the scent gland pressed down by the inhibitor patch twitched involuntarily in small increments.
Is he looking at me?
Will the wound look very ugly?
Is the inhibitor patch stuck on tightly?
Pheromones must not leak out.
Restricted by instinct, Alphas were naturally born with the ability to anticipate and enjoy touch.
Ren Xubai felt like a small beast waiting to be slaughtered, facing a tool of punishment whose descent time was unknown. His heart was filled with lingering anxiety, mixed with a full chest of anticipation.
When will it—Ng!
Cool fingertips carrying sticky medicinal liquid landed on his back. For a moment, Ren Xubai couldn’t tell which exact thing was working to stimulate him until his legs went weak.
Xu Qingnan’s movements could be described as professional and skilled, resembling an emotionless caregiver, rationally and meticulously completing his duties without his breathing even fluttering by a single fraction.
Yet the employer kept being stimulated into shifting back and forth.
Xu Qingnan simply used one hand to hold down the employer’s shoulder with an unyielding force, and the employer indeed cooperated by remaining still.
Only, his body grew increasingly hot.
Probably due to the stimulation from the medicine.
The temperature beneath his hands grew hotter and hotter, so Xu Qingnan lifted a hand to change to a supporting position, his thumb unconsciously resting on the edge of the inhibitor patch, pressing down without realizing it.
Ren Xubai finally couldn’t help spilling out a few moans: “Mn!”
Xu Qingnan’s movements paused, and he immediately released his grip: “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s fine,” it was a wonder Ren Xubai was still thinking about flirting at a time like this, “It felt good.”
The cold voice came from behind him: “Stop going into rut.”
An Alpha’s sense of shame was already minimal to begin with, so Ren Xubai simply turned his head. The moonlight shining through the window illuminated the reddish blush at the outer corners of the Alpha’s eyes: “I can’t help it, what should I do?”
The cool, sticky medicine pressed down onto the ferocious wound with more than double the force, driving the employer to shrink back an inch from the shock.
Xu Qingnan withdrew his hand, picked up the gauze, and bandaged the wound properly: “Can you endure it now?”
The sofa behind him grew lighter as Ren Xubai looked up at the man from below. In this setting, it carried a touch of poignant reluctance to part: “Leaving?”
Regrettably, Xu Qingnan felt nothing at all, turning around to leave as he spoke: “My place is very safe; there’s no need to rest here.”
“See you tomorrow,” Ren Xubai’s voice drifted from behind. Xu Qingnan had no intention of entertaining it as the words were blown away by the air, “My dear doctor.”
At two in the afternoon, the six of them gathered in the living room. Six boxes sat on the coffee table, and the two individuals who drew paper slips with matching numbers would form a group, reaching their destination by taking one of three separate paths.
The group looked at each other in dismay. Xu Qingnan took the first box proactively, drawing a 1.
Huo Zheng, Ye Yuyao, and Cheng Yanzhi successively picked their boxes, leaving two remaining while Deng You and Ren Xubai were still hesitating.
Those three people had already opened their boxes.
Both Ye Yuyao and Cheng Yanzhi drew a 2. Ye Yuyao cast a cheerful glance at Huo Zheng’s slip of paper and let out a laugh: “You two don’t need to hesitate anymore; both boxes should be identical.”
Deng You and Ren Xubai let out an “ah” sound.
Ye Yuyao waved the paper slip Huo Zheng had drawn in his hand: “Huo Zheng is in a group with Qingnan.”
Huo Zheng, Deng You, and Ren Xubai: “…”
Xu Qingnan didn’t care who was teamed up with him. Seeing that the draws were finished, he stood up: “Let’s set off.”
He took the lead in shouldering his backpack and strode forward.
Route 1 was the least conventional path among the three routes it was winding and crooked, with sharp stones of varying sizes scattered everywhere, flanked by dense thickets of jungle on both sides.
Xu Qingnan wore a dark green tactical windbreaker, his wine-red hair pressed flat beneath a cap, and held a wooden stick picked up from the roadside, treating it as a hiking pole.
Huo Zheng was still feeling awkward over the minor bickering with Xu Qingnan yesterday, and coupled with his natural lack of eloquence, he simply followed along silently behind Xu Qingnan.
Xu Qingnan was not a talkative person either. For a time, dead silence reigned, broken only by the sound of Xu Qingnan’s wooden stick scraping against the ground.
Huo Zheng’s attention was involuntarily drawn to it.
Suddenly, that wooden stick stopped right in front of his eyes.
Huo Zheng raised his eyes in surprise, locking gazes with Xu Qingnan’s emotionless expression. The other party merely handed the wooden stick in his hand over to him, and seeing that he didn’t take it, furrowed his brows and said, “Didn’t you want it?”