Andrew Stone looked at Henry Lawson's face, which remained calm and unruffled even after he had dropped a bombshell, and began to reconsider things in his mind. He’s not even afraid of having connections with the military—could it be that he also has ties to the military? And clearly, his connections run even deeper than Charles Wood's.

With these thoughts, he walked up and slung an arm around Henry Lawson's shoulder, grabbed the application form Henry Lawson was about to fill out and crumpled it into a ball. Smiling, he said to Ashley Young, “No need to bother, senior, I’ll room with him.”

Then he turned to Henry Lawson and said, “You’re not a girl, so why live alone?”

Henry Lawson put down his pen, looked at Andrew Stone, and said, “Right now, I’ve already made an enemy of that Emily Wood I haven’t even met yet. Aren’t you afraid of getting caught in the crossfire by rooming with me?”

“Hell no, it’s just Emily Wood, what’s there to be afraid of? If it really comes to a fight, I’ll have your back, won’t I?”

Listening to Andrew Stone's words—which, at least for now, seemed sincere to him—Henry Lawson couldn’t help but nod. Whether it was him speaking up for him at the start or now clearly taking his side, Henry Lawson felt this guy was a friend worth having. Just like when he befriended Brian King and Frank Murray back in the Longyin Unit, Henry Lawson never doubted his own judgment.

Chapter 8 Trouble Comes Knocking! (Part 1)

The moment they opened the dorm room door, both Henry Lawson and Andrew Stone's eyes widened, their mouths agape enough to fit a duck egg.

What lay before them was a dorm room of about fifty square meters, furnished like a hotel room. To the left of the entrance was a private bathroom, and instead of the traditional bunk beds found in college dorms, there were hotel-style single beds. In addition, the room had a coffee table with a juicer for fresh juice, and on the snow-white wall facing the beds, there was even a mounted LCD TV!

A floor-to-ceiling window separated the room from the balcony, and if you stepped out onto the balcony, you could see the campus lake.

Andrew Stone nudged Henry Lawson beside him and asked in disbelief, “Henry Lawson, are you sure we’re in the right place? This is a school dorm, not a hotel?”

Seeing such a dorm that completely defied expectations, even Henry Lawson found it hard to believe. College dorms could be this luxurious? He took two steps back, double-checked the room number on the key, and then nodded to Andrew Stone, “No mistake, this is our dorm!”

“Yah-hoo, we’ve hit the jackpot this time!”

With a whoop, Andrew Stone dashed into the room, tossed his backpack onto the bed with white sheets, leaped onto the bed, and rolled around a few times, thoroughly messing it up. Suddenly remembering something important, he flipped upright, opened his laptop bag, took out his Alienware laptop, set it on the desk, plugged in the Ethernet cable, and checked the room’s internet connection.

“Holy crap!”

“No internet?” Henry Lawson, who had just finished in the bathroom, came out adjusting his pants and looked at Andrew Stone, who was staring at the computer as if he’d seen a ghost. “No internet is normal. We’ll just ask where to buy a network card later, get one, and we’ll be set.”

Although Henry Lawson had never been to college, he’d often heard Frank Murray brag about the tricks he used to play in school, like stealing the neighboring dorm’s internet to play games, so he had some idea about college internet usage.

“It’s not the network card—it’s the speed. This place actually has 100-megabit fiber!” Andrew Stone pointed at the network speed test on the computer screen.

“100-megabit fiber?!” Even Henry Lawson was moved this time.

“This is heaven-level enjoyment! With 100-megabit fiber, I can control twenty bots at once next time.”

“Bots?” Hearing this, Henry Lawson frowned slightly and asked, “You’re a hacker? Red or blue?”

Red and blue refer to the hacker world’s division by specialty: the red domain focuses on offense, the blue on defense. Most people are only skilled in one, but there are legends who excel at both. In the hacker world, these are legendary figures—like the Longyin Unit’s cyber warfare instructor, Noah Wood, who was such a legendary hacker.

“Oh, a pro, huh?” Andrew Stone raised an eyebrow. “I’m mainly red. What about you?”

“Me? I dabble in both red and blue, but I’m not really good at either.” Henry Lawson took his daily necessities and a change of clothes out of his backpack, thought for a moment, slipped his butterfly knife into his pocket, and stuffed his now much smaller “machete” patrol bag into the closet.

He asked the still-excited Andrew Stone, “I’m going to the supermarket outside campus to buy some stuff. You coming?”

“Buy me a drink and I’ll go.” Andrew Stone was typing rapidly on the keyboard, not even turning his head.

“Let’s go, then.”

“Alright!” Andrew Stone snapped his laptop shut, grabbed his phone, and headed out.