America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 222 The situation between them seems even more tragic than imagined.
In the deep of night, the silvery moonlight shone down on the vast expanse of white snow, casting a bright and crystalline glow. The entire Princeton dormitory area was enveloped in a quiet and peaceful tranquility.

Unlike outside, as Victoria finished speaking, the entire hall fell into a deathly silence.

The atmosphere was stagnant and oppressive, making it hard to breathe. Victoria gasped for air with her mouth slightly open, while Sophie felt a lump in her throat, opening her mouth but unable to utter a sound.

"Sean, even now, you still refuse to come out?"

Taking a deep breath, Victoria pursed her lips tightly and turned her head to look at the bushes outside the window.

Only then did a strange noise come from the storage room by the entrance to the quiet hall, followed by Li Xiaoen emerging from a dark corner.

“Much profit… … ”

Li Xiaoen forced a smile and called softly to the girl.

"So, how do you plan to explain this to me?"

Taking a deep breath, Victoria pursed her lips and gave a smile that contained no hint of amusement, glancing left and right at Sean Lee and Suffer.

“Victoria, you know…”

With his eyes lowered, Li Xiaoen hesitated for a moment before speaking, "Su Feier and I have never gotten along. We've had physical altercations and arguments quite often..."

"More than that."

Before she could finish speaking, Victoria interrupted, turning to the young man, "Sean, why did you come to our dorm late at night after you left?"

"Is he just here to pick a fight with other people and get into physical contact?"

“Sean…”

"I'm not stupid……"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaoen was suddenly stunned. He subconsciously looked up and froze on the spot.

Before anyone knew it, Victoria's eyes had turned red, filled with tears, and she stared at me with her lips tightly pressed together. Bathed in the silvery moonlight streaming in from the window, she appeared both lonely and poignant.

"Sean..."

Her voice was already trembling with barely suppressed sobs, but Victoria still stubbornly took a deep breath and looked up at the young man, "Tell me, I'll believe whatever you say..."

Staring blankly at the girl's burning eyes, Li Xiaoen's brows furrowed with a hint of struggling pain. Finally, he took a deep breath, smiled, and spoke softly.

“Victoria, I…”

"Fine, I don't want to hear what you have to say."

Another shout interrupted him. While Li Xiaoen was still in a daze, Victoria had already turned around and walked quickly toward the stairs, running upstairs as if she were escaping.

Li Xiaoen followed the girl's hurried steps up the stairs and out of sight. He quickly switched to his [Eye of Insight] to check and confirmed that the girl had crashed onto the bed and buried her head in the blankets before leaning against the wall in a deflated state.

Looking up at the bright white ceiling, Li Xiaoen wanted to study it carefully and think of various countermeasures, but his mind was already a complete mess.

Just then, another sound came from the sofa. Li Xiaoen turned around and saw Su Feier, who had been sitting on the sofa and blocking his view, standing there.

"Do you regret it?"

Sophie didn't come over; she just murmured a question.

Li Xiaoen paused for a moment upon hearing this, then shook his head.

"No."

"Then are you blaming me?"

Sophie asked again.

Finally noticing Suffer's emotions, Li Xiaoen quickly composed himself and walked towards her. When he got closer, he noticed that the girl's eyes were slightly red and filled with tears. He felt even more heartache and reached out to hug her.

Unable to cling to the young man's embrace, Sophie struggled free and looked up at him.

"Are you really not mad at me? I've been the one actively hinting at our relationship, while you've been hiding it all along. Now I've achieved my goal..."

"I still say the same thing as before."

Li Xiaoen forced a smile, reached out and wrapped his arm around the girl's slender waist, and said softly, "I support you, even in this situation."

Victoria was smart. Even without hearing it from them or seeing it with her own eyes, what she saw tonight was enough for her to see things clearly. Judging from the suspicious look in Victoria's eyes before, she could say that she had finally confirmed his relationship with Suffer.

"Actually, all of this is my fault."

Taking a deep breath, Li Xiaoen smiled at Su Feier in front of him, "I was greedy."

"Now that everything is out in the open, you won't have a chance to be greedy anymore..."

Looking up, Suffer sniffed and forced a smile.

"No, I wasn't planning on hiding it from you anyway."

Li Xiaoen tilted his head meaningfully, "It's just that this situation has happened much earlier than expected..."

Suffer paused for a moment, then exclaimed in surprise and angrily punched the young man in the chest.

"Even now, you still haven't given up?"

"You know, I'm a very stubborn person."

Li Xiaoen sighed softly, taking a deep breath to calm his worries. "Although the final decision rests with you, I will not give up..."

"To say it so openly in front of others, I really shouldn't say it, your shamelessness is truly unmatched."

Looking up at the young man's slightly narrowed eyes, Suffer turned her head to look at the other side.

"Do you want to come up to my room with me?"

"No..."

Li Xiaoen shook his head, lowered his head and kissed the girl on the forehead, "I'll go back tonight, you should get some rest."

Emerging from the girls' dormitory, Li Xiaoen gazed at the campus scenery gradually coming back to life after late winter. She had lost all interest; a headache shot through her, and her usually sharp and clear mind had finally hit a wall, becoming completely blocked. She decided to let Victoria recover for a while, and then go see her tomorrow to see if she could coax her back.

Thinking to himself, it was rare for Li Xiaoen to have no confidence in anything, which immediately added to his anxiety.

After all that fuss, it was almost midnight when I got back to the dorm.

On the way back, I saw that the lights were on inside the house, and Li Xiaoen still had to take out his key to open the door.

He couldn't help but glance at the storage room on the first floor. He could still faintly hear some panting coming from inside. He shook his head, not in the mood to investigate or tease Michael inside. He turned off the light and went upstairs.

After a quick wash, Li Xiaoen lay down on the bed and tossed and turned for a while with his eyes closed, but he couldn't fall asleep at all. So he got up and sat back down at the computer, bringing up the hacker enthusiast group that Haskel had introduced him to.

According to some members of the group who have a bit of a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) mentality, being active in the dead of night is more in line with the characteristics of a hacker—that's when the group is at its liveliest.

Have you started working on that cybersecurity attack and defense invitational tournament for that military-industrial enterprise?

Li Xiaoen quickly typed out a message and sent it, immediately causing a huge uproar. Last time, he successfully infiltrated that disguised gambling company in just a few days, which greatly shocked the people in the group. Now that it had happened again, they were even more excited.

"Sean, are you finally planning to participate in that invitational tournament?"
Haskel also chimed in, sending a series of messages asking questions.

Yes.
Li Xiaoen replied, and quickly sent another message, "This time I want to cooperate with everyone, let's treat each other as a team, and participate in that invitational tournament together."

Li Xiaoen waited for the replies from the many group members on the computer, and only after seeing many people actively participating did a smile appear on his face.

In fact, if it were simply a matter of attacking and infiltrating the official website of that military enterprise, he could easily have done it himself. Not only did he have over a decade of virtual time to draw upon, but he also had the final experience point from that [Advanced Learning Card] yet to be extracted.

He brought together a few people from the group to form a team to participate, which was his initial attempt to start his own studio. Although he rarely posted in the group, Li Xiaoen could roughly estimate the knowledge reserves of the group members based on the information they discussed.

Without further ado, after receiving affirmative responses from several people, Li Xiaoen quickly began assigning tasks to each person, simply outlining the framework for implementing the penetration testing plugin.

As night deepened, Princeton University was bathed in a soft, silvery moonlight. The area outside the dormitories was deserted, with only the dim yellow lights along the roadside illuminating a small patch of warmth, a scene of loneliness and solitude.

It was a quiet and peaceful night, but none of the three people who had been happily exploring New York during the day were able to fall asleep.

Victoria lay on the bed, clutching the panda plush toy tightly in her arms, her eyes closed, yet two streams of tears still flowed down her cheeks. Having achieved her long-held goal, Suffer should have been overjoyed, but instead, she sat leaning against the headboard, her face unusually calm. She bent her legs, propped herself up in front of her, and clasped her hands tightly, staring blankly out the window, lost in thought.

In contrast to the peaceful atmosphere in the two girls' room with the lights off, Li Xiaoen's room was a completely different story. The room was brightly lit, and he was typing rapidly on the keyboard. Whenever a group member asked about the crux of their dilemma in achieving their goal, it seemed that typing had become too inefficient, so he switched to phone communication and even enabled remote control support.

To this end, Li Xiaoen also spent another five years of virtual time studying hacking and defense. As he expected, the investment of skills and knowledge in his normal state was like a slow and steady stream, and it was all collected in a short while. As for the previous [Advanced Learning Card], perhaps because the knowledge density was too high, it took him several months since he first used it, and he has only been able to extract it four times out of five.

He seemed unwilling to give himself any rest time, and after each call, he would immediately immerse himself in his development work.

Li Xiaoen didn't realize how much time had passed until the first rays of dawn shone through the window.

Despite not sleeping all night, he was still full of energy and not sleepy at all.

He stood up, stretched, and loosened his body after sitting for a long night. At that moment, the people in the group also went offline to catch up on sleep, but he still had to attend class.

Li Xiaoen sighed inwardly, relaxed, and browsed various online forums for news about other "peers" in the military industry invitational tournament. When it was almost time, he got up, changed his clothes, and went downstairs.

I quickly made myself a coffee and breakfast, then headed out to Professor Alaric's calculus class.

Perhaps he could find an opportunity to apply to Professor Alaric for exemption from the course. Since he was prepared to be free in his studies, he might as well carry this plan through to the end—after all, the calculus class he was taking now was a professional course where he was studying machine learning on a computer.

Unlike the basic psychology course last semester, this semester's general education course only has one session per week. If he doesn't take the initiative to find Victoria, he might not be able to see her until next Monday.

Lost in thought, Li Xiaoen finished class with a heavy heart. Without even going to Professor Sedgewick's lab, he rushed to the two girls' dormitory.

First, he activated [Eye of Insight] and confirmed that the two girls were in the living room on the first floor of the house, quietly watching TV together. Victoria's eyes were a little red and swollen, and Sophie was staring blankly, looking lost. Li Xiaoen took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the door.

The door was quickly opened, revealing Suffer's figure. However, Suffer's expression was very calm today, which made Li Xiaoen feel a little uneasy.

"Did you not have class this morning, or did you skip class?"

Then it dawned on him that both girls were wearing loose-fitting loungewear, and Li Xiaoen quickly asked.

“Victoria and I both have classes. If Victoria doesn’t go, I don’t want to go either.”

Sophie shook her head in reply, then glanced back and said slowly, "Sean, you should go back..."

As she spoke, Sophie lowered her eyes, "Victoria said she doesn't want to see you right now."

"is it?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaoen paused for a moment. According to the Eye of Insight, Victoria was staring blankly at the TV, clutching the cushion in front of her tightly. Her heart sank.

"Then I'll go back first."

Not wanting to put the girl in a difficult position, Li Xiaoen forced a smile and nodded in agreement, "If you need anything, just let me know, and I'll help you..."

"it is good."

Sophie forced a smile, hesitated for a moment, and then placed her hand on the young man's chest. "Sean, I'll talk to Victoria. In any case, I don't want this to affect our friendship."

Is it just friendship?
A bitter look appeared on Li Xiaoen's face. He couldn't bring himself to ask Su Feier to persuade Victoria to accept his greed, so he could only nod and say, "No matter what, you must tell me when Victoria is willing to see me."

"Okay, I promise you that."

Reluctantly nodding in agreement, Sophie's hand on the young man's chest tightened. "You should go back now. I can't talk to you for too long."

With a knock, the door closed again, and Li Xiaoen stood there dumbfounded, unable to react for a moment.

This was the first time he had been turned away at both girls' dormitories.

Sure enough, his relationship with Sophie was really hard for Victoria to accept.

Taking a deep breath, Li Xiaoen couldn't think of any way to make the girl happy. Frustrated, he turned around and quickly walked towards the laboratory, throwing himself into his work, trying to forget his frustration by working day and night.

For several days in a row, despite repeated visits, Li Xiaoen was unable to see Victoria again. His brief encounters with Suffer showed no sign of easing the situation. Their relationship seemed even more tragic than he had imagined.

Until one day, it was Professor Sedgewick who called Sean Lee into his office.

“Sean, as your teacher, you need to tell me the truth…”

Professor Sedgewick sat upright behind the table and looked at me seriously. "Besides your outsourced part-time work at Apple, have you done any other part-time jobs that are illegal?"

(End of this chapter)