第1章厨房春潮-我的妺妺h

"Huh? We\'re here already?" Donald mumbled through a yawn, his arms stretching upward until they nearly touched the luxury vehicle\'s roof. His sandy blonde hair was even more disheveled than usual, sticking up at odd angles from where he\'d been leaning against the window.

Don gave a curt nod, his sharp eyes scanning the nearly empty parking lot through the tinted windows. "Yep, good news is the school looks pretty empty today, at least when compared to yesterday." His fingers drummed absently against the steering wheel, already mapping out their route to the training center in his mind.

Donald\'s face brightened slightly, though the remnants of sleep still clung to his features. "Great, hopefully that means we won\'t find a lot of people at the VR-Training Centre." His voice carried a note of relief, clearly appreciating the prospect of avoiding the usual crowd.

"Well, let\'s find out," Don replied, his tone carrying its usual calculated neutrality. He pushed open the driver\'s door, the cool morning air rushing in to greet them.

Donald followed suit, pausing only to reach into the back seat for his bag, which looked like it had seen better days. The two made their way across the parking lot, their footsteps echoing in the morning quiet. The guard booth near the exit loomed ahead, its windows reflecting the early morning light.

As they approached, the booth\'s door swung open, and out stepped a guard who looked like he could have been carved from granite. He was a barrel-chested man in his fifties, with salt-and-pepper hair cropped close to his skull and a thick mustache that twitched as he spoke. His uniform, pressed to perfection, strained slightly against his broad shoulders, and a nameplate reading "Martinez" gleamed on his chest.

"Mr. Bright!" the guard called out, his gruff voice carrying a hint of barely contained excitement. "I hope you don\'t mind, but..." He reached into his booth and pulled out what appeared to be a brand new copy of "Hero Weekly" magazine, featuring Don on the cover. "My granddaughter\'s a huge fan. Would you mind...?" He held out the magazine and a marker, looking more like an eager fan than the intimidating security professional he appeared to be.

Don\'s eyebrows lifted slightly at the sight of the magazine, a flicker of surprise crossing his usually composed features. The evaluation had been just yesterday, and already Hero Weekly had rushed out a cover story. The publishing industry certainly didn\'t waste any time these days.

Without dwelling on it, he offered the guard a friendly smile. "No problem," he said, reaching out to take both the magazine and marker. The glossy cover showed him mid-fight with the android, caught in what he had to admit was a particularly dramatic moment. Before putting pen to paper, he looked up. "Who should I make it out to?"

"Oh... uhm, Melanie," Martinez replied, his tough exterior melting slightly as he spoke about his granddaughter. "She\'s only 8 but really loves superheroes. She watched your fight with that android yesterday and begged me to try and get her an autograph."

Don nodded, uncapping the marker with practiced ease. He took a moment to write a personal message, making sure to address it specifically to Melanie before adding his signature with a flourish. The guard\'s face lit up as Don handed the magazine back to him.

"Thank you so much, this will mean the world to her!" Martinez beamed, carefully tucking the magazine away as if it were made of gold. .net

"It\'s no problem," Don replied, already turning to leave with Donald, who was shuffling along beside him like a zombie desperately seeking its next coffee fix.

As they made their way across campus, Donald finally seemed to wake up enough to form coherent thoughts. "Expect more of that," he mumbled, stifling another yawn. "I was on the forums last night and people are already making fan groups about you."

Don let out a laugh, shaking his head at the absurdity of it all. "They\'re just hyped," he replied, his tone dismissive. "It\'ll die down once they see I\'m not really a limelight sort of guy."

Don\'s words, however, seemed to carry little weight as they continued their walk through campus. Every few minutes, someone would recognize him, leading to a stream of requests for photos and quick hellos. Don handled each interaction with polite efficiency, never lingering too long but maintaining enough warmth to avoid appearing rude.

A group of freshman girls giggled as they passed, phones not-so-subtly raised to capture photos. A couple of senior students nodded in recognition, their expressions a mix of respect and assessment. Even a professor paused in his hurried walk to offer a congratulatory comment about the evaluation.

Donald watched it all with amusement. "Not a limelight guy, huh?" he teased, though his voice was heavy with fatigue.

"Shut up," Don replied good-naturedly, deftly sidestepping another attempt at a photo op by pretending to be deeply engaged in conversation with Donald.

Finally, after what felt like crossing a gauntlet of admirers, they arrived at the VR-Training Center.

The VR-Training Center loomed before them, its reflective glass walls mirroring the morning sky like a massive geometric mirror. The building embodied SHU\'s signature architectural style - clean lines, minimalist design, and cutting-edge functionality. Solar panels adorned the rectangular roof, their surfaces gleaming with captured sunlight.

As they walked along the curved pathway leading to the main entrance, Donald\'s earlier fatigue seemed to evaporate. His eyes lit up at the sight of the statues dotting the meticulously maintained lawn - life-sized bronze figures frozen in various dynamic poses, each commemorating a legendary VR-Athlete.

"Oh man, you\'ve got to see these!" Donald\'s excitement bubbled over as he grabbed Don\'s sleeve, pulling him toward the first statue. The bronze figure depicted a young woman in a crouching position, her virtual rifle aimed with deadly precision. "That\'s Sarah \'Quicksilver\' Chen. She held the record for most kills in a single match - 47 eliminations on the Neo-Tokyo map. Her kill/death ratio was insane, like 5.2 to 1."

Don allowed himself to be dragged along, his expression was one of amusement and resignation as Donald continued his impromptu tour. They stopped at the next statue, a tall figure standing atop a virtual pile of defeated opponents.

"And this one," Donald\'s voice rose with enthusiasm, "is Marcus \'The Wall\' Rodriguez. He specialized in defensive plays, but man, his offensive stats were just as impressive. He once held an entire team at bay for fifteen minutes straight in the Ancient Ruins arena. Kill/death ratio of 4.8, and he never - get this - never lost a single championship match."

They moved from statue to statue, Donald\'s encyclopedic knowledge of VR-Sports flowing freely. Don noticed how his friend\'s usual nervous energy transformed into confident expertise as he shared these stories, his hands gesturing animatedly as he spoke.

"Oh, and this one\'s my absolute favorite," Donald practically bounced as they approached a statue of a lean figure executing what appeared to be an impossible mid-air maneuver. "Jack \'Ghost\' Morrison. He revolutionized movement mechanics in VR-FPS. His record still stands - 89 kills in under ten minutes on the Orbital Station map. Nobody\'s even come close to touching that one."

Don raised an eyebrow, genuinely impressed despite himself. "89 kills in ten minutes? That\'s nearly nine kills per minute."

"Right?" Donald beamed at Don\'s interest. "He basically broke the game\'s physics engine. They had to patch it afterward because of his techniques. But since he did it in an official match, the record stands." He paused, then added with a hint of pride, "I\'ve studied all his matches. That\'s actually where I got some of my movement patterns from."

As they neared the entrance, Donald stopped at the final statue - a figure that seemed to emerge from digital flames, its pose suggesting both power and precision. "And this... this is Maya \'Phoenix\' Patel. Three-time world champion, never dropped below a 6.0 kill/death ratio in her entire career. They say she could predict opponent movements so well, people thought she was hacking. Turns out she just had this incredible ability to read patterns in player behavior."

Don studied the statue thoughtfully, noting the subtle details the artist had captured - the determination in the bronze figure\'s expression, the fluid grace of her stance. "Sounds like she would have made a decent hero in the real world too."

"Actually," Donald perked up, "she did! She\'s working as a tactical advisor for the European Hero Association now. Turns out all those hours in VR gave her amazing strategic insights for real-world combat scenarios."

They finally reached the building\'s entrance, the glass doors sliding open with a soft hiss.