Huh? Isn't This A Galgame?

The tires screeched against the ground.

Yu Shujun slammed on the brakes, turned his head, and looked at the man in the passenger seat, "You..."

His eyelashes trembled slightly, and his emotions followed suit.

Knowing well what the theme of this instance was, knowing that the other party might have only asked such a question because of the current storyline, Yu Shujun still couldn't control his racing heartbeat.

Wen Nan stared fixedly at him, waiting for Yu Shujun's response, but what he heard instead was the sound of a system notification—

9527: [Congratulations, player! Successfully triggered the hidden character storyline!]

9527: [Key item within this storyline is yet to be unlocked, do you accept?]

Hearing this prompt, Wen Nan slowly curved his lips.

As expected, Yu Shujun had once again switched characters, and this time it was the highly elusive 28-star hidden character.

It seemed that as a hidden character, when the map was activated, Yu Shujun hadn't been assigned to any player and remained in isolation.

Wen Nan clicked "Accept".

After waiting for a while, there was still no reply from across.

Restarting the car, Yu Shujun looked straight ahead, "Your newlywed wife, Zhuang Yichen, is still waiting for you to move in with her."

Even at this moment, he's still insisting that Wen Nan target the original character with a lower difficulty level?

Wen Nan chuckled helplessly, leaned back in his seat, and shook his head with a sigh,

"Oh, speaking of which, this is my first time inviting someone to live with me, only to be ruthlessly rejected."

Just after he finished speaking, a system notification sounded in his mind again—

9527: [Congratulations, player, "hidden character" key item exploration level increased to 16%.]

Hmm?

Just one sentence and the exploration level surged?

Wen Nan suspiciously looked at the person beside him.

So playing the pity card is so useful?

"In this instance, it's full of sickly individuals, danger lurking everywhere. As a guy living alone, it's very unsafe at night, and I need protection." Wen Nan started his performance again.

9527: [Please note, "hidden character" key item exploration level decreased to 12%.]

No, why did it drop? Was his acting not convincing enough?

"I'm really scared," Wen Nan turned to look at the driver beside him, "If you don't come to accompany me at night, thinking of those plotting women would scare me sleepless."

9527: [Please note, "hidden character" key item exploration level decreased to 9%.]

Wen Nan: ...

Failed completely.

Too familiar, hard to deceive, lying backfired and was seen through in an instant.

Wen Nan leaned back into his seat, stopped talking, looking resigned.

Seeing the person beside him stop talking, Yu Shujun couldn't help but glance at him, remained silent for a moment, then said, "I'll always be by your side."

Wen Nan slowly turned, staring dazedly at the person's beautiful profile, for a moment, he felt as if he had been confessed to.

But this somewhat ridiculous thought was quickly dismissed by Wen Nan himself.

This follower was clearly telling Wen Nan: if there's danger, the other party will always stand by his side, no need to worry, nor bring up cohabitation because of it.

Wen Nan understood this reasoning, but in this instance, unlike the confrontation mode of the last instance, this one appeared to be a return to the character strategy mode.

In the last instance, Yu Shujun was the [Princess] Minmin, which didn't matter, but in this current instance, Yu Shujun was a hidden character, which was a big deal.

If Wen Nan could easily unlock clues for the hidden character with such straightforward questioning, doesn't that mean other players could as well?

"When you players get a character number, are there a set of fixed character rules to follow?" Wen Nan asked directly based on his thought, "So, if other players also asked that question, could they also unlock your storyline?"

Yu Shujun was nearly dizzy by the other's jumping thoughts, not understanding why he suddenly asked this and wanted to say that obviously wasn't the case, he's not a low-star character with no bottom line.

But before he could answer, he heard the person beside him say somewhat indignantly:

"If you were taken by another, would you have to cohabit with them?"

Yu Shujun was more confused, feeling as if... there was a hint of a strange emotion in that question?

Just about to further discern what this strange emotion was, Wen Nan quickly changed his tune: "I haven't lived with anyone yet, and you're already ahead."

Yu Shujun was stunned upon hearing this, took a moment before he spoke: "You... have never lived with anyone?"

"Of course," Wen Nan nodded firmly, "Living in the same hospital doesn't count, right?"

9527: [Congratulations, player, "hidden character" key item exploration level increased to 90%.]

Hmm?

What did he say?

How did it jump to 90% all of a sudden?

Wen Nan suspiciously stared at the person's face as if trying to uncover an answer.

Yu Shujun, slightly uneasy, furrowed his brows and said, "Tonight, come to my place."

...

...

Wen Nan arrived at the office, swiped open the access control, and from afar, saw Zhang Dawei waving him over from his cubicle.

Wen Nan walked over to him, traversing the entire office area, sensing that every employee present was somewhat unsettled.

"What's going on? What happened?" Wen Nan sat down at the workstation labeled "Ye Jiu," leaning towards Zhang Dawei and asking.

Zhang Dawei mysteriously leaned towards Wen Nan, saying, "The big boss is coming down to us personally to take over Brother Dapang's previous duties."

Wen Nan frowned, "Just that?"

Zhang Dawei was dissatisfied with his attitude, "That's the big boss! The company CEO! Airdropping here just to take over the small position of a market department manager in our small branch. You think that's not a big deal?"

Such a matter, for someone like Zhang Dawei, who spends his days working in an office, indeed was a big deal. After all, as a bottom-feeder in a branch office, usually, the only time one could see the real CEO was at company annual meetings.

Wen Nan couldn't refute it.

But a thing like this wasn't worth mentioning to Wen Nan unless... the CEO was a sickly character that needed strategy.

Thinking of this, Wen Nan faintly began to feel a bit of anticipation.

Just as he was thinking, someone shouted, "Here he comes," and everyone in the office craned their necks to look towards the entrance.

Wen Nan also looked over and saw the access open, and a tall, well-dressed man in his thirties walked into the office, surrounded by over a dozen people.

It's a man.

Wen Nan felt a wave of disappointment.

But quickly, he realized another thing—

A man deemed dangerous enough by Yu Shujun, who urged him to return to Wen Nan's side, could only be a high-ranking player.

This piqued Wen Nan's curiosity anew, and he took a closer look at the man who walked in.

The man was standing in the open area beside the office cubicles, a small leader of the branch was nodding and bowing, introducing the place to him, surrounded by ten or so people. Among them, except for the three NPC employees Wen Nan had checked with the system in the morning, the rest were all women.

Wen Nan counted them, a total of nine women, and each was very beautiful and had a good demeanor, at first glance, it seemed like a male celebrity accompanying a top-tier girl group at some business event.

Looking again at the company CEO who came down, although he wasn't as handsome as Wen Nan, he was fairly decent—black hair, black eyes, a high nose bridge, broad shoulders, and long legs, combined with his lofty status, he should have significant appeal to the opposite sex.

While thinking about it, that person suddenly turned his head, directly looking at Wen Nan.

Through an entire office, past a crowd, they met eyes unexpectedly.

The suited CEO's eyes narrowed slightly, carrying a hint of scrutiny, and Wen Nan raised an eyebrow, curving his lips in response.

After a brief eye contact, the CEO quickly withdrew his gaze and said something to the small branch leader who was incessantly introducing, making the small leader immediately nod, gesturing to lead him and the "girl group" into the nearby conference room.

As the conference room door closed, the people in the office area let out a breath and immediately began whispering again.

Zhang Dawei leaned towards Wen Nan excitedly, saying, "Wow, Brother Ye, did you see that? Our President Mi has a football team of beauties following him! Each of them looked at least 9 out of 10, that's insane. Wasn't there a rumor before that the CEO's secretary and assistant teams were all men? How did they bring so many women this time, is this some benefit considering our branch is more male-dominated?"

Just as he said this, the conference room door opened, and the small leader came out, heading straight to Wen Nan and Zhang Dawei, calling, "Ye Jiu, Zhang Dawei, Wang Feng, Li Ping, you four, come to the conference room, President Mi has something to ask."

"Damn, we're up," Zhang Dawei thought of the beauties in the conference room and, for once, was not reluctant to enter, even being the first to follow the small leader towards the door.

Wen Nan followed the other two, being the last to enter the conference room. He glanced at the round meeting table, which only had two empty seats left, deciding not to squeeze in and instead sat on a chair against the wall.

The small leader was about to sit down, looked around and didn't see Wen Nan, immediately stood up again, "Ye Jiu, come sit, Li Ping, swap seats with him."

Wen Nan's seat barely touched the chair before he was forced to move to the table.

The conference room didn't have the projector on, so there was no need to leave space for a screen, thus the entire table was filled with people.

Wen Nan sat at the end nearest to the door, directly opposite him, at the other end of the table, was the airdropped CEO.

At this distance, Wen Nan could see the man's features more clearly, and only then did he notice the tear mole beneath the man's eye.

While Wen Nan observed the man, the latter was also scrutinizing Wen Nan, his eyes ultimately landing on Wen Nan's hands.

In Wen Nan's palms, there was a golden emblem pattern on one side, and a silver emblem pattern on the other.

The man's gaze finally rested on the golden pattern, his eye corner twitching slightly.

Wen Nan looked directly into the man's eyes, activating the skill [Mind Reading Technique]in his mind, and the system notification sounded quickly—

9527: [Apologies! The target you've selected possesses a passive skill—Mental Shielding.]

9527: [With this skill active, lower-level perception and mental control skills are nullified. Your skill Mind Reading Technique is unusable within its shielded range.]

9527: [Entering Mind Reading Technique skill cooldown countdown now.]

Wen Nan: ?

No way, the opposite's shielding blocked Mind Reading Technique, and it still enters cooldown?

Advanced player, not playing fairly.

While contemplating, he heard the man across the table speak, "Ye Jiu, we finally meet."