Unexpected Gains

Looking at his mission summary panel, Wen Nan fell into deep thought.

The mission score was 91, with an "Excellent" rating, which was entirely within his expectations—

It wasn't that Wen Nan was particularly confident or narcissistic; he simply felt he had performed the so-called "have a pleasant evening" objective quite brilliantly. Although there were some minor twists and turns along the way, overall, he had enjoyed the entire process.

As for the extra [Roulette Draw] reward, it seemed to be a perk reserved only for players who achieved an "Excellent" rating. The other three contestants had only received [Average] ratings, so for now, he was the only one with this bonus.

However, Wen Nan didn't think any of this was important. From the very beginning, he hadn't been overly concerned with the mission results, nor had he ever worried about whether he would pass—

He actually couldn't quite understand why his three roommates had looked so nervous while checking their own mission summary panels.

When he checked his own college entrance exam scores back in the day, he hadn't been nearly as tense as those three looked.

Wen Nan thought to himself, it was just a romance strategy game, and the first main quest was just to flirt and go on a date; it was impossible not to complete it, so what was there to be nervous about?

Compared to the mission score and rating, what Wen Nan cared about more at this moment was the progress of the five characters he had chosen to pursue—

Even in a romance game, the difficulty settings varied depending on the style of the game. A large portion of games set all characters to a 100% success rate, allowing players to easily and happily immerse themselves in the thrill of romance. However, some games, in order to increase gameplay and immersion, set the difficulty for character routes relatively high, meaning there was a possibility of failure.

When he first entered this map, Wen Nan thought it was just a beginner's trial area and shouldn't be too difficult. He assumed these options were all set to a 100% success rate, so he had taken on all five remaining characters at once.

After a night of dating, Wen Nan realized his previous assumption was wrong. This romance game seemed to lean toward the latter category—the characters here could indeed be failed.

According to the system, if a single character's route failed, the entire trial would be judged a failure.

Now, Wen Nan had to admit that his decision to take on all five targets without a second thought had been a bit impulsive.

But he didn't regret it.

If he had to do it all over again, he would still choose to capture them all.

Just kidding—if he didn't even have the courage to "want them all" in a mere trial map, then what was the point of playing a romance strategy game!

Besides, having challenges and difficulty was what made a game a game; that was what made it fun.

However, even though he didn't regret it, Wen Nan had to start paying attention to the characters' progress after this mission ended—

This trial area consisted of three main quests in total. After the three quests were over, if any character's route failed, he would fail the entire trial.

Therefore, he had to be extra careful with every single character.

Thus, compared to the mission score and rating, what Wen Nan cared about more now was the [Target Progress].

The results currently displayed on the summary panel before him were even better than he had expected—

Qiqi's progress was as high as 99%, which was practically a complete conquest.

This wasn't surprising; after all, she was the woman he had chosen from the start. By the time he lit up the Taming Sigil, her progress had already exceeded 90%. Still, he hadn't expected her progress to continue rising by another 9% even after he had parted ways with her.

Among the progress of these five characters, the one that surprised Wen Nan the most was the school beauty, Wu Yuwei, which was actually as high as 83%?!

To be honest, during that "shura field" between Qiqi and Wu Yuwei, when Wen Nan ultimately chose Qiqi and left Wu Yuwei alone at the school infirmary, he hadn't expected this beautiful school beauty to have much progress left.

He wouldn't have been surprised if her progress had dropped to 0, let alone exceeded 60%.

In fact, in that situation by the stadium bleachers, Wen Nan didn't necessarily have to make a binary choice. He could have given both of them ambiguous, vague answers and kept them both on the hook—

Like some "scum" characters who spout famous lines like "I love you, but I love him more," or "I hope the three of us can live happily like this forever." If that were in reality, Wen Nan might have been torn to shreds, but in a male-oriented romance strategy game, he might have actually managed to have them both.

But Wen Nan had ultimately decided to temporarily abandon Wu Yuwei's route.

The reason was simple: he didn't like it.

He felt that as a romance strategy game, the main point was to follow one's heart.

At that moment, he felt nothing for that "little white flower" school beauty, but when he kissed Qiqi, his heart had truly skipped a beat.

Therefore, compared to the school beauty who had countless admirers, Wen Nan chose the childhood sweetheart who belonged solely to him.

He would try things out with his childhood sweetheart first. As for the school beauty, since she only had a three-star difficulty rating, he would put her on the back burner for now. When the time was right and he felt something, it wouldn't be too late to pursue her then.

Looking back now, this decision had actually brought him a double harvest of unexpected gains—

Qiqi's affection for him had been pushed to 90% because of it, allowing him to light up the Taming Sigil at a critical moment, turning his childhood sweetheart into his exclusive character and helping him resolve a crisis.

And what he hadn't expected even more was that the school beauty Wu Yuwei's affection had also been pushed to 83%.

This was the second-highest progress among the five characters, second only to Qiqi.

Because Wen Nan had rejected her, her affection for him had skyrocketed?!

How could there be a romance strategy character who liked you more the more you rejected her?

Wen Nan didn't understand, but he was deeply shocked.

Of course, what also shocked Wen Nan was Little Chili's progress; although it wasn't as high as the school beauty's, it was still at 72%.

On the light screen currently floating above Wen Nan's head, the four options—[Pure and Cute Deskmate], [Beautiful and Juicy School Beauty], [Spicy and Hot-Bodied Sports Girl], and [Cold and Scheming Straight-A Student]—had all turned green.

Green represented that the target for the route had been met.

Just as the fatty had said, the target characters in this trial area map only needed to reach 60% progress to be considered complete.

In other words, from now on, as long as Wen Nan ensured that the progress of these four characters didn't drop, he only had one goal left for the next two main quests—

To grind the [Fair and Tender Neighbor Auntie]'s progress to over 60%.

Thinking of this, a figure with a curvaceous silhouette involuntarily appeared in Wen Nan's mind.

Fair—she was truly fair.

Tender... he hadn't really noticed that part... where exactly was she tender?