Chapter 152: Romance is the Ultimate Justice

[Quest Description: Thank you for your careful assistance in finding the root cause of Eileen's illness and for successfully excising it. However, as long as the root of the illness remains unchecked, Eileen still runs the risk of relapsing into sickness. Eileen still needs your help!
The root of this illness is truly stubborn; ordinary means cannot completely eradicate it. Only that hidden furnace can utterly incinerate it.
Now, this root of illness rests in your hands. Set out at once, find that furnace, and help Eileen completely purge this root of illness from the world!
Release Eileen from the torment of physical and mental suffering, bring her derailed life back on track, and allow her to enjoy the grand harmony of life!]
[Entering quest countdown below——]
[24:00:00——]
[23:59:59——]

Reading the quest description on the hovering light screen line by line, Wennan lowered his head and looked at the black marker pen in his hand.
An ordinary-looking marker pen was actually the hard-to-remove root of illness mentioned in the main quest?
Could this be the One Ring from Middle-earth? Did they have to go to Mount Doom in Mordor to destroy it?

Huang Yan, standing nearby, sighed in relief upon seeing the quest countdown, "Good thing we have a whole day this time. Finding that furnace shouldn't be too hard; after all, we've swept this map back and forth eight hundred times. We could memorize it with our eyes closed."

Guo Xiaofu poured cold water on the idea from the other side, "Not necessarily. If the new member hadn't literally thrown his body into that gym's equipment room, we wouldn't have found it. Who knows how many hidden maps like that we've missed."

Huang Yan smacked his lips. Reluctant as he was, he had to admit Guo Xiaofu made sense.
At this, the two of them involuntarily looked toward Yang Mingzhong.

Yang Mingzhong was slightly startled, failing to catch their meaning.
Huang Yan bluntly stated, "With Gu Jinxing and Hu Yaoyao, our two main forces, unable to go out right now, the heavy responsibility of finding the furnace definitely falls entirely on you, Brother Yang!"
This was the fastest man who had blazed through the third main quest in a mere thirty minutes.

Yang Mingzhong chuckled twice, not daring to overrate himself, "I only have some experience, along with a bit of luck and brute force. When it comes to true judgment and keen intuition, I'm still far behind the President."
As they spoke, several of them instinctively glanced toward the President.

The President wasn't participating in their discussion at all. Throughout the entire exchange, he had been gripping the black marker pen in his hand, studying it intently.
Huang Yan coughed, "How could a big shot lower themselves to sweep maps? It's definitely more fitting for a group of underlings like us to do it. The President is a man burdened with six soul puppets, carrying far more important missions to fulfill."

The man burdened with six soul puppets then dropped the order to "sweep the map in separate directions" and hurried off to complete his important mission——

Right before the settlement of the previous main quest, he had received a message from Guan Eileen in his system.
[Femme Fatale: So cold, feeling so miserable all over, I don't want to sleep alone.]
[Femme Fatale: Missing you.]

Given Guan Eileen's personality, she would never proactively say such things without mind-reading in play.
Unless she genuinely needed Wennan's company to an unbearable degree.

Without hesitation, Wennan left the spawn point and headed straight for the CEO's office on the top floor of the headquarters building.
However, upon reaching the office door, Wennan unexpectedly hit a closed door.

"Night Nine?" Assistant Xiao Liu stopped him, "President Guan is in the adjacent large conference room holding a management meeting. You can't see her right now, oh."

Wennan was taken aback, "A meeting?"
"Yeah," Xiao Liu nodded. "Didn't she tell you? It's already been going for almost half an hour."

So long?
Meaning she had just been sending him hints like that moments ago, only to turn around and head into a meeting as if nothing had happened?
Was she really capable of switching roles this quickly?

Looking completely bewildered, Wennan turned away from the CEO's office door and walked back to his workstation in a daze.
Beside him, Junior Sister's workstation was empty, with a small sign resting next to the desk reading, "On sick leave, call in case of emergency."

Sitting down at his desk, Wennan took out the marker pen and played with it in his hands.
The pen barrel was pitch black and minimalist, completely devoid of markings. The spiral threads at the tail end had been chewed away by Mr. Horn, leaving only a tiny exposed metal interface.

Holding the barrel and shaking it gently, a faint "click" sound could be heard from within.
A refill?

Wennan wanted to try unscrewing the barrel, but doing it with one hand was inconvenient. He had no choice but to shove one end of the barrel into his mouth, bite down with his teeth, and grasp the other end with his hand to twist it hard.
"Hiss..."

The barrel didn't unscrew, but the metal interface at the end leaked electricity instead, shocking Wennan into reflexively jerking his hand back and nearly dropping the pen.

Yu Shujun appeared at his side out of nowhere and remarked calmly at the sight, "If needed, I can try, Master."
Wennan glanced at the hand resting on the sword hilt and shook his head, "I'll pass."

He didn't doubt for a second that her golden light sword could actually pry open the pen's shell. After all, it could even cut through soul threads. But if she struck, the pen barrel wouldn't just end up sliced like Gojo Satoru; it would probably get melted straight down, leaving not even ashes behind.

Come to think of it...
If he used Yu Shujun's light sword—which had no business existing in a beginner-level instance—to directly melt this "root of illness" in his hand, would that count as achieving the same effect as the furnace?
If so, would the quest be considered complete?

He wasn't sure, but Wennan didn't dare take the risk.
After all, this was the only key item; once you took a wrong step, there was no turning back.

Just as he was pondering this, a message popped up in his system—
[Xiao Yuan: Little brother, want to go for a round? Big sister is waiting for you in the usual spot.]

Closing the chat box, Wennan promptly stood up and headed out.
As he took the elevator down to the underground parking garage, Yu Shujun stood beside him and said coldly, "Instead of having the leisure to fuck, you'd do better to clear the level as soon as possible, Master."

Wennan turned around, raising an eyebrow at her, "Are you telling your master how to do his job?"
"No," Yu Shujun replied, still expressionless. "This map is not safe. Rather than wasting time on trivialities, I believe attending to proper business takes precedence, Master."

Hearing her deliver such a deadpan and serious remark, Wennan decided he needed to properly educate this cross-dressing little maid of his.
He spoke in a deep, earnest tone:

"Comrade Xiaojun, I think you might have some misunderstandings about this game world?
"Here, romance is justice, and having sex is serious business."

In a dating sim with mild ecchi elements, how could one become the strongest king without building oneself into a walking human cannon?