Chapter 165: Hmph, Men

Separated by the invisible barrier surrounding the refresh point, Guan Ailin lowered her gaze, looking at the hand Wen Nan extended toward her. Between his fingers rested an ordinary-looking portable storage ring.

A trace of bewilderment surfaced in the depths of her eyes.

She could not understand why this man would utter such words, yet deep in her subconscious, for some reason, she felt a strong urge to trust him.

Unlike the confusion on Guan Ailin's face, the moment she saw Wen Nan produce that ring, Yu Shujun froze.

Those beautiful, azure pupils inexplicably turned bloodshot while Wen Nan and Guan Ailin were conversing earlier, brimming with tears.

At this moment, as her gaze fell upon the ring, Yu Shujun’s expression shifted to one of astonishment. "You... you actually..."

She stopped midway.

Glancing past Wen Nan's shoulder at the monitoring system of the refresh point, Yu Shujun ultimately swallowed the rest of her words back down. Such a stunt... once discovered by the system within this instance, passing the subsequent settlement would be utterly impossible.

With this thought, Yu Shujun withdrew her gaze and stared directly at Wen Nan instead, raising her eyebrows slightly. Her look seemed to interrogate him:

To think you would actually dare to fool even the system of the instance?

Taking in Yu Shujun's expression, Wen Nan immediately read the meaning behind it. He shrugged, maintaining a taciturn silence, though the look he cast back at Yu Shujun clearly conveyed:

You've already pulled off the deception, what else can be done?

Yu Shujun shook her head slightly.

Recalling a short while ago, on the other side of the mountain ridge, when Silver Thorn had exhausted all her strength to lure Yu Shujun away, and what she had said right before her death...

The corners of Yu Shujun's lips unconsciously curved upward into a subtle arc, brimming with mockery.

If she had known that trading her life would yield such a result, I wonder what kind of mood that woman would be in?

But in truth, this no longer mattered. Silver Thorn had sought her own death; when Yu Shujun's light blade fell, it was merely a release for her. Perhaps, right from the beginning, she had never cared whether her mission could be completed at all.

However, the man before her eyes...

Heh, being able to make Yu Shujun stumble over the God's Staff fragments naturally meant he could also make the Ghost-Master Alliance people eat dirt.

Pulling back her thoughts, Yu Shujun raised her hand, took the ring from between Wen Nan's fingers, and placed it directly into Guan Ailin's palm.

The moment the skin of her palm came into contact with the surface of the ring, Guan Ailin reacted as if sensing something. Her eyelashes trembled violently, and then she abruptly raised her gaze to look at Wen Nan.

Wen Nan hooked the corners of his lips into a gentle smile for her. The warmth in his eyes swept like a spring breeze into the depths of Guan Ailin's heart, smoothing away her chaotic thoughts.

Uncannily finding peace of mind, Guan Ailin tightly clutched the ring. The bewildered look in her eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by a firm and resolute gaze.

At the appropriate moment, Wen Nan retrieved an agreement for characters above ten stars from the system—the "Character Native Instance Ownership Transfer Agreement."

Just as he was about to present the agreement to Guan Ailin, a system prompt suddenly rang out in his mind:

9527: [Warning! It has been detected that the target character 'Big Big Big Big Big Cold Exterior Soft Interior Female CEO' has fallen into an extremely weak state due to the excessive use of soul threads to incite a riot among the buildings within the instance, making it difficult to maintain the normal functions of her soul threads.

At the same time, this character's star rating is closely tied to the soul threads connecting her to the main headquarters building of the Ailin Corporation.

Considering that the connected soul threads have failed, after a comprehensive evaluation by the instance's system, the character is expected to be demoted to nine stars in nine minutes and thirty seconds. This star rating will be insufficient for the character to leave the existing instance. Do you still wish to sign this agreement?]

Hearing this prompt, Wen Nan was slightly taken aback.

In other words, part of the reason Guan Ailin was able to maintain a ten-star rating was because she was linked to that headquarters building via her soul threads.

And now, with that connection gone, her star rating could no longer be sustained. A nine-star character, lacking a driving rune, could not be taken out of this instance.

Even if Wen Nan successfully signed the agreement with her now, it would only maintain the effect for less than ten minutes...

Wen Nan fell into deep thought.

Receiving no response, the system asked again: [Do you still wish to sign this agreement?]

Wen Nan: [Sign!]

The moment the agreement was sent out, a notification of Guan Ailin's consent to sign was immediately received.

In just a single second, the ownership of the cold-exterior-soft-interior grand CEO fell into Wen Nan's hands.

Of course, this ownership could only last for less than nine minutes.

Naturally, Wen Nan would not sit idly by and wait for the agreement to expire.

She was already his person; there was no reason to let her go now.

From the system's backup equipment slot, he retrieved the reward item from the previous side quest—

[State Locking Card: Applicable only to NPCs and characters. Upon obtaining the consent of the NPC or character, using this card can lock the target's current state (star rating, skills, attributes). During the use of the item, the character will be temporarily sealed within the card. If you need to reactivate the locked target, simply destroy the card.]

This was the reward obtained from completing the side quest "Amorous Scenery in the Office."

At the time, Wen Nan had only glanced briefly at the item description before directly stuffing the card into his backup equipment slot, assuming it would be difficult to find a use for it.

The primary reason was a rather absurd restriction of this item: it required stuffing the character into the card, turning them into a literal "paper person."

With just this restriction alone, Wen Nan had assumed no NPC or character would ever agree to it.

To his surprise, bringing it out now proved quite fitting.

Presenting the item card to Guan Ailin, Wen Nan said softly:

"Ailin, your current state is too weak to maintain your star rating. To leave this place, I can only temporarily lock you inside this card. Once I find a way to restore your condition, I will let you out. Are you... willing?"

How to restore Guan Ailin's condition? Go look for another massive building hiding system bugs, just like the Ailin Corporation headquarters building, so she could link to it with her soul threads?

Wen Nan himself had no answer to this question at the moment.

If Guan Ailin asked, he wouldn't be able to answer.

In truth, he was currently writing a blank check.

Yet Guan Ailin did not ask a single question. She merely looked at the handsome face of the man kneeling before her, her eyes brimming with tears, and nodded gently, "I am willing."

As her voice trailed off, her figure gradually blurred and dispersed, and finally, like mist, she was entirely sucked into the tiny card resting in Wen Nan's palm.

The ring Guan Ailin had been clutching dropped to the ground, spun around twice, and emitted a crisp, jingling sound.

Wen Nan's fingers gently stroked the face of Guan Ailin printed on the card, and then he put both the card and the ring back into the backup equipment slot.

At that moment, Huang Yan's voice came from behind him:

"President! It's your turn for settlement!"