Chapter 20: An Unexpected Harvest

Staring at his task settlement panel, Wen Nan fell into deep thought.

Task score: 91 points, rated as Excellent—just as he had expected. It wasn’t that Wen Nan was particularly confident or narcissistic; rather, the so-called “spending a pleasant night” was something he felt he had accomplished exceptionally well. Despite a few hiccups along the way, overall, he had been thoroughly entertained throughout.

As for the extra reward from the [Spin-the-Wheel Lottery], it seemed to be exclusive to players whose task rating reached Excellent. The other three contestants only scored [Average], so for now, he alone possessed this additional perk.

But none of that truly mattered to Wen Nan. From the very beginning, he hadn’t cared much about the outcome of the task, nor had he ever worried about whether he would pass—it puzzled him, really, how his three roommates could look so anxious and nervous when confirming the settlement panel. Back when he checked his college entrance exam results, he hadn’t been nearly as tense as they were now.

Wen Nan thought to himself: It’s just a dating simulation game, the very first main quest is to go on a date—how hard could it possibly be? Why the nerves?

What concerned him more than task scores or ratings at this moment was the progress he’d made with the five characters he’d chosen. Even in dating games, the difficulty of conquering different characters varies depending on the game’s design. Many games are set so that players can easily achieve a 100% success rate with all characters, immersing themselves in the delight of romance. Others, however, aim for greater gameplay and immersion by making certain characters harder to conquer, allowing for possible failures.

When he entered this map, Wen Nan assumed it was just a beginner’s trial area and wouldn’t be too difficult. He figured all the choices would lead to guaranteed success, so he simply took on all five remaining characters.

But after a night of dating, Wen Nan realized his initial assumption was flawed. This dating game leaned more toward the latter kind—failure was possible.

According to the system, if he failed to conquer even one character, the entire trial would be deemed a failure.

Now, Wen Nan had to admit that his impulsive decision to simultaneously pursue five targets without a second thought had been a bit rash.

Still, he didn’t regret it. If he had the chance to start over, he’d do it again—after all, what’s the point of playing a dating sim if you don’t have the courage to say “I want them all”?

Besides, challenge and difficulty are what make a game fun.

Yet, in spite of his lack of regret, Wen Nan knew that after this task, he had to start paying close attention to his progress with each character. The trial area consisted of three main quests; at the end, if he failed to conquer even one character, he’d fail the trial.

So, he needed to be extremely careful with each one. Compared to task scores and ratings, Wen Nan now cared much more about [Target Progress].

And the results displayed on his settlement panel were even better than he’d expected—

Qiqi’s progress was as high as 99%, practically a full conquest. This wasn’t surprising; she was the woman he’d chosen first, and when he unlocked the mastery rune, her progress had already surpassed 90%. What he hadn’t anticipated was that, after they parted ways, her progress continued to rise by another 9%.

Of all five characters, the most unexpected result was the campus beauty, Wu Yuwei, whose progress had reached a remarkable 83%!

To be honest, during the showdown between Qiqi and Wu Yuwei, Wen Nan had chosen Qiqi and left Wu Yuwei alone in the school infirmary, not expecting much progress to remain with the campus beauty. He wouldn’t have been surprised if her progress had dropped to zero, let alone not exceeding 60%.

In fact, in that moment by the stadium stands, Wen Nan didn’t necessarily need to make an extreme either/or choice; he could have given ambiguous answers to both and dragged things out—like those infamous heartless lovers who say, “I love you, but I love him more,” or “I hope the three of us can always live happily together.” In reality, Wen Nan would have been torn apart for that, but in a male-oriented dating sim, he might have managed a harem.

But Wen Nan chose to temporarily abandon Wu Yuwei’s route.

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

He felt that a dating sim should be all about following one’s heart. At that moment, the campus beauty didn’t stir anything in him, but kissing Qiqi genuinely made his heart flutter.

So, rather than pursuing the popular campus beauty with countless admirers, Wen Nan chose the childhood friend who belonged only to him.

He decided to try things out with the childhood friend first; as for the campus beauty, with her only three-star difficulty, he could put that off until he felt ready.

Now, thinking back, that decision had brought him double the unexpected rewards—

Qiqi’s affection soared to 90%, allowing him to unlock the mastery rune and turn her into his exclusive character, helping him avert a crisis.

Even more surprising, Wu Yuwei’s affection rose to 83%.

Among the five characters, hers was the second highest, only surpassed by Qiqi.

Because Wen Nan rejected her, her affection shot up?!

How could there be a dating sim character who likes you more the more you reject her?

Wen Nan couldn’t understand it, but he was deeply shaken.

Equally shocking was the progress with the spicy girl—not as high as the campus beauty, but still at 72%.

Now, on the floating screen above Wen Nan’s head, the [Pure and Adorable Desk Mate], [Gorgeous and Luscious Campus Beauty], [Fiery Sports School Girl with a Hot Body], and [Cold and Scheming Top Student]—all four options had turned green.

Green signified that the conquest standard had been met.

Just as the chubby guy had said, in this trial area, you only needed to reach 60% with the target characters to be considered successful.

In other words, from now on, as long as Wen Nan ensured their progress didn’t drop, he’d only have one goal left for the next two main quests—

To raise the [Snowy-White and Pink Neighbor Aunt]’s progress above 60%.

At that thought, an image of a voluptuous figure unconsciously appeared in Wen Nan’s mind.

Snowy-white, indeed snowy-white.

Pink...well, he couldn’t quite tell—where exactly was she pink?