Chapter 76: An Easy Victory
Gu Jin walked over to a solitary small square table, where an utterly ordinary-looking company employee was sitting.
However, when Hu Jiayao caught up and glanced at the employee, he immediately understood what was strange, just as Gu Jin had hinted.
The employee sat alone at the table, a tray before him, with a neat row of bowls and plates on it.
Yet, the bowls and plates were completely empty—no food, not even a drop of oil or soup—so clean they looked as if they had just been taken off the dish rack nearby.
Stranger still, the man seemed entirely unaware that his tray was empty, earnestly using his chopsticks to pick up air from the bowls and bring it to his mouth.
"An NPC? Glitched out?"
Hu Jiayao bent down, staring into the man’s eyes, then waved a hand in front of his face. "Hey, buddy, can you talk to me?"
The employee paid him no mind, mechanically continuing to mime eating with his chopsticks.
Hu Jiayao frowned. "Looks like a low-level NPC, no communication abilities."
"Is that so?" Gu Jin did not agree. He raised a hand and casually stopped another employee walking by.
This employee was carrying a tray and almost spilled his soup when Gu Jin suddenly grabbed him. Annoyed, he frowned and looked up. "What’s up?"
Gu Jin smiled and pointed at his tray. "Excuse me, where did you get that chicken leg?"
The employee pointed toward the food counter. "Second counter on the right."
As the employee walked away, Gu Jin looked at Hu Jiayao. "See? I’ve observed them. The NPCs on this map are highly intelligent—there’s no way they completely lack communication skills."
Hu Jiayao returned to his previous theory. "Then it’s a bug. It could communicate before, but now it’s glitched and lost the function."
Gu Jin was silent for a moment, not accepting this explanation. He felt there was something more to it, though he couldn’t yet say what. Even a system scan of the employee yielded nothing useful.
He fell deep into thought.
"Forget it, it’s just a little bug. On a map this big, with so many models, a few small errors are only normal, right?" Hu Jiayao waved his hand, trying to persuade his friend to move on.
But Gu Jin shook his head. "No error is too small to overlook."
"So what do you plan to do?" Hu Jiayao scratched the back of his head helplessly. "Report it to the system admin and wait for them to fix it? Who even knows if there’s a system admin here?"
At the mention of reporting, Gu Jin thought of someone. He pulled up their guild chat from the system.
Core Elders Group—
[Jin: Second floor cafeteria, northeast corner, situation here.]
[Jin: Found an employee NPC behaving abnormally.]
[Jin: Video]
[Xiaofu: (_)]
[Xiaofu: That looks a bit creepy.]
[Huohuo: You two slacking off in the cafeteria already instead of mapping properly?]
[Yao: Slacking my ass, we finished early.]
[Huohuo: Dammit.]
…
After sending the message, there was no reply from the guild leader for a long time. Gu Jin frowned, considering whether to private message Ye Jiu for instructions.
Just then, the employee suddenly stood up, picked up his tray, and walked toward the exit.
"He’s leaving. What do we do?" Hu Jiayao asked.
Gu Jin didn’t hesitate. "Follow him and see where he goes."
…
…
President’s Office.
Wen Nan was far too busy to check the chat group. Right now, he was busy having a heart-to-heart with his outwardly aloof but inwardly gentle CEO.
On the surface, the CEO maintained her icy, distant demeanor, her speech cool and calm. But her inner thoughts were so colorful that Wen Nan was truly amazed.
‘As long as it doesn’t affect company operations, I think we should take it step by step: start with dating, then move in together, then marriage, then children…’
‘No, first we should buy a nice villa in a prime location, decorated in black, white, and gray—definitely not some gaudy, gold-and-glitter style. But this isn’t just up to me…’
"Do you prefer black-and-white tones or gold?" Guan Ailin’s cool voice broke in.
"Huh?"
Wen Nan was so engrossed in listening to her mental theater that he was momentarily caught off guard when she spoke in reality.
Guan Ailin realized her question was abrupt and quickly tried to cover. "I saw your reports use a black background with white text. So you probably prefer the minimalist black, white, and gray style, right?"
Wen Nan: ?
If he hadn’t been listening to her inner thoughts, he might have believed she truly cared about the report’s formatting. But clearly, she was asking about their future home’s décor, wasn’t she?
"Whatever you say," Wen Nan blurted out.
Guan Ailin: ?
He quickly corrected himself, "I mean, I can adjust the report’s style according to the company’s needs at any time."
Guan Ailin nodded. "Mm."
She appeared calm on the outside, but her inner monologue started again:
‘Minimalist is best, but if it feels dull, we can add some accent furniture…’
‘And raise two cats—a ragdoll and a silver tabby. No, that’s not enough, add another…’
"Let’s get a dog too," Wen Nan couldn’t help interjecting.
Guan Ailin: "…What?"
"Ah, no, I mean—" Wen Nan scrambled to explain, "There’s a movie out called ‘Let’s Get a Dog.’ It just came out. Want to go see it together?"
Guan Ailin was stunned. Her beautiful eyes widened slightly in disbelief as she looked at Wen Nan.
He felt a little awkward under her gaze.
There was no such movie. He’d made it up on the spot, and it could easily be exposed. But instead of calling him out, the CEO spoke again—
"You… are asking me out to the movies?"
"Uh, yes," Wen Nan fiddled with his sleeve, "Would you like to go?"
Guan Ailin lowered her lashes, her thick eyelashes hiding her emotions.
She answered softly, "Mm."
‘Ahhh! He asked me out! We’re going on a date! Ahhhhh—’
But halfway through her mental scream, it abruptly cut off.
9527: [Your skill Mind Reading has ended. Cooldown in progress.]
Wen Nan: [Didn’t I use Tears of Zhi for triple duration?]
9527: [The tripled 30-minute effect has expired. Please note.]
Half an hour really passed so fast?
Wen Nan hurriedly stood up. "If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave?"
"Mm." Guan Ailin’s cheeks were tinged with pink as she watched him go.
As soon as he reached his workstation, his junior rushed over. "Senior! How did it go?"
Wen Nan gave her a confident smile. "Relax, it’s all settled."
"Wow!"
She let out a long breath and then suddenly leapt at him, wrapping herself around him. "Senior! You’re my hero!"
9527: [Congratulations, main target ‘the super cool and secretly gentle CEO’—affection now at 30%.]
9527: [Congratulations, secondary target ‘adorably fresh-faced junior’—affection now at 80%.]
First stage cleared with ease~
With one arm, Wen Nan supported his junior to keep her from slipping off, while mentally opening the system.
He immediately saw a message from the Core Elders Group. His smile faded a little.
After watching the video Gu Jin had sent, a smile once again crept onto Wen Nan’s lips.
…
…
Gu Jin and Hu Jiayao trailed the employee NPC around most of the office building before finally receiving a reply from the guild master.
But upon reading the new orders, both of them were completely baffled.
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(End of this chapter)