Chapter 164: Some Motivation Never Hurts

"Wear this..." Zerena said, handing him a dark blue shirt.

Max took it from her, his expression immediately dropping.

He looked down at the shirt like she’d just handed him a personal insult rather than a piece of clothing.

He really, really didn’t want to wear it.

It wasn’t that the shirt was ugly or even outside his taste.

Max simply didn’t want to wear it.

"Why do I have to go with you?" he asked.

Zerena had already asked him to accompany her to meet the colonel—the person in charge of this army station.

Army stations like this were usually addressed by the garrison commander, and this particular colonel was quite an important figure in the city.

"Colonel Delgado likes to invest only in people who can demonstrate the abilities he’s looking for," Zerena explained.

She was still getting dressed, while Max had at least managed to put on the shirt she’d handed him. He listened with a sour expression.

"I need you there so you can demonstrate your abilities if he asks," Zerena added.

Max’s expression made it clear that this was definitely not how he had planned to spend his morning.

Max sighed.

He had come a surprisingly long way.

Not only was he no longer a virgin, but he’d also somehow gone from being a full-on introvert to at least becoming a socially functional person.

Apparently, losing his virginity had not magically turned him into a social butterfly.

He could hold a normal conversation now without immediately wanting to escape, which was already a considerable improvement.

But meeting complete strangers was still something Max hated.

And if that first meeting involved serious conversations about business, investments, and other adult-sounding nonsense?

Even worse.

Being socially functional was one thing.

Actually enjoying socializing was an entirely different achievement.

Zerena had just finished taking a bath, and Max was still sulking.

Part of it was because she had refused to let him join her, but there was another reason too: he really didn’t want to attend a meeting where he’d have to sit around and listen to serious business talk with someone he’d never met before.

Zerena noticed his expression and sighed.

"You don’t have to do much. Just sit there and let me handle the conversation. If the situation comes up where you need to make a potion or demonstrate something, just be ready."

Max’s face remained sour.

Apparently, knowing he wouldn’t have to do much didn’t make the idea of spending his morning at a formal meeting any more appealing.

Max nodded, still sulking.

Making a potion itself wasn’t the problem. He was actually quite confident when it came to that.

As long as the potion wasn’t too high-level and he had all the necessary ingredients available, Max was confident he could make pretty much anything he was asked to produce.

Zerena clearly had no intention of waiting for Max to finish sulking—or buttoning his shirt.

She sighed, reached over, grabbed the front of his shirt, and began fastening the buttons herself, doing in a few seconds what Max had been taking his sweet time with.

Max glanced down at her hands, then back at her face.

"...I’m doing it."

"You were doing it very slowly."

Max’s mouth twitched.

He knew better than to argue when she was already doing the work for him.

"Yeah, yeah..."

Zerena finished the last button and looked up at him.

"Do you have enough points to make another potion?" she asked, her tone noticeably impatient now. It was clear she wanted to get moving and wasn’t interested in letting Max waste any more time.

Max nodded. He had already told her that he had enough points left for three more batches, and he’d used two of them yesterday.

"Just one batch," he said. "But I’m not sure it’ll be enough if they ask me to make something from a high-grade recipe..."

That made Zerena’s expression tighten immediately.

She hurriedly fastened the second-highest button on his shirt before looking up at Max with a tired but increasingly urgent stare.

"Couldn’t you have told me before I washed up...?"

Her voice carried more frustration this time. They were supposed to be getting ready, and now she was discovering that they might not even have enough resources for the demonstration.

"What are we going to do if he asks you to make two potions? Or even three?"

Max’s disappointed expression immediately turned into a huge smile.

Unfortunately, the main reason for that sudden change wasn’t anything Zerena had said.

It was simply because her hands had finally left his shirt.

Instead of continuing to fuss with his clothes, she glanced at him with a mixture of surprise and irritation.

"And doesn’t that hurt from staying like that all the time?"

"I can’t help it when you’re standing there naked..." Max said with a wide grin.

Zerena gave him an annoyed look before asking, "So, is there only a blowjob quest, or is there something simpler we can do without making my mouth smell like cum?"

Max shook his head.

There were actually two quests available, and both required Zerena to swallow his semen. Of course, Max had only told her about one of them—the one that also required her to masturbate while performing the act.

"There is only that one..." he said, keeping the other quest to himself.

Zerena sighed again, her patience clearly running out as she gave the bulge in his underwear a brief crase.

"Don’t crease the shirt. Now get on the bed."

She barely gave him time to react before adding, with an increasingly irritated tone,

"Come on. Let’s just do this quickly. We’re already wasting enough time."

Max did exactly as she said, looking unusually excited.

It was almost as if his wish for Zerena to come back early had actually come true.

Well, not entirely.

His original wish had been a little more complicated. He’d wanted Zerena back partly because he missed having her around, but also because he wanted some help dealing with his persistent morning wood and the lingering soreness from yesterday.

And, naturally, the blowjob was sitting right at the top of his personal list of preferred solutions.

And on top of that, the quest required something else—having the woman pleasure herself while doing it.

That was the kind of condition most people wouldn’t even think to wish for, because under normal circumstances, the chances of something like that actually happening were practically nonexistent.

Of course, Max wasn’t exactly living under normal circumstances.

He was a transmigrated protagonist with a System.

And just like that, the protagonist had completely forgotten why he’d been sulking in the first place.

A few minutes ago, Max had been dreading the idea of sitting through a business meeting with complete strangers.

Now?

If Zerena wanted him to attend a dozen more business meetings with strangers—ugly people, boring people, or even a room full of men—he’d probably agree without much complaint.

Of course, there was one small condition.

He’d do all of that after what Zerena was about to do.

As Zerena crouched down and gathered her loose hair into a messy bun, she asked,

"You didn’t masturbate this morning, right?"

Max shook his head. He’d actually stopped doing that weeks ago.

"Good..."

She finished tying her hair and gave him a serious look.

"Then just try to cum fast. We don’t have much time."

Max nodded, then asked, "What about you?"

Zerena also had her own part to take care of, but the question clearly wasn’t what she wanted to discuss.

Her brow tightened in annoyance as she grabbed the waistband of his underwear and pulled it down.

She was caught off guard for a moment.

Even after everything she’d seen yesterday, Max’s upgraded size still seemed larger than she remembered.

"I’ll take care of it myself..." she said, though the brief pause in her voice suggested she was still trying to process the sight.

Apparently, Max’s upgrades had left quite an impression.

’Did he grow even bigger?’

Zerena asked herself, staring in open surprise.

She wasn’t imagining it.

Max really did look different from the previous day. He had upgraded himself only yesterday, after all, and the result was apparently still catching her off guard.

Seeing Zerena’s stunned expression, Max couldn’t help but feel grateful toward the System.

’I really struck gold with this System...’

Most Systems came with ridiculous quests that forced their protagonists to jump through absurd hoops just to earn a few points.

His System was hardly innocent in that regard.

The quests were still ridiculous.

But at least his System actually gave him some damn good rewards in return.

If he had to deal with bizarre quests anyway, he might as well get something worthwhile out of them.

For once, Max had no complaints about his System.

And even if Max somehow managed to complain about it, the System probably wouldn’t care.

It would simply make the problem disappear and throw him into another ridiculous adventure quest, just like the one he was currently dealing with with Zerena.

Well, technically, Zerena was doing most of the work for him.

She was the one grabbing his penis, staring at it with a surprised expression while moaning softly, bringing it near her lips as her other hand moved down toward her own crotch.

Max, meanwhile, could only sit there and appreciate just how conveniently his System had arranged everything for him.