"Last night I ordered some supplies. Pick them up and take them to my lab."

She paused before adding, "I booked a truck too. Use this to fill the tank."

Annalisa initially looked annoyed, clearly preparing a fresh round of complaints.

Then her eyes landed on the 200 units Zerena had placed on the table alongside the slips.

The annoyance paused.

Recalculated.

Quietly died.

That amount was more than her weekly salary.

And with fuel being ridiculously cheap, she probably couldn’t burn through all of it even if she drove around aimlessly from sunrise to sunset for an entire month.

She snatched the units and slips with the speed of someone who had developed an advanced evolutionary response to unexpected money.

Max, meanwhile, was catastrophically failing to keep his eyes disciplined, his brain far too busy trying to determine details that had absolutely nothing to do with the ongoing conversation and everything to do with his deeply cursed powers of observation.

"Where am I supposed to pick them up from?" Annalisa asked, already sounding far more cooperative than she had thirty seconds ago.

Amazing.

Turns out financial motivation was one of humanity’s strongest magical elements.

Max didn’t even care where the money had come from.

Sure, he already knew Zerena was skimming a little off his earnings somewhere along the line.

Did he mind?

Not really.

If he actually wanted to, he could probably make that amount back in his sleep. Or at least while half-asleep and dramatically overestimating his own brilliance.

No, what mattered was the system quests.

As long as those got completed, he genuinely couldn’t care less whether it cost thousands, millions, or enough money to make accountants spontaneously combust.

That was his priority.

Unfortunately... his eyes had priorities of their own.

And the only thing Max’s disastrously focused brain cared about at that moment?

Finding where her nipples were.

Which, for the love of god, he somehow still couldn’t do—

despite the damp shirt clinging stubbornly against her chest like it was actively mocking him.

’Seriously, where are they?’

"Here are the addresses—three places. They’re all close to each other," Zerena said, handing Analisa a few slips before adding in a firm tone, "And don’t forget the bills."

Analisa didn’t waste even a second after that.

Money involved?

Yeah—suddenly efficiency awakened within her.

She hurried off to get ready while Zerena led Max up onto the roof.

The morning sun was warm, the air still carrying that early-day coolness. Zerena lit a cigarette, taking a long drag as she leaned against the railing, looking far too relaxed for someone managing magical paperwork, potion permits, and what was rapidly becoming a very questionable business plan.

Then she turned toward him, cigarette still between her fingers.

"Now... about your quests."

Her eyes narrowed into pure business mode.

"Tell me exactly how long you have to do all that perverted nonsense for."

"I’d need to study the recipe properly first... and understand the runes used in it to be sure," Max said.

Seeing how casually Zerena was discussing the subject now, he figured acting overly bashful would just make things look suspicious, so he eased up on the performance a little.

"But... my estimate?" He paused dramatically, as if running highly advanced calculations only he could see. "Around half an hour for sucking breasts, another half for armpits... that should probably be enough points for one potion. Maybe two."

Then he added, deliberately keeping things frustratingly vague,

"Depends on how much of the runic structure I’ve managed to figure out on my own. If I’m not spending system points to compensate... the numbers could go up."

He tilted his head thoughtfully.

"Though probably not past three."

It was a conveniently unclear answer.

Technical enough to sound legitimate.

Vague enough to make follow-up questions significantly harder.

A strategy Max was becoming increasingly fond of.

"That’s... a lot less," Zerena muttered, a worried look crossing her face.

Granted, a single potion was worth far more than thousands of engraved pipes, but still, the numbers clearly weren’t matching the glorious profit projections already running inside her head.

Half an hour here, half an hour there...

Not exactly industrial-scale production.

Though, realistically, she couldn’t exactly have Max attached to her all day like some bizarre mana-powered infant management system.

Not everything could go her way.

Still thinking it through, she took another drag from her cigarette before asking,

"...What about kissing?"

Max looked surprised.

After the sheer level of disgust on Zerena’s face the last time kissing had been mentioned, he’d assumed it would take a lot more "getting used to other nonsense" before she even considered bringing it up again.

Not this soon.

The realization almost made him grin.

He kept his expression under control and answered in a measured tone,

"If we add that... around twenty minutes of it, combined with the other tasks, should generate enough points for roughly five." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

A careful answer.

Balanced.

Because Max could have thrown out a much bigger number.

Could’ve dangled an absurd reward in front of her growing greed and watched her practical side bulldoze straight through hesitation.

But no.

He kept the ratio between his fabricated quests and their rewards believable.

Too much reward too quickly, and even greed started asking questions.

And questions?

Questions were dangerous.

Fortunately, Zerena didn’t press further.

Instead, she fell silent, smoking thoughtfully while running numbers through her head.

Meanwhile, Max kept up his carefully crafted gutless nice-guy act—eyes mostly lowered toward his feet, only occasionally stealing brief glances upward.

Five potions.

That number alone carried weight.

Based on Zerena’s understanding of the market, even after ingredient costs and production expenses, they could easily be looking at around two thousand units in value.

A ridiculous amount.

And those were conservative estimates pulled from her own experience with potions.

She had used several herself over the years—mostly the expensive kind meant to prolong lifespan.

Those sat near the higher end of the market.

Which meant if Max’s products were genuinely as good as he claimed...

The numbers might actually be even bigger.