I Became the Legendary Hopeless Romantic for Sign-In Rewards

Malt Whiskey has been harassed by a deranged System that insists on assigning him missions. There are no rewards for success, but failure comes with a punishment. [System No. 223: As everyone knows, putting an elephant in a refrigerator takes just two steps. Step one: Take the elephant out of the refrigerator. Step two: Put the elephant back in the refrigerator. Therefore, anything in the world can be accomplished in two steps.] Malt: Listen to yourself. Does any of that sound like human speech?! [Mission 1 (1/2)] Step one: As everyone knows, there are many undercover agents among your colleagues. Find one lucky winner at random! Step two: Locked. Failure penalty: Erasure. Finding an undercover agent was already one of Malt's current assignments. After careful observation, bold investigation, and a nighttime visit to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, he concludes that the undercover agent is Scotland. He arranges to meet Gin, ready to claim his well-earned credit. [System No. 223: Congratulations on completing step one. Step two of the mission is now unlocked.] [Mission 1 (2/2)] Step one: As everyone knows, there are many undercover agents among your colleagues. Find one lucky winner at random! Step two: Protect this lucky winner for 365 days! Failure penalty: Erasure. In the vintage car, Malt looks at Gin, who is lighting a cigarette. The light slowly fades from his eyes. "So you're saying the undercover agent is Su..." "That's right. It's Scotch's partner, Rye!" Malt looks grief-stricken. "I never expected it to be him." Bourbon: I didn't expect it either. Scotch: I didn't expect it either. Rye, forced to defect ahead of schedule: I didn't expect it either!! * Organization members: Heard you've fallen in love again? Malt: I haven't, and I didn't. I'm just protecting Scotland. If he dies, I die too. Organization members (hesitating) (giving him that look): ...Don't love him too much. [System No. 223: Protect Scotland for 365 days] [Mission failure penalty: Erasure] [Sign-in progress: (---/365)] * The word "kill" in a killer's mouth can sometimes be ignored. So "I want to kill you" may not be all that different from "I miss you." [Reading Guide] ++ 1v1, CP: Hiromitsu, happy ending ++ The story begins between the end of the fourth year before Conan's first year and the beginning of the third year before it. ++ In a sense, this may be a different kind of marriage-before-love :D ++ The stories The Lunatic and Love-Brained are not parallel-universe what-if stories. Their protagonists are separate, distinct people. You don't need to have read The Lunatic to read Love-Brained, though Love-Brained reveals answers that weren't fully explained in The Lunatic. You can read it as a sequel. I mainly wrote this story to fully reveal Qing Yan and Hiromitsu's character backgrounds. Theme: Follow what your heart tells you.