How is the boxing/unboxing behavior of Nullable<T> possible?

Something just occurred to me earlier today that has got me scratching my head.

Any variable of type Nullable<T> can be assigned to null. For instance:

int? i = null;

At first I couldn't see how this would be possible without somehow defining an implicit conversion from object to Nullable<T>:

public static implicit operator Nullable<T>(object box);

But the above operator clearly does not exist, as if it did then the following would also have to be legal, at least at compile-time (which it isn't):

int? i = new object();

Then I realized that perhaps the Nullable<T> type could define an implicit conversion to some arbitrary reference type that can never be instantiated, like this:

public abstract class DummyBox
{
    private DummyBox()
    { }
}

public struct Nullable<T> where T : struct
{
    public static implicit operator Nullable<T>(DummyBox box)
    {
        if (box == null)
        {
            return new Nullable<T>();
        }

        // This should never be possible, as a DummyBox cannot be instantiated.
        throw new InvalidCastException();
    }
}

However, this does not explain what occurred to me next: if the HasValue property is false for any Nullable<T> value, then that value will be boxed as null:

int? i = new int?();
object x = i; // Now x is null.

Furthermore, if HasValue is true, then the value will be boxed as a T rather than a T?:

int? i = 5;
object x = i; // Now x is a boxed int, NOT a boxed Nullable<int>.

But this seems to imply that there is a custom implicit conversion from Nullable<T> to object:

public static implicit operator object(Nullable<T> value);

This is clearly not the case as object is a base class for all types, and user-defined implicit conversions to/from base types are illegal (as well they should be).

It seems that object x = i; should box i like any other value type, so that x.GetType() would yield the same result as typeof(int?) (rather than throw a NullReferenceException).

So I dug around a bit and, sure enough, it turns out this behavior is specific to the Nullable<T> type, specially defined in both the C# and VB.NET specifications, and not reproducible in any user-defined struct (C#) or Structure (VB.NET).

Here's why I'm still confused.

This particular boxing and unboxing behavior appears to be impossible to implement by hand. It only works because both C# and VB.NET give special treatment to the Nullable<T> type.

1. Isn't it theoretically possible that a different CLI-based language could exist where Nullable<T> weren't given this special treatment? And wouldn't the Nullable<T> type therefore exhibit different behavior in different languages?

2. How do C# and VB.NET achieve this behavior? Is it supported by the CLR? (That is, does the CLR allow a type to somehow "override" the manner in which it is boxed, even though C# and VB.NET themselves prohibit it?)

3. Is it even possible (in C# or VB.NET) to box a Nullable<T> as object?