Chapter 802 --802

Chapter 802: Chapter-802

Heena didn’t stop running until she was three blocks deep into the West Market, finally ducking into a deserted, shadowed alleyway between a butcher’s shop and a locked warehouse.

She slid down the rough stone wall, her chest heaving as she dragged oxygen into her burning lungs. As she sat there huffing and puffing in the dirt, a familiar, glowing golden spark fizzed into existence right in front of her face.

Heena slowly lifted her head. Her pitch-black eyes locked onto the digital lion cub, and her anger hit an absolute boiling point. It all clicked instantly. The sudden weight on her shoulder by the wall, the startle that sent her crashing into the buckets—it hadn’t been a shadow guard. It was her own AI malfunctioning back into reality right on top of her.

"You damn bastard," Heena gasped, her voice dripping with murderous venom. "Did you seriously not find any other time to pop back in? Do you think that was the moment you should have announced your return?!"

The System lowered its glowing ears, floating nervously backward. "I’m sorry, Host! I was just in such a rush to meet you!"

"Oh, really? A rush?" Heena sneered, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "If you had a physical neck, I would have strangled you to death right there in the dirt. You nearly got me shot with a crossbow!"

The System pawed at the air nervously, looking away. "Well..." it muttered under its breath, "why were you busy peeping at someone else’s husband in the first place?"

Heena’s head snapped up, her eyes narrowing into lethal slits. "What did you just say?"

The lion cub instantly threw its paws over its head, pulling a pathetically pitiful expression. "Please, Host! Sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!"

Heena let out a long, exhausted sigh, rubbing her throbbing temples. The adrenaline was fading, leaving her battered and severely irritated. "Fine. Whatever. You went back to your headquarters. Was your work done? What took so long?"

The System hurriedly shook its head, dropping its paws. "No, Host. It’s actually really bad. I went to the main server, and there were so many other Systems there in a panic. You know, because of the dimensional rifts—"

"Skip the story," Heena interrupted ruthlessly. "Give me the summary."

The System gulped. "Right. Summary. Basically, several Systems and their Hosts have gone completely missing in this sector. Their connections to the network are entirely broken, and HQ has zero information on where they went. Because of the threat level, Headquarters has issued a Red Signal for our dimension."

The golden cub puffed out its chest, looking incredibly proud. "They gave us an emergency transporter protocol! If a catastrophic emergency happens, and we are about to die, we can activate it to transport exactly one person immediately back to Headquarters!"

Heena scoffed, a dark, cynical shadow crossing her eyes.

"See, Host?" the System beamed happily. "Look how good Headquarters is to us! They gave us a way out!"

Heena stared at the glowing furball, a profound sense of irony washing over her. She didn’t want to break the little AI’s naive dream. For a human, parents were the ultimate authority; for a System, it was the Headquarters. But Heena knew exactly how bureaucratic corporations worked, regardless of the dimension.

Headquarters wasn’t being generous. By giving them a transporter with only one seat, those bastards were forcing a brutal ultimatum: in a life-or-death crisis, either the Host dies, or the System is permanently deleted to save the Host. Only one survives.

But Heena wasn’t going to tell him that. Let the little idiot keep his faith.

"Yeah, yeah," Heena muttered, waving a hand dismissively. "How generous. Make sure you hold onto it. Keep it safe."

Instead of nodding, the System suddenly deactivated its holographic screen, bolted forward through the air, and violently headbutted Heena directly squarely in the forehead.

"Ow!" Heena grabbed her head, her eyes watering from the sharp impact. "You moron! Do you want me to kill you?!"

Before she could reach out and swat him, a sharp, crystalline PING echoed directly inside her mind. A new icon briefly flashed behind her retinas. She froze, her fingers slowly rising to touch her temple.

The System floated back, rubbing its own glowing forehead, and gave her a bright, determined look.

"There," the System declared. "Now we both have the authority lock. I transferred the primary trigger to you. If you ever want it, you can just leave this world, Host. Whenever you feel like you are in real danger, just press it."

Heena went completely still.

She looked at the digital lion cub hovering in the dim alleyway. It didn’t understand human cruelty, but it understood loyalty. By giving her the primary trigger, the System had just blindly handed her the only parachute, entirely willing to be left behind to face deletion if things went south.

For a long, quiet moment, Heena just stared at him. The cold, ruthless walls she had built around her heart over countless lifetimes shifted, just a fraction of an inch.

Slowly, she raised her hand, extended a single finger, and flicked the System right on its glowing forehead.

"You fool," she murmured softly.

The System tumbled backward in the air, holding its head in absolute bewilderment. "Fool?! But what did I do? Host, you should be saying thanks! I gave you the escape button!"

Heena just scoffed. She didn’t explain. She simply pushed herself off the dirt, dusted off her heavy black cloak, and began walking out of the alleyway without saying another word.

But as she stepped back out into the bustling, sunlit market, a small, genuine smile curled upon her lips.

Heena had barely taken three steps into the bustling market, the rare, lingering warmth of the moment still settling in her chest, when a sudden, infuriating realization hit her like a flying brick.

Her boots stopped dead in the dirt.

Wait a minute.

The entire reason she had been clinging to a crumbling stone wall, risking her neck and nearly catching a crossbow bolt to the skull, was to see the brother-in-law’s face. She had been a split second away from seeing exactly who was hiding beneath that pale silk veil. And the only reason she had fallen into the trash pile was because this glowing furball had materialized out of thin air and grabbed her shoulder.

The warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest evaporated instantly, replaced by a spike of profound, absolute annoyance.

Heena slowly turned around.

The digital lion cub was floating faithfully right behind her. As soon as it saw the lethal, pitch-black glare suddenly radiating from its Host’s eyes, the System froze. It knew exactly what she had just remembered.

Without missing a beat, the golden cub abruptly turned its head entirely in the opposite direction. It stared intensely at a completely blank brick wall, aggressively pretending to inspect the ancient masonry, entirely ignoring the murderous aura rolling off Heena.

Heena stared at the back of its glowing, stubbornly turned head. Her fingers twitched with the overwhelming urge to reach out and throttle it.

But then she remembered the crystalline ping still echoing faintly in her mind—the emergency escape button it had just blindly handed over to her without a second thought.

Heena let out a long, heavy sigh, the tension bleeding out of her shoulders. What the hell was she supposed to do with him? She couldn’t even properly threaten to dismantle him anymore.

"You are incredibly lucky I have a shop to open," Heena muttered, shaking her head as she turned back toward the main street. "Come on, you useless idiot. Let’s go home."