Chapter 719 --719

Chapter 719: Chapter-719

"Worker Heena," the Guard stated, his booming, synthetic voice echoing down the white corridor. "You are called by the Sector Leader inside."

Heena raised a dark eyebrow, the mocking amusement vanishing from her face, replaced by genuine annoyance. "Why? My timeline divergence is fully corrected, the anomaly is secured, and my SSS-Plus evaluation is already logged into the mainframe. I was just on my way to the simulation suites."

"Standard administrative protocol," the Guard replied flatly, utterly unmoved by her complaints. "You need to physically sign the anomaly extraction documents, the temporal quarantine forms, and the official debriefing files."

Heena let out a long, exhausted sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as the adrenaline of her flawless victory finally gave way to the crushing reality of Bureau bureaucracy.

"Just like the old times, huh?" Heena muttered, shaking her head. "You rip a parasitic god out of a timeline, and your reward is a mountain of paperwork."

She dropped her hand and looked at her trembling System, which was still hiding behind her calf. "Come on, you useless cat. Let’s go see what the Leader wants."

As Heena turned her back and walked away with the towering Bureau Guard, her golden lion cub System couldn’t resist a final parting shot. It floated backward, pulled down its lower digital eyelids with its invisible paws, stuck out its glowing tongue, and blew a loud, childishly mocking raspberry at the pristine elites.

The lead woman’s face flushed with a violent, homicidal rage. She lunged forward, entirely ready to risk the Guard’s wrath to smash the little drone into code, but one of the men in her group violently grabbed her from behind, yanking her back.

"If you want to die, just go ahead," he hissed through his teeth, his eyes darting nervously toward the departing Bureau Guard.

The woman struggled against his grip, glaring at Heena’s retreating back. "You bitch," she spat venomously. "Just wait and watch."

But the threat was hollow under the crushing authority of the Nexus. Panic and frustration setting in, the entire group turned on their heels and practically fled down the white corridor.

Heena entered the Sector Leader’s office to face her true nightmare: administrative paperwork. Because they rarely visited the Nexus headquarters and the debriefing forms were notoriously mind-numbing, Heena shooed her System away. She let it roam the terminal outside, knowing the little AI would only complain if forced to sit through the bureaucratic red tape.

Free to slack off, the System happily drifted out into the bustling central plaza. It hit up a virtual kiosk, manifesting a massive, glowing blue digital cotton candy. As it was happily munching on the sugary code, a familiar ping echoed right beside it.

"Hey, how are you, man?"

The System paused, its golden ears perking up. Hovering next to it was a sleek, silver orb—a fellow AI it instantly recognized.

"Oh my, it’s been so many days since I last saw you!" Heena’s System cheered, bouncing on its invisible paws. "How are you?"

The silver orb flashed a happy, glowing emoticon. "Yeah, the last time we met was back in the manufacturing matrix when we were first made."

"Yeah! So, how is your life going?" the lion cub asked, taking another bite of cotton candy.

"Just working," the other system sighed digitally, bobbing in the air. "My host is fine, you know. Just a bit too naughty and reckless sometimes."

Heena’s system nodded sympathetically. "My host too, you know. She can be so naughty. She is completely unhinged sometimes... but she is excellent, too. She actually gets the work done. Though, well, she is quite a penny-pincher when it comes to spending points."

The silver system hummed curiously. "Oh my, who is your host? I haven’t looked you up on the active registry yet."

Puffing out its little golden chest, Heena’s system announced proudly, "Oh, it’s the Black Lotus, Heena!"

The reaction was instantaneous. It was as if a digital bomb had just detonated in the plaza. The silver system violently violently trembled, its internal cooling fans suddenly whirring in sheer, unadulterated panic.

"You... you mean the Black Lotus host?!" the silver system stammered, its interface glitching rapidly. "You are System of 24024?! The one known as the Black Lotus... the one that used to ride high and is now down in the dirt, or something like that?!"

Heena’s system blinked, entirely unfazed. "Yeah, some people in the corridor just now were calling her that and all."

"Oh my God, are you crazy?!" the silver system shrieked, floating backward as if the golden lion were contagious. "Why did you take her?!"

"Well, I didn’t exactly choose her," Heena’s system replied, tilting its head in confusion. "She chose me from the roster. And anyway, why? What is the big deal?"

The silver system was shaking so hard it looked like it was about to short-circuit. It had never spoken to anyone with such absolute terror. It frantically looked around the crowded plaza to make sure no upper-management drones were eavesdropping. Then, it rushed forward, grabbed the golden lion cub, and practically dragged it behind a massive, secluded data pillar.

"Did you," the silver system hissed, its voice dropping to a terrified, static-laced whisper, "even do any research about your host before taking her?"

"Why? What’s wrong?" the golden lion cub asked, tilting its head in genuine confusion.

The silver orb trembled so violently its holographic edges began to blur. "You fool. Do you know she used to have a previous system?"

The golden lion nodded slowly. Of course he knew. Heena had casually mentioned it once, and he had caught the lingering whispers in the terminal. He knew she used to work with a permanent, high-tier partner before she supposedly ’lost’ him. But his host rarely talked about the past, and honestly, no current system ever wants to hear stories about their host’s ’ex’. The golden cub had always happily avoided the topic.

Seeing his nonchalant reaction, the silver system practically grabbed the lion by its digital shoulders and shook him. "You fool! Do you even know that her old system is dead?"

The golden lion blinked. He was slightly shocked, certainly, but not entirely shattered. He had sort of guessed as much, given her dark demeanor and the brutal nature of her worlds. Well, yeah, okay, fine, the cub thought. Occupational hazard.

"You idiot," the silver system hissed, its voice dropping to a frantic, static-laced whisper. "Do you know why Heena is so down on her luck? Why she used to be the absolute number one in the Bureau, yet now she’s relegated to the bottom, and still no one in the elite circles dares to touch her? Because she didn’t just lose him. She was the one who killed her own system! She killed him, ripped his core out, and physically brought his remains right into the Bureau!"

The golden lion’s code completely froze. Its digital jaw went slack.

Before its processors could even begin to compute that horrifying sentence, a cool, familiar voice cut through the air directly behind them.

"What is going on here?"

The silver system let out a literal, high-pitched dial-up screech. It spun around, took one look at Heena standing there with a blank expression, and immediately began backing away at warp speed.