allendalepharm Chapter 366 --366
Chapter 366 --366
If she had a knife within arm’s reach, she would have plunged it into him without a second thought. What the hell? Heena, in her true essence, was a monster who never got tired easily.
’Damn this weak, fragile body of Seera’s,’ she cursed mentally, ’and damn this man for having the stamina of a demonic beast.’
Right then and there, she opened a mental ledger and violently scratched Samuel’s name into the very first page of her revenge diary. She was going to take her revenge for this. She would extract every single count of flesh, sweat, and soreness from him in the near future. Just wait.
As she tried to subtly shift her weight to ease the ache in her spine, she caught a faint, flickering light out of the corner of her eye.
The System was there. And the holographic golden lion was visibly, desperately trying to hold back a massive smirk.
When the lion saw the pure, murderous anger lighting up Heena’s flushed face, a look of sheer, panicked terror briefly flashed across his digital features. He knew she wanted to choke him. Heena’s eyes were screaming ’’I will wipe your coding from existence.’’
Moving slowly, the lion carefully backed away from the bed, creeping toward the shadows on the far side of the room until he was safely hiding behind a wooden drawer.
And then, the little bastard directly burst into uncontrollable laughter.
Of course, his digital soundproofing wasn’t enough to hide it from Heena. He was laughing so incredibly hard that he couldn’t even stand straight. The golden lion was literally holding his stomach with his paws, rolling back and forth on the floorboards, convulsing with silent, breathless giggles.
’[Pfft—hahaha!]’ the System wheezed, his coding vibrating with pure glee. ’[Who... haha... who would have thought?! Hahaha! Master... Mother... Host... oh my god, hahaha!]’
He was laughing so hard he could barely process his own data. If it weren’t for the heavy, suffocating weight of Samuel’s arm anchoring her to the mattress, Heena would have dragged her broken body out of bed and beaten that digital cat into absolute pixels.
The System finally managed to sit up, wiping an imaginary tear from his glowing eye. He didn’t dare say the words out loud, but the smug, glittering expression on his face spoke volumes.
’And here I thought you were completely invincible, Host.’
Eventually, the System finished his round of breathless giggling and rolled back onto his paws, deciding he had pushed his luck far enough for one midnight. He shook out his digital mane, cleared his processing throat, and tried his absolute best to look professional.
Heena glared at him from the pillows, completely ignoring the painful throb in her lower back, and spoke seriously inside her mind. *Alright, enough with the nonsense. What did your information gather around the estate while I was out?*
The System controlled his lingering smile, forcing his glowing eyes to stabilize. He let out one last, tiny digital titter before answering. *[Well, Host... actually, nothing new from the perimeter guards. But I did compile our timeline. Host, you have exactly seven hours left. In seven hours, you need to begin your entry into the Marquis’s estate. You have to start getting prepared right now.]*
Heena froze, her analytical mind immediately clashing with his data. *Wait. What exact time is it?*
The System checked his internal chronometer, looking at her with a straight face. *[Host, by my time, it is currently around 9:00 p.m. And if my database is correct, the anniversary banquet at the Marquis’s house starts at about 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.]*
Heena stared at him through the darkness, her mental ledger screaming in frustration. *What the heck? How can your internal calculations be so completely botched? Did you fail your core math exams or something?*
The System looked back at her with an expression of utter, digital disbelief. *[Host, are you seriously questioning my processing unit right now?]*
*Pang!*
Heena felt a sharp metaphorical arrow pierce her pride. *Excuse me? You are the one who just said I only have seven hours! Use your basic programming to calculate. If it is 9:00 p.m. right now, and the party is at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, do you even comprehend how much more time that actually is? That is sixteen hours!*
The System didn’t back down. He crossed his holographic paws, tilting his head with an incredibly smug robotic attitude. *[First of all, Host, after seven hours, it will be 4:00 a.m. That is exactly when you need to wake up. Then you need to get ready. And the amount of time you take to physically get ready? Do you have any idea how long that takes? Furthermore, you need to pre-stage all our escape routes and prepare your disguises before we even step foot near the Marquis’s house. So, factoring in human inefficiency, I have given you the mathematically correct timeline.]*
Heena’s eyes narrowed into lethal slits. *Don’t you dare bluff your way out of a software glitch. And how the heck do you even think you have the right to talk about my getting ready? Do you, a literal piece of floating code, even comprehend how much time a woman’s makeup takes? When you are constructing a high-level disguise to infiltrate a den of vipers, every single brush stroke is a matter of life and death! It is incredibly important.*
The System let out a heavy, synthetic huff. *[Huh. Men get ready in about ten minutes, and you girls take about two hours just to look the exact same.]*
Heena didn’t even hesitate. She shot him a look of absolute, freezing disdain through her mind link. *Well, there is a fundamental difference between a beautifully roasted banquet turkey and a handful of cheap, roadside popcorn.*
The System completely shut up.
He stared at her, his digital ears flattening against his head as he realized there was absolutely no winning this. He was not going to argue with this woman anymore tonight. No matter what logical point he threw at her, she always had some completely unhinged, devastatingly sharp piece of nonsense to throw right back at his face.
Suddenly, there was a shift in the mattress.
Samuel stirred, his thick eyelashes fluttering before his dark eyes slowly blinked open. Having slept deeply for hours, his vision was still slightly blurred, a thin sheen of sleep-moisture making him blink against the dim light of the room. The moment he realized she was staring at him, that gorgeous, dangerously bright smile spread across his handsome face.
"You’re awake, my—"
He didn’t even get to finish the word. Heena, tapping into a hidden reservoir of pure, unadulterated spite, gathered every single ounce of her remaining physical strength. Without an ounce of hesitation, she drove her foot directly into his ribs and launched him clean out of the bed.
*THUMP!*
Samuel hit the floorboards hard, landing flat on his back just a few inches away from where the System was standing. The golden lion’s digital eyes widened to the size of saucers. He looked at the fallen scholar, then slowly looked back at Heena, mentally thanking whatever high-level programming code had possessed him to stay on the far side of the room. If he had been anywhere near that bed, his digital pixels would have been scattered across the capital.