Galaxy's Only Triple-S: Five Lords Can't Hold Her novel Chapter 10

After a long moment, the man finally looked away and picked up his document again.

"Have a seat," he said. His tone was cool.

Margaret blinked. That was easy. She didn't overthink it. She got up, walked to the room's only sofa, and sank into it.

"Primo?" she called out in her mind. But no matter how many times she tried, Primo didn't answer. She felt confused.

What is going on? Has it actually glitched itself dead just from looking at that man's perfect face?

After what felt like forever, Primo's voice finally came back. "Host, I'm back. I just... crashed."

Margaret was speechless. Then she snapped, "What kind of garbage system are you? You crash from just that? Are you running on a free trial version or something?"

Primo sounded pitiful. "Host, I don't know what happened. I'm the latest version of a symbiotic system... Are you mad at me?"

"No. I just suddenly think this 'latest version' might actually be defective."

"Host—" Primo drew out the word, sounding like a sad, rejected puppy. "You're hurting my feelings."

"Fine, fine." Margaret didn't dwell on it. "Can you play some funny videos for me? I'm so bored just sitting here."

"Of course I can!" Primo's voice perked up instantly. "That's a basic requirement for systems like me."

Margaret's thoughts suddenly paused. She remembered Vex. Whenever Vex secretly played funny videos for her, it acted like a thief, terrified that the main system would catch it and punish it. But Primo was saying it was a basic requirement. They probably weren't from the same company.

Thinking of Vex made her eyes go dim for a moment. But she quickly pushed that feeling down, crossed her legs, and waited for Primo to play her videos.

But a long time passed. Primo didn't respond.

"Primo?" she called out in her mind.

"Host, I'm here," Primo said. Its voice sounded guilty.

"Play the video. I'm dying of boredom."

"Host." Primo's voice got even more guilty. "There's no public network in this room. And there's a signal jammer. I can't access the internal network. Their firewall level is too high. I can't break through."

"Network?" Margaret frowned internally. "Why do you need a network?"

"Because videos need to load from the network, of course," Primo said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What? My old system—the one I told you about, Vex—it never needed a network to play videos. It could just play them directly in my head. It even played videos from other worlds—Earth, and other places. All kinds of stuff."

Primo was quiet for two seconds.

"Host." Primo's voice turned a little strange. "I don't know anything about your old system. Before I was born, my core database was indeed loaded with a lot of data from other worlds, including the Earth you mentioned and other worlds. But I can only access text descriptions, data analysis, and simulated scenes about those worlds. I can't play the kind of real video recordings you're talking about. Those videos aren't in my storage."

Margaret froze. "Wait—what do you mean, 'before I was born'?"

"Before I was activated," Primo replied, with a hint of carefulness. "I'm your symbiotic assistance system. I was only activated and born the moment you arrived in this world. Before that, I was just a string of unactivated code in the main system."

Hearing that, Margaret found herself at a loss for words.

"So..." Margaret paused, then spoke slowly, her voice tinged with disbelief. "You've only been alive for less than three days?"

"Two days and seventeen hours, to be precise." Primo's tone was almost shy. "I'm very young. I'm still learning a lot of things. Please bear with me if I mess up, Host."

Margaret fell silent.

She thought back to when she had asked Primo about Vex—how vague its answers had been. She thought about how little it knew about this world, how its permissions didn't seem very high. She thought about how sometimes it seemed confused and had to figure things out on its own. It wasn't because it was defective. It was because it was a newborn.

"Primo," she said suddenly. "If I die—if I pass away in this world—what happens to you?"

Primo's voice came softly. "I will die with you."

Margaret's breath caught.

"I'm your symbiotic system," Primo continued. There was no fear in its voice, no bitterness—just the calm tone of stating a fact. "My existence is tied to your life. You live, I live. You die, I disappear with you. That's the definition of a symbiotic assistance system. One-time use. Belongs only to you."

Margaret stayed silent. Or maybe she just couldn't speak. But she could feel some corner of her heart quietly filling with a strange new emotion.

"Host." Primo's voice carried a hint of worry. "Why aren't you talking? Are you mad at me? Because I'm not capable enough yet?"

Margaret looked up. Cheiron had put down his document at some point and was looking at her.

She blinked, confused.

Isn't he, as my counselor, supposed to know why I am here for counseling?

"Yeah." She nodded. "Signed the agreements yesterday. Divorced all three at once. Pretty efficient, right?"

Cheiron didn't speak. He just looked at her.

Margaret figured she had nothing better to do, so she kept talking. "The Central Brain matched me with three S-class big shots. But they thought I was too low-rank for them, so they ignored me for three years. Now that I'm the one asking for a divorce, they act like I'm reaching above my station." She laughed at the thought. "I mean, to be fair—a C-class matched with three S-class? That was just the Central Brain having a glitch."

Cheiron said, "You don't seem like a C-class."

Margaret's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"

Cheiron looked at her, his voice steady. "C-class females usually don't talk this much in front of a stranger."

Margaret choked.

What kind of weird take is that? C-class females can't be outgoing? What a stereotype.

Still, she felt a little guilty. "Well, it's not like you're here to date me. Does it matter if I talk a lot or a little? And honestly—I only opened up because you seem nice."

"Nice?" Cheiron repeated the word, his tone strange.

"Yeah." Margaret nodded firmly. "Sure, you seemed a little annoyed with me at first. But you didn't kick me out. That's pretty nice. You should see those three assholes..."

Cheiron raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

The room went quiet again. Margaret stared at the carpet for a while, then thought of something else.

"Are you married?" she asked suddenly. Her tone was as casual as if she were asking, "Did you eat yet?"

Cheiron looked at her. He didn't answer. But something flickered in those pale gray eyes.