Su Lian quickly scanned the information displayed on the holographic screen, then selected the skip option. He bypassed the initial setup and entered trial mode directly, heading straight for the robot’s backend system to examine its internal specifications.
The screen displayed the robot’s detailed information.
“Model J776. Manufactured by XX Technology Corporation. Primary purpose: companionship? A companion robot?”
Su Lian glanced at the robot’s face beside him. No wonder its facial features were so exquisitely refined. It turned out to be a companion robot.
Below that was a long list of the materials used in its construction. As he had expected, the robot was made almost entirely from high grade materials. Further down, the screen provided an introduction to its primary functions, including the intelligent system it employed, an exceptionally sophisticated body temperature control system, an emotional feedback system, and a state of the art voice generation system…
Su Lian continued browsing through the information, and to his surprise, he eventually discovered a cooking function among its features.
300 Common Homemade Dishes.
Delicious Home Cooking: Let Your Lover Experience the Warmth of Home.
Make Him or Her Love You More: The Many Uses of Kitchens, Aprons, and Food…
His eyes lit up!
Without the slightest hesitation, Su Lian reached out and tapped the binding button in the lower right corner of the screen.
However, unlike before, the holographic screen did not immediately proceed to the binding interface. Instead, it froze in place. Several seconds later, the display began to distort and flicker, as though it were suffering from a poor connection.
“Is it broken?”
Su Lian frowned, but his expression showed no particular surprise. After all, he had dug this thing out of a garbage heap. It would have been far more surprising if it had been in perfect working condition.
Even if the robot was broken, the fact that such an expensive companion robot had not been reclaimed or recycled was already rather peculiar.
Su Lian was not a professional repair technician. After thinking about the situation for a while, he concluded that the problem looked very much like a shortage of energy.
Unfortunately, even if his guess was correct, there was little he could do about it. He had no external charging device capable of supplying energy to the robot, and he certainly wasn’t some damn professional repair technician who could fix its internal power supply.
People with specialized technical skills were valuable wherever they went. Even on this garbage planet, repair technicians enjoyed relatively comfortable lives. If he wanted to hire one to help him, he would have to pay a price that would make his heart ache.
Su Lian fell silent as he contemplated his options. In the end, he decided to stop worrying about the consequences and take a desperate gamble.
His tail hook shot out from behind him, its metallic surface reflecting a beautiful sheen beneath the light. The sharp stinger at its tip began to retract as its internal structure shifted and transformed. Within moments, the tip had changed into a connector port.
Without further hesitation, he connected it directly to the robot.
As he began transferring his energy into the machine, the distorted holographic screen gradually stabilized. Once the display had returned to normal, it switched to the binding interface.
The robot’s eyes flickered. It immediately scanned Su Lian, and his personal information appeared directly on the holographic screen, accompanied by a photograph of him.
Name: Su Lian
Personal ID: 68722
Genetic Sequence Number: **** (Security Clearance Level S; access prohibited)
Occupation: **** (Security Clearance Level S; access prohibited)
Remarks: Serious criminal. Place of incarceration: Planet B12, designated within the C 301 star system. Sentence: 3027–3177. Currently serving sentence.
Su Lian was momentarily stunned when he saw this information. As a serious criminal serving his sentence, he was prohibited from accessing the interstellar network, and his personal ID had already been marked accordingly.
He had almost forgotten that the binding process required an internet connection. Just as he was beginning to think that the binding would fail, the holographic screen flickered once more before finally displaying the successful binding confirmation.
“Hmm?”
This outcome was certainly beyond his expectations.
“Master.”
The “man” lying on the ground sat up. It was as though a soul had suddenly been breathed into his body. His exquisitely crafted yet stiff and lifeless facial features instantly came alive, transforming into an expression filled with surprise and anticipation. Even his eyes acquired the lifelike highlights characteristic of human beings.
He took Su Lian’s right hand and gently pressed the back of it against his own cheek. His voice sounded so natural that it was impossible to tell that it was artificially generated.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time.”
Su Lian could feel that the robot’s smooth outer surface had already warmed to a temperature comparable to that of human skin. He brushed the back of his hand against its cheek, then curled his fingers around its chin and lifted its face toward him.
In response to Su Lian’s movement, the robot cooperatively adopted a puzzled expression, as though it genuinely did not understand what he was doing.
“It really does look just like a human,” Su Lian muttered under his breath. He then looked at the robot and asked, “Should I give you a name first?”
“Yes.”
The man’s appearance was exceptionally beautiful. Although he had black hair and black eyes, just like Su Lian, his overall appearance and the impression he gave were completely different. His features were so perfectly proportioned that, after looking at him for a prolonged period, his beauty began to seem almost unnerving.
Human beings still found it difficult to accept mechanical creations whose appearances closely resembled their own.
Su Lian was momentarily dazed, but he quickly recovered.
“Damn it!”
The human brain was both fragile and mysterious. Even though human technology had advanced to the point where almost any part of the body could be replaced, with the brain being the sole exception, humanity’s understanding of the brain remained far from complete.
Consciousness, the soul, emotions, and all the other things associated with the brain… These still seemed to belong to the domain of the gods.
Ever since completing that strange mission, Su Lian had developed a peculiar problem with mental lapses. Without any apparent reason, his train of thought would suddenly break off, as though a connection inside his mind had abruptly been severed.
He had even sought medical help, but the doctors had told him that there was nothing wrong with his brain. In fact, his brain cells exhibited a remarkably high level of activity. They suspected that he might have been exposed to certain disturbing images that had triggered the episodes, and advised him to relax and try to regulate his condition on his own.
Su Lian did not believe he was the kind of person who would develop lasting psychological trauma from a scene of violence of that degree. He consulted several different doctors, but the conclusions they reached were more or less identical.
He knew that something must have been affecting him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the cause.
The sudden onset of another episode put him in a rather unpleasant mood. He stood up and returned to his chair, settling down with a sullen expression.
The “man” tilted his head and studied him for several seconds. A look of concern appeared in his eyes, and then he stood up as well. Walking around behind Su Lian, he placed his nimble fingers against Su Lian’s temples and began gently massaging them.
“An essential skill for a companion robot? Not bad at all…”
Su Lian remembered that one of his former teammates had also purchased a companion robot. Their work was demanding, and maintaining a romantic relationship required time and effort. There was no one who could tolerate having their partner suddenly disappear on a regular basis, especially when the reason for those disappearances was something they couldn’t disclose under any circumstances. Under such circumstances, a companion robot was an excellent choice.
At least, when they returned home, they could experience the warmth and comfort of what felt like a real home.
His eyelashes trembled like butterflies fluttering their wings. After a while, he finally opened his eyes and said, “I should give you a name. From now on, you’ll be called Aivitis.”
“My name is Aivitis.”
The “man,” now that he had a name of his own, expressed his delight. His fingers gently brushed across the side of Su Lian’s face before coming to rest on his lips, tracing the outline of his mouth with a delicate touch.
Su Lian thought he could taste a faint metallic flavor, accompanied by a slight trace of something reminiscent of blood. However, the taste vanished almost as soon as it appeared, leaving behind nothing but the flavor of the “tomato” he had eaten earlier.
He froze for a moment before realizing what had just happened.
This was a silent attempt at seduction.
But there was nothing wrong with that, was there? Wasn’t this one of the essential skills a companion robot was supposed to possess?
He heard Aivitis speak. “What kind of personality would you like me to display?”
At the same time, a holographic screen floated in front of Su Lian. It displayed a series of options that allowed him to customize Aivitis’s personality and behavior.
“That’s quite detailed.”
Su Lian glanced over the available options. There were numerous personality types to choose from, including aloof, gentle, calculating, sharp tongued, obsessive, irritable, fierce, and ruthless, among many others. Below those options were occupational settings, such as a strict teacher, a ruthless politician, an indifferent doctor, and a rugged mechanic…
All the options could be freely combined according to the user’s preferences. There was virtually no combination the system couldn’t provide, limited only by what a person could imagine.
However, Su Lian didn’t have any particular demands when it came to Aivitis. At the moment, all he wanted was to escape the misery of surviving on nutritional supplements. Without hesitation, he selected a gentle, devoted homemaker personality that appeared to come with enhanced cooking abilities.
“How would you like me to address you?”
“Just call me by my name.”
Aivitis called out to him, “Su Lian.”
His voice sounded exceptionally gentle.
“Mm.”
Aivitis gave Su Lian a flawless smile before continuing, “Next comes the configuration for the second form.”
Su Lian: “???”
“Second form?”
【Ghostly Life Form from the Dark Star System: An Invisible Lover, Bringing You an Extraordinary New Experience!】
【Aquatic Humanoid Life Form from the Naga Star System: Elegant and Alluring, Enjoy Playful Moments Beneath the Water!】
【Underground Life Form from the XR008 Star System: Stimulate Your Senses and Push Beyond Your Limits!】
【……】
Ghostly life forms were not actual ghosts. In their natural state, they resembled jellyfish and had no fixed shape. Like floating masses of gas, they could drift freely through the air. They could also change their body colors according to the surrounding light, blending seamlessly into the atmosphere and concealing themselves from view. They were, without a doubt, the perfect assassins.
Aquatic humanoid life forms might have been described as humanoid, but their fish like characteristics were far more prominent. They had protruding, sharp fangs, bluish gray scales, and a slippery film of moisture covering their bodies. They were disgusting and hideous… And some aquatic creatures were entirely aquatic, with no humanoid characteristics whatsoever. Those were nothing less than complete monsters, with tentacles and all sorts of other horrifying appendages…
As for underground life forms, some resembled long, worm like creatures, while others had strange, squat bodies that were nothing more than wrinkled, misshapen lumps. Their appearances were even more grotesque than those of the aquatic creatures described earlier!
Judging by human aesthetic standards, Su Lian couldn’t find a single one of them appealing. The sheer absurdity of the options left him genuinely stunned.
He even went so far as to check once again whether Aivitis’s manufacturer was actually a company from the Human Empire.
“I don’t need any of those.”
Aivitis’s voice remained as calm and steady as ever as he replied, “Su Lian, I can satisfy any need you have.”
Su Lian raised an eyebrow and suddenly asked, “Are you sure it’s okay for you to say something like that?”
An absolute term like “any” should have conflicted with the strict, precise programming of a robot. Even if it were going to make such a statement, it should have added a qualifying condition before the word “any,” such as any need that fell within its capabilities.
“Forget it.”
Su Lian didn’t bother investigating whether his companion robot had some kind of programming loophole or whether it was simply learning how humans expressed themselves in society.
He canceled the second form configuration and then instructed Aivitis, “Run a self diagnostic. Once you’ve completed the check, go into sleep mode.”
“All right.”
Su Lian went to take a shower. By the time he returned, Aivitis was already lying on his bed.
Su Lian felt that something about the situation was a little off. However, considering that Aivitis was a companion robot, it seemed perfectly reasonable for it to lie on its master’s bed while in sleep mode…
In the end, carrying a complicated mixture of feelings, he climbed into his own bed.
I already have a feeling that I’m going to enjoy translating it 😂 By The Way, welcome to new novel! I hope everyone enjoys it