Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
151. Couldn’t Think of a Title
An invention that could possibly destroy a civilization…
Yi Ning thought for a moment, then raised her head, not quite sure how to answer.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t remember, but that there were simply too many inventions that could potentially destroy a civilization, so many that she couldn’t recall them all at once.
Especially in the second semester of her freshman year, she had been extremely enthusiastic about inventing weapons. From the relatively low-powered Mountain-Splitting Gun that could only blast apart a mountain, to the Penetrating Ray that could pierce straight through a planet, to the Mind Control Device that could control thoughts, and the Machine that could mass-produce clones—she had dabbled in all sorts of flashy things.
One could say there was nothing she couldn’t make, only things she hadn’t thought of yet.
Some of them she could only vaguely remember—names and functions already blurred.
Looking at the obediently well-behaved Yi Ning before him, Lu Zheng rubbed his forehead speechlessly.
Clearly, she couldn’t recall what exactly she had made.
He sighed, picked up his cola, and gulped it down until the bottle was empty, then tossed it into the ordinary trash bin Yi Ning had placed next to the coffee table.
Yi Ning, very tactfully, offered another bottle of cola to Lord Lu Zheng, even diligently helping him twist the cap open.
Lu Zheng casually accepted it and took a sip, only to notice the weight felt off.
He glanced at the half-empty bottle, then at the coffee table, and finally at Yi Ning.
“This is yours?”
He shook the bottle in his hand.
“Of course!”
Yi Ning actually sounded quite righteous.
She tilted her chin slightly, even showing some dissatisfaction in her tone.
“Being able to have an indirect kiss with this Super High School Level Beautiful Girl, and you’re not happy?”
In order to ease Lu Zheng’s mood a little, and also to reduce the decline of her favorability in his eyes as much as possible, Yi Ning had mentally prepared herself for a long time before deciding to offer her half-finished cola.
This was a lie.
It wasn’t Yi Ning who had to drink someone else’s backwash—why would she ever hesitate over such a thing?
But in order to make her loyal future laborer feel less devoted, she decided to dramatize the difficulty of her decision.
Unfortunately.
If it had been the old Lu Zheng, who still felt guilty toward Yi Ning, this trick would have worked wonders. Even if Yi Ning’s act wasn’t that convincing, it would still have dealt a heavy blow to his conscience, making him willingly lower his head to Yi Ning.
But now that Lu Zheng had already witnessed Yi Ning’s shameless side, his thoughts toward her were nothing but strained tolerance and “you bastard.” Not punching her outright was mercy enough—how could he possibly pity her?
So the outcome was obvious.
Yi Ning’s attempt at playing the pitiful act failed miserably.
Lu Zheng only rolled his eyes at her, then casually downed the rest of her half-bottle of cola.
After finishing, he turned the empty bottle upside down and tapped Yi Ning on the head with the neck of the bottle as punishment.
“Ouch!”
Yi Ning quickly covered her head, pretending to be in pain.
Even though it didn’t actually hurt.
Lu Zheng rolled his eyes again at her feigned performance.
He had struck her himself—how could he not know how much force he’d used?
After knocking her head twice more, Lu Zheng tossed the empty bottle into the trash bin.
“If you can’t remember, then you can’t remember…”
He sighed, though there wasn’t much disappointment in his expression.
After all, he had already collected plenty of clues.
Since he now knew the cause lay in Yi Ning’s defective inventions, then all he had to do was deal with the inventions she had discarded, right?
His past experience working in the border zone told him that most evil scientists left backdoors in their inventions, to conveniently stir up trouble with them later.
Yi Ning should be no exception.
But since she had thrown those inventions away as defective, would she really bother leaving backdoors on garbage?
Lu Zheng couldn’t be sure.
So he looked at Yi Ning and asked her directly about it.
“Those inventions you threw away—do you have any way to directly destroy them?”
Under his expectant gaze, Yi Ning slowly nodded.
“Of course!”
As a skilled evil scientist, Yi Ning naturally had the technique of leaving backdoors in her inventions.
Not only that—she had many tricks up her sleeve.
For instance, that widely circulated “self-destruct button” among evil scientists nowadays? Yi Ning had already played that game years ago!
Within her remote-control range, Yi Ning could even turn her inventions into exoskeleton armor at the press of a button. And once the enemy eagerly put the armor on, she could ignite it and launch them straight into orbit, letting them enjoy a “happy cosmic journey.” And this remote-control range extended to anywhere connected to the Cosmic Internet.
Wherever there was a network, she could control her inventions freely.
Of course, only in places with a network.
Regrettably, some backward planets didn’t seem to be connected to the Cosmic Internet—like that planet numbered 9611451469.
Hearing this, Lu Zheng’s expression became quite complicated.
He thought for a while and then voiced a rather whimsical idea.
“Can’t you just go to that planet and hook them up with an internet connection?”
This earned him a huge eye-roll from Yi Ning.
“You don’t seriously think the Cosmic Internet is that easy to connect to, do you?”
That was a universe-level network, after all—it wasn’t something you could just connect to on a whim.
Never mind the exorbitant internet fees; to get online, you’d at least need the necessary infrastructure, right?
Even the connection on Blue Star had taken Yi Ning an entire day to modify using the infrastructure already in place. Could she really count on that unknown alien planet having suitable infrastructure to work with?
And even if it did exist, Yi Ning had no intention of helping to modify it.
For one, she was lazy. For another…
“Are you going to provide the money and materials?”
The resources required to connect to the Cosmic Internet were immense. Yi Ning wasn’t about to spend anything for those lowly paupers.
Watching the stinginess of the miser before him, Lu Zheng rolled his eyes again, a bit helpless.
She wasn’t even willing to pay to clean up her own mess?
Could it be the only reason she had come to him for help was because she assumed he wouldn’t ask her for money?
He flicked Yi Ning’s forehead lightly with his finger and sighed.
“I’ll pay, okay?”
And he wasn’t joking.
As mentioned before, Lu Zheng actually had quite a bit in savings. Plus, he had earned contributions from his past work in the border zone. Setting up a network cable was well within his means.
But then Yi Ning struck him with a heavy blow.
“How much money can you even pay?”
“The transmission gates I use to throw away trash randomly open across that planet. My inventions are scattered everywhere. If you want to solve this with networking, you’ll basically have to build a planet-wide network for them. How wonderful—you’ll be helping those alien friends of yours take a giant step into the Cosmic Internet era.”
Yi Ning’s lips curled into a disdainful smile.