Chapter 202 : Chapter 202
Chapter 202
Currently Breaking Out of the Underworld
“Yare yare~ as expected of the church, really generous.”
Far away in a secluded corner of the church, Yi Ning cheerfully held up a money pouch, pulled out a gold coin, and raised it high into the air.
One hundred Kir gold coins.
That was the price the church had offered.
Supposedly, these coins could even buy a mansion in the royal capital.
That was a staggering sum.
And not only that—Lu Zheng had also received ten Kir silver coins as a reward for completing the mission.
In less than a single day, the once-penniless drifters had suddenly become wealthy tycoons with over a hundred gold coins.
“As expected of something made by Yours Truly—even if it’s just a pile of scrap wood, it can still sell for such a high price!”
Yi Ning was feeling rather smug.
“Those hundred gold coins—probably 99.9% of the value is because of that stamp you slapped on it, right?”
Lu Zheng couldn’t help but throw in a jab.
“So what?”
Yi Ning stuffed the money pouch into the pocket of her white lab coat, put her hands on her hips, and puffed out her flat chest.
“My stamp is still part of my skillset, isn’t it?”
She deliberately tilted her face upward, attempting to look down on Lu Zheng from above.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Lu Zheng nodded agreeably, as if placating a three-year-old. He reached out and placed a hand on Yi Ning’s head, gently stroking as he softly praised her.
“Yi Ning is amazing!”
“Yi Ning is super capable!”
The pleasant feeling from the top of her head made Yi Ning instinctively narrow her eyes, rubbing her head lightly against Lu Zheng’s palm a few times.
But not two seconds later, she suddenly snapped out of it and swatted his hand off her head with a slap.
With a stiff expression, she glared at Lu Zheng in disgust.
“Are you treating me like a three-year-old or something?!”
“Ha ha… of course not…”
Lu Zheng laughed awkwardly a few times, not daring to respond to her accusation.
After a few seconds of thought, he wisely changed the subject.
“Come to think of it—when you were getting that Luban lock tested earlier, you seemed to freeze up for a moment. What were you thinking about?”
Yi Ning wasn’t stupid.
She immediately saw through Lu Zheng’s attempt to change the topic.
But she didn’t call him out on it. In fact, she had also been thinking of finding a time to discuss this with him.
Yi Ning smoothed out the tails of her white lab coat that drooped behind her, sat down on the ground with her knees together, and gestured for Lu Zheng to sit as well.
“Wingate Jacob… that name feels a little familiar.”
Yi Ning stroked her chin with one hand, frowning slightly as she assumed a thinking pose.
Lu Zheng felt a little helpless.
“Of course it’s familiar.”
“Wingate Jacob—wasn’t he one of the original founders of your Evil Council? Held massive control over corporations, always appearing with the image of a philanthropist. Got taken down about ten years ago by our Hero Association in collaboration with your Evil Council’s current leaders.”
“Oh! Right, right, right! No wonder the name sounded so familiar!”
Yi Ning smacked her fist into her palm.
Seeing this expression of sudden realization, Lu Zheng covered his face, starting to doubt how Yi Ning ever graduated.
“Why does a hero like me have to remind a villain like you?”
This was an important historical figure—shouldn’t he be a key topic in villain history classes?
He was a genius evil scientist after all. At the very least, he shouldn’t be forgotten like Lu Zheng’s own crammable exam knowledge after high school.
No wait—even Lu Zheng hadn’t forgotten this guy.
Yi Ning put on a stern face and shamelessly came up with an excuse for herself.
“Well, you said it yourself—the guy was taken down by the current Evil Council leaders in cooperation with your side. You think they'd boldly put their own betrayal into the official textbooks?”
“They’re still a villain organization, right?”
“Villain groups still need cohesion, you know~ If the current leaders gained their positions through backstabbing, and the underlings found out about it, it might make them start growing thoughts of rebellion~”
“Villains aren’t exactly known for their loyalty, after all?”
Yi Ning curled her lips, her tone full of mockery.
Lu Zheng couldn’t be bothered arguing with this evil scientist about the loyalty of villain organizations.
He looked at Yi Ning and chose to go back to the earlier topic: “Blue Star plus all the alien planets—that’s a pretty big population. Isn’t it normal for someone to have the same name?”
Yi Ning gave him a dismissive smile, showing her contempt for Lu Zheng’s shallow knowledge base.
“Names like that usually have certain characteristics that reflect one’s family. The chance of a true same-name-same-spelling is really low.”
“Besides, we’re communicating with these aliens through my translation Konjac.”
“To avoid translation issues, I specifically set it so that unless a name is written exactly the same, it won’t be translated the same.”
“In that case, a match like this—do you really think it’s just a coincidence?”
Yi Ning furrowed her brow, her expression grave.
No way, right?
Seeing Yi Ning’s serious face, Lu Zheng’s own expression started to darken. He forced out a few dry chuckles, trying to soothe her.
“That guy was confirmed dead ten years ago, you know. His identity was verified afterward—there’s no possibility of faking it.”
“And we’re thousands of billions of light-years away from Blue Star here. Even if he weren’t dead, there’s no way he could’ve gotten here, right?”
Though Lu Zheng’s voice was full of confidence and his words were all factual, his trust in Yi Ning’s abilities meant these reassurances were just as much for himself.
But Yi Ning still kept her brow tightly furrowed, her face full of complex emotions.
Come on, man. You keep this up, and even I won’t be able to convince myself anymore.
Lu Zheng’s expression began to twitch: “Hey hey… you’re making me nervous here…”
Yi Ning was silent for a moment, then pursed her lips, her face full of hesitation.
“So… how do I put this…”
After several seconds, she finally opened her mouth a little reluctantly.
“Among the batch of defective junk I threw into this place… there was a machine that could be used for resurrection…”
Lu Zheng: “?”
Lu Zheng: “!”
He knew it!
A machine for resurrection?!
Why would you even make something that defies the laws of life itself!?
Seriously, you could make something like that?! You might be too much of a genius!
As if guessing Lu Zheng’s thoughts, Yi Ning’s expression grew a little awkward. She crossed her hands in front of her and lowered her head, playing with her fingers.
“It’s not that powerful~”
“You know, all the stuff I toss here are failures that didn’t meet my standards…”
A glimmer of hope suddenly appeared, and Lu Zheng quickly pressed her: “So that means it doesn’t actually work?”
“Well, not exactly.”
Yi Ning scratched her head.
“The resurrection part works fine—as long as you have some DNA from the subject, it can revive them. Though calling it resurrection is a bit misleading, since all it really does is create a clone and use some miraculous tech to grant it the person’s original memories and abilities.”
“Truly bringing someone back from the dead? Still impossible. No matter the method—even a genius like me could never achieve that!”
Maybe she felt this invention had too many ethical loopholes—Yi Ning’s gaze drifted off, and her smile turned a little awkward.
“So what you’re saying is… this Wingate Jacob here on the alien planet is actually the resurrected—or rather, cloned—version of the Wingate Jacob from Blue Star, made using your machine?”
“And he has all the original’s memories and powers… meaning he’s a full-strength version, before any narrative nerfing?”
No way.
That guy was the textbook-definition of a monstrously powerful, infamously evil supervillain.
According to the records, he was absurdly strong, and it took a joint effort by the top-ranked heroes of the Hero Association and the current leaders of the Evil Council to bring him down.
And the scariest part—he had a complex web of evil corporations under his control and often appeared publicly as a charitable figure. If not for a few high-ranking insiders in his faction flipping sides, the Hero Association wouldn’t have had any evidence to arrest him—nor been able to contain the chaos that erupted after his death.
And now, this same Wingate Jacob was the leader of the largest religious organization on this planet.
Lu Zheng’s face was on the verge of breaking down.
Taking on a final boss of this level… with just Yi Ning as backup? Him?