Chapter 202: Regressor!?

“No! Overseer, I would never! I just wanted to meet Lord Wei, argh!”

Another slap followed.

“Why do you want to meet him? His lordship is busy, and his duty to the Underworld Lord is noble! Do you think he would spare you his precious time?”

The scolding continued, and Wei Chen wisely retreated back toward the castle. He glanced at Zhang Niu.

Wei Chen had not personally overseen the worker recruitment process, so he did not know every employee. But for some reason, he had the distinct feeling that Zhang Niu had recruited his former clan patriarch out of spite.

“By the way, Lord Wei, the Princess has come to visit you. She wants you to make more ice cream for her,” Zhang Niu said.

“Wait… didn’t I teach her palace chefs how to make it?” Wei Chen frowned.

“You did, my lord, but she said your ice cream tastes much better. The ice cream her chefs make only satisfies the craving. It cannot be enjoyed the way yours can,” Zhang Niu relayed Little Ningning’s exact complaint.

Wei Chen thought about it. It was true that the quality of ice cream could vary greatly. For example, premium ice cream like Häagen-Dazs was very different from common cheap ice cream. Premium ice cream contained less air, which made it denser and gave it a richer, creamier taste.

In fact, the air content in premium ice cream was closer to gelato, usually only twenty to thirty percent.

Cheap ice cream, on the other hand, contained much more air, which made it fluffier and gave it a lighter taste with a foamy, icy texture.

It was like a marshmallow. It looked large because it was full of air, but once squeezed, the actual volume was much smaller. Ice cream worked the same way.

As for why there was such a difference, the answer was simple. Adding more air made it cheaper to produce and created more product. That was one of the reasons common ice cream was so cheap while premium brands cost much more.

He imagined those chefs had grown lazy and increased the whipping speed, letting too much air into the mixture. That was probably why that gluttonous girl was complaining.

“Haaa…” Wei Chen let out a sigh. “Fine. When I have time, I’ll make some for her. But right now I’m busy.”

“Oh? Has something urgent come up, my lord? Is there anything we can help with?” the butler asked.

“I don’t know yet. I need to check the database in my office first and see whether I need to have a meeting with Ms. Youqi or not,” Wei Chen said.

“I see. Then please follow me, my lord. I will lead you to your personal office.”

With that, Zhang Niu started walking ahead.

“Err… maybe you don’t need to. I’ve been here a few times. I think I remember the layout,” Wei Chen said awkwardly. He still had not gotten used to the Bruce Wayne lifestyle.

“I beg to differ, my lord. That was before the castle renovation. After the renovation, the layout changed drastically. I do not think you would remember it.”

“Wait… that should not be possible. It was only supposed to be a partial renovation, mostly my personal quarters. The layout should not have changed.” Wei Chen frowned.

“It was, my lord. But now… it has changed.”

“Why?”

“After His Majesty, the Underworld Lord, gave us the reference materials and ordered us to fully renovate everything without touching the essential parts that make the castle function, additional funds were approved. For a renovation on that scale, we had to take a different approach.”

“Boss did that?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Wei Chen had been the one to ask his people to renovate the castle. Since it looked like the Death Star on the outside, he wanted at least some of the interior, especially his personal quarters and office, to resemble it as well.

He had only wanted a few rooms changed, not the entire castle.

“Also…” Zhang Niu called out, snapping Wei Chen from his thoughts.

Once he had Wei Chen’s attention, he took out a sealed envelope and handed it over.

Wei Chen opened it and read the letter.

“You do not need to thank me. I only want to stay here in the Deathstar for a few nights from time to time. I already built my own courtyard here, so I hope you do not mind. Just do not tell my wives that I used my personal funds to renovate your castle.”

The moment Wei Chen finished reading, both the letter and the envelope burst into flame and turned to ash.

The message was short and concise.

But in Wei Chen’s eyes, it translated into something much simpler.

“It was me, bro. No need to thank me for putting my personal gunpla collection in your house display. I just want to come admire it sometimes. Also, do not tell my wives I paid for it.”

Come to think of it, that bony lord seemed to know a lot about the pop culture from his old world. But since the man had managed to snatch his soul from another universe, maybe he had access to far more from that world than Wei Chen had assumed.

“Ugh… fine…” Wei Chen muttered in resignation.

After several minutes of walking through corridors and avoiding areas where renovations were still underway, Wei Chen finally arrived at his personal office.

This room had already been fully completed.

The entire place looked incredibly futuristic. The walls and decorations resembled a film set from the original three movies George Lucas had directed, specifically the era of Luke Skywalker.

Wei Chen walked straight to his desk and turned on the computer. Even the computer itself looked like something taken directly from the films.

When he examined the lights in the walls more closely, he realized they were all artifacts embedded with different spirit gems, designed purely to create that science fiction atmosphere.

Looking around the room, Wei Chen did not even want to think about how much it had cost to decorate it to this degree.

And he especially did not want to imagine what would happen to his boss if his wives ever found out about this kind of spending.

“Damn…” Wei Chen could not help letting out a quiet breath of both admiration and dread.

Putting that aside, he quickly accessed the Underworld database. It was a good thing that the computer in his office was directly linked to the system. Otherwise, it would be awkward if he had to meet Ms. Youqi every single time he encountered a problem.

At the very least, he needed to confirm whether the issue was something he could not solve on his own or whether it was serious enough to justify bringing it to her.

Otherwise, it would only make him look incompetent.

The database opened, and Wei Chen entered the name.

Lian Cheng.

Then he pressed enter.

After a brief loading screen, the record appeared.

All of the basic information matched Lian Cheng, but the living status was marked with an error.

No… it would be more accurate to say that it displayed “Alive” for a moment, then changed to “Deceased,” then shifted into an error warning.

The text kept cycling between all three states.

Wei Chen knew for a fact that if this were a normal case of a death-cheater soul hijacking a body, the database would simply display the person as deceased.

That was because the original owner of the body would already be dead by the time the invading soul gained full control and somehow found a way to eliminate enough death qi to avoid detection by the system.

The reason was simple. To reject and remove the death qi attached to a death-cheater soul, that soul first needed to truly live again, occupying the stolen body for some time.

That meant cases like Yun Feng’s master, who stayed inside an artifact, could hide death qi but never completely erase it.

If this were that kind of case, the database would have shown Lian Cheng as alive under a stable record.

Not this strange error.

Wei Chen thought for a moment, then opened the registration records of deceased souls.

After another brief loading screen, the information appeared.

“What the hell?” Wei Chen muttered.

According to the records, Lian Cheng had already died and had already been registered as a new citizen working as a courier for the Underworld Palace.

Cause of death: beaten to death by his own sect comrades.

But the strangest part was the current status.

It still claimed Lian Cheng was alive today, yet it remained flagged with an error.

If this were simply a successful death-cheater who had erased the death qi, then the “alive” record would have stopped at the exact date of death.

Wei Chen frowned deeply.

This was becoming complicated.

It was as if…

As if there were two Lian Chengs.

“Wait… two Lian Chengs?” Wei Chen muttered. “A soul from the future occupying its own body in the past…”

His eyes narrowed.

“A regressor?”

He quickly looked back at Lian Cheng’s Underworld citizen registration.

“It seems… the Lian Cheng in the Underworld is the original Lian Cheng who died. And the one occupying the body now is a regressor from the future?”

He paused.

“No… not exactly from the future. It would be more accurate to say it is Lian Cheng from a different timeline occupying our bro Lian Cheng’s body.”

Wei Chen suddenly felt a chill crawl down his spine.

Did this mean…

He might eventually have to deal with some purple bald guy obsessed with six gemstones too?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep