The Highest Bounty

Gu Ding received a letter from Camilia on the morning the Golden Eagle left Jiew.a.n.g. It was Camilia"s application to the Federal Government to reimburse the damage to her castle.

The application had blamed Gu Ding"s crew and the Dark Sectors for the destruction of the castle and it included more than twenty ghastly pictures that Camilia had edited to expand the crevices within the pictures to make them look larger.

“Wow, by the looks of the pictures, it seems impossible for anyone to continue staying there. If I was an officer of the Federal Government, I would definitely approve the restoration after seeing how bad it is,” Liliath exclaimed after poking her head in and reading the letter as well.

Camilia had left a message at the end of the letter.

“This application had been sent out this morning. Besides taking care of the restoration, the Federal Government would probably revaluate you and your crew. The Skynet has more than twenty different sets of videos featuring your fight yesterday, and the Federal Government will definitely request for my surveillance footage. The earliest time I estimate for your new bounty information to be announced would be tomorrow morning, while the latest would be no longer than the day after tomorrow. According to my understanding of Faye Cosmic Nation, they will set up a roadblock at the exit of the Border River for sure. There are six administrative planets at the Border River exit. Two of them are always bustling with people. My suggestion is this, don"t pa.s.s through any administrative planets with a hefty population and prepare more than a month"s worth of food and material before leaving the Border River. Wait a month before appearing in any administrative planet in the Faye Cosmic Nation.”

“Gu Ding, tell me the truth. Did you sleep with Camilia last night?” Liliath"s questioning caused Gu Ding to spit out the water he was drinking.

“She"s giving you guidance on how to escape the Faye Cosmic Nation army and avoid them hunting you down in this message, but she"s on the side of the Federal Government.”

Elsa sneaked close to them when she heard the topic of conversation. Even Tagore, who was digging into his meat nearby, perked up his ears as he slowed the chewing of his food. This was the first time in his cat life that he had a room all to himself and he was in a cheerful mood.

“I didn"t do anything. All we did was chat for a bit,” Gu Ding replied honestly.

“Was it really just a bit? You disappeared for forty-six minutes with Camilia,” Liliath continued her interrogation.

“If you really want to know what happened, I can project the video from Neptune,” Gu Ding replied with a wide smile on his face.

“Forget about it. I don"t want to be looking at censored material this early in the morning. I"m not of age yet,” Liliath quickly waved no with her hands.

Tagore"s ears shook with some disappointment as he dove into his meal again quickly.

Elsa had headed into the kitchen and was happily chatting away with Biggie.

“Neptune, what was in the inventory of those two from the Dark Sectors?” Gu Ding felt that the spoils of the fight would be something quite valuable.

“I found that those from the Dark Sectors are extremely rich. Those two might be peripheral members, but they have a large amount of two billion and three hundred million Universe Credits in their accounts,” Neptune was in a good mood over their spoils from the day before.

“Is there any other stuff? Something that we could use or sell for a good price?” Gu Ding continued asking.

“There"s quite a lot of medical ingredients in that Poison Master"s inventory. He owns lots of poisonous items as well. There are three bottles of SS grade gene enhancers and five bottles of SS grade Cell Enhancers. They"re all high-quality items worth at least one billion and two hundred million Universe Credits if we auction them. It looks like he was planning to attain Rank 13 by using these medicines. However, you won"t be able to use them at this time. I"ll let you decide if you would like to sell or keep them.”

“Since they are of high-quality, let"s keep them. Tagore and the others might need them,” Gu Ding decided to store these medicines at the thought that Tagore, Elsa, and the others might need medical help.

“There are also a few strange looking black crystals. I"ve conducted a structural a.n.a.lysis on them, and they look like man-made energy crystals. The one called Tower has the same thing in his inventory and it is highly possible that this is a mission bonus given out by the Dark Sectors. It"s a kind of energy that seems to be able to be directly absorbed by the body and converted into primary power. I will continue researching those crystals and find out if there are any negative side effects from using them.”

“Besides all these, there is also a pet inventory, but he didn"t keep any pets in there. Instead, he has twelve Petri dishes in there. Each petri dish contains a different form of virus. They are highly contagious and one of them is quite similar to the one we found at the Gray Star Sectors. I"ve deposited these virus samples into the gene inventory. I"ll conduct more research and a.n.a.lysis on them to find out if there is anything we can extract for our own use.”

“As for Tower, most of the items he possessed are the same as the Poison Master, except for the medical ingredients. There are three tubes of SS grade cell repair agents and a tube of sealed up medical ingredient that looks like powder. According to my sample a.n.a.lysis, it might be lava crystals. He must have been using a type of Modern Age martial arts civilization approach to strengthen his body.”

“Also, I"ve taken a sample of both their blood and deposited them into the gene inventory. Even though our current gene inventory"s restriction is limited and is not equipped to a.n.a.lyze both of their gene structure, we can wait until the restriction has been lifted to conduct immediate a.n.a.lysis.”

Gu Ding was quite happy with the spoils this round. The thought of obtaining two billion and three hundred million Universe Credits out of the blue cheered him up tremendously.

The day pa.s.sed quickly. The next morning, Neptune woke up Gu Ding and the others quite early to hold an emergency meeting. The theme of the meeting was the latest bounty on them that was just announced by Faye Cosmic Nation.

Everyone was sitting on the sofa in the main cabin, looking sleepy, while Neptune projected a video of the latest bounty announcement.

"Wanted Offender: Gu Ding"

"Gender: Male"

"Age: 15"

"Gene Level: Unknown"

"Highest Combat Strength: Rank 11"

"Special Ability: Taboo Energy – seal ability, able to seal away all ability of the enemy in an instant, ability limitations and conditions unknown"

"Other Abilities: Possesses special Ultimate Arts that is able to enhance his combat effectiveness by multiple times"

"Bounty Price: Eight hundred million Universe Credits"

"Latest Crime: Embroiled in a fight with members of the Dark Sectors on Jiew.a.n.g, resulting in the death of one Dark Sectors member while his crew members caused serious destruction to Camilia"s castle."

"Official a.s.sessment: A handsome and dangerous young man who possesses Taboo Energy!!"

"Wanted Offender: Tagore"

"Race: Cat (Similar)"

"Gender: Unknown"

"Age: Unknown (Estimated at three months by its size)"

"Gene Level: Unknown"

"Highest Combat Strength: Rank 12 and above"

"Special Ability: Unknown"

"Other Abilities: Devastating attacks with his claws that are capable of tearing up s.p.a.ce"

"Bounty Price: Five hundred million Universe Credits"

"Latest Crime: Gu Ding"s accomplice. Embroiled in a fight with members of the Dark Sectors on Jiew.a.n.g, killing another member of the Dark Sectors while causing serious destruction to Camilia"s castle."

"Official a.s.sessment: It"s not just an ordinary cat!!"

"Wanted Offender: Elsa"

"Gender: Female"

"Age: 16"

"Gene Level: Rank 10"

"Highest Combat Strength: Rank 12"

"Special Ability: Unknown self-reinforcement strength enhancement that is able to level up combat strength, time limitation is about ten minutes."

"Other Abilities: Possesses powerful close combat ability"

"Bounty Price: Two hundred million Universe Credits"

"Latest Crime: Gu Ding"s accomplice. Embroiled in a fight with members of the Dark Sectors on Jiew.a.n.g. The main perpetrator of causing serious destruction to Camilia"s castle."

"Official a.s.sessment: A pretty and violent young lady who possesses destructive combat strength!!"

"Wanted Offender: Biggie"

"Gender: Male"

"Age: 17"

"Gene Level: Rank 10"

"Highest Combat Strength: Rank 10"

"Special Ability: Unknown"

"Other Abilities: Possesses powerful swordsmans.h.i.+p"

"Bounty Price: One hundred million Universe Credits"

"Latest Crime: None"

"Official a.s.sessment: He is actually just a chef"

"Wanted Offender: Liliath"

"Gender: Female"

"Age: 14"

"Gene Level: Unknown"

"Highest Combat Strength: Unknown"

"Special Ability: Unknown"

"Other Abilities: Gunner"

"Bounty Price: Ten million Universe Credits"

"Latest Crime: None"

"Official a.s.sessment: Currently looks like she"s just a pretty girl"

"Wanted Offender: Robert"

"Race: Suspected to be of the Mechanical Tribe"

"Gender: Unknown"

"Age: Unknown"

"Combat Strength Level: Unknown"

"Special Ability: Unknown"

"Other Abilities: Able to build combat robots"

"Bounty Price: Ten million Universe Credits"

"Latest Crime: None"

"Official a.s.sessment: No one is aware when he joined Gu Ding"s crew…"

“Who was in charge of writing the official a.s.sessment? It looks like unofficial sarcastic comments,” Gu Ding read everyone"s a.s.sessment in detail and could not help asking the question.

“Faye Cosmic Nation has always maintained this style of a.s.sessment. They"ve always given everyone sarcastic a.s.sessments. No one knows who is in charge of writing them,” Liliath explained from the side.

“Hey, hey. Can both of you not change the topic? Every member of the crew has a bounty on them except for me. The total now is one billion six hundred and twenty million Universe Credits. This means that the next round of hunters sent after you by the Federal Government will be powerhouses who have Rank 11 combat strength and above,” Neptune emphasized the severity of the situation.

“We will be able to take care of the enemy if there aren"t many of them, but what if there are dozens of them or even hundreds of powerhouses with Rank 11 combat strength with a few Rank 12 leaders thrown into the mix? I believe they have already made such an arrangement right outside of Border River, waiting for us to walk right into their trap. That is why we should have a serious discussion on the routes we will be taking.”

“We can follow Camilia"s suggestion and lay low for a while. We can avoid administrative planets and sneak into Faye Cosmic Nation to avoid any confrontations with them,” Liliath still remembered Camilia"s message.

“However, Gu Ding informed me yesterday that he won"t be accepting Camilia"s suggestion…” Everyone turned to look at Gu Ding when Neptune said this.