The Highest Bounty

Pearson would never forget how the young man humiliated him in front of so many people at the Federation Court a few months ago. Gu Ding had punched him until his nose could not stop bleeding. It was a terrible memory from a portion of his life that could not be erased. Ever since the incident, Pearson felt that his colleagues, subordinates, and even the criminals in the prison were always looking at him with a sarcastic notion in their eyes.

Even after Gu Ding left Cerule, Pearson heard news about him every once in a while. It was always about Gu Ding creating trouble in some random location and how much bigger his bounty was getting. It gave Pearson a feeling that the young man was a nightmare he would never be able to get rid of. He would often dream about Gu Ding coming after him to take his life, and he would always be awakened by Gu Ding"s smile that frightened him to the core.

That was why he had chosen to leave Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation and applied for immigration to Faye Cosmic Nation. He managed to successfully become a citizen of Faye Cosmic Nation and secure a job at a prison because he had a relatively influential relative in Faye Cosmic Nation. It has to be said that the prison he managed to land a job in was the best prison in Faye Cosmic Nation.

Initially, he thought that he would no longer hear about any news regarding Gu Ding at Faye Cosmic Nation. Even though one had to pa.s.s by it to get to the Cosmic Sea, Faye Cosmic Nation and Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation were as different as the sea and a pond. Gu Ding was a big fish in a pond, but if he entered the sea, he would be nothing more than a baby shrimp. A big fish could attract attention by creating a huge storm in a pond. Contrarily, how could a baby shrimp create any kind of storm in the vast sea?

Pearson was not expecting to hear news about Gu Ding causing trouble in Border River just after a few days of arriving at Faye Cosmic Nation. Pearson had not even completed his immigration application at the time. It was not normal for Interstellar Pirates to kill people from the Dark Sectors. Moreover, people like Pearson who worked in prisons were aware of what kind of organization the Dark Sectors was.

Very soon, after Pearson had gotten himself a job at the prison, his superior informed him on his first day of work, “Many Interstellar Pirates have been coming in from Border River recently. The most well-known among them is Gu Ding. It"s possible that his primary target is our prison. I need everyone to be vigilant and defend this prison no matter what. Take immediate action the moment you notice anyone suspicious.”

“Gu Ding"s target is this prison…” Pearson"s mind was a little befuddled over it. He was still trying to digest the piece of information when he was hosting Gu Ding as a visitor. Even when Gu Ding was chatting with Perrett, Pearson"s mind was filled with news about Gu Ding, and he was not really listening to their conversation.

When Gu Ding stood up and was about to leave, that wide smile on his face merged perfectly with the memory Pearson had in his mind. He cried out madly with an almost hysterical expression, “You"re really Gu Ding!”

The other prison guard immediately sounded the alarm, and in no time, a loud ring could be heard throughout the prison.

Gu Ding was about to do something when Neptune stopped him. “Don"t be rash. Pearson"s mental condition does not look stable. The moment you take action, your ident.i.ty will be revealed completely.”

“Hey, is something wrong with him? Do I look like Gu Ding in any way?” Gu Ding shouted at the other prison guard.

“Stay right where you are. The entire prison is currently under high alert, and there is no way for you to leave. Even though I have no idea why my new colleague is reacting this way, we will not overlook anything suspicious. We will bring in someone else immediately and reexamine your ident.i.ty. If there is nothing wrong with you, we guarantee that you"ll be able to leave safely.” The prison guard stood by the door and watched Gu Ding warily. He looked very experienced.

“It sounds like they think you"re a pretty extraordinary guy,” Perrett was still sitting in his chair casually. His hands and legs were restricted by anti-magic chains.

“I made thorough preparations pertaining to your persona"s details. There should not be any problems with the electronic evaluation. All you need to do is answer their questions in a low voice. As for questions you find yourself unable to answer, just repeat after me. You should act like Phillis now, he"s twenty-one years old this year,” Neptune reminded Gu Ding in his ear.

Gu Ding calmed down his nerves and returned to sit in his chair. “Gu Ding is a newcomer who debuted less than a year ago. He has a bounty of eight hundred million Universe Credits. That prison guard obviously has the wrong person.”

“Half a year and eight hundred million Universe Credits. He sounds like a pretty incredible guy. What about you?” There was a meaningful smile on Perrett"s face.

“I"m just a normal citizen from Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation,” Gu Ding said as he lifted his hands.

The corners of Perrett"s lips curved upward when he heard this. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Gu Ding. After some time, he shouted at the prison guard that was at the door, “Brother, can you let me take a look at Gu Ding"s picture?”

“What are you planning, 073925?” The prison guard frowned.

“Nothing. I just want to see if they look alike. My eyes have always been sharp, I can help you tell if he"s Gu Ding or not.” Perrett was obviously very familiar and comfortable with the prison. He sounded quite confident and bold with his words.

The prison guard hesitated but finally chose to project Gu Ding"s wanted notice in the end.

Gu Ding was smiling widely in the picture of the wanted notice.

Perret laughed as he turned to look at Gu Ding. “That"s a really bright smile. This is the first time I"ve seen someone with such a wide smile on a wanted notice. Nevertheless, that guy looks nothing like you.”

“I told them they"re mistaken.” Gu Ding looked at Pearson. The fatty was paralyzed on the floor and was muttering.

“That prison guard looks like he is having a mental meltdown.”

“I don"t know what that guy named Gu Ding did to him, but he"s repeating the words "He is Gu Ding" over and over again.” Perrett could hear Pearson quite clearly as he was less than three meters away from him.

It was not long before fully armed prison guards rushed into the room and surrounded Gu Ding. Gu Ding cooperated and raised both his hands.

The woman in gla.s.ses from before walked into the room from behind the crowd. “What"s going on, Kermit?”

The prison guard who had brought Perrett into the room gave her a simple explanation of what had transpired.

“Are you telling me that Pearson suddenly pointed at him and accused him of being Gu Ding? And things are now like this?” The woman pushed her gla.s.ses higher up her nose as her gaze fell on Pearson.

“This man is obviously having a mental breakdown. Take him to the infirmary and get a psychiatrist to take a look at him.”

Then, she turned to Perrett. “Get another person here to take 073925 to where he belongs.”

“As for the rest of you, please take this visitor to the safety inspection room. Kermit, come with me,” the woman in gla.s.ses said as she walked toward Gu Ding.

“I"m sorry about this, but security is somewhat tight during this period. We would like your cooperation to conduct a reexamination. If there are no problems with the results of the reexamination, we will let you go immediately.”

“Let"s speed things up, shall we? How long will it take?” Gu Ding asked expressionlessly.

“If things go smoothly, the quickest we can finish this is in half an hour. Normally, it does not last more than an hour.” The woman in gla.s.ses had a calm look on her face.

She nodded toward the prison guards who were fully armed. “Go ahead.”

Gu Ding was quickly brought to the so-called safety inspection room.

A young doctor scanned both his irises and the palm prints of both his hands. The security check was much more detailed compared to when Gu Ding had arrived to visit the prison.

“We will send your irises and palm prints to Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation and get their help to compare the data. It normally takes about three minutes for the results of the scans to come out. On the other hand, they usually reply within five minutes. Once we get their reply, we"ll be able to find out who you are,” the doctor explained.

Gu Ding was not worried at all because he knew Neptune had taken care of everything.

It was around five minutes later that the doctor received a reply that confirmed Gu Ding"s ident.i.ty.

"Name: Phillis"

"Gender: Male"

"Age: 21"

"Gene Level: Rank 5"

"Special Ability…"

This time, the information that came attached to the reply included Phillis" record from young until the present. Among the information included was which hospitals he had visited whenever he was sick and what medication had been prescribed to him before. Every single detail was there.

The doctor took a quick look and nodded. “From the looks of it, there aren"t any problems. I"ll forward this information to my colleagues in the examination department. They will question you about some personal information as per normal procedure. All you need to do is answer honestly. Don"t hold back your answers just because you feel embarra.s.sed about some questions because all your information is in black and white, and they know everything about you. If the answers you give differ from the information they have, it will raise suspicions.”

The young doctor pressed a b.u.t.ton on his intelligent wrist.w.a.tch after saying this, and a door opened in the safety inspection room. A team of fully armed prison guards appeared once again and took Gu Ding to a room downstairs.

In the room were two chairs and a table.

A fierce-looking prison guard sat across the table from Gu Ding. He could be seen flipping through information regarding Phillis. Nevertheless, the back of the information that was being projected was tinted and all Gu Ding could see from his perspective was a squarish black shadow. He could not see any words at all.

The prison guard continued to read about information concerning Phillis for about ten minutes. He did not ask a single question during that time. Meanwhile, Gu Ding sat where he was with his eyes close, much like an old monk sitting still. There was not a single trace of nervousness in him.

There was a piece of black gla.s.s on the wall of the examination room. Gu Ding knew that it was a one-way mirror. When viewed from the outside, it was a normal piece of transparent gla.s.s that allowed anyone to see clearly what was happening in the examination room. Besides that, there were cameras inside the examination room that did not have any blind spots.

“You don"t look nervous at all,” the fierce-looking prison guard finally said something. The first thing he brought up had nothing to do with any information on Phillis.

“Why would I be nervous? That lady in gla.s.ses told me that I"ll be released once you"ve made surethat there is no problem with my ident.i.ty. Is that not the case?” Gu Ding questioned in return.

“Name?” The fierce-looking man narrowed his eyes and asked suddenly.

“Phillis.”

“Age?”

“Twenty-one years old.”

“Date of birth?”

“Federation Era Year 7843387, Rangu Ephemeris November 8th.”

“Ident.i.ty number?”

“LTRG7843387Y11M08D005927.”

“Father"s name?”

“Conan Doyle.”

“Mother"s name?”

“Audrey.”

“Father"s occupation?”

“Novelist, scriptwriter.”

“Mother"s occupation?”

“Actress.”

“What"s the date of your father"s death anniversary?”