The Highest Bounty

Noami was looking at a message that the Army had just sent to the port. The message had come from Leoben Prison"s Warden, Thorso.

(A riot has broken out in Leoben Prison, there might be fugitives. Besides that, Gu Ding has arrived in Jerr and is disguised as someone else as shown in the photo. He might change his disguise. Put the port on lockdown to prevent him and other prison fugitives from escaping.)

When Noami saw the young, scarred-face man in the photo, she was shocked. “How could it be him? No wonder he didn"t want to talk all the way. He was afraid that I"d recognize him through his voice…”

A few minutes later, a dynamic youth with dark brown hair and blue eyes could be seen outside the port. The person was wearing a white T-s.h.i.+rt and black jeans. His looked drew the attention of many pa.s.sersby.

“Isn"t this a little too handsome, Neptune? Why do I feel like men and women are looking at me?” Gu Ding muttered under his breath.

“I think that the dynamic youth"s face is more toward keeping your character, so you can just play your part. Besides, that face could get a lot of people to ignore your voice. It"s a good disguise,” Neptune explained.

Just then, a luscious woman standing next to Gu Ding approached him and accosted him, “Are you lost, pretty boy?”

“What happened to the port, sister? Why are there so many people stuck here?” Gu Ding asked as he saw the crowd nearby.

“The Army b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are putting the port under lockdown. All s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps cannot enter or leave Jerr.” The woman grumbled.

“Why are they putting the port under lockdown? Did they say why?” Gu Ding asked, wondering if he was the cause for the port"s lockdown.

“They said they"ve just received a message from Leoben Prison that there might be fugitives from prison. The port will be put on temporary lockdown to prevent the fugitives from leaving the planet,” the woman said angrily.

“Did they say how long the lockdown will last?” Gu Ding asked.

“No, but port lockdowns usually don"t take too long. They normally only last for a few hours or at most a day. If you don"t have a place to stay, pretty boy, I do…” The woman said and winked at Gu Ding.

Just then, a woman in a military uniform broke through the crowd and came right up to Gu Ding. “Come with us.”

“Why?” Gu Ding immediately asked as the woman turned out to be Noami, the person whom he had met on the cruise s.h.i.+p earlier.

“We suspect that you have something to do with the prison break incident,” Noami said as she glanced coldly at the voluptuously dressed woman.

“I have nothing to do with him. We just had a casual chat.” The woman waved her hands.

Gu Ding hesitated a little but then heard Neptune"s voice in his ear, “Don"t worry, she"s just looking for an excuse to bail you out. That woman is a hooker.”

“All right.” Gu Ding nodded and followed after Noami.

Noami led him into the crowd. “You can go now. I just saw that hooker hara.s.sing you. Don"t talk to strangers and don"t follow strangers home, kid.”

“Oh, thank you.” Gu Ding grinned and showed his pearly whites. They made his smile seem brighter. Noami was instantly killed by Gu Ding"s smile; it left her looking a little demented.

“Do you mind if I ask how long the Army plans to keep the port on lockdown?” Gu Ding thought that it would be better to ask Noami directly.

“Ah? You… What did you say?” Noami did not hear Gu Ding"s question at all.

“I"m asking how long you are planning to keep the port on lockdown this time.”

“I"m not sure about that. It depends on how long it will take the prison to resolve the riot. Not to mention, we have to confirm whether Gu Ding is on this planet…” As soon as Noami finished speaking, she realized what she had leaked. “These are not things I should tell people. Just ignore what I said and don"t tell anyone else.”

“Well… Thank you, then.” Gu Ding once again showed her his pearly whites and Noami fell into a daze. By the time she recovered, Gu Ding was gone.

“Boss lady, pretty good. You managed to hook up with such a handsome young man.” A strong man approached her and gave her a thumbs-up sign.

“King Kong, you want to die, don"t you?” Noami, who looked a little adorable at first, suddenly turned into a stone-cold lady.

“Boss lady, now I know why you can"t find a boyfriend.” Just then, another bespectacled man approached them. “Your standards are too high. Even a big man like me has to admit that I was almost killed instantly by the young boy"s smile. Boss lady, if you"re looking for a man of such standard, you won"t find more than two digits of them in the entire Cosmic Sea.”

“What does it have to do with you bachelors if I can"t find a man?” Noami suddenly snapped. “Get the h.e.l.l out of here and get to work!”

“The regular army has already put the port under lockdown. Isn"t it our mission to sit on the bench and wait for the fugitives or Gu Ding"s crew members to show up?” The strong man nicknamed King Kong once again changed the subject. “By the way, boss lady, did you get the boy"s contact number?”

“Get your head, G-O! Go!” The mushroom-haired Noami almost went ballistic.

“I guess you didn"t. If not, you wouldn"t be so grumpy. From a psychological point of view, King Kong, your question just happened to touch boss lady"s sore spot. That"s why boss lady is now in this irritable mood. If she had gotten his number, her reaction would have been "None of your d.a.m.n business!" Then, she would have rolled her eyes at you.” The bespectacled man adjusted his gla.s.ses as he a.n.a.lyzed the situation.

“Four eyes, I"ve warned you many times not to a.n.a.lyze me. If not, I will dig your eyes out!” Noami went completely ballistic as she pounced on the bespectacled man.

“Don"t be so impulsive, boss lady.” She was immediately grabbed from behind by King Kong who secured her hands.

“Alright, to calm you down, I"ll get that kid"s contact number for you,” the bespectacled man said and immediately disappeared on the spot.

The bespectacled man searched all around the port but could not find any traces of Gu Ding. “That boy disappeared so quickly. No, I can"t go back like this. I have nothing to tell boss lady. Looks like the only way to find him is to get help from Port Authority. I"ll get them to pull up videos and find him.”

He thought for a moment and headed straight for the Port Authority"s office.

At the gate of the Port Authority"s building, he projected his work ID.

“Army, Hunter, Gla.s.s.”

“What do you need us for, my Lord?” A half-bald, middle-aged man obsequiously came forward.

Hunters were known by the rest of the Federal Government as the cream of the crop, a focus camp for geniuses. In other words, even a normal member was on par with a lieutenant general, and their strength was even more formidable.

“Where is your monitoring room? I need to look up videos of someone.” Their flattery gave Gla.s.s more authority to handle private matters.

“I"ll show you.”

Less than three minutes later, Gla.s.s followed the man into the monitoring room.

“I need to check a video from twenty minutes ago to find someone,” Gla.s.s stated his intention. “He should be standing under camera number thirty-six.”

The crew immediately brought up the video from camera number thirty-six and adjusted the time to twenty minutes prior.

Five minutes into the video, Gla.s.s seemed dumbfounded as he watched the footage. “How could this be? Is the camera broken?”

“What"s wrong with the video, my Lord?” the middle-aged man could not help but ask.

“Let"s look at camera number thirty-four, thirty minutes ago.” Gla.s.s" face was grave. If the camera was not broken, it would mean that the ident.i.ty of the extremely handsome youth was…

The video from camera number thirty-four was quickly brought up, and Gla.s.s" face turned dark very quickly. “Copy these two videos for me and send them to my email.”

“There"s nothing wrong with these two videos, it"s just two women talking to themselves,” the middle-aged man muttered puzzledly. Nevertheless, he instructed the staff to copy the videos and send them to Gla.s.s.

Gla.s.s instantly disappeared from the monitoring room after getting the videos. Then, with a few Silent Steps, he appeared in front of Noami.

“You look really pale. You probably couldn"t find him and failed to get his contact number.” King Kong felt nervous for his colleague, he guessed that boss lady was going to freak out again.

“Boss lady, that kid"s Gu Ding!” Upong hearing Gla.s.s" words, Noemi thought that she had misheard him.

“What did you say?”

“I looked around the port just now, and I couldn"t find him. I was a little embarra.s.sed to come back, so I went to Port Authority to check the surveillance footage to see which direction he went. It turns out that he wasn"t caught by any of the cameras,” Gla.s.s said as he projected the two videos he had just watched himself.

The first of the two videos showed a hooker accosting someone. However, instead of Gu Ding, it looked like the stripper was talking to herself. In the second video, Noami was supposed to be seen talking to Gu Ding in the crowd. However, in the video, Noami was seen talking to herself, and there was no one in front of her.

“Is he really Gu Ding? !” Noami found it a little hard to believe.

“Boss lady, we"ve all seen Gu Ding"s profile. He can indeed do things like make himself disappear from videos. Although outsiders do not know what exactly happened in the Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation"s incident on Great Divinity, such information is publicly available to us. We also know that not a single surveillance tool on a planet can capture him. He and his crew are invisible to all surveillance tools on a planet. If you combine this with the message Thorso sent a little over half an hour ago, Gu Ding was disguised as someone else, and he could have possibly changed his disguise. The odds of him being Gu Ding are more than 90%. There"s also a 10% chance that he"s another highly skilled hacker. However, to appear on the same planet as Gu Ding, wouldn"t that be too much of a coincidence?” Gla.s.s went straight to the point with his a.n.a.lysis.

“If he reappears, whether or not he"s Gu Ding, go after him with all your might. We"ll talk more after we catch him.” Noami made up her mind quickly.