The Highest Bounty

On planet Fister, Gu Ding"s stayed for only one night to enjoy some local food before leaving the port early the next morning.

Gu Ding"s crew was in the kitchen eating breakfast while he was drinking a gla.s.s of milca when a projection suddenly appeared from his wrist.w.a.tch.

The projection"s background was dark except for a large silver X that flipped across the screen.

“h.e.l.lo, everyone, I would like to introduce myself. My name is X, and I"m a member of the Monster Concentration Camp. I come in peace. My purpose is simply to invite Mr. Gu Ding to join our concentration camp.

“Let me introduce you to the Monster Concentration Camp. The so-called monsters in martial arts are ultimate geniuses who can fight across three or more ranks. Additionally, we also bring in talented people who can surpa.s.s their limits like hackers at my level. The Monster Concentration Camp was founded with the simple idea of inviting only real monsters to join us and lead the human race to a more glorious future through the collision and cooperation of all kinds of monsters.”

“Listening to the introduction earlier, it sounds very impressive. However, why did that last sentence come off like they"re some evil cult recruiting people?” Gu Ding could not help but quip.

“I feel the same way.” Lilliath, who was at the side nodded in agreement.

“I admit that the last sentence has been ridiculed more than once, but it"s really the reason why we were founded. In every era, the rise of each and every small tribe is inseparable from the existence of a monster within a small tribe. Hence, we thought of putting all the monsters together to fight for the establishment of a small tribe,” X continued to explain.

“I only wonder what good would it do me to join your organization?” Gu Ding did not want to beat around the bush and asked a very realistic question.

“First of all, everyone who joins gets a welcome gift. I can"t tell you what it is, but I can tell you that all of our members are 100% satisfied with our welcome gift. It hasn"t changed in the past, and it will not change now or in the future.”

“How many members do you have now?” Gu Ding could not help but ask.

“All internal information about our organization is confidential until you join because all the way until the moment you join us, we view you as a stranger.” X"s answer made Gu Ding shrug his shoulders.

“And what is there besides the welcome gift?” Gu Ding continued to ask.

“There are mission bonuses. At this point, it"s kind of like the Mercenary Alliance but our organization has no hierarchy and everyone is free and equal. As for the difficulty of the missions, we will have detailed descriptions about them and will give you strength level suggestions on whether to accept them or not. Of course, we"d only be suggesting them to you and it"s not mandatory to accept missions. We will not stand in the way of those whose strength do not reach the proposed requirements because we believe that all members have the ability to judge for themselves. Speaking of freedom and equality, I would also like to add that those who join our Monster Concentration Camps are free to join any other organization. You could join the Federation Army or be an Interstellar Pirate. You could also join Liberty Alliance or even the Dark Sectors.”

“In that case, how do you resolve conflicts that occur between different forces?” Lilliath who was at the side could not resist but raise her question.

“If both sides must have an outcome, then it"s simple–a fight in the ring. You could choose to fight to the death or you could choose not to fight to the death.” X gave a very simple solution. “The loser drops out of the Monster Concentration Camp.”

“Mission rewards, in addition to items, members will also be awarded reward points according to the difficulty of each mission. Reward points can be redeemed for goods, and almost more than 90% of the entire Cosmic Sea can be redeemed through our organization. Legendary Divine Connection Tomes, G.o.d items, and even complete deity bodies… Of course, the more valuable they are, the more points they"re working enquiring.”

“Other than missions, the other way to get points is through the Virtual Killing Ground. It is a game similar to the Virtual Arena that we developed separately from Skynet. On the other hand, it"s much more fun. You"ll definitely get a chance to play it in the future if you join. I"m one of the game creators. I think you"ll like it.”

“Summit is also a virtual game, but it"s held once a year and played in the same way as the Virtual Arena. The higher your ranking is in the compet.i.tion, the more points you"ll get.”

“Other than combat, there are non-combat ways for you to earn points. Help people solve questions and get paid with points. Such questions are all over the place. There are questions related to martial arts cultivation, pharmaceutical refining, mechanical manufacturing… Of course, such questions are usually hard to solve because everyone is a monster. According to my current statistics, only 17% of the total number of questions have been solved and the remaining 83% is unanswered. You could try your luck there if you"re interested. Or if you have any questions, you can put them up there. Of course, you"d have to pay us with points.”

“In addition to the welcome gifts, the mission rewards, and reward points, there are also referral rewards. If you find a monster and successfully invite them to join the Monster Concentration Camp, you will be rewarded accordingly. The higher their Monster Ranking, the more you"ll get in rewards. That"s pretty much about it. We do not restrict our members. You can stay off our network for tens of thousands of years. You won"t be removed for not contacting other members or not partic.i.p.ating in any of our activities. Of course, we will send you some mission recommendations from time to time, and you can always choose to ignore them–they won"t affect you at all. You can also log into the system and set it to refuse to accept recommended missions so that you will not receive any more spam. This is because we follow the principle of respecting the choices made by all our members. You can think about it before giving me an answer. My nomination is valid for ten days. If it expires, I won"t be able to make a second nomination. At that point, you can only wait for someone else to nominate you.”

“I"m in!” Gu Ding made his decision on the spot.

“You"re the fastest person to have accepted my invitation. I"m so glad that you can join the family. I will send you your ID card. It"s a virtual card that will allow you to access the system.” X then continued, “As for the welcome gift, since it is physical, you"ll have to get it yourself. I"ve taken a look at your current location. We still have about ten days to go before we reach Probrand. We have someone who can pa.s.s you the welcome gift near that planet. I"ll inform him to get there as soon as possible and have him wait for you there. You will not be disappointed with the welcome gift.”

“I"m looking forward to it, too.” Gu Ding did not really know what he wanted at that moment, but he was looking forward to it.

“Then I"ll leave you to it. Goodbye, everyone! As for the other super-intelligent guy, I"d love to invite you to join us, but I"m sure you"d turn me down anyway. Besides, it is my duty as a referrer to leave Gu Ding with a referral bonus.” X"s words were clearly addressed to Neptune. “When the opportunity comes, we can have a head-to-head contest.”

As soon as X finished, the projection immediately shut down.

“The d.a.m.ned thing!” Neptune cursed in rage. “How dare he invade my territory and challenge me!”

Gu Ding and his crew were amused. It was the first time they had seen someone humiliate Neptune. It meant that the guy called X was indeed a terrifying presence.

“I just slacked a little and didn"t change our original address on Cerule. He managed to track us with our original address,” Neptune said defiantly. Actually this method of his was equivalent to leaving a secret door behind for a few masters. The secret door would be locked, but as long as someone was able to unlock it, they could easily find them. Besides, when Neptune first locked the secret door, he still had restrictions on himself except for the lowest level. Since n.o.body had been able to unlock it all this while, he did not change the lock. Nevertheless, after this incident, Neptune realized that some humans were indeed strong enough to unlock his pa.s.swords.

“He needed something to prove that the men in Monster Concentration Camp are strong powerhouses. Not to mention, that he"s capable. That was why he chose to unlock it that way. Since sending the invitation to a public email address would not be enough to arouse my interest in joining. It would have been very likely for me to put the invitation on the back burner.” Gu Ding guessed X"s intentions.

“Here comes the ID card!” Neptune suddenly said and projected the card.

It was a black card with not a single word on it, not even a picture. The black card flashed a white ray of light and scanned the crowd until it finally locked onto Gu Ding. The white light dissipated and two pale blue beams shone directly into Gu Ding"s eyes as if they were taking down information. Moments later, the blue light dissipated, and the card projected a transparent screen in front of Gu Ding. It showed two, three-dimensional, dented palm prints. Gu Ding put his hands against them and the translucent, three-dimensional image immediately showed Gu Ding"s palm prints.

Having recorded his ident.i.ty, a robotic voice said, “Welcome aboard! Do you need to enter Monster Paradise?”

“Don"t enter it yet. I"ll see if I can sneak in without the card.” Neptune tried for nearly twenty minutes before he eventually gave up. “It seems like I can"t, Monster Paradise was also made through Skynet, but its security is extremely tight. If I were to break in by force, it would attract Skynet"s attention.”

“Let me go in and have a look. You can enter directly through the card"s link. I should be able to use my intelligent wrist.w.a.tch in there,” Gu Ding said and hit the confirm b.u.t.ton.