The Highest Bounty

“Welcome to Monster Paradise, I wish you a good time here!”

Gu Ding found himself standing at the exit of the starport. A line of text floated past the top of the port"s entrance, and he heard a sweet female voice.

“This so-called Monster Paradise is not entirely a virtual planet, is it? Isn"t it too lavish?!” Gu Ding could not help but exclaim. It was no wonder he was surprised. The Virtual Arena was merely a city, and the Hermean Alliance was merely a city as well. Building a virtual planet obviously required a lot more work compared to building a city.

“It really is a whole planet here,” Neptune"s voice was soon heard in Gu Ding"s ear. He had entered through Gu Ding"s ID card.

“Are you interested in earning some points? My Databank isn"t restricted so much anymore, and I should be able to answer most of your questions.” Neptune still sounded a little mad. Having been beaten by X once, he wanted to make some trouble.

Gu Ding, of course, agreed. He wanted to score points in exchange for some rare materials.

Under Neptune"s guidance, Gu Ding soon arrived in front of a huge tower with unique designs.

Two words were written on the huge tower"s plaque: “Asking Tower”.

“Why does it feel like an ancient building?” Gu Ding could not resist letting out a quip as he stepped into the tower.

On the first floor, there was no one but a maiden at the door.

“h.e.l.lo, may I help you?” A nice-looking girl guide came over.

“I want to know how to solve questions,” Gu Ding asked.

“Gu Ding, she"s not a real person. She"s only a virtual character here, sort of like an NPC in games.” With only once glance, Neptune saw through the maiden"s true ident.i.ty.

“That"s easy. Simply connect your intelligent wrist.w.a.tch"s network to the Asking Tower"s first floor to see the questions. If you have any questions about cultivation, you can also send them in directly,” the virtual girl guide explained.

“Do I have to come to this Asking Tower every time I want to solve a question?” Gu Ding found the setting inconvenient.

“Only new users who have not yet activated the function need to do it in person. Each time you activate a function, your intelligent wrist.w.a.tch will record it. After that, you can just use it directly through your intelligent wrist.w.a.tch. Not only do you have to activate the Asking Tower"s function, but you"ll have to activate other functions before using them. This is to familiarize everyone with Monster Paradise,” the girl guide explained.

“I see!” Gu Ding nodded. Neptune connected to Asking Tower"s network which showed questions that were only below demiG.o.d level. Gu Ding could not help but ask, “Can you see demiG.o.d level queries without having demiG.o.d level strength?”

“The Asking Tower"s first floor is filled with demiG.o.d level questions, you"ll have to connect to the second floor of the network to see demiG.o.d level questions. Your access to the second level is restricted if your combat effectiveness is below demiG.o.d level. You must answer at least three questions correctly on the first level before the restriction is automatically lifted. By then, you won"t have to come to the second floor here to reactivate it. You can check the questions on the second floor directly through your intelligent wrist.w.a.tch. If you are a powerhouse with demiG.o.d combat effectiveness, you must go to the Asking Tower and smash the barrier door to the second floor with your combat effectiveness. Then, go up to the second floor and reactivate the second floor"s network.”

Gu Ding nodded helplessly upon hearing the explanation. In his opinion, the number of reward points was not high since the questions were below demiG.o.d level. He tapped on the screen of his wrist.w.a.tch to project a question.

At the top of the page was a list that Gu Ding could see very clearly. It was a ranking of outstanding questions in terms of compensation. The first question had the highest compensation with up to three thousand points. Then, it went down to two thousand and eight hundred, two thousand and seven hundred, two thousand and five hundred… A total of ten questions were listed on the ranking, with the lowest pay being one thousand and eight hundred.

“Are points that worthless?” Gu Ding muttered under his breath.

The girl guide overheard his remark and immediately explained, “In Monster Paradise, one point is equivalent to a million Universe Credits in the real world.”

Neptune also added. “It"s not that the points are worthless, the missions here are ranked. 1-star missions only reward one to ten points at a time, while 2-star missions reward ten to one hundred points. 3-star missions are recommended for people who are at least demiG.o.ds. Their reward points range from one hundred to one thousand points. Therefore, points are very difficult to earn with people who are weaker than demiG.o.ds. With your current strength, you can only do 2-star missions with less than fifty points. If you intend to acc.u.mulate thousands of points, you"ll need to do at least twenty missions. Even if you can complete a mission every three days, it"ll take you at least two months to complete twenty missions. At such a pace, you may end up doing nothing else for the rest of the year. Even if you take on more than one hundred tasks, you"d only acc.u.mulate five thousand points, and that"s if you don"t use any of the points. Actually, when I look at the frequency at which people take on missions, the number of people who take on missions more than ten times a year is very low–less than 3%. If you do it ten times a year, it would take you at least six years to acc.u.mulate three thousand points.”

After listening to Neptune"s calculations, Gu Ding realized how difficult it was to earn points.

“I think the people who"ve placed these questions have basically taken out all their a.s.sets, which is why there are so many questions offering thousands of points,” Neptune went on to explain, “Alright, let"s stop wasting our time talking nonsense. I"ll start solving the questions, while you can look around yourself.”

Gu Ding looked at the projection of questions. The first question on the compensation ranking leaderboard was: “Which gene chain is the special ability (Water Split-body) located in, and what is the sequence number of its location?”

When the girl guide saw Gu Ding beginning to solve questions, she returned to her original position and once again looked at the doorway.

Gu Ding watched as Neptune gave the first question his answer: Third, NM_011819932.

Then, Gu Ding looked at the second question which was an extremely complex mathematical equation. He had no idea what it meant.

Neptune seemed to notice his gaze, and as he answered the question, he explained to Gu Ding, “It"s an equation of unstable variables used to make a special compound metal. His equation is not complete, so I will supplement it.”

In less than twenty seconds, the second question was solved.

Then, Gu Ding turned to the third question. The third question was about refining medicine. The questioner provided a complete list of medicinal materials, and the question was: “I"m afraid I can"t tell you how the ingredients are mixed and what the medicine is. However, the failure rate in refining this medicine is extremely high. How do I solve this problem?”

“He did not mention the ratio of the materials and the reason for failure. Who on Earth can solve this?” Gu Ding was speechless at the question. After all, he studied pharmacy as well. However, in his opinion, the question lacked too much information and he had no way to judge the refining process. Not to mention, the reason for its failure. Naturally, he could not improve the refining success rate.

However, Neptune was able to give a clear answer directly: The reason for the high failure rate is the low degree of fusion of Red Fire Crystals with other materials. Just replace the Red Fire Crystals in the material list with genebeast energy crystals which have fire properties.

Neptune went through each question one after another. The ten questions on the ranking list were all answered in less than ten minutes, leaving Gu Ding in awe.

However, that was not the end of it. Neptune had no intention of stopping. He seemed addicted to the quiz game.

Gu Ding was also interested in many of the questions, so he indulged in it with Neptune and completely lost track of time.

In a lab, a girl suddenly looked down at the intelligent ring on her finger. She had the ring on her left hand, and all five of her fingers had different colored nails. In fact, the nails on her other hand were also in different colors. “Hmm, that"s interesting… Someone managed to answer last year"s question?” She sounded like a half-grown girl.

She stretched out her right index finger, and her fingernail suddenly lengthened. She p.r.i.c.ked her left thumb and squeezed out a drop of blood that was purple.

She dripped a drop of blood onto a petri dish and began to observe it with a microscope. After observing it for a while, she took out a pile of tools and began to bury herself in her work.

About half an hour later, she suddenly looked up. “How can it be? That guy is right. That"s indeed the gene serial number for Water Split-body. How did he know that?”

Hearing the “ding”, Gu Ding came to his senses. On the other hand, Neptune awakened from his obsession.

“What was that noise?” Gu Ding looked around but saw nothing.

“A questioner just confirmed that our answer was correct.” Neptune looked at it. It seems like the system makes a ringing sound each time an answer is confirmed to be correct. “The first question on the ranking has been confirmed to be correct by the questioner.”

“That means, we got three thousand points!” Gu Ding grinned.

“Let"s call it a day. In half an hour, I"ve managed to answer thirty-seven questions. The lowest reward is seven hundred points. By my reckoning, our total compensation amounts up to 56700 points. With this many points, according to what I just calculated for you, with your current strength, it would have taken you more than a thousand missions to save enough. Even if you do nothing and take on missions for a year, you"d only be able to finish a hundred of them. It would take you eleven years to save that much.”

“Are we going to continue tomorrow? I"m sure we can go straight to the second floor tomorrow,” Gu Ding asked.

“Forget tomorrow. You"ve got enough points now. Besides, although we answered those questions anonymously, the organization"s top management should know that it was us. It"s just that by answering questions that are below demiG.o.d level, the best that they can think of is that I am highly knowledgeable. Additionally, I have an ancient civilization"s Databank that even Skynet would envy.” Neptune was still unsure of the organization"s background, so he planned on remaining cautious.

“Alright, after we get our points tomorrow, we"ll see what items the others mightneed. Then, we"ll hang around the trade center. Only a little over half an hour has pa.s.sed since breakfast. We still have a whole day left for cultivation…”