The Highest Bounty

Although Gu Ding"s injuries were not completely healed, he still carried Liliath and rushed to the s.p.a.ce dock before dark.

The moment Gu Ding saw the s.p.a.ce dock, he was completely shocked.

The s.p.a.ce dock was an endless abyss with hundreds of s.p.a.cecraft of various styles loaded onto the enormous staging area. However, most of them were damaged and unrecognizable from their original models. The ones that were slightly better off definitely had seen better days with obvious signs of strong impacts all over the s.p.a.cecrafts. 

In the staging area, there were several monsters bigger than the ones they had encountered before, roaming around the place and hitting the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps from time to time. Some of them looked like they were playing and some looked like they were taking out their anger on the s.p.a.cecraft. However, the strangest thing of all was that there were no fights between any of them. 

Gu Ding lowered his body and carried Liliath toward the back of a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p to hide. The two of them were on the edge of the staging area, far away from the giant beasts.

"It"s still not safe enough here," Liliath said with a low voice, obviously worried.

"I know, we have to find a place that"ll allow us to spend the night safely," Gu Ding nodded and said in a hushed voice.

Neptune"s voice quickly interjected, "Although my detection range is only 100 meters, I can estimate the movement trajectory of those monsters through your visual inspections. There are a total of five monsters in this staging area, and all of them are completely blocking off the gate of the s.p.a.ce dock. Once one of them is provoked, the other four will surely be attracted. They seem to not be fighting with each other, nor are they chasing the other monsters. The only explanation is that there"s a monster much stronger than them that"s preventing them from fighting each other, which has possibly ordered them to guard the place. This shows that the one hidden behind the scenes has somehow evolved enough intelligence to work this out."

"The video surveillance in the s.p.a.ce dock is all damaged, but the one behind all this wasn"t smart enough to turn off the fire controls. So, I can still see its movement through the fire control room." Suddenly, Neptune"s tone became serious. "I can only make a rough judgment on the strength of this guy through my estimation, and I"m guessing that this guy"s at least comparable to a Rank 6 Gene Body. If he finds you and the girl, you guys have basically 0 chance of survival."

"Why did the monster that"s occupying the s.p.a.ce dock send so many monsters to guard the place? Do you think it"s trying to leave this planet?" Gu Ding came up with an idea that scared himself as he entered the question into his wrist.w.a.tch.

"From the data I"ve received so far, that seems to be the case. It"s currently repairing a huge s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p that may be able to take these big guys along with it," Neptune said and replied with a picture.

When Gu Ding saw the picture, he was stunned. The picture was of a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p that no longer looked like it was an ordinary civilian s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, but an a.s.sault s.p.a.ce cruiser.

a.s.sault type s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were graded with raptor names. In ascending order, its grades were Fledglings, Purple Martins, Black Crows, Grey-Faced Buzzards, White Gyrfalcons, Silver Hawks, Golden Eagles, Giant Rocs, to the highest of the nine grades, the Phoenix. 

Gu Ding"s previous purchase, the Kittyhawk Model, was one of the Fledgling grade s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps. Although it was considered an a.s.sault-type s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, it was one of the lower-tiered attack power types. On the other hand, the huge s.p.a.cecraft in the picture shown to him was one of the most powerful types of Grey-faced Buzzard grade s.p.a.ce cruisers. A s.p.a.cecraft of that caliber was extremely destructive and could easily destroy a city with a population of tens of millions.

Gu Ding, who had studied battles.h.i.+p command in the Military Academy, could tell the quality of that specific s.p.a.cecraft at a glance. After he stared at the picture for a while, he noticed something strange. "How come there"s an extra artillery fixed onto it? Did the guy retrofit the s.h.i.+p itself?"

"Yes, it"s a type of antimatter artillery cannon. This guy was probably a highly intelligent weapon engineer before he got infected with the virus. The extra artillery was added by it, and it even made sure the nuclear reactor for the antimatter was installed," All the information about the guy that was hidden on the Internet has been dug out and scanned through by Neptune. So much so that Neptune understood the entire process of repairing that s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.

"In this case, the attack power of this s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p definitely exceeds the level of a White Gyrfalcon grade s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Antimatter artillery can easily wipe out a country with a surface area of a million square kilometers. It seems that he"s not merely a mad scientist, he"s also a mad warlord," Gu Ding frowned. "He must never be allowed to leave this place in that s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. I"ll either have to destroy or steal it from him before he does so."

"Are you crazy ?!" Neptune felt that Gu Ding was still not understanding the situation at hand. "You"ll be dead the moment he catches you. And that girl? She"ll be buried in the grave along with you. "

"Of course I"m not attacking him now," Gu Ding seemed to have made up his mind. "Can you check if there are any nearby s.p.a.cecraft that still have a working internal force field s.h.i.+eld? One that"s able to isolate changes in energy fluctuations."

"Are you really thinking about leveling up in such a dangerous place?" When Neptune heard Gu Ding"s question, he instantly knew what he was up to.

"Is there a single safe place on this entire planet?" Gu Ding asked rhetorically.

Neptune wanted to prove him wrong by suggesting that the volcano they were previously at was a safer place, but he knew they had better things to do than argue. 

Gu Ding had already come all the way to this place, so convincing him to secretly leave it again was not going to be an easy task. All they had to do was find a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p with a power system that had not suffered too much damage and also had enough power to switch the energy s.h.i.+eld back on. They just had to sneak in, turn on the energy s.h.i.+eld, and turn on the power equipment. Even if they were attacked by the monsters, a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p with enough energy s.h.i.+eld and power that could take off would be sufficient. However, Neptune kept quiet because he knew Gu Ding had already made up his mind.

After a quick scan of all the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps in the staging area, Neptune was shocked to find that the power systems of all the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were completely destroyed. None of them had enough power to take off, which meant that they had to go along with Gu Ding"s idea. Gu Ding did not want to run off helplessly, or, in other words, he wanted to fight the guy and seize the Grey-Faced Buzzard grade s.p.a.ce cruiser for himself.

"At your eleven o"clock, the black s.p.a.cecraft one hundred and twenty meters away still has a working s.h.i.+elding system. It has enough energy to sustain the force field for around two hours," Neptune informed Gu Ding of the results of his scan. "Follow my instructions. Firstly, move toward your left and go below the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p…"

Gu Ding carried Liliath on his shoulders once more, then bent over and moved toward his left...

Gu Ding stopped in his tracks after walking one hundred and twenty meters. It took him more than ten minutes to get to the spot.

After he climbed onto the s.p.a.cecraft secretly, Gu Ding ran toward the cabin section with Liliath on his back.

Neptune got ahold of the entire s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p"s controls. When he opened the cabin doors, a slight click sounded. At the same time, a giant beast looked in their direction.

With Liliath still on his back, Gu Ding immediately rushed in and shut the door. Although the giant beast heard the sound, it could only guess the general direction of the sound but not the specific location. Slowly, it wandered toward the source of the sound...