The Highest Bounty

It did not come as a surprise to the little old man when Gu Ding returned to the appraisal room. All he did was climb onto the desk, sitting atop it with his legs crossed. He folded his arms in front of his chest and directed his words at Gu Ding, “Only two types of people come looking for me. One, are those who are looking to add onto their existing list of auctioned items. The other, are those who are trying to cancel a trade they made with me. I"m guessing you would be the former.”

“How do you know I"m not here to cancel my trade with you?” Gu Ding did not immediately reveal his reason for being there and asked this question instead.

“Simple. Because these things from the Witch Tribe are of no use to you. Selling them would be the wisest choice. Besides, you were pretty satisfied with the estimated price I reported. This further suggests that you won"t be canceling this trade anytime soon,” the little old man answered with full confidence.

“Fine. Register this for me as well!” Gu Ding brought out a Witch Tribe staff.

“Are you sure you want to sell this?” The little old man frowned slightly at the staff. He had informed Gu Ding previously that it would not be worth it to auction this item here.

“I"m sure of it,” Gu Ding had discussed this over with Neptune before. The staff was of no use to him and his crew. The best option they had, was trading it for that ax.

“You should be aware that no one else will be able to offer a higher estimation than me if you auction this here,” the little old man wanted to make it absolutely clear.

“I understand!” Gu Ding nodded. There was a vast difference between a 2-star Cosmic Nation and a 5-star Cosmic Nation. Even if they were on par in terms of power, there was still a huge wealth gap between the two. That staff would have gotten a minimum price of ten billion Universe Credits in a 5-star Cosmic Nation. However, in a 2-star Cosmic Nation, it might be a challenge to even get a final price of more than ten billion Universe Credits at the auction.

“Why did you suddenly change your mind and decide to sell this so urgently?” The little old man felt that Ding Gu must have stumbled upon new information which prompted him to make this decision.

“I suddenly realized that I don"t have enough money with me. So, I decided to try to get this sold as soon as possible,” Gu Ding was not planning to tell anyone about the ax. If someone found out about it, it might jeopardize his chances of obtaining the ax.

This answer seemed legitimate enough to the little old man and he did not continue with his questioning. If the other party were unwilling to share much, it would be pointless for him to probe any further. He immediately registered the staff for auction on behalf of Gu Ding and took the staff out of Gu Ding"s hands. Unlike his other auction items that were set aside all over the place, the little old man carefully placed the staff into a box and kept it in his storage room.

After leaving the appraisal room, Gu Ding made a call to Lili and found out that she was still shopping for clothes with Biggie. Gu Ding decided to head toward the second tower instead.

It took less than an hour for him to work his way through the entire sixth floor of the fourth tower. He had bought nearly everything on Robert"s list. There were only three items that he was unable to find.

It had been a good haul for Gu Ding. He returned to the Grey-faced Buzzard earlier than expected and handed all the ingredients over to Robert. Gu Ding called Lili again on the communicator. “Lili, I"m back in the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.”

“That"s quick. Did you manage to get everything Robert wanted? If you haven"t, I can get them after I"m done shopping with Biggie,” Lili had lost track of time because she was too engrossed with shopping.

“I"ve bought everything except for three items, but I don"t think Neptune would leave anything out. You guys shouldn"t waste any more time looking for them. Just come back with your food and clothes after you"re done shopping.”

“Okay, I"ll speed things up. There are so many stalls in this tower,” Lili was saying this when she suddenly thought of something.

“Oh yeah, I think you would like to know this. I b.u.mped into Bart just now.”

“Which Bart is this?” Gu Ding found the name familiar, but he was pretty sure that he did not know this person.

“He"s the newcomer who currently has the highest bounty issued by the Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation,” Liliath added.

“He made an appearance here too?” Gu Ding"s eyebrow raised slightly.

“He told me he wasn"t the only one. Among the top ten newcomers, six have arrived on this planet, including you and me. More are on their way here. He specifically told me to inform you about this.”

“Six are already here?” Gu Ding frowned slightly at this news. He had a bad feeling about this.

After hanging up on his conversation with Liliath on the communicator, Gu Ding rushed toward Neptune. “I"d like to see if there are any recent news reports.”

Neptune ran through the information before projecting the relevant reports. “The news that has the closest connection to you is this. The video of your battle with Senior has been uploaded to Skynet. It didn"t take long before the military saw the video. Unsurprisingly, the bounty on your head quickly doubled from 1.6 billion Star Credits to 3.2 billion Star Credits. Your ranking on the Rising Newcomers Ranking has moved up to second place because of this.”

“Is there any other news?” Gu Ding was not too concerned about this news about him.

“Senior has overcome his critical period after getting beaten up by you. He has been sent back to the headquarters of the Universal Federation Government for further treatment.”

“There"s also Nick. After getting seriously wounded by you, he was placed under the watchful eyes of the Federation Army to prevent any chance of escape. He would be immediately arrested and sent to the Federation prison once he fully recovers.”

“Liliath just b.u.mped into that guy, Bart. His bounty has been increased from 3.8 billion Star Credits to 4.5 billion Star credits because of several recent encounters with the army. That"s not the only thing. The latest member on his crew was an independent Interstellar Pirate with a bounty of over 8 billion Star Credits placed on his head.”

“Besides that, many are here for the auction. Six out of the top ten from the Rising Newcomers Ranking have just arrived on this planet. There are also quite a few veteran Interstellar Pirates here. It would be strange if the Federation Army does nothing about this. It"s difficult to figure out what they"re planning with them stationing only a few Peacekeepers here,” Neptune pointed out to Gu Ding, who started to feel something was not quite right.

The army gave the impression that they were not going to do anything about this auction. This was not the usual style of the Federation Army.

“There"s another thing. There"s an auction every year on the Great Divinity, but this is the first time in over thirty years that they have gone all out in regard to publicity and marketing. Not only that, the auction has yet to reveal the official list of items being auctioned, but there"s a list being shared around on the Skynet for more than one and a half months. It"s updated every couple of days. The list had just been updated today which included the Witch Tribe Staff you had just handed in. There"s even an accompanying remark that clearly states, "Weapon previously used by the Witch Tribe Spirits".”

“Someone must be disclosing confidential information of the auction on purpose to draw people to it…”