The Highest Bounty

On Red Shield, at the utterly ruined and disfigured Squire Square. The surrounding area had lost its usual light from its lamps and was completely dark. Not to mention, the stars in the sky were being blocked by thick clouds and it was hard to see what was happening under the darkness of night.

After Potie’s domain collapsed, the figures of Lilliath and the rest began to show. Watching on as the huge demon face above Gu Ding’s head faded away, Lilliath and Elsa slowly came to their senses. However, they could not help but wonder if everything they had witnessed earlier was real.

When the demon face disappeared, Gu Ding’s heartbeat and brain activity resumed almost at the same time. Though they did not know what exactly had happened, they were relieved.

Their battle with the Dark Sectors, though a victory, was a tragic victory. Robert had lost his energy source and had returned to his metal ball state. Both Biggie and Tagore were so severely injured that they had lost their combat effectiveness. Although Gu Ding’s life was no longer in danger, there were no signs of him waking up. The only people left unharmed were Lilliath, Elsa, and Neptune, who had taken the form of a wristwatch.

“Lili, Elsa, don’t just stand there. Take Gu Ding, Biggie, and Tagore back to the spaceship. We must leave this planet as soon as possible. This is the Childe family’s territory. If Ross Childe finds out that we’ve lost most of our crew’s combatants, he won’t let us go.”

The two women had been standing still, not knowing what to do. When they heard Neptune’s voice, they were reassured little, and they did as they were told.

Elsa and Lilliath each carried Biggie and Gu Ding. However, there were no extra hands to hold Tagore. The two girls looked at each other and Lilliath’s eyes eventually landed on Elsa’s chest. Following Lilliath’s eyes, Elsa looked down at her chest as well and then back up at Tagore. She nodded at Lilliath, put Biggie aside, picked up Tagore from the floor, and shoved him in between her chests. When she looked down and was sure that Tagore was firmly stuck in place, she nodded with satisfaction and picked up Biggie once more. Lilliath looked at her enviously from behind.

The two women ran all the way and were soon back on their spaceship in the port.

After the two of them had placed the cat on the combination sofa in the living room, they no longer knew what to do.

“Biggie and Tagore are both in serious condition and we must find doctors to treat them as soon as possible. Biggie, in particular, has had his bones shattered and his internal organs damaged in more ways than a few bottles of cell repair agents can solve. The S-grade cell repair agent that we injected into him was only to prevent his injuries from worsening. Tagore’s injuries are no worse nor better than Biggie’s. Additionally, I examined him and found that his body structure and cell composition are different from humans as well as genebeasts. The cell repair agent we gave him had no effect on his body. Therefore, we also need to find a doctor to treat him immediately to prevent his condition from worsening.”

“How about Gu Ding? Is he all right?” Lilliath asked, a little worried. Elsa also looked at Gu Ding worriedly.

Hearing this, Neptune hesitated for a moment as he had no idea what was happening to Gu Ding. Humans who lost more than a third of their blood was supposed to die. Gu Ding did lose two-thirds of his blood back then and had died when his heart and brain activity stopped. Nevertheless, after the demon face disappeared, his vital signs stabilized and reverted back to normal. The only thing was, he did not wake up.

The most special thing about it was that Neptune had noticed the huge energy source in Gu Ding’s body but was unable to probe any further because that same energy source seemed to emit radiation that prevented him from doing so. Hence, Neptune had no choice but to wait and keep watch. He felt that even if Gu Ding were to be sent to a hospital, no one would be able to find out what was wrong with him. Nevertheless, to avoid causing a panic between the two girls, Neptune chose to tell a white lie, “Gu Ding only suffered a slightly serious energy loss because of the battle earlier. He’s not injured. His body is in a state of self-dormancy, in which his body is using to recover more quickly. Once he has recovered fully, he’ll wake up.”

“How long will it take?” Lilliath asked.

“I can’t say for sure because there is a huge energy source in his body that is blocking my analysis. I can’t detect the exact recovery status of his body yet, so I can’t predict when he will wake up.” Neptune really could not answer Lilliath’s question because he had no idea what was going on in Gu Ding’s body.

Although their hearts still had some doubts, the two women chose to trust Neptune. Neptune and Gu Ding had known each other longer than anyone else, and Neptune had always been Gu Ding’s most trusted companion. Therefore if he said Gu Ding would be fine, then Gu Ding would be fine.

For the first time, Neptune lied to his companions. Although he meant well, he still felt a little bad. If it was before, he would have to tell the truth and not hide it. However, in this case, he chose to think like Gu Ding–taking care of both Lilliath’s and Elsa’s feelings by lying. He knew he had done the right thing when he saw them become a little more motivated compared to before.

“Then let’s get off this planet and find a doctor as soon as possible!” Gu Ding was fine, but both Biggie and Tagore needed medical attention. Lilliath knew that she and Elsa had to toughen up. She managed a smile and raised her fist to encourage Elsa.

“Yes!” Elsa nodded vigorously.

“We’re leaving Red Shield for sure, but before that, we have one more thing to do,” Neptune’s voice suddenly sounded a little mischievous.

“What is it?” The two girls asked at the same time.

“We came to Red Shield to avenge you, Lili, but we haven’t done that yet. If Gu Ding wakes up and finds out we didn’t do things right, he won’t be too happy.” Neptune knew Gu Ding’s temper very well.

“Isn’t that woman from the Dark Sectors already dead?” Lilliath asked, somewhat confused.

“She’s dead, but our revenge is only half done. That kid from the Childe family, he’s the one who started all of this. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here. Not to mention, Biggie and the rest wouldn’t be hurt.” Neptune blamed Ross Childe for Biggie’s injuries as it was true that he had played a part in it.

“Neptune, you don’t mean to bombard their house, do you?” Hearing this, Lilliath guessed Neptune’s plan immediately. She had been there with Gu Ding during the Fengyuan bombard and remembered their attack on the Onassis family.

“What do you think of the idea?” Neptune asked with a smile.

‘Very nice!”

“I agree!”

Both women gave their assent to the plan.

The Golden Eagle rose slowly from Red Shield’s port. Then, after rising to a certain height, it suddenly stopped in mid-air and hovered on the spot. The scene immediately attracted the attention of the Port Authority’s staff. Although it was very late at night, there were still people on duty.

Watching the scene through the surveillance cameras, the port officer on his first day immediately followed the emergency instructions he had been given. He pressed the sound transmission button and shouted at the Golden Eagle, “That Golden Eagle right there, the port does not allow that kind of flying. Your behavior is extremely dangerous. You have only two options. One, dock your ship right now or leave Red Shield immediately. Nevertheless, we will record your dangerous behavior and hand it over to Port Authority. They will punish you when you land on the next planet…”

The young man’s eyes were not on the monitor but on the projection of his intelligent wristwatch as he read aloud the rules and regulations that were being displayed in front of him.

Of course, Neptune would not answer his threat. Robert had already tampered with the armor-piercing cannons of the Port on the first day of their arrival. Hence, they could not be manually operated anymore. Additionally, the network controls had been cut off by Neptune himself. Hence, Neptune detected the position of Ross Childe who was playing chess on Skynet, locked in on his position and then directed the muzzle of the cannon to the room where Ross Childe was in.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Three shots rang out consecutively.

Then, three oval white balls of light pulled tails through the air like extremely fast comets before they crashed into the Childes’ residence.

Neptune projected a video of the Childe’s residence; Lilliath and Elsa could watch the three white balls of light land unerringly on Ross Childe’s room. All at once, white flames rose from the middle of the night and illuminated the Childe’s home as if it were day. Ross Childe’s room was blown to smithereens in an instant.

Neptune had used the particle annihilation cannon where everything the canon hit would be annihilated into elementary particles. However, Neptune’s attack was not spread throughout the rest of the house because the whole thing had been planned by Ross Childe alone and no one else in the Childe family had anything to do with it. As for the Rank-12 and Rank-13 Gene Bodies that Gu Ding had previously fought with, they had only done so to keep Ross Childe safe. Besides, those who were shot were almost killed.

The young man stopped talking about regulations the moment he heard the cannon go off. At that moment, he turned to the surveillance screen and was stunned to see the muzzle of a cannon protruding from a Golden Eagle. Nevertheless, he quickly responded and pressed the button for the armor-piercing cannon’s firing system, only to find the system network disconnected. Reluctantly, he reached out and pressed a big red skull button–an emergency button that enabled the manual activation of the armor-piercing cannons. Nevertheless, none of them fired. He pressed the button again several times but it was in vain. That was when he realized that the armor-piercing cannons had to have been tampered with.

“It’s time we leave!” Neptune said as he piloted the Golden Eagle. A few seconds later, the Golden Eagle was out of Red Shield’s atmosphere. It quickly disappeared from everyone’s sight.