The Highest Bounty

Gu Ding sat in a lotus position in the corridor in front of Liliath’s room. Although a gene enhancer of perfect quality had a success rate of ninety percent and above, there was still a chance of less than one person that the person would end up with long-term side effects. Although Gu Ding did not think Liliath would fall under that one percent, he thought that Lili would feel more at ease with him by her side.

On the other hand, Neptune monitored Liliath’s physical condition through her intelligent wristwatch.

The two-hour wait was a long one, and when Gu Ding heard Neptune’s words that Lili had evolved successfully, the former’s tension was finally released.

Liliath exited her room and found Gu Ding standing up. She happily announced, “I’ve successfully evolved into a Level 4 Gene Body!”

“Wh… what?!” Gu Ding was stunned when he heard her. “Level 4? Weren’t you supposed to evolve into a Level 3?”

“Nope, not Level 3, I got to Level 4!” Liliath said proudly, “I managed to skip through Level 3.”

“Have your abilities improved as well?” Gu Ding had not expected his self-refined medicine to be so effective.

“Yup. My Pupillary Abilities have become stronger, and I got a powerful move. My body also feels stronger. I’m probably able to use bigger and stronger firearms now as a gunner.” Liliath nodded with a smile. Suddenly, she recalled something and asked, “Do you need me to implant an Energy Crystal in you? I heard Neptune mention about your special genes and E-grade gene enhancers are probably too weak for you to use to evolve right?”

“Yeah, my physique isn’t suitable for conventional leveling up.” Gu Ding thought of his gene locks and remembered that Neptune had told him people born with gene locks had to break them each time they leveled up. That was why conventional medicine used for leveling up did not do much for him. Every time Gu Ding wanted to level up, he had to use a huge amount of energy to break his gene locks.

The Energy Crystal of a level 4 genebeast only allowed Gu Ding to evolve from a Level 1 Gene Body to a level 2 Gene Body. That itself was enough to tell how much energy was needed for Gu Ding to level up.

“Even though we previously got a lot of loot from the virus-infected bodies, we only acquired two level 5 genebeast Energy Crystals.” Neptune checked their Inventory and reported the number of Energy Crystals they had left.

“Let’s implant them together! I’m afraid that one won’t be enough.” Gu Ding thought that it was safer to implant the two of them together in order to ensure that there was enough energy for him to break his gene locks.

“Will there be a problem? After all, they’re level 5 genebeast Energy Crystals.” Liliath asked Neptune.

“It shouldn’t be a big problem,” Neptune was still unsure what the strange virus Gu Ding had was. Nevertheless, Neptune had no doubt in its ability to engulf things.

Liliath felt better after hearing Neptune’s approval. She took the two Energy Crystals from Gu Ding and disinfected her hands before starting the implantation process.

It did not take long before Liliath completed the implantation. Just like before, she managed to cleanly implant the crystals without leaving any scars on Gu Ding’s neck. Nevertheless, it was a hard task for Gu Ding to get a scar because of his High-Speed Regeneration physique.

At the site of the wound, Neptune saw the virus emerge and madly engulf the two Energy Crystals. In less than ten minutes, the two Energy Crystals were swallowed up, and the gene locks in Gu Ding’s body started to crack. At a speed that was visible to the naked eye, the locks were crushed and Gu Ding officially evolved into a Level 3 Gene Body. However, that was not the end of it. A strand of Gu Ding’s gene chain began to change subtly.

Once everything had settled down, Neptune checked Gu Ding’s body stats.

Name: Gu Ding

Sex: Male

Age: 15

Gene Level: Level 3

Special Ability 1: Level 2 Rage Attack (Evolvable)

Ability Description: Continuous attack power, defense power, speed, recovery ability tripled for 10 minutes.

Side Effects: Ten hours into Prostration, combat power is halved.

Special Ability 2: Level 1 High-Speed Regeneration (Evolvable)

Ability Description: Cell regeneration ability is increased tenfold (Permanent).

Special Ability 3: Level 3 Damage Stacking (Curse Stream Ability) (Evolvable)

Ability Description: Causes a cursed effect on the target whereby damage can be stacked. The second blow will be stacked onto the first blow, while the third blow will be stacked onto the first and second blow.

Cell Index: 300

Spirit Index: 298

Battle Prowess: B+

Mental Cognition: A

Neptune projected Gu Ding’s latest stats. He felt that Gu Ding’s latest ability was a bit too much. “It seems like you got Damage Stacking from the Curse Stream… I can’t believe you actually got such an unbelievable ability.”

“You hit 300 points for your Cell Index…” Liliath admired another stats of his. “Even though I’m a Level 4 Gene Body, my Cell Index is only 300 points… A 300 point Cell Index is more than achievable for Level 4 Gene Bodies at their peak… But you’re only a Level 3 Gene Body…”

“You guys already know that my physique isn’t like an ordinary person’s, so why are you guys surprised? Anyway, this Damage Stacking should be pretty strong right?”

“It’s not pretty strong, it’s unbelievably strong. Yes, your Cell Index is at 300 points. Regardless of other additional stats, assuming that the damage you cause with your first blow is 300 points, your second blow will inflict 600 points of damage, and your third blow will hit for 1200 points. Not to mention, that’s before activating your Ultimate Arts, without Rage Attack, and without Combat Armor. Furthermore, such stacking abilities are evolvable. In the later stages, as long as you don’t encounter people with anti-curse abilities, you’ll be pretty much invincible,” Neptune explained in detail.

After hearing Neptune’s explanation, Gu Ding was quite satisfied with his new ability. “Neptune, did your restrictions improve after I leveled up my gene body? Have you unlocked any new restrictions?”

“The restriction I have has been unlocked until the intermediate level. I’m now able to lift some energy type seal locks and bans. Other than that, my detection range has increased tenfold from a radius of one hundred meters to one thousand meters.” It was evident that Neptune’s abilities had been upgraded as well. “Hold on, I have some good news. Gu Ding, both Liliath and you are famous now.”

“We’re what?” Gu Ding asked curiously as Liliath moved her head closer.

“The Rising Newcomers Ranking in the Dark Web for this year’s Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation rising newcomers is out. Gu Ding, you’re ranked third and Liliath’s ranked fifth,” Neptune said as he projected the rankings.