The Highest Bounty

Chapter 171 Hostages Are Used For Making Money

When the ear-deafening explosions stopped, many turned toward the source of the noise and what they saw was shocking.

Gu Ding had clasped his hands on Yarrow’s wrist while there was not a scratch found on Gu Ding. This was something entirely unexpected. Everyone thought Gu Ding had been killed and beaten to a pulp under the vicious attacks of Yarrow. Yarrow was a Rank 11 Gene Body and under such high frequency raging attacks, even a Rank 10 Gene Body would have been annihilated as it was near impossible to survive such an attack, but Gu Ding came out of it unscathed.

Not only were the spectators shocked, most of the Marauders’ crew members were chilled to the bone when they witnessed this scene. They knew how powerful their boss was and no one could have predicted that a young brat with less than half a year’s experience would be able to withstand their boss’s attack without suffering any damage. It was only then that they realize their crew had picked a tough opponent. They were destined to lose quite a few teeth in this fight.

Benji and Annie had bitter expressions on their faces. Benji could hardly hold the fort with Biggie. Biggie had such expertise in swordsmanship that Benji knew quite well he could not continue the fight much longer he had been using his special abilities and defense the whole time. He was planning on keeping Biggie at bay until his boss took care of Gu Ding. Instead, things had turned out this way. Benji was starting to regret suggesting going into battle to Yarrow.

As for Annie, she had always had a violent streak in her, but fighting with Elsa made her realize that Elsa was a notch more violent than she was. Elsa may look like an underaged girl, but she had the power of a Rank 10 Gene Body at its peak. Her strength was different from primary power, and she had an unusually huge amount of stamina. When they went head to head, Annie found herself completely overwhelmed by her opponent’s pure strength, something that Annie had always been proud to possess. She had also expected everything to end with Yarrow finishing the battle, but it looked like Yarrow had landed himself in big trouble.

Elsa, who was fighting Annie, had also witnessed this scene and was surprised because Yarrow’s attack would have no doubt seriously wounded Elsa if she was the one on the receiving end. Yarrow was a Rank 11 Gene Body, after all.

Gu Ding had managed to grasp Yarrow’s wrist not because Gu Ding was more powerful than he was, but because he was shocked by Gu Ding’s action. He could sense Gu Ding did not get hurt by his attacks, rather, it made Gu Ding stronger.

Not only that, but there was also an alarming sense of danger in Gu Ding’s smile.

Yarrow knew that Gu Ding was a close combat martial artist, so he made an accurate decision to struggle from Gu Ding’s grasp and dash away to distance himself. Just as he was making his escape, Gu Ding followed in pursuit. Gu Ding’s right hand was encompassed in gold-colored primary power as he reached into the air to grab Yarrow on the left leg. Yarrow immediately reacted with silver-colored Righteous Force encompassing his right leg as he gave Gu Ding a kick on the chest. Silver light shot out from the bottom of his feet and collided fiercely with Gu Ding’s chest. Gu Ding did not even bother to evade it as he took the full force of the hit. He was now at Ultimate Arts Level 10. His defense was four times higher than before and it was safe to say that none of Yarrow’s attack could hurt him. Gu Ding had been able to feel the pain from Yarrow’s punches previously, but with the enhancement of defense, that vicious kick was nothing but a tickle to Gu Ding.

While Yarrow was attempting to escape, Gu Ding pulled him back forcefully. His left hand was clenched in a fist as gold-colored primary power began accumulating around it again. He punched Yarrow with sudden prowess on the chest and this time, freshly wounded Yarrow with the help of an Additional Damage curse.

This sole attack had reached a peak of four million eight hundred and ninety-six thousand points.

Even though it was unable to penetrate Yarrow’s defense, the collision had badly hurt his chest. Yarrow could clearly feel that Gu Ding’s attack had been enhanced once again. Yarrow tried to ignore the pain on his body as he made another attempt to escape. The Righteous Force on his left leg suddenly surged in an explosion but Gu Ding’s right hand did not let go, seemingly unfazed. Gu Ding proceeded to tighten his grip around Yarrow’s left ankle.

Following which, Gu Ding delivered a second punch, which brought along that glimmering golden attack that landed on Yarrow’s chest. This time, Gu Ding’s attack had reached nine million seven hundred and ninety-two thousand points. This level of attack was awfully close to Yarrow’s defense of more than 10 million.

Yarrow could feel the pressure of something heavy crashing onto his chest. It was twice the pain from before and very close to the limit of his defense. It was only then that he realized the true ability Gu Ding possessed. “My God, he has the ability to amplify attack effectiveness. That would mean every attack would be double the previous attack?! This punch is way too close to the limit of my defense, that means the next attack...”

Yarrow’s guess was quite close to the truth. The difference was that Gu Ding’s ability was not to amplify attack effectiveness, but was Damage Stacking, which had a three-time limit. According to Yarrow’s calculation, Gu Ding had launched four attacks on him with each assault doubling the power of the last, and he had no idea what Gu Ding’s limit was.

Yarrow started to struggle frantically. He knew that he would suffer defeat once Gu Ding’s last punch landed right on him, but the more he panicked, the more he overlooked the fact that he could have retaliated with a counterattack. He was like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered in front of Gu Ding as Gu Ding grasped him around the neck with his left hand and slammed Yarrow to the ground.

Yarrow felt death calling out to him in an instant.

Gu Ding’s gold-colored primary power surged into his fists, but he did not land the punch on Yarrow’s head. Instead, he punched Yarrow on the chest. As the gold-colored primary power and silver-colored Righteous Force collided, the silver Righteous Force dissipated in an instant, and close to twenty million points of combat effectiveness was released, mighty as a torrential flood, flowing into Yarrow’s muscles and bones. Nothing was stopping that force as it crushed every bone in Yarrow’s chest, destroying his ribs. That force had also caused a huge rupture in his internal organs and finally passed through Yarrow’s body as the full force was released onto the ground.

In an instant, a huge crater of close to a hundred meters deep appeared on the originally flat surface of the jade marble floor. Jade marble was a material that was solid and durable, which was why harbors used it for porting spaceships. Spaceships weighing tens of thousands of tons would anchor on it and all it would leave was a minor scratch.

Yarrow threw up blood and lost consciousness.

All who had witnessed this scene were shocked.

“Is this a dream?” Some of them even pinched their faces. What had unfolded right before them did not seem real at all.

Yarrow was a powerhouse with a bounty worth over 100 million Universe Credits. With his crew’s combined power, they were among the top ten Overlord Ranking crew. Yet now, Yarrow had just been finished off by a newcomer like Gu Ding, and it took less than 20 minutes.

Benji and Annie quickly retreated from their respective fights when they saw what had happened.

“Stop, everyone!” Benji was the crew’s second-in-command. When he gave the instructions, every one of the Marauders stopped.

In fact, more than thirty out of their crew of over fifty had been their lights punched out by the combat robots. The rest were barely holding on.

All of Robert’s robots stopped as well when they saw the enemy withdraw.

Elsa had also pulled Biggie back and returned to Gu Ding’s side.

“As the second-in-command of the Marauders crew, I accept the defeat of this battle,” Benji looked very upset because many of the spectators around him had recorded everything. When he had given the instructions for everyone to stop, those people immediately started uploading the footage. “Gu Ding the leader, we hope to end this farce of a fight peacefully. We, the Marauders, are willing to give some material compensation to you as a token of our apology, and hope that you would be able to return our captain to us in one piece,” Benji said humbly as he gave Gu Ding a bow. He had seen Gu Ding’s powerful combat effectiveness and was worried Gu Ding would break Yarrow’s neck out of anger.

Neptune conducted a quick check on Yarrow’s physical condition and whispered in Gu Ding’s ears, “This guy’s breathing is a little week, but it’s stable. His heartbeat is also slightly weak, though he could still hold on for three to four hours before it gets serious. I think you can get Lili to conduct negotiations and sell him for a good price.”

Gu Ding nodded and Neptune immediately awakened Lili. “Lili, the battle is over, and Gu Ding got us a hostage. It’s the captain of their crew. Let’s sell him for a good price!”

Liliath took off her metal hat and whipped her hair about. She noticed the unconscious Yarrow. “Looks like this is their big boss. Good job, Gu Ding!”

Liliath patted Gu Ding on the shoulder and walked to his side. She hugged herself across the chest with one hand while sticking her thumb near her mouth with the other hand, smiling at Benji. “How much do you think your big boss is worth?”

Benji was stumped by this question. If he gave a high value, they would request a high price, but if the value is too low, it would humiliate their boss when so many people were recording this. “Please don’t make this difficult for us, noble lady. Our boss is priceless. What’s important is how much he is worth in your eyes.”

“How much is the bounty on him?” Liliath asked on purpose, even though she knew the answer.

“one hundred and eighty million Universe Credits,” Benji replied honestly.

“That would mean that we would get one hundred and eighty million Universe Credits if we send his head to the Federal Government. However, I’m not really fond of dealing with cosmic governments,” Liliath shook her head.

“Your crew targeted us for a fight because of this Golden Eagle, didn’t you? Let’s just have it this way, you can just compensate us with the price of our Golden Eagle. Our is second hand, so we won’t ask for a billion Universe Credit. According to the market price of a second hand... We’ll take eight hundred million!”

Gu Ding raised his eyebrow when he heard Liliath make that exorbitant request. Even he would have just asked for three or four hundred million, which was about twice the price of Yarrow’s bounty. Yet, Liliath had demanded eight hundred million without hesitation.

Benji had a grim look on his face, and the others behind him looked even worse. “We don’t have that kind of money. To be honest, when Kohld Blood took our ship doctor, he took most of our valuables as well.”