The Highest Bounty

Chapter 186: The Army’s Plan

Gu Ding watched speechlessly at the man who was holding a bomb in his hand. Gu Ding had never thought he would be in this situation.

When the man shouted out those words, another three men left their seats. Two of them headed for the cockpit while the other stood guard behind the man who was holding the bomb. The spaceship had just left Saparet’s ozone layer and it was obvious that this hijacking had been planned. If the bomb exploded, no one on the spaceship would be left alive. Only a powerhouse with a ranking above a demigod would be able to survive in the vacuum of space.

Noami, who was listening to music, might not have heard what the man had just shouted, but her eyes had opened in time to see the bomb in the man’s hand. She immediately realized what was going on. She pulled off her headphones with a grim look on her face. She looked around her surroundings. Most people had a look of fear on their faces. Only Gu Ding, who was sitting next to her, was expressionless. He acted as if none of this had anything to do with him.

At that moment, the plump middle-aged man was dragged out of the cockpit. There was a deep slash on his abdomen, and he was clutching his wound, but it was pointless as the blood continued to spill out of him, flowing through his fingers. Gu Ding frowned at this. Judging by the speed of the blood flow, the plump middle-aged man would not be able to last more than half an hour before he died of blood loss.

It was then that the man holding the bomb voiced out again, “I’m sorry, everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are willing to, but this one-day trip to Jerr today will be replaced with a one-day trip to Coremino instead. Please cooperate with us and stay in your respective seats. Otherwise, there will be serious consequences.”

As he was saying this, he gave the bomb in his hand a shake, with his thumb at only one centimeter away from the switch. Noami had wanted to take action but hesitated at this sight.

Coremino was known as a criminal’s heaven and was quite a unique star sector within the Faye Cosmic Nation.

A deity had once appeared within this star sector and had later joined the Federal Government. He ended up perishing during battle. The Federal Government had gifted the jurisdiction of this entire star sector to the descendants of this deity to commemorate and commend his meritorious service.

After that, a man with an extravagant personality was born among the deity’s descendants. He was a man with extraordinary abilities and was a demigod powerhouse. He conducted various illegal trades in the sector of Coremino, turning the entire star sector into a wonderland for Interstellar Pirates. However, this sector was voluntarily relinquished by the Federal government and that demigod did not conduct those activities outside of the sector, which was why the Federal Government had chosen to turn a blind eye. A few hundred years have passed since then, and the demigod is still alive. Coremino had in turn become the largest meeting ground for criminals in Faye Cosmic Nation.

Of course, Coremino was not situated at the exit of the Border River. It would still take at least thirty days to travel from Saparet to Coremino with the speed of a Golden Eagle. For the sightseeing spaceship, it would take double the time.

The criminal immediately spotted Noami in her Army uniform. Everyone else on the spaceship was dressed casually and she was the only one in military garb, which made her stand out like a sore thumb.

“There’s someone from the Army here,” the hijacker could not see Noami’s rank insignia from where he was and thought that she was just a minor officer since she was making her journey on a sightseeing ship. Moreover, this was a woman who looked about twenty-years-old. She must not be a high-ranking officer.

“That guy next to her, tell me what her rank is,” the hijacker shouted towards Gu Ding.

“Me?” Gu Ding raised an eyebrow and pointed at himself, asking dubiously.

“That’s right, you! Quickly!”

Gu Ding turned and gave her another glance before turning back. He replied to the hijacker, “Her rank insignia is fake!”

“Fake?” The hijacker not entirely convinced.

“Yes, just like the bomb in your hand.”

Gu Ding nudged Noami with his elbow. “You can take action!”

Noami was initially stunned but quickly reacted. She appeared in front of the hijackers with the bomb in an instant and broke his arm, grabbing the remote in his hand. Next, she handcuffed him with a pair of anti-magic handcuffs. The rest of his accomplices were also quickly arrested.

She walked into the ship’s cabin after putting the spaceship into autopilot and saw Gu Ding pouring a bottle of cell repair agent onto the wound of the plump middle-aged man. It was a bottle of E-grade cell repair agent of the highest quality. The plump middle-aged man was a Rank 5 Gene Body and the E-grade cell repair agent quickly healed his wound. Even though he was now quite pale because of his blood loss, his condition was not too serious.

“Take a rest. I’ve already set the spaceship to autopilot and changed our final destination to Jerr. We would just need to manually land it later when we descend,” Noami said as she took out another tube of medicine from her inventory and passed it to the plump middle-aged man.

“This is a blood replenishing tonic exclusive to the Army. Inject it into your blood vessels and it will convert itself into hemoglobin.”

The hijackers’ plan came to an end after they were handcuffed with the anti-magic handcuffs and had their intelligent wristwatches confiscated.

Noami and Gu Ding returned to their respective seats.

“How did you know that bomb was a fake?” Noami suddenly asked. If it was not for Gu Ding, this situation would not have been settled so easily.

“Actually, the bomb was real. I lied to get you to take action on them,” Gu Ding finally admitted the truth.

Noami was taken aback when she heard Gu Ding’s answer. She roared at him, “How could you do something like that? Do you know how many people would be killed if something went wrong?”

“The bomb may be real, but it would not explode because I did something to the remote. Don’t forget that I’m on the spaceship as well. I won’t risk my life,” Gu Ding explained.

“I didn’t see you have any contact with the remote throughout this ordeal,” Noami did not believe Gu Ding’s words.

“If you don’t believe me, just take out that remote and click on it twice. I guarantee you it won’t explode,” Gu Ding remained expressionless.

“There’s no way I’m doing that!” Noami thought this would just be suicide and did not plan to even try it.

They quickly became silent again. Gu Ding was worried the more he said, the more loopholes he would reveal. As for Noami, she felt there was not much in common for them to talk about.

After a while, she could not help chatting him up again. “Why were you so confident about me being from the Army?”

“You’re wearing the Army uniform,” Gu Ding gave a simple reply.

“Didn’t I tell you that it was just a costume?” Noami did not buy into that explanation.

“You don’t look like an actress,” Gu Ding gave another simple reason as a reply.

Noami asked quietly, “Am I not pretty enough? Or was there some other reason?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Gu Ding finally turned toward her and asked expressionlessly.

Noami hesitated a minute before finally nodding.

“First, your boobs aren’t big enough. Second, your hairstyle looks terrible,” these two negative reasons given by Gu Ding were enough to make Noami want to leave in a huff.

“Hmmph, you have no taste...” Noami turned her head away and did not look at Gu Ding again.

After being silent for half an hour, she could not help turning back and continued chatting. “Why are you going to Jerr?”

“To visit someone,” Gu Ding replied casually.

“Is it a friend in prison?” Noami tried to probe him with the question.

Gu Ding glanced at Noami. “I don’t want to answer that question. Why are you going to Jerr?”

“Well, it’s not anything classified so I don’t mind telling you. I’ve just received a mission instructing me and my team to stand guard on Jerr. I guess you are aware of what happened to Camilia’s castle, which was destroyed not too long ago, as well as what had transpired between the Dark Sectors and Gu Ding’s crew,” Noami shared her reason for going to Jerr without holding back.

“I do. Does it have anything to do with your mission?” Gu Ding asked without skipping a beat.

“There has been a surge of Interstellar Pirates appearing from the Border River during this time. Our Army is planning to destroy the root of those threats. That is why they have sent members of the Army to stand guard at the administrative planets outside the Border River. We will make an immediate arrest of any Interstellar Pirates we spot, but our main target is Gu Ding’s crew. The ability of his crew is no longer on the weaker side. If we let them into Faye Cosmic Nation, they will continue to grow in strength. When that time comes, it will bring great trouble to all of us. Gu Ding’s crew had always been high-profile. According to the analysis of the Army’s psychology experts, there is a high possibility he would appear on the highly populated Jerr. That is why I’ve been sent there, to take part in the mission to arrest him,” Noami talked about her current mission openly. It was not considered a classified mission and there was no harm in telling others about it.

“Isn’t Gu Ding a hacker? He would have already found out about the Army standing guard on those administrative planets, wouldn’t he? If that was the case, they would choose to store a month’s worth of food supplied and avoid those planets at a great distance.”

“The psychology expert told us that a character like Gu Ding has a rebellious personality. The more defense is given to a planet, the more he would be compelled to visit it for the sake of standing up against authority. They even went as far as to deduce that there was a high possibility for Gu Ding to visit Leoben Prison. The guards at Leoben Prison has been increased three-fold because of this,” Noami revealed something that Gu Ding had been unaware of.

“Okay, even if he really did appear on Jerr, how would you even manage to capture him? I remember that he has taboo energy. Even if a demigod had personally arrived to arrest him, he would be restrained by Gu Ding,” Gu Ding was more concerned about this issue.

“It’s not actually something too difficult to solve. We admit that taboo energy is an immensely powerful ability, but the greater this ability is, the more limitation and side effects it has. His taboo energy is the seal ability. According to our deduction, this seal ability must have a limited seal effect or a limited number of people he could seal. That is why we are planning to overcome this by using a strategy that involves a high volume of people.”

When he heard Noami’s words, Gu Ding knew that his journey this time would not be as smooth sailing as he had thought.