The Highest Bounty

It was not because his chain, which was of demigod grade, was too weak. Instead, it was because his spirit was not strong enough. That caused the effects of the demigod item to diminish greatly. Hence, he was unable to break through the spirit magnetic fields on the outer layer of the mechs and harm the pilots.

Gu Ding shook his head helplessly as he watched Bart’s demigod item get snatched off from his waist in the video. A star core collar was also put around his neck and taken away. Gu Ding had thought Bart would not get captured so easily, but the truth had proven him to be wrong.

Liliath had pushed open the door and witnessed the scene of Bart being captured. Even she was shocked over it. “What happened? Who caught Bart?”

Gu Ding rewound the video back to five or six minutes prior. After watching it, Liliath was slightly puzzled. She asked, “Why was his chain attack ineffective?”

“Those three mechs were altered to be equipped with additional spirit magnetic fields. Bart’s spirit wasn’t strong enough, so he could not break through the magnetic fields to attack those piloting the mechs,” Gu Ding repeated the explanation Neptune had given him.

“It proves that the way to victory is to train oneself to be stronger. Using borrowed power, he only managed to obtain momentary victory.” Liliath thought Bart’s retribution had come quite early, considering she had just witnessed him emerge victorious over the powerful Sharp the day before. It was fairly fast considering he was arrested the following

day.

Gu Ding suddenly realized something. “Neptune, none of Bart’s crew have been arrested, have they?”

“None!” Neptune gave a quick answer.

“That’s strange...” Gu Ding felt like something was amiss, but he could not understand why.

“There’s nothing strange about it. He has always thought that he’s invincible and capable of taking down everyone in the Army. Running out there solo and getting himself arrested is pretty much an expected outcome.” Liliath did not think much about it.

The fight continued as battles broke out in other areas shown in the video.

Quite a number of powerful Interstellar Pirates ended up clashing with people from the Army. Most of them were forcefully suppressed, but a small amount of them managed to escape from being captured by the Army.

The fighting did not stop throughout the whole morning and only slowly died down around noon.

Most of the Interstellar Pirates who were arrested were escorted to the harbor. Gu Ding’s eyes narrowed slightly at this. “Neptune, throughout the past two days, how many Interstellar Pirates have been arrested?”

“Three hundred and sixty-eight arrests have been since yesterday.”

“How many members of the Army are guarding the harbor right now?” Gu Ding continued with his questions.

“There are more than five hundred of them collecting intel out there. More than two hundred died in the line of duty. If you include Emily and Sharp, there should be four thousand five hundred and eighty-seven people on guard now.” Neptune had calculated all the data accurately.

“What are you thinking about?” Liliath vaguely felt like a scheme was about to come from Gu

Ding.

“Don’t you think that we’re acting a little too passively?” Gu Ding asked with a smile.

“Well, we don’t really have a choice. There are so many of them from the Army. They even have two generals at hand...” Liliath suddenly realized something.

“You aren’t thinking about making the first strike, are you?”

“We will have to go into battle, anyway. We might as well conduct a sneak attack and catch them off guard.” Gu Ding was thinking about making a bold move.

“We should forget about it. It’s just the few of us,” Liliath said without holding back.

A big smile appeared on Gu Ding’s face. “Who says there’s only a few of us? Neptune, get the communication number of all those who haven’t been arrested and send a message to them. Tell them that it’s from me, Gu Ding. I will release everyone who was arrested today, at midnight, and I hope that we can work together, inside and out. Let’s conduct a big scale night raid and take it out on the Army!”

Neptune quickly searched for all the available numbers and sent out Gu Ding’s message to them.

In less than a minute, Gu Ding’s communicator rang. The incoming call to Gu Ding’s communicator was from Mi En the Magician.

“Gu Ding, is that really you?”

“Mi En, is there a problem?”

“There isn’t. I just wanted to confirm that you were the one who personally sent that message.” Mi En was obviously in agreement with Gu Ding’s plan, otherwise, she would not have called Gu Ding’s number so quickly.

Gu Ding nodded. “Yup, it was me. We start at midnight. The more the merrier. Inform those whom you are in contact with as well.”

“Those people from the Army haven’t stopped since yesterday night. It would serve them right to teach them a lesson,” there was dissatisfaction in Mi En’s tone.

“I performed quick divination earlier, and the results of tonight’s plan look quite positive.”

“That’s great,” Gu Ding did not plan to continue listening to something that had to do with divination. He had no interest in its results.

Having hung up the communicator, Gu Ding saw on his screen that he had a few missed calls. At that moment, An Luo called him as well.

“Is this Gu Ding?” An Luo’s voice could be heard from the other end of the communicator.

“Yes, I am. Is this An Luo?”

“Were you the one who sent out that message?” An Luo asked uncertainly.

“That’s right. Midnight tonight. Are you coming?” Gu Ding was aware that the reason these people were calling him one by one was because they were worried it was a trap laid out by the Army.

“Of course! Those guys from the Army are too much. They actually sent out a team to arrest me,” An Luo said irritably.

“Was it what happened this morning? I saw it through the surveillance camera,” Gu Ding could vaguely recall An Luo’s escape from the major general.

Gu Ding hung up after chatting with him for a moment. Soon, more and more calls came in. and Gu Ding explained his plan to each and every one of them.

It was proof that the Army’s continuous raids for Interstellar Pirates throughout the past two days had angered a large majority of them. It took Gu Ding the whole afternoon to recruit more than two hundred Interstellar Pirates for the night raid.

At the harbor, the arrested Interstellar Pirates had been locked up in the dungeon of the Golden Eagle.

A few serious offenders such as Bart were fitted with star core collars. They had no control over their bodies aside from being able to turn their heads.

As for the other prisoners, they were fitted with handcuffs and shackles which limited their movements.

As for everyone’s smartwatches, they were confiscated without exception. Nevertheless, there were two Interstellar Pirates who used intelligent rings; they went unrecognized by those in charge of confiscating the smartwatches and managed to retain them.

The dungeon of the Golden Eagle was also within the surveillance of Neptune. It made it easy for Gu Ding to locate the two intelligent rings and convey his message of the night raid to the captured Interstellar Pirates.

When both those pirates received Gu Ding’s message, they were elated. Gu Ding’s message contained only two to three sentences, “I am Gu Ding, and I have organized more than two hundred people to conduct a night raid at midnight on where the Army is gathered at the harbor. When the time comes, I will remotely unlock the binds on everyone. I hope all of you can assist us from the inside to teach the Army a memorable lesson. Please keep this to yourselves first and wait until I have set everyone free before getting them in on the action.”

Evening came and night eventually arrived. The Army members outside the Golden Eagle were having a huge celebration for their morning’s catch. They had managed to arrest more than three hundred Interstellar Pirates in one sweep. They had broken the record set centuries ago in Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation.

Walter was in an ecstatic mood as well as he had managed to complete a major task this time. Even though the mission had not yet ended, he believed they were off to a good start. It would not be long before they were met with positive results.

“Congratulations, you’ve done it once again.” Emily walked over and raised her glass at Walter.

“This is the fruits of everyone’s hard work!” Walter said humbly.

They downed their drinks in one go and Emily said, “I hope you didn’t take it to heart when I lost my temper at you yesterday over what happened to Sharp.”

“What happened yesterday was my mistake.” Walter realized later on that he had made a mistake the day before. The smartest thing he should have done was to inform Emily immediately and get her to the scene where Sharp and Bart were fighting as quickly as possible. That was because Bart had bypassed quite a few ranks to increase his combat effectiveness to such a level, and he had combat restrictions when it came to fighting. In most cases, his capacity was limited. If Sharp had not come back to life the day before, Walter would have been considered guilty within the Army and would not be having such a casual time drinking. He felt fearful whenever he thought about what transpired the day before.

As for the current day, the best news Walter had received was regarding Bart’s arrest. Not to mention, the confiscation of Bart’s demigod item. He took three drinks one after another because of this.

The Army’s banquet was under Gu Ding’s surveillance. Walter and the others were used to taking action under Gu Ding’s watch. Hence, the banquet was being held in the open and at the harbor on purpose to taunt Gu Ding. It was the Army’s way to boast and also protest.

Walter was being bold with the banquet because he was certain Gu Ding would not dare appear. After all, Gu Ding had less than ten people in his crew, while there were more than four thousand Army members. If Gu Ding were to confront them, it would be like a moth throwing itself into a flame, a suicide mission.

The banquet went on from evening all the way until midnight when the night was at its darkest. Even the stars in the sky were dim.

Gu Ding and the others had gathered at a tavern near the harbor. Watching people of the Army get drunk in the video, many of them felt glad about it. The more drunk those people were, the fewer opponents they had. That was what they wanted the most.

“They’re having their celebration way too early,” Liliath covered her mouth while she giggled.

“They must not be expecting us to take action, and they probably never expected us to gather so many people.” Gu Ding looked around at the two hundred and thirty over Interstellar Pirates gathered in the tavern. He raised an eyebrow. Even he himself had not expected such support.

The pendulum of the old grandfather clock in the tavern moved left and right. Seconds and minutes passed and the hour and minute hand of the clock finally stacked above each other on the number ’12’.

“Dong, dong, dong...” The moment the clock chimed, Gu Ding typed something into his smartwatch. “Neptune, release those who have been arrested!”