The Highest Bounty

Chapter 172 Closed Deal

Liliath frowned slightly at Benji’s words. She was about to say something when Annie, who was next to Benji, voiced out.

“How about we conduct the negotiations on the ship,” Annie patted Benji, hinting for him not to continue discussing this matter under the scrutiny of the public.

“We can’t do anything to your Golden Eagle, anyway. You don’t need to worry at all.”

The Golden Eagle was made out of unique materials that could only be destroyed by someone with Rank 12 Gene Body. It was indeed a good place for having negotiations. “Brothers, go back and wait for our news. Annie and I promise to bring our boss back in one piece. Carry those who have yet to regain consciousness back,” Benji shouted out to his crew as he waved them off.

Even though they were reluctant, they still left with their heads hung low.

There was a defeated look in Benji’s eyes as he watched the crew of the Marauders leave despondently. This was their second recent loss and this time; their boss had become a hostage. This had been a total failure and their reaction was not to blame.

Benji and Annie followed Gu Ding and the others up the spaceship after watching their crew members leave the harbor.

“Benji is the second-in-command and I’m the financial planner of the crew. I’m Annie,” Annie introduced herself. She was much more rational compared to before the battle.

“I named the asking price while I was outside,” Liliath turned her gaze from Benji to Annie.

“We don’t have that much money,” Annie did not look like she was lying.

“Our crew has had financial issues since being robbed by Kohld Blood, which was the reason we targeted your Golden Eagle. We didn’t want the Golden Eagle for our own use, we wanted to sell it.”

“She’s not lying,” Neptune could easily sense she was telling the truth by monitoring the movement of her bioelectric current.

Liliath frowned slightly at Neptune’s information. If Marauders did not have any money, this trade would end with them making a loss. “If you have no money, then there’s nothing to discuss. Even though we won’t be selling him to the Federal Government, some other pirate crew might be interested in buying him off our hands. Someone might even be willing to pay a higher price.”

Benji knew that his crew had made many enemies. If Gu Ding’s crew was really planning to sell Yarrow, there would be other crews who would be willing to pay for him. He did not want to see Yarrow chained up by a star core collar and humiliated for all to see. “We truly don’t have eight hundred million. Even if we sold our spaceship along with all of our other valuables, we still won’t be able to put together that amount. If you lower the price a little, we can try our best to figure out how to get the money and there will be a chance that you will be paid.”

“How much do you have?” Gu Ding asked curiously.

“The crew is left with savings of less than one hundred and fifty million. If we add everyone’s personal savings, we might be able to get together a sum of more than two hundred million, but it won’t be more than two hundred and fifty million,” Annie replied calmly.

Neptune’s voice was once again heard at this moment. “I checked their bank account. It’s just as she says.”

“Isn’t there anything you have of value?” Liliath was not willing to give up.

“The spaceship is worth around three hundred million, but we can’t sell that. We did however obtain a dagger from the ruins of the ancient civilization. It might not have been a demigod item, but it was worth more than one billion. However, it had been stolen by Kohld Blood,” Annie was not willing to admit it, but from the looks of the crew’s current financial situation, she had failed as a financial planner.

“Ask them if they’ve gotten anything else from the ruins of the ancient civilization,” Neptune prompted.

“Did you manage to get anything else from that ancient civilization ruins?” Gu Ding grew curious at Neptune’s question.

“We did, but there was nothing valuable or useful to us, so we sold them off in an auction. We had made a total earning of one billion and one hundred million Universe Credits, but Kohld Blood robbed us of one billion.”

“Isn’t your money saved in a bank account? Did he force you to make a transfer?” Liliath was not sold on Annie’s story.

“They have a very skilled hacker on their crew who was able to track our account number through our communicator’s encryption code. They proceeded to decipher the password and made the transfer. The whole process took less than half an hour, transferring one billion Universe Credits out our account. It was only after the battle ended that we realized what had happened,” Annie felt like clenching her teeth when she was telling the story.

“How about this, Gu Ding used six hundred and seventy million to buy Golden Eagle. So, I’ll give you a slight discount. Six hundred million is my last offer. If you still think the price is too high, there would be space for us to continue negotiations,” Liliath skimmed two hundred million from the original price.

“Six hundred million may prove to be quite a challenge for you, but I believe you will be able to get the money. We’ll give you… Three days.”

Benji and Annie did not look too happy when Liliath announced their price. This was a price that would require the crew to sell their spaceship…

“You can begin raising the money now. The sooner the better!” Liliath proceeded to kick them out immediately.

“Wait!” Benji hesitated as if struggling with something in his mind. It took a while before he continued.

“Two hundred million, plus a treasure map to the ruins of the ancient civilization. Take anything you want from the ruins and sell it in an auction. It would not be too difficult for you to get six hundred million Universe Credits.”

Liliath looked toward Gu Ding and he nodded. He was not a greedy person and he was not too keen on keeping Yarrow on his spaceship. That guy was a Rank 11 Gene Body, after all. He was a threat to everyone on the ship, including Gu Ding. “Fine, but we’ll have to determine if the treasure map is real. If we find out it’s a fake treasure map, there will be serious consequences,” Liliath threatened. “Don’t worry. It’s not something we would do,” Benji replied as he projected the treasure map.

Neptune conducted a scan and concluded. “This treasure map is real, but this is only a portion of it, about one-ninth of the full

map.”

“Where’s the rest of it?” Gu Ding asked after listening to Neptune’s explanation.

“Return our boss to us and we’ll send you the rest of the map. Also, Annie will immediately transfer the money to you,” Benji was being wary about the situation.

Gu Ding grasped Yarrow on the collar and threw him before Benji’s feet. Benji crouched down and conducted a quick check. He was relieved when he realized Yarrow was alright. He stood up once again and emailed all nine portions of the map to Gu Ding’s mailbox.

OV

VV

Annie also followed up with the promise and transferred two hundred million Universe Credits into Gu Ding’s account.

After the trade was done, Benji and Annie left the harbor quickly with Yarrow, fearing that Gu Ding and the others would go back on their word.

The spectators surrounding the area watched as Benji and Annie left crestfallen with Yarrow, speculating privately about how much had been paid to buy their captain back.

Gu Ding and the others had not noticed the huge stir caused by the battle. They had resumed their daily activities after dinner.

Gu Ding went back to perfecting his primary power, Liliath caught hold of Elsa for some chatting, Biggie was looking at new recipes again while Robert continued hankering about in his room, busying himself with work.

Unbeknownst to them, the video of the battle between Gu Ding’s crew and the Marauders crew had started trending in the Border River. More than twenty people were recording the battle, meaning every angle had been caught on camera.

The video had also garnered many comments on Skynet:

“This newcomer called Gu Ding looks really

powerful!”

“Everyone underestimated their crew, thinking that newcomers can be bullied. Instead, they ended up getting themselves in hot soup.”

“The Marauders are not a weak crew. They deserve to be in the top 8 among all the Interstellar Pirates in the Border River. How did they end up getting beaten up so badly?”

Many powerhouse crews within the Border River had also watched these videos.

They paid the most attention to the fight between Gu Ding and Yarrow among all the video recordings. Some of them had even noticed something from the clips.

“This Yarrow seems to have become weaker… Did he get hurt in that battle with Kohld Blood?”

“Judging by these videos, Gu Ding’s defense looks really strong. He was completely immune to Yarrow’s attacks.”

“Gu Ding’s attacks look a little strange. The first few punches didn’t seem to cause much damage to Yarrow. It was the last punch that disintegrated Yarrow’s defense completely… Does he have the ability to amplify his attack effectiveness?”

Many had started to analyze Gu Ding’s special ability.

Some of Gu Ding’s old friends in the Border River had also watched the videos.

Bart had just started making a name for himself in the Border River when he saw the videos. He thought something was wrong with his eyes.

Gu Ding had collided into a Rank 11 Gene Body in the video. He had flown off after getting struck in the beginning yet got the upper hand and finished things in a powerful ending, knocking his opponent unconscious with a single punch. That was not even the end of it. Gu Ding had openly requested a ransom for them to get their boss back. As for the final result of the negotiations, no one knew what transpired.

Bart was surprised at Gu Ding’s growth. Gu Ding had required a mech around ten days ago to go up against Emily, who was a Rank 10 Gene Body. Now, Gu Ding did not even need a mech to go head-to-head with a Rank 11 Gene Body, and he won the fight. By comparison, Bart’s improvement was not even worth mentioning. The most envious part of it all was that Gu Ding had recruited another Rank 10 Gene Body crew member with terribly powerful combat effectiveness.

It was late in the night and Gu Ding and his crew were all sleeping soundly, unaware of the overnight sensation they had become.