The Highest Bounty

About two and a half hours later, Gu Ding was already brewing his final flask of Cell Enhancer.

The first three flasks were of Flawless quality. From the fourth flask onward, the medicines he brewed were of Perfect quality. After that, he became adept with the brewing process and his brewing speed became faster and faster. He had also tested out six different brewing methods.

His first brewing attempt took him fifteen minutes to complete. By the time he reached the last attempt, he used less than four minutes. The improvement between attempts was phenomenal.

When Parma exited her private dispensary, she noticed that the door to the public dispensary area was open. Feeling a little surprised, she walked toward the front door to see a boy fully focused on brewing medicine. She excitedly raised her eyebrows. Parma was Cerule’s top pharmacologist and was the only certified pharmacologist professor in the entire Basic Military Academy. She was happy to see such a diligent student. She took a closer look and realized that she did not recognize him. In any case, there were three pharmacology tutors in the academy, and he might be under the tutelage of someone else. She did not play favorites; she loved everyone who was devoted to pharmacology.

Parma stood at the entrance quietly and observed how the boy brewed his medicine. The boy was moving very fast. She had only stood there for a little more than ten seconds and she saw that he had already finished the first phase of extraction. Her eyes shined, then continued to observe the boy’s movements.

After extraction, the boy simultaneously placed all twelve ingredients in twelve different distillation flasks. Parma was shocked. However, the boy’s subsequent movements nearly made her stomp off in a rage. The boy turned the heat on all twelve distillation flasks to the maximum.

“What nonsense!” Parma frowned. She was about to walk toward the boy and give him an earful before he skillfully removed three distillation flasks that changed color at that instant. His movements were not hasty nor sluggish, as if he had predicted when the liquids changed color. In a little more than ten seconds, he had already completed the distillation phase of the process. All twelve distillation flasks had been removed from their respective heat sources. The boy displayed a near-superhuman level of precision.

“Oh… my god…” Parma’s eyeballs nearly popped from their sockets as she witnessed this scene.

His next maneuver also left her speechless. Without using a measuring cup, the boy poured each liquid in unknown proportions into the fusion flask. Then, he lifted the fusion flask and manipulated it with a method that she had never seen before. In less than two minutes, the liquid in the flask had turned completely silver. It radiated a faint halo under the bright lights of the dispensary.

Gu Ding poured the liquid into a vial that he had prepared and was about to store it in his Inventory, but he was stopped by someone shouting.

“Wait…” A female voice was heard from near the door.

The woman looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six. She wore broad-rimmed glasses and her hair was tied in a ponytail. She looked diligent and professional. She was wearing a teacher’s uniform and the gold-rimmed name tag that she wore on her chest prominently displayed her identity. She was a professor.

“Can I take a look at that vial of medicine?” The female ventured. Another student would never have thought that a professor would be requesting to see the handiwork of a student.

“Of course, but you will have to return it to me after that. I’m selling it for money.” Gu Ding could discern the surprise and curiosity in her eyes, though he did not detect any hints of greed.

The woman took the vial from Gu Ding’s hand. She leaned close to take a look at the vial. Then, she took off her glasses and looked at it carefully again.

‘She looks so pretty when she takes off her glasses,’ Gu Ding thought to himself.

“This… this is a Perfect quality Cell Enhancer?!” After looking at the test tube thrice, the female professor sounded like she did not believe her conclusion. She came to her senses a long while after. “You said you want to sell this for money. Can you sell this to me?”

“What’s your offer?” Gu Ding was not planning to lose out on this deal.

“You should know that a Baseline quality Cell Enhancer sells for 1,200 Star Credits on the open market, and a Perfect quality Enhancer is twenty times that. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on exploiting you. 1,200 times 20 is 24,000. I’ll give you 25,000.” The female professor grasped the vial tightly in her hands. She was determined to own this vial of medicine.

“Deal!” Gu Ding replied.

After transferring the credit, the female professor stashed the medicine into her Inventory and saw that Gu Ding was packing up his things and about to leave. Finally, she asked, “Whose tutelage are you under?”

Gu Ding was taken aback by the question. “I’m not in Pharmacology. I’m from the Combat stream.”

“Combat stream?” The female professor’s eyes shined again. “Are you interested in transferring to the Pharmacology stream? I’m a professor here.”

“Not interested.” Gu Ding shook his head as he finished packing his belongings. He stood up and prepared to leave.

“What’s your name?” The female professor asked urgently as she saw that he was about to leave.

“Gu Ding.”

“Gu Ding…” The female professor repeated the name. She saw that he was already at the door. She shouted urgently, “My name is Parma. If you encounter any difficulty in the Academy, come look for me. I may only be a Pharmacology professor, but I do carry a bit of authority here.”

“Alright, thanks!” Gu Ding turned around and nodded, then quickly walked away.

“I see that he packed up so many things. He must have brewed more than one vial…” Parma mumbled to herself, then rushed upstairs to the control room.

Parma spent the next two and a half hours watching the recording in the control room. The surprise in her eyes only increased. ‘He brewed twenty vials of medicine in two and a half hours. Even though the first vial took him the longest, it was only about fifteen minutes. I can see that he was a little flustered in the distillation phase, and he was very nervous throughout the entire brewing process. It was obvious that it was his first time brewing. The next two times he made small mistakes at different places, though the color of the medicine he brewed looks to be of Good quality and above. His fourth attempt was the first time he had zero mistakes, which resulted in his first Perfect quality Cell Enhancer. On the fifth attempt, he seemed to be a little more relaxed as he grew in familiarity with the brewing process. On his sixth attempt, his speed became significantly faster. He was even faster in his seven and eighth attempts. On the ninth attempt, he changed the procedure in the final fusion phase… Other than the first three attempts, all seventeen other attempts produced Cell Enhancers of Perfect quality. What kind of monster is he to possess such incredible talent? Too bad the camera could only capture him from the back, and I couldn’t see the entire process.”

Gu Ding was oblivious that his entire brewing process was captured on camera, though Neptune was perfectly aware of that. He deliberately let the camera record Gu Ding’s brewing attempts so that someone with authority could potentially see Gu Ding’s talents in Pharmacology. If he became popular this way, it would be a lot easier for him to obtain resources in the future.

At this moment, Gu Ding was already back at home in the Red Light District. He was already in the graduating class and had already accumulated enough credit hours to graduate. He had the choice of attending the remaining classes, and his class hours were entirely up to him.

“You can absorb the medicine more easily if you soak your entire body in hot water,” Neptune reminded him.

“Yup.” Gu Ding knew about this method from browsing the Internet. He went into his bathroom and filled the bathtub with hot water, then took off all his clothes and stepped into the bathtub. He reached out a hand to access his Inventory and retrieved a Perfect quality F-grade Cell Enhancer. With a tip of his head, he emptied the contents into his mouth.

Gu Ding felt a hot current course through his throat and into his stomach. Energy radiated as the liquid entered his stomach and spread out in all directions. Gu Ding felt that his body was on fire.

“Don’t try to resist this heat. Let it wash through every cell in your body, and try to maintain consciousness. If you lose consciousness, your Cell Index will still increase by 7, but the speed of this increase might be halved. Some people only need one week to fully absorb its effects, and some people need more than two months. The medicine is best absorbed in this explosion of energy and its rate of absorption is the fastest.” Neptune explained to him.

Gu Ding clenched his fists tightly and endured the agony. He tried to keep his mind away from the heat that was burning his body.

The fiery-hot current coursed through Gu Ding’s body. Wherever the current went, Gu Ding felt pain like being branded by a hot iron. A normal person would not be able to tolerate that level of pain.

After some time, Gu Ding felt his vision become blurry. A curious scene appeared in his mind.

Snowflakes were falling. He saw a middle-aged man carrying a baby in his arms and walking toward Rose Tavern. When he reached the entrance, he placed the baby into the dumpster next to the door.

“Hey! What are you doing? It’s illegal under Federation Law to dump babies. If you’re caught, you’ll be thrown in prison for at least twenty years!” Gu Ding yelled at that man while jogging in his direction.

He stretched his arm as he reached close to that man. Unexpectedly, his arms passed through that man, as if he were transparent. He looked upward and saw the man’s face.

“Dad?!”

The man silently watched the baby in the dumpster. A snowflake landed on the baby’s forehead, and it was swiped away by the man’s hand. The baby’s two tiny arms reached for the man’s thumb and grasped it. The baby chuckled happily.

Something flashed in the man’s eyes. He closed them for a long time, then he lifted the baby once more and pushed open the front entrance to the Rose Tavern.

“I picked you up from the dumpster.” Dad would always say whenever Gu Ding asked where he came from, his breath reeking of alcohol.

Auntie Roastbeef also said the same thing. “I remember the first time meeting you little fella. You were still a baby, and you were tightly held in that wino’s arms.”

“How can you be my biological son? My eyes are blue, and your eyes are black. My hair is brown, and your hair is black. Also, my hair is a little curly too, even though you can’t see it at this length. I’m so tall and strong, but you’re so small and weak. And… I’m so handsome, but as for you… you’re also handsome, but you don’t have my looks. How many times do I have to tell you that I picked you up from the dumpster?” Dad has always described him in a way that listed all his inadequacies.

“You idiot. Fighting with someone again? Your leg isn’t even as thick as their arm. How’d you expect to win? What are you crying for? Let me teach you. If you want to pick a fight, pick someone smaller than you.” Dad would always comfort him whenever he fought with his friends, even though he knew that Gu Ding was the smallest one among boys of his age.

“Here, take a big gulp. You’re already ten and still don’t know how to drink ale? Are you a man?” When he was ten years old, his father challenged him to drink alcohol. The entire Rose Tavern laughed at him.

“I’ve promised an old friend that I will take care of you for fifteen years. And today is the last day. Don’t come and look for me.” Those were Dad’s last words. It was written on a piece of paper placed under a drinking glass. He had shattered the glass into a million pieces, and the piece of paper was already torn to bits.

“Dad…” Gu Ding’s tears fell uncontrollably.