Looking at the long list of unreadable codes, Gu Ding knew without a second thought that it must be X. However, he also guessed that it would not be good news if X called him at this time.
“The boy timed us right.” “Neptune could not help teasing.
Gu Ding pressed the answer button, and X’s voice came over slowly, “I’m guessing you must have arrived by now. Am I right?”
“We just arrived. What can we do for you?” Gu Ding turned on the speaker function.
“How do I start this time?” Gu Ding and his crew all heard X mutter under his breath, then they heard X say, “The thing is, normally, when I break bad news to someone, I try to find good news and say both of them together. That way, people won’t think I’m a jinx who only brings them bad news. However, I have no good news for you today. Only bad news, but it’s not that bad.”
“Brother, can’t you just say it? We’ll think you more of a jinx if you keep on dillydallying.” Lilliath, who preferred to deal with straightforward people, finally spoke up.
“Well, the bad news is that the guy who was supposed to hand you your present won’t be here for another two days. You’ll need to spend two days on Probrand.” X finally broke the bad news.
“That’s it?” Gu Ding could not help asking after he waited for a while and did not hear anything else.
“What else do you want to hear?” X asked.
“Nothing, jinx. If there’s nothing else, I’m going to hang up.” Gu Ding reached out his finger and was about to hang up when he heard X’s voice.
“Wait, there’s one more thing!”
“Can’t you just tell us everything in one go?” Lilliath teased once again.
“All I want to say is, please don’t call me jinx, thank…” Before X could spit out another word, Gu Ding hung up the call.
“The barbeque over there looks delicious. Let’s try it out!” Gu Ding had been staring at a shop fifty meters away since forever, and that was the main reason he was anxious to hang up X’s call.
“Why, Gu Ding, you saw the same shop as I did.” Lilliath turned her head and made eye contact with Gu Ding, clearly a long-established understanding. Clearly, her displeasure toward X was also because of seeing the barbeque restaurant.
“Barbeque…” Elsa’s mouth watered at the sight of the barbeque in the restaurant’s window.
“The color looks good, and you can smell the aroma of the barbeque from here. Both color and aroma are perfect, so it should taste good.” Biggie talked just like a food critic.
Little cat thief, Tagore immediately leaped from Gu Ding’s shoulder, and the rest immediately ran after him.
As for the remaining member, Robert, he still maintained his mad scientist attitude–he refused any social occasions and locked himself in the cabin. In fact, he never opened the door to his room during the whole trip, except for when he got the three remaining materials from Gu Ding. However, Neptune asked everyone not to disturb him, so everyone let him be.
The barbeque restaurant was called BBQ, as to what abbreviation it was, they did not delve into it.
The barbeque restaurant had a large storefront and an outdoor terrace. On the terrace stood nearly a hundred canopies, under it were brightly colored tables and chairs.
It was midday, and business was good at the barbeque restaurant. The store was almost full, but Gu Ding and his crew were lucky enough to find two or three empty seats left on the terrace.
Gu Ding led them to a vacant spot on the terrace and sat down. The crowd gathered in a circle, and Biggie sat down on the ground as usual. With his size, there was really no stool that could withstand his weight.
They quickly ordered what they wanted to eat, then began to chat. Such scenes had not appeared for more than half a month. During the voyage of more than half a month, they were all in a frenzy to improve their strength. Admittedly, cultivation could bring great strength, but it was also boring. Everyone else was a little stressed out, other than perhaps Robert. This stopover also felt like a holiday after half a month of hard work. That was why when X said they needed to wait on this planet for two days, Gu Ding felt it was good news. Not only Gu Ding thought so, but so did Lilliath and the others.
“Everyone’s free to explore the town these two days. However, to be safe, at least move in pairs. It’s not clear why my bounty has remained the same for so long, but surely the Army will not give up so easily.” Not only had Gu Ding’s bounty not been renewed for more than half a month, but it seemed that none of the other Interstellar Pirates in the entire Faye Cosmic Nation had their bounties renewed.
“About this matter, I have just read that a half month ago, some confidential information was lost in an attack on the Databank of Mideon Media Company’s Faye Cosmic Nation branch. They’ve been reviewing the matter internally and the Federal Government is helping with the investigation, which has temporarily halted other projects. This morning, Mideon Media Company’s headquarters issued a letter of apology.” Neptune said and projected the apology letter.
The apology letter was not short, detailing everything that happened half a month ago. Then it went on to explain why the bounties had not been updated and assured everyone that it would be updated within 30 hours.
Lilliath, who had been drinking all this while, was not keen on hearing anything about Mideon Media Company.
“What do you think my bounty will go up to?” Gu Ding noticed Lilliath’s mood and changed the subject.
“I think it’s going to be at least two billion Universe Credits.” Biggie was the first to speak, and he guessed conservatively.
“Five billion, I guess, because the Hunter squad’s leaders all had Gene Levels of Peak Rank-12, and their combat effectiveness has reached Rank-13. The squad’s Highest Capture Reward is 4.8 billion Universe Credits. You took out their squad so it should be more than 4.8 billion.” Elsa analyzed.
“That’s not how it works.” Lilliath finally spoke. “There’s a lot more to the bounty amount than combat effectiveness. For example, things like the crew’s strength, the level of threat to the Federal Government, various factors such as the nature of the damage caused in each event… They even analyzed everyone’s personality, whether they are radical or conservative, and even dig deep into their character in terms of their upbringing.”
“A lot of people are offered high bounties, not because of their high combat effectiveness, but because of the amount of damage they caused, which the Federal Government considers as bad. Gu Ding’s incident this time, though influential, did not actually cause much damage. He did not even damage a single building; he only somewhat damaged the port’s floor. There were also no other innocent people killed or injured. If you only take his combat effectiveness into account, his bounty is unlikely to rise above five billion. I estimate that his bounty will not be more than three billion.”
“Do you think our bounties will increase?” Elsa was looking forward to it.
“Probably not, because we were hardly involved in this incident. Elsa and Tagore, you two just stood by and watched the fight. There could have been a cascade of increases when the bounties are low, but our bounties are already quite high so that is unlikely.” Lilliath shook her head.
“After we finish eating, everyone’s free to move around, but then again, at least move in pairs.” Gu Ding emphasized once again because he was a little nervous about them going solo.
Although Lilliath had already been promoted to a Rank-9 Gene Body, her combat effectiveness was uncertain, Gu Ding figured that she would not be able to escape a Rank-12 pursuer.
Elsa was a confused little girl and could be kidnapped by someone with food.
As for Biggie, without Lilliath’s hypnosis, he was not a threat at all.
If no one was watching little cat thief, Tagore, who knows what would happen on this planet.
“I’m going with Lili!” Elsa and Lili were like sisters–they do everything together. The main thing was that Lili was more independent and she was less assertive. If Elsa stayed with Lili, she did not have to worry about anything.
“I want to go somewhere I can buy ingredients,” Biggie said, thinking Lili and the others would not want to go to the food market with him.
“Then Tagore can go with you.” Gu Ding looked at Tagore. “Protect Biggie. If you want anything to eat, get Biggie to buy it for you.”
Tagore raised his paw and patted Biggie. It seemed to mean, “Don’t worry, I got your back.”
He was lazy to talk because his throat was not constructed the same way as a human’s, and it took a lot of effort to produce human speech each time.
“That’s it, I’m with Neptune. Everyone has to hurry back to the spaceship before sundown and have dinner together. At night, we’ll make arrangements regarding the situation. If anything comes up, contact everyone with the communicator.” As Gu Ding spoke, everyone’s barbeque was served.
After a satisfying meal, they all went their separate ways.
Lilliath led Elsa straight to the boutique. Tagore hopped on Biggie’s shoulders, and the two headed for the food market.
Meanwhile, Gu Ding sat back and took a sip of his juice. “The worst thing about this barbeque restaurant is that it doesn’t serve milca.”
“Would you like a drink? There’s a tavern about eighty meters from here, at two o’clock. ‘ For Gu Ding, Neptune was an all-purpose guide.
“Yes, let’s have a drink first and then we’ll wander around.” Gu Ding paid the bill and headed straight for the tavern not far away.
