The Highest Bounty

After the raid by the Federation Army that happened in the daytime, everyone in the Red Light District was on high alert for the rest of the day. Danger and panic lurked everywhere. Gu Ding even heard the sounds of exchanging fire in the night.

 On his way to the Academy the next morning, Gu Ding noticed that the Red Light District was deserted. Some of the buildings were even destroyed, which gave him a hint of what happened the night before. There was a heavy Army presence at the entrances of the District, and anyone who passed through it required a retina scan.

 In the Academy, many of Gu Ding’s classmates were discussing the incident last night.

 “Gu Ding, was there some fighting going on in the Red Light District yesterday?”Reid was a natural talkaholic. If gossip was considered a special ability, then he was also naturally gifted in this talent. He was not one to miss out on breaking news like this.

 “I didn’t see it myself, but I did hear both sides exchanging fire. Also, when I was leaving the District this morning, there were troops restricting entry to the place.” Gu Ding nodded. He knew that if he did not tell Reid something, his friend would be bugging him for the rest of the day.

 “So do you know what happened?” Reid became a lot more interested when his rumors were confirmed.

 “The Army went to Auntie Roastbeef’s tavern to investigate yesterday. I heard that something that belonged to the Federation Government was stolen. I don’t know what it is though.” Gu Ding had a hunch that the thing that was stolen was Neptune.

 4“To the library.” After Reid walked away, Gu Ding heard Neptune talking to him. “The military and civilian communication channels on Skynet are different. All the information that I have been able to obtain is from the civilian and Dark Web channels. Even though your school is only a military academy, its internal network is connected to the military network. I can access the network from the library to find useful military information.”

 

“Can’t you override the restrictions?” Gu Ding was starting to doubt the extent of Neptune’s Skeleton Key.

 “You don’t know how powerful a mature artificial super-intelligence can be. Skynet extends over a hundred planetary councils without any latency or interruption across different dimensions. An immense structure like her has no flaws.” Neptune had his worries. “Based on my current abilities, I can override about 70% of Skynet’s restrictions. However, Skynet will detect my presence if I do so, and once she does, she will wipe me clean from this reality in no time. Your identity and location will also be exposed, and you will be chased to the ends of the universe by the Federation. If it’s not a matter of life and death, I will not expose my identity to her.”

 2“So that’s the extent of Skynet’s power…” Gu Ding scratched his head thoughtfully. “Let’s go to the library then!”

 Most natural resources on Cerule had been destroyed in the calamity before the New Era. Many plant species were annihilated, which caused the remaining species of aged wood to be an exorbitant rarity. Paper, of course, became a luxury.

 1The library of the military academy was unlike libraries of the present day. It did not have any books made out of paper, but rather all the information was stored in digital archives. One could access the archives by connecting one’s wristwatch to any terminal in the library and can thus enjoy all the basic military information the entire Skyriver Sector had to offer.

 Gu Ding sat down in front of a terminal and connected his wristwatch to it. Two or three minutes later, Nepture chirped, “I’m done here. Let’s go!”

 Once they were out of the library, Neptune’s voice was heard again. “I scanned the military network earlier and found a little surprise.”

 “You’ve discovered a backdoor?” Gu Ding was excited.

 “Oh, not that. I’ve found an item that was hidden very well behind a restriction.” Neptune’s answer was out of Gu Ding’s expectations. “I spent a bit of time creating a workaround to avoid being detected.”

 “What’s that?” Gu Ding had a hunch that the item he found was not an ordinary one.

 

“It’s a set of martial arts techniques known as Ultimate Arts. I browsed through it and it’s indeed from a long lost civilization…”

 3“Ultimate Arts? I’ve heard of it before.” Gu Ding’s expression looked weird when he said that. “I’ve heard that the Ultimate Arts were written in the glory days of martial arts civilizations. A martial arts master combined the strengths of multiple schools of martial arts. This set of techniques is special because it brings the limits of human martial arts beyond hands and feet and extends it to the elbow, the knee, the head and even the fingers and other unconventional parts of the body. This allows every part of the practitioner’s body to be a weapon. Because of this set of techniques, its creator became the undisputed champion of close combat. The Federation Army eventually received permission from the creator to be used in military training. No one was able to master all the techniques, and it was soon forgotten.”

 10“This set of Ultimate Arts is not only incomplete but also lacking some vital parts. The complete set of Ultimate Arts exists somewhere in my archives and has a total of twelve levels. This set of incomplete Arts only has seven, and its power is far inferior to the complete set,” Neptune said somewhat mockingly, “In the martial arts era, the complete set of Ultimate Arts was the culmination of several ten billions martial arts practitioners over two hundred thousand years. It is the undisputed bible of martial arts and is one of the representative works of human civilization.

 2“A typical set of martial arts techniques can utilize about 80% of the individual’s battle prowess. However, the mere first level of Ultimate Arts can utilize a full 100% of the practitioner. This is raised to 120% in the second level, 150% in the third, 200% in the fourth, 300% in the fifth, 500% in the sixth. One’s battle prowess increases a whopping 10-fold in the seventh level, 20-fold in the eighth, 40-fold in the ninth, 80-fold in the tenth, 160-fold in the eleventh, and 320-fold in the twelfth! That incomplete set of Ultimate Arts can increase its practitioner’s battle prowess to 400% at most.

 6“One has to start from Gene Level 1 to practice the complete Ultimate Arts. Also, their Cell Index has to be 15 points and above to succeed. There’s no such restriction in the incomplete version. If your Gene Level Is 1, you can start practicing it when your Cell Index is 12, and you can achieve level seven at most. Any higher, your body will start to break down. Practitioners of the incomplete Ultimate Arts will suffer from an accelerated rate of aging and most of them die young.”

 “If it’s like what you said, then there’s no one that can practice Ultimate Arts. The absolute Cell Index limit of a Gene Level 1 human is 10. You can only raise the Index if you break through to another Gene Level.” Gu Ding found that the requirements to practice this set of martial arts techniques are unusually harsh.

 “That’s true. Under normal circumstances, one’s Cell Index is limited by their Gene Level. There are certain ways that one could break this limit, for example, with Cell Enhancers. There’s also electroshock therapy that can activate the latent powers of one’s cells, but the effects are quite limited. There’s also targeted radiation that can directly cause a cell to mutate…”

 “These methods of strengthening would each cost tens of thousands of Star Credits. I don’t have that much money.” Gu Ding was telling the truth this time. He earned 5 Star Credits every month, and after deducting his daily expenses, he had only managed to save up about 200 Star Credits after all these years.

 “I’d suggest that you take another look at your private account.” Neptune’s tone of voice was calm.

 Gu Ding logged in to his bank account and saw his balance.

 “How did I get so much money in my account?”