The Highest Bounty

Chapter 52: Gu Ding’s Unique Physique

Upon nightfall, Neptune stealthily tampered with the surveillance cameras that were installed in the square, removing all recordings of Gu Ding and Liliath.

Meanwhile, Gu Ding and Liliath took out the beast’s carcass and dug out the Energy Crystal. After they were done, Liliath stored the carcass back in the Inventory, and both of them disappeared into the cabin without a trace.

After that, Liliath skilfully implanted the Energy Crystal into Gu Ding’s neck.

At this moment, Neptune concentrated all his energy onto the changes occurring within Gu Ding’s body, as he wanted to find out exactly what secrets lay within.

Just as he had expected, a rare virus suddenly appeared out of nowhere. In less than two minutes, the virus devoured the Energy Crystal embedded in Gu Ding’s neck.

This led to another change in Gu Ding’s physique. This time, the change did not allow him to breakthrough to the Rank-3 gene body, nor did it enhance his Cell Index. Instead, it caused a slight morphological change in one of his genetic chains. Thanks to this, Gu Ding obtained a new special ability.

Gu Ding felt that his body had changed, but he could not figure out what exactly this change was. He only knew that there had not been a direct effect on his strength. “Neptune, what happened to me? Why do I feel that the Energy Crystal embedded in my neck has suddenly vanished? Besides, I don’t seem to feel any stronger than I was before.”

“Why don’t you check your body data?” Neptune suggested before pulling up his data.

Name: Gu Ding

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Gene Level: Level Two

Special Ability 1: Level Two Rage Attack (evolvable)

Ability Description: Attack power, defense power, speed, recovery ability is tripled, and lasts for ten minutes.

Side effects: Ten hours of exhaustion state which halves combat effectiveness.

Special Ability 2: Level Two Regeneration (evolvable)

Ability Description: Regenerative ability of cells is tripled (permanently).

Cell Index: 100

Mental Strength Index: 98

Battle Prowess: B+

Cognition: A

…

Looking at the sudden addition of a new ability, Gu Ding was stunned. He then asked in astonishment, “How is this even possible?”

Liliath also stared at the data with her mouth wide open. After a brief moment, she asked in puzzlement, “Why do you have a new ability even though your gene level is still at level two?”

Under normal circumstances, a person would only get a new special ability when they progressed to a higher gene level. This was because the advancement to a higher level was usually coupled with a change in one’s genetic chain, thus leading to the awakening of a new special ability. However, Gu Ding obtained a new special ability even though his gene level remained the same. Liliath simply could not understand the reasoning behind this.

It was not just Liliath, even Neptune found it difficult to comprehend. There were many records regarding special physiques in his database, but as a rule of thumb, a person could only gain a new special ability upon the advancement of his gene level. As a result, even Neptune struggled to figure out the reason why this had happened to Gu Ding.

Although Gu Ding was aware that one could only obtain a new special ability upon the advancement of one’s gene level, he suspected that irregularities could happen to people with unique physiques like him. Hence, he chose not to dwell upon this matter. Upon hearing Liliath’s question, he just replied casually, “I’m not too sure either. Who knows, maybe it’s because I have a unique physique.”

Although Liliath was still doubtful after hearing his answer, she did not ask any further questions. This was because she got the hunch that even Gu Ding himself did not know the answer to her question. Thus, Liliath could only reluctantly accept the explanation that Gu Ding’s physique was unique. At the same time, she began wondering whether Gu Ding would gain even more abilities if she were to implant the other four Energy Crystals found in the remaining beasts.

In truth, she was not the only one who had thought of this. Even Neptune was thinking of other opportunities to implant another Energy Crystal into Gu Ding’s body. He was interested to see whether or not this would awaken Gu Ding’s third special ability.

“Level two regeneration? The enhancement of my cells’ regenerative ability? It seems like this ability is not that useful.” Gu Ding was hoping to get an ability that would directly enhance his strength, but this was clearly an auxiliary ability.

“If this ability is used together with your Rage Attack and Ultimate Arts, I’m sure that your combat effectiveness will be enhanced greatly,” Neptune had a different idea. He continued, “A tripled rate of cell regeneration means an increase in the duration of your Rage Attack to 30 minutes. This also means that the damage caused to your body due to the use of Level 5 Ultimate Arts will be reduced to only one-third of the original amount.”

Gu Ding only realized that this ability indirectly enhanced his combat effectiveness after listening to Neptune’s explanation. “Now that you mention it, this ability sounds pretty good for me after all.”

“If you look at it from a non-strength enhancement perspective, I would say that this ability is even better than your Rage Attack ability,” Perhaps only Neptune felt this way. “Amongst all the special abilities, abilities with permanent attributes account for less than 1% of the total pool, making them extremely rare. Level two abilities with permanent attributes are, to a certain extent, on par with Level three abilities.

“Besides, if this ‘regenerative ability’ evolves into ‘high-speed regeneration’, an entire functional body can be regenerated if there’s even just one cell left.” There were similar records in Neptune’s database whereby a person who possessed this ability was considered immortal.

Gu Ding found it difficult to believe what Neptune just said, so he blurted out, “What does it take to evolve my Level two regeneration into high-speed regeneration?”

“The evolution process for most abilities are the same. A relatively faster way would be to inject a gene catalyst to induce the corresponding reaction of a genetic chain, which will then lead to an improvement in the particular ability. However, the usage of a gene catalyst does not always guarantee a 100% success rate. Generally, the success rate of these catalytic reactions are only around 10%, and it depends on a person’s physique as well. Some people have a success rate of less than 5%.

“Another method is via surgical treatment, whereby a person’s genetic chain is modified by professional nanobots. However, the surgery costs are quite high, and the modification process only applies to general abilities. We do not have the corresponding genetic blueprints for certain special abilities, so, in these cases, the modification process cannot be performed.

“There’s also the most stupid method, which is to keep using your abilities. The more you use them, the more likely they are to evolve.” Neptune told him the three mainstream methods of ability evolution. Neptune chose not to tell him some other unusual methods, mainly because those methods were unconventional and somewhat illegal.

“I’ve come across these three mainstream methods of ability evolution on the Internet before,” Gu Ding nodded and clenched his fists. “I wonder if I’m now able to confront that spectacled man…”