The Highest Bounty - Chapter 101

Chapter 101: Backtracking Upon Space-Time

“Neptune, what happened?”

Normally, Neptune notifies the team in advance before the hull shakes, allowing Gu Ding and Liliath to brace themselves. But when the ship shook this time, Neptune did not give an early warning and both Gu Ding and Liliath nearly fell down. Instead, only Biggie stood steadily on the ground, as if there was a magnetic force between his soles and the floorboard.

“We… seem to have experienced the legendary space-time backtracking …” Neptune’s tone sounded grave.

“What is space-time backtracking?” Gu Ding thought it sounded a bit unpleasant.

“Space-time backtracking is a very rare phenomenon of disordered space-time phenomena that occurs in the universe, which makes the time and space of a certain area in the universe go back into the past. The coverage of the area may be large or small and large ones may cover the entire star field. Small ones might only happen to a small village on a certain planet. The time backtracked also varies by large amounts. Sometimes it may be hundreds of years ago, sometimes it may be tens of billions of years ago.

“This phenomenon would also cause a space loop which we can’t escape, and people outside can’t come in, so all we can do is wait patiently.”

“How long will this phenomenon last?” Gu Ding asked.

“It’s possible that it’d last for a few minutes to a few days. Generally, it isn’t too long, so everyone shouldn’t be nervous.” Neptune himself felt a little helpless. After this phenomenon occurred, the communication network had completely failed, and he could not get any new information. He did not know what time period they had backtracked to.

“If we have experienced space-time backtracking, why haven’t any changes happened to us?” Liliath wondered.

“When space-time backtracking occurs, some people or things will exist as variables. They are the things that remain unchanged during space-time backtracking. Other people and things would be replaced as constants, such as Derisis… ” Neptune’s words led Gu Ding and his colleagues to look out the window.

“Isn’t that planet Derisis?” Biggie looked incredulously out of the window where Derisis was. It was replaced by another huge planet, which was at least a thousand times the size of Derisis.

“That should be Derisis, or to be more precise, what used to be Desiris billions or even tens of billions of years ago. The planet you guys just left was the meteorite left behind after the planet cracked,” Neptune explained.

“If a significant enough event were to take place whilst we were experiencing this phenomenon, would the real timeline disappear forever? Wouldn’t that make it a catastrophe every space-time backtracking occurred?” Liliath considered this problem.

“After the present timeline is replaced, the original timeline will be squeezed into a parallel space and continue to exist in another form. They won’t even know that space-time backtracking has taken place. Only those who became variables would know it had happened.”

Just then, the hull suddenly shook again.

“Everyone be seated, I must land the spaceship!” Neptune’s voice sounded nervous. “Otherwise, we will have trouble!”

At this time, Liliath had seen the source of the trouble that Neptune was talking about from the window. It was a giant that was about the size of the original star of Derisis. Its huge head and long tail caused it to resemble a giant blue tadpole. “That’s… a star monster?!”

“It’s a giant blue whale monster. It usually eats meteorites and often, metal meteorites, so it will also attack human spaceships.” Neptune explained, “We must land as soon as possible, otherwise the Grey Eagle will be eaten by it.”

Looking at the giant monster’s mouth, a frightening burst of air shot out from its mouth, sweeping all the surrounding meteorite fragments into its mouth. Everyone’s hair stood on its end. If the Grey Eagle were attacked that way, it would definitely not be able to escape.

Neptune maneuvered the spacecraft and soon landed it on the nearest green planet. Green planets were usually lush with plants, which made it suitable for the sustainability of life.

After the spacecraft landed, Neptune was able to pinpoint their point in time; they had traveled back 14.6 billion years.

Neptune’s initial suggestion was that the three of them should remain in the spaceship and wait for time to go back, but Gu Ding felt it was too boring. He decided to use this time to look for the veins on the planet to see if there was an energy ore that Robert could make use of.

The three of them got out of the spacecraft and were in a good mood because the oxygen content here was extremely high and there were no pollutants either.

Through the analysis of the soil quality, Neptune had likely guessed the types of veins on the planet. Based on the condition of the veins, it was not difficult to calculate the location of these veins.

“This kind of ore is called Earth-Fire Crystals, which is produced by absorbing the energy from earth fire all year round. It is a type of energy ore.” Neptune explained, “You can try putting it into Robert’s body.”

Taking out the metal ball that Robert turned into, Gu Ding put an Earth-Fire Crystal on it.

One minute, two minutes… they waited for fifteen minutes without any response.

“It seems that this kind of ore is useless.” Gu Ding shook his head. “Let’s continue to look for other ones.”

“There is a giant monster with an eighth-order gene coming in this direction, all of you please hide for a bit!” Neptune’s detection radius had increased to one kilometer. In this environment, the advantage was much larger than before.

The three heard the words and sprang up into a large tree, covering their bodies with the dense foliage.

A giant beast soon appeared. It was a giant cat with a body length of more than 20 meters. Its movements were frighteningly swift; a walking death sentence wrapped in a body of fur.

“It’s so beautiful!” Liliath could not help utter in admiration.

At this moment, the cat’s ear flicked twice, and then its eyes fell on the tree where the three of them were hiding. It dashed over.

Gu Ding and Liliath fled as fast as they could, but Biggie leaped into action. His speed was faster than that of the feline’s and immediately appeared under the big cat’s throat. His left hand was like a knife and he lifted it high. Chaotic energy shot out instantly, directly cutting into the big cat’s throat. The beast immediately froze.

Gu Ding and Liliath saw this scene and they were both a little shocked. It was indeed surprising that Biggie had killed the giant golden crocodile before, but everyone had only seen the results and assumed there was a tussle. But now it was clear there was not the slightest chance that an eighth-order gene monster could attack Biggie. It was a feline animal that was the strongest of the eight-order gene-monsters in regard to speed and response.

“Are you all right?” Biggie handed the energy crystal beads from the cat’s body to Gu Ding.

“I’m okay, but that eighth-order genome, with mine and Liliath’s current strength, we would not have stood a chance.” Gu Ding shook his head, he still felt that his strength was insufficient.

“Just leave it to me!” Biggie smiled sincerely.

“Biggie, let them handle any genetic beast of less than eighth-order. Don’t take intervene. Let it be an opportunity for the two of them to train in actual combat!” Neptune’s voice suddenly sounded in all three of their ears.

“I happen to think so too!” Gu Ding nodded with a grin.