Nuclear Warhead Cooked in Wine

It is an era of artificial superintelligences, interstellar travel, gene medicine, and virtual reality worlds. Far into Earth's future, 15-year-old Gu Ding is a student of Cerulean Military Academy by day, and tavern waiter by night. His ambition: Become the space pirate with the highest bounty offered by the Universal Federation Government. With the help of Neptune, a neonate super-intelligence, Gu Ding finds himself thrust into a galaxy of shadowy organizations, political underdealings, and otherworldly forces that lie beyond human comprehension…

The Highest Bounty

As usual, Modican spoke to him in a loud voice with no scruples. After three months without much contact, Gu Ding was delighted to hear his voice again. "Teacher, I have been busy cultivating these few days. My communicator was set to automatically block calls."

"I know you're busy. Seeing how your bounty increases every few days, I know you're not idle. You also probably don't have much time to practice your medicine refining skills. However, seeing how you haven't appeared on the news these past few days, I figured that you'd be taking a break. Hence, I thought I'd give you a five days notice. That's why I dialed your number several times. Nevertheless, no one answered."

"There are only three days left until this Newcomer's Ranking Competition. You can join it if you have time to spare. Forget about it if you don't." Modican did not seem to care much about the competition.

An Unexpected Interstellar Storm