Chapter 199: Mysterious Base

Yang Bo’s idea was simple. It’s just like Earth’s golden grass, which is said to grow wherever gold is found.

Yang Bo recalled that the official website stated this fungus only grows in a specific region, probably covering tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Yang Bo carefully placed the entire fungus into a special preservation bag and put it in his backpack before continuing forward.

“Collect all the non-toxic things and cultivate the tasty ones in the basement.” Yang Bo’s plan was straightforward. With a house and money now, it was time to enjoy life a bit. What’s wrong with eating some wild food? He still planned to go collect seafood from the ocean later.

These trees had a unique ability. As long as the trunk touched the soil, it could sprout roots.

Due to the annual windstorm season, the dust on the back of Redstone Mountain would increase by several centimeters or sometimes more than ten centimeters. The tree trunks would get buried by dust a few centimeters to even ten centimeters deep.

After being buried, new roots would form, while the deeper ones would rot.

These trees didn’t have leaves; they were completely bare. Actually, their bare branches were what counted as their ‘leaves.’

He found a tree with a square trunk. Looking up, he saw fruits growing on it.

Every windstorm season, the fruits on the trunk would expel seeds, which would be carried away by the wind.

Some of these seeds would fall into the desert. During the windstorm season, there would be rain in the desert. The seeds would think they had found a suitable place, sprout, and take root.

Unfortunately, as soon as they sprouted, the herbivores in the desert would eat them all.

Yang Bo snapped his fingers twice, causing the branches above to break, and a few fruits fell down. The seeds looked just like pinecones.

Yang Bo placed the fruits into separate preservation bags. He didn’t plan to hunt animals. Even if they were tasty, underground bunkers weren’t suitable for breeding them. He’d get seafood from the shore anyway.

After a busy night, Yang Bo finally collected enough. Spotting a crevice in the distant mountain, he decided to head over, release his mecha, and store his backpack in its storage compartment.

Thud! Suddenly, Yang Bo sensed something was wrong, and he dropped to the ground. The tree behind him looked like it had been hit by something.

“Electromagnetic gun.” Seeing a silver bullet fly over his head, Yang Bo immediately remembered a weapon by that name.

At that moment, someone stood up from below the mountain and fired another shot at Yang Bo with an electromagnetic gun.

“Who are these people?” Yang Bo rolled to a large rock, surprised.

He was completely puzzled. He was just out here collecting plant specimens, certainly not someone the government would be after. If the government found him, they wouldn’t try to kill him immediately.

Another figure appeared to Yang Bo’s side, also wielding an electromagnetic gun.

The principles behind an electromagnetic gun and an electromagnetic cannon were similar. This weapon had minimal energy fluctuation but could fire high-power projectiles made of special metals.

“You’re asking for it!” Yang Bo saw yet another person and instantly used his Gravity Mastery ability, flying directly at them like Superman.

As Yang Bo flew forward, his energy fluctuations triggered the planet’s alert system, which immediately activated the surveillance array to monitor the area.

However, Yang Bo had already arrived in a place that couldn’t be detected by the array.

Smack! Smack!

Yang Bo grabbed the man by the neck and ruthlessly slapped him twice.

The man was wearing camouflage gear that allowed him to blend into the environment.

But Yang Bo was too fast. There was a tunnel behind the man, and he hadn’t had a chance to react before Yang Bo had grabbed him by the neck, releasing a current of electricity from his hand.

The man was paralyzed on the spot, and Yang Bo mercilessly slapped him two more times.

Seeing the tunnel behind the man, Yang Bo slapped the man’s head hard enough to shatter his brain.

Tracking +8!

The ability this guy dropped surprised Yang Bo.

Yang Bo wasn’t in his own appearance now but was disguised as the pirate leader. His helmet and battle armor were identical to the pirate leader’s.

His armor gleaming with energy, Yang Bo leaped into the tunnel.

This tunnel was hidden at the base of the mountain’s cliff and was camouflaged. You couldn’t notice it from more than one or two meters away.

The tunnel was deep, about ten meters. As Yang Bo landed, he saw it was an artificially dug passage.

He glanced in the direction the first attacker had fled and swiftly chased after him.

“Wait, wait! Don’t misunderstand!” After running a short distance, he saw a man ahead raise an electromagnetic gun, loudly shouting.

“Why did you attack me?” Yang Bo pointed his glowing energy weapon at the man and asked.

The man’s outfit looked ordinary, without any Energy Suit, just advanced camouflage gear.

“Sir, we apologize for our rudeness. We thought you were with the government.” The man quickly explained.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” Yang Bo wasn’t worried about the other man deceiving him; his strength was clearly inferior.

“This is a base of the Bounty Hunter Guild.” The man hurriedly explained and showed Yang Bo a badge.

“This is our badge. You’ve probably heard of us.” The man’s badge was made of energy metal and synced with him, glowing as he held it.

The badge was oval-shaped with a bow image on it, and nothing else.

“Sir, if you’re wandering around alone here at night, I doubt you’re just some law-abiding citizen. We of the Bounty Hunter Guild welcome powerful individuals to join us.” The man said again.

“I’ve already killed one of your people,” Yang Bo said, waving his glowing energy weapon around.

“That’s not a problem at all. Powerful individuals are treated differently everywhere.” The man holding the electromagnetic gun quickly reassured him.

Fearful of being killed, the man hurriedly explained, knowing they had made a mistake. They thought they could handle it easily, but who could have expected such strength? In an instant, the stranger had crossed over 1000 meters. They didn’t even know how he had done it.

At that moment, an energy fluctuation came from the tunnel behind Yang Bo. He quickly gathered a ball of fire and hurled it backward.

The man holding the electromagnetic gun immediately dropped to his knees, trembling in fear.

Boom! A massive explosion rang out from the tunnel, followed by a wave of intense heat.

“Sir, it’s a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”

“We mean no harm!” Two panicked voices came from the other side of the tunnel.

“If I sense another energy fluctuation, you’ll all die.” Yang Bo used his fire ability to see how strong it was, but part of him was also curious about the Bounty Hunter Guild. This stronghold seemed quite capable.

Two figures wearing Energy Suit emerged somewhat awkwardly from the tunnel.

“I swear, it’s all a misunderstanding.”

“Sir, the mountain crevice you’re heading towards is actually the ventilation shaft for our base.” One of them was wearing bronze-colored armor, while the other had black armor. The man in bronze spoke up.

He removed his helmet, revealing a bald-headed middle-aged man.

“Why did you build your base here?” Yang Bo asked out of curiosity.

“Our Bounty Hunter Guild is unofficial and not recognized by the Alliance, but in the Crimson Federation and Azure Blue Empire, we’re perfectly legal.” The bald man explained.

“The Bounty Hunter Guild is ancient. Initially, we helped the authorities capture fugitives. In the Crimson Federation and Azure Blue Empire, we work primarily with government contracts.”

“But here within the Alliance, we can’t officially cooperate with the government. We only handle personal disputes in secret for private clients.”

“All of us have legal identities on this planet. We built this base here to test prospective members who want to join the Bounty Hunter Guild.”

“New members must reach a specific target on their own without being detected by the planet’s alert system.” The man explained a lot.

“Well, since it was all a misunderstanding, I’ll be on my way,” Yang Bo said, not entirely believing their story.

“If you’re interested in knowing more about us, or if you’d like to join, we have a shop in the black market called the Hunter Store.” The man hurriedly added.

Yang Bo waved his hand, using his fire ability to burn the bag on his back, then left past the kneeling man.

After exiting the tunnel, Yang Bo walked along the cliff for a while and then turned invisible.

While invisible, Yang Bo returned to the tunnel and saw someone in Energy Suit cleaning up the body of the man he had killed.

“He must be at least A-level strength,” Yang Bo approached the tunnel and overheard.

It was the first guy who shot at him, leaning against the tunnel wall, still shaken up.

“President, who was that guy? When did March Planet get such a powerful fire ability user?” The young man in black armor asked. He had black hair and blue eyes and looked quite refined.

“No idea. He’s likely not with the government. If the government wanted something here, they’d come openly in the name of inspection, not sneak around at night.” The bald middle-aged man shook his head.

“What do we do now that Light’s dead?”

“Well, no one could have predicted this. Let’s have the guild cultivate a replacement for him at the Baby Factory. That’s all we can do for now.”

“The baby will be sent to the main guild branch. If he has abilities, he’ll get a choice. If not, we’ll take care of him for life. The main branch won’t let anyone down.” The bald president said.

The man cleaning up the body came back down, shaking his head, “That guy is ruthless.”

“A person that powerful must have been through a lot. As long as he’s not with the government, it’s fine. Haven’t heard of any organizations causing trouble here lately?” The bald president said, puzzled.

“Could he be with the Grey Ash Organization?” the young man in black armor asked.

“The Grey Ash Organization only has low-level spies left. They wouldn’t be so careless as to expose themselves.”

“This guy feels strange. He’s so powerful, but he came here just to collect regular things? I think he’s from a big company’s research department, maybe they discovered something important?” The president murmured, rubbing his chin.

The group walked deeper into the tunnel for about 1,000 meters. The tunnel was rough, with only basic lighting.

After turning a corner, Yang Bo spotted a defense cannon. Only about 100 meters away from the corner.

The cannon was still active, making Yang Bo break into a sweat. If anyone wandered into this tunnel thinking it was safe and turned the corner, they’d instantly get blasted.

“Defense cannons are this common now?” Yang Bo cursed inwardly.

Next to the cannon was a silver-metallic door. Inside was a modern-looking underground base.

The layout reminded Yang Bo of the Grey Ash Organization’s base on Green Demon Planet—an oval-shaped space about 15 meters tall, with three ninth-generation mechas parked inside.

“President, what happened?” someone asked as the bald man walked in.

“It’s a small problem…” the bald president recounted the incident.

About seventy or eighty people occupied this base. Yang Bo noticed that many of them appeared to be low-level Gene Evolutionaries, likely acting as staff members inside. Around fifty wore the badge of Bounty Hunters.

“A fire ability user? Never heard of that.”

“Nothing big seems to be going on around here recently either.”

“Do you think it’s a government scout?” Everyone started speculating.

Yang Bo wandered invisibly around the base for a while. It was similar to his underground bunker, but much better built, with more resources.

“How did they manage to build all this?” Yang Bo couldn’t fathom how such a large base could exist under the noses of the government. It also showed just how capable the Bounty Hunter Guild was.

“Everyone be careful when you leave. Don’t take on any missions for now. Let’s wait and see.” No one seemed to have any answers, so the bald president finally made the call.

“Let’s also cut all online communications for a while and not leave anyone at the base.” The bald president added.

“Everyone’s leaving?” Yang Bo was surprised when he heard this. How would they get back to the city? The nearest one was several hundred kilometers away, and there was a mountain range in between.