Bona Golden Ape

Although Tang Yu knew it would be expensive, he still raised his eyebrows when he heard the figure of 1.1 million. It was fucking expensive!

"What about this?" Tang Yu shifted his gaze to the crystal bead beside the Gene Enhancement Serum. The liquid inside was not bright red, but glimmered with an eerie black light, like thick, smooth ink.

"Berserk Gene Serum?" The saleswoman was visibly stunned by Tang Yu's question. Doubts rose in her heart, but doubts aside, money still had to be made.

"Three million!"

Tang Yu had only one thought when he heard that: Why not just rob him? Why not just rob him?! Something the size of a thumb cost three million. Even selling the house Tang Wei had left him would not be enough!

"Get me an ordinary one." Tang Yu sighed and spoke to the saleswoman. As for the Berserk Gene Serum, he could forget about it. It was not something he could afford.

With a soft chime, another 1.1 million was gone. Tang Yu's heart ached. He had originally had more than 1.9 million on his card, but now there was only a little over 700,000 left. Once he went back, got the mech repaired, and paid the registration fee, he would probably have only five or six hundred thousand remaining. Four years of university... Sigh. He was going to be stretched thin!

"You're not selling fakes here, are you?" Seeing the pained look on Tang Yu's face, Meng Xuanxuan could not help questioning the saleswoman.

"You can rest assured, miss. Our shop does honest business and treats everyone fairly. We would not ruin our own reputation!"

It was not the first time the two of them had heard that. This was one advantage of trading at the Exchange Market: honest deals. You either made a loss or did not; there was no such thing as getting scammed. The black market's credit rankings were not just for show!

Farther ahead, it was no longer just about selling goods. All kinds of information were being sold as well, though that was not what Tang Yu cared about.

"I heard Lu Tengfei got thirteen consecutive wins tonight. Is that true?"

Without even trying to listen in, Tang Yu heard the news right beside him.

"Of course it is. His fourteenth match is about to start. We have to go watch!"

As she watched groups of people head toward the nearby arena, excitement appeared on Meng Xuanxuan's face as well.

"Tang Yu, should we go take a look too?" She had only ever seen such scenes online before. She had never watched one in person!

"It's just savages fighting. What's there to see?" Tang Yu mercilessly poured cold water over Meng Xuanxuan's enthusiasm. She could not help pouting. What was with this guy? Didn't boys like this sort of thing? Why did it become savages fighting when it came to him?

"Is there anything else you want to buy?" Tang Yu turned back and asked Meng Xuanxuan.

Meng Xuanxuan shook her head. She had come to the black market partly out of curiosity and partly to purchase things unavailable outside. She had already placed her orders and only needed to collect them later. There was nothing else she wanted!

"Then let's go back." As he spoke, Tang Yu turned and started walking back.

"Hey, hey, hey! You're way too boring! Going in for a look won't kill us!" Meng Xuanxuan was speechless. Weren't they here to join in the fun? Were they supposed to stay in the hotel for all three days?

"Miss, admission is three thousand per person! Do you have money to burn?"

"Snap..."

Hearing that, Meng Xuanxuan snapped her fingers crisply. "You got that right!"

"..."

Tang Yu's face darkened. He had really forgotten about that. Meng Xuanxuan was the young lady of the Dream Domain Network, whose family controlled all of Mars's network resources and held a huge share on Earth as well. Even Jupiter Base's network domain had been jointly established by the Dream Domain Network and the government. She really was not short on money!

"Come on, come on!" After Meng Xuanxuan repeatedly tugged at him, Tang Yu reluctantly followed her to the arena. After paying the fee, they finally entered.

This arena was divided into many sections and was as large as several football fields. Meng Xuanxuan had heard what the passersby said earlier, so she had specifically come to watch Lu Tengfei's fourteenth consecutive victory.

They entered one of the arenas. Ring upon ring of tiered seats surrounded a ten-meter-square pit in the center, enclosed by an enormous convex hemispherical glass dome that allowed the audience to see the battle clearly.

Tang Yu recognized this kind of glass. His physics textbook had mentioned it in school. It was made from several special materials, and even the viewing windows on civilian spacecraft were made of the stuff. However, it was not cheap either. A piece this large would cost at least several hundred thousand. What a lavish display—they were spending money like water!

Every seat had a small display showing the odds for the battle: Lu Tengfei VS Bona Golden Ape! Then came the information on both sides. Lu Tengfei: Force Warrior, gene count 150... Bona Golden Ape...

"Bona Golden Ape! A non-social primate mutant species, publicly recognized as the strongest first-level mutant!" That sentence instantly surfaced in Tang Yu's mind. Modern biology had mentioned that a D-class mech was like paper in front of one. It could send one flying with a single slap!

Tang Yu had fought the Colorless Python, but that had been an ambush. He had also fought the level-four Mutant Corpsefolk leader, but that leader had been severely wounded at the time and had less than a tenth of its peak strength. Even so, Tang Yu had been beaten without any ability to fight back, and had needed a week in the hospital to recover. Facing this Bona Golden Ape, Tang Yu had no confidence in defeating it. It was simply too powerful. With a body that large, the force of one slap would definitely far exceed Tang Yu's own!

The display showed equal odds of one to one for both sides. Below that were other bets, such as how many moves Lu Tengfei would need to win: one move to finish it off, with two moves counting as one; or five moves, with four, five, and six moves all counting.

Naturally, the payouts decreased accordingly. Betting on a one-move finish would pay tenfold if it won—that was a full million! Betting on five moves still paid fivefold, while ten moves paying double was not bad either!

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Suddenly, waves of roars rang out, stabbing painfully at everyone's eardrums. Then Tang Yu saw a gorilla over three meters tall and weighing more than a ton being released into the arena!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The moment it was released, the violent gorilla sprang up like an unbridled wild horse. Its palms, larger than wheels, slammed against the glass dome with loud bangs. The audience below began cheering and shouting along, deliberately provoking it!

Amid another burst of noisy applause and cheers, a figure entered through the gate!

"My god!"

At the sight of that figure, Meng Xuanxuan beside Tang Yu let out a cry of surprise.

The man was definitely over two meters tall. His bare body was covered in bronze muscles that coiled like flood dragons, brimming with explosive power. A pair of shorts made from some unknown beast hide wrapped around his waist. His arms were thicker than Tang Yu's thighs and hung all the way to his knees. He was practically comparable to the Bona Golden Ape. Ancient books spoke of people whose arms reached their knees; Tang Yu had finally seen one today.

"Lu Tengfei!"

"Lu Tengfei!"

Someone shouted first, and soon people throughout the crowd were cheering.

Roar!

As if pumped full of stimulants, the Bona Golden Ape noticed someone entering. It immediately spun around, leaped with all its strength, and pounced on Lu Tengfei. Forget anything else—just its weight and speed alone were enough to crush a person to death.

Lu Tengfei, however, showed no fear at all. He spread his feet apart, pressed down sharply, and leaned his entire body backward as though he were about to lie on the ground.

"He's courting death!"

Seeing this, Meng Xuanxuan shut her eyes. She could already picture Lu Tengfei being flattened into a meat pancake beneath the Bona Golden Ape. But was that really what happened?

Bang!

With a flying kick, Lu Tengfei's body moved in a way that defied physics, his foot viciously striking the Bona Golden Ape right between its legs. Even through the glass dome, everyone felt an ache in their balls and instinctively tightened up, while an indescribable sorrow filled the air.

Roar!

Another furious roar rang out. Lu Tengfei's kick carried at least a thousand pounds of force, yet the damage it inflicted on the Bona Golden Ape seemed to end there. Instead, it only further enraged the beast's ferocity.

Its powerful limbs braced against the ground like four sturdy pillars. When it charged, it was like a speeding truck. When it was about two meters from Lu Tengfei, it stretched out one hand and viciously slapped at his head. If that blow landed solidly, forget a human head—even an iron ball would be crushed flat.

Meng Xuanxuan had just opened her eyes when she saw that scene. She had not reacted in the previous instant, and now her mind short-circuited again. Tang Yu had no idea how her Force had awakened in the first place!

At that point, it was already too late to dodge. Two meters! It would arrive in an instant. By the time your brain reacted and told you to evade, that wheel-sized palm would have already smashed your head to pulp.

Crack!

With an inexplicable crisp sound, the enormous body of the Bona Golden Ape was sent flying. The back of its head nearly touched its spine. This time, Meng Xuanxuan saw everything clearly.

The instant the Bona Golden Ape raised its hand, Lu Tengfei moved. He had not chosen to dodge—or rather, he had never intended to dodge at all. He jumped straight up and drove an upward kick into the Bona Golden Ape's jaw. His body completed a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation in midair, and he actually kicked the Bona Golden Ape to death in a single blow.

It completely exceeded everyone's expectations. The strength Lu Tengfei displayed far surpassed that of a Force Warrior with a gene count of 100. Tang Yu even suspected that Lu Tengfei's gene count might already be close to 300.

Tang Yu's maximum explosive force could exceed 2,000 kilograms, but he could not maintain that at all times. It was not impossible for him to kick over something weighing more than a ton, but he could not do it as effortlessly as Lu Tengfei had!