The players activated their armor's filters, becoming immune to the poison gas, and looked at Han Xiao, awaiting his orders.
"That captain used his privileges to lock the ship's navigation. I'll hack into the ship's system and change its course. You guys blast open the alloy door, some of you go to the main control room to insert this chip, and the rest of you bring Sylvia and her accomplices back to me."
Han Xiao opened his palm, and with a flash of lightning, a black chip flew out of his pocket.
"Clear."
Melos nodded, put away the chip, and swung his ship-slaying sword, unleashing a burst of energy. With a swift stroke, he struck the alloy door, producing a piercing sound as steel tore apart, and cleaved a gap in it. Dozens of armored players opened fire, and the alloy door quickly became riddled with holes before collapsing with a crash.
Through the poisonous fog, the group emerged from the control room. Ahead lay another locked alloy door, trapping the previously separated crowd in the middle of the passage. Many were poisoned and on the verge of death. Daike was among them, but Sylvia had vanished.
The players took out gas masks and put them on these people. Daike, barely breathing, caught his breath and immediately burst into tears.
"I... I was forced. That girl threatened me with my family, forcing me to cooperate with her act. I really had no choice. I'm so sorry..."
"Stop talking nonsense, where's Sylvia?" Melos and the book demanded.
"She and that captain were in cahoots. She used her privileges to open the alloy door and escaped, leaving us here."
Bang!
Melos slapped Daike unconscious and said, "Tie him up. The commander might question him later."
Gunfire erupted as the group used brute force to break through alloy doors. They were quite fast. Sylvia turned the spaceship into a trap, but the spaceship itself couldn't hold them; it was a matter of power.
Han Xiao guessed that Sylvia's next move was to rush to the escape pods first, save herself before the warp jump, and release all the emergency escape pods, leaving everyone trapped on the spaceship. However, he was a mechanic and could seize control of the spaceship, which was a loophole in Sylvia's plan.
Opening the spaceship system, Han Xiao's fingers flew across the keyboard, seemingly in a blur, inputting countless codes and quickly hacking into the system's backend. He encountered resistance from the alarm mechanism. Over the past nine months, he had purchased some new Advanced Knowledge, such as [Advanced Intelligence Technology], which supplemented his shortcomings in network technology. The black chip was an even more powerful auxiliary intelligence; after being inserted into the main control room, it could double the speed of cracking the system.
Alarms blared, and the spacecraft's systems echoed:
"System intrusion detected! Please cease your activity immediately!"
Because of time constraints, Han Xiao didn't bypass the alarm and chose a crude method to crack it.
"Hmm... The thirteenth generation network firewall of the TAK series, the 47-bit algorithm of the 'Silver Light' sequence, and the randomly generated key wall, it's quite advanced." Han Xiao continued his hacking while saying, "Breaking through this system will probably take five minutes, but we'll enter jump mode in two minutes. Sylvia will be taken away in the escape pod before then. Aroshia, go and grab her."
Upon hearing this, Aroshia transformed into an energy form and passed through the wall to leave. The metal wall was meaningless to her; only the energy barrier could prevent her from passing through it.
Everyone sprang into action, while Han Xiao remained in the control room, focusing on cracking the system.
"Damn it, why was I exposed? How could Black Star possibly know me?"
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the bridge passage. Sylvia ran quickly, using her captain's authority to open one alloy door after another, and then closed them after passing through.
The distant gunshots grew clearer, like the tolling of a death knell, signifying that her time was running out and that she would be powerless to resist in Head-On Conflict.
Now was a race against time, Sylvia dared not stop. Her hot, moist breath was squeezed out again and again by her constricted lungs, leaving her panting and out of breath.
To complete the trap, she used all her savings to hire a freelance assassin and also learned of Han Xiao's whereabouts through an intelligence network of a certain organization. Sylvia knew very well that she was too weak and that the only way to deal with the Black Star Mercenary Group was through such scheming methods. She had originally intended to turn this spaceship into Black Star's graveyard... but now she could only try to protect herself.
Do you regret it?
A voice echoed in her heart, and Sylvia bit her lip.
Many images flooded my mind: my father's doting gaze, happy childhood memories, as if coated with a warm hue.
However, the scene seemed to shatter like a mirror, flames engulfed these memories, and mercenaries descended from the sky, splashing flames and destroying everything. If her father hadn't sent her away early, she would have died tragically in that hail of bullets.
After the mercenaries' siege, her father was sent to prison. She endured many hardships and wandered around before she was able to revisit the place. Her father's stronghold was like home to her, but now only charred ruins remained.
I remember when I was a child, I loved to hide in the shade of an old tree and spend lazy afternoons there. But that tree has been burned to a crisp, emitting a foul smell. The once lush shade is now just bare, black branches.
Whenever she thinks of these things, an uncontrollable rage ignites, scorching her nerves and obliterating her reason.
'It's worth the danger to Revenge these mercenaries!' Sylvia gritted her teeth.
Soon, she arrived at the escape pod, which contained more than a dozen emergency escape pods.
The captain, who had just arrived from the other side, complained, "You didn't tell me there would be such a big risk. I want more pay."
The spaceship's turbulence became increasingly pronounced. Once it entered warp drive, the escape pods would become unusable unless the spaceship was torn to shreds by the warp speed along with the escape pod. Sylvia hurriedly pulled down the manual latch of the escape pod. With a hissing sound, the extra escape pods were deployed, leaving only the last two.
Just as the two were about to go inside, a golden light shone behind them, Aroshia, in her human form, passed through the wall and arrived just in time.
"Run!"
Sylvia gritted her teeth and was about to crawl into the life pod when the captain suddenly shoved her from behind and threw her toward Aroshia.
In that critical moment, he disregarded the fact that Sylvia was his employer and tried to use that to buy time.
In mid-air, Sylvia turned around in astonishment, not expecting the captain's sudden betrayal.
Buzz!
A ring of energy blasted outwards, and before Sylvia could even collide with Aroshia, she was thrown back, crashing into the wall and landing to the side, her face contorted in pain.
Aroshia stretched out her arm, her forearm transforming into a beam of golden energy that swept across like a whip, melting through the outer shells of both escape pods and leaving a continuous, fiery red gash, clearly rendering them unusable.
The captain's expression changed drastically.
Boom!
The alloy door collapsed, and Melos and a group of players rushed over and surrounded the two.
At the same time, the spaceship suddenly jolted and entered warp mode.
"It's over..."
Sylvia closed her eyes in despair.
The poisonous gas slowly dissipated, the locked alloy doors opened one by one, and the spaceship stopped its jump, hovering quietly in space.
Breaking through the spaceship system was only a matter of time for Han Xiao. After taking control of Sylvia, he felt no pressure and easily gained captain's authority.
At this point, the entire spaceship was under his control, the navigation to the star was canceled, and the crisis was naturally averted.
Sylvia felt her plan was deadly, but in reality, it posed little threat to the current Black Star Mercenary Group. The mercenary group was strong enough to break the deadlock by force. Master Han wasn't worried at all. At this stage, Sylvia was still too inexperienced and too young, and it wouldn't be so easy for him to fail.
The panel indicated that the task was completed, and the players had gained 120,000 experience points. The players were overjoyed.
The matter was over, and all the crew members were gathered in the cabin lobby. Mercenaries with guns pointed at them surrounded them, and in the center were Sylvia, Daike, and the captain, all tightly bound.
Han Xiao sat on the sofa, elbows propped on his knees, leaning forward as he slowly scanned the three people. His aura was like a dragon coiled and a tiger crouching, exuding a strong sense of pressure, as if he were conducting a joint trial. The crew members and workers of the merchant corps present did not dare to breathe loudly—even though they were not the ones being interrogated.
Daike hurriedly explained the situation: a few days ago, the Terrell Group had prepared supplies for Dragon Calm and assigned him to be in charge of the handover. After that, he was approached by Sylvia and forced to cooperate.
"You're able to track our movements; there must be other forces helping you behind the scenes. A little girl like you doesn't have such a large intelligence network," Han Xiao said expressionlessly. "And your ability to bribe the captain to risk his life against a mercenary group must also rely on the power of that organization..."
Sylvia stared intently at Han Xiao, her face stubborn, as if she had made up her mind not to say a word and was unwilling to bow down in front of her enemy.
Bang!
Gunshots rang out suddenly.
Wisps of smoke rose from the muzzle of the gun.
Spots of blood splattered across Sylvia's delicate face. She shuddered and turned to look.
A bloody hole appeared in the captain's forehead. His expression of shock froze on his face before he slowly went limp, and the pool of blood gradually widened.
The captain thought Han Xiao would interrogate him, and he was still struggling with his words and thinking about how to deal with the questioning to save his life. However, Han Xiao had no interest in him at all and simply shot him.
His eyes widened, filled with resentment.
The corpse suddenly transformed into another man. This was a shapeshifting ability, particularly suitable for infiltration. Melos's eyes lit up. "I wasn't wrong, there really is a shapeshifter."
Seeing this, Han Xiao immediately guessed the cause and effect, "It seems that the original captain died a long time ago and was replaced by this person with the ability to disguise. He is the assassin hired by you, and he was probably the one who poisoned the wine."
Sylvia bit her lower lip, turning her head away from the corpse. Even though she remained stubborn, her body trembled involuntarily, and her eyes welled up with barely perceptible tears.
She only behaved like a young girl when faced with the fear of death.
"You... you might as well kill me too!"
Sylvia abruptly closed her eyes, trying her best to put on a look of resignation.
"I don't object to that."
Han Xiao remained noncommittal as the scorching muzzle of the gun pressed against Sylvia's fair and smooth face. Through the barrel, he could clearly feel Sylvia's trembling growing more and more intense.