The players activated the filter in their armor as well, making them immune to the poison gas. They looked at Han Xiao and waited for his orders.

“That captain used his authority and locked the spaceship’s navigation. I’ll hack into the spaceship system and change its course. You guys blast the alloy gate open; some of you go to the central computer room and insert this chip, and the rest of you go to capture Sylvia and her allies.”

Han Xiao opened his palm. With a flash of electricity, a black chip flew out from his pocket.

“Understood.” Herlous nodded. He pocketed the chip, swung his Battleship Slicing Blade, and slashed alloy door. With a piercing sound of steel being torn apart, an opening appeared. Dozens of armored players raised their firearms and fired at the door. The door was quickly covered in holes before collapsing.

In the poison gas, they walked out of the main control room. In front of them was another locked alloy door, and the group of people who had been separated earlier were trapped in the pathway. Many of them were poisoned and barely clinging on to life. Dekker was surprisingly among them too, but Sylvia had disappeared.

The players took out gas masks and placed them on these people. Dekker was weak and powerless. The moment he caught his breath, he started tearing up.

“I—I was forced. That girl used my family to threaten me, forcing me to act and cooperate with her. I really had no choice. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

“Cut the cr*p. Where’s Sylvia?” Herlous demanded.

“She’s allied with that captain. She used the authority to open the alloy gate and escaped, leaving us here.”

Bang!

Herlous slapped Dekker unconscious and said, “Tie him up. The captain might question him later.”

Gunshots echoed in the spaceship. They broke through alloy doors one after another rather quickly. Sylvia had turned the spaceship into a trap, but the spaceship itself could not trap them. This was the difference in raw strength.

Han Xiao guessed that Sylvia would be going to the escape cabin as soon as possible and escape before the spaceship entered the jump state, at the same time releasing all the emergency escape ships and trap them in the spaceship. However, he was a Mechanic and could seize the spaceship’s authorization. This was the flaw in Sylvia’s plan.

Han Xiao opened the spaceship system—his fingers moved so quickly that they created afterimages. He entered countless codes and quickly hacked into the background of the system. Then he met resistance from the security system. He had bought some new advanced knowledges throughout the nine months, such as [Advanced Smart Technology], which made up for his weakness in terms of hacking. That black chip was an even stronger assistant Artificial Intelligence. After plugging it into the central computer room, the speed of breaking through the system would be doubled.

The alarm was triggered, and the system warning echoed in the spaceship.

“System infiltration detected! Please stop your actions immediately!”

As time was limited, Han Xiao did not go around the alarm and chose the roughest method.

“Hmm… 13th generation firewall from the TAK Series, 47th calculating method of the Silverlight sequence, random password wall. Quite advanced actually.” Han Xiao’s movements did not stop. He said while hacking, “Breaking through this system will take about five minutes, but the spaceship will enter the jumping state in two minutes. Sylvia will board the escape ship before this. Aroshia, capture her.”

Upon hearing Han Xiao’s words, Aroshia turned into energy form and left through the wall. Metal walls were meaningless to her; only energy barriers could stop her from going through the wall.

Everyone was moving, while Han Xiao stayed in the main control room and focused on hacking the system.

…

“Damn, how was I exposed? How can Black Star possibly know who I am?”

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the ship bridge. Sylvia was running hastily. She used the captain’s authority to open one alloy door after another and closed them after she passed through.

The sound of gunfire became clearer, meaning that she did not have much time left. If they fought directly, she would not be able to resist at all.

Every second counted at this time. Sylvia did not dare to stop. Warm, moist air came out of her lungs time after time as she gasped for breath.

In order to complete the trap, she had used all her savings to hire a freelance killer and even knew about Han Xiao’s whereabouts through the intel network of an organization. Sylvia clearly knew that she was too weak. In order to go against the Black Star Mercenary Group, she could only depend on a conspiracy and plot like that. She wanted this spaceship to become Black Star’s grave… Sadly, she could now only hope to save herself.

Do you regret it?

A sound echoed in her heart. Sylvia bit her lips.

Many images appeared in her head. Her father’s eyes that were full of love, the happy memories of her childhood, plating her memories with warmth.

However, the images shattered like a mirror. Flames devoured these memories. Mercenaries landed from the sky and destroyed everything with fire. If her father had not sent her away in advance, she would have died in that storm of bullets.

After being captured by the mercenaries, her father was sent to jail. She had wandered around and suffered a lot before she could finally return to the old place. Her father’s stronghold was like a home to her, but now, the only things left were the burnt ruins.

She still remembered, when she was young, she liked to hide under the shade of an old tree and spend lazy afternoons time after time. But that tree was turned into charcoal now, giving out a pungent odor. The black branches were the only things left of the once dense leaves.

Every time she thought of these things, the uncontrollable flames of rage would burn her nerves and shatter her reason.

“In order to have my revenge on these mercenaries, it’s worth it to be in danger!” Sylvia clenched her teeth.

Very soon, she arrived at the escape cabin. Inside were ten or so escape ships.

The captain happened to arrive at the same time, and he complained, “You did not tell me that the risks were this high. I want a greater reward.”

The turbulence was becoming more violent. As soon as they entered the jump state, they would not be able to use the escape ships unless they wanted to be torn into pieces together with the escape ships. Sylvia hastily pulled down the bolt of the escape ship. With the sound of air streams, the other escape ships were released, leaving only two behind.

Just as the two of them was about to walk in, a tint of golden light appeared behind them. Aroshia passed through the wall and made it just in time.

“Quickly, go!”

Sylvia clenched her teeth. She was about to enter the escape ship, then suddenly, the captain pushed her from her back and threw her toward Aroshia.

In times of danger, he could not be bothered about the fact that Sylvia was his employee; he just wanted to stall time.

In midair, Sylvia turned around in disbelief. She did not expect the sudden betrayal of the captain.

Hum!

An energy impact ring expanded, sending Sylvia flying before she even hit Aroshia. She bumped into the wall and fell down on the side. Her expression was distorted from the pain.

Aroshia’s straightened her arm. Her forearm turned into a bean of gold energy and swept at the two escape ships like a whip, melting through their shell and leaving a consistent red cut. It was clear that they could not be used anymore.

The captain’s face changed completely.

Boom!

The alloy door collapsed. Herlous and the players rushed to the scene and surrounded the two of them.

At the same time, the spaceship suddenly trembled and entered the jump state.

“It’s over…”

Sylvia closed her eyes in despair.

…

The poison gas dissipated slowly, and the locked alloy doors opened one after another. The spaceship exited the jump state and stopped in space.

Hacking the spaceship system was just a matter of time to Han Xiao. After getting Sylvia under control, he easily gained the captain’s authorization.

The entire spaceship was under his control now. He canceled the navigation toward the Fixed Star, and the danger was diffused.

Sylvia felt that her plan was lethal, but in reality, it was not much of a threat to the current Black Star Mercenary Group. The mercenary group could get out of danger with their raw strength, so Han Xiao had no reason to panic at all. Sylvia was still too young and naive at this period of time.

The interface notified them that the mission was complete. The players were joyful upon receiving 1,200,000 experience.

The incident had come to an end. All the people on the ship were gathered in the guest hall—around them were mercenaries who aimed their firearms at them. In the middle were Sylvia, Dekker, and the captain, who were bound tightly.

Han Xiao sat on the sofa, placed his elbows on his knees, and leaned slightly forward, slowly scanning the three of them. His aura was like a crouching tiger, very pressurizing. The crew and the company employees did not even dare breathe loudly, despite them not being the ones who were being interrogated.

Dekker hastily explained the situation. A few days ago, the Tyrell Group had prepared the supplies for Floating Dragon Island and confirmed to let him take care of the handover. After that, Sylvia had found him and forced him to cooperate.

“You know about our whereabouts, so there’s definitely an organization that provided you help. You’re just a small girl and won’t have such a vast intel network.” Han Xiao was expressionless. “Plus, you bribed the captain to take the risk and fight a group of mercenaries, so you definitely depended on the power of that organization…”

Sylvia stared at Han Xiao with a determined face like she had decided not to say anything no matter what. She was not willing to lower her head in front of her enemy.

“Bang!”

The sound of gunshot suddenly appeared.

Smoke came out from the muzzle.

Droplets of blood splashed onto Sylvia’s pretty face. Her whole body shivered, and she turned her head and looked over.

The captain’s head had a penetrating hole of blood in it; the stunned expression was fixed on his face. He collapsed slowly, and the pool of blood expanded gradually.

The captain had thought that Han Xiao was going to interrogate him and was still troubled by what he should say in order to stay alive, but Han Xiao was completely uninterested in him and gave him a bullet straight away.

The widened eyes were filled with regret.

The corpse suddenly changed shape into another man. This was the shapeshifting Esper ability, especially suitable for infiltration. Herlous’ eyes sparkled. “I guessed correctly. There is indeed a shapeshifting Esper.”

Seeing this, Han Xiao could now guess roughly what had happened. “Looks like the original captain died long ago and was replaced by this shapeshifting Esper. He’s a killer you hired, and he should be the one that poisoned the cup as well.”

Sylvia bit her lower lip heavily. She turned her head to not look at the corpse. Despite her trying her best to stay strong, she could not stop herself from shivering or the tiny tears appearing in her eyes.

She only looked like a teenage girl in the face of her fear of death.

“Yo—you might as well kill me too!”

Sylvia closed her eyes and tried her best to make an unafraid expression.

“I don’t oppose that.”

The still-hot muzzle pressed on Sylvia’s white and smooth face. Through the muzzle, Han Xiao could obviously feel Sylvia was shivering more and more heavily.