“What are you trying to do?!”

The bartender was a member of the crew’s logistics personnel. He couldn’t break free and looked panicked.

Melos was startled. “Commander, what’s wrong?”

Han Xiao pointed to his drink. “Someone put something in it. Probably poison.”

“Impossible. I brought the wine. I drank it and I’m fine… Could it be that I’m also poisoned?”

Melos was shocked. He quickly touched his tongue and throat, but he didn’t feel any numbness from poison.

“The wine is fine. The problem is the glass.” The item description on the wine bottle was normal. Only his drink had been tampered with. It was likely that someone had put something in the glass beforehand, making the bartender who brought the glass the most suspicious.

It was supposed to be a simple escort mission, but Han Xiao didn’t expect to encounter something like this. He was very curious, who wanted him dead?

At this moment, the players and the workers of the trade convoy gathered around, and Dirk and others arrived after hearing the news, looking puzzled.

“What happened?”

Han Xiao explained it simply, and everyone was surprised.

“Could it be a mistake?” Dirk asked.

Shaking his head, Han Xiao made up a new mission and threw it to the players present.

[You have triggered the mission [Analyze the Toxin]]

[Mission Description: Your commander is suspected of being assassinated with poison. Are you willing to help him analyze the effects of the toxin?]

[Mission Requirements: Drink the [Spiked Liquor]]

[Reward: Black Star - Han Xiao’s favorability +8, 150,000 experience]

[Note: Possible death]

The mercenary players received the panel notification and their eyes lit up. It was the first time they had encountered such an easy mission to increase Han Xiao's favorability and earn experience. Dying once was nothing.

Just as everyone was about to rush forward to grab the glass, a figure flashed by. Roubao moved like a startled rabbit, extremely fast, grabbed the glass, and downed it without saying a word.

“How are you so fast?!” Tai Erzi was shocked. I’m an agility-type martial artist, but I can’t keep up with your speed. How did you train?

Roubao glanced at everyone triumphantly, but before he could speak, his expression suddenly changed. The blood vessels under his skin bulged, turning blue-black, and covered his entire face. He opened his mouth wide but couldn’t make a sound. Seeing this, the other players retreated. No one was within three meters of Roubao.

Roubao froze in place for a few seconds, then blood sprayed from all of his facial features, and he fell to the ground, dying instantly.

“Truly a man of the wind, dying in such a flash.” Kuangdao marveled.

“H-he just died like that?!”

The trade convoy workers and crew members were collectively stunned. A living mercenary had died before their eyes, and his companions were still indifferent. What kind of mercenary group was this? So cold-blooded! So terrifying!

Moreover, this group of mercenaries was too loyal to Black Star. Before Black Star even spoke, they were rushing to drink the poisoned wine and test the poison with their own bodies. This didn't look like mercenaries at all, it was like a fanatical cult!

However, the next moment, Roubao's corpse turned into white light and disappeared. Then, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door, and Roubao ran over from the resurrection point.

Dirk said in surprise, “You, you…”

Han Xiao glanced at him. “We’ve worked together many times. Didn’t you know that we have a nickname, ‘The Undying Mercenary Group’?”

“I see, I’m not familiar with the rumors in the mercenary world.” Dirk smiled wryly. No wonder these mercenaries were so calm, it turned out they were all undying.

Black Star's reputation was widespread, but his specific abilities were mainly known within the industry. Other industries didn’t know much about it.

“What’s the effect of the poison?” Han Xiao turned and asked.

Roubao checked the panel notification from just now.

[You have consumed a certain toxin, a Stamina check is in progress… Your Stamina is below 280, and you have no related immunity skills. You have entered the [Poisoned] state.]

[High-Concentration Decaying Blood Toxin: This is a toxin produced by a certain superpower. A blood toxin antidote injection is required. Current toxicity is 135/135, losing 750 HP per second for 8 seconds.]

[Warning! Your HP is too low, please take the antidote as soon as possible!]

[Your HP is below 0!]

[You are dead!]

Roubao told the truth. Han Xiao nodded.

“Losing 6,000 HP in 8 seconds is fatal to players, but it won’t kill me. It proves that the person who poisoned me has limited knowledge of me, but the fact that the culprit was able to plot against me on this trip shows that they know my whereabouts. At least they know that this ship is transporting supplies to Longtan, and that I will definitely be here. This ship is so small, the culprit must be hiding among these people. And the name of ‘Undying Mercenary Group’ didn't scare the culprit away. There are only two possibilities, either they know that I’m not immortal, or… it’s a vendetta?”

Han Xiao frowned, many guesses floated in his mind. Even the players could not be excluded as suspects!

He had to guard against this possibility. He strengthened himself by helping the players, but he had never completely trusted the players. After all, he knew the players' nature too well. He only hoped that he was wrong, and that the players had not secretly accepted a mission to assassinate him.

After verifying that Han Xiao's words were true, pairs of hostile eyes stared at the bartender who had fallen to the side. Seeing the toxin take effect, the bartender was pale with fright and trembling.

“It wasn’t me, I didn’t know about this, I just took an empty glass from the cabinet…”

Han Xiao opened the bar cabinet, which was filled with many empty glasses. He took them all out and filled them with water. Everything was normal. Only his glass was poisoned. Frowning, he said, “There are so many glasses, but only the glass you gave me was poisoned. How do you explain that?”

“I, I don’t know. That glass was on the outside, I really just grabbed it randomly!”

The bartender was almost scared to pee.

Melos suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, feeling lingering fear. “If the bartender had grabbed the wrong glass, I would have been done for?!”

“You’re physically strong, the poison wouldn’t kill you.”

Han Xiao replied casually, staring at the trembling bartender, and said, “If it wasn’t you, then someone tampered with the glass. Captain! Is the captain here?”

The spaceship captain hurried over, pushed through the crowd, and said with a look of pain, “I am the captain of the Colorful Snail. I am deeply sorry that this happened on my ship. I will fully cooperate with you to find the culprit.”

“I want to access the surveillance footage of the ship for the past few days to see who has been near this place.”

“As you wish.”

Except for the bedrooms, most areas of the spaceship had surveillance, including the food storage room. The culprit could be identified quickly through the footage.

The bartender was pleasantly surprised. “Does that mean I’m okay?”

“Are you dreaming?” Han Xiao said unhappily, “Tie him up and take him away.”

The captain led everyone to the main control room and was about to call up the surveillance footage, but was shocked to discover that the recordings had been cleared, with the earliest recordings being less than a day old.

“The surveillance footage has all been deleted!” The captain was shocked. “Only I can perform this level of operation. Could it be that the spaceship system has been invaded? The opponent was able to bypass the alarm mechanism?!”

He hurriedly opened the backend, entered the captain’s authority with fingerprint and pupil membrane recognition, and started a system self-check, but found no intrusion loopholes.

“Why can’t it detect the intrusion? Could it be that the spaceship is completely controlled by the enemy!”

The captain was covered in sweat and had to check the spaceship's operation log, hoping to find the operation ID source that deleted the recordings. This small travel spaceship belonged to an interstellar travel group, and the captain was an employee. His authority was second only to the group. The captain could not change the logs, so even if the culprit controlled the spaceship, they could not modify the logs, unless the other party’s technology was strong enough to bypass the quantum network defense of the group headquarters and seize the highest authority.

However, there was no trace of other authorized accounts logging into the logs. Instead, everyone quickly discovered the operation record for deleting the recordings.

[Operation Log #00784315]

[22 hours ago - Cleared all surveillance recordings, permission authentication passed, confirm/return → confirm → deleting… cleaning completed]

[Operator: Captain Account]

…

ps: (There will be another chapter later)