Players activated their armor's filters, immune to the poison gas, watching Han Xiao and awaiting orders.

"The captain used his authority to lock the spaceship's navigation. I'll hack into the ship's system and change the route. You guys blow open the alloy door. Some of you go to the server room and insert this chip. The others bring back Sylvia and her accomplices."

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

"Understood."

Melos nodded, put away the chip, flicked his Zanbato (ship-slaying sword), his aura erupted, and with a *shua*, he slashed the alloy door, creating an ear-piercing tearing sound of metal, cutting open a gash. Dozens of armored players raised their guns and fired, and the alloy door was soon riddled with holes and collapsed with a bang.

In the poisonous fog, the group walked out of the main control room. Ahead in the passage was another locked alloy door. The people who had been separated earlier were trapped in the middle of the passage. Many were poisoned, on the verge of death. Dak was actually among them, but Sylvia had disappeared.

The players put on gas masks for these people. Dak, with his last breath, recovered a little and immediately burst into tears.

"I... I was forced. That girl threatened my family and forced me to cooperate with her in acting. I really had no choice. I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"Stop talking nonsense. Where's Sylvia?" Melos demanded.

"She and that captain are accomplices. She used her authority to open the alloy door and ran away, leaving us here."

*Bang!*

Melos slapped Dak unconscious and said, "Tie him up. The leader might want to question him later."

Gunshots boomed as the group used brute force to break through one alloy door after another. Their speed was not slow. Sylvia turned the spaceship into a trap, but the spaceship itself could not trap them. This was the difference in power.

Han Xiao guessed that Sylvia's next move was to rush to the escape pods and save herself before the warp, while releasing all the emergency escape pods to trap everyone on the ship. However, he was a mechanic and could seize control of the ship's authority. This was a loophole in Sylvia's plan.

Opening the spaceship's system, Han Xiao's fingers flew as if continuous phantoms, entering countless lines of code. He quickly hacked into the system's backend and was met with resistance from the alarm mechanism. He had purchased some new advanced knowledge in the past nine months, such as [Advanced Intelligence Technology], which made up for his shortcomings in network technology. That black chip was an even more powerful auxiliary intelligence device. After being inserted into the server room, it could double the speed of cracking the system.

The alarm buzzed, and the spaceship's system voice echoed:

"System intrusion detected! Please stop your actions immediately!"

Because of the limited time, Han Xiao did not bypass the alarm and chose a brute force cracking method.

"Hmm... the thirteenth generation network firewall of the tAk series, the 47th algorithm of the 'Silver Light' sequence, and a randomly generated key wall. It's quite advanced." Han Xiao continued his actions, hacking while saying, "Breaking through this system will take about five minutes, but we'll enter warp mode in two minutes. Sylvia will take the escape pod and leave before then. Aroshia, go and catch her."

Hearing this, Aroshia transformed into an energy state and left through the wall. Metal walls meant nothing to her. Only energy barriers could stop her from passing through walls.

Everyone took action. Han Xiao stayed in the main control room, concentrating on cracking the system.

...

"Damn it, why was I exposed? How could Black Star know me?"

Rapid footsteps echoed in the bridge passage. Sylvia hurried along, using the captain's authority to open one alloy door after another, closing them after passing through.

The gunshots in the distance became clearer and clearer, like a death knell, meaning that she didn't have much time left. Once there was a head-on collision, she would have no power to resist.

Now was the moment to race against time. Sylvia didn't dare to stop. The humid heat was squeezed out of her constricted lungs again and again, and she ran, panting heavily, her delicate breathing continuous.

In order to complete the trap, she had used all her savings to hire a freelance killer and had also learned of Han Xiao's whereabouts through an intelligence network of a certain force. Sylvia knew very well that she was too weak. If she wanted to deal with the Black Star Mercenary Group, she could only rely on such conspiracies. She had originally wanted to turn this spaceship into Black Star's tomb... but now she could only try to protect herself.

Regret?

A voice echoed in her heart, and Sylvia bit her lip.

Many scenes flashed in her mind: her father's doting eyes, happy memories of her childhood, as if coated with a warm color.

However, the scene shattered like a mirror, and flames devoured these memories. Mercenaries descended from the sky, pouring out flames, destroying everything. If her father hadn't sent her away early, she would have died tragically in that hail of bullets.

After the mercenary siege, her father was sent to prison. She wandered for a long time and suffered a lot before she was able to return to her old home. Her father's base was like a home to her, but now only charred ruins remained.

She remembered that when she was a child, she loved to hide in the shade of an old tree and spend lazy afternoons there, but that tree had been burned to charcoal, emitting an unpleasant smell. The once lush shade was now just bare black branches.

Whenever she thought of these things, uncontrollable anger would ignite, burning her nerves and turning her reason to ashes.

'It's worth it to risk danger to avenge these mercenaries!' Sylvia clenched her teeth.

Soon, she arrived at the escape pod bay, which contained a dozen emergency escape pods.

The captain happened to arrive from the other side, complaining, "You didn't tell me there would be such a big risk. I want more money."

The spaceship's turbulence became more and more obvious. Once it entered warp state, the escape pods could not be used, unless they wanted to be torn to pieces by the warp speed along with the escape pods. Sylvia hurriedly pulled down the manual bolts of the escape pods. With *puci puci* sounds of airflow, the extra escape pods were launched, leaving only the last two.

Just as the two were about to enter, a golden light lit up behind them. Aroshia in energy form passed through the wall and arrived in time.

"Go!"

Sylvia gritted her teeth. Just as she was about to squeeze into the escape pod, the captain suddenly pushed her from behind, throwing her toward Aroshia.

In this critical moment, he couldn't care less that Sylvia was the employer and wanted to buy time with her.

In mid-air, Sylvia looked back in astonishment. She didn't expect the captain's sudden betrayal.

*Buzz!*

A circle of energy shockwaves spread out. Sylvia was blown away before she could even hit Aroshia, crashing into the wall and falling aside, her expression twisted in pain.

Aroshia stretched out her arm, and her forearm transformed into a beam of golden energy waves, sweeping across like a whip. The shells of the two escape pods were melted through, leaving a continuous scarlet gash, clearly rendering them unusable.

The captain's face changed drastically.

*Boom!*

The alloy door collapsed, and Melos and a group of players arrived one after another, surrounding the two.

At the same time, the spaceship shook violently and entered warp mode.

"It's over..."

Sylvia closed her eyes in despair.

...

The poison gas slowly dissipated, and the locked alloy doors also opened one after another. The spaceship stopped warping and floated quietly in the universe.

Breaking through the spaceship's system was only a matter of time for Han Xiao. After controlling Sylvia, there was no pressure at all, and he easily seized the captain's authority.

At this time, the entire spaceship was under his control. He canceled the navigation to the star, and the crisis was naturally resolved.

Sylvia thought her plan was deadly, but in reality, it posed little threat to the current Black Star Mercenary Group. With the mercenary group's strength, it was enough to break through with force. Grand Technician Han was not flustered at all. Sylvia at this time was still too green and too young, and it wasn't so easy for her to cause him to crash.

The panel prompted that the mission was completed, and one million two hundred thousand experience points were in hand. The players were all delighted.

With the matter settled, all the crew members were gathered in the cabin hall, surrounded by mercenaries holding guns pointed at them. In the very center were Sylvia, Dak, and the captain, tied up tightly.

Han Xiao sat on the sofa, his elbows on his knees, leaning forward, slowly scanning the three, his aura like a coiled dragon and crouching tiger, full of pressure, like a *san tang hui shen* (joint trial of three judicial organs), the crew members and trade union workers present didn't even dare to breathe loudly--even if they were not the subjects being interrogated.

Dak hurriedly explained the situation. A few days ago, the Terrel Group prepared the materials for Longtan and decided to let him be responsible for handing over the goods. After that, Sylvia approached him and forced him to cooperate.

"You can grasp our whereabouts. There's another force helping you behind the scenes, right? With just a little girl like you, you don't have such a big intelligence network." Han Xiao said expressionlessly, "And you can bribe the captain to risk dealing with a mercenary group. I suppose you also rely on the energy of that organization..."

Sylvia stared at Han Xiao, her face stubborn, as if determined not to say anything, unwilling to bow her head in front of her enemy.

*Bang!*

The gunshot rang out suddenly.

The muzzle was emitting wisps of smoke.

Specks of blood splattered on Sylvia's delicate face. Her whole body shook, and she turned her head to look.

She saw that the captain's forehead had a bloody hole, and his astonished expression was frozen on his face. He slowly softened, and the pool of blood slowly expanded.

The captain thought that Han Xiao would interrogate him, and he was still struggling with his words, thinking about how to deal with the questioning in order to save his life, but Han Xiao had no interest in him at all and directly sent him a bullet.

His eyes widened, full of unwillingness.

The corpse suddenly deformed, turning into another man. This was Shapeshifting Esper ability, especially suitable for infiltration. Melos's eyes lit up, "I wasn't wrong, there really was a shapeshifting ability user."

Seeing this, Han Xiao immediately guessed the whole story, "It seems that the original captain died long ago and was replaced by this shapeshifting ability user. He's the killer hired by you. He should also be the one who poisoned the wine."

Sylvia bit her lower lip tightly, turned her head away from the corpse. Even though she still maintained her stubbornness, her body couldn't help but tremble, and undetectable moisture was brewing in her eyes.

When faced with the fear of death, she behaved like a girl.

"Y-you kill me too!"

Sylvia suddenly closed her eyes, trying to put on a look of seeing death as home.

"I don't object to that."

Han Xiao was noncommittal, and the hot muzzle pressed against Sylvia's fair and smooth cheek. Through the barrel, it was obvious that Sylvia's trembling was becoming more and more violent.