Chapter 149 Fishing Law Enforcement

The Western Sword Guild's spaceship flew slowly through space. Inside the ship, Weary Prince and the guild members surrounded a holographic star chart, analyzing their route.

"We are currently in this area..."

Weary Prince pointed to the star chart, tracing a glowing path that arced along the edge of a barren cosmic belt, all the way to the edge of the star system. He said, "To leave the star system, we can only go through the barren cosmic belt. The Three Great Civilizations' defenses at the border will always have loopholes. Although we have their defense and patrol maps, we still need to get lucky..."

Listening to the guild leader's explanation of the plan, the guild members present nodded in agreement.

After accepting a 5 million Enas anonymous commission, Weary Prince devised several plans to successfully smuggle out the virus. Grasping the loopholes in the Three Great Civilizations' defenses to sneak out was a relatively feasible route.

To avoid being locked onto the node by the Three Great Civilizations, the Western Sword Guild had cut off public links and kept the spaceship in stealth mode.

Logically speaking, this would mean that everyone would not be able to receive external information, becoming a group of blind men. However, Weary Prince used his player characteristics to log onto the forums and secretly hire other players, allowing them to provide information at any time through private forum chats. The defense and patrol maps of the Three Great Civilizations in the Ancient Star Desert came from this method. Even with the quantum network connection cut off, he still had sources of information to keep track of external movements.

In this way, not only could he prevent the Three Great Civilizations from locking onto the node through the network, but he could also maintain the ability to receive external information at any time. Compared to normal NPCs, players indeed had a huge advantage, and it was no wonder that the Kappel Consortium specifically hired Undying Ones.

At this time, a player spoke, "Guild Leader, the closer we get to the border, the denser the spatial monitoring buoys will be. If we fail and are discovered, the spaceship will definitely be impounded. We only have one chance to seize the loophole in the Three Great Civilizations' patrols."

"That's why we have Plan B."

Weary Prince had a confident expression on his face and chuckled, "Once we are discovered by a buoy or patrol unit, we will adopt infiltration tactics, leaving only a few people on the spaceship. The rest of us will log off en masse. When the spaceship is locked in a warehouse, the people left behind will notify us to log in to the vehicle and infiltrate the enemy base. This way, we can smuggle in communicators infected with the virus."

The crowd nodded. This trick also took advantage of the players' characteristics, using the log-in and log-off mechanism to create a time difference, which was very suitable for missions like infiltration, ambushes, and smuggling.

There was also a backup plan in case of exposure, which was to abandon the spaceship with pain, fight to the death, and then revive at a binding point. In this way, they could think of other ways to carry out the mission and have many opportunities to try and fail... Anyway, the reward was 5 million, and as long as they could complete the mission, buying another spaceship would be easy.

With so many advantages, the Western Sword Guild members present were full of confidence in completing the mission, as if they could see 5 million Enas waving at them.

As for the losses that the virus leak might cause to ordinary people, they didn't care much. Instead, they felt a sense of excitement in pushing the times forward. Most of the players who supported the spread of the disaster these days thought this way.

Weary Prince said confidently, "Okay, since everyone has no objections, we will act according to this plan. Because we can't use stargates, we will spend a lot of time on the road. We expect to enter the barren cosmic belt in seven days. Now, I..."

Just then, before he could finish speaking, the spaceship's alarm suddenly went off.

"Woo woo woo - Alarm! Alarm! The spacetime in this area is stable, unable to warp. Automatically exiting warp mode!"

The ship shook violently. Everyone was caught off guard and did not react for a moment, falling to the ground in shock before scrambling to their feet.

"What's going on? There's a spacetime stabilizer here? Whose trap have we fallen into?"

Weary Prince was shocked and hurriedly checked the radar screen.

At this time, spots of light suddenly appeared on the radar screen, removing their cloaking and forming a pocket-shaped semi-encirclement, surrounding his spaceship.

The crowd hurried to the porthole, scanned the starry sky outside the window, and their expressions changed drastically.

They saw that the surroundings were full of Red Empire warships, their cannons all aimed at their spaceship.

"The Red Empire? Are they here to catch us?!"

Weary Prince and the guild members immediately panicked.

"Could it be that our whereabouts have been exposed? But we didn't hit any buoys along the way! And how did they know we were planning to smuggle the virus!"

After a few seconds of being stunned, Weary Prince suddenly came back to his senses and shouted, "Stop spacing out! Everyone, log off quickly! Don't let..."

Before he could finish speaking, a faint voice suddenly sounded behind the crowd.

"Don't let what?"

Everyone's bodies stiffened, and they turned their necks stiffly, looking toward the center of the cabin.

A tall black figure had appeared inside the spaceship at some point, and eyes flickering with electricity were indifferently scanning them.

And this face was simply too familiar to the players!

"Black, Black Star!!"

Weary Prince was horrified.

Everyone present was stunned. They had originally thought that even if someone came to catch them, it would only be a few conventional fleets and Esper warriors. No one expected that Black Star, such a big shot, would personally show up!

At the same time as feeling panic, Weary Prince also felt a subtle sense of flattered surprise.

The next moment, a flash of light flashed in Han Xiao's eyes, and an aura with dazzling electric arcs suddenly erupted.

*Bang!*

The energy shock wave spread, slamming everyone against the wall.

Han Xiao controlled the damage. This attack was not strong, mainly to put the players into a combat state, preventing them from logging off at will.

"I'm going to fight you!" Weary Prince gritted his teeth and drew a slender alloy stiletto shimmering with silver light, stabbing it toward Han Xiao's throat.

Players were not afraid of death and dared to attack anyone. Even if the opponent was powerful, surrendering was impossible. Weary Prince couldn't wait to be killed by Black Star so that he could revive somewhere else, such as the bound main city, and not be captured.

However, this little thought was useless in front of Han Xiao, who knew the characteristics of players well.

He casually grabbed the stiletto, snapped the blade with a *crack*, then grabbed Weary Prince's head with his big hand, slammed it on the ground, and knocked him into a dazed state.

Han Xiao carefully controlled his strength, afraid of accidentally killing him. There was no way around it. Although players were much stronger than before, they were still as fragile as bubbles in front of him.

Han Xiao didn't let the others go either. Without using machinery, just relying on his current physical fitness, he beat these players into serious injuries with a few punches and kicks, and then took out the Immortal Binding Rope... cough, electromagnetic binding chains and tied everyone up tightly.

The empire warships then surrounded them, connected to the spaceship, and took control of it. Imperial soldiers landed and searched the spaceship.

A large pile of mechanical products stacked up like a small mountain. Han Xiao inspected them and found several communicators infected with the virus. Scanning the crestfallen Weary Prince and his party, he slowly said:

"You are suspected of smuggling the Virtual Rebellion Virus, endangering public safety and cosmic order. Now that we have caught you red-handed, you are officially under arrest. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"No, I am deeply sinful. A person like me is not worthy of living in this world. I request the death penalty!"

Weary Prince said righteously. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought he wanted to die heroically.

How ugly of you to think so highly of yourself, you little rascal... Han Xiao rolled his eyes secretly.

At this time, he suddenly paused, chuckled, and took the initiative to speak:

"Aren't you curious as to why the empire knew you had accepted the commission and set a trap here?"

Hearing this, the Western Sword Guild also reacted. This was a commission from the black market, and it should have been very secret and not leaked.

"Have you been monitoring our communications?" Weary Prince guessed cautiously.

"Incorrect." Han Xiao shook his head.

"Then... someone informed you?"

"Not that either."

"Then what is it?" Weary Prince asked in confusion.

Han Xiao smiled, met everyone's curious gaze, and chuckled: "That's of course because... the person who hired you is the empire."

"!!"

These words were like a bolt from the blue. Weary Prince and his party trembled, their jaws almost dropping to the ground, and their eyes popped out in shock.

"What did you say?"

Weary Prince almost jumped up, his face full of disbelief.

"Our anonymous employer is one of the Three Great Civilizations?! How is that possible? What reason do you have to do this?!"

Han Xiao chuckled and casually made up a story:

"What do you think? The Three Great Civilizations knew long ago that there would be profit-seeking people who would disregard the overall situation and try to hide and smuggle the virus, so the Three Great Civilizations also sent people to spread commissions on the black market in order to expose the restless elements and facilitate their capture... Do you really think that with the disaster at hand, the Three Great Civilizations will let the black market get away with it?"

Weary Prince was dumbfounded. The annoyance of being tricked, the anger of being manipulated, and the regret of falling into a trap, a mixture of emotions welled up in his heart. At this moment, he just wanted to roar at the sky.

--You guys are doing entrapment!!

Looking at the grief-stricken appearances of the crowd, Han Xiao's smile became even more playful.

The mastermind behind this group of players was naturally not the Three Great Civilizations, but he said this on purpose to instill the impression of entrapment into the players.

As long as these people made posts, those greedy Chaotic Evil players would calm down a bit, because no one could guarantee whether the commission they received on the black market was real or a trap set by the Three Great Civilizations. With such preconceived suspicion, there would definitely be fewer players who dared to take the risk and cause trouble.

By catching this group of people, he could set an example and achieve twice the result with half the effort, saving a lot of energy.

In short, this was a fundamental solution.

Technician Han was not only bluffing, in fact, he also planned to truly implement an entrapment scheme.

However, to accomplish this, he must first control the black market channels, otherwise, in order to maintain its credibility, the black market would definitely sabotage the plan and would not cooperate.

Various thoughts flashed through his mind. Han Xiao took out the spacetime amber and showed everyone a kind smile:

"Since the evidence is conclusive, then... you can serve your sentence."

Weary Prince was immediately shocked, his face full of panic, and he struggled desperately.

"No, no, no... Please, please don't use the spacetime amber! I request the death penalty! Let me die! You... Don't come over here!"

Unfortunately, Weary Prince's struggle was useless. Under the horrified gazes of the others, his expression froze and he was sealed in the spacetime amber.

Han Xiao followed suit and sealed up all the Western Sword Guild players who were rolling around on the ground begging for death, wiping out the entire guild in one fell swoop.

"That's enough, it's enough to deter the other players."

Han Xiao clapped his hands.

He had already tested the effect of spacetime amber on players. Players' consciousness could still freely log in and out, but their bodies would not disappear like normal log-offs, but would be fixed in the amber... which meant that the log-in location could not be changed. No matter how many times the player logged in, they could only return to the body sealed in the amber.

This meant that as long as they were sealed by the spacetime amber, players could not use their own characteristics, those tricks of logging in and out and reviving to escape imprisonment, it was like being punished for using cheats, forcibly executed, unable to move, unable to escape.

These troublemaking players couldn't have not thought of the consequences of being caught, but they had a strange confidence, first because they could be revived elsewhere after death, and they felt that their chances of being caught were small, and second, they were lucky, and before the disaster came to them, everyone thought they were lucky.

Han Xiao was not surprised by this. Just like some people who knew they would be banned still wanted to use cheats, being punished was their own fault.

He did not intend to release the Western Sword Guild easily, he wanted to use this thunderous method to deter others, kill the chicken to scare the monkey, let others see the consequences of near-ban treatment, in order to curb the unhealthy trends on the player forums, and remove the pests from the vegetable field, so as not to mislead the potential good leek seedlings.

Similarly, he was not worried that this group of players would not post on the forums -- their bodies were sealed, they could not do anything, what else could they do besides chat?

Moreover, these people were defeated by him, and with the personality of the players, they would probably want to take revenge. Then as long as they believed in my bluff, then their only means of revenge would be to expose the so-called fishing law enforcement, in order to sabotage the actions of the Three Great Civilizations.

The situation was under control.

Han Xiao shook his head and smiled, summoning Philip to invade the intelligent system of the spaceship and find all the communication records.

The true identity of this anonymous employer was also the target he was pursuing.

Philip's efficiency was very high, following the quantum network to quickly find clues to the anonymous employer.

"Master, I have found it, this commission was issued by a broker organization as an intermediary guarantor. This broker organization is one of the black market managers, with a very good reputation and credibility, deeply trusted by countless black market mercenaries and black market employers, which can be understood as the black market version of the Mercenary Alliance. So they should have clues to this employer, but this broker organization has been a black market manager for many years, as a long-standing intermediary guarantor, they will not leak the employer's information..."

Han Xiao glanced at the information and nodded secretly.

He had also heard of the name of this black market broker organization. It was a very reputable black market manager, and many black market commissions flowed out from here.

It could be said that although this kind of organization flew the banner of a neutral bystander, if they did not tacitly agree, those anonymous commissions targeting the virus would not be able to circulate on the black market at all.

They were undoubtedly guilty of fueling the flames.

"It seems that we have to start with this black market manager first..."

Han Xiao's eyes flashed, and he turned to pat the captain's shoulder.

"Let's go, the destination is the headquarters of this broker organization in the Ancient Star Desert."

...

At the same time.

Just as the empire fleet was heading to the next destination, Weary Prince, who was sealed in the spacetime amber, couldn't hold back his anger and posted on the forum without saying a word.

Just as Han Xiao had expected, Weary Prince, in the tone of a victim, with the intention of warning others and retaliating against the Three Great Civilizations, indignantly exposed the "fishing law enforcement" action of the Three Great Civilizations...