“What do you want‽”

The bartender was a member of the ship’s crew. His face was filled with panic, and he could not even struggle.

Herlous was shocked. “Captain, this is?”

Han Xiao pointed at his cup and said, “Someone added something inside, probably poison.”

“Impossible, I brought the liquor. Why am I fine after drinking it… or have I been poisoned too?”

Herlous was shocked. He hurriedly touched his tongue and throat, but there was no sign of the numbness from being poisoned.

“There is no problem with the liquor; it’s the cup.” The item information of the liquor bottle was normal—only his cup had something added into it. The only possibility was that someone had put something into the cup in advance, and the bartender who took out the cup was the most suspicious.

This started as a very simple daily escorting mission; Han Xiao did not expect to meet something like this. He was very curious—who wanted him dead?

This time, the players and the company employees came. Dekker and the others hurried there as well. They were very confused.

“What happened?”

Han Xiao explained simply, and everyone was surprised.

“Could it be a mistake?” Dekker asked.

Han Xiao shook his head. He wrote a new mission and threw it to the players.

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You have triggered mission [Poison Testing]

Mission Introduction: Someone seems to have attempted to poison your captain. Are you willing to help him to test the effect of the poison?

Mission Requirements: Drink [Strong Liquor with an Added Ingredient]

Reward: Black Star—Han Xiao Favorability +8, 150,000 experience.

Remarks: Possible death

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The mercenary group players received the notification on their interface. Their eyes sparkled for this was the first time that they had seen such an easy mission that could increase Han Xiao’s Favorability and receive experience. Dying once was nothing.

Just as they were about to snatch the cup, a shadow flew past everyone. Bun-Hit-Dog snatched the cup extremely quickly and gulped it down without saying a word.

“How are you able to run this fast‽” Second Prince was shocked. I’m a Dexterity-focused Pugilist, yet I could not even catch up to you. How did you do it?

Bun-Hit-Dog glanced at everyone with pride. Before he could speak, his face suddenly changed, and the veins under his skin expanded and turned black, covering his entire face. He opened his mouth but could not say a word. The other players moved back as they saw this, leaving no one within a three-meter radius from Bun-Hit-Dog.

Bun-Hit-Dog froze in place for a few seconds, then blood sprayed out from his every orifice. He collapsed onto the ground and died on the spot.

“Tsk tsk, truly a man of the wind. He even died quickly,” Frenzied Sword said.

“He—he’s dead just like that‽”

The company employees and the crews were all dumbfounded. A mercenary died right on the spot, yet his friends had no reaction at all. What mercenary group is this? They’re so cold-blooded! So horrifying!

Plus, these mercenaries are way too loyal to Black Star. Black Star had yet to even speak and they were already rushing to drink the poisoned alcohol, testing the poison with their body. This does not feel like a mercenary group at all but a fanatical cult!

However, the next moment, Bun-Hit-Dog’s corpse turned into white light and disappeared, then the sound of trotting footsteps appeared outside the door almost immediately after. Bun-Hit-Dog had run over from the revive point.

“Yo—you…” Dekker stammered in shock.

Han Xiao looked at him. “After working together so many times, I’m surprised that you don’t know that we have the nickname ‘Immortal Mercenary Group’?”

“I see, I don’t know much about the mercenary industry.” Dekker smiled bitterly. No wonder the mercenaries were so calm, they were all immortals.

Black Star’s name was widely known, but his details were only known within the industry; the other industries did not know much about it.

Han Xiao turned around and asked, “What was the effect of the poison?”

Bun-Hit-Dog looked at the notification from earlier.

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You have consumed a certain poison. Judging END… Your END is lower than 280. No related immunity ability detected. You have entered [Poisoned] state.

High Concentration Corrosive Blood Poison: This is a poison made from some Esper ability and requires blood poison cure.

Current poison level: 135/135

You are losing 750 health per second.

Duration: 8 seconds

Warning! Your health is too low. Please consume antidote as soon as possible!

Your health is lower than 0!

You died!

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Bun-Hit-Dog read accordingly, and Han Xiao nodded.

6,000 health in eight seconds, very lethal to players but can’t kill me. This means that the person who added the poison has limited information of me, but the fact that the culprit could poison me on this trip means that they know my location or at least know that this ship is transporting supplies for Floating Dragon and that I would definitely appear here. This ship is only so big, and the culprit is definitely hidden among them. Plus, even the title of ‘Immortal Mercenary Group’ did not scare the culprit away, so there can only be two possibilities. Either they know that I’m not immortal or… an act of revenge?

Han Xiao’s eyebrows were locked tightly. He had many guesses in his mind, and even the players were not excluded!

He had to guard against the possibility of something like this happening. He made himself stronger by helping the players, but he never completely trusted them. After all, he knew too well what the players were like. He only hoped that this was not the right guess and that there was no player who privately accepted a mission to assassinate him.

After proving Han Xiao’s words true, many pairs of eyes full of hostility stared at the bartender who had collapsed on the side. The bartender saw that the poison did exist and was scared sh*tless; his entire body was shivering.

“It wasn’t me. I don’t know anything about this. I just took an empty cup from the drawer…”

Han Xiao opened the bar drawer. There were many empty cups inside. He took all of them out and poured water in each of them. These were all normal; his cup was the only one that had poison. He frowned and said, “There are so many glasses, and the only one with poison is the one you gave me. How can you explain that?”

“I—I don’t know. That glass was at the most outside. I really just took it randomly!”

The bartender almost urinated out of horror.

Herlous suddenly was covered in cold sweat. “If the bartender took the wrong cup, wouldn’t that have been the end of me‽”

“Your body is strong; the poison wouldn’t have killed you,” Han Xiao replied. He stared at the shivering bartender and said, “If it’s not you, it’s someone else that did something to the cup. Captain! Where’s the captain?”

The spaceship’s captain hurried to the scene, stepped out of the crowd, and said with sorrow on his face, “I’m the captain of Rainbow Conch. I am extremely sorry that something like this happened in my ship. I will provide my full cooperation to you with finding the culprit.”

“I want to see the surveillance recording of this few days and see who has come close to this place.”

“As you wish.”

Other than the bedrooms, most areas of the spaceship had surveillance cameras, including the dining hall. The culprit could be found immediately through the recordings.

The bartender was surprised. “So, I’m free to go?”

“Are you dreaming?” Han Xiao said. “Tie him up and bring him along.”

The captain led them to the main control room. Just as he was about to browse through the surveillance recordings, he was shocked to realize that the recordings had been wiped. Even the earliest recording was from less than one day ago.

“The surveillance recordings are all deleted!” The captain was stunned. “I’m the only one who can make such commands. Could it be that the spaceship system has been infiltrated? The culprit could bypass the alarms‽”

He hastily opened the background, passed through authorization with his fingerprint and pupils, and activated the system scan, but there was no sign of infiltration.

“Why can’t the infiltration be detected? Is the spaceship completely controlled by the enemy‽”

The captain was sweating profusely. He looked at the operation diary of the spaceship, hoping to find the ID of the person that deleted the recordings. This small traveling spaceship belonged to a galactical traveling organization, so the captain was hired and only had second-tier authorization. The highest system authorization belonged to the organization, and the captain could not modify the dairy. Hence, even if the culprit controlled the spaceship, the dairy would not be changed. Unless the opponent’s technology was strong enough to bypass the quantum network defense of the organization’s headquarters and get the highest authorization.

However, there was no sign of any other accounts logging into the system, but they did find the records of the recordings being deleted.

_____________

[Operation Dairy #00784315]

22 hours ago—Clean all surveillance recordings.

Authorization granted.

Confirm/Back

Confirmed.

Deleting… Complete.

Operator: Captain’s account

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