Chapter 430: Poison Assassination
Tulips defeated Key 3:1 and entered the top four.
Most strong teams reserved their trump cards for the group stages, but Club Key’s trump card had been showcased in advance due to the battle between Frenzied Sword and Key of Solomon. Although [Howling Gate] was very strong, the other teams had plenty of time to think of ways to deal with it. Tulips was steady and strong, and they had a trump card as well, which they finally used for the first time. As Key of Solomon expected, his team was unprepared and defeated. If not for Key of Solomon, who overperformed in the third match, it would have been an overwhelming 3:0 defeat.
Club Key stopped at the top eight. This result was far from Key of Solomon’s target of becoming the champion, so he was furious.
On the other side, the Black Star Mercenary Group arrived at the planet where the resource team was and prepared for the escort.
…
A fan-shaped light-gold interstellar space station was floating outside the atmosphere of a Godoran colonized planet, following its course and orbiting indefinitely. Its alloy shell emitted a magic aura, and various models of spaceships were parked there. The seller was waiting for Han Xiao’s arrival. His name was Tyrell, a slightly known businessman in the Gavin Star System. He operated a commercial department store group and had a long-term agreement with the logistics department of Floating Dragon. Han Xiao carried out numerous resource escorting missions, and Tyrell and he had known each other for quite some time.
Han Xiao and the others arrived at the pier, and a voice came from afar.
“Haha, Black Star of Floating Dragon, we meet again.”
Tyrell was a Godoran. His body shape was round, and he had a passionate smile on his face. He approached with quick steps and gave Han Xiao a bear hug. “Have to trouble you guys again. All the resources that Floating Dragon needs are packaged and listed. Do you need to do a check?”
He guided Han Xiao and the others to the side, where metal boxes piled up like a small hill. They were all resources that Haier had ordered.
“We’ve worked together so many times; I don’t doubt your reputation. However, this is Jenny’s request, so I’ll have to let my people do a check.” Han Xiao passed the list to Maple Moon and gave her a counting goods mission.
“Understood, understood.” Tyrell rubbed his hands and smiled brightly.
Escort resources were a daily mission, and the reward was 150 Floating Dragon Faction Favorability. Because of Han Xiao’s position as a member of Floating Dragon, Tyrell gave him a certain discount, so Han Xiao often bought things from Tyrell. He trusted Tyrell’s reputation, but now that he was working for Floating Dragon, it was better to be more careful.
When ordering resources in the virtual interstellar network, the logistics were a problem. Other than those advanced civilizations that normalized long-range transportation devices, the logistics in space were usually contracted by professional delivery organizations, or the seller would partner with a travel agency and have them airdrop the delivery on their way. There were many scavengers in Shattered Star Ring, and some low-level galactic pirates focused on robbing logistic spaceships. Hence, the commercial teams would usually hire mercenaries as guards.
Maple Moon counted very quickly; the number was correct. Han Xiao nodded and said, “There’s no problem, let’s head out now.”
“I have already contacted a travel agency spaceship; it’s parked at port 5468.” Tyrell turned and said to one of his staff, “Dekker, get some men and take the resources into the goods cabin, then follow Black Star to Floating Dragon Island to carry out the handover.”
The man who was called Dekker nodded, called some workers, and started transporting the boxes to the port. He was a regular manager of the Tyrell Group. He looked very ordinary, and he was someone that did not attract much attention.
Han Xiao and the others stepped onto the stairs into the travel agency spaceship. Tyrell stood on the dock and said loudly, “Send my regards to Jenny.”
Han Xiao waved his hands and walked into the spaceship. After the hatch closed, he wrote a guard mission and gave it to some players, then told Herlous to take them to the goods cabin and begin shifts to protect the goods. He then went to the guest cabin with the others.
With some turbulence, the spaceship took off. This was a small traveling spaceship, so there were no other passengers. Tyrell had booked the entire spaceship specifically to transport supplies for Floating Dragon.
There were few people on the ship. Other than ten or so crew members and mercenary group members, there were only around ten of Tyrell Group’s employees. Dekker was their boss. Han Xiao had met him before. They did not communicate much, but he did notice that Dekker brought a girl onto the ship this time.
“Are you Black Star?”
In the guest hall, as soon as they sat down, the girl beside Dekker spoke. She tilted her head and looked at Han Xiao curiously.
Han Xiao sized her up. This was a space human teenage girl, rather young, about fifteen to sixteen years old, and her head only reached Han Xiao’s chest. She had dark brown short hair, pale skin, and a pretty face. The bridge of her nose was tall, and her bright eyes were filled with a youthful energy.
“Uncle Dekker always tells me stories. He’s talked about you before.” The teenage girl’s eyes moved up and down on Han Xiao’s body, sizing him up.
Dekker coughed and said, “This is one of my friend’s daughters. Her family… ahem, let me take care of her temporarily. She wanted to follow me no matter what, so I brought her onto the ship. Lord Black Star, would that be a problem?”
“Not at all.” Han Xiao shook his head. He looked at the teenage girl, smiled, and asked, “What’s your name?”
“Sylvia.”
“Quite a nice name, what’s your home planet?”
Sylvia curled her lips. “Are you doing an identity check, Uncle?”
“Uncle…” Han Xiao was speechless. He was clearly young and handsome. What nonsense was she talking about?
Sylvia looked glanced at Han Xiao sideways, changed the topic, and said in disdain, “I heard you mercenaries have no morals and fight for whichever side pays higher. I really want to know, is the money earned from selling your souls not hot to hold?”
Han Xiao raised his eyebrows. Before he spoke, Dekker pulled Sylvia back in terror, scolded her, and hastily apologized to Han Xiao. “She doesn’t understand many things. Please don’t take it to heart.”
“It’s alright, understandable.” Han Xiao waved his hands. Words had basically zero impact on him, so of course, he did not care. “This small girl has quite some guts. She knows we are a bunch of brutes, yet he still dares to question me right in my face. Quite brave.”
“I’m not a small girl!” Sylvia was a little angry and pushed her chest up.
“Hmm… not small indeed but still needs development.” Bun-Hit-Dog’s eyes moved down, and a dirty smile appeared on his face. Suddenly, he realized that Han Xiao was looking at him without saying anything. He immediately kept his eyes to himself, wiped off his smile, and sat up straight.
They fastened their seatbelt, and the spaceship entered jumping mode very quickly—only then could they walk around freely. Sylvia was energetic and active. She curiously ran around the spaceship and glanced through the spaceship’s structure in awe. Sometimes, she would place her head on the porthole and look outside the window at the streams of light outside.
Dekker smiled bitterly and said, “This is her first time on a spaceship. Sorry to trouble you.”
“As long as the mission is not affected.” Han Xiao looked at the energetic back view of the teenage girl and narrowed his eyes.
Sylvia… this name sounds kind of familiar.
He did not want to give up even the slightest doubt. He returned to his room and pondered for more than ten minutes. Finally, he found someone in his memories who had this name.
[Mechanical Lady Knight] Sylvia?
Han Xiao froze for a second. He did not expect the teenage girl that he had met coincidentally to be a known character. Furthermore, in the storyline of his previous life, Sylvia was very well known and was especially popular among the players.
Sylvia was still a young girl now. Han Xiao recalled her look in his previous life after ‘growing up’—long hair, valiant and fearless, wearing light mechanical armor and a cape, just like a knight.
What was a very important factor in determining the attractiveness of a female character? Parodies!
Sylvia had a lot of parodies and being pretty was just one factor. After all, there were way too many pretty females in Galaxy. The more important reason was her background, identity, personality, and storyline.
Beauty was never Han Xiao’s focus. He recalled Sylvia’s character background. It was way too long ago, so he could only vaguely remember.
Sylvia’s father was chased by a certain mercenary group and died. She was still young back then, so she took the path of revenge. She moved from forces to forces, learned Mechanic class knowledges, and became a galactic pirate chasing after that mercenary group.
In the timeline of that version, due to the Crimson Empire expanding once again, all the Star Fields could only care about themselves. The large mercenary groups in various Star Clusters of the Shattered Star Ring mimicked the mercenaries in the Silver Arm Star Field, creating the Shattered Star Ring Alliance. They turned themselves into an enormous mercenary group with millions of members and tens of thousands of battleships of all kinds of models, more than enough to take part in even large space wars.
Sylvia was the arch-enemy of the mercenary alliance.
Players back then took part in the mercenary alliance event. In their eyes, Sylvia was a renowned villain boss of the opposite party. Many players received missions to chase and kill Sylvia, but they all failed. Sylvia was too strong.
During the times of opposing the mercenary alliance, Sylvia often appeared in the eyes of the players. Then, through what looked like an accident, she discovered that her father was the bad guy and knew that her father deserved his death. She then disappeared for a period of time. When she reappeared, she was not a galactic pirate anymore; she became a freedom fighter of Shattered Star Ring, helping the people who were victims of harm, dealing with some criminals, and being responsible for quite a number of famous events. Furthermore, they rejected rewards or requests in any form; all their actions came from themselves. They were like Superheroes… Basically, she reformed.
Although Sylvia was not the main character of a certain event, she was a renowned character like Hila. She was involved in many events in the Shattered Star Ring. When the players wandered in space, they would sometimes bump into her fighting bad guys and could choose to help her. She was loved by many in Shattered Star Ring… These were all things that happened after Version 3.0
Han Xiao shook his head. Sylvia’s reform process and her experience of turning from someone with so much hatred into someone as righteous as a knight were filled with opportunities for parodies, such as…
Bah! Why am I thinking of this?
Didn’t expect to meet a future celebrity…
Han Xiao stroked his chin.
For some reason, he felt somewhat strange, like he had missed some important information.
…
Floating Dragon Island was in the Rain Star System of the Colton Star Cluster. There was a small star gate on their way that could teleport them, and the traveling time was about ten days.
Every day, Han Xiao built machinery and traded with the players.
He did not pay much attention to the league, only looking at the results. The top four teams were decided. Long Sky stopped at the top eight after facing Devil, who were ranked first, and were defeated 1:3. It was quite regretful. Dynasty defeated Rose Knight 3:2, advancing to top four. Japan’s Hydra defeated Australia’s Kangaroo Boxing 3:1. The top four teams were Tulips, Devil, Dynasty, and Hydra.
The upcoming grouping was extremely important. It seemed like the prayers of countless Chinese spectators had an effect; Dynasty’s next opponent was team Hydra. Compared to the steady Tulips and extremely strong Devil, Hydra was no doubt a weaker opponent. Dynasty had the most confidence in defeating Hydra as compared to the other two teams. The Chinese panel in the forums was practically celebrating already.
In terms of Singles, King Admiral advanced to top eight, Frenzied Sword stopped at top sixteen. But Frenzied Sword was very satisfied; he was already overjoyed that he could enter the second round of the International League, a result that was much higher than his initial expectations. Compared to Frenzied Sword’s ranking in Han Xiao’s previous life, this was indeed a huge improvement. In his previous life, Frenzied Sword did not even make it into the International League, but now, he was one of the top sixteen players on the International League. Frenzied Sword benefitted the most, and his position among the Chinese players rocketed from nobody to a Supernova.
Ten days later, the spaceship exited the jumping state. Floating Dragon was only half a day away.
It was dining time. Han Xiao walked out of the machinery modification room and came to the dining hall. This was the usual dining area, so many people were eating there. The food was all portable space food, so it could not be considered delicious, but it was not tasteless either.
Herlous called for him from the bar.
“Have a drink?” Herlous had a bottle of liquor in front of him, the alcohol made his face slightly red.
“Almost forgot you’re an alcoholic.” Han Xiao sat down, and the bartender passed him a new cup. Herlous laughed, lifted the liquor bottle, and poured him a cup.
Han Xiao shook his head and lifted up the cup. Just as he was going to drink it, his movement suddenly stopped, and an unknown alert appeared in his heart.
Frowning slightly, he looked at the object introduction on his interface.
_____________________
[Strong Liquor with an Added Ingredient]
Effects: Unknown
_____________________
Bang!
The smashing sound shocked everyone. They put their food down and looked over in surprise.
Han Xiao held the bartender’s collar, pressed the panicking bartender on the bar table, and said coldly without an expression, “You added poison‽
