After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

Separated by a door, the atmosphere inside the driver's cabin was suffocatingly quiet.

In front of the spacious control panel stood a group of men dressed in the uniforms of senior crew members of the Jinlan.

There was no panic on their faces. They held automatic rifles equipped with silencers and tactical flashlights, with the muzzles pointing diagonally at the ground.

The leader was a man wearing sunglasses. He glanced at the angry faces of the crowd on the monitor screen and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

To ensure the success of this operation and to prevent any players on board from using magnetic fields to detect anything unusual in the cockpit.

Before boarding, they cleaned up the real captain and crew outside, changed them into uniforms, and took over the sea behemoth in a grand manner.

He gestured with his chin toward his subordinate beside him.

In the corridor, the banging on the door grew louder and louder, accompanied by a dull mechanical unlocking sound, and the tightly closed isolation door suddenly slid open to both sides.

The crowd outside was taken aback at first, then tried to rush in to demand an explanation.

boom!boom!

Deafening gunfire erupted in the narrow corridor, bullets striking the metal pipes on the roof and sending up blinding sparks.

The few people at the front who were shouting the loudest froze on the spot, their ears ringing from the gunshot, and they took several steps back.

Five fully armed men filed out of the cockpit, their dark gun barrels pointed directly at the unarmed passengers.

The man in sunglasses, carrying a gun in one hand, slowly walked to the front of the crowd, his gaze sweeping over the pale faces as if he were looking at livestock.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm currently the temporary captain of this ship." The man in sunglasses smiled, but his eyes were icy cold. "We're here to take someone away. You should know him; his name is Zhou Yanqing. As long as we can get him away safely, I guarantee that all of you will be safe and sound."

The man in sunglasses stopped smiling, his tone turning icy: "Of course, to prevent any of you from making trouble... Now, everyone put your hands behind your heads, line up, and head to the theater lobby on the fourth floor. Anyone who dares to run off or try to resist, I wouldn't mind throwing them into the sea to feed the fish."

Under gunfire, all the passengers, like sheep awaiting slaughter, obediently covered their heads with their hands and were pushed down the stairs by the armed men.

Lin Ye and Su Nian mingled in the middle and back of the crowd. Su Nian's face was a little pale. Although she was a smart law student, the terrifying scene of real guns and bullets was still beyond all her past life experience.

Lin also grabbed her wrist with his other hand to reassure her and told her to keep her calm and move steadily with the group.

His gaze swept over the militants impassively. Their tactical movements were disciplined, their grip on their guns was steady, and their eyes were alert. They were clearly a group of highly trained professional mercenaries.

The fourth-floor theater hall was originally the most luxurious entertainment venue on the Jinlan, with huge crystal chandeliers hanging from the dome and scarlet velvet seats arranged in a fan shape, enough to accommodate nearly a thousand people to watch the performance at the same time. Now, it has become a huge cage.

The crowd surged into the hall like a flock of sheep being herded, sobs and suppressed gasps mingling together, filling the air with intense panic.

Lin Ye and Su Nian followed the flow of people and sat down in a corner in the middle and back rows.

The theater's main entrances were guarded by armed men. The leader, wearing sunglasses, stood in the center of the stage, holding a walkie-talkie, from which came the occasional hissing sound of other squads reporting their situations.

"The main restaurant is under control; 231 passengers."

"A six-story casino, with 462 people."

"Deck patrol team, no one escaped."

"..."

The Jinlan had an astonishing passenger capacity, and the mercenaries had a meticulous plan to divide the two to three thousand passengers on board into several large areas for separate supervision.

Lin Ye looked to the right front, where there was a familiar figure.

The other person seemed to notice the gaze behind them and turned their head slightly; it was Pei Xiao.

The other party did not show any surprise, which means they must have already detected Lin Ye using their magnetic field.

Using the surrounding noise and the shield of other passengers' bodies, Pei Xiao pressed her back tightly against the seat back and tilted her head back.

What are you doing here?

"Accompanying someone to an event."

Pei Xiao glanced at Su Nian next to Lin Ye and quickly steered the conversation back on track: "The intelligence department's information was wrong. They said they intercepted a commission from the dark web; a small group of mercenaries wanted to board the ship to kidnap Zhou Yanqing. The branch thought it was just a common armed hijacking, so they had me and a few other Firefly-level players temporarily disguise themselves as passengers to cover for them."

"As you can see from the current situation, the other side is not only well-equipped, but also has players mixed in with them."

"When the patrol changes shifts, I'll find a chance to secretly take care of those guys at the theater. You stay here and protect the ordinary people."

Half an hour later, the wooden door on the side of the theater was pushed open, and two men in uniform, each carrying a rifle, walked in.

After the man in sunglasses left for a while, Pei Xiao began to move stealthily, using the crowd as cover to approach the armed men.

When the opportunity arose, he suddenly darted out, and before anyone could even see him clearly, the crisp sound of bones cracking echoed through the silent theater.

His speed was extremely fast, and with a magnetic field range of twenty meters, before the other militants could raise their guns and fire their bullets, his ability "Collapse" had already pulverized them along with their guns into dust.

"I'll go outside and deal with the others. I'll leave this to you." Pei Xiao pushed open the door and walked out.

"Is he also a player from Tian Shu?" Su Nian asked, looking in the direction the other person had left.

Lin nodded.

Su Nian took a deep breath. Since there were official players on the ship, the situation should be under control.

About ten minutes have passed.

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire erupted from the upper levels, causing a commotion among the theater's passengers.

The gunfire lasted for less than half a minute before it stopped abruptly. Just when everyone thought the firefight was over, a deafening explosion came from above.

The crystal chandelier, weighing several tons, swayed wildly in the theater's dome, and the glass prisms shattered with a piercing sound.

The dome trembled more and more violently, and fine plaster powder mixed with the ceiling coating fell down in a flurry.

The next second, the enormous chandelier, over five meters in diameter and composed of countless crystal pillars and pure copper supports, completely broke free from the dome's restraints and plummeted down like a meteorite, crashing right into Su Nian and Lin Ye.

With no way to avoid it, Su Nian instinctively turned around, wrapped her arms tightly around Lin Ye's waist, buried her face in his chest, closed her eyes, and awaited death.

One second, two seconds.

The expected excruciating pain and loud noise of being shattered to pieces did not occur.

Su Nian slowly opened her eyes and found that the chandelier was perfectly intact, sitting on the ground a few meters away, without even a single piece of glass broken.

She paused for a moment, feeling Lin Ye's body temperature, and suddenly remembered what Lin Ye had said: he had a girlfriend.

She immediately stepped back, tidying her disheveled hair and wrinkled clothes.