"Yay!" Dylan Smith hummed a little tune and danced a few steps. After picking up the box that had fallen to the ground, he walked over to Brian Clark and said, "The security team will be here within a minute. Hey, Brian Clark, not to criticize you, but when you hear about interstellar pirates, you should act alarmed, and when you see the muzzle of their guns, you should look terrified—not remain so expressionless and calm. Every expression and movement of a passenger is recorded by the surveillance cameras installed on the passenger ship. Acting like this is basically announcing you have something to hide, and you'll be taken back by the security team for a thorough interrogation." Dylan Smith deliberately emphasized the word "thorough."

Brian Clark shot Dylan Smith a sidelong glance. "So what? Didn't you sit next to me on purpose just to drag me into this mess?"

Dylan Smith chuckled and didn't deny it.

"As for the robbery incident, the passenger company and the security team will compensate the passengers. If you're willing to injure yourself, they'll pay even more."

Brian Clark neither agreed nor disagreed.

Chapter 8: Vanguard

Dylan Smith took out a dark gold item, grinned as he wrote something on it, then cheerfully tore off the top sheet and stuck it in the most conspicuous spot by the entrance. After being posted, what was originally a palm-sized thin slip expanded to the size of that black suitcase, and the numbers flashing on it, along with a dagger-shaped symbol, were extremely eye-catching.

This thing that looked like a notice... was it a ticket?

When Brian Clark saw that symbol, his pupils contracted and his heart skipped a beat.

Vanguard! The symbol of the Vanguard Hunter Group, one of the four great hunter groups of the Star Alliance!

The four great hunter groups are different from solo or small-group hunters. Their targets are much bigger—so big it's astonishing. The discovery of new habitable planets, the opening up of new regions, the trading of vast mineral resources—all have their involvement. Their targets could be a family, an organization, a city, even a planet, or an unknown region of a star system, and they have the ability to accomplish it... These are not things ordinary hunters could ever handle.

It's worth mentioning that in the Star Alliance, the electronic magazine "Brave," which has a contribution score above eighty and is second only to "Glory" and "Cipher," devotes eighty percent of every issue to information about the four great hunter groups. That shows just how influential they are—even the authorities have to take them seriously.

The security team rushed in, but when the captain entered the control room and saw that flashing "notice," his already dark face turned as black as coal—he could probably scrape a layer off. Looking up, he saw someone sitting with legs crossed in the captain's chair, munching on fruit with a loud crunch.

"Reporting, Captain: there were twenty-four pirates on board, twenty-three are unconscious, one is dead. Some passengers are lightly injured, no fatalities, and they're being comforted..."

Listening to his subordinate's report, the security team captain's face grew darker and darker, and he wished he could just go over and crush those pirates himself.

A robbery? What a joke! They didn't even figure out who they were dealing with before making a move, and tried to rob an A-class gene veteran hunter? Are they brainless pigs?! And not only did they fail, they were toyed with like children, completely powerless to fight back. Living pirates are worth more than dead ones—at least double the price. How much will the security team have to report for this? Most importantly, the one who caught these pirates is the very person this security team wanted to avoid but couldn't! But then again, what is this guy doing in the X Star Zone, such a poor place? Logically, the X Star Zone is the least worth developing.

The more the security team captain thought about it, the angrier he got. The veins on his forehead throbbed, and he kicked several subordinates out the door. The deputy captain, who had followed him in, was a bit displeased—disciplining your men is one thing, but not in front of outsiders. Isn't that just airing your dirty laundry? But when he looked up and saw that glaring "notice," his face changed instantly, turned ashen, and he also turned around and kicked a few people behind him.

Looks like their security team is going to get chewed out when they report back. For example: "Are the security team guys eating shit?!" "Are your brains rotting? You can't even stop these kinds of pirates?" "How the hell did those money-sucking vampires end up here?!"

Just thinking about it made the captain's facial muscles twitch uncontrollably. "Vanguard Sixth Fleet Deputy Captain—Dylan Smith, I've heard a lot about you."

Brian Clark, having had little exposure to information at the "Vanguard" level, only knew about the four great hunter groups, but not much about the individual fleets.

No wonder, when Dylan Smith introduced himself and saw Brian Clark's calm reaction, his expression was so odd.

Still, Brian Clark was genuinely surprised. For Dylan Smith to be the deputy captain of a Vanguard fleet, he was awfully young—he didn't look more than ten years older than Brian Clark.

When the security team captain walked over, Dylan Smith was still sitting grandly in the captain's seat. Hearing the other party mention his name and background, Dylan Smith wasn't surprised and said with a smile, "Oh, I've been recognized."

The faces of the security team members turned a bit green. Anyone who works in the security team knows the dagger-shaped symbol on that "notice." Every fleet is familiar with it, and recently, everyone had studied the activities of the Sixth Fleet in the surrounding star zones. The core members of the Sixth Fleet were even put on a blacklist, guarded against like thieves—yet they still ran into them.