Insertion, countdown, deployment complete. Northern trench.
After landing, Li Qingyu glanced at the sun: around four in the afternoon, it would set in a couple of hours.
Checking the map provided by the system, he whistled. The Water Intake Lake was a full thirty kilometers away – the respawn point was quite far.
Moreover, he discovered that Reyno's and Rudolsen's missions overlapped: both led to the Hydrological Station. This meant the station likely served as the Chaos Sorcerer's lair.
Li Qingyu tensed slightly. How to clear an objective guarded by a sorcerer? Assemble a "full build" from six equipment slots? The problem was, he didn't have that much gear.
"Ah! Whatever, I don't care. I'll get there first, and then we'll see."
He decided to solve problems as they arose and dashed towards the Water Intake Lake.
The thirty-kilometer journey turned out to be surprisingly easy. Every time his stamina bar emptied – and it lasted about three kilometers – he downed a can of high-calorie energy drink and kept running.
I must say, this drink was miraculous. No matter how tired you were: a sip, and the fatigue vanished. The burning in your lungs disappeared, the pain in your knees subsided, as if your body had been reset to factory settings.
He thought the brew was indeed excellent. He wondered if it would have the same cheat effect on an ordinary person without the System? He'd have to buy more from Reyno to stock up.
Li Qingyu ran from dawn till dusk and covered thirty kilometers in about two and a half hours – inhumanly fast.
He was lucky: he encountered neither rebels nor Public Safety Service troops along the way.
Both sides fought haphazardly – neither could gain the upper hand, and the intensity of the fighting was low.
He suspected that if things continued like this, the opponents would simply leave each other alone. The Planetary Governor would lock himself in the palace in the Upper Hive, living out his final days in luxury until the Inquisition arrived for their tithe. Then, a single bolt would put an end to his rich life.
The rebels, though they controlled the entire planet except for the Hive, lacked heavy weaponry for a siege.
If so, the logic was simple: the Public Safety Service wouldn't bother us, and we'd farm the land ourselves.
And then the Inquisition's fleet would arrive, finish off the Governor, and demand taxes from the rebels. Then their illusory "sweet life" would end.
When dozens of kilometers-long battleships hung in the low orbit of the agricultural world 496b, any rebel resistance would look like the cute yapping of puppies.
By the time Li Qingyu reached the lake, it was already dark. He lay down on a large boulder at the water's edge, watching silently.
The Water Intake Lake was huge – the opposite shore wasn't even visible.
Fortunately, the Hydrological Station was on this side, about five hundred meters away; otherwise, he wouldn't have known how to cross the water.
The station was an imposing building of ferroconcrete and steel-plastic, about seven stories high.
Half of the structure stood on the shore, half extended into the water, bristling with sensors and pipes.
A dim yellow light, like from candles, burned on the seventh floor – someone was inside.
Li Qingyu took out a holy wafer and ate it, casting the "Holiness" buff on himself. This gave him resistance to Chaos corruption and plus five to perception.
He stared intently at the lit window. Inside, there was the sorcerer who had destroyed two companies of the Public Safety Service. His heart skipped a beat. He was nervous.
The plan was simple: wait for the light to go out, and only then sneak inside for reconnaissance.
Having made his decision, he steadied his breathing, relaxed, and listened to the chirping of night insects, letting his thoughts wander.
"I wonder if I can still undergo the transformation into an Astartes at my age?"
Astartes – super-soldiers of the Warhammer 40k universe. Twenty-one operations, implantation of superhuman organs – and you turn into a three-meter mountain of muscle with lightning-fast reflexes.
But the younger the candidate, the higher the chance. Li Qingyu was under thirty, so that train had likely left the station.
And the Chapters wouldn't waste precious gene-seed on an overgrown youth. Every neophyte underwent the strictest selection.
He sighed. To end up in the Warhammer world and not become a Space Marine – what a shame.
These guys didn't know old age. Astartes didn't die of age – only in battle.
The oldest Dreadnoughts lived for over ten thousand years. Combined with the "Loot-Kill-Evacuate" system, which granted resurrection, Li Qingyu could achieve absolute immortality.
"Ah, too bad."
He sighed again, but suddenly shivered. Why had it become so cold?
Wait. Why had the insects fallen silent?
And why was the ground covered in frost?
Suddenly, he felt an icy gaze upon him. That gaze awakened an ancient, childlike terror – the same one you feel after a horror movie, lying under the covers and trembling.
"Shit! I've been spotted!"
He frantically tried to jump up, but his body wouldn't obey!
"The end! Psionic grip!"
Everything inside him turned cold. He realized he was bound by telekinesis. He strained with all his might but couldn't move even a finger – as if hundreds of invisible hands were pressing him to the stone.
*Rustle-rustle.*
Behind him, he heard the rustling of grass. Someone, radiating a grave chill, was approaching.
The footsteps grew louder, intensifying his panic. The invisible enemy was pressing on his mind more than anything.
The footsteps stopped three meters away. A jerky, neurotic male voice rang out:
"What a... what a cute little mouse. Did you know I was... so bored today, and you came to entertain me? Heh-heh-heh-heh..."
An invisible force yanked Li Qingyu up and turned him around.
His eyes widened: a human stood before him. A horrific human.
His head was bloody, the scalp missing in places. His face had turned into a mess of furrows – nail marks. Some pierced through his cheeks, saliva dripping from the holes.
He had no ears or nose at all – as if they'd been cut off bit by bit.
He was gaunt and bare-chested. His torso was crisscrossed with rusty wires piercing his skin in hundreds of holes.
"Heh-heh-heh... today... these voices... the voices in my head... are so loud, hee-hee-hee-hee..."
He muttered something under his breath, raised his hand, grabbed a lock of hair, and yanked sharply!
With a wet crack, a piece of skin peeled away from his skull.
Now everything was clear. The psyker had driven himself to this state. Judging by his ravings – this was an uncontrolled psyker!
A psyker's projection in the Warp shines like a torch, attracting demons eager for his soul.
One of the demons' favorite tricks is to whisper day and night, depriving you of sleep and sanity, to turn their victim into a conduit for Chaos.
This guy was already on the edge. The demons' whispers had driven him to madness and self-torture. Only a few days remained until his complete fall.
Looking at the disfigured psyker, Li Qingyu wanted to say something, but the mental pressure clamped his lips shut.
"Hee-hee... hee-hee, the voices tell me to tear you apart, to hear your scream, to eat your guts, hee-hee!"
His eyelids twitched, his body trembled. He extended a bloody hand towards Li Qingyu's neck.
"Ugh!"
As the hand approached, the pressure intensified. Li Qingyu's bones creaked, ready to break. He moaned with pain.
"To be crushed by a psychic press – a rare achievement for the death collection," he thought grimly.
He was already calculating what gear to bring on the next sortie to finish this freak.
Maybe take a backpack with a couple of dozen kilos of explosives and start a jihad? See if the psyker could withstand a point-blank detonation?
"Kill him! Gut him!!"
"Crush his skull! Scoop out his brains!!"
"Break his neck, rip out his trachea!!"
The demons' voices thundered in the psyker's head like a hundred people screaming at once. This noise caused unbearable pain, erased the last remnants of his sanity, and forced his body to obey.
"I... will kill... will kill... you, ehe-heh-heh-heh!"
He contorted in a fit of laughter, his bloody hand closing around Li Qingyu's throat.
But just as he was about to tear the flesh and drink the warm blood, the maddening demonic whisper suddenly... disappeared?