First Battle

The Mutants prowling outside the blast door stirred when they heard the gate opening.

They let out howl after howl.

They kept hurling themselves at the blast door, producing loud bangs.

Some Mutants even tried to squeeze through the gap in the door.

The players were startled by the frenzied enemies and instinctively retreated several steps.

The Mutants looked terrifying.

Their exposed bodies were covered in tumors and slick tentacles.

Their heads sported horns, while their hands were covered in chitin—or had turned into tentacles as well.

When they opened their mouths to roar, they exhaled a nauseating stench.

Their eyes were filled with madness, as if they wanted to swallow every living person whole and tear them apart.

"Fuck, that scared the hell out of me."

"Are all Mutants this terrifying?!"

"Games being too realistic isn't always a good thing!!"

"I suddenly really admire those Imperial soldiers. One look at these things makes me want to turn around and run."

"You guys are pathetic. Look at Old Bird—calm in the face of danger, unfazed even if Mount Tai collapsed before him. Now that's a real man."

"My legs went weak from fear. Quick, come help me up."

Bang!

Bang!

Dull gunshots rang out behind the players.

Several Mutants' heads exploded in succession.

Brain matter, skull fragments, and flesh splattered everywhere.

With the Firearms Shooting (Mastery) skill, Qin Yun was practically a deadshot at this distance.

The headless corpses convulsed wildly before the players, horrifyingly realistic.

"Even this is so realistic?"

"Damn, am I even allowed to watch something this gory?"

"Holy shit, the brain matter just flew right out."

"This is incredible. It looks completely real."

"I can't take this. I feel like throwing up."

The players stared wide-eyed at the bloody scene, utterly shocked.

After blowing another enemy's head apart, Qin Yun turned to look at the players.

"Get to the front. Anyone who dares retreat, I'll execute."

"Show some courage. The Emperor has no need for cowardly trash."

At those words, the players who had been shrinking backward in fear could only obediently step forward.

"Could Guide also be serving as a commissar?"

"Execution before battle—gotta experience this Warhammer specialty."

"I used to watch Warhammer videos and think those Imperial soldiers were pathetic when they ran from Warp daemons. Now I see that they at least held on until actual Warp daemons showed up. Compared to me, they're terrifyingly strong."

"These monsters are too terrifying. Good thing this is only a game. If I had to live in a world like this, I'd rather blow my own head off."

Qin Yun ignored the players' complaints.

Holding his automatic pistol, he fired at the Mutants trying to rush inside.

There were quite a few Mutants lingering outside.

But before Qin Yun's superb marksmanship, the enemies charging at the front were nothing but living targets.

Heads exploded one after another.

Gunfire roared, and flesh flew everywhere.

Before long, mutilated limbs littered the ground.

The Mutants feared no death, and there were many of them.

No matter how many fell, more would always charge forward.

Relying on their numerical advantage, they eventually rushed through the opened blast door.

"Prepare for battle! For the Emperor!"

Qin Yun shouted, activating the skills Prayer and Fanaticism at the same time.

A faint golden glow spread from his body and entered the players.

The players, whose legs had been weak with fear moments ago, felt a force surge into their bodies.

They immediately felt stronger.

Their hearts became Fearless, and they no longer feared those monsters.

"For the Emperor!"

"For glory!"

"Grab your weapons and kill these bastards!"

The first Mutant to charge in tripped over a companion's corpse.

The Warmaster seized the opportunity, gripping a large wrench with both hands and swinging it hard at its head.

A dull thud rang out.

The Mutant's head burst like a watermelon.

Its corpse fell to the floor and twitched for a while.

"Fuck, the feel is so real."

The Warmaster sounded excited, without the slightest discomfort.

Empowered by Fanaticism and Prayer.

The other players also swung their crude weapons one after another, smashing them into the Mutants rushing inside.

The players' bodies had been created by the Emperor and were stronger than ordinary people.

Even with crude weapons in hand, they could break the Mutants' limbs or smash their heads apart.

And the doorway was not large enough for more than three or four Mutants to rush in at once.

The players held the advantage in numbers.

The Mutants that rushed inside were beaten together until their bones and tendons broke.

After they fell, they were finished off and had their heads smashed apart alive.

After killing several Mutants in a row, the Warmaster shouted excitedly.

"My level went up, and I even learned the skill 'Melee Combat (Beginner).'"

"I leveled up too, but why did I learn 'Warp Sense (Beginner)'? Am I some kind of psychic lunatic?"

"..."

After more than ten minutes of fighting, the Mutants lingering by the entrance were hunted down one by one.

Qin Yun put away his automatic pistol, its barrel scorching hot.

He checked the battle rewards.

He had killed 103 Mutants in total and gained 1000 + 530 Faith Points.

He had killed 50 of those Mutants himself.

He received 20 Faith Points for each kill.

The players had killed the other 53.

For each of their kills, he received 10 Faith Points, while the remaining 10 went to the players.

It was basically a fifty-fifty split.

Well, damn. So it was a subcontracting system.

Qin Yun silently complained to himself.

As the general contractor, he accepted quests from the Emperor and then distributed them to the players.

If something went wrong later, he would probably be the one held responsible as the general contractor.

No wonder the immortal was so good at subcontracting.

Congratulations, you have gained experience.

Level: LV3 -> LV4.

Skill learned: Purification.

(Can expel the evil power of the Warp and remove all negative effects.)

"Looks like leveling up is pretty easy at the start."

After checking his gains, Qin Yun looked at the other players.

"Search the enemy corpses. Finish off anything that isn't dead."

As soon as he finished speaking, someone shouted.

"Hey, this guy has a weapon on him."

Old Bird pulled a large-caliber pistol from a fallen Mutant.

"Can we loot enemy equipment too?"

"Search quickly. There have to be other items."

Seeing someone loot equipment from a Mutant.

Everyone realized they had underestimated the true value of the phrase "100% Freedom."

No guns, no cannons? The enemy would provide them.

The wisdom of the older generation could work here too.

"Something's wrong. Why did I get a Corruption buff?"

Old Bird, who had been happy moments ago, looked panicked.

He threw away the pistol he had just obtained as if it were a hot potato.

"On the battlefield, don't casually pick up and use enemy weapons. Chaos's evil power has already corrupted them."

Qin Yun strode over.

He bent down and picked up the pistol.

He activated Purification.

As a faint golden glow appeared, the Chaos Star symbol on the grip slowly faded and became an Aquila.

He tossed the gun back to Old Bird.

"Your performance was very brave. This is your spoils of war."

"The Corruption buff is gone." Old Bird grinned, holding the gun so fondly he could hardly bear to put it down.

Qin Yun added, "I can purify one weapon for each of you, but after that, you'll have to use Faith Points at the shrine to purify the Chaos corruption from your weapons."

The other players all lowered their heads and began searching, hoping to find more weapons.

Unfortunately, under normal circumstances, crew members were not issued weapons.

After all, Warp travel was extremely oppressive, and crew members could easily lose control.

Only supervisors or armed crew members were equipped with weapons to deal with potential unrest.

Over a hundred corpses.

Yet Old Bird's pistol was the only gun.

The rest were portable items such as daggers.

It seemed the accident aboard the Imperial Glory had happened very suddenly.

After the Geller Field was damaged, the crew had not even had time to react before they were corrupted or slaughtered by Warp creatures.

"How about giving the gun to me? I'll pay you real money—one thousand." Brother Zhong walked over, hoping to buy the gun in Old Bird's hand.

"I'll offer ten thousand," Little Fatty shouted. "Old Bird, give me the gun, and I'll transfer you the money when we get back."

"Fuck, you're competing with me over this too?" Brother Zhong glared at Little Fatty.

"I want to use a gun too. I'm not used to this water pipe." Little Fatty was not intimidated and glared back at Brother Zhong.

Ten-Timer grinned wickedly and chimed in between Brother Zhong and Little Fatty.

"This is the first gun dropped in the epic game Warhammer Online. Once the game blows up in the future, this gun will have commemorative value. Selling it for ten thousand would be a loss."

At those words, the other players also looked at the gun in Old Bird's hand, their eyes burning.

They had personally experienced Warhammer Online.

Compared with the games on the market, it was a complete dimensionality reduction.

Once open beta began, it would definitely become wildly popular.

That meant the first gun Old Bird had obtained could very well be speculated up to an astronomical price in the future.

"I'm not short on money. Not selling, not selling." Old Bird lovingly stroked the pistol, enjoying it even more than touching his wife.

"There are plenty of weapons like this, so there's no need to fight over it." Qin Yun said, "Weapons that have not received the Emperor's Blessing cannot be bound. Once you die, they will drop. And items obtained during the closed beta may not necessarily carry over into the open beta."

"Guns aren't rare aboard the ship. Once we reclaim the armory, I'll issue every one of you firearms and ammunition."

"Now get ready and keep advancing. For the Emperor, we must reclaim the Imperial Glory as quickly as possible."

PS: Invincibility Warmaster took out a loan to complete the Thirteenth Black Crusade.