The Thinker fell into contemplation

The sound of the Devouring Storm's fine particles battering the old, abandoned buildings rang in Kasgar's ears.

Not long after leaving Karax Fortress, to evade the relentless natural disasters, Fulgrim suggested resting briefly in the abandoned factory nearby.

Walking through the steel-constructed factory, with the dense clatter outside, there was a strange sense of peace and comfort.

Though he didn't know where Fulgrim would lead, he kept following her steps.

"The workers shouldn't need to worry too much."

"Karax Fortress's livelihood currently depends on factory production. Herod is too busy scrambling for power to make a move on them."

"Once the storm eases a bit, we can sneak back into the factory through the old secret passage and move the survival supplies here."

"Then we can launch—"

"Wait, what are these?"

Stepping down the iron ladder one by one, Kasgar, following behind Fulgrim, pointed to a floor in the dark, abandoned basement.

There, piles of clean water, food, various medical and hygiene supplies, and protective suits were stacked. Dozens of crates made the already cramped little room even more crowded.

As for weapons, there were several crates of ammunition, dozens of blades, and rifles.

Outside the room, new machinery occupied about two-thirds of the space, starkly out of place amid the rust and dust.

"Surprised?"

Puzzled, Kasgar met Fulgrim's gaze. Her chin was lifted with pride, like a peacock spreading its tail.

She had prepared for this.

For the turmoil caused by the failed marriage alliance, internal noble disputes, and power struggles, she had already made thorough contingency plans.

She had stockpiled essential supplies in uninhabited areas far from the fortress, and even the subsequent counterattack plan was arranged down to the smallest detail.

As for discussing the next course of action with Kasgar earlier...

Heh.

That was just teasing you.

Perfect Fulgrim had already planned countless viable contingencies and chosen the most suitable one based on how events unfolded.

A Primarch's calculation and planning abilities were far beyond what a mere mortal like Kasgar could hope to match.

Seeing Kasgar a bit embarrassed, Fulgrim offered words of comfort:

"Though fleeing without preparation was a bit reckless, and your ideas about the climate, escape route, and future counterattack strategy are still quite crude."

"But for an ordinary person, guessing Herod's scheme and coming up with a corresponding solution is already impressive."

Pat, pat, pat on the head.

"After all, you promised to 'save' me."

Fulgrim emphasized that word heavily.

It wasn't wrong.

But why did it feel like mockery?

Kasgar thought as Fulgrim ruffled his head and helped him into a protective suit.

Sigh.

A wicked woman.

And Kasgar was about to be toyed with by this wicked woman.

He could only say his luck wasn't great.

He'd ended up with one of the rare perfectionist all-rounders among the Primarchs.

If he'd gotten another Primarch who wasn't quite as clever, maybe he could have become their strategist or Librarian, earning their favor.

Like Angron, Angron.

And Angron.

Even Russ would do!

"What do we do now?"

Kasgar asked helplessly.

It wasn't like they could just charge back with this equipment.

Though it might be feasible given a Primarch's combat power, a large-scale armed conflict could cause irreversible damage to the already fragile shelter ecosystem.

If the enemy chose to destroy the entire fortress in a scorched-earth move, all survivors would be exposed to severe radiation storms—the consequences would be unthinkable.

"We need to fix this thing first."

Fulgrim replied.

"You might not believe this, but right now, only about ten percent of Karax Fortress's systems are functioning normally."

"I studied the system's pipelines before."

"In ancient times, this was Karax's power station. Most of the fortress's functions rely on the energy supply from here."

After changing into protective gear, Fulgrim leaned close to the machinery, explaining to Kasgar as she worked on repairs.

"Fixing this place means taking control of all the fortress's capabilities."

Fulgrim took some parts from a nearby piece of equipment and brought them closer for inspection.

"Hand me the mechanical parts from α-24."

"The fortress used to run on internal emergency energy production equipment. If we can repair the power plant and restore the electricity, we'll regain control of most of the fortress's systems."

"Including the fire control, riot suppression, and surveillance systems."

As she spoke, the instrument in front of her suddenly emitted several discordant red alarm flashes.

"Another error."

"Kasgar, give me the mechanical clamp from Σ-3."

Click.

With the final green light signaling a successful connection, Fulgrim wiped the fine beads of sweat from her fair forehead.

Repairing the equipment hadn't taken a short time, but fortunately, time was the one thing they had in abundance.

"Phew. Alright, now we just need to activate it and obtain authorization."

Their gazes fell on an old computer—or, in this world's terms, a Thinker—connected by countless mechanical cables.

Booting up. 1%

Booting up. 2%

She had put no small amount of effort into reactivating this old Thinker.

Judging by the dense array of newly built machinery and supplies nearby, she had attempted to sneak here long ago to repair it.

"I originally planned to fix the power supply after the marriage alliance, but Herod ruined that plan, so I had to resort to this method to forcibly seize control of the fortress."

As she spoke, Fulgrim's fingers flew across the Thinker's buttons at lightning speed.

So fast that Kasgar could only see faint afterimages.

"You did all this by yourself?"

"Of course!"

"Actually, it wasn't that complicated," she replied with a hint of pride to Kasgar's question. "The main issue was that Chemos was missing a lot of key materials. Otherwise, I could have fixed it much sooner."

"You absolutely wouldn't believe how I managed to use such low-quality materials—"

"Kasgar."

Fulgrim, who had been chattering away, suddenly stopped.

She glanced around, confirming once more that they were alone, then leaned close to Kasgar's ear and whispered:

"Praise me. Now."

"Huh?"

"Just compliment me, right now. Say anything."

The Fulgrim people usually saw was a calm, elegant demigod brimming with strength and wisdom.

Only Kasgar was fortunate enough to glimpse the true form hidden beneath her perfect exterior during their private moments.

Kasgar smiled at this.

"Alright, alright. Great Fulgrim, the most brilliant engineer in all of Chemos—"

Baby, baby, you're a baby who's really good at building machines.

Booting up. 99%

"...Huh?"

According to Fulgrim's plan, everything was going smoothly.

Except the Thinker seemed to have run into a problem.

Gene recognition error!

Please insert a correct human gene into the administrator authorization slot.

Seeing the prompt on the Thinker's display, Fulgrim's expression was full of embarrassment.

"Something must have gone wrong somewhere, so it can't recognize me..."

"Um... let me borrow your genes."

As if to cover up her awkwardness, Fulgrim lowered her head, quickly drew a bit of blood from Kasgar's outstretched arm, placed it in a sample vial, and inserted it into the corresponding slot.

After a moment's hesitation, the Thinker entered its reading phase again.

"Phew, this should be fine now."

It was only natural that it couldn't recognize her before.

After all, the Primarchs were products of the Emperor's Warp experiments, still a vast distance away from humanity.

The Thinkers of the Old Night era might indeed have been unable to identify their genes.

But Kasgar, a perfectly ordinary normal human, should be—

"Beep!"

The screen flashed with frantic red light.

Gene identification error!

Please insert correct insert correct insert correct insert correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct correct

Countless lines of garbled code flooded the entire display in an instant.

The contract process is currently underway.

But there's a slight issue with the identity verification; the formal signing may be delayed by a few days.