The Triangular Trade of the New Era

Under the exceptionally regretful account provided by Klaus Tom, Mordred finally understood what had happened; he even realized that he bore some of the blame himself.

Due to a critically low population base, Atlas had been frantically recruiting over the past two years to fill the demographic void in the Serene World.

Consequently, after the Eighth Company Captain volunteered, Mordred entrusted him with the task of immigration. Klaus Tom lived up to the expectations, leading his slave-catching—ah, no, his immigration squad—trailing behind other legions to pick people.

Originally, this was a wonderful arrangement. The Serene World was in a period of comprehensive construction and lacked manpower everywhere, while in the current, full-swing Great Crusade, the one thing there was no shortage of was newly incorporated colonies.

From Mordred's perspective, as an interstellar human Imperium, its system could not even be called backward; it was practically inferior to an advanced feudal society.

Rather than letting people's living standards be entirely tied to the anthropomorphic degree of a planetary governor, it was better to have them build a planet under his own command. At the very least, they could eat their fill from the communal pot and occasionally have extra meals featuring Serene Wandering Chicken.

Logically, this method had only benefits and no drawbacks: the Second Legion gained population, ordinary civilians escaped the ravages of war, and even other legions could obtain supplies and provisions while Klaus Tom shuttled back and forth. It was like Qin Shi Huang playing landlord with his family—a triple win!

However, the subsequent developments went off the rails in a way that was as unexpected as it was inevitable.

Seeing that Klaus Tom did his job beautifully, and adhering to the royal tradition of working a useful tool to death, Mordred gave him an additional position as a recruitment officer, tasking him with picking out good seedlings from the immigrants to provide blood transfusions for the legion.

But despite all his calculations, Mordred overlooked one issue: the background of his Eighth Company Captain, Klaus Tom. This kid had returned from studying abroad with the Eighth Legion.

As the Eighth Legion was developed from the underground Hive City of Terra, one didn't need to guess what kind of character they had; aside from maintaining loyalty, they were almost all villains.

Having grown up in such an environment, it was only thanks to Mordred's powerful genes that Klaus Tom wasn't a complete lunatic.

After receiving Mordred's appointment, Klaus Tom began to ponder. He thought that picking people from refugees was too much trouble; those who could be knocked down by the Imperium in one go, even if they were good at manual labor, were definitely weaklings. It would be better to pick people from a Death World.

And which Death World was closest to the Serene World?

The answer was Catachan!

Upon arriving at this planet, which had been discovered by the Emperor himself during a boarding action, Klaus Tom found that the macho man wearing red bandanas there were quite robust. Even if they couldn't become Space Marines, they were top-tier soldiers as Auxilia.

What was even better, Klaus Tom discovered that Catachan was a natural training ground. As long as one could survive in there for half a year without dying, they could mass-produce tough macho man. This once made him feel that it was a cheat code gifted by the heavens for him to farm points.

Thinking about how he would bring back a large number of soldiers in the future and receive praise from his father in front of many brothers, Klaus Tom was so excited he went mad, only calming down after skinning several Dinosaurs.

But a new problem arose: the Gene-Seed compatibility of the Second Legion was simply too low. In that hellhole of a place that even the Emperor shook his head at, the human population was even lower than that of the Serene World, failing to meet the recruitment demands.

At this moment, the influence of Klaus Tom's study abroad in the Eighth Legion manifested. He came up with an idea that could be called world-shaking: go to other Death Worlds to grab people, then throw them into Catachan to play wilderness survival. Wouldn't that allow for the mass production of macho man?

Hearing this, Mordred could no longer hold it together. He grabbed the little brat and gave him a sound thrashing, cursing as he struck:

"Klaus Tom, you really are a talent! I suspect your IQ is as high as two hundred and fifty."

"Thank you for the praise, Father. To tell you the truth, your previous subordinates all praised me for being smart." Perhaps thinking this was some remarkable achievement, Klaus Tom wore a proud expression on his face even while being disciplined.

This made Mordred even more Angered. He knew better than anyone what his subordinates were like; they were either Ogryn or Dog-men, and the one with the highest IQ was that big black dog, Rambo.

"Forget it, forget it. Hurry up and tell me what happened next. I don't want to hear about your Inner Journey; I'm afraid of being infected by you, you white-skinned Ogryn! Give me the main points!"

Klaus Tom shrank his neck and continued:

"But the Death Worlds with good soldiers were already claimed; the other legions thought the same way, so I had to find my own.

Thanks to your power, Father, we were able to safely jump through the Warp. As I searched, I arrived at an unknown sector and saw a planet Spread Throughout with lava, with a particularly, particularly large moon next to it."

"A particularly large moon? And Spread Throughout with lava?" Mordred seemed to know where it was.

As Expected, Klaus Tom's next words verified his conjecture.

"That planet is called Nocturne by the local natives. After I arrived in that world, I found that this world was Spread Throughout with High Temperature radiation. The humans on it were extremely resilient, and their vitality was off the charts. Aside from their black skin, they were perfect recruitment seedlings."

"So you went down and grabbed people?"

"Yes! And for the sake of sustainable development, every time I found a clan, I only grabbed one-tenth and left behind enough supplies for them to recover.

But who would have thought that instead of being grateful, they called me some kind of demon and said their guardian would eliminate me.

I didn't pay much attention at first, after all, who knew if this guardian deity was just some local legend? But just as I was preparing to retreat, a big black monster wearing armor decorated with various bones rushed out, waving a big iron hammer and howling.

Then we decided to tease this big idiot. We flew the Stormbird and used the autocannons to grind him for a long time. I don't know what he was saying, but I could feel he was very angry, pointing at us and speaking a Hidden Language!"

Hearing this, Mordred was completely numb. To be able to make Vulkan so angry that he started spewing insults—you really did a beautiful job!

"Perhaps because he was too excited, that big black guy actually wanted to throw rocks at us. Heaven Knows why he could throw a rock so high, and he even shattered the glass of the Stormbird.

This was my newly acquired Stormbird! Such behavior is no longer that of an ordinary native; I had to Strike Hard, so I fired two Death Strike Missiles.

But this monster had too much health; he didn't die from the explosion and even gave us the middle finger, so I called for an orbital strike."

"..."

Mordred had nothing to say. He even suspected that the idea of him being shot by a lance beam back then had been cooked up by this very bastard.

"Klaus Tom, I really want to execute you. You wait, I'll deal with you when I get back. What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and Gathered the troops to take me there!"

"Right, remember to protect that batch of people captured from Nightfall Star. Treat them as well as you treat me. And that Stormbird, take it away and destroy it."

Still feeling insecure, Mordred called for Joseph, telling him to keep a close watch on the movements of the Eighteenth Legion and Absolutely Cannot let a single word leak out.

"Sigh, this matter Absolutely Cannot be leaked. Vulkan, my good brother whom I have yet to meet, you must make sure your resurrection gear works!"