Return

It was precisely because of the repeated thefts that the Tower began to raise its guard. After several failed attempts to catch the culprit, Korax successfully mastered the skill of making the overseers responsible for monitoring devices selectively ignore his image whenever it appeared on the screens.

Korax's Zero Yuan Purchase operations became increasingly frequent.

What kind of being was Korax? A mere group of armed overseers wanted to catch even his shadow? They were dreaming. The Tower's management never even considered the possibility that the culprits might be those lowly miner slaves.

Lycaeus was not an isolated, closed-off Mining World. The ore dug out by the miners would be transported to smelting plants in the rear, turned into raw metal, and then sent through the Gravity Well to Kiavahr for further processing into various agricultural or military products.

At the same time, many other people from Kiavahr traveled to the Mining World through the Gravity Well. The Mechanicus Guild that controlled Kiavahr was not made up of just one family.

The Tower's administrators had reason to suspect that their rival faction was responsible, because news occasionally came from Kiavahr of certain families within the Mechanicus Guild causing trouble.

It had to be said that Korax's method of hiding in plain sight was indeed extremely effective.

Although Korax would not be discovered, as time passed, the miners' growing connections would soon be noticed by the Tower.

"Tell the Weapon Workshop to begin producing weapons at full capacity. Cut food rations by one-third, and trade every bit of ore we can spare for supplies." After thinking for a moment, Sandman made his decision.

Following Korax's actions, he knew that the miners of this Mining World, who had failed countless times before, would soon face an entirely new fate.

Fate's gift was about to arrive. Whether they could accept that gift would depend on whether they dared to step forward amid such enormous change—and whether they could survive.

"Come out now that you're back. What are you always hiding in the shadows for?" Sandman frowned and tossed a stone toward the shadows in the corner of the balcony.

The chunk of gravel traced a graceful arc through the air as it flew toward the corner.

As Nekser watched with a thoughtful expression, a pale hand reached out from the shadows. Long fingers firmly caught the stone that had been thrown at him.

"Boss, I've noticed that no matter how much my stealth improves, you can always find me. Am I leaving too many openings?" Korax walked out of the corner, his face full of confusion.

"You've already slipped right under my nose. With your abilities, you could burst into action and kill me who knows how many times in an instant. Isn't that enough?" Sandman rose from the stone bench and said with his head tilted back.

He was not tilting his head back to show off. Korax was simply far too tall.

Did you Primarchs grow up eating Yao Ming or something?

Originally, Korax had only reached Sandman's waist. In two years, he had grown to 2.5 meters, and he would continue growing taller. Sandman, who was only 1.8 meters tall, found this deeply depressing.

It was already exhausting to speak while looking up. Korax would only keep growing taller in the future, which would make it even more exhausting...

After the various insane modifications carried out by technological maniacs during the Golden Age, humanity in the Warhammer Universe generally stood around 1.7 to 1.8 meters tall, with physical capabilities many times stronger than those of humans before.

The amount of actual human DNA left in the human genome had fallen to an outrageously low level. All kinds of mutants were born when the genes of various other races that had been added to humanity mutated.

"How was the scenery on Kiavahr?" Sandman pulled over a stone bench for Korax, then lay back down himself.

Looking up while talking was just too tiring. He might as well lie down...

"The scenery in the upper levels is beautiful. But for the people at the bottom, it is a hell even crueler than Lycaeus." After weighing his words for a moment, Korax gave an answer Sandman had never expected.

"Huh?" Sandman's face immediately filled with question marks.

His former self had been a native born on the Mining Satellite, not one of those exiled here, so he knew little about Kiavahr.

The political elites and war heroes exiled here were not people from the bottom either. As for the vicious criminals, most of them were in the west.

"Tell me." Sandman quickly came to his senses.

What kind of world was this? The Warhammer World. Wasn't this precisely one of the Warhammer World's signature traits? Although Kiavahr was not a Forge World, it was still an Industrial World with formidable productive capacity.

Environmental pollution was nothing worth mentioning. Whether it was a Forge World or an Industrial World, the most terrifying thing about them was "efficiency."

Yes, efficiency.

In worlds like these, everything was meticulously planned by those in power. Labor hours, resource consumption, and the limits of the human body were all calculated with extreme precision.

Workers operated at full capacity in two twelve-hour shifts. If someone at a post suddenly died from overwork, a new worker would immediately replace him. If a component broke, technical workers would arrive at once to repair it. Transport ships came one after another, carrying raw materials and finished products along preplanned schedules and routes.

Such a world was itself an enormous factory. Meticulous order and strict rules were its greatest features. Everything here existed for efficiency, for production capacity.

(The author, having tightened screws in an electronics factory, felt this deeply...)

"It was more or less what the teachers taught me. Nothing more than the stark contrast between the extravagant lives of nobles who monopolized all power and resources, and the people at the bottom drowning in misery." Korax leaned calmly against the back of the stone bench.

But Sandman knew that beneath the Primarch's calm exterior burned an incomparably blazing fury.

"So, you came back this time to hand in your answer? Have you made your decision?" Sandman rose to his feet, his hawk-like gaze carrying immense pressure as he stared straight into Korax's eyes and asked word by word.

Even while seated, Korax was nearly as tall as the standing Sandman. Yet the force Sandman radiated at that moment made Korax rise to his feet as well and answer seriously.

"Yes, Boss. I have made my decision. I will lead the miners and the people at the bottom here in an uprising. I will lead my brothers and sisters to stand as their own masters!" Korax declared his will to Sandman in an exceptionally resolute tone.

"Naturally, that includes Kiavahr," Korax said.

"But Korax, have you considered this? Human greed is endless. Even if you succeed in leading your brothers and sisters here to become their own masters, such things will still happen again as time passes. When that time comes, how will you choose when facing those who were once your brothers and sisters?" Sandman asked.

This was an inherent flaw of humanity—or rather, of short-lived species.

"If such a thing happens, then there is only one answer: kill!" Korax's expression was utterly calm. Whether on Lycaeus or Kiavahr, those people with hollow eyes and numb expressions, like walking corpses, had deeply pierced Korax's kind heart.