Swiss Army Knife

A classic red Swiss Army knife. Fu Qinghai was absolutely certain he hadn't mistaken it; it even had the Victorinox cross logo on it.

Fu Qinghai's expression grew complicated as he gently took the Swiss Army knife out of the drawer. The small folding tool looked like a toothpick in his palm.

"Fuck, you almost fooled me..." Fu Qinghai toyed with the Swiss Army knife in his hand and muttered to himself.

The natives of Moradigan had features somewhat like those of Middle Easterners, Arabs, Kurds, and Iranians from Earth in his previous life. The "princess" he had just captured looked much the same—at most, she was a pretty Middle Eastern woman—so Fu Qinghai hadn't thought much of it.

Now it seemed she was no damn "princess."

She was clearly a Reincarnator!

Women really were natural actors. Her impassioned speech just now had even made Fu Qinghai feel a little sorry for her... Now it was clear she wasn't trying to avenge anyone at all. She'd wanted to kill an Astartes and earn Assimilation Points!

Fu Qinghai clicked his tongue twice. I've been in the Warhammer 40K universe for so long, and I've finally met my first Reincarnator. I'd almost forgotten that I'm one, too.

It was all because the setting of Warhammer 40K was so vast. Even if thousands or tens of thousands of Reincarnators were thrown into it, they probably wouldn't make a ripple.

At that thought, Fu Qinghai's brow tightened.

The woman had wanted to kill Talal, so she was most likely a Reincarnator from an opposing faction. Reincarnators could bring things from other worlds with Assimilation Points, and their methods were unpredictable. Who knew what else she had up her sleeve? What if she really had hurt one of his comrades...

Fu Qinghai hurried toward the palace's main hall.

As soon as he entered the main hall, he saw the woman, the old man, and several people who looked like officials being watched over by armed Astartes. Talal was instructing a warrior beside him to contact the frigate in orbit.

Fu Qinghai gave the woman a long look, then walked over to Talal.

When Talal saw him, he casually ordered, "The Imperial Army auxiliaries will land in the square in twenty minutes. Go help them open the expedition fleet's supply depot. The local natives will help transport the supplies, too. Get it done quickly. We shouldn't waste too much time on this planet."

Then he walked over to the woman and the old man and said, "You see? As long as you're willing to cooperate, we won't kill indiscriminately."

The woman hadn't noticed Fu Qinghai's gaze hidden behind his helmet. She was still immersed in her performance, looking up at Talal with an expression that was at once fragile, resolute, and resentful.

Everything's settled, and she's still acting? She's really getting into the role... Fu Qinghai was speechless. Seeing that this Reincarnator didn't seem to have any tricks left, he followed orders and left.

Once they had secured the city's key points, more landing craft descended onto Moradigan. Servitors and auxiliary troops carried supplies back and forth between the frigates and the planet.

This was the trouble with not having a spaceport.

After finishing with the supplies at the depot assigned to him, Fu Qinghai returned to the palace. He found Talal on the top floor and leaned in to speak quietly.

"Talal, there's something wrong with that woman. I want to interrogate her."

Talal gave Fu Qinghai a puzzled look. "She's just a native, Qingshan. You can't expect much from an ignorant native who does something to an Astartes. I've even been worshipped as a god before."

Talal was quite magnanimous and didn't hold the woman's shot against her. But he'd misunderstood Fu Qinghai's meaning, thinking he wanted to punish someone who had dared attack Imperial troops.

"No, that's not why. I noticed something else. I promise I won't hurt her or interfere with the progress on Moradigan," Fu Qinghai explained.

Talal nodded. "Do as you like."

Fu Qinghai led the woman, who had been under constant Astartes guard, into an empty reception room.

He gestured toward the sofa. "Please, sit."

The woman sat down, looking confused.

Fu Qinghai sat across from her and removed his helmet, setting it aside.

The woman was surprised by Fu Qinghai's youthful, handsome face. He caught her reaction.

A Space Marine's physical functions didn't age, but his face did. After centuries of service, along with the body's production of various internal hormones in quantities far exceeding those of ordinary people, most veteran Space Marines looked like mature men with determined faces and broad jaws. It was rare to see someone as young-looking as Fu Qinghai.

Apart from Talal, she may have seen other Space Marines, most likely Night Lords. It's also possible she knew about Warhammer 40K before entering the Reincarnation World, but that seems unlikely... Fu Qinghai made a mental note.

"Ahem..." Fu Qinghai cleared his throat. "What's your name?"

"Afaf. Afaf Feoris," the woman replied calmly.

Then Fu Qinghai's next question threw her into a panic.

"How long have you been in the Warhammer 40K universe?"

As he asked softly, Fu Qinghai kept his eyes fixed on Afaf's. Then he saw exactly what he'd expected.

Not confusion, but shock and panic.

She really was a Reincarnator.

"No... I, I don't understand what you mean..." the woman stammered.

"Come on, it's not a big deal. So what if you've been recognized? Answer a few questions, and I'll make sure you don't die," Fu Qinghai said.

Afaf swallowed and forced herself to stay calm. "And if I refuse?"

Fu Qinghai drew the Power Dagger from his boot, activated its Power Field, and slapped it down on the coffee table with a sharp crack.

"I know you might have more than one life. But believe me, this will hurt."

Afaf looked at the dagger on the table, its faint hum accompanied by a blue glow and tiny arcs of electricity. She stubbornly replied, "You wouldn't dare touch me. You still need us to help transport supplies. If I die..."

"Supply transport is almost finished." Fu Qinghai cut her off without mercy before she could finish.

Fu Qinghai looked at Afaf with a calm expression.

At this point, Afaf was wrapped in layered, flax-colored robes. The local-style robes were somewhat sheer, and Fu Qinghai kept getting distracted by the long, slender, light-brown legs pressed together beneath them. He couldn't concentrate on the interrogation.

"Y-you... how did you know I was a Reincarnator?" The panicked Afaf couldn't keep it together any longer. She had finally admitted it indirectly.

"Forget about that. I ask, you answer. If you answer too slowly, I'll cut your face. If I think you're lying, I'll cut your face. All right?"

The woman gritted her teeth and glared at Fu Qinghai resentfully, then nodded.

"When did you enter this world?"

"Two years ago."

Fu Qinghai made a rough estimate. Allowing for possible inaccuracies in the local calendar, it was around the same time he'd entered.

"Have you been on this planet the whole time?"

"Yes."

Fu Qinghai wasn't a criminal investigator and didn't know any interrogation techniques. He just asked whatever came to mind.

"Did the Reincarnation World give you that princess identity as soon as you arrived?"

"No, I'm not a princess. I was just an ordinary girl from the slums."

"Oh?" Fu Qinghai's interest was piqued.

Afaf calmly explained, "Faratan, the chancellor, is the only surviving member of the Feoris royal family. By the time I arrived, the Imperium had already ruled this planet for quite some time. Imperial officials were cracking down hard on restorationists from the previous dynasty. The Feoris royal family had been reduced to Faratan alone, but he was too old. A decrepit old man like him couldn't give people hope, so he picked me out in the slums. He thought I looked a lot like the late princess, and I thought it was an opportunity..."

"So he had me play the princess, while he, the true royal heir, took the role of chancellor."

She gave a self-mocking smile. "I didn't have a choice, did I?"

Fu Qinghai was about to continue questioning her when Afaf, as if a floodgate had opened, spoke up on her own.

"I know what you want to ask. You want more information and intel from me, but you're probably going to be disappointed."

Seeing the faint confusion in Fu Qinghai's eyes, Afaf explained:

"Before entering this place, I was just an ordinary person. I wasn't a movie buff or an ACG fan. If the Reincarnation World hadn't told me, I wouldn't even have known that this world was called Warhammer 40K. You're stronger than many Reincarnators I've met, and I'm still just an ordinary person... So the information I know probably won't mean much to you."

Afaf looked bitter as she spoke.

"But..." Fu Qinghai opened his palm and tossed the Swiss Army knife. "You've been through at least two Reincarnation Worlds, haven't you?"

When Afaf saw the Swiss Army knife in Fu Qinghai's hand, she suddenly understood how she'd been exposed.

Fu Qinghai asked, "What was your previous Reincarnation World?"

"Zombieland, the first one," Afaf answered honestly.

Fu Qinghai thought it over, then asked, "The zombie movie starring Woody Harrelson? The one with the four main characters?"

"That's right. But I spent the whole time fleeing and trying to survive around Missouri in the movie. I never met the four leads."

"Then what?"

"I killed a few zombies and earned some Assimilation Points, but I still got infected in the end. While I was still conscious and hadn't completely turned into a zombie, I heard the Reincarnation World's prompt telling me to choose an item or ability to assimilate. But I'd earned very few Assimilation Points, nowhere near enough to assimilate an assault rifle or a handgun... In the end, I took a Swiss Army knife from a convenience store," Afaf said, lowering her head.

When you didn't have many Assimilation Points, a multi-purpose knife really could greatly improve your chances of survival, especially in movies about wilderness or island survival.

Fu Qinghai nodded, approving of Afaf's choice.

Zombieland was a low-budget zombie comedy. It must have done well enough at the box office to get several sequels, but the movie didn't have any grand worldbuilding or setting. Woody Harrelson was a distinctive actor, and one Fu Qinghai quite liked, so he remembered him. The other male lead had also appeared in Guy Ritchie's The Social Network and played Luther in the DC film universe, but Fu Qinghai couldn't recall the actor's name.

"Let's talk about the Reincarnation World. What were the other Reincarnators you met like?"

"All kinds of people. Cowardly, timid, recklessly ignorant, hysterical... They schemed against one another and betrayed one another. What else is there to say?" Afaf's mouth curled into a faint, disdainful smile.

Aren't zombie movies always like that? Fu Qinghai thought. But that wasn't what he was interested in. He asked, "Did the others enter the Zombieland world the same way you did?"

Afaf understood what Fu Qinghai wanted to know. She sat up straight and answered seriously:

"No, not all of them. As far as I know, only people who died in their previous Reincarnation World are given a new identity in the next one. Those who survive and clear the previous world descend directly into the next one with their previous identity and species."

Descend... Fu Qinghai mulled over Afaf's choice of word.

"What are the conditions for clearing a world?" Fu Qinghai asked immediately.

"I've never survived long enough to clear one, but other Reincarnators told me that staying alive is the only condition."

"As long as you stay alive? It's that simple?" Fu Qinghai asked in surprise.

"That's right. Even if you fail the mission the Reincarnation World gives you—in other words, if the faction you chose loses—you can still live normally in that world as long as you're alive. But failure deducts a huge number of Assimilation Points. And when the world's story ends, the Reincarnation World immediately sends you into the next one. You don't know what you'll face there. It could be a zombie horde or a natural disaster. If you haven't earned enough Assimilation Points in the previous world, even just staying alive will get harder and harder."

Fu Qinghai understood. It was a vicious cycle. The previous world's story ended, his faction lost, and he entered the next world with no Assimilation Points, starting from scratch. Meanwhile, the Reincarnators on the opposing side of the story brought all kinds of weapons and abilities from the previous world... Things could only get harder and harder.

Now that he understood the basic rules of the Reincarnation World, Fu Qinghai continued his questions.

"By the way, is there any slang or code among Reincarnators? Any way to identify one another with a password or something?"

The reason Fu Qinghai asked was that, unlike story characters who died for good when they were killed, Reincarnators had at least three lives. Often, there was no need for them to fight to the death. They could identify each other, use a code or password, then sit down and calmly discuss how to divide the spoils.

"Hmm..." Afaf thought carefully. "I've heard a lot of Reincarnators call themselves players."

"Players? Do they think the Reincarnation World is basically a game?"

"No. I think the name is a little self-mocking. Not players playing a game, but people being played by one."

"All right. Anything else?"

"I've also heard a term that seems to have come from Reincarnators in China: Main God."

"Main God?" Fu Qinghai rolled the half-Chinese, half-Western-sounding term around in his mouth.

"Yes. Do you remember the voice in your head when you first entered the Reincarnation World?"

"I do."

"Chinese players call that voice the Main God."

A very infinite-fiction kind of name... Fu Qinghai nodded to show he understood.

Perhaps it was rare to meet a fellow Earthling in an unfamiliar world, and Afaf had finally found someone she could confide in. Without Fu Qinghai needing to press her, she spilled everything she knew.

When Fu Qinghai felt there was no more information to be had from Afaf, he slid the Power Dagger on the table back into the armor on his leg.

Then he drew the bolter from his waist, leisurely checked the ammunition, pulled back the bolt, chambered a round, and said to Afaf, "All right, that's the end of the questioning. It's about time I sent you on your way."

Afaf's beautiful gray-blue eyes widened. She backed away on the sofa in terror. "Didn't you promise to let me go?"

"But I never said I'd keep my word," Fu Qinghai replied calmly.

Afaf was so shocked by Fu Qinghai's shamelessness that, for a moment, she didn't know what to say.

"Actually, there's one last question I haven't asked, and you haven't brought it up." Fu Qinghai stared into Afaf's eyes. "Reincarnators from opposing factions get Assimilation Points for killing one another, don't they?"

Under Fu Qinghai's sharp gaze and the pressure of his Power Armor and the bolter's thick barrel, Afaf wanted to shake her head and say no. But in the end, she swallowed, her eyes glistening with tears, and gave a slight nod.

"Exactly. You chose to attack an Astartes, and I'm an Astartes. That makes us enemies. In my eyes, you're just a walking pile of Assimilation Points. Why shouldn't I kill you?"

"No, I—we... We might actually be on the same side. I don't know what an Astartes is. I only know that when I entered, I chose a faction called 'The Emperor.' I thought everyone in that kind of armor was an enemy. I earned Assimilation Points when I killed those executioners. You said you weren't with them. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so we're on the same side, aren't we? And—and... just as killing a Reincarnator from an opposing faction earns points, killing a teammate from the same faction deducts them!"

In her desperation, Afaf had a sudden flash of inspiration and rattled off her reasoning. Despite never having seen anything from the Warhammer 40K franchise, she managed to work out what was going on.

So Afaf had already killed members of the Night Lords Legion, probably using the same method she'd used to target Talal. It was hard to tell whether her victims had been Imperial Army auxiliaries or Space Marines. That was probably the real reason the bats had gone on a killing spree in the city.

"Hmm... That makes a lot of sense. Quite logical." Fu Qinghai nodded, but made no commitment. The next moment, he pointed the bolter, fully checked and loaded, at Afaf's head. "But you have no proof! I only have to pull the trigger, and I'll have my answer, won't I?"

"But... but..." Afaf stared at the dark muzzle in front of her and choked out, "But I don't want to die..."

Looking at the woman with her tear-streaked face, black eyeliner running down her cheeks and along her nose, long eyelashes clumped together with tears, eyes full of fear and helplessness...

Fu Qinghai smiled, holstered the bolter, and patted Afaf on the shoulder. "All right. Let's leave it at that."

He picked up his helmet, put it on, and turned to leave.

What did he mean, leave it at that?

Afaf froze, still in a daze from having survived by the skin of her teeth. Her mind couldn't quite keep up.

If Fu Qinghai wanted to complete the act, he should have tossed her a simplified Chinese edition of An Actor's Self-Cultivation before striding away. But he didn't have one on hand.

Afaf stared blankly at the Space Marine's tall figure as he walked away, his resonant parting words still echoing in her ears:

"Keep playing princess on this planet. Do your best to stay alive."