The Spoils of the Raid

Tech-Priest Kallen's bionic eye swept over, and he replied calmly:

"According to records, seventy-two hours before the rebellion officially broke out, former Governor Lothar von Drake activated the Highest Authority Emergency Asset Transfer Protocol."

"All precious metals, circulating credits, high-value bonds, and movable rare assets were transported via dedicated channels to the starport, loaded onto three armed cargo ships registered under Rogue Trader Rake Vance, and departed this star system's orbit simultaneously with the outbreak of the rebellion."

"Huh?!" Fu Haoran felt something was off.

"The rebellion just started, maybe hadn't even kicked off yet, and he'd already emptied the coffers?"

"Normally when someone cuts and runs, they wait until the situation is hopeless, the enemy's at the gates, before frantically packing up, right?"

"Who'd be so sure of their own defeat the moment the fighting begins that they haul everything away in advance?"

"Unless..."

Suddenly, all the clues clicked together.

"No wonder the coup went so smoothly... no wonder the old governor put up such a half-hearted resistance... no wonder the moment I walked into the meeting room, everyone looked at me like I was a piece of meat that had jumped onto the chopping block myself..."

"Fine. Just fine." Fu Haoran ground his back teeth.

Wade stood to the side, eyes watching his nose, nose watching his heart.

Suddenly, a guard who had been meticulously searching the deepest corner of the vault shouted: "My lord! There's another hidden door here! Locked tight!"

Fu Haoran's spirits lifted, and he strode over quickly.

The door was embedded flush in the wall, seamless, made of high-density alloy—ordinary cutting tools couldn't touch it.

"Priest Kallen, can you open it?"

Kallen stepped forward, mechanical fingers extending, tiny probes popping out from the fingertips to interface with a nearly invisible port beside the door.

A few seconds later, a soft click sounded, and the lock disengaged.

Behind the door was a small storage room.

Fu Haoran was the first to walk in, his gaze sweeping across the room, and then he froze.

Inside wasn't the gold and treasure he'd hoped for, but weapons and armor. Yet they were completely unlike the standard Imperial equipment he knew.

Several long rifles leaned against the wall, their streamlined bodies coated in a matte, almost biological keratin-like material, with bizarre muzzle structures.

Several suits of armor hung there, their design style savage, with sharp bone spurs extending from the joints and surface textures like some kind of scales.

There was also a pile of equipment and parts with an organic feel, their purpose unclear, emitting a faint and unsettling phosphorescence.

"This is..." Wade followed in, brow deeply furrowed, his hand unconsciously resting on the pistol grip at his waist.

Priest Kallen's optical lenses locked onto those items, red light flickering rapidly, his cold electronic voice carrying a rare note of absolute severity and caution: "Confirmed as Xenos Technology artifacts."

Clearly, the former governor knew these things were hot potatoes, so he hadn't taken them.

Fu Haoran swept his gaze around again, and the faint hope that had just risen sank halfway.

Were these things valuable?

On the black market, maybe a fortune.

But for Fu Haoran right now, they were more like a stack of death warrants.

If anyone found out, a charge of harboring Xenos Technology would make him die even faster.

So the raid had turned up nothing but trouble, and a pile of bombs that could go off at any moment.

"My lord," Wade's voice pulled him back to reality, his tone heavy, "I just received an urgent report from the logistics department. Because we failed to secure the Promethium Factory, the Corpse Starch production line has completely stalled."

"The Hive City Central Grain Reserve... only enough to sustain the entire city for thirty days of basic consumption. The Upper Hive nobles' private granaries refuse to open for sale at fair prices."

Fu Haoran's heart sank like a stone.

If the food ran out, his three-year stay of execution might not even last three months.

Unless he could retake the Promethium Factory!

"Those nobles are forcing me to move against the Lower Hive!"

Just as Fu Haoran's head was pounding, a soldier searching the storage room shouted: "My lord, come look at this!"

Before Fu Haoran could even make out the massive object in the corner, Tech-Priest Kallen rushed forward excitedly, gently caressing the machine before him as if stroking a lover.

In Fu Haoran's vision, the system prompt appeared:

[Category: Standard Template Construct (STC) - Fragment]

[Contents: Plasteel Basic Synthesis and Molding Protocol (Simplified Version)]

[Status: Operational (requires connection to standard energy and material input ports)]

[Production Capacity: 10 tons of standard plasteel alloy per month]

An STC fragment?!

Fu Haoran's heart leaped with joy.

Even if it was just a fragment, even if the output was pitifully low, he knew all too well what this thing meant in the Empire.

It represented standardization and reliability!

More importantly, the STC before him was essentially a 3D printer!

Priest Kallen's bionic eye finished its scan, and his synthesized voice carried a rare hint of human fluctuation:

"Confirmed. Physical carrier intact. Basic protocols readable."

"Only the plasteel smelting and shaping functions remain."

"A pity. An STC outside the sacred technology catalog holds limited value for the Mechanicus Cult."

In Kallen's eyes, the STC before him was a chicken rib—useless yet hard to discard. But in Fu Haoran's eyes, it was a treasure.

"The Planetary Defense Force isn't the Astra Militarum after all. It's hard for them to get Imperial armored vehicles, let alone main battle tanks."

"If I replace all the surface armor of 2K-era vehicles with plasteel, it'll barely be enough."

"Pair that with Precision Manufacturing for protective gear, and it'll hold for a while."

Fu Haoran's mind raced through calculations.

Ten tons—just enough to arm the primary weapon structures of a company of elite infantry, or build two light armored vehicles.

"It's a little, but better than nothing."

"Why didn't the predecessor take it?" Wade asked, puzzled.

Kallen pointed to a scorched mark on the inner wall of the metal box: "Detected traces of forced data extraction and countermeasure program burns."

"Inference: someone attempted to crack or transfer the core protocol, triggering the Mechanicus Cult's preset confidentiality countermeasures. This caused partial data damage and bound the fragment to a specific verification code. Unauthorized movement may trigger self-destruction. Hence, it was abandoned."

Fu Haoran understood.

It wasn't that they didn't want to take it—they couldn't, and it might have blown up in their hands.

But for Fu Haoran, this became an opportunity.

"Wade, pick your most trusted, tight-lipped squad and take over this place."

"From now on, this room is the Governor's Office's highest restricted zone. Without my direct order, not even a mosquito gets in."

"Sir, are you going to..." Wade seemed to guess something.

Fu Haoran didn't answer. Instead, he said to the Tech-Priest: "Priest Kallen, prepare a set of portable tools for me, and bring that governor-exclusive Medical Servo-skull here."

Ten minutes later, Fu Haoran changed into casual clothes, with a silver-gray Medical Servo-skull floating beside him.

The skull's surface was engraved with the Mechanicus Cult's gear emblem, and four precision mechanical arms extended from its sides, their tips glowing with a faint blue energy.

He pulled up the system interface:

[Skill: Cross-Dimensional Travel]

[Status: Available]

[Point Cost: 100]

He clicked confirm.

His vision warped. The gloom of the Governor's Office faded, replaced by a familiar ceiling.

It was the 2K Era, the Eagle Nation's rental apartment.

Fu Haoran was about to get out of bed to make money when the system prompt exploded across the screen:

[Detected high-compatibility Hive World-like world (not colonized by the Empire)]

[Triggered side quest—The Great Foundation]

[Quest requirement: Establish a core industry in this Hive World-like world (any of: food processing, energy transfer, material trade), achieve stable production capacity, and lay the groundwork for supplying the Warhammer Universe Hive World]

[Quest reward: Universal Points +5000, unlock cross-world bulk material transfer permission]

Fu Haoran sat up sharply, staring at the window in disbelief.

Downstairs was the Eagle Nation's street, bustling with traffic—not a trace of a Hive World's gloom.

"System, are you blind? This is the Eagle Nation, not a Hive World!"