Praise the Lord of Change

[Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run]: "Analysis: The emphasis on knowledge and change in his words suggests traits of a Chaos Tzeentch cultist."

"If the other party are Chaos Cultists, their plan must have a deeper purpose. They're definitely not just liberating the workers."

[Loyal to the Emperor Forever]: "Who cares what their purpose is! Ours hasn't changed: loot!"

"But if they dare use us as pawns, too... Hmph!"

He quickly gave the region channel a brief rundown of the situation, emphasizing the unusual behavior of Ren and his group. He told every team to stay alert, avoid the warehouse area as much as possible, and prepare for the possibility that friendly units might stab them in the back.

"Minor adjustment to the plan! Teams one and two, stick to the original plan. The moment the explosions start, rush to your assigned targets and dismantle and salvage them as quickly as possible!"

"Team three, handle guerrilla tactics. Take out the overseers along the way and cause as much chaos as possible to cover teams one and two!"

"Team four, technical team, provide mobile support. Keep a close eye on the warehouse!"

"Direct squad, with me. We're going to see what kind of allies have broken in—and, while we're at it... see what the hell Ren and his people are up to!"

Time passed second by second in tense anticipation.

Inside the refinery, the overseers and guards who had stayed behind seemed to sense that something was amiss. They patrolled more frequently, and their curses grew more irritable.

The players lay in the shadows, fingers resting on their trigger guards, breathing slow and steady.

The two-hour deadline was almost here.

Suddenly—

"BOOOOM!!!!!!!"

It wasn't a single blast, but a whole series!

Deep, deafening explosions, as if the earth's guts were being torn apart, rang out simultaneously from several directions around the refinery!

Then came the shrill wail of alarms, followed by a sudden barrage of gunfire—far too rapid and intense to have come from the overseers' old weapons!

The sounds of a firefight! A fierce firefight! Beyond the factory walls, and in other factory districts even farther away!

"Enemy attack!! Enemy attack!!"

"It's a rebellion! Those bastards are here!!"

"Hold the gates! Call for reinforcements! What's happening over in Arlu City?!"

The shouts of the remaining overseers and the clamor of running footsteps filled the area.

"Now!!!" Wang Zhong roared over the region channel.

"Redeem your gear!!!"

The next moment, dense flashes of white light appeared simultaneously in thousands of corners throughout the refinery!

As if by magic, groups of miners in shabby work clothes—who had looked harmless just a minute ago—suddenly had automatic rifles and machetes in their hands, glinting with cold metal light, and simple armor over their bodies.

Their eyes changed in an instant, from numbness or feigned fear to the savage excitement of hungry wolves!

"Brothers! Start looting!!!"

"For Imperial Coins!!!"

"For mechs!!!"

"Take that Smelter apart for me!!"

Their war cries, wild as wails from the underworld, drowned out the echoes of the explosions.

More than 4,900 players surged toward their respective targets in assigned groups, like floodwaters bursting through a dam—or piranhas catching the scent of blood!

In the northwest corner, Soul of Cadia charged ahead, firing a short burst from his automatic rifle. The overseer nearby stared in shock as bullets tore through his chest, spraying blood.

"Cadia never retreats! For the Smelter! Charge!!"

The players behind him surged toward the massive Promethium Smelter, worth 80,000 coins. Some quickly set up a defensive line, aiming their guns outward.

The rest pulled out cutters and crowbars and, under the remote guidance of Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run, began searching for weak points in its structure.

At the Conveyor Control Tower on the east side, Tau-kun, you are right, but Bolter is righter had already led his team into a firefight with a small squad of guards.

"Tau-kun is right! But my Bolter is righter! Ratatatatata!"

He shouted his inexplicable slogan as he pinned down the enemy with precise bursts of fire.

The technical team's players braved stray bullets and began dismantling the control panel's core module.

The entire refinery instantly became a chaotic battlefield.

Players' bizarre shouts, gunfire, and the clash of metal.

The overseers and guards' furious curses and screams, and the sound of equipment being forcibly dismantled.

Wang Zhong led his direct squad and a hundred handpicked elites—not to join the looting, but to drive like a spearhead toward Ren's warehouse, where the explosions and fighting outside the perimeter were fiercest!

The few overseers they encountered along the way posed no real obstacle.

The players were now well equipped and had the numbers. Add to that their reckless attitude—"Dying costs only five coins, but anything we loot is pure profit"—and the enemy was often swallowed by a storm of fire after only a brief encounter.

"Something's wrong..."

The closer they got to the outer factory district, the deeper Wang Zhong's frown grew.

The traces of explosions, bullet holes, bodies lying dead...

The ferocity and weaponry of this outside attack far exceeded his expectations.

This was no ordinary workers' uprising. No ordinary rebellion could wield this kind of firepower!

When they could finally see the area around Ren's warehouse through the drifting smoke and flames, the sight before them made their scalps go numb!

A huge, complex geometric design had been drawn across the open ground surrounding the warehouse in some unknown dark red paint. Just looking at it made their heads spin!

At the center of the design stood Ren and the workers. They held hands and chanted a hymn in low voices, its melody eerie and its words hard to pronounce.

The cloying, bloody-sweet stench in the air was strong enough to make them retch. The space itself seemed to shimmer and warp!

Worse still, things had been piled at several key points in the design...

There were overseers' corpses, still twitching, intricate mechanical parts of unknown origin, and even the bodies of some workers!

[System Warning: High-intensity Warp fluctuations detected! Chaos ritual field detected! Detecting... a faint gaze from the God of Knowledge?!]

The system's icy warning sounded like a death knell to Wang Zhong!

"Fuck!!! Tzeentch, you old schemer!!!"

Wang Zhong finally lost his temper and cursed aloud. "You're holding a Chaos ritual in the starting village?!"

"I @#￥%...!"

As if in response to his roar, Ren suddenly raised his head at the center of the ritual!

His eyes had no whites or pupils left, only two swirling flames of eerie blue, flickering with strange knowledge!

His voice had become neither male nor female, and its many echoes rang across the area:

"Praise the Lord of Change! Praise the orbit! Knowledge and change are without end!"

"Your chaos, your desires, your plans... all have been accounted for!"

"On this night of upheaval, let disorder be the kindling and souls the ink, as we write a new chapter on the road to truth!"

"Bzzzzzz!"

A massive, teeth-grinding hum rose, and the blood-red design erupted in blinding blue light!

Space twisted violently, like a piece of cloth being crumpled!

Faintly, it seemed as though some vast, twisted shadow, filled with malice and endless knowledge, was about to cross a threshold and descend upon this place!

"Son of a bitch!!"

Tax Brother raised his shotgun, about to fire. "Heretics!!"

"Don't shoot! Aim for the center of the ritual!"

Xue Brother kept his cool, his Lasgun already trained on the design's core.

Wang Zhong's mind raced. Even as fury blazed inside him, a more terrifying thought surfaced:

Tzeentch's cultists... They were making such a huge spectacle. They definitely weren't here to help the workers revolt or simply summon a demon to come down and kill people.

Their plan, their knowledge...

What were they really after?

The refinery? Aurelian? Or...

He glanced at the system map, where dots representing the other player teams were looting like mad, then looked at the Warp Rift gradually taking shape.

"Damn it..."

Wang Zhong gritted his teeth. "Everyone! Concentrate fire on that ritual design! Disrupt it! We can't let them finish the summoning!"

"I don't care what these blue bastards are up to."

"Let's screw it up first and ask questions later!!!"

The guns of the direct squad spat furious flashes of fire in unison, shooting into the profane blue light and warped space.

The night of Purge Day was destined to be anything but peaceful.

Looting, riots, a Chaos ritual... On their twelfth day in the Warhammer universe, the miners of the Fourth Calamity had come into contact with the darkest, maddest heart of this galaxy in a way they never could have imagined.

And somewhere in the depths of the Warp, a certain Newborn Chaos God slurped up today's especially bountiful feast of emotional energy and scratched his head.

"Uh... Why are Tzeentch's followers here?"

"But... the energy's really high quality today..."

"Never mind, players. Keep it up! I believe in you!"

"By the way... Xiao Zai, record the energy frequency and structure of Tzeentch's ritual. Maybe... we can use it ourselves someday?"

"Knowledge is power, after all."