The Players' Loot-Gobbling Frenzy

"The last batch! Hurry!"

Wang Zhong practically dragged the last worker by the collar, shoving him into the pipe entrance.

That was a boy who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, skin and bones, his face streaked with tears and grime, his trousers soaked through.

He was still wailing as he was thrown inside, but his voice was quickly swallowed by the darkness deep within the pipe.

Wang Zhong straightened up, gasping for air.

He glanced at the time: fourteen minutes had passed since the Alru Group began their assault.

Number of workers evacuated: three thousand six hundred and eighty-seven.

The rest...

He looked toward other areas of the factory complex.

Those workers without player organizations or escape routes were currently scurrying through the artillery fire like headless flies.

Some tried to climb the perimeter walls, only to be shot down as rebels by Alru infantry.

Some hid in the ruins of buildings, only to be buried alive by collapsing structures.

Some knelt on the ground to pray, only to be torn apart by stray shells or demons.

And those remnants of the overseers and guards, about four or five hundred of them, were currently gathered in the ruins of the central control room, making a final stand.

But they wouldn't last long.

Rebels, Khorne, Tzeentch, Alru forces... it was a chaotic melee, and small fry like them could be crushed by any side at any moment.

"Brother Loyalty! Everyone is inside!"

Soul of Cadia ran over, his face covered in soot, a wound on his shoulder deep enough to see bone, yet he seemed completely unfazed.

"What do we do now? Retreat?"

Wang Zhong did not answer immediately.

He looked into the distance.

The advance of the Alru forces had clearly slowed; their tanks and infantry were beginning to tighten their defensive lines, as if preparing for something.

On the side of the Tzeentch demons, the Lord of Change and Mystery was locked in a psychic confrontation with a squad of psykers, blue force fields and purple psychic threads weaving through the air, erupting in blinding arcs of electricity.

The Khorne front had completely turned into a meat grinder; Bloodletters were riddled with bolter rounds yet continued to slaughter madly, while the corpses of Berserkers and Alru infantry piled up like mountains.

The rebels were still firing, but their ammunition was clearly running low, and some artillery positions had already gone silent.

"Something's wrong..."

Wang Zhong frowned, and suddenly, his gaze landed on a position behind the Alru forces.

There, under the cover of five Hellhound Flame Tanks, several vehicles with peculiar designs and long barrels were slowly unfolding.

The barrels of those vehicles were not direct-fire tank cannons, but high-angle, indirect-fire artillery.

The chassis were larger than a Leman Russ Tank, the armor thicker, and the barrel caliber was estimated to be at least 150 millimeters.

Most importantly, the emblem painted on the hulls was not the gene-helix of the Alru Group, but a far more unsettling mark:

A skull surrounded by gears, with psychic flames burning in its eye sockets.

"That is..."

Wang Zhong's pupils contracted sharply.

"Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery."

The voice of the Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run sounded in the channel, carrying a hint of gravity:

"Standard Imperial Guard heavy support unit, equipped with 150mm howitzers, a maximum range of 30 kilometers, and capable of firing high-explosive, incendiary, and cluster munitions."

"Usually used for siege warfare or... area annihilation."

He paused, then added:

"Judging by the paint job, these should be assets of the Cult of the Machine Thought, borrowed by the Alru Group from the Mechanicus."

"What are they trying to do?" Soul of Cadia asked.

The Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run was silent for two seconds, then gave an answer that chilled every player to the bone:

"Level the entire industrial zone."

The channel went quiet for a second.

Then it exploded.

"Heavy artillery?! Isn't that stuff supposed to be at the front lines shelling fortresses?!"

"The Alru Group has even this?!"

"Five... five heavy self-propelled artillery pieces firing in unison... this industrial zone is going to be plowed three feet deep..."

"Wait! Is there still time for us to run?!"

Wang Zhong took a deep breath.

He looked at the pipe behind him, where over three thousand workers were struggling to crawl through; they would need at least twenty minutes to pass through completely and reach the abandoned mining site two kilometers away.

There was no time.

But he suddenly smiled.

His smile was relaxed, even somewhat... relieved.

"Brothers."

He spoke in the area channel, his voice calm:

"Our mission is complete."

"Those we could save, we saved."

"Those we couldn't..."

He paused:

"That isn't our fault."

"It's the fault of this godforsaken world."

He looked at the players:

"Now, I announce that the first phase of the evacuation plan is complete."

"The second phase, begins."

He raised his laser pistol and pointed it at the equipment within the industrial zone:

"See those?"

"That half-collapsed refinery furnace is worth at least twenty thousand credits."

"That pile of raw materials, fifteen thousand."

"And the east warehouse—Kadian just said there are rare metals inside."

"Those transport vehicles on the west side that still run? Eight thousand each."

He grinned:

"Alru Group is going to level this place."

"So, before we get leveled!"

He drew out his words:

"Let's loot every single package we can!"

"Respawning after death only costs five credits!"

"Looting one big item is enough to pay for dozens of deaths!"

"Isn't this way more satisfying than looting in Delta?!"

The players froze for a second.

Then, every pair of eyes lit up with the hunger of wolves.

"Holy shit! Brother Loyalty! You're a fucking genius!"

"Loot! Loot! Looting is my favorite thing in this life!"

"Die and start the next round! But the loot must be taken!"

The players, who had been exhausted and covered in wounds just a moment ago, instantly acted as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

They scrambled to redeem their Simple Salvage Terminals and scattered like a swarm of locusts, pouncing on everything in the industrial zone that could still be salvaged.

The wreckage of the refinery furnace? Dismantle it!

The piles of raw materials? Haul them away!

The transport vehicles? If you can't drive them, use the terminal to salvage them directly!

They didn't even spare the gear on the fallen Alru soldiers—bulletproof vests, laser rifles, grenades, ammunition...

"There are three magazines on this soldier's corpse! Worth it!"

"The laser cannon on this Sentinel Mech still works! Hurry and strip it!"

Chaotic, yet efficient.

The players fully unleashed their nature as a natural disaster; as long as it was worth money, they would even unscrew the bolts and take them with them.

Wang Zhong stood where he was, watching this scene, and shook his head with a smile.

He opened the area channel and typed the final message:

[Loyal to the Emperor Forever]: "Brothers, loot as much as you want, take everything you can."

[Loyal to the Emperor Forever]: "Don't fear death, I'll see you at the respawn point."

[Loyal to the Emperor Forever]: "We'll meet again, in our group."

He turned off the channel and looked up.

Outside the industrial zone, those four Basilisk Self-Propelled Artillery units had already moved into firing position.

The massive barrels began to adjust their angles, aiming at the chaotic battlefield.

The mechanical voice of Caspar Alru rang out one last time through the loudspeakers:

"Purification sequence, initiated."

"May the Emperor forgive your souls."

"Because the Trade Guild, will not."

The muzzles ignited with a destructive glow.

Deep within the Warp.

Lu Sheng's energy form stretched out with pleasure, savoring the torrent of emotions surging in from the material universe.

Of course, he was only absorbing what the players emitted; as for the far more turbulent emotions of the natives, those were the food of the other two.

He was still too weak at the moment and dared not snatch food from the tiger's mouth!

"Not bad... truly not bad..."

Lu Sheng absorbed the emotional energy contributed by the players, feeling himself grow a little sturdier.

He looked at the system interface, watching the energy gains brought in by the players' frantic recycling before death, and his mouth curled into a grin.

"Four thousand eight hundred players, with an average recovery value of about... five hundred Imperial Coin per person?"

"Converted into system energy... tsk tsk, another massive haul."

He nodded in satisfaction.

"It seems the time to open up more slots... is not far off."

"But next time, I must choose a safer spawn point... at least one where they aren't captured as miners right from the start."

"Hmm, let me think..."

Lu Sheng began to plan the next wave of player deployment.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the QQ group named [Alru First Generation Fellow Workers Group] was already exploding with messages.

"I'm back! Damn it! That last shell really hurt like hell! Even with 30% pain sensitivity, I couldn't take it!"

"I recovered a thousand coins! A thousand! Hahahaha! Total profit!"

"I only got eight hundred... but it was worth it!"

"By the way, where is the next respawn point?!"

"Has anyone with a big brain checked yet? Speak up!"

"Where's Brother Loyalty? Tax Brother? Xue Brother? Haven't they returned yet?"

Wang Zhong opened his eyes and returned to his familiar rented room.

He checked the time: 3:00 AM.

Seven or eight hours had passed in the game, but only two hours in reality.

He rubbed his face, opened the QQ group, and watched the heated discussion inside.

Then he typed:

[Loyal to the Emperor Forever]: "Brothers, is everyone okay?"

"I'm back."

"Battle report: Recovered five thousand Imperial Coin; I was still tapping the terminal in the last second before I died."

"It was worth it."

The group was instantly flooded with "Awesome," "Brother Loyalty is mighty," and "When are we starting the next wave?"

Wang Zhong smiled and typed:

[Loyal to the Emperor Forever]: "Rest first, recharge your energy."

"We've all been exhausted from mining these past few days. Once we've rested, we'll regroup."

"Also... brothers who have time, log in and see how many respawn points there are. Scout the terrain in advance!"

"Brothers who scout the terrain can come to me for reimbursement of respawn costs, double."

"Once we're rested, we'll rendezvous as soon as possible, and then!"

He paused, then typed the final line:

"Using the Imperial Coin we've earned, we will arm ourselves and bring a different kind of change to this man-eating Warhammer world."

Cheers erupted in the group once more.

Outside the window, the night sky of the real world remained tranquil.

It was as if that war-torn Warhammer universe, where human lives were as cheap as grass, were merely an overly realistic dream.

But for Wang Zhong and the five thousand players who had stumbled into this historical conflict...

The game had only just returned to its proper track; everything was merely beginning.

And on Aurelian IV, the battle in the Alru Industrial Zone had not ended with the earth-shattering artillery fire.