A Hundred Methods

"You won." Lyle leaned back in her chair, deciding to lie flat and wait for death.

"I've decided to punish you by sending you to the neighboring position as a riflewoman," Qin Mo said.

"You can't punish me." Lyle sat upright. "Don't you need me alive to help you erase the records in the database?"

"You?" Qin Mo sneered. He picked up Lyle's terminal and connected it to his Power Armor visor, then ordered the Master Control Intelligence, "Enter the Adeptus Arbites database in Hive Terra, make one hundred copies of my record, then delete them using one hundred different methods."

"Understood. Carrying out your order. Making one hundred copies of your record."

"Don't—I was joking. Don't actually make a hundred copies. It'll be bad if something goes wrong."

"Records deleted."

Qin Mo picked up the terminal, entered his own name, and searched for it. The result finally showed that no such person existed.

Even Qin Mo was surprised by the result. "Don't you people upgrade your database firewall? I was already planning to spend the night making a virus that could infiltrate the database even while disconnected, and it was deleted that easily."

Lyle stared at Qin Mo in astonishment. She did not understand profound things like database firewalls. She only knew that she had lost her last bargaining chip against him.

"Your name is Lyle. Lyle Wither, is that you?" Qin Mo searched the name on the terminal.

Lyle froze for a moment, then instantly realized what Qin Mo intended to do. "No... no, no, don't!"

"Delete her record," Qin Mo ordered.

"Records deleted."

"Done." Qin Mo picked up the terminal and showed it to Lyle. "Now you don't exist either."

Lyle's expression changed spectacularly: first shock, then anger, then grief and despair, followed by anger and confusion again. She had no idea what fate awaited her.

"You'll be implanted with the memories of a dead soldier, then sent to the battlefield."

"But I don't have time to deal with you right now."

After announcing Lyle's fate, Qin Mo rose and left the room. He ordered Grot, who stood guard outside, "Lock Lyle up."

"Yes." Grot nodded and entered the room.

Without looking back, Qin Mo headed for the conference room, intending to deal with Grey's situation.

In a cave at the bottom of the fortress, Grey lay on a bed with his severed arm extended.

Qin Mo sat beside the bed, drawing a prosthetic design while manufacturing the prosthetic itself. Absorbed in the work, he was determined to make it thousands, even tens of thousands of times more useful than Grey's original arm.

"Don't worry. The prosthetic will only be more responsive, never worse than your original limb."

"I'm planning to integrate a telekinetic control device into it. From now on, you'll be able to retrieve objects from a distance, lift heavy things through the air, or crush them."

"It'll also have a Psy-Suppressor integrated into it."

"I'll connect the prosthetic to your heart and use the bioenergy produced by your heartbeat to power it."

Hearing that the prosthetic would be connected to his heart, Grey became uneasy. "You're going to cut near my heart? What if something goes wrong? Could it trigger heart disease?"

"There's a one percent chance something could go wrong, but you won't die. Trust my skills." Qin Mo insisted on his plan.

"I still feel like this prosthetic is going to malfunction." Grey remained unconvinced.

"Does your original body never malfunction? Have you never had back pain or sore limbs? Don't be a Natural Human supremacist. The flesh is weak, the flesh is weak!"

"My mother died of illness. I know better than anyone how fragile flesh is."

"Then what are you still babbling about? Shut up and wait."

Once the prosthetic had been designed and manufactured, Qin Mo began the connection surgery.

He twisted Grey's flesh and the prosthetic's metal, making them grow and intertwine as though they had always been one. Then he connected the device responsible for collecting bioenergy to Grey's heart and fused his nerves with the prosthetic's artificial nerves.

Grey stood and moved around, then tried to pull over a water cup from afar.

When the cup floated through the air toward him, Grey reached out and grasped it, feeling a sensation even more vivid than that of his original limb.

"Now, with a single touch, your limb can detect whether someone is still alive, whether there are toxins in the air or on an object's surface, and many other things. Take your time experiencing and learning its benefits," Qin Mo said.

"This really is far stronger than the original. I just wonder how far I can be modified."

"I can modify you starting from your cells and turn you into an astonishing War Machine."

"That would be nice."

"..."

After chatting idly for a few moments, Qin Mo suddenly asked, "Did you kill Laun?"

Grey, who had been admiring his arm, stopped moving. He turned to Qin Mo, but did not know what to say.

He wanted to say that he had not killed him, but he feared Qin Mo would misunderstand him as Klein had, thinking he wanted to defect to Laun's side.

But if he admitted that he had killed Laun, then judging from Qin Mo's previous attitude toward Laun, a rift might form between them.

"You did well, but don't make decisions before I do next time. I wanted to kill Laun even more than you did," Qin Mo said calmly.

"Then why were you so respectful toward Laun? You didn't even want to trick him into going outside and kill him," Grey asked.

"Some things don't have to be resolved immediately." Qin Mo turned around, sat at the workbench, and resumed designing a new weapon.

Grey curiously leaned over to take a few looks. He discovered that it was a conventional weapon for infantry, along with some kind of detection device.

Grey could understand the conventional weapon, but he truly could not figure out what the detection device was for.

"Now that I've consolidated the defensive line, we'll launch an active offensive against the Rebels once our preparations are complete." Qin Mo admired his masterpiece. "An offensive aimed at the Rebel leadership."

"How will we know where the Rebel leader is?" Grey asked.

"I have a way to find it. This detection device was made for that purpose," Qin Mo said confidently.

The leader of the Gene Stealers was the Patriarch, a terrifying monster six or seven meters tall, with a carapace and claws. It had founded the Cult of Evolution and possessed the strongest Psychic Power.

Qin Mo had decided that, after making sufficient preparations, he would launch a massive battle and strive to force the Rebels into an all-out offensive. Once they did, they would inevitably use the Psychic network belonging to the Gene Stealer brood.

Then the Psychic network of the entire Gene Stealer brood could be detected, allowing them to trace it back and determine the Gene Stealer Patriarch's location.

Qin Mo had even already considered what to do after finding the Patriarch. Naturally, he would immediately commit every trump card he had, bring every warrior wearing Power Armor, and destroy the Patriarch at any cost.

And if they could not destroy the Patriarch no matter what, then they would find a way to obtain its blood.

Qin Mo believed that as long as he obtained the Patriarch's blood, he could create a weapon capable of exterminating their entire brood.

"No matter what you intend to do." Grey stood tall and gave Qin Mo his word. "You can always use me as a weapon and deploy me into a battle with no return, as long as it benefits the overall war."

"I will." Qin Mo nodded.