Effect

The next day.

Everyone wearing Terminator Power Armor except Qin Mo assembled and advanced alone into the rear of Rebel territory.

All five of them had been deployed, which was extremely rare.

"What are the Legion Commander's orders?" Grot walked beside Grey, eyeing the flamethrower-like thing in his hand with confusion.

Just as Grey was the only one present carrying a new weapon, Qin Mo had only told him the orders, instructing him to relay them once he met up with the others.

"The orders are simple." Grey raised the weapon in his hand. "This is something like a flamethrower, except it's been modified to spray liquid. We need to find rebels and spray them with it."

"..." After hearing Grey's detailed explanation, Grot and the others all looked dumbfounded, exchanging glances without understanding what it meant.

"So this is a test for a new weapon, right?" Anreda asked.

"Yes and no." Grey shook his head. "This weapon is actually already in its final form. We're using it, not testing it. Of course, we're also responsible for observing its effects."

That only left them even more confused.

After a bout of brainstorming, Anreda finally asked the most crucial question. "This should be a weapon meant for rebels, but what I don't understand is why we have to spray it directly on individual rebels. At most, it'll kill a few of them. What good is that?"

Grey had intended to keep explaining, but he truly was not good with words, so he could only fall silent.

Although Qin Mo had said it would be fine to spray the weapon on any Rebel, Grey still believed they should find some higher-ranking Rebel targets.

That was why he had led the team deep into the rear of Rebel territory.

The group continued onward.

After traveling roughly twelve kilometers, Grey stopped in front of a house. The others halted as well and prepared for battle.

Bio-Scan showed that a large number of rebels were hiding inside the house. They were all gathered together, though no one knew what they were doing.

"Seal off every window and every door." Grey carried the pesticide toward the building.

Grot stood at the door with his gravity hammer, while the others took up positions by the windows.

The rebels inside the house were praying and had not noticed that they were already surrounded.

They gathered around a handsome male statue with four arms, prostrating themselves and kneeling in absolute devotion.

"Perfect opportunity." Grey shoved Anreda away from the window and braced the pesticide weapon against the sill.

It looked much like a flamethrower, yet also somewhat like a sniper rifle. Its appearance was incredibly cool.

Before firing, Grey could not help imagining the weapon's power. Would a torrent of energy blast onto the rebels the moment he pulled the trigger, instantly corroding them into scraps with pesticide?

"Quit dragging your feet and fire already!" Grot urged.

Grey immediately pulled the trigger.

Sizzle—

A stream of blue liquid traced an arc through the air and landed precisely on the back of a Rebel infantryman.

The infantryman scratched at his back as he turned toward the window.

Their eyes met.

Grey hurriedly fired the remaining pesticide, then immediately fled with Grot, who had wanted to fight.

"Why couldn't we kill them all?" Grot asked unhappily.

"Because we might need time to wait for the pesticide to take effect," Grey replied.

After seeing the people in Terminator Power Armor, the rebels in the house immediately stopped praying and charged toward Grey and the others.

Grey led the rebels around like dogs, watching their condition as he ran.

The rebels chased after them for quite a while before sudden mutations began to occur.

Some had their feet abruptly swell, others their chests, and still others their heads.

Then their other body parts began swelling too.

Until they burst like balloons and became puddles of blue liquid.

"Emperor above."

"The pesticide's pretty powerful..."

"If we mass-produced this and used it like a flamethrower, wouldn't clearing buildings become much more efficient?"

Grot and the others discussed the weapon's effects, but Grey did not join in.

Grey remembered clearly that he had only hit a small portion of the Rebel infantrymen. The others had not been struck by the pesticide at all, yet they had still died.

"Guys." Grey slowly spoke. "This weapon is stronger than we imagined. This will be the first and last time we use it."

"Yeah, because the only rebels we're facing are the ones in that house, right?" Grot said with a grin.

Grey did not explain further. He turned around and led the team away.

During the flight back aboard the transport, no one thought again about Grey's words. Everyone except Grey believed the pesticide would be mass-produced and widely issued.

Until the transport passed over a battlefield.

Grot clearly saw a Rebel infantryman on the battlefield explode into blue liquid.

He thought it was an illusion.

But then came a second, then a third...

"Is someone else using the pesticide besides us?" Grot asked.

"No. What we used was the prototype." Grey shook his head.

Grot lowered his head and fell into thought.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Qin Mo sat in an underground cave beneath the fortress, reviewing eyewitness reports gathered from the front lines.

Every regiment reported seeing rebels they were fighting dissolve into liquid. After advancing into new areas, they also found traces of dissolved rebels in local buildings and blasphemous Cathedrals.

All of this proved that the pesticide was extremely effective.

There was no need to make further adjustments to the pesticide. They only needed to wait for the rebels to gradually disappear.

During that waiting period, Qin Mo planned to research anti-Psychic Power technology.

Naturally, Vanessa the Psyker would serve as both the sample and test subject.

"What exactly is the pesticide's mechanism? Why does it spread so quickly? Wouldn't the rebels isolate infected individuals?" Vanessa lay bound to an operating table, her mouth constantly running.

Qin Mo already found Psykers disgusting, let alone a talkative Psyker.

When Vanessa saw Qin Mo's dark expression, she hurriedly shut her mouth. Over the past few days, she had faintly heard a voice telling her to yield and comply.

Qin Mo performed a Bio-Scan on Vanessa, then carefully examined the scan data.

"You can grasp biology and engineering like a genius without any teacher, so why don't you understand Psychic Power at all?" Vanessa asked.

"Shut up, Psyker." Qin Mo kept his head lowered as he examined the information, though he had to admit Vanessa was right. He truly did not understand Psychic Power at all.

Qin Mo knew full well that he could create Terminator Power Armor and other weapons and equipment not because he had such technology encoded in his genes like a Greenskin, but because he could research and learn at the same time. It was probably the effect of self-enlightenment.

But when it came to researching Psychic Power, Qin Mo felt as though he were trudging through a swamp.

"Let me teach you," Vanessa said.

"Yeah, right." Qin Mo took Vanessa's words as nonsense.