"Whatever this place was originally built for, the things the ancients constructed have now become our problem."
"As far as I know, ancient self-destruct mechanisms were embedded in the metal above and around the passage."
Klein crouched on the ground, gesturing over the blueprint he had drawn with his finger.
"This kind of self-destruct mechanism isn't anything sophisticated, but it's reliable and effective enough."
"In short, they're bombs placed inside the metal walls, connected to a detonator that can repair itself."
"Once the button is pressed, the bombs inside the walls detonate. The massive metal fragments that break loose are enough to block the passage, but worse still, there's a second ring of bombs inside the walls. Those bombs work much like meltaguns."
"First, metal fragments fall away. Then, a flood of molten metal pours into every gap, fusing those fragments into a single mass and blocking the entire nine-hundred-kilometer passage."
"Emperor above, I can hardly imagine what the person who designed this was thinking."
After speaking, Klein picked up the blueprint and handed it to Anreda.
"You know quite a bit about this passage's self-destruct mechanism?" Qin Mo asked in surprise.
"Of course. My family is the oldest family of engineers on this planet." Klein's pride was impossible to hide. "The story of how my family rose to prominence is tied to these self-destruct mechanisms."
"About seventeen hundred years ago, my ancestor took on a secret project ordered by the Governor at the time. It took thirty years to remove a melta bomb from inside a wall."
"At the time, war had broken out in Hive Terra. Rebels organized by an unknown cult were fighting fiercely against the Planetary Defense Force."
"Just when everyone thought the Governor would use the bomb for military purposes, he used it to blow up the district belonging to another noble family, turning countless buildings into molten iron."
After hearing Klein's story, Qin Mo sighed. "Looks like this is a skill passed down through generations of Governors."
"The skill passed down through their family isn't just playing with bombs," Klein said.
The three of them stood together, staring at the obstruction in the passage.
Once the idle conversation ended, Qin Mo raised his hand and tried to see whether he could quickly clear the way with his abilities.
Klein had little hope for it. After all, he had been present when Qin Mo built the fortress. The fortress's outer walls had been attached section by section. Compared to the obstruction blocking the entire passage, that fortress was like a tiny house.
Still, it was worth trying.
As Qin Mo focused and drew upon the power of the C'tan, the metal before the three of them began to flow. Like liquid, it ran down the slope before Qin Mo controlled it into adhering to the walls around the passage.
The gigantic wall formed from fused metal fragments was rapidly restoring itself.
At that moment, Qin Mo recalled what Mimic had said and realized that his power truly was recovering little by little.
If he had been building a fortress rather than excavating this giant passage, he could have raised one from the ground in a single second.
Half an hour later, Qin Mo gave up. "It's a drop in the bucket. I feel like I'm trying to fill the ocean with stones."
Anreda did not know what an ocean was, but Klein did, so he understood Qin Mo's meaning.
"Could the interior of these obstructions really be packed completely solid?" Qin Mo suddenly had an idea. "If we could enter the obstruction and place melta bombs in its gaps..."
As he spoke, Qin Mo walked toward the obstruction and warped the laws of physics across a broad area around his body, allowing him to pass through metal as though it were air.
Klein and Anreda watched Qin Mo pass through the wall and enter it, but they were already used to such things.
Ten minutes later, Qin Mo returned and explained the situation to them. "The inside is packed solid with molten iron. There's nothing we can do."
"What if we don't dig?" Klein asked. "Like how you entered the metal, let everyone travel around you and enter the metal together. Every kilometer, we could dig out a large hollow for resting. Would that work?"
"You don't think I'm available whenever you call, like him, do you? How would you get in when I'm not around?" Qin Mo pointed at Anreda.
"That's true..." Klein was completely out of ideas.
Qin Mo began contemplating ways to dig open the passage.
The solution was actually simple: create Engineering Machines to excavate it. He could research compact engineering machinery and efficient metal-digging devices, or build massive Engineering Machines equipped with energy beams to slowly melt their way through the metal blocking the passage.
But just as he began considering what kind of Engineering Machine to build, Qin Mo suddenly had another idea.
Since he intended to create a means of interstellar travel that did not rely on the Warp in the future, why not begin researching it now?
He could begin with related technologies, first making a few basic things, then expanding the entire technology tree until he could use it proficiently.
Qin Mo himself did not know what this technology would ultimately be, but he felt that this passage was like the distance between star systems—there would always be a way to cross it.
Qin Mo looked at Klein. "Not only will I not dig through this blocked passage, I'll reinforce it and make it impossible to breach or destroy."
"Are we going to stay in the underhive forever?" Klein immediately sensed something was wrong.
"No. We can still come and go. We just won't need to use this passage anymore." Qin Mo walked toward the train. "No one else should waste time on this passage. If the various regiments can't find rebels to attack, then train and conduct drills."
After returning to the fortress, Qin Mo decided to begin a long-term research project. Before that, however, he had to settle everything else.
If, as Mimic had said, this planet held an even greater conspiracy and was being corrupted, then they had to prepare for a long-term stay in the underhive instead of all leaving it together and never returning.
The establishment of New Kato was urgent.
Qin Mo instructed the Master Control Intelligence to direct the Logistics Machines in building a new city. The city was to be built like a fortress, with electricity and water reaching every corner, along with large numbers of factories and gun emplacements.
Civilians would live beneath the city's various gun emplacements. In peacetime, they would work in the factories. In wartime, they would operate the gun emplacements by family unit and take part in the defense.
There would be a shelter in the center of the city. During wartime, it would serve as a shelter for children, but in ordinary times, it would be a school.
The school would not teach physical education or art, because such things were too extravagant. Students would only learn how to identify enemies and how to fight them.
Qin Mo had no delusions of building a utopian city, but he would ensure that its people could easily obtain what they would otherwise have had to pay a price for: food and fresh water.
After arranging everything, Qin Mo devoted himself fully to his research. He soon found the direction he should pursue.
It was to create traversable shortcuts through overlapping spaces and dimensions—the human application version of Necron Phase Shift Technology.
Before you continue