Strange Dream

Night.

"So the rebels attacking your position also mysteriously ran off halfway through?"

"Not halfway. They all ran."

On the rooftop at the top of the building, everyone sat in a circle, building a fire to charge the Laser Rifle batteries while chatting.

Grey explained why he and Qin Mo had come here.

But he did not tell them everything. Grey deliberately concealed the Gravity Shield and Qin Mo's identity.

The other four surviving members of the 44th Infantry Regiment sitting beside Grey likewise tacitly kept quiet about Qin Mo being a Psyker prisoner.

As for the reason...

Grey believed that the only people who knew Qin Mo's identity and knew he was still alive were the surviving members of the 44th Regiment.

If the rebels were eliminated in the future, they could forge proof of Qin Mo's death and report to their superiors that he had died. Then Qin Mo could spend the rest of his life in a place beyond jurisdiction, like the lower hive.

And if the rebels could not be eliminated, everyone in the lower hive would die anyway, so there would be no need to report anything.

"As the Regimental Commander of the 47th Infantry Regiment, I salute you. I mourn the loss of your comrades." The officer removed his cap and observed a moment of silence for the dead of the 44th Regiment.

All the other soldiers and junior officers also removed their caps in silence.

Three minutes later, the officer suddenly asked the question he had wanted to ask all along. "That Psyker... Sorry, I cannot think of a more respectful way to address a Psyker... Has he received training and been certified by the Imperium?"

"Of course." Grey nodded. "Otherwise, where do you think the Double-headed Eagle emblem on his scepter came from?"

"That is good." The officer let out a long breath. "Otherwise, if he loses control, it would be a disaster for the entire Hive City, perhaps even the whole star system."

The speaker had not meant anything by it, but the listener took it to heart.

Grey frowned slightly and lowered his head, recalling something he had experienced in the Underhive as a child.

A Psyker had gone berserk under immense pressure from life. He had first accidentally killed his wife and daughter, then wailed as he clutched their corpses, wiping out a total of eighty thousand Planetary Defense Force infantry and armored troops in less than a day.

That incident had even left the Planetary Defense Force unable to recover to this day, leaving them vastly outmatched by the rebels.

With the terrifying strength Qin Mo had displayed, if a Psyker of his level lost control...

Grey trembled just thinking about it.

"Still, I do not think he would lose control easily, right?" the officer spoke again. "His emotions seem extremely stable. Did he ever lose control while he was with your 44th Regiment?"

"Of course not." Grey recalled Qin Mo's condition. He truly was very stable.

"What is his name?" the officer asked.

"Um... It is a strange name. Qin Mo," Grey answered.

"It sounds somewhat familiar." The officer searched his memory. "My ancestors once fought side by side with an angel named Qin Xia. They attacked a space installation called the Karim Star Gate. Later, that angel Qin Xia returned his soul to the Golden Throne aboard Heaven's Spear."

"Sir, I once read that story in a book. Was the angel's Chapter called the White... something?"

"No, no. My grandfather specifically told me it was not a Chapter, but a Legion."

"A Legion? What a joke. Your grandfather must have remembered wrong. After all, that was hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years ago."

"Thousands of years? Tens of thousands!"

"..."

The people of the 47th Regiment chatted excitedly, while Grey and the others from the 44th Regiment remained silent, utterly out of place among them.

Grey wanted badly to check on Qin Mo, but he was afraid of disturbing him, so he merely sat there in silence.

In a room on the top floor of the building, Qin Mo lay unconscious on the only mat, dreaming as he slept.

He dreamed that he traveled back and forth among the stars, able to go anywhere in the galaxy he wished.

He also dreamed that, as if playing with a little toy, he shaped a planet into whatever form he desired.

Qin Mo had had such wildly fantastical dreams before crossing over. They were merely unrealistic dreams.

But when the illusory dream faded, Qin Mo woke up in bed and found himself in a lavish bedroom.

This was neither a Hive City nor a battlefield. It was resplendent with gold, and the bed beneath him was broad and soft.

As Qin Mo looked around in astonishment, he suddenly saw a girl sitting in the corner of the room, crying.

Strangely, the girl's appearance constantly changed. Sometimes she was a cat, sometimes an old man, and sometimes even a tank or a Stubber.

"Traitor..." It turned to look at Qin Mo and accused him angrily.

"What traitor? What nonsense are you talking about?" Qin Mo asked.

"I do not even know what I am saying... I have forgotten many things, but for some reason, I just want to call you a traitor." It looked bewilderedly at its constantly changing body. "Why did I shatter into so many pieces while you were able to remain whole?"

"What was your name again? The Watcher, Mimic, or Engineer, or... I forgot. Why have I forgotten these things? I seem to have forgotten so much."

"No matter what your name is, from the moment you betrayed me, you deserved to be called a traitor."

After saying many more things Qin Mo could not understand, it transformed into a male noble, suddenly pounced on Qin Mo, and seized his throat.

"You ate my friend!"

"Give it back!"

Qin Mo jolted awake, sitting up and gasping for breath. He realized that everything just now had only been a dream.

"Damn... I am so exhausted that I am hallucinating." Qin Mo helplessly rubbed his temples, then remembered something extremely important.

Qin Mo found his scepter in the corner. He melted the Double-headed Eagle on it and took out a sheet of paper.

This paper was the sole surviving page from the diary that had been blasted apart earlier. After making the Gravity Shield, Qin Mo had hidden it inside the Double-headed Eagle.

Qin Mo had kept this page not merely as a memento. He always felt that he might one day restore the entire diary through science and technology.

After glancing through the contents of the paper, Qin Mo hid it inside the Double-headed Eagle again.

At that moment, the door was suddenly pushed open. A soldier stepped into the room, and upon seeing Qin Mo awake, he immediately gave an Aquila salute. "The Regimental Commander requests your presence at a meeting."

"Why would I attend a meeting?" Qin Mo asked in confusion.

"Could it be... uh... you do not wish to go?" The soldier was left dumbfounded by the question.

"Fine, I understand." Qin Mo felt that being invited to the meeting showed how much the people here valued him, so he rose and followed the soldier to the meeting place.

As Qin Mo walked through the corridor, every passing soldier pressed himself against the wall to make way, then lowered his head.

Seeing their behavior, Qin Mo knew that Grey had not revealed that he was a prisoner. Otherwise, even if they did not arrest him, their eyes would surely be filled with disgust and dissatisfaction.

It seemed those Gravity Shields had not been made for nothing.

Qin Mo thought so.