The Tsundere Blonde Twintails

Just as Trajan had expected, every testing method failed. All the data showed that this unusual mortal was no different from an ordinary hive resident in every respect. Whether it was his body temperature or the genetic structure of his flesh and skin, there was no trace of augmentation on him. If he had not known beforehand what kind of commotion this man had caused, Marshal Trajan would never have believed that this unusual mortal possessed such incomprehensibly great power.

"Bring him to me." An unimaginably majestic, thunderous voice rang out in Trajan's mind. He abruptly looked up, his eyes filled with disbelief.

It was The Emperor! It was a direct command from The Emperor. Since The Emperor had been gravely wounded, the Webway had collapsed, and He had been confined to the Golden Throne, He had never again issued such clear orders to His loyal servants. More often, His will had been conveyed through all manner of dreams and veiled revelations.

Trajan did not dare delay in the slightest and personally went to find Lin Fan. At that moment, Lin Fan had just freed himself from the strange apparatus. To heretics, it was an unimaginably terrifying interrogation machine, but to Lin Fan, it was merely a crudely made, roaring machine with a certain industrial-art aesthetic.

Lin Fan stretched lazily, considering how he ought to live in this world. Should he find a garden world and experience the Imperium's local customs? Should he join the Astra Militarum and see all those monsters and oddities? Or should he rely on his "omniscience" to brag with the Space Marines? At the thought of drinking and boasting alongside those Space Wolves, he could not stop smiling.

"Mortal, come with us." Trajan's voice came from behind Lin Fan.

"Seriously, I can tell you my name, you know. Then you won't have to keep calling me 'mortal' this and 'mortal' that." Lin Fan said earnestly as he jogged after Trajan. Trajan's feet were terrifyingly huge, and each step taken by that massive body required Lin Fan to take several little steps just to barely keep up. Still, Lin Fan did not mind. After all, he had been in this world for quite some time now, yet he had not only never felt tired, he barely felt sleepy or hungry either.

"Very well. What is your name?" Out of courtesy, Trajan decided to ask the name of this mortal whom The Emperor wished to see. After all, the man knew Trajan's name, while Trajan did not know his. That was far too unfair.

"My name is Lin Fan."

"That reminds me of the people among the White Scars."

"You mean Yesugei and Juba Khan?"

"You know far too much. Do you possess a precognitive psychic talent?"

"I don't have any psychic talent. In fact, I don't even know what that is."

The two fell into awkward silence again. Seeing that Trajan had no desire to chat, Lin Fan simply resumed looking around, admiring the countless details of the magnificent imperial palace.

As they passed through vast, imposing corridors and walked by hundreds of vigilant Adeptus Custodes, Lin Fan finally realized that he might be heading to the Golden Throne to meet that old Bacon.

"Pfft." At the thought of old Bacon, he could barely hold back his laughter. An old Bacon seated on the throne, endlessly spouting sacred nonsense, with an eternally itchy nose.

"Oh God, I really need to stop watching the TTS series." Lin Fan covered his mouth to restrain his smile, wondering whether he should install some ancient black-tech intercom for The Emperor like in the TTS series.

"This is the holy sanctuary where The Emperor resides. If you do not show respect and reverence, I will make you pay the price, Lin Fan." Trajan pronounced Lin Fan's name stiffly, while the bulging veins on his forehead proved just how furious he was over Lin Fan's earlier disrespect.

"Okay, okay, I will." Lin Fan hurriedly agreed, though he was more curious about how Trajan planned to make him pay.

The heavy doors slowly opened, and gentle golden light washed over them.

In a majestic hall whose ceiling could not be seen and whose end lay beyond sight stood an immense golden construct of indescribably complex design—the Golden Throne.

The Golden Throne and its accessory.

A shriveled skeleton was covered in cables, some of which were even larger than the skeleton itself. Within that mountain-like, magnificent Golden Throne, the skeleton appeared so tiny and fragile. It was hard to believe that this was the radiant, sun-like true god among men.

The two slowly approached the throne. Without a word, Trajan knelt on one knee and bowed his head. Lin Fan followed suit and was about to kneel when a cold, majestic voice sounded in his mind. "You need not kneel. Close your eyes."

Guided by the voice, Lin Fan closed his eyes, only to find that the scene around him had completely changed.

All around him were Warp clouds emitting golden light, constantly shifting and giving rise to new flames and sparks. A sun hung high at the center of the clouds, yet it had no warmth at all. Bathed entirely in its light, Lin Fan did not feel even the slightest warmth from that sun. He felt only coldness.

"Hello, The Emperor." Lin Fan broke the silence between them. In truth, he had no idea how to begin this conversation. Was he supposed to praise the sun for being big and round? He could only start with the simplest greeting.

"Hello, Lin Fan." Rather than a voice, it was more like a sentence forcibly pieced together from a storm created by the ceaseless explosions and friction of the surrounding Warp clouds. Violent storms erupted from the very center of the sun as The Emperor began and finished speaking, buffeting Lin Fan's entire body.

If he had not been immune to harm, his head might have exploded the moment The Emperor spoke a single sentence. It could only be said that after more than ten thousand years of faith, The Emperor's power had become even greater.

"No wonder you never speak directly to those High Lords and tell them how the Imperium should develop or what it should correct. A conversation like this psychic storm of yours would probably fry their brains the instant it began."

"Alas." The Emperor sighed helplessly, tacitly acknowledging that Lin Fan was right.

The Emperor was somewhat disheartened. More than ten thousand years of planning had become a scrap of waste paper amid Chaos's schemes. The Legions had shattered, His sons had slaughtered one another, and all the religions He had once suppressed and stopped had returned to the world. He Himself had even been elevated onto a divine altar. From the Golden Throne, He eternally gazed upon the enormous heap of failed garbage He had created, yet could not spare a hand to protect or repair it. He could only delay the Imperium's death amid endless decay and extraction.

"There is no point in discussing that. Let us speak of you instead, Subjective One. What plans do you have for coming to humanity's Terra?"

"Subjective One? Is that what you call me? Or have there been people like me before?" Lin Fan was somewhat shocked. No wonder The Emperor had not seemed surprised at all. So He had encountered one before.

"The last time I saw a Subjective One was during the War in Heaven."

"Damn, that time span is way too huge. From when the Necrontyr were at their strongest straight to after the Imperium's rebellion." The remark made The Emperor somewhat surprised. The last Subjective One had not possessed this one's knowledge and experience. When the first Subjective One came to this world, he could not even distinguish between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr, merely shouting strange descriptions like "Terminators" and "long-lived toads."

"Though you are a Subjective One, I can clearly sense that you possess a human soul."

"Finally, someone believes me. Those Golden Corn bastards never believed I was human."

"Golden Corn?" Though Lin Fan did not know how a sun could show a helpless expression,

he could still sense from The Emperor's tone that He found the title "corn" deeply unacceptable.

"So what will you do next? My plans never anticipated beings like you." The Emperor decided not to bicker with this fellow any longer. It was better to quickly determine his stance: would he remain neutral and travel the stars, or would he become a hidden threat to the Imperium, ever ready to deal humanity a fatal blow?

"This? Let me think." Lin Fan frowned as he began considering what he wanted to do. In the end, he gave The Emperor an unexpected answer.

"I want to become a member of the Astra Militarum."

"The Astra Militarum? Do you intend to kill your comrades for amusement?"

"How could I be that vile? In my view, humanity's survival today is not sustained by those Astartes, but by countless ordinary mortals."

"That is indeed a novel perspective."

Hearing that The Emperor still seemed unconvinced, Lin Fan became somewhat unhappy. He prepared to properly explain what a hymn of courage was, then sat down cross-legged.

"When the Horus Heresy happened, you sat upon the Golden Throne, and the Webway technology meant to isolate the Warp became ruins. What did you think at that time?"

"Humanity would eventually perish. It was only a matter of sooner or later."

"Then have you considered that humanity has struggled on for ten thousand years since the rebellion? Even Macharius's Great Crusade reclaimed countless lost Imperial worlds."

"That truly surprises me."

"You oppose faith and religion, yet you cannot deny that without the unwavering faith in you held by everyone throughout the Imperium, it might have shattered apart again as it did during the Age of Strife, rather than gathering together as it does now to fight the monsters and oddities of the universe."

"And although you keep saying you are not a god, look at the things you have done. In the eyes of mortals, you are already little different from one. You constantly wore terrifyingly splendid golden armor, had a gigantic halo behind your head, wielded a flaming sword that never went out, and used genetic engineering to create a whole group of superhumans practically comparable to earthly immortals. Lorgar's whole argument was nonsense, if you ask me. The fact that you have sat on the Golden Throne for ten thousand years without being drained dry is enough to prove that you are a god."

"You regarded everyone as tools for achieving humanity's ultimate ideal, and you regarded yourself as a tool as well. That rationality beyond mortal limits has allowed you to transcend humanity and approach divinity. Of course, I am not criticizing you. No one could have done better than you. You overlooked humanity's flaws, leading to the failure of the Webway Project. You overlooked humanity's shining qualities and never imagined that humanity would remain a colossal power in the universe to this day. Though you know much, you are not truly all-knowing and all-powerful. In the ten thousand years without The Emperor, humanity's achievements and survival have surpassed everyone's expectations. Your neglect of human nature may yet prove that your pessimistic prediction for humanity's future was wrong."

"Humanity's hymn is a hymn of courage."

Lin Fan stared resolutely at that cold sun and spoke his thoughts and feelings. In the windless, motionless Warp, there was only silence.

"Once again, I am surprised by your knowledge and experience."

What a dead tsundere. He had obviously accepted my viewpoint, yet he was still dodging it like this. Lin Fan thought wickedly. He could almost see a tsundere blonde girl with twintails being born inside the sun.

"But you are still a vile person."

"Huh? You can hear what I'm saying in my head?"

"Yes."

Having been seen through, Lin Fan felt somewhat awkward and his face reddened, but he still put on a relaxed expression.

"Then why can't I hear those four guys' voices anymore?"

"I have blocked them."

"That's pretty nice."

Lin Fan grinned happily. God-Emperor above, thank The Emperor for granting me a quiet mind.

"You should leave now. Our conversation is over."

"Oh, right! Could you give me an amulet, or some little accessory or something? Then if I get attacked and come out unharmed, I can say it was all thanks to the great power of my faith in The Emperor."

Lin Fan hurriedly reached out to ask The Emperor for something. Not only could it conceal his identity and abilities, it could also provide a safe and reasonable excuse for his powers. He could even throw his weight around.

"Alas." A helpless sigh came, and Lin Fan saw the golden clouds and sun before him rapidly twist and spin before vanishing. As his vision gradually returned, he found himself still in that half-kneeling posture from before. Trajan beside him had not moved either, remaining on one knee in a loyal pose.

Trajan slowly rose to his feet and looked at Lin Fan with a complicated expression.

"Please leave. The Emperor has given me a glorious mission."