Exploring the Environment

Art Student stepped forward to examine the monster he had killed. The Ripper Rifle had blasted a massive bloody hole through its head, larger than an ordinary man's fist. The bullet had exited through its back, shattering its spine as well.

The monster resembled an enormous rat, covered in dense black fur and sporting huge incisors like two great axes. Its teeth were incredibly hard. Art Student fired a shot at one of its incisors, yet it did not shatter. This piqued his interest; it had considerable research value.

Even a Space Marine's bones might not be this hard.

The monster's two foreclaws were exceptionally sharp, and it had a long tail behind it. The tail was furless, with scales covering its entire length.

The monster's body measured five meters long, its tail another two meters, and it stood nearly two meters tall.

Its body showed severe mutations. Some of its joints were abnormally enlarged, while small mutated bone spurs had pierced through its skin and grown haphazardly. Its skin was also covered in pustules. One look was enough to tell that this monster had suffered serious radiation exposure.

"What a disgusting monster. But in the fucked-up world of Warhammer, no bizarre creature would seem strange. Fine, I'll call you a Giant-Toothed Rat for now."

After examining the Giant-Toothed Rat, Art Student could not help but feel this world's malice toward all living things. All manner of deformed creatures and aliens existed here.

Art Student made several more glass containers and collected the monster's flesh, blood, and bones inside them for preservation. This was the first creature he had encountered since arriving in the Warhammer World, and it had considerable research value.

After collecting the materials, Art Student continued toward the source of the strange smell. After walking several more miles, he saw a lake ahead of him—but the lake was green.

Its green water constantly churned, bubbling as steam rose from it. Even to Art Student's sharp eyes, the lake was unbelievably vast.

There was also a small waterfall beside the lake, with green industrial waste flowing down from above.

"Fuck, does no one here have any environmental awareness? They just dump wastewater everywhere. Without powerful technology to process this industrial waste, it'll keep polluting the entire world's living environment."

Looking at the green lake formed from all kinds of industrial waste, Art Student could not help but complain. The people of this world were simply too crude in what they did, with no technical sophistication at all.

Nor did Art Student have any desire to keep admiring the place. The distinctive stench constantly assaulted him as he stood nearby. Even a gas mask could not block it out. For someone with senses as sharp as Art Student's, it was profound torture.

Art Student followed the direction from which the industrial waste flowed. Relying on his superhuman physical abilities, he continued climbing and leaping upward.

Along the way, he kept encountering mutated Giant-Toothed Rats. These Giant-Toothed Rats generally appeared in pairs; the fewest he encountered at once were two.

At most, Art Student encountered over twenty Giant-Toothed Rats at once. They were like a tribe, with a leader that commanded the other Giant-Toothed Rats to attack.

The sheer cliffs were covered in burrows dug by Giant-Toothed Rats. Art Student had no desire to explore them now. He only wanted to leave this horrible place.

Art Student climbed more than seventeen thousand meters before finally encountering a human structure. It was a thick wall—or rather, a foundation—that blocked his way upward.

The black wall was made of an extremely hard material. Ripper Rifle rounds could only knock off a few small fragments of stone when they struck it.

"This is actually a high-strength construction material, and it has existed for a very long time. This material has a history of at least around twenty thousand years."

Art Student extended his right hand and continuously stroked the black wall, activating the C'tan's power to analyze the material as he spoke in amazement.

Still, Art Student was not surprised that the Ripper Rifle could not penetrate such a thick wall.

A wall made from this material was obviously humanity's handiwork. Only humans could create something that looked both advanced and backward at the same time.

Only a hive world could have buildings this enormous.

Moreover, a single hive city housed at least tens of billions of humans, and a planet might contain several hive cities.

Art Student activated physical distortion, and the wall before him gradually split apart to either side, opening a passage for him.

Art Student walked more than a thousand meters through the wall before emerging into another dim environment. Huge pipes were everywhere, and the sound of liquid flowing could be heard within them.

The pipes connected to one another in chaotic disorder. Some had already ruptured, constantly spewing vast amounts of hot steam into the surroundings.

If an ordinary person were struck by the steam here, they would be boiled alive in an instant.

Art Student looked upward. The ceiling was roughly three thousand meters above the ground.

Art Student continued walking through the dim environment. Whenever he encountered anything strange or unusual, he stopped to analyze it. Only after fully understanding the object would he continue onward.

"& ฿ Š ∮"

While Art Student was concentrating on analyzing an object, he suddenly heard human voices speaking. The language they spoke was one he could not understand.

To Art Student, it was merely incomprehensible gibberish. He sensed the source of the voices and found that it was not far away.

Art Student concealed himself and cautiously approached. Only then did he discover that two groups of humans were confronting each other. Everyone held various weapons: cold weapons such as large blades and great axes, as well as firearms such as bolt-action rifles and flintlock muskets.

However, all of these weapons looked battered and worn. The cold weapons seemed to have been crudely ground out of pieces of iron, while the firearms were bound with wire, as though they would fall apart after a single shot without the wire holding them together.

These people resembled Europeans and Americans in appearance, with rough, rugged features. Some had undergone mechanical modifications. One person's upper body was half machine and half flesh, while some had both arms replaced with giant pincers.

Like something out of cyberpunk, they had all sorts of haphazard mechanical modifications, and every one of those machines looked extremely crude.

The two groups had only fifteen people between them. Art Student had no idea what they were arguing about, but it was clearly intense.

Suddenly, a man whose hands had both been turned into pincers let out a roar and fired his flintlock musket at the opposing side. One person was instantly shot and collapsed, blood flowing from his chest. He was clearly beyond saving.

Both sides immediately opened fire, bullets flying everywhere as people kept getting shot and falling. Others charged into the opposing crowd with large blades, wildly hacking away with extraordinary ferocity.

In less than three minutes, everyone from both groups had fallen dead.

After silently watching the battle to its end, Art Student quietly left the area.