Hope Is Slaanesh's Hotbed

The passerby who was suddenly grabbed originally wanted to throw a direct punch at him, but upon seeing his androgynous and stunning face, he instantly lost his nerve, and then upon seeing the compressed starch block, his eyes lit up.

He snatched the compressed starch, stuffed it into his pocket, and then explained, "It's been going on for a while. Earlier, Lord Angel suppressed the gangs, and those bastards tucked their tails between their legs and kept low profiles. After public order improved, this whole thing started up. It was cut off for a while because of the lockdown, but now it's started again."

Thinking for a moment, he added another sentence, "This place is still considered small-scale, with only a few thousand people gathered nearby. Some large ones have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, and I hear the operations are quite impressive."

Liam loosened his grip to let him go, looked at the bustling market, and could not help but sigh a little, "Human adaptability really is strong. How long has it been, and people have already adapted to and started utilizing the new rules."

Immediately thinking of himself, he felt a bit self-deprecating.

How was he in any position to talk about others? When it came to adaptability, wasn't he quite strong himself?

He just had no idea what this place would eventually turn into.

Thinking all the while, Liam wandered around the market.

Since he was already here, he might as well buy some things before heading back. Vitamin pills would be used to buy gifts for the children, and he could just spend some starch cubes here.

After strolling for a while, Liam stopped in front of a stall selling purple accessories.

Accessories, they were really just a bunch of messy things dyed purple.

Yet the purple on them truly possessed a rather high purity and uniform color quality, making his heart itch with the sight.

He squatted down, picked and chose among the street stall items, while striking up a conversation with the stall owner, "Where did you get this dye? How much for each of these items?"

Seeing that he possessed a striking appearance, a tall and straight figure, and a temperament not at all like an underhiver, but rather with a somewhat noble feel, the stall owner did not dare to be negligent, "We got this dye because our family accidentally killed a mutated creature. That animal's blood was precisely this color, and it doesn't get stinking after being applied. We didn't dare eat it, so we brought it out to sell. As for the price..."

His eyes rolled.

"One starch cube each."

Liam rolled his eyes, picked out dozens of items he thought looked quite nice from the street stall, and bundled them together. "Take it or leave it, one starch cube total. If you're not selling, I'm going to the next place."

Are you kidding me? A single starch cube, combined with other miscellaneous things, could keep a person well-fed for an entire day.

The purple dye on these trinkets was indeed of decent quality, but it definitely did not match a price of one starch cube per piece.

"Deal!" Upon hearing this, the stall owner immediately shouted out loud, terrified that he might go back on his word.

Liam could tell with a single look that he had overbid, but he did not mind either way. He handed a starch cube directly to the stall owner and carried his package back home.

After hastily finishing his simple dinner, Liam took out that pile of small items and carefully examined the purple dye on them under the light.

He discovered that under the light, these dyes appeared uniform in thickness, with not a single spot revealing the original color of the item itself, nor any area where the color depth clashed discordantly with anywhere else.

"Could that stall owner's craft be this good?" He felt a bit suspicious, then a flash of inspiration struck him, Maybe the quality of this dye is simply too good?

The thought of stripping the dye off and applying it to something else immediately took root in him.

Once the thought arose, he acted on it.

As an underhiver, he originally should not have known how to handle dye that had already been applied and dried.

Yet now, as this thought popped up, as if self-taught, he suddenly knew the method to perfectly process it using existing conditions, while he himself did not feel that there was anything wrong with this at all.

After a flurry of operations, Liam successfully separated the dye from the items.

Looking at the tattered items revealing their true appearances, Liam looked somewhat disgusted, "If not for this dye being decent, I'd definitely go return these shoddy pieces of junk."

Then he took out his personal terminal and carefully applied these dyes to its surface, coating it evenly without leaving a single gap.

After coating and drying, the personal terminal transformed from an ordinary silver-gray into a gorgeous bright purple, and the high-tech structure combined with the mysterious bright purple, brimming with a profound sense of aesthetic beauty.

Liam admired it for a while and nodded with satisfaction.

It really did look nice. Tomorrow he would find that stall owner to buy more dye, and by then he would paint all the angel sculptures for the children purple, then tell them he had colored them by his own hand—the children would definitely be very happy.

Harboring anticipation for the future, Liam took a bath and happily went to bed.

Yet tonight he had a strange dream.

Amidst a stretch of darkness, something seemed to be speaking to him.

"What?" Liam felt somewhat strange; he clearly sensed that something was speaking, yet he could not hear a thing.

The feeling of someone talking to him grew increasingly intense, but Liam still heard nothing at all.

Having dreamed like this for the entire night, Liam woke up and washed up feeling somewhat fatigued.

That strange dream from last night had left him poorly rested, and it remained deeply etched in his memory even now.

When he finished washing up and raised his head to look at the mirror above the washbasin, Liam froze for a moment.

He looked at the even more beautiful and androgynous face in the mirror, and stroked his own cheek—a smoother and softer sensation than usual drifted from his fingertips.

He could not help but reveal a smile, "Good things come in pairs. Looks like the recent diet has been good, nourishing my body back to health."

As the deputy manager of an engineering team in the district, aside from starch blocks, he also had protein and cellulose supplies. Though they were all easy-to-store ingredients made into block shapes, he was eating much better than in the past.

Moreover, his living environment had also improved, and he even had an independent room and bathroom, allowing him to take a bath every day.

Thus, he attributed the changes in his appearance to the improvements in food and living environment, and because of this, he was in a great mood, no longer troubled by the strange dream of the previous night.

Even though he had changed his profession, looking good meant he was in a good mood when he looked at himself anyway.

And just thinking about how the children's living conditions had also greatly improved, and how they would probably grow up looking decent in the future, made him even happier.

"Praise the God-Emperor's mercy, praise the angel's benevolence," he prayed sincerely in his heart, wondering if he should go to the church to pay his respects sometime.

However, the churches had all been sealed off recently, supposedly undergoing rectification and opening after some time; with nowhere to go, he couldn't visit even if he wanted to.

He dressed in his work uniform, went to the cafeteria for breakfast, and subsequently arrived at the engineering team's office.

The supervisor of the engineering team was already processing documents. Seeing Liam walk in, a trace of dazzlement flashed across his eyes.

Although Liam had always been very beautiful before, people got used to it after seeing him long enough, but why did he feel today that Liam was even prettier?

He greeted him, "Good morning, Deputy Supervisor Liam. You look like you're in a great mood today."

Liam smiled, and took out his personal terminal. "Good morning, Supervisor. I managed to get some good dye yesterday, so I'm indeed quite happy right now."

The supervisor looked at the bright purple coating full of mysterious flair, and grew somewhat interested. "It looks quite nice. Where'd you buy it? After work, I'll go buy some too."

Liam naturally had no objections. "Bought it at a small market. I'll take you there after get-off-work."

"Alright, it's a deal then."

After brief pleasantries, Liam plunged into his work.

Everything was as usual.