The boost to civilian factory efficiency from the "Build Homeland" buff sharply increased the construction speed of every project empowered by civilian factories, but Huron only glanced over it.
His attention was on the newly available, dazzling array of Decisions.
Coreization, Infrastructure, Political Reform, Military Construction... each major category contained a multitude of sub-Decisions, leaving Huron with a severe case of choice paralysis.
His three hundred-odd Political Points were nowhere near enough in the face of so many Decisions.
However, after reviewing every Decision, Huron quickly settled on his first target: "Emperor's Epiphany."
Because the description on the Panel was extremely tempting:
Spend 100 Political Points. Create a planetwide Emperor's Epiphany on Badab Primus, clearing all Warp corruption, strengthening the intensity of Emperor's Gaze, unlocking new Emperor-related Decisions, and gaining the permanent "Emperor's Gaze" bonus. The inhabitants of Badab will become more sensitive to Warp corruption, while Planet Badab will become more resistant to Warp corruption.
A permanent buff, clearing Warp corruption, unlocking new Decisions—every single one of them tempted Huron immensely.
Although the Four Gods and the Emperor were probably all waiting out their resurrection timers, the various daemons under the Four Gods had not vanished. Being so close to the Warp Rift known as the Maelstrom, Huron was naturally extremely wary of Warp corruption.
But while a thief might steal for a thousand days, no one could guard against theft for a thousand days. Besides, Huron did not even have the ability to guard against thieves across the entire planet.
That made the effect of clearing Warp corruption especially precious.
And judging by the specific effects, it could even remove corruption from orbital space, making every warship look brand-new and speeding up repairs.
There was nothing more to discuss. Huron immediately reserved this Decision, intending to use it to endorse the Human Evangelical Ecclesiarchy as well.
He directly summoned all the Chapter's senior officers and got straight to the point. "The Emperor is greatly pleased with what we have done. His blessing upon me has grown stronger, and He has decided to conduct a planetwide Epiphany to show His recognition of us. Every department must prepare its propaganda work. The global Epiphany is scheduled for the Emperor Ascension Festival."
The Emperor, secretly watching the feed: *?*
What happened? How did My blessing become stronger again? And an Epiphany? How do I not know about this? Do I even have the power to do something like that now?
He suddenly thought of another possibility.
Could Huron have been corrupted by the Warp?!
Damn! Something is wrong! Don't touch My chosen one!
The Emperor immediately became anxious and began carefully observing Huron's soul.
But no matter how He looked, Huron was completely normal, without the slightest sign of corruption.
In the Conference Room, Master of Sanctity Damien was somewhat excited. "Really, Chapter Master? The Emperor will reveal Himself during the Ascension Festival?"
As the Chapter's Chaplain, he had actually been very dissatisfied with Huron establishing a new sect and mixing a great deal of "weakness" into its scriptures.
But if the Emperor truly revealed Himself, would that not prove that the Emperor fully approved of it? As a devout believer, Damien felt that he should devote himself completely to carrying out the Emperor's will.
If the Emperor approved of Huron, then he would no longer have even the slightest complaint about the Human Evangelical. On the contrary, he would dedicate himself wholly to spreading the faith, even unto death.
Huron wore a confident expression. "Naturally."
Of course he was confident. He did not know whether that old fellow the Emperor would actually reveal Himself when the time came, but the system had never let him down so far.
Odinson reacted enthusiastically. "This is a good thing. We now have tens of billions of people throughout the entire Hive City to keep under control. With the Emperor's recognition, we can strengthen the Hive City residents' identification with us, save enormous amounts of effort and resources otherwise spent maintaining stability, and accelerate the Hive City's construction."
Huron nodded. "That's right. So I want every department to carry out proper propaganda work. The other thirteen Hive Cities must also be informed. Let them know who the true orthodoxy is, and who truly carries out the Emperor's will."
Due to a shortage of manpower, the other thirteen Hive Cities were basically left to fend for themselves. Aside from paying tribute in resources, Huron had no way to control them.
This was a perfect chance to give them a proper warning while also publicizing the Astral Claws' achievements.
That way, after the Emperor's Epiphany, a bunch of charlatans would not come rushing in to claim credit.
After arranging this propaganda campaign, the meeting ended, and everyone began preparing for the Emperor Ascension Festival celebrations a few days later.
Huron, meanwhile, continued browsing the other Decisions.
Establish Rule Over Palatus Hive. Spend 50 Political Points and 90 days to establish our rightful rule. Palatus will become core territory. Requirements: Stability above 80%; a comprehensive new order established locally. Effects: Increase the number of Factories provided by this region; increase the region's Stability and raise its Stability cap; increase the Political Points provided by this region.
Huron immediately selected this Decision, because its bonuses were indeed formidable. Core regions and non-core regions were practically two different worlds.
The number of Factories provided by a core region could increase by roughly one-third, equivalent to gaining an additional Factory out of thin air. Moreover, as the core region developed further, it would provide even more Factories.
There was no need to elaborate on Stability. It directly boosted Factory output, and after Coreization, it could reach a maximum of 200% Stability. At 100% Stability, output increased by 20%; Huron did not even dare imagine how powerful the effect at 200% would be.
The same went for Political Points. Small amounts added up, and the sooner he started, the sooner he would benefit.
Then came the infrastructure-related Decisions.
Accelerate Homeland Construction. Spend 50 Political Points to gain the one-year "Accelerate Homeland Construction" bonus. Specific effects: Increase the efficiency of all Factories and all real-world construction projects by 30%. Additional Political Points may also be invested to enhance the efficiency of individual subprojects.
Selecting this Decision strengthened both the Void Factories and the real-world construction projects. Under this compounding boost, the Hive City reconstruction project, which had originally required three years, was compressed to just over a year and a half.
The completion times for all the other projects were also significantly shortened, especially those boosted by civilian factories, whose required time was directly cut in half.
After selecting the two Decisions, only 230 Political Points remained. These needed to be saved for the Emperor's Epiphany Decision, as well as any powerful Decisions that might appear afterward.
Thus, Huron could only stare greedily at the huge number of remaining Decisions.
He now desperately missed the days when he could open the console, start with "pp," and directly select every useful Decision available.
Unfortunately, reality was not a game. There was no console, so he could only wait obediently for his Political Points to increase.
As for the new National Policy, Huron chose Strengthen Production and Construction (0/360).
Strengthen Production and Construction Description: True orthodoxy comes from improving the people's lives. We must strengthen our productive and construction capabilities in order to fulfill our promises to the people. Effects: Gain the five-year "Emphasize Production and Construction" bonus. Increase the efficiency of all Factories and real-world construction projects by 50%, and unlock related Decisions.
Once this National Policy was completed, combined with the other buff bonuses, Badab's construction speed would reach an unimaginable level. It would also unlock related Decisions, allowing further acceleration through the expenditure of Political Points.
This was also Huron's consistent objective: develop, develop, and fucking develop. So long as there was no need for a large-scale, prolonged war, every National Policy would yield to production and construction.
Very soon, the Emperor Ascension Festival of 719.M41 arrived. It was also Huron's second year in this world.
After several days of intense propaganda, all the people knew that the Emperor would descend upon the world today and bring the gospel.
Thus, everyone waited in eager anticipation.
Before you continue