The Suffocation of Prosperity

If the Bottom Hive was a hell woven from the silence of the dead and the frantic screams of the living, then this place—the middle residential sector of Hive City Atalos—was a giant, maddeningly noisy anthill.

As far as the eye could see, everything was made of steel.

Massive metal catwalks layered over one another like spiderwebs, connecting countless residential towers that soared upward like mountains.

Innumerable huge holographic projections floated in midair, sixty-meter-high golden skulls and eagle emblems looming faintly in the smoke, while loudspeakers played a mechanical noise on an endless loop: "Labor is prayer! Obedience is virtue! Dedicate your every hour to the Emperor!"

This atmosphere is way too intense... Li Wei was nearly choked by the scent mixed with engine oil, sweat, and cheap spices.

He wrapped himself tighter in a white-washed military coat stripped from a corpse, hid his autogun beneath it, and lowered his head as he blended into the flow of people.

The streets were packed with people.

Tens of thousands of human beings crowded onto the narrow catwalks like sardines.

Yet Li Wei found that even in the crowd, he was an "anomaly."

Wherever he passed, the normally packed throng subconsciously parted like the parting of the Red Sea to leave a narrow gap.

Passersby frowned and avoided him, their eyes filled with an inexplicable disgust and irritation.

"Get lost, bad luck charm."

"Don't shove me, what kind of smell is on this guy..."

Li Wei didn't get angry; instead, he pulled the collar of his coat up even higher.

In a place like this where skull-shaped drones (servo-skulls) flew all over the sky, this trait of "being despised and avoided by everyone" actually turned out to be the best camouflage.

He currently had two big problems.

First, no money. The meager handful of coins in his pocket probably couldn't even buy a cup of water in the Mid-Hive. Second, the data-slate inside his embrace.

He found a corner, and taking advantage of the dim light, he once again took out the "data-slate" he had brought back from the ruins.

On the metal casing, a skull emblem with an "I" carved on it was etched.

I recognize this symbol... Li Wei looked at that emblem, and his roommate's terrified expression while playing games flashed through his mind. The Inquisition. These people seem to be lunatics dedicated to killing their own kind, blowing up planets at the drop of a hat.

There definitely had to be good things in here, or... a huge secret.

But where can I sell it? Li Wei looked at the complex streets around him, feeling rather dazed.

He was not a local and had no idea where the black market was.

Yet he possessed modern logic—look for a pawnshop or an appliance repairman.

Places like that usually bought all sorts of miscellaneous junk.

He wandered around the alleys for a long time until, in a gloomy corner, he spotted a shop hanging a sign that read: "Broken Tooth Jack's Scrap Shop—Sacred Scrap Purchased at High Prices."

Next to the sign was painted a gear with a bite taken out of it. Looks like a shady joint. Li Wei muttered to himself inwardly and pushed open the door.

Jingle.

The shop was piled high with various rusted robotic arms and electronic garbage.

Behind the counter sat a half-man, half-machine fat man.

His left eye was a huge red light bulb (augmetic eye), and his right arm was a precision multi-functional mechanical claw.

"If you're selling scrap, go to the back door to use the scale." The shopkeeper didn't even raise his head, continuing to tinker with a still-beating electronic heart.

Li Wei walked up to the counter. As he drew closer, the shopkeeper's red augmetic eye suddenly crackled with static and flickered a few times. The shopkeeper abruptly raised his head, his half-human face displaying extreme discomfort, as if he had caught a whiff of some foul stench.

"Stop." The shopkeeper's voice was hoarse. "Don't come any closer. The magnetic field on you... makes me sick. What do you want to buy? Speak quickly and get out."

Li Wei didn't waste any breath. He felt around in his coat pocket and fished out the data-slate, revealing only a corner of the skull emblem marked with the letter "I."

"Boss, buying?" Li Wei lowered his voice. "Good stuff."

The shopkeeper's mechanical eye instantly focused.

When he clearly saw the skull emblem, his entire body reacted as if he had been electrocuted; that mechanical claw gave a violent jerk, nearly slicing off his own fingers.

"The Inqui—" The shopkeeper drew a sharp breath, his complexion turning instantly ashen.

He cast a terrified glance toward the doorway, then, acting like a common thief, frantically pressed a button beneath the counter.

Click. The roll-up shutter of the shop's front door automatically descended, hanging out a "Closed for Business" sign.

"Are you out of your mind?!" The shopkeeper hissed in a low roar, spittle flying. "You dare walk out on the streets carrying this kind of thing? Are you trying to send the entire district to the pyre?"

Li Wei was taken aback by his reaction.

He knew the Inquisition was a big deal, but he hadn't expected a single symbol to scare a local crime lord like this.

"Fortune favors the bold, you know." Li Wei forced a calm demeanor, mimicking lines from movies. "I won't ask about the price, and you don't ask about the source."

The shopkeeper stared hard at Li Wei, his augmetic eye spinning frantically as if assessing whether this seemingly frail young man was a sting operation by the Inquisition.

Yet the nauseating "blank" aura emanating from Li Wei made him feel that this was more likely a reckless death-seeker.

"I need to inspect the goods first." The shopkeeper extended his mechanical claw, his voice trembling. "In case it's an empty shell, taking this risk isn't worth it."

Li Wei hesitated.

He wasn't sure if plugging it in would cause an explosion or trigger some kind of alarm.

Still, he had no other options now and could only take a gamble.

"Inspect it. But be careful, don't break it." Li Wei handed over the data-slate.

The shopkeeper pulled a data cable from beneath the counter and cautiously connected it.

A dirty screen nearby lit up.

There was no explosion.

A line of deep crimson code and an image popped up.

On the image was a human anatomical chart. But on this person's forehead, a massive bulge had swelled, and a third hand had even sprouted out.

Next to it were some comparative charts resembling DNA helices, covered densely with red warnings.

[Top Secret // Ordo Xenos]
[Target: Genestealer - Infection Confirmed]
[Infected Area: Hive City Atalos - Upper Noble District]

Li Wei leaned in to take a look.

"Genestealer?" He frowned slightly. "That name sounds a bit familiar... Seems like the kind of... aliens that breed half-breed babies?"

He vaguely remembered his roommate mentioning that this thing loved infiltrating human society, turning entire families into bald freaks, and finally summoning a hive fleet to devour the planet.

Yet the shopkeeper's reaction was a million times more violent than his own.

"Upper... Noble District..." The shopkeeper looked as if he had witnessed the end of the world, all his layers of fat trembling. "We're done for... We're all done for. Those big shots... those nobles... are actually the running dogs of bugs?"

He violently yanked out the data cable and tossed it onto the table as if the thing were scorching hot.

"This is a bomb!" the shopkeeper screamed. "This is even more terrifying than a bomb! If this news is true, the entire hive city will be purged! The Inquisition will burn this planet down to a glass marble!"

Li Wei felt a sinking sensation in his heart.

He understood the phrase "burn it down to a glass marble."

Exterminatus.

In other words, the contents of this data-slate were enough to make an entire planet pay with its life.

"Uh... then this thing must be very worth a lot, right?" Li Wei probed cautiously.

The shopkeeper raised his head, looking at Li Wei with a complex gaze.

It was fear, despair, and... a suddenly erupting greed and murderous intent.

"Worth a lot? This thing could buy half of the Mid-Hive." The shopkeeper's voice turned sinister. "You just need the life to collect the money, but no life to spend it."

His mechanical claw quietly crept beneath the counter.

Li Wei kept his eyes fixed on the man's movements.

Even though he didn't know the rules of the black market, he understood human nature.

If it was a world-destroying secret, silencing the messenger was always the optimal solution.

"Kid, you're a new face." The shopkeeper revealed a savage smile. "And you're a revolting blank. No one will care which gutter you die in."

Just as the shopkeeper prepared to draw that sawed-off shotgun, Li Wei moved.

He didn't draw a gun—that was too slow.

He directly stepped forward, pressing his body almost flat against the counter.

He unleashed his "revolting" aura at full power.

Hum! The distance was too close.

The shopkeeper's half-man, half-machine brain suffered devastating damage in an instant.

The extreme sense of soul-level repulsion made him feel as though a hand had reached into his brain and stirred it around.

"Ugh!!" The shopkeeper let out a miserable scream, and the gun he had just touched dropped to the floor.

His mechanical augmetic eye began to spin wildly due to logic errors, and his mechanical claw convulsed uncontrollably, even pinching his own flesh.

Li Wei grabbed the shopkeeper by the collar, snatched a screwdriver off the counter with his other hand, and jammed it straight at the shopkeeper's good eye.

"I might not understand your rules." Li Wei looked at him coldly, enduring the stench of machine oil radiating from the man. "But I know that if I jam this thing in right now, you're going to die a horribly painful death."

"Don't! Don't kill me! Ugh..." The shopkeeper retched and begged for mercy at the same time. "I was wrong! I can't digest a thing like this! Really, I can't!"

"Who can digest it?" Li Wei pressed. "Give me a name. Someone who dares to take this thing and can afford to pay for it."

The shopkeeper trembled all over, tears and snot streaming down his face: "The guild... Only the guild dares to take it..." "The upper... Bliss District... There's a steward named Valorian... He's been looking for this kind of intel on the black market for a long time..."

"Valorian." Li Wei memorized the name. "Where is he?"

"The Gilded Rose club... That's his turf..."

Li Wei released his grip and casually grabbed the bag of coins belonging to the shopkeeper from the counter.

"Consider this compensation for the emotional distress of you trying to kill me just now."

He shoved the data-slate back into his pocket and turned to leave.

When he reached the door, he paused, looked back at the still-twitching shopkeeper, pushed the door open, and vanished into the bustling crowd.

Walking down the street, Li Wei's palms were slick with sweat.

Everything just now had been pure bluffing.

He finally understood what he was holding in his hands.

No wonder the Inquisitor wanted to blow that place up. Li Wei felt a chill run through his heart as he looked at the glamorous projections of the noble district overhead. Those high-and-mighty big shots probably stopped being human a long time ago.

And I'm going to do business with a bunch of monsters like this?

Li Wei gave a wry laugh and patted the money bag in his pocket.

For a ship ticket, for a ticket out... Screw it, I'm going all in.