Browsing History

The moment he left the Gilded Rose, Li Wei felt as though he had just surfaced from the deep sea.

The gold-inlaid grand doors behind him slowly closed, cutting off the cloying fragrance inside and that creeping, hair-raising sensation of being watched.

A cold gust of wind made Li Wei shiver. Only then did he realize that the lining of his expensive ballistic trench coat was soaked through with cold sweat, clinging clamishly to his back.

He did not immediately leave the neighborhood. Instead, he walked over to a vending machine across the street and pretended to buy cigarettes, actually using the reflection of the machine's glass to check for any tailing him.

There were no pursuers.

Or rather, a monster of Valorian's caliber simply had no need to send people to follow him.

Li Wei leaned against the chilling metal and lit a stick of low-grade tobacco.

As the smoke inhaled into his lungs, his perpetually taut brain began to function again.

Suddenly, Li Wei's cigarette-holding fingers froze.

No. He straightened abruptly, his brows locked tight.

How did Valorian know I was going to Ultramar?

Ever since his translocation, he had never mentioned this specific destination to a single soul.

In the Bottom Hive, he had only ever said he wanted to "get out of here."

In the black market, he had only ever said he wanted to "make coin."

Even in his mind, he had only ever quietly calculated.

Valorian was not a psyker (if he were, Li Wei would have suppressed him long ago).

Nor could he read minds.

Then how did he know so precisely? He had even prepared the ship tickets!

Li Wei's cold sweat broke out all over again.

This time it was not out of fear, but from a retrospective terror at his own stupidity.

His memory began to rewind.

He recalled the auspex he had sold, bought back, and ultimately had taken by Valorian's men.

When he was hiding from the Enforcers' search in his coffin-apartment, he had opened that auspex and pulled up the starmap.

He had searched the space routes of this sector on it.

He had placed a marker on the coordinates of the Ultramar.

He had even calculated the fuel and warp jumps required to fly there from Atalos Hive City.

Damn it... Li Wei aggressively threw his cigarette butt onto the ground and ground it out with his heel. Search history.

I fucking forgot to clear my browsing history!

That auspex had later fallen into the hands of the black market dealer, and after the dealer died, Valorian's men had recovered it.

As the intelligence boss controlling the black market, Valorian had surely had his men crack the logs of that instrument.

He had seen Li Wei's search records and seen that heavily marked "Ultramar."

To Valorian, the process of deduction was as simple as doing elementary school math: a mysterious person holding Inquisition secrets and wielding exceptional skills (a Pariah) was frantically calculating routes to Ultramar on a starmap.

There was only one conclusion: this person wanted to run.

Oh Li Wei, you really are a modern-day idiot, Li Wei cursed himself fiercely in his heart.

He had brought his habits over from Earth—assuming that electronic devices were private.

Yet in Warhammer 40,000, any cogitator, any datapad, the Machine Spirit would remember every single thing you did.

This also explains why he dared to hand the dataset to me, Li Wei gave a bitter laugh.

Because he grasped my pain point. He knew I wasn't some Inquisition agent fighting for justice; I'm just an opportunist looking to jump ship. The ship ticket is the dog leash he used to tie me down.

Having figured this out, Li Wei instead calmed down. Since the other party controlled him through intelligence and logic rather than some sort of sorcery, there was still room to play. As long as it was logic, there were loopholes.

He touched the thin metal ticket card in his pocket.

The mission was: hand the dataset to the Planetary Governor's illegitimate daughter.

An illegitimate daughter... Li Wei recalled the dossier Valorian had given him just now (this was a datapad the bald bouncer had shoved at him before he left).

Target individual: Aurelia van Atalos.

Identity: The third illegitimate daughter of the Atalos Planetary Governor.

Current status: Ostracized by the family, currently responsible for managing the "Waste Recovery and Purification Department" on the edge of the Upper Hive.

Nicely put, she was a department head; bluntly put, she was upper society's "trash lady."

A marginalized aristocratic miss, Li Wei looked at the photo on the datapad.

It was a woman with a cold and stunning appearance, possessing a head of silver-white long hair, yet her eyes revealed an undisguised gloom and ambition.

Valorian's abacus was calculated shrewdly: hand the proof that "the noble district was infected" to an ambitious person "ostracized by the noble district."

In order to seize power, Aurelia would surely use this name list to attack her brothers and sisters.

And once she did so, the Upper Hive would plunge into civil war.

The Genestealer Cults would be able to fish in troubled waters amid the chaos, and even seize the opportunity to launch an uprising.

A perfect script, Li Wei put away the datapad.

Too bad I don't like acting according to other people's scripts.

He straightened his collar and flagged down a passing automated flyer.

This was a hovering taxi, found only in the Upper Hive.

"Destination, citizen?" the servitor driver (a lobotomized cyborg embedded into the driver's seat) emitted a monotonous synthetic voice.

"Purification Court," Li Wei reported the address from the datapad. "And I'm not in a hurry. Take the main road."

The flyer slowly ascended, merging into the heavy traffic of the skyways.

Through the window, Li Wei looked down at the overlapping golden spires below.

He was currently facing a choice.

If he really handed the dataset to Aurelia and civil war broke out, he might not necessarily be able to leave either.

If he didn't hand it over... Valorian would kill him.

If he handed it to the Inquisition... the Inquisition would kill him and Valorian, and blow up the planet by the way.

This was a dead end. Unless...

Li Wei's gaze fell upon that photograph.

Aurelia.

Since this woman was in charge of the "Purification Department," she must command some kind of armed force in her hands, or at least... channels for dealing with "trash."

Perhaps she doesn't want to be Valorian's pawn either, Li Wei's fingers tapped lightly against his knee.

He was a Pariah.

He was a "void" that revolted everyone.

This meant that if there were Genestealer spies (or Valorian's informants) lurking around Aurelia, Li Wei would spot them at a glance—or force the other party to reveal themselves.

I can't just be a courier, Li Wei's gaze gradually grew sharp.

I want to be an advisor.

An advisor who can help her tell who is human and who is a monster.

Once he gained the trust of this noble miss, he wouldn't need Valorian's ship ticket.

Couldn't the governor's daughter, even an illegitimate one, manage to secure a permit to leave the planet?

Only by seizing the initiative in your own hands can you survive.

The flyer passed through a layer of clouds, and a massive estate built of off-white marble appeared ahead.

Unlike the glittering palaces around it, this estate appeared exceptionally desolate, solemn, and even bore a hint of bleakness.

The front gates hung a sign reading: "Imperial Department of Health - Seventh Purification Court."

A faint scent of disinfectant drifted through the air.

This was a scent Li Wei was very familiar with.

It was the scent that covered up death.

"We have arrived." Li Wei paid the fare and stepped out of the flyer.

He stood at the estate gates, tidying his coat to make himself look like a genuine, unquestionable special envoy.

He rang the doorbell.

What greeted him was neither a servant nor a servitor.

Instead, it was a row of pitch-black gun barrels.

Clack! The shooting ports on the gate instantly flew open, and at least ten laser rifles aimed right at his head.

A chilling female voice issued from the loudspeaker: "This is private property. You have three seconds to get lost or die."

Li Wei did not back down.

He raised his hands, but clutched within them was the dataset containing the Inquisition's data.

He faced the camera and revealed a meaningful smile.

"Miss Aurelia," Li Wei's voice was steady, every single word clearly transmitting inside.

"I'm not here to beg."

"I'm here to tell you that your household... has let in a few cockroaches."

Silence. After a few seconds of dead stillness.

The gates emitted a heavy roaring sound and slowly cracked open a gap.

Li Wei's lips curled upward.

Step one, success.

Valorian thought he was a chess piece, but what he was going to do was flip the chessboard over.