The Shepherd

Deep underground in the corpse-starch processing plant, the air smelled of preservatives and rust.

Aurelia was operating something before a wall covered in instrument panels.

With a heavy hydraulic groan, a concealed, thick bulkhead slowly opened.

"I told you, this is my kingdom." Aurelia looked back at Li Wei.

The hem of her blood-stained formal dress had been ripped away, exposing the tactical dagger strapped to her thigh, making her look both wild and dangerous.

"Although the family guard has rebelled, I still have my 'private collection'."

Li Wei brandished the autogun he had fished out of the water, still dripping with bloody fluid, and looked cautiously into the doorway.

It was a massive armory combined with a holding cell.

There were no neatly lined-up soldiers. There were only hundreds of... behemoths chained to the walls or kept in reinforced glass cages.

Some stood three meters tall, with knotted muscles and dead-gray skin; others had half their bodies covered in crude armor, their arms grafted with massive chainswords or heavy bolters. They were roaring and frantically battering their cages, making a blood-chilling metallic screech.

"Rampant Servitors." Li Wei recognized these things.

These were the failed products of Adeptus Mechanicus cybernetic modification surgery.

Their brains had been excised and kill-programs implanted, but due to biological rejection or drug overdose, they had lost control and turned into mad dogs that only knew how to tear apart any living thing.

"These are 'rejects' eliminated from the upper hive," Aurelia introduced coldly. "They are too dangerous, too unstable, and should have been destroyed. But I kept them."

"They are disposable weapons. Once released, they will attack every living creature in their line of sight until they themselves are destroyed."

"You want to let this pack of mad dogs out to bite the Genestealer?" Li Wei frowned. "Then what about us? They'll tear us apart too."

"I have the control code." Aurelia pulled out a remote-control-like device. "But this thing can only last ten minutes. After ten minutes, their suppression chips will burn out, and by then—"

Roar!!! A loud crash interrupted her.

A massive heavy servitor, which should have originally been an Ogryn modification, had actually managed to snap an arm-thick iron chain!

Its bald head bristled with tubes, its eyes blazing red and dripping with saliva, and brandishing a massive hydraulic power claw, it charged toward the two people at the door!

"Damn it! The suppression chip failed!" Aurelia's expression changed, and she raised the firefighter's axe to meet the charge, but she knew that with her strength, she could never stop a tank-like monster of this scale.

"Get back!" Li Wei pulled Aurelia behind him.

He watched the charging iron behemoth.

As a modern man, he instinctively felt fear.

``` But as a survivor who had kicked and scraped his way through this world for so long, he keenly noticed a detail: even though this servitor was mad, its movements still relied on the instincts remaining in its biological brain—those of pain, rage, and the lust for slaughter.

And as long as it was a biological brain, it would be affected by a Pariah.

Li Wei didn't shoot. He did something only a madman would do.

He strode forward, stopped abruptly two meters away from the Ogryn servitor, and took off his gas mask.

"Sit down!!" Li Wei let out a fierce roar.

At the same time, his "void field"—a thing that disgusted all living things and made souls shudder—slammed like a heavy hammer directly into the remaining mind of the Ogryn servitor.

Time seemed to freeze.

The Ogryn, which had been in a state of extreme frenzy, suddenly slammed on the brakes the moment it entered the range of Li Wei's aura.

Its glowing red cybernetic eyes flickered wildly, and its massive body began to tremble violently.

To its remaining shred of biological consciousness, the scrawny human before it was no prey.

It was an incomprehensible and terrifying black hole.

Approaching him, that nausea and suppression originating from the depths of the soul instantly overwhelmed the frenzy induced by the drugs.

Its killing instinct was replaced by a more primitive instinct—fear.

The three-meter-tall behemoth actually stopped.

Like a vicious dog that had been heavily kicked, it let out a whimper in its throat, its massive body curling into a ball as it slowly, trembling... knelt down.

It even pressed its tube-studded head against the ground, not daring to look at Li Wei at all.

The entire scene fell dead silent.

Not just this one.

The hundreds of servitors in the cell that had been roaring frantically all fell silent upon sensing this presence.

The once-boiling intent to kill turned into a death-like stillness.

The axe in Aurelia's hand almost dropped to the ground.

She widened her ice-blue eyes, looking at this scene in disbelief.

This was a failed product that even Tech-Priests couldn't control!

This was a monster that even the Governor's Guard needed heavy weapons to suppress! Now, they were crouching at the feet of this frail man like a pack of obedient puppies?

Li Wei stood before the kneeling Ogryn.

His legs were shaking, but on the surface, he looked steady as a rock.

He reached out and gently patted the Ogryn servitor's rough, bald head.

The latter shuddered all over with fright, but didn't dare to move at all.

"Looks like they don't like me." Li Wei turned back, flashing a bantering smile at the dumbfounded Aurelia. "Or rather, they hate me so much they don't even have the strength to go crazy."

He turned around, looking at the room full of iron monsters.

"Aurelia, throw away that remote control that only has ten minutes."

Li Wei pointed at these quiet killing machines.

"As long as I walk in front." "This army will stay 'calm'."

This was a sense of absolute control.

In this world that worshipped technology and feared the unknown, Li Wei—a person regarded as a "soulless freak"—had become the only "Shepherd" capable of riding these madmen.

"You..." Aurelia took a deep breath, her gaze finally holding a hint of true awe alongside her previous scrutiny.

"What kind of monster are you?"

"I am your only hope." Li Wei walked over to the weapon rack, picked up a heavy chainsword, and tried revving the engine. Vroom—! The roaring growl of the spinning teeth made the blood rush.

He picked up another well-crafted hellgun, the standard issue for stormtroopers, which was far more powerful than ordinary laser guns and could connect to a back-mounted high-energy battery.

"This is my new gear." Li Wei slung the gun over his body and brandished the chainsword.

"Let's go, Her Majesty."

"Bring your pack of mad dogs, and let's slaughter our way back."

"Go deliver a little surprise from the sewers to those bugs hiding in the clouds."

Half an hour later. In the upper-hive aristocratic district of Atalos Hive City, an unthinkable event occurred.

A silent, terrifying army surged out from the lowest-level drainage outlets.

At the lead was a man wearing tattered formal attire and wielding a chainsword.

Behind him followed hundreds of rampant servitors, three meters tall and clad in heavy armor.

These monsters, which usually killed anyone they saw on sight, were now marching in neat formation, as quiet as a funeral procession.

Any mutinous guards or hybrid xenos that stood in their way were torn to pieces the moment they made contact.

And that man always walked at the very front.

Like a monarch inspecting his domain, or like a grim reaper bringing death.