Safe

The heavy cargo elevator leading to the upper levels roared as it ascended.

This time, the car was packed with rampant servitors radiating the smells of machine oil and blood.

They still hung their heads quietly, like a group of steel statues waiting for commands, only the occasionally flashing red prosthetic eyes exposing their suppressed madness.

Li Wei leaned in the corner of the elevator, using this brief gap to check his equipment.

The hellgun's energy was at maximum.

The chainsword's fuel was sufficient.

And...

He reached his hand into his inner chest pocket and touched that cold metal—the data-slate engraved with the Inquisition's insignia.

Looking at this little thing that had almost gotten them killed ten thousand times, images surfaced in Li Wei's mind from a few hours ago, at the moment they set out for the banquet.

[Flashback: One hour before departure · Purification Courtyard Dressing Room]

At that time, Aurelia had just finished helping him adjust that damn tight formal suit. She suddenly turned, walked to the desk, opened the drawer with three locks, and took out that data-slate.

"Take it." Aurelia threw the data-slate to Li Wei.

Li Wei was stunned, catching it clumsily: "Are you crazy? Taking this thing to the governor's banquet? The security scanner at the entrance will screech like an alarm!"

"The security scanner can't scan it. Because you are here." Aurelia said coldly, "You are a pariah. Your biological magnetic field will interfere with all surrounding detection equipment, including psionic scans and electronic security gates. To them, you are a moving mass of static."

She looked at Aurelia—wait, she looked at Li Wei, her gaze revealing a trace of helpless clarity: "Besides, I don't trust my office. That maid lurked for three years without me noticing; who knows if my drawer has been bugged or fitted with a teleportation trap?"

She pointed at Li Wei's chest: "In this hive city full of eyes, only you are completely 'black'. You are the safest safe."

"If we die at the banquet, this thing rotting away with you is still better than falling into Valorian's or the bugs' hands."

[Back to the present]

"The safest safe..." Li Wei laughed self-deprecatingly, stowing the data-slate away again.

"To put it bluntly, it means dragging someone down with us even if we die."

Although he complained verbally, he knew in his heart that Aurelia was right. It was precisely because this thing was on him that they now held the ultimate bargaining chip against anyone.

"What are you thinking about?" Aurelia's voice came over. She had now changed into a set of light carapace armor, holding that fire axe that was still stained with blood in her hand; she seemed to have a soft spot for this axe, standing beside the line of servitors.

"Thinking about how we should set this 'fire'." Li Wei withdrew his thoughts, his gaze turning sharp.

The elevator's floor display was jumping.

L-15: Upper Noble District - Maintenance Corridor.

"Valorian thinks we're dead. The bugs think we smashed into meat paste." Li Wei looked at Aurelia, "This is our only advantage. Information asymmetry."

"We can't charge directly into the banquet hall; it's definitely already surrounded by the bugs' army."

Aurelia nodded; she was extremely professional on a tactical level, "We need to cut off their command system. Or... let everyone know what happened here."

"The astropathic beacon?" Li Wei asked.

He understood somewhat that every hive city had a beacon used to send psionic signals off-world.

As long as it was lit, even if a specific message couldn't be sent out, it would attract the Empire's attention.

"The beacon is at the very top of the spire, too far away." Aurelia shook her head, pointing down at her feet, "But there's a closer way."

"The Hive City Broadcasting Center." A ruthless light flashed in Aurelia's eyes, "It's on this level. That's the place used to broadcast the governor's speeches and brainwashing propaganda to the whole hive city." "As long as we occupy that place and broadcast the contents of that data-slate—that infection list, along with Valorian's conspiracy—directly to all channels..."

"Then it'll get lively." Li Wei's eyes lit up. This move was called table-flipping plus edition.

Once broadcast, the bottom hive gangs, middle-layer workers, Adeptus Arbites, and even those noble private armies still sitting on the fence throughout the hive city would all know: the upper levels were occupied by xenos.

By then, the riots triggered by nationwide panic would be enough to give the Genestealer Cult a hard time.

And this would definitely attract the Inquisition's Exterminatus attention—but before that, this chaos was enough for Li Wei to fish in troubled waters and escape.

"Let's do it." Li Wei pulled the bolt of the hellgun, listening to the humming of the high-energy battery preheating.

Ding.

The elevator arrived.

"Are you ready, Your Majesty the Queen?" Li Wei looked back at the group of restless steel monsters behind him.

He once again released his "pariah" aura, but this time not to suppress, but to guide.

He was like an owner unleashing a fierce dog's collar, slightly relaxing that trace of oppressive force.

Those servitors instantly became restless, emitting low growls in their throats yearning for slaughter.

"The door is open." Li Wei kicked open the elevator's grating door with one foot.

Outside the door was a wide noble district corridor.

More than a dozen patrolling traitor guard soldiers were looking in surprise at this cargo elevator that had suddenly come up.

"What is th—" A soldier started to speak.

"Kill!!" Li Wei gave an order, rushing out like a cheetah, the chainsword in his hand roaring to life.

Yet he was not rushing at the very front.

The instant he gave the order, those hundreds of rampant servitors, having held back for long enough, surged past him like a breached torrent of steel, roaring!

"For the Emperor! For flesh!"

Boom! Those dozen guards didn't even have time to raise their guns before they were instantly swallowed by this torrent of steel.

It was a true crushing.

The Ogryn Servitors' power claws tore people directly in half, and the chain-servitors sawed through cover together with the people behind it.

Blood, screams, severed limbs.

The corridor instantly turned into a slaughterhouse.

Li Wei walked in the rear, holding the hellgun and precisely picking off those fish that slipped through the net.

Zzzt—pop! A high-temperature laser beam pierced the throat of a guard attempting to sound the alarm.

"Is this your tactic?" Aurelia walked up carrying the axe, looking at the massacre before her, raising an eyebrow, "Simple and crude."

"I am a person who values efficiency." Li Wei stepped over a corpse and tore a grenade from that guard's belt.

"Besides, since we came to cause trouble, naturally the bigger the commotion the better."

He pointed to the door at the end of the corridor bearing the sign "Broadcasting Center."

"There."

"Let's go tell a ghost story to everyone in the whole hive city."

Yet right at this moment, Li Wei abruptly stopped his steps.

That familiar, creepy sensation of being watched washed over him once again.

Furthermore, this time, it was even more intense than the one in Valorian's office.

The corridor lights began to flicker, dimming and brightening. The temperature in the air plummeted, and purple slime began to ooze from the walls.

"Careful." Li Wei abruptly raised his hand, signaling the servitor army to halt.

"A big one is coming."

At the end of the corridor, the door to the broadcasting center slowly opened.

A figure walked out.

That was no ordinary hybrid.

That was a monster wearing tattered psyker robes, possessing an immensely oversized head, and levitating in mid-air.

In its hand, it grasped a staff made from a spine, its eyes burning with purple psionic flames.

Genestealer Cult—Magus.

"Soulless one..." The monster did not move its mouth; aside from Li Wei who was immune, a voice exploded directly in everyone's mind.

Aurelia gave a muffled groan, covering her nose as blood flowed out.

As for the few servitors in front that were closest, even lacking pain receptors, they were rattled by this powerful psionic shock wave to the point of immediate head-explosion.

"Your existence is a blasphemy to the sacred void." The Magus raised its staff, purple lightning condensing in the air.

"I will peel your soul from its vessel and offer it to the Children of the Stars."

Li Wei looked at that floating cultist quack.

Far from being afraid, he instead revealed a ferocious smile.

He looked back at Aurelia: "Cover your ears." "Why?" Aurelia asked, enduring the headache.

"Because I'm about to start singing."

Li Wei took a deep breath, discarded the hellgun, and drew the chainsword.

Not only did he not dodge, but he charged right toward that Magus instead!

You use spells?

I have magic immunity!

And not only do I have magic immunity, I can even drain your mana bar empty!

"Come on! Big-headed freak!" Li Wei roared as he charged into the purple lightning storm.

"Let's see if your skull is hard, or my chainsword is hard!"