The Collapsed Tower of Babel

The battle ended faster than anyone expected.

There was no earth-shattering psychic duel, nor any battle lasting hundreds of rounds.

The overbearing Genestealer psyker floating midair crumpled like a holographic projector with its power cord pulled the moment Li Wei rushed in front of it.

Its vaunted psychic shield collapsed directly upon contacting Li Wei.

It tried to scream, tried to pierce Li Wei's brain with mental spikes, but it faced absolute void.

Buzz—crack! The Chainsword sliced open its massive skull without hindrance.

That head filled with evil wisdom exploded like a ripe watermelon, and purple brain matter splattered all over Li Wei.

The surrounding rebels controlled by psychic powers instantly collapsed like puppets with cut strings, twitching, and were immediately torn to pieces by berserk servitors swarming over.

"Is that it?" Li Wei shook the blood off his sword, looking at the shriveled corpse on the ground.

"When a wizard gets close-ranged, they really are worse than a dog."

Aurelia walked over, kicked the psyker's corpse aside, and looked at the closed metal door ahead.

Voice of Atalos—the Hive City broadcasting center.

"Open it," Li Wei said. "Let's change the background music for this party."

Three minutes later.

Inside the main control room of the broadcasting center, the original staff had already been cleared out.

Li Wei stood before the huge console.

Through the massive floor-to-ceiling window in front of him, he could overlook the entire Atalos Hive City.

Beneath his feet were clouds thousands of meters high.

Below the clouds was that steel behemoth with a population of twenty billion.

Countless lights flickered in the darkness—the myriad lights of the middle hive and bottom hive.

They were ordinary people who were still working overtime, still praying, and still struggling for a mouthful of food.

They did not yet know that the sky above their heads had collapsed.

"The signal is connected." Aurelia skillfully operated the console, inserting the Data-slate bearing the Inquisition insignia. "Forcing override on all channels. Including the public speakers of the bottom hive, the holographic billboard screens of the middle hive, and even the communication channels of the Adeptus Arbites."

"Only one chance." Aurelia looked at Li Wei. "What do you want to say? Read that name list?"

Li Wei looked at the red "ON AIR" indicator light.

He shook his head. "Reading the list is too slow. Nobody cares whether a few nobles are monsters."

"To the people down below, nobles are vampires to begin with, so turning into xenos makes no difference."

Li Wei pulled the auspex bought from the black market out of his bosom—he had secretly turned on its recording function during the previous banquet.

"In this world, nothing spreads faster than 'fear' and 'hatred'."

Li Wei took a deep breath and pressed the play button.

Then, he turned on the all-band microphone.

Bzz—

At this moment.

Throughout the entire Atalos Hive City, from the spire above down to the cesspools of the bottom hive, all the loudspeakers emitted a harsh crackling of static simultaneously.

The Emperor's Hymn playing previously stopped abruptly.

Twenty billion people halted the work in their hands.

They raised their heads, looking in confusion at those screens that suddenly went black and then flashed with red ripples.

Immediately afterward, a horrifying sound transmitted out.

That was the recording from the banquet hall.

It was the sound of flesh and bone tearing apart.

It was the roar of nobles turning into monsters.

It was the desperate screams of humans.

"Help! My face! Don't eat my face!" This was the screech of the finance officer mutating.

"For the Four-Armed Emperor! Sacrifice all their meat to the Children of the Stars!"

"Father... save me... it's a monster... ah!!"

This sound was incomparably clear, incomparably real, without any embellishment.

That was the sound of hell.

Just as everyone was scared dumb by this terrifying sound.

Li Wei leaned closer to the microphone.

His voice no longer sounded timid like before, but carried a coldness of extreme incitement.

"Did you hear that, citizens of Atalos?"

"This is your ruling class."

"These are the 'big shots' who make you work 18 hours a day, make you eat Corpsestarch, and make you live like rats."

Li Wei paused, looking at that still brilliantly illuminated city outside the window.

"They are not human."

"They are bugs. They are xenos. They are monsters wearing human skin."

"Now, they are hungry. They have finished eating the meat at the banquet, and next... it's your turn."

"Look around you! Look at those people with bones on their foreheads! Look at those people who usually hide in the shadows!"

"That is the vanguard of the bugs."

"On this desperate night, the Inquisition cannot save you, and the Planetary Defense Force cannot save you."

"Want to survive?"

"Then pick up your guns, pick up your wrenches, pick up everything you can find."

"Charge up."

"Burn this group of monsters who treat you as fodder... into ashes!"

Li Wei turned off the microphone.

With a kick, he shattered the console's display screen.

"Done?" Aurelia looked at him, her gaze complex. "You just... started a riot."

"No." Li Wei walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the huge city below his feet. "I started a civil war."

The change began.

At first, it was dead silence.

Then, Li Wei saw light.

Not the light of electric lamps. It was firelight.

In the middle hive thousands of meters below, the firelight of the first explosion ignited.

That was angry workers charging into the factory; that was hatred suppressed for countless years being ignited at this moment.

Following closely was the bottom hive.

Countless illumination flares rose into the air, and gang gunfire merged into one.

The Genestealer Cults had lurked for decades, completely exposed to the sunlight at this moment.

Those that had been developing stealthily instantly became public enemies.

The angry crowd began indiscriminately attacking anyone who looked like a monster.

Of course, this kind of riot also meant countless innocents would be implicated.

Order collapsed.

The Atalos Hive City, within these few short minutes, transformed from a finely tuned machine into a burning crucible.

"Look." Li Wei pointed at the sea of fire merging into one below.

"This is what you call fresh."

"Much more spectacular than us fighting a few rats in the corridor, isn't it?"

Aurelia walked to the window, watching this doomsday-like scene.

She didn't blame Li Wei.

As someone abandoned by her family, she looked at the burning spires, a trace of exhilaration actually leaking into her eyes.

"What now?" Aurelia asked. "The whole hive is in chaos. How are we supposed to survive in this sea of fire?"

"Survive?" Li Wei turned around, his back to the firelight that dyed the sky red.

A crazy smile appeared on his face.

"What we need to do isn't survive." "We need to fish in troubled waters."

"Right now, all eyes are fixed on the ground, fixed on the riots."

"Valorian's guilds will be busy suppressing, the Genestealers will be busy saving their own skins."

"Nobody will notice us."

Li Wei pointed overhead. Not pointing at the ceiling, but at the higher sky—outer space.

"Aurelia, do you know what the top floor of this building is?"

"The spaceport's VIP landing pad," Aurelia replied. "The governor's private yacht is parked there, and..." She suddenly reacted. "You want to hijack a ship?!"

"The ticket is fake, but the ship is real." Li Wei patted the dust off his body.

"Since this big ship named 'Atalos' is going to sink."

"Then why don't we hijack a lifeboat?"

"Let's go, Your Majesty." Li Wei picked up the Chainsword again.