Li Wei spent money to rent a "capsule room."
It was really just an iron box embedded in an abandoned ventilation duct, barely large enough for one person to lie down in.
But it was already a rare luxury—at least the iron door could be locked from the inside, so he did not have to worry about someone cutting his throat while he slept.
He lay on the moldy bunk, staring at the holographic star map drawn on paper beneath the dim reading light.
"Right now, I'm on the Hive City world of Atalos.
"This is the edge of the Tempest Sector, where Warp storms are frequent."
Li Wei scratched a line across the paper with his fingernail.
"If I want to survive, I need to go here—the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar."
The legendary Ultramarines were stationed there. They still demanded heavy taxes and military service, but at least people there lived like people instead of two-legged fuel.
"Ship fare... fake identification... and getting through quarantine..." Li Wei did the math.
To leave this planet, he needed at least one hundred thousand credits.
And he had less than fifty in his pocket.
That Inquisition USB drive was valuable, but it was also a death sentence.
Before he found a "big fish" capable of swallowing that merchandise, he would have to keep rolling around in this mire for a long time.
Woooooo—!!!
Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm tore through the Bottom Hive's clamor.
Li Wei had never heard this sound before.
It was unlike the earlier fire alarms, and unlike the whistles used during gang shootouts.
It was a low, oppressive roar, like an air raid siren, accompanied by an emotionless synthesized voice from the loudspeakers:
"Attention. Sector C-19 has been designated an 'unstable zone.'"
"Under the Lex Imperialis, the 'Pacification Protocol' is now being enacted."
"All citizens must kneel where they stand and place both hands over their heads. Any standing, running, or armed behavior will be regarded as rebellion and result in immediate execution."
Li Wei jerked upright and smacked his head against the iron ceiling.
"Pacification Protocol?" That did not sound like they were here to hand out benefits.
He looked outside through the grimy circular window of the capsule room.
The bustling market from moments ago instantly dissolved into chaos.
The vendors abandoned even their stalls and crazily scrambled into the shadows.
The bald owner who had been selling Auspex devices was desperately trying to crawl beneath a rolling shutter, but his belly was too large and got stuck. He wailed miserably.
Boom! Several gates at the settlement's entrances were blasted open at once.
There were no police officers as Li Wei had imagined.
What rushed in were giants clad in dark blue heavy carapace armor and full-faced black helmets.
They carried riot shields and massive powered batons, with large-caliber shotguns hanging at their waists.
Palatine Enforcers.
The Hive City's "police."
But unlike the police Li Wei knew, their duty was not to "protect and serve," but to "suppress and control."
In their eyes, Bottom Hive residents were not citizens. They were "potential criminals."
"Get down! Everyone get down!" An Enforcer captain brandished his powered baton, an electrified metal rod capable of shattering a spine with one strike.
An elderly woman who had been too slow to run, her legs weak and unsteady, failed to kneel immediately.
The Enforcer did not hesitate for a moment, nor did he slow down.
Bang!
He slammed into her and fired his shotgun directly into her chest.
The old woman flew through the air and hit the ground like a rag doll, motionless.
"Target eliminated," the Enforcer said coldly, as if he had merely stepped on a cockroach. "First squad, advance. Any attempt to flee out of fear will be considered flight from guilt."
Li Wei trembled all over inside the iron box.
This was Imperial law? This was outright slaughter!
"Damn it... they'll search every room."
Li Wei glanced at his capsule room.
This kind of tin box would be no tougher than paper in front of an Enforcer's breaching ram.
If they caught him, an undocumented illegal like him carrying a Las Pistol and a USB drive would absolutely be shot on the spot or hauled off to become a slave miner.
He could not stay here.
Li Wei quickly slung his crude backpack over his shoulder, hid the Las Pistol in his sleeve, opened the capsule room door, and slipped into the tangled ventilation ducts.
But he had underestimated the scale of this "pacification."
The moment he crawled out of a vent and entered a side alley, he froze.
The intersection ahead was blocked off.
Two mechanical dogs covered in tubes, with no skin, only metal skeletons and bundles of muscle, crouched at the intersection, their red electronic eyes scanning the area.
Cyber-Mastiffs.
The scent sensors of these monsters could detect fear hormones from hundreds of meters away.
"Woof!!" One Mastiff suddenly turned its head, its metal jaws filled with fangs roaring toward where Li Wei was hiding.
He had been discovered!
Li Wei spun around and ran.
But how could two human legs possibly outrun a mechanical dog?
The scraping of metal claws against the ground grew closer behind him, accompanied by the roar of hydraulic pistons.
Li Wei could even smell the engine oil spraying from the mechanical dog's mouth.
"I'm dead..." Li Wei desperately turned into a dead end.
A high wall stood before him. There was nowhere to run.
He turned around, pressed his back against the wall, and raised the Las Pistol with only 30% charge remaining.
The massive Cyber-Mastiff pounced, then abruptly braked when it was only two meters away from him.
Yet the bite he expected never came.
The Mastiff stopped.
Its red-glowing electronic eye stared fixedly at Li Wei. Its enormous metal head tilted to one side, producing a crackling electrical hiss.
It was confused.
Its Logic core told it that there was a human target ahead.
But its biological sensors were screaming: there was nothing ahead! It was a hollow! It was a black hole!
Li Wei's Pariah nature had taken effect once more.
To a half-biological, half-mechanical creation like this, Li Wei's existence was like an unresolvable code error.
It sensed Li Wei, but its "soul radar" showed nothing but Void ahead.
The intense cognitive conflict caused this savage killing machine to crash.
It tucked its tail, making a whimpering sound like a frightened puppy, and actually began backing away step by step.
Li Wei was stunned.
He watched the mechanical dog, larger than a tiger, stare at him as if it had seen a ghost.
At that moment, heavy footsteps sounded from the alley entrance.
"K-9 unit, report! Why did you stop pursuit?" An Enforcer carrying a riot shield walked over.
He spotted Li Wei in the corner at a glance.
"Ha, a rat." The Enforcer raised his Shock Maul, his voice beneath the mask carrying a cruel smile. "I don't know what you did to that dog, but my eyes aren't broken."
Li Wei gripped his gun tightly, his palm drenched in sweat.
The dog feared him, but though humans found him repulsive, they could still see him—and kill him.
And the other side wore heavy armor. The Las Pistol would probably do no more than scorch a black spot onto it.
"I'm really out of options now..." Li Wei's mind raced.
Surrender? Useless. Enforcers did not accept surrender. Fight? That was suicide.
Suddenly, a violent tremor swept through the area. It was not the Enforcer's footsteps, but something from far deeper underground. The entire ground shook violently, and the pipes overhead let out a thunderous cracking sound.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
"An earthquake?" The Enforcer lost his footing and had to brace himself against the wall.
"No... a Hive City quake!"
Because the Hive City's structure was too massive and poorly maintained, the load-bearing layers at the bottom often collapsed or subsided.
To the locals, this was even more terrifying than the Enforcers.
The wall beside Li Wei suddenly split open with a huge crack.
Thick yellow smoke carrying the stench of sulfur surged from the fissure.
It was Bottom Hive poison gas.
"Warning! Gas leak! Lethal concentration!" An alarm sounded within the Enforcer's helmet.
He no longer cared about Li Wei. He immediately pressed the full-seal button on his helmet, turned, and ran back. "All units, retreat! Damn it, this area is going to collapse!"
Li Wei had no gas mask.
The yellow poison gas instantly rushed into his face.
"Cough, cough, cough!!" Li Wei felt as if he had inhaled a ball of fire into his lungs.
Tears and snot immediately streamed down his face, and the suffocating sensation darkened his vision.
This was the disaster of ordinary people.
No demons were needed. No execution was needed.
One shift in the earth's crust, one ruptured pipeline, could kill tens of thousands of "rats" like insecticide.
"Am I going to die here? Poisoned to death?" Li Wei collapsed on the ground, desperately covering his nose and mouth, but the gas seeped in everywhere.
As his consciousness blurred, his hand brushed against the Cyber-Mastiff, which was still trembling amid the chaos.
The mechanical dog feared him, but it had not escaped yet.
Li Wei saw a spare breathing mask hanging around the Mastiff's neck—an emergency device the Enforcers had equipped their police dogs with.
His survival instinct overcame everything.
Li Wei did not know where he found the strength, but he lunged at the mechanical dog and ripped off the mask.
The mechanical dog let out a shriek at his touch—system overload—and immediately collapsed, paralyzed on the ground.
Li Wei shakily fastened the mask, still smeared with dog saliva, over his face.
With a hiss, clean air carrying the smell of rubber flowed into his lungs.
He had survived.
Li Wei greedily gulped down breath after breath.
The world around him was collapsing.
The Enforcers had retreated. Civilians struggled and died in the poison gas, their bodies scattered everywhere.
And Li Wei, wearing a dog's mask, curled up in a corner of the ruins like a real cockroach, coldly watching this living hell.
He had survived.
Not because he was a hero, but because he was lowly enough, ruthless enough, and lucky enough.
"So this is Warhammer 40K..." Li Wei looked through the mask's blurred lenses at the corpses covering the ground and the collapsing buildings.
"Want to go to Ultramar?"
"Before that, I need to learn how to eat people in a garbage heap."
Before you continue