Yellow toxic fog writhed slowly through the ruins like living tentacles.
Wearing the respirator he had stolen, still carrying the stink of a mechanical dog, Li Wei felt his way along the half-collapsed street.
Visibility was less than five meters.
Corpses lay everywhere.
Some had been shot dead by enforcers; others had suffocated in the gas.
But what unsettled Li Wei most was not the dead, but the things rising from their bodies.
As a modern man familiar with the Warhammer 40K setting, he knew very well that wherever mass slaughter and agonizing deaths occurred, the veil between reality and the Warp grew thin. The resentment and fear of the dead would draw predators from the other side.
"Help... someone... save me..." A wavering cry came from ahead.
It was followed by fierce gunfire. Rat-a-tat-tat! Boom!
Li Wei immediately crouched behind a broken slab of concrete.
Through the fog, he vaguely saw a group of four or five survivors in an open patch of ruins ahead, standing back-to-back in a circle and firing wildly.
But the scene was deeply strange.
There was nothing around them.
No enforcers, no beasts, no mutants.
"Get lost! Get lost!!" A burly man in gang leather armor, apparently their leader, swung a Chainsword and hacked frantically at empty air.
"They're biting me! They're biting my neck!" Another man holding an Autogun suddenly screamed. His whole body was lifted off the ground as though an invisible giant hand had grabbed him, his face turning purple as he desperately clawed at his throat.
Warp Ghosts—or some kind of low-level psychic entities. Physical attacks were basically useless against them.
Damn it, ghosts. Li Wei's heart tightened, and his instinct was to turn around and run.
Against this kind of supernatural phenomenon, the nearly drained Las Pistol in his hand was useless.
But the instant he turned around, the man being strangled by the "invisible hand" suddenly stopped struggling.
With a crisp crack of bone, the man's neck was twisted apart. His corpse was flung out like trash and landed right in front of Li Wei's cover.
Those unclosed eyes stared directly at Li Wei.
And from the dead man's body, Li Wei saw a blurry, translucent gray shadow slowly emerge, seemingly greedily feeding on the pain lingering within the corpse.
The gray shadow seemed to sense the presence of the living. It abruptly turned its head—if that mass of mist even had a head—and lunged at Li Wei!
"Fuck!" Li Wei jerked backward in fright and instinctively raised his hands in front of his face.
Yet the cold and suffocation he had expected never came.
At the instant that gray shadow entered the one-meter radius around Li Wei's body—
Sizzle—!!!
It was like a drop of water falling into a boiling pan of oil.
The gray shadow let out an utterly shrill scream. Li Wei could not hear it, but he felt his eardrums tremble.
Then, as if corroded by some invisible powerful acid, it instantly boiled apart and dissolved into a wisp of smoke, vanishing completely.
Li Wei froze.
He looked at his hands, then at the spot where the gray shadow had disappeared.
An absurd yet ecstatic thought surged into his mind.
"I'm not just invisible to radar... I'm a living exorcism device?"
"I'm... a Pariah. Warp energy touching me is like ice touching a branding iron!"
The screams ahead continued.
"Third Brother's dead! Damn it! The bullets can't hit them!"
"I can't see where they are! There are shadows everywhere!"
Li Wei's gaze changed.
He looked at the group.
They had long guns, sidearms, Chainswords, and plenty of ammunition. Li Wei only had a small pistol.
If he wanted to get out of this Bottom Hive alive, filled with both physical and incorporeal threats, the best way was—cooperation. Or rather, exploitation.
Li Wei took a deep breath and adjusted the dog respirator on his face, making his voice sound more muffled and cold.
He rose from behind his cover and strode toward the survivors being massacred.
"Ahhh! My leg! Something's chewing on my leg!" A skinny man from the gang group rolled on the ground. Bloody claw marks appeared out of nowhere across his thigh, yet there was clearly nothing around him.
The burly leader swung his Chainsword in despair. "Come out! If you've got the guts, come out and fight me one-on-one! Stop playing ghost!"
Just then, a figure broke through the yellow toxic fog and walked over like a ghost.
"Who?!" The burly man abruptly swung his gun toward the figure.
"If you don't want to all die, don't point that gun at me." A muffled voice with a strange mechanical echo sounded out.
Li Wei ignored the black muzzle and walked straight toward the skinny man rolling on the ground.
The instant he approached, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle— a dense series of crackling bursts came from the air, like an electrical short circuit.
The skinny man suddenly stopped screaming.
The several invisible "things" gnawing at his legs had all shrieked and scattered the moment Li Wei drew near.
Like sunlight dispersing shadows.
The whole area fell silent.
The remaining three survivors stared at the scene in utter disbelief.
Though they could not see the ghosts, they could feel that bone-piercing, oppressive chill suddenly vanish.
Li Wei stood in the center of the open ground.
He performed no ritual and chanted no spell.
He simply stood there. Yet within three meters of him, an absolute "pure land" had formed.
Every sinister gust, strange sound, even the movement of the toxic fog seemed to freeze upon reaching it.
"Th-those things?" The burly man swallowed, his Chainsword still whirring uselessly in his hand.
"They left." Li Wei turned his head and looked coldly at the burly man through the cloudy lenses of his gas mask. "They don't like my smell."
The burly man looked at Li Wei, his eyes filled with fear and confusion.
In this superstitious world, only two kinds of people could drive away evil spirits: holy priests, or even more terrifying witches.
And the man before him... although he looked thin and wore ragged clothes and a ridiculous dog mask, the nauseating sense of Void surrounding him made the burly man instinctively want to flee.
"You're... a Psyker, sir?" The burly man cautiously lowered his gun, his tone instantly becoming respectful and fearful.
"Don't ask questions you shouldn't." Li Wei neither confirmed nor denied it.
That kind of ambiguity was the best way to bluff people.
"Too many people died in this area. The veil has broken. No matter how much you shoot, it's useless. Bullets can't kill resentment."
He pointed into the darkness ahead.
"I'm heading to the safe zone in the upper levels, but I need some guards to carry my luggage." Li Wei swept his gaze over them. "You have the firepower I need. I have the 'peace' you need. Deal?"
The burly man looked at the two corpses on the ground, then at Li Wei standing unharmed in the fog.
There was no choice to make.
"Deal! Master, deal!" The burly man nodded frantically, his face piled with a smile that looked worse than crying. "I'm Barke, captain of the Iron Skull Gang. As long as you can get us out, the bullets, food, even that dead guy's equipment—it's all yours!"
"Good." Li Wei held out his hand. "First, the deposit. I want the Autogun from that dead man."
Without another word, Barke stripped the equipment from his dead companion and respectfully offered it with both hands.
Li Wei took the heavy Autogun, skillfully replaced its power cell, and pulled the charging handle.
Click. At last, that reassuring feeling of having proper firepower returned.
"Get over here," Li Wei ordered. "If you don't want ghosts to eat you, stay within three meters of me."
The remaining three survivors immediately crowded around Li Wei like startled chicks, scrambling to get close.
Although the "Pariah aura" around Li Wei made them dizzy, nauseated, and eager to vomit, that discomfort was nothing compared to having their necks twisted by invisible ghosts!
"Move." Li Wei held his gun and walked at the front.
This time, he was no longer prey hiding in a corner.
In these toxic, fog-shrouded ruins full of evil spirits, he had become the only source of light—though that light was black.
The group began moving.
Along the way, the greedy gazes hidden in the shadows recoiled in terror the instant they touched Li Wei's aura.
This group of thugs and scoundrels now huddled around their mysterious "priest" like the most devout believers, marching toward survival.
Li Wei walked in front, listening to the retching sounds behind him as the others drew close, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Looks like being hated is a superpower too."
Before you continue