Browsing History

The moment Li Wei left the Gilded Rose, he felt as though he had just surfaced from the deep sea.

The gilded doors behind him slowly closed, shutting out the cloying fragrance inside and that skin-crawling sense of being watched.

A gust of cold wind made Li Wei shiver. Only then did he realize that the lining of his expensive bulletproof trench coat was soaked through with cold sweat, sticking clammy against his back.

He did not leave the district immediately. Instead, he walked over to a vending machine across the street and pretended to buy cigarettes, using the reflection in its glass to check whether he had a tail.

There was no one following him.

Or rather, a monster on Valorian's level had no need to send anyone after him.

Li Wei leaned against the cold machine and lit a cheap cigarette.

As the smoke filled his lungs, his brain, which had been taut with tension, began functioning again.

Suddenly, the fingers holding his cigarette stiffened.

"No." He abruptly straightened, his brow knotting tightly.

"How did Valorian know I was going to Ultramar?"

Since arriving in this world, he had never mentioned that specific destination to anyone.

In the Bottom Hive, he had only said that he wanted to "get out of here."

At the black market, he had only said that he wanted to "make money."

Even in his own mind, he had merely made silent calculations.

Valorian was not a Psyker. If he had been, Li Wei would have countered him long ago.

Nor could he read minds.

So how had he known so precisely? He had even prepared a ticket for him.

Cold sweat broke out on Li Wei again.

This time, it was not fear, but the lingering dread of realizing how stupid he had been.

His memories began to rewind.

He remembered the Auspex he had sold, then stolen back, only for it to ultimately be taken by Valorian's men.

When he had hidden in the capsule room to evade the enforcers' search, he had activated that Auspex and pulled up a star map.

He had searched the shipping routes in this sector.

He had marked the coordinates of Ultramar.

He had even calculated the fuel and number of jumps required to travel from Atalos Hive City to there.

"Damn it..." Li Wei viciously threw the cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it beneath his shoe. "The search history."

"I fucking forgot to delete my browsing history!"

That Auspex had later ended up in the black market shopkeeper's hands. After the shopkeeper died, Valorian's people had recovered it.

As the intelligence chief who controlled the black market, Valorian had surely had someone crack the device's logs.

He had seen Li Wei's search history and the heavily marked "Ultramar."

For Valorian, the reasoning had been as simple as elementary-school math: a mysterious man holding Inquisition secrets and possessing extraordinary abilities—a Pariah—was frantically calculating a route to Ultramar on a star map.

There was only one conclusion: this man wanted to run.

"Li Wei, Li Wei, you really are a modern idiot." Li Wei savagely cursed himself in his heart.

He had brought his habits from Earth with him—assuming electronic devices were private.

But in Warhammer 40K, every Cogitator, every Datapad, every Machine Spirit remembered everything you did.

"That also explains why he dared hand the data set over to me." Li Wei gave a bitter laugh.

"Because he found my weak point. He knew I wasn't some Inquisition agent fighting for justice. I was just an opportunist looking to get out." "The ticket was the dog chain he used to leash me."

Having figured that out, Li Wei instead calmed down. Since the other side was controlling him through intelligence and Logic rather than some sorcery, there was still room to play. As long as it was Logic, there would be flaws.

He touched the thin metal ticket card in his pocket.

The mission was to deliver the data set to the planet's governor's illegitimate daughter.

"Illegitimate daughter..." Li Wei recalled the information Valorian had given him earlier. Before he left, that bald guard had stuffed a Datapad into his hands.

Target: Aurelia van Atalos.

Identity: the third illegitimate daughter of the Governor of Atalos.

Current status: ostracized by her family, currently in charge of the "Waste Recovery and Purification Department" on the outskirts of the Upper Hive.

Officially, she was a department head. Bluntly put, she was high society's "garbage woman."

"An ostracized noblewoman." Li Wei looked at the photograph on the Datapad.

It showed a woman of cold, striking beauty, with long silver-white hair. Yet her eyes held an unmistakable gloom and ambition.

Valorian's scheme was clear: hand evidence proving that "the noble district was infected" to an ambitious woman "ostracized by the noble district."

To seize power, Aurelia would certainly use that list to attack her brothers and sisters.

And once she did, the Upper Hive would descend into civil war.

The Genestealer cult would be able to fish in troubled waters amid the chaos, perhaps even seize the chance to rise in revolt.

"A perfect script." Li Wei put away the Datapad.

"Unfortunately, I don't like acting according to someone else's script."

He adjusted his collar and flagged down an automated shuttle passing by.

It was a hovering taxi, something only the Upper Hive had.

"Where to, citizen?" The Servitor driver—a modified human with its frontal lobe removed and its body embedded in the driver's seat—spoke in a monotonous synthesized voice.

"Purification Courtyard." Li Wei gave the address from the Datapad. "And I'm not in a hurry. Take the main roads."

The shuttle slowly rose into the air and merged into the busy traffic overhead.

Through the window, Li Wei watched the tiers upon tiers of golden spires below.

He now faced a choice.

If he truly gave the data set to Aurelia and civil war broke out, he might not be able to leave either.

If he did not give it to her... Valorian would kill him.

If he gave it to the Inquisition... the Inquisition would kill both him and Valorian, then blow up the planet while they were at it.

It was a dead end. Unless...

Li Wei's gaze fell on the photograph.

Aurelia.

Since this woman was in charge of the "Purification Department," she must have some armed force under her command—or at the very least... channels for disposing of "garbage."

"Perhaps she doesn't want to be Valorian's pawn either." Li Wei lightly tapped his fingers against his knee.

He was a Pariah.

He was a "hollow" who disgusted everyone.

That meant that if Genestealer spies—or Valorian's eyes—were lurking around Aurelia, Li Wei would spot them at a glance—or force them to reveal themselves.

"I can't just be a messenger." Li Wei's eyes gradually sharpened.

"I need to be a consultant."

"A consultant who can help her tell who's human and who's a ghost."

As long as he earned this noblewoman's trust, he would not need Valorian's ticket.

The governor's daughter—even an illegitimate one—couldn't she get a permit to leave the planet?

"Only by seizing the initiative could he survive."

The shuttle passed through a layer of clouds, and a massive estate of gray-white marble appeared ahead.

Unlike the resplendent palaces surrounding it, this estate appeared especially desolate and solemn, even carrying a faint air of bleakness.

A sign hung above its gates: "Imperial Department of Health — Seventh Purification Courtyard."

The faint scent of disinfectant lingered in the air.

Li Wei knew that smell well.

It was the smell used to cover up death.

"We're here." Li Wei paid the fare and stepped out of the shuttle.

He stood before the estate gates and adjusted his coat, making himself look like a genuine, unquestionable envoy.

He pressed the doorbell.

He was greeted not by a servant, nor by a Servitor.

But by a row of black gun barrels.

Clatter! The firing slits in the gates snapped open, and at least ten lasguns aimed at his head.

A cold female voice emerged from the loudspeaker. "This is private property. You have three seconds to leave, or die."

Li Wei did not back down.

He raised both hands, but clutched the data set containing the Inquisition data in one of them.

He gave the camera a meaningful smile.

"Miss Aurelia." Li Wei's voice was calm, every word carrying clearly inside.

"I'm not here to beg."

"I'm here to tell you that your home... has a few cockroaches in it."

Silence. After several seconds of dead quiet.

The gates let out a heavy rumble and slowly opened a crack.

The corner of Li Wei's mouth lifted.

The first step had succeeded.

Valorian thought he was a pawn, but what he intended to do was flip the chessboard.