Shepherd

Deep beneath the corpse processing plant, the air reeked of preservatives and rust.

Aurelia was operating something in front of a wall covered in control panels.

With a heavy hiss of hydraulics, a concealed, thick isolation door slowly opened.

"I told you, this is my kingdom." Aurelia glanced back at Li Wei.

The bloodstained hem of her formal dress had been torn away, revealing a tactical dagger strapped to her thigh. She looked both wild and dangerous.

"Though the family guard has rebelled, I still have my 'private collection.'"

Holding the Autogun he had fished out of the water, still dripping bloody liquid, Li Wei warily looked through the doorway.

It was a massive armory and holding chamber.

There were no soldiers standing in orderly ranks. Instead, hundreds of... hulking creatures were chained to the walls or locked inside reinforced glass cages.

Some stood three meters tall, their muscles knotted and their skin ash-gray. Others had half their bodies covered in crude armor, their arms converted into enormous chainsaws or heavy Bolters. They roared and smashed frantically against their cages, producing the chilling shriek of twisting metal.

"Rampant Servitors." Li Wei recognized the things.

They were the products of failed modification surgeries by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Their brains had been removed and implanted with killing programs, but biological rejection or drug overdoses had caused them to lose control, turning them into mad dogs that knew only how to tear apart every living thing.

"These are all 'scrap' discarded by the Upper Hive," Aurelia explained coldly. "They were too dangerous and unstable, and should have been destroyed. But I kept them."

"They are disposable weapons. Once released, they will attack every living creature in sight until they are destroyed themselves."

"You want to let these mad dogs out to bite the Genestealers?" Li Wei frowned. "What about us? They'll tear us apart too."

"I have control codes." Aurelia took out a device resembling a remote control. "But it only works for ten minutes. After that, their suppression chips will burn out, and then..."

ROAR!!! A thunderous bellow interrupted her.

The largest of them all, a Heavy Servitor that had apparently been modified from an Ogryn, had actually torn apart iron chains as thick as an arm!

Its bald head was packed with tubes, its eyes glowed red, and drool streamed from its mouth. Waving a massive Hydraulic Power Claw, it charged at the two of them by the door!

"Damn it! The suppression chip has failed!" Aurelia's expression changed. She raised her Fire Axe to fight, but she knew her strength was nowhere near enough to stop a tank-like monster like that.

"Get back!" Li Wei yanked Aurelia behind him.

He stared at the steel behemoth charging toward him.

As a modern man, he instinctively felt fear.

But as a survivor who had struggled through this world for so long, he keenly noticed one detail: though this Servitor had gone mad, its movements still depended on the instincts left behind in its biological brain—pain, rage, and the urge to kill.

And as long as it had a biological brain, it would be affected by a Pariah.

Li Wei did not fire. He did something only a madman would do.

He strode forward, then abruptly stopped when he was only two meters from the Ogryn Servitor and removed his gas mask.

"Sit!!" Li Wei shouted.

At the same time, his Void Field, which disgusted all things and made souls tremble, slammed into the remnants of the Ogryn Servitor's brain like a heavy hammer.

Time seemed to freeze.

The Ogryn, which had been in an extreme frenzy, suddenly braked the instant it rushed into the range of Li Wei's presence.

Its red electronic eyes flickered wildly, and its massive body began to shake violently.

To the tiny fragment of biological consciousness it still possessed, the scrawny human before it was not prey.

He was an incomprehensible, terrifying black hole.

As it drew near him, the nausea and oppression rising from the depths of its soul instantly overwhelmed the drug-induced frenzy.

Its killing instinct was replaced by a more primal instinct—fear.

The three-meter-tall beast actually stopped.

Like a vicious dog that had been kicked hard, it let out a whimper from its throat. Its huge body curled into a ball as it slowly, tremblingly... knelt down.

It even pressed its tube-covered head to the floor, not daring to look at Li Wei.

The entire place fell silent.

And it was not just this one.

The hundreds of Servitors in the holding chamber, which had been roaring madly, all fell quiet after sensing that aura.

The boiling killing intent became deathly stillness.

The axe in Aurelia's hand nearly fell to the ground.

Her ice-blue eyes widened as she watched in disbelief.

These were failed products that even the tech-priests could not control!

These were monsters that even the governor's guard needed heavy weapons to suppress! Yet now, they were lying at the feet of this frail man like a pack of obedient puppies?

Li Wei stood before the kneeling Ogryn.

His legs were trembling, but on the surface, he looked utterly composed.

He reached out and gently patted the Ogryn Servitor's rough, bald head.

It shuddered all over in fright, but did not dare move.

"Looks like they don't like me." Li Wei turned back and gave the dumbfounded Aurelia a teasing smile. "Or rather, they hate me so much that they don't even have the strength to go mad."

He turned around and looked at the room full of steel monsters.

"Aurelia, throw away that remote control that only lasts ten minutes."

Li Wei pointed at the quiet killing machines.

"As long as I walk in front." "This army will remain 'calm.'"

This was an absolute sense of control.

In this world that worshipped technology and feared the unknown, Li Wei, regarded as a "soulless freak," had become the only "Shepherd" capable of commanding these madmen.

"You..." Aurelia took a deep breath. Beyond the scrutiny in her eyes, there was finally a trace of genuine awe.

"What kind of monster are you?"

"I am your only hope." Li Wei walked to the weapon rack, selected a heavy Chainsword, and tried pulling its starter. Vrrr—! The roar of spinning teeth set his blood racing.

He then picked up a finely crafted Hellgun, standard issue for Stormtroopers. It was far more powerful than an ordinary lasgun and could be connected to a backpack-mounted high-energy battery.

"This is my new equipment." Li Wei slung the gun over himself and swung the Chainsword once.

"Let's go, Your Majesty."

"With your mad dog army, we're going back to kill them."

"Let's give those bugs hiding in the clouds a little surprise from the sewers."

Half an hour later, something unbelievable happened in the upper noble district of Atalos Hive City.

A silent, terrifying army poured out from the drainage outlets at the very bottom.

At its head was a man in tattered formalwear, wielding a Chainsword.

Behind him followed hundreds of three-meter-tall Rampant Servitors clad in heavy armor.

These monsters, who normally killed anyone on sight, now marched in neat formation, as silent as a funeral procession.

Any rebel guards or hybrid xenos standing in their path were torn to pieces the instant they made contact.

And that man always walked at the very front.

Like a king inspecting his domain, or a reaper bringing death.