On Agri-World 496b, near the hive city on the equator, the ground forces of the Planetary Defense Force, or PDF, were fighting rebels on the vast plains.
Greenskin Orks were causing havoc on the neighboring industrial world, and the Department of Military Affairs needed Agri-World 496b to provide support. The Planetary Governor ordered a steep tax hike.
Taxes on Agri-World 496b were already crushing. Its people struggled to survive and could barely feed themselves. With this new increase, half the farmers rose up in fury!
At first, the rebels overran large numbers of farms, converted their agricultural machinery into weapons, and attacked the Planetary Defense Force.
The rebels captured quite a few military bases and seized huge quantities of weapons, rapidly building up their strength before launching an assault on the hive city.
Millions of rebels charged across the agricultural plains outside the hive city, only to be routed by the Planetary Defense Force stationed around its perimeter. Both sides fought bitterly across the plains, pushing back and forth for years until shell craters and trenches scarred the land.
Both sides knew they could not defeat the other. The war settled into a prolonged stalemate, leaving room for battlefield scavengers to eke out a living.
Eighty kilometers north of the hive city, a dozen or so rebel soldiers were resting in a trench when a large-caliber shell suddenly landed and blew them all to pieces.
An automatic rifle modified by the rebels spun through the air and landed in a field, catching the attention of Li Qinwu, who had been lying prone there for quite some time.
"This autogun looks pretty decent. Probably fires tier-two ammo. The black-market contact should give me at least fifteen hundred for it!"
Muttering to himself, he crawled toward the autogun.
Li Qinwu came from the 3K Era. While playing Escape from Tarkov at home, an AI shouting "turbo suka" had instantly head-eyes'd him from two hundred meters away with buckshot from a makeshift shotgun.
Furious, he uninstalled Escape from Tarkov and switched to Arena Breakout to run the North Mountain Hotel, only to get annihilated ten matches in a row by players in tier-six kits firing 995 rounds from HK416s.
Furious, he uninstalled Arena Breakout and switched to Delta Force, just in time for the shared-prison crackdown and player-limited extraction controversy that had shocked players at home and abroad!
In a fit of anger, he turned off his computer and scrolled through his phone instead. Then he saw a gender-swapped picture of the God-Emperor with the caption: "Anyone who sees this image voluntarily agrees to enter Warhammer 40,000 and serve the God-Emperor." And just like that, Old Li arrived, dumped onto this agri-world belonging to the Imperium.
There was no need to go into how miserable human life was in Warhammer 40,000. Luckily, the Search-Shoot-Extract System had come along with Li Qinwu.
The system converted Li Qinwu's body into game stats, allowing him to gain experience and increase his attributes. It also gave him a hideout in an absolutely safe space beneath the hive city.
Most importantly, he could respawn endlessly!
No matter how he died, he would respawn in the hideout in peak condition. The only catch was that he would lose all the equipment he had on him.
With death no longer a concern, Li Qinwu began living by the logic of extraction shooters. Every day, he went on knife-only runs across the battlefield, searched for valuables, and brought them back to the lower hive. There, he sold them to contacts from various gangs and traded for supplies to upgrade his hideout.
Back in the present, Li Qinwu, carrying nothing but a combat knife, had crawled up to the autogun and picked it up to inspect it.
It was a boxy autogun cobbled together by the rebels from spare parts. Its ergonomics were terrible, and it was heavy, weighing seven kilograms.
Li Qinwu glanced down the barrel. It had rifling. His spirits lifted; rifled guns were worth more.
He checked the magazine. Twenty rounds, loaded with handmade rebel ammunition. Judging by eye, the caliber was 9×65, which was enormous-more than an ordinary person could handle.
There was no helping it. The world of Warhammer 40,000 had far too many monsters and freaks for the 5.56 and 7.62 rounds popular in the 3K Era to cut it.
After confirming that the blast had not damaged the gun, Li Qinwu opened the Search-Shoot-Extract System in his mind and checked its stats.
Name: Rebel-made autogun Estimated value: Approximately 2,000 Fertilizer Coupons Weight: 7.2 kg Vertical recoil control: 54 Horizontal recoil control: 42 Ergonomics: 41 Aiming stability: 42 Accuracy: 50 Hip-fire stability: 61 Effective range: 500 m Muzzle velocity: 950 Fire mode: Fully automatic Rate of fire: 550 Ammunition caliber: 9×65 mm Firing power: Medium
Li Qinwu was delighted. This gun was worth two thousand. As far as he knew, a farmer at the bottom of society on an agri world spent 150 Fertilizer Coupons a month. This one gun was worth an entire year of living expenses!
He slung the gun onto his back and lay in the field for ten minutes. Only after confirming that nobody else was coming did he carefully drop into the rebel trench and approach the spot where the shell had exploded.
The shell had completely shredded the dozen or so rebels. Mangled remains littered the ground.
Li Qinwu spat, endured the stench of blood, and began searching the bodies. After a flurry of work, he had gathered the following items:
One twenty-round autogun magazine, sixty 9×65 mm rounds, one knife, one axe, one wrench, four packets of biscuits, and one full canteen, worth a total of 120 Fertilizer Coupons.
He tossed everything into the synthetic-leather backpack on his back, his eyes roving around the trench.
The trench had been dug right into the farmland. The rebels held it now, but the Planetary Defense Force had originally dug it. When the rebels advanced here, the Planetary Defense Force had fallen back to other defensive lines.
In a few days, the Planetary Defense Force might launch a surprise attack and take the trench back. Li Qinwu's aim was to squeeze every scrap of loot out of it during the lulls when both armies were resting.
He explored along the trench for a while. It was not part of an interconnected trench network, but an isolated infantry trench garrisoned by just ten rebels. They had all been killed by the shell, so nobody else was here. He could loot to his heart's content.
After a round of scavenging, he found nothing particularly valuable. His haul was only worth around twenty-three hundred, with the autogun still accounting for most of it.
"Damn it, this loot sucks!"
Li Qinwu spat. A whole backpack of junk, mostly food, without so much as a little blue- or purple-rarity item. What a waste.
He figured it was about time to extract. Just as he was about to leave, footsteps rang out. His heart tightened, and he hurriedly took the autogun in his hands.
The sound came from the direction of the hive city. He cautiously poked his head above the trench, then quickly ducked back down.
"Holy shit! A Planetary Defense Force squad!"
A ten-man Planetary Defense Force squad was creeping toward him. Every soldier wore body armor and a helmet and carried a standard-issue autogun. The squad leader had a laspistol and grenades. They were the Imperium's most basic fighting force.
Li Qinwu turned and ran toward the other end of the trench. He was not a rebel, but he was inside a rebel trench. The Planetary Defense Force would not give him a chance to explain. If he showed his head, they would blow it off instantly.
He planned to slip out through the other end of the trench and take a long detour back to his hideout in the lower levels of the hive city.
But as soon as he reached the other end and poked his head out, he saw more than fifty rebels creeping toward him.
"Shit! I'm caught between them!"
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