Corpse Pit

After building the Water Purifier, Li Qinwu picked up the impact drill, connected it to the power source, went to a corner of the Hideout, and began drilling into the Ceramite floor. He wanted to make a drain.

He had taken time to look below earlier. Beneath them was a pit several hundred meters deep, with Ceramite load-bearing pillars lining both sides. He had no idea what lay at the bottom; it was pitch-black and bottomless.

After some work, Li Qinwu drilled two fist-sized holes into the floor. Then, using the sheet-metal toilet, pipes, and Ceramite Powder he had bought from the black-market dealer, he installed a flushing toilet.

That settled it. Even the issue of where to use the toilet had been solved, though he still had to pour in the water himself.

He then built a partition with wooden boards, sealed the edges with Ceramite Powder, punched a hole in a bucket, and hung it high up to make a crude shower.

Bathroom lv0 upgraded. Bathroom lv1.

Li Qinwu poured water into the shower and enjoyed a refreshing cold bath. All the wastewater drained away through the floor drain.

After cleaning himself up, Li Qinwu washed his sour, foul-smelling clothes and bedsheets, hung them up to dry in the shade, then slept like the dead.

He had no idea what time it was when he climbed out of bed, smacked his lips, ate, drank, and checked the output.

The candle on the Emperor Shrine had burned out, and the second bottle of Holy Oil had finished producing.

He collected the Holy Oil, lit the second candle, and put in the second bottle of cooking oil.

Then he went to the Water Purifier. Only the filthy bottom layer remained in the first Settling Barrel, while the second bucket contained ninety-nine liters of safe water.

Li Qinwu fetched several more buckets of dirty water and filled the Water Purifier. Then he tossed in a Water Purification Tablet to keep it running before preparing to deploy to the map.

This time, he wanted to search the surface for PDF dog tags, then ask Lieutenant Rudosen whether he could get him some armor-piercing weapons.

The black-market dealer had given him a mission to kill three Chemical Pigs. Those things were not easy to kill. The last one had been pure luck and could not be replicated. He still needed some armor-piercing weapons on hand.

Li Qinwu shouldered the improvised water-pipe shotgun left over from last time, put on his level-two gear, grabbed two smoke grenades and one gas grenade, and headed for the ventilation shaft. Before long, deployment to the map was successfully triggered.

The world spun as usual, and it was still the Northern Theater map. He landed not far from where he had last arrived, and Grain Station was visible on the map.

Grain Station had previously been occupied by the rebels. Later, Lieutenant Rudosen had driven a Chimera Transport through and swept the place clean, killing every rebel inside.

After all these days, he did not know which side Grain Station belonged to now. He planned to sneak over and take a look.

Raising his water-pipe gun, Li Qinwu ran toward Grain Station two kilometers away. It was midday, and he was not afraid. He simply ran flat out. If some sniper brat picked him off, so be it. It was only a set of trash gear.

After using up two-thirds of his stamina, he reached Grain Station. He did not rush inside. Instead, he lay prone on the ground for a while, gathering information and waiting for his stamina bar to recover.

Grain Station had a Ceramite outer wall surrounding a grain warehouse and an office building.

There was a huge breach in the wall, probably smashed open by the Chimera Transport.

Leaning against the edge of the wall, Li Qinwu peered inside and saw that Grain Station was a complete mess. Large craters from 40mm autocannon shells covered the ground and walls, and corpses lay everywhere.

Rudosen had only wanted to raid the place and kill the rebels. He had never intended to occupy it, so once he left, the rebels returned.

Now, rebels moved back and forth through the area, collecting corpses and loading them onto handcarts to be taken away for disposal.

There were around a hundred people here, and many carried Autoguns and all kinds of strange homemade firearms.

Was this impossible? Should he retreat?

As he hesitated, he spotted a rebel struggling to drag a cart full of corpses northward. It seemed he was going to bury or otherwise dispose of the bodies.

Li Qinwu's thoughts stirred. Disposing of corpses? Maybe he could follow and take a look. Perhaps the rebel corpse disposal site had PDF bodies. Then he could happily collect dog tags!

But there were so many rebels here, and the farther north he went, the more rebels there would be. How was he supposed to follow the man transporting the corpses?

After thinking for a while, Li Qinwu came up with an unusual trick.

He scooped up some mud and dust, smeared it over his face, hands, and clothes, then walked naturally into Grain Station. Yes, he simply walked in, as casually as if he had picked up a drink of water.

None of the rebels noticed him at all. Their clothes and weapons were not standardized to begin with, and Li Qinwu's outfit blended in so well that he was impossible to distinguish from them.

He was somewhat nervous, but he did not look around. His eyes remained fixed on the corpse cart. The man pulling it was a young man who did not look particularly strong, and several bodies lay on the cart. He was hauling it with great difficulty.

Li Qinwu stepped up behind him and began pushing the cart. Feeling it suddenly grow lighter, the young man looked back.

Keeping his head lowered, Li Qinwu said, "Hurry up. Stop dragging your feet. There's still plenty of work to do."

"Ah, alright. Thanks."

The young man thanked him and immediately continued pulling, while Li Qinwu pushed from behind. Just like that, the corpse cart left Grain Station and headed deep into rebel-controlled territory to the north.

The farther north they went, the more rebels there were. Li Qinwu saw that much of the land was still being cultivated. Civilians in the rebel-controlled area worked in the fields with genuine smiles on their faces.

It seemed the rebels' policies toward farmers were better than the planetary governor's, which was why the farmers could smile like that. But Li Qinwu knew it was all false.

If the planetary governor failed to pay the Imperium's tithe on time, once the Inquisition's tax collection fleet arrived, both the planetary governor and the rebels would meet their end.

Of course, Li Qinwu did not care about that. He was merely an outlaw from the Lower Hive. All he wanted was to live as well as he could. Nothing else was his concern.

The two pushed the corpse cart onward for quite a while before the young man could no longer take it. He stopped and sat down by the roadside to rest.

"I'm exhausted. Let's rest for a bit!"

The young man sat on a dirt mound, panting heavily. He looked at Li Qinwu and was just about to say something when he realized something was wrong.

"Hey? Which squad are you from?"

Li Qinwu, who was lighting a cigarette for himself, paused for a moment before continuing.

"Squad Four."

The young man's pupils shrank.

"We don't have a Squad Four."

Li Qinwu lowered his head and lit the cigarette, glanced to both sides of the road, and saw no one. Then he looked at the young man.

Thirty seconds later, Li Qinwu wiped the blood from his knife. Then he lifted the young man, whose throat had been cut and who was still twitching faintly, and threw him onto the cart. He complained, "Look at you, asking so many questions. Got yourself killed over it. Don't ask so many questions in your next life."

He grabbed a handful of dirt and covered up the bloodstains on the ground, then pulled the cart alone, now carrying one more corpse, and continued onward.

Before long, he passed an old farmer working the fields. Li Qinwu asked, "Brother, I just enlisted and don't know the way. The boss told me to haul these bodies off for disposal. Where do they process corpses?"

The old farmer said, "Follow this road north for another two kilometers, then turn left. When you come to that big pit, that's the corpse burial pit."

"Alright, thanks, brother!"

Following his directions, Li Qinwu dragged the cart two kilometers north and really did find the rebel corpse pit.