Evacuation Successful

Li Qinwu held his dagger to the PDF squad leader's throat, but did not press it in even an inch.

Unlocking an extraction point and a contact? Holy shit, that was incredible!

Li Qinwu currently had only one extraction point: a ventilation duct leading underground into the Hive City. It was enormous, wide enough for two Leman Russ tanks to drive through side by side.

There was a forest nearby. Passing through it would lead down to the Lower Hive, back to a hideout somewhere within it.

He also had a contact: a black-market dealer from the Lower Hive gangs. He bought everything, mostly junk; he sold everything, mostly junk.

Now that he could unlock an extraction point and a contact, Li Qinwu had no way to refuse.

He hurriedly helped the PDF squad leader, Rudosen, up from the ground and tried to check his injuries.

But Rudosen kept struggling and shouting.

"Traitor! Die!!"

Li Qinwu got fed up with him and slapped him twice across the face.

"Fuck!! I'm not a traitor! I'm just a scavenger from the Lower Hive! I came to the battlefield to pick up junk!

God-Emperor above! If I were a traitor, my dagger would already be in your throat!!"

After Li Qinwu shouted that, the other man stopped struggling and stared at him in astonishment.

"Don't fucking move now. Let me stop your bleeding, then we need to get the hell out of here. You don't want the rebels to catch you and rape you to death, do you?!"

Rudosen fell silent. Li Qinwu began examining his wounds. He had been shot in the right hand, his palm blown apart, and he had also been shot in the lower leg, which was still bleeding.

Li Qinwu tore a strip of cloth from a corpse and wrapped his hand. Then he fashioned another strip into a tampon-like shape and shoved it directly into the bullet hole in Rudosen's lower leg.

The pain nearly made Rudosen jump up, and he clenched his teeth so hard they were about to shatter. Still, he did not move around. Li Qinwu wrapped several more layers of cloth around his lower leg and brutally stopped the bleeding.

He would not die for the moment, but how were they supposed to extract?

Rudosen looked like he weighed over seventy kilograms. Li Qinwu could not exactly carry him on his back.

Besides, there were so many weapons here. Wouldn't it be a wasted trip if he did not take them back?

He looked around and suddenly spotted a small metal handcart in the corner of the trench. It had probably been used to haul dirt while the trench was being built.

He immediately pushed the handcart up out of the trench, then gathered the remaining four standard-issue assault rifles. He removed their magazines, ejected the rounds from their chambers, and tossed everything into the handcart. Then he helped Rudosen up and eased him into it.

"Don't start any shit. I'll take you to the PDF line, then I'm gone."

With that, Li Qinwu grabbed the cart and was about to run.

"Wait..."

Rudosen suddenly spoke. Li Qinwu turned to look at him.

"My comrades' tags. Take them."

Li Qinwu's string of actions had finally convinced Rudosen that he truly was not a rebel. Otherwise, Rudosen would have been dead long ago.

Maybe he really was just a scavenger from the Lower Hive. It was not as though Rudosen had never heard of such things before; some Lower Hive rats slipped through damaged breaches in the Hive City to reach the surface and steal things.

Li Qinwu thought it over, returned to the trench, tore the dog tags—identification tags—from the chests of the dead PDF soldiers, then came back and tossed them to Rudosen.

"You owe me one."

What followed was a long haul. Li Qinwu dragged a seventy-kilogram man and five guns, exhausting himself to the point where he felt like coughing up blood.

Still, Agri-World 496b really did have a fantastic environment. Blue skies stretched overhead, lush green crops covered the ground, and forests stood everywhere.

Such scenery had been commonplace in the 3k era, but in the 40k era, it was a rare luxury. Yet the people on this agri-world could see it at every moment.

Li Qinwu ran through the fields while pulling the cart. Whenever his stamina bar ran empty, he stopped to recover. Once it had recovered, he kept running.

During the process, his Strength increased by 1, from 10 to 11, while his Endurance increased by 2, from 10 to 12.

On the way, Li Qinwu stopped in a small depression to rest. Rudosen had fainted from excessive blood loss.

He took out food and water from his backpack and began eating, then opened the map in his mind to check the distance to the mission location.

There was a map in his mind, something like the thing you checked by pressing M in Dark Zone. It was fairly detailed and marked extraction points and mission locations.

The mission location was now only two kilometers away. Two kilometers ahead lay the PDF defensive line, and beyond that stood the Hive City, towering into the atmosphere.

The extraction point, meanwhile, was a full twenty kilometers away. He let out a wail, feeling as though he would run his legs off today.

After eating two packs of biscuits and drinking half a bottle of water, bringing his hunger and hydration to one hundred percent, Li Qinwu set off again.

By then, night had fallen. The sky above Agri-World 496b was dotted with countless stars, and from time to time, enormous objects streaked across the horizon. Those were orbital space stations and warships.

Li Qinwu reached a point over three hundred meters outside the PDF defensive line. There were mines and barbed wire everywhere, with watchtowers and searchlights in the distance. Occasionally, he could see PDF soldiers patrolling.

Li Qinwu shoved Sergeant Rudosen off the handcart, then smacked him awake with two loud slaps.

"Sleeping Beauty! We're home!"

Rudosen was still dazed, so Li Qinwu poured the half-bottle of water from his military canteen over his face. That woke him up.

He spotted the distant searchlights at once and knew he had reached the PDF camp. Overjoyed, he opened his mouth to shout.

Li Qinwu swiftly covered his mouth.

"Shh! Don't shout! I haven't left yet. Shout after I'm gone!"

He did not want the PDF to capture him. Who knew how those lackeys of the planetary governor would treat a Lower Hive man who had slipped out of the Hive City without authorization?

Rudosen swallowed and indicated that he would not shout. Only then did Li Qinwu remove his hand.

Rudosen looked at Li Qinwu with a complicated expression.

"I owe you my life. What's your name?"

Li Qinwu pointed at his own face.

"That's right, you owe me your life. So remember this face, and remember my name too. Scavenger Li Qinwu. Remember it, and find a chance to repay me someday.

Now I'm leaving. Count to one hundred silently, then call for help after I'm far away. Until we meet again."

With that, Li Qinwu pulled the handcart away and ran off at top speed.

Rudosen watched his retreating figure and murmured, "Scavenger Li Qinwu? I'll remember you... Wait, fuck, where's my lasgun?!"

Li Qinwu sprinted all the way until he had emptied more than ten stamina bars before finally stopping to catch his breath. Looking at the four assault rifles and the lasgun in the cart, he was so happy he wanted to roll around on the spot.

"Time to eat, time to eat! This feels fucking amazing!"

Humming a little "time to eat" tune, Li Qinwu headed toward the extraction point. He was in such a good mood that even his stamina seemed to recover a little faster.

Before the sun rose, he arrived at an underground ventilation duct in a forest.

It was a massive pipe made of rusted metal and construction-grade ceramite, part of the Hive City.

Perhaps the Hive City was simply too enormous, and its designers had forgotten the ventilation ducts even existed. Without maintenance, the pipe had deteriorated badly, leaving a passage that led directly beneath the Hive City.

When Li Qinwu entered the pipe, a green ten-second countdown appeared in his vision.

When the ten-second countdown reached zero, his figure suddenly vanished and reappeared in a dark room somewhere in the Lower Hive.

A line of information appeared in Li Qinwu's vision.

Extraction successful. Outstanding operation. Supplies extracted: 36,300 Fertilizer Coupons. Mission completed. Contact Rudosen unlocked.