With a Whoosh

The two went downstairs. Li Qinwu headed straight for the forest, picked up an Autogun from a corpse, and checked its condition.

The Psyker thought Li Qinwu was going to attack him with the weapon. He had already prepared his Psychic Power to restrain him, and the ground began to freeze from the leaking Warp energy.

But Li Qinwu merely slung the gun over his back and ran toward the next one, showing no intention of attacking him. The Psyker dispersed the Psychic Power he had gathered and watched Li Qinwu curiously.

"What are you doing?"

Li Qinwu picked up a third gun and strapped it onto himself, then pounced toward a fourth.

"Picking up money!"

He could not be bothered to explain and focused on looking for guns.

He discarded guns ruined by bullets, guns in poor condition, and guns without rifling. He picked only the best of the best, hanging seven guns on himself.

These homemade guns were too heavy, but there were still at least fifty good ones on the ground. What was he supposed to do? His inner hoarder could not stand wasting even a little!

He suddenly turned and looked at the curious Psyker. Wasn't there another laborer right here?

"Carry these!"

He took the guns off himself and strapped them onto the Psyker, loading him up with ten in a row. The Psyker did not stop him, because Li Qinwu's actions put him at ease.

Taking more things meant they were going home to transport them, didn't it? This mysterious man really did seem to be taking him home.

As for danger, what danger could a Psyker capable of casually slaughtering hundreds of people possibly fear?

In this guy's mind, as long as there were no demons around, he was invincible!

After hanging all the guns on him, Li Qinwu picked up another seven good guns. He also grabbed a rebel's backpack and stuffed it with twenty full magazines and twenty grenades.

The whole load came to sixty kilograms, immediately triggering the yellow encumbrance level and leaving him panting under the weight.

"Puff, puff... Okay, let's go!"

With all this property on him, Li Qinwu felt as if he were carrying the entire world. It hurt, but he was happy.

What followed was a long trek to the ventilation duct extraction point. Li Qinwu would run until his stamina bar was empty, then walk slowly. Then he would run again, then walk again. By the end, he was nearly collapsing from exhaustion, yet he refused to put down his belongings.

You could only say that crawling to the extraction point was an essential experience in a loot-and-extract game.

The Psyker, on the other hand, showed no signs of exhaustion at all. He calmly followed behind Li Qinwu, supported by his Psychic Power.

Psychic Power was an incredibly versatile force. It could predict the future—don't ask whether those predictions were accurate—unleash Psychic Blasts, physical attacks similar to exploding shells, freeze bullets and people in place, and invade other people's minds.

Using Psychic Power to wrap around oneself and increase endurance, or even fly at low altitude, was standard practice.

A powerful Psyker could be thin as a skeleton and still catch a blade barehanded, even stopping the chainsword swing of a three-meter-tall Astartes in Power Armor.

Li Qinwu was drenched in sweat. Seeing this bastard walk so easily, he complained:

"Man, my home is still more than thirty kilometers away. If I carry all this stuff there on foot, it'll be tomorrow by the time I arrive. Shouldn't you be doing something?"

The Psyker considered it. He said nothing, but still spread his Psychic Power over Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu only felt his entire body grow lighter. The weight that could have crushed his waist vanished completely, and his steps became more than twice as brisk.

He sighed in relief and longed for Psychic Power even more.

"Man, what special spells can you use now?"

Traveling was boring, so Li Qinwu struck up a conversation with the Psyker.

The Psyker had not spoken with anyone in a long time. He had awakened Psychic Power early and displayed abnormalities while still underage. Everyone around him feared him and treated him like a freak.

That left him terribly lonely, and he longed to talk to others. When Li Qinwu asked, he told him everything.

"I can store up power and unleash an extremely powerful strike, powerful enough to blast through thick walls.

"I can freeze bullets in place, control objects and make them fly around, and even control myself to fly short distances.

"From fifty meters away, I can tear a person's skin off, separate their flesh from their bones, or drain all the blood from their body."

Li Qinwu listened with immense envy. Used well, these abilities really could change the course of an entire war zone—so long as he did not end up fighting at the highest level.

He asked, "How did you learn to use these Psychic Powers? Did you figure them out yourself?"

The Psyker nodded, then shook his head.

"I figured some of them out myself, but most were taught to me after a demon moved into my head. For example, the flesh-and-bone separation and blood-draining techniques. The demon told me to use them to kill people for fun!"

As he spoke, his face filled with pain again.

Generally speaking, the more a Psyker fell, and the more influence Chaos demons had over him, the stronger he became. The demons would torture the Psyker while teaching him ways to wield Psychic Power.

These methods were extremely evil. The demons' goal was to turn Psykers into Chaos Wizards who would kill and sacrifice people everywhere, increasing the Warp's corruption of this world.

Once that corruption reached a certain level, a Chaos Wizard could open a gate between the real world and the Warp. Then demons could enter reality to slaughter and revel. Many worlds of the Imperium had been destroyed by demons this way.

Although the techniques taught by those demons were evil, their essence was still pure knowledge.

Take the flesh-and-bone separation technique. At first glance, it was terrifying! But its essence was separating materials of different densities. Human bones and human flesh did not have the same density.

If it were used in mining, couldn't Psychic Power directly separate stone from metal?

And that blood-draining spell controlled water content. If he washed his clothes and then directly drew out the water, couldn't he wear them immediately? Fucking convenient!

As they talked, the underground ventilation ducts of the Hive City came into view. They had reached the extraction point.

He brought the Psyker before the ventilation duct and stood in the mud. One more step forward would put him on the Ceramite-hardened ground and begin the extraction countdown.

Li Qinwu stopped before the hardened surface. Looking at the Psyker, he took the guns off him and strapped them back onto himself as he asked:

"Oh, right. What's your name?"

The Psyker did not know why this man no longer wanted him to carry the guns, but he did nothing. He was too confident in his own power and believed he could control the situation absolutely.

"Silent One."

Li Qinwu hung every gun on himself. The immense weight made his knees tremble and his spine creak.

He panted and said, "Silent One, is it? Looks like the demons' whispers really scared you badly. You like quiet.

"Let me introduce myself. Scavenger Li Qinwu. I take on anything, and as long as the price is right, even Redstone is negotiable!

"Well then, Mr. Silent One, go back and wait for me. In a few days, I'll come find you with Holy Oil."

Silent One froze for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

With tremendous difficulty, Li Qinwu lifted one foot and stepped onto the Ceramite-hardened ground. A green extraction countdown appeared.

He turned back and smiled at Silent One.

"Little Silent, have you ever seen someone disappear into thin air with a whoosh?"

Silent One looked completely baffled.

"N-No... I haven't?"

The smile on Li Qinwu's face deepened.

"Then you're about to see it~

Whoosh!!"

Before the countdown reached zero, he shouted "whoosh." The next instant, he truly vanished into thin air.

Silent One's pupils shrank.

"Huh?"

"Ah!!!"

He frantically grabbed at the air in front of him, but there was nothing there.

Overwhelming terror swept over him. How could his salvation simply disappear? What was he supposed to do now?!

"Ahhhhhhh! Scavenger Li Qinwu! How am I supposed to live without you?!"

Silent One instantly lost it. Terror overwhelmed him, and like an enraged mad bull, he kept waving his hands and firing Psychic Blasts, blasting the surrounding area full of craters...