Li Qinwu strolled around the outskirts of the Water Pattern Monitoring Station. Without rushing to get closer, he first took out a poison tablet and tucked it against the inside of his teeth. Only then did he hum a tune as he walked into the Water Pattern Monitoring Station, singing as he went.
"Hajime, north and south mung beans~ Ashiga still wants pants milk dragon~"
With a whoosh, a figure leaped down from the seventh floor of the Water Pattern Monitoring Station and landed before Li Qinwu. Bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at him.
The Silent One. They had not seen each other for almost two days, and he was in even worse condition.
He stretched out a shriveled hand toward Li Qinwu's throat.
"The Daemon's voice... it's back! Give me... the Holy Oil... give it to me!"
Just as his zombie-like hand was about to touch Li Qinwu's neck, Li Qinwu smilingly pulled out the Holy Oil from his clothes.
A few minutes later, on the seventh floor of the Water Pattern Monitoring Station, the Silent One bawled his eyes out. After crying twice, he took a swig from the bottle of Holy Oil, making anyone watching feel sick to their stomach.
"Waaah, I thought you weren't coming back! You vanished in a flash, and my heart went cold in a flash too! Waaah, glug glug!"
The Silent One whimpered like a little girl. After whining for a while, he took another swig of Holy Oil. Half of the 150 ml bottle was already gone.
Li Qinwu smacked his lips. Watching this guy drink oil in front of him was making him nauseous.
"Good boy. I said I'd come back, so I came back. These are all yours now."
He placed the other two bottles of Holy Oil before the Silent One. The Silent One snatched them up in an instant and hugged them to his chest as if afraid someone would steal them.
Li Qinwu said, "All right, enough fucking around. I gave you the Holy Oil I promised you. Now it's your turn to repay me."
After drinking the Holy Oil, the Silent One's body was filled with Divine power, and the Daemon's noisy whispers vanished.
He carefully screwed the cap back onto the bottle and looked at Li Qinwu. "Not enough. I want more!"
Li Qinwu pointed at him.
"If you want something, you have to give something. Trust is the foundation of a lasting partnership.
"Now, let's make one deal first. Then we'll have an endless stream of deals in the future."
The Silent One asked, "An endless stream of Holy Oil?"
Li Qinwu nodded.
"Enough Holy Oil for you to drink yourself into fatty liver and gallbladder inflammation."
The Silent One's lips twitched. Thinking of the mysterious method Li Qinwu had used to vanish last time, he chose to yield.
"But I don't know how to teach you to use Psychic Power. I was born with it."
Psychic Power was simply the act of channeling Warp energy into Realspace and releasing it. A Psyker was essentially a conduit.
The stronger a Psyker's soul and body, the wider the conduit and the stronger the Psychic Power he could use. The weaker the Psyker, the narrower the conduit.
In theory, every human could become a Psyker. Their conduits were simply too narrow to bring Warp energy into the real world, unless they forcibly widened them.
However, forcibly widening the conduit could easily kill an ordinary person. More likely, the person would be warped into a monster by the evil energy of the Warp.
None of that mattered to Li Qinwu, though. If he was corrupted, he could just kill himself and refresh his status.
Li Qinwu said, "I have an idea. Come on, use Psychic Power on me. Don't kill me in one go. Release it slowly."
Well, this was the only way Li Qinwu could think of to learn Psychic Power: have a Psyker corrupt him with it.
His Search-Shoot-Extract System could increase proficiency. The more he did something, the higher his proficiency would become.
Psychic Power was corruptive. The closer he got to it, the more he would be corrupted. It was like standing near a Waste Outlet—whenever it discharged waste, a few drops would always splash onto him.
As long as he reached a certain threshold, he could use a Psychic Power spell. Once he learned even a tiny Psychic Power spell, he could start grinding Psychic Proficiency.
The Silent One asked, "Are you sure? This Daemon ability is extremely dangerous. The Daemons will notice you too, and Psychic Blast might kill you!"
Li Qinwu stepped closer to him.
"Come on. Quit talking and get to it!"
Seeing this, the Silent One could only comply. He raised a hand before Li Qinwu and slowly released Warp energy.
He did not try to shape the energy into any spell. He merely released the purest form of energy.
What did being struck by Warp energy feel like? To Li Qinwu, it felt like being battered by a river—except it was his soul being battered by the current.
Li Qinwu could feel that the Warp energy was incredibly violent, difficult to control, oppressive, unsettling, and savage, as if it carried mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Rot, depravity, pain—every emotion imaginable crashed into Li Qinwu's soul at once, twisting his expression into a grimace.
The Warp was the emotional projection of intelligent beings living in Realspace. If people in the real world were happy, then the Warp would be a gentle, warm ocean, and the gods within it would be benevolent gods.
If the people of the real world suffered under misery and oppression, then the Warp would be a raging sea of lava, and the gods within it would all be Chaos Gods.
It was obvious which kind the world of Warhammer 40,000 belonged to.
Li Qinwu endured the impact of Warp energy and the agony of having his soul nearly torn apart.
He held on. The longer he lasted, the closer he would get to Psychic Power!
Every muscle in his body was tense, and painful moans escaped his mouth. He estimated that he could hold out for another minute or two and planned to call for a stop before he reached his limit.
But at that moment, a voice rang out in his mind.
"Hmm? An interesting soul. I've never eaten a soul like this before..."
Then Li Qinwu felt some presence trying to pull his soul out of his body.
Li Qinwu shouted and kicked out, sending the Silent One flying.
The Silent One cried out in shock, clutching his stomach as he rolled across the floor. Li Qinwu also collapsed, twitching and rolling his eyes.
That had been close. Just a little closer, and some Wild Daemon would have pulled his soul out.
Fortunately, he had reacted quickly and cut off the Warp energy. Otherwise, the instant that Daemon pulled out his soul, the system would probably have judged him dead and respawned him in the Hideout.
Second Lieutenant Rudosen was still outside waiting for his signal. It would be a huge hassle to go back, redeploy, and run all the way here again.
The Silent One looked at Li Qinwu with a resentful expression.
"If you wanted to stop, couldn't you have used your mouth?"
Li Qinwu lay sprawled on the floor, still feeling dizzy. It was not physical dizziness, but dizziness in his soul.
"Fuck, a Daemon almost yanked my soul out just now!"
The Silent One sat down while holding his stomach.
"See? I told you Psychic Power was dangerous. There are loads of Daemons waiting in the War... uh, Warp. That's what it's called, right?
"They wait for us in the Warp. Whenever we use that evil energy, they eat our souls."
Li Qinwu checked the Search-Shoot-Extract System and smiled. It had all been worth it.
His energy had risen to 16, increasing by three points.
Warp Resistance had risen to 20, Psychic Resistance to 21, and Psychic Proficiency to 21. All three had increased by ten points!
He vaguely sensed that the light of his soul within the Warp had grown a little stronger.
After the two of them cleaned themselves up and calmed down, Li Qinwu said, "Do you have to live here? Can you live somewhere else?"
The Silent One shook his head.
"No. My previous base was some rundown little village in a forest, but the Daemon in my head forced me to come out and kill people for fun, so I came here where there are more people.
"Every few days, people come here and deliver themselves to me for slaughter. Every time I kill 888 people, the Daemon gives me a little breathing room, a tiny bit of peace... sigh..."
Li Qinwu muttered to himself. Eight, huh? It looked like the Daemon targeting the Silent One belonged to Khorne.
Khorne was one of the five great Chaos Gods of the Warp. He loved seeing blood flow like rivers, and his sacred number was eight.
The Daemons under him were the same. They loved seeing blood flow into streams.
Li Qinwu said, "In that case, buddy, move somewhere else. Remember the ventilation duct I took you through last time? There's an underground maintenance room there. Go live there.
"It's very secluded. Neither the rebels nor the PDF patrol nearby. It's a bit damp, so it's not friendly to people with rheumatism, but the feng shui is pretty good. Stick a board in the ground and it can serve as a grave.
"Of course, that isn't important. What matters is that it's pretty close to my place. It'll be convenient for me to bring you Holy Oil whenever we work together. So, Little Silent One, want to be my neighbor?"
As soon as Little Silent One heard that he could become Li Qinwu's neighbor, he nodded repeatedly.
"Okay, okay! As long as I can be closer to you, watashi... watashi!!"
He suddenly became excited, and Li Qinwu quickly stepped back.
"Don't be like that. You're scaring me. Anyway, hurry up and pack your things. Get ready to leave."
The Silent One nodded and began gathering his belongings.
Li Qinwu was very satisfied. Establishing a connection with a Psyker would be immensely helpful for developing his Psychic Power.
Leaving him to pack his own things, Li Qinwu wandered down to the bottom floor and found a thick Ceramite door.
The underground gate of the Water Pattern Monitoring Station was the only entrance leading belowground, and it could only be opened with a mechanical key.
At this moment, the Ceramite door was blackened, and explosion marks covered the surrounding floor. The rebels had probably tried to force the door open when they occupied the place, but the door had been too sturdy and their homemade explosives had not been powerful enough.
Li Qinwu took out the mechanical key given to him by the water merchant Reno. He inserted it into the lock and twisted it. After the sound of motors and gears operating, the door opened.
The Water Pattern Monitoring Station still had power. Incandescent lights illuminated the passage brightly.
Li Qinwu strode inside and happily began stripping the place bare.
Everyone knew that key rooms in Search-Fight-Extract games were loaded. Big valuables, classified documents, Blackie, ice picks, Cabinet Hearts, gold cards—everything could spawn in a Key Room.
So Li Qinwu looted very carefully. Extremely, extremely carefully!
He opened every drawer, every pocket, and every container to check inside.
The underground level of the Water Pattern Monitoring Station had three areas: the living quarters, the control area, and the equipment area.
The first basement level was the living quarters. There were ten dorm rooms, each with six bunk beds, drawers, desks, and similar furnishings. The station's ordinary staff rested here.
After turning the place upside down, Li Qinwu found the following valuable items: 1,500 Fertilizer Coupons, two watches, and five bottles of alcohol.
Then, in the medical room of the living quarters, he found:
8 hemostatic bandages, 5 small medical kits, 3 bottles of Painkiller, and 1 large Surgical Kit.
Hemostatic Bandage, Durability 1/1. Could remove bleeding from one limb.
Small Medical Kit, Durability 120/120. Could restore 120 health to an injured body part.
Painkiller, Durability 3/3. Could remove pain for two hours.
Large Surgical Kit, Durability 8/8. Could restore health to a damaged limb, excluding the head and chest.
Li Qinwu whistled. This was the first time he had gotten medicine, and he had found so much at once!
These medicines were probably ordinary, inefficient drugs for normal people. But for him, they restored health according to the system's rules!
For example, if a landmine blew off his leg, he could use one point of durability from a Surgical Kit and the leg would grow back out of thin air. It was completely absurd!
Li Qinwu carefully stored these precious medicines in his backpack. Until he found a way to replenish his medical supplies, these things were his lifeline.
After packing everything up, he headed toward the final room on the first basement level.
This should have been the supervisor's residence. The huge room had only one bed, and the daily necessities inside were all luxurious.
After searching the room, Li Qinwu found several small valuables.
One gold ring, estimated value: 3,500 Fertilizer Coupons.
One crystal ornament, estimated value: 2,500 Fertilizer Coupons.
One antique parchment book bound with gold thread, estimated value: 4,500 Fertilizer Coupons.
One bottle of high-end perfume, estimated value: 1,500 Fertilizer Coupons.
The abundant haul made Li Qinwu stomp his feet in delight. He took a while to calm down before heading to the next level.
The second basement level was the control area. There were not many rooms here, only one enormous control room.
The control room contained many strange devices, along with displays that looked primitive but sturdy.
There was not much to loot in this area. Following the map, he found the main console and pulled out something the size of his palm that looked like a mechanical hard drive.
The moment he picked it up, the system immediately displayed a notification: acquired mission item, Memory Panel.
This palm-sized object contained records concerning the underground water veins of the Hive City. To Li Qinwu, it was worth 100,000!
After putting away the Memory Panel, Li Qinwu descended to the third basement level. It contained a mass of enormous equipment welded into the walls and running directly underwater. This was probably the Water Pattern Monitoring Station's core monitoring equipment.
On the third basement level, he found several high-end transformers, a bundle of advanced electrical wire over thirty meters long, several high-brightness incandescent lamps, and a Posu Battery at full durability.
He rearranged his backpack and hauled all those treasures onto himself, panting as he climbed upstairs.
Once he put all that equipment on, he immediately triggered red encumbrance. Even his legs trembled as he walked.
By the time he slowly made his way to the first floor, the Silent One was already waiting there. He had also packed several large bags and was ready to move.
Li Qinwu set down his things and said, "My friends in the PDF will come take over this place later. Ignore them, go around them, and head straight for the ventilation duct.
"When I have time, I'll come find you. We'll continue 'studying' Psychic Power, and I'll bring enough Holy Oil for you to resist the Daemons."
The Silent One frowned and anxiously clutched the Holy Oil against his chest.
"You promise you'll come find me before I use all of it up. Promise me!"
Li Qinwu scoffed.
"Come on, is there another Psyker on this planet? Even if there is, do I know who he is? Who else could I possibly go to besides you?
"Relax. These bottles of Holy Oil will last you a long time. I'll definitely come find you again within three days."
The Silent One lowered his head.
"It's a deal. We have a deal..."
Then he flew off at low altitude with astonishing speed and vanished into the distant forest.
Only after he had completely gone far away did Li Qinwu take out his small-caliber pistol and fire three shots into the air.
Before you continue