I Want to Draw a Card!

Lin En was utterly dumbfounded.

That was indeed correct. Counting the Chaos Cultists he had killed before and the green Orks now, there should be exactly one hundred.

But hardly any of those enemies had been killed by him personally?!?

What the fuck...

Could this be a shared quest, where enemies killed by the team counted toward every member?

"System bro, do the kills by Cecilia and Iron Hammer count as mine too?"

[Yes.] The system confirmed his theory: [As long as you are in a party and participated in the kill, it counts.]

Lin En slowly closed his mouth.

Keep it low-key, brothers.

Stop asking questions. Don't let the system patch this judgment.

Make a fortune in silence.

What the fuck... If he joined a legion in the future, would the enemies killed by the legion also count toward him?

What about a battle involving tens of thousands of people?

Was there a limit on the party size?

If there was no limit and participation was all that mattered, then what was there to fear? A million kills was practically within reach!!!

Support players had their day too!!!

Maybe the first story milestone he obtained would actually be the seemingly most difficult one—the required number of kills!!!!!!!

"System, I want to draw a card!"

[Understood, host.]

The roulette wheel appeared.

It was still the same colorful wheel.

White, green, blue, purple, gold, and rainbow colors spun rapidly in his mind.

Lin En stared at the wheel.

Combat skill, combat skill, combat skill.

"Stop!!!"

The pointer slowly came to a stop between blue and purple. It barely passed blue before finally stopping on—purple!!!

The system announced:

[Congratulations, host. You have obtained the trait: Temporary Shield]

[Level: Purple (Epic)]

[Effect: Active skill. Centered on the host, it creates a spherical energy shield with a radius of one meter and a duration of three seconds. The shield can withstand one psychic or physical attack of moderate intensity. Cooldown: one minute.]

[Temporary Shield can protect you at a critical moment. It can block one attack for you and keep you from getting injured once.]

[Note: Three seconds. You only have three seconds. Use it well and it can save your life; use it poorly and it is no different from setting off a firework.]

"Emmm..." Lin En looked up at the sky.

To be honest, this was an extremely practical skill.

With a radius of one meter, its diameter was two meters.

Not only was that enough for an ordinary person, it was even enough for a two-and-a-half-meter-tall Astartes. An Astartes' storm shield was not even two meters tall.

With a three-second shield every minute, some expert hammer players who knew how to use shields could even kite enemies and kill them with almost no injuries.

But...

Emperor, are you there? Why is this still not a combat skill?

Would granting him a combat skill really bring divine punishment???

Defense and support without any offensive power wouldn't work either!

If he could only defend and recover but not counterattack, wouldn't that make him a natural punching bag? Surely he wasn't supposed to painstakingly practice his marksmanship himself?

Was he supposed to follow Malum Caedo's path? But were Emperor gold cards really that easy to draw? What kind of monster was Malum Caedo? Did he even qualify to follow that path???

Besides, he had Thirty Days. That made Temporary Shield somewhat useless to him.

Whether he got injured or not, he wouldn't die anyway, and Thirty Days could restore him.

...Still, something was better than nothing.

Thirty Days could keep him from dying, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be injured. This shield could lessen some of the pain while he used Thirty Days.

It was still better than nothing.

"System bro, what level of strength does 'moderate intensity' refer to in the skill description? Can it block shells and missiles?"

[It depends on the level. It can block single-target ammunition such as bolter rounds with one hundred percent certainty. Heavy shells and missiles depend on the type. Wide-area fragmentation missiles such as shrapnel missiles, concussion missiles, and virus bombs can also be blocked. Heavy anti-armor missiles cannot, but their power will still be moderately weakened while passing through the shield. The missile classifications of Chaos, Orks, Necrons, Aeldari, T'au, and Tyranids are equivalent to those of the Imperium of Man.] The system explained.

Lin En nodded.

That was more or less what he had expected.

Weapons such as heavy anti-armor missiles, which could inflict effective damage on Astartes and warships, were among the pinnacle of weapons in the 40k universe. They could not possibly count as moderate intensity.

Oh, this was actually pretty good. Even without Thirty Days, as long as he wasn't hit head-on by a heavy anti-armor missile, there was a very high chance he could survive.

It was just a shame that he couldn't block heavy anti-armor missiles too. If he could, he would become a bug among bugs, the most useful shield for vehicles. He could even help an Astartes warrior block an attack. Wouldn't his military merit skyrocket then?

Sigh, but this was fine too. He should be a satisfied cheat.

This was only his first few skills. There should be more chances later.

********

They crawled out of the burned-out cave.

The vast sky and fresh air greeted them.

Ah, he was alive again.

On the ground, beneath the sky.

This was the environment humans were meant to live in.

Iron Hammer wildly danced and celebrated at the sky.

Beside him, Cecilia pushed up her helmet's visor and surveyed the surrounding area.

Although the sister did not behave as excessively as Iron Hammer, she still looked more relaxed than she had inside the cave.

Lin En had just finished drawing his card. He had not even had time to banter with the system and see whether he could squeeze out a little more wool from it.

Suddenly, his mind started going "ding ding ding ding ding ding—"

The alarm bells blared, seemingly without end.

!!!?

What?!

Lin En's expression changed drastically.

The counter in Iron Hammer's hand suddenly began vibrating loudly as well, making a sound like a phone vibrating on a tabletop.

Iron Hammer glanced down, his expression changing drastically too. He immediately held the counter out to Cecilia. "Sister!!!!"

There were many, many enemy units.

The screen was packed with dense red dots.

Red dots surged in from every direction. The nearest were already less than two kilometers away.

Iron Hammer's counter buzzed furiously, while Lin En's Danger Sense also blared in alarm.

Enemies were everywhere. The back of his head tingled, his back ran cold, and goosebumps rose from his neck all the way to his heels.

Cecilia drew the power sword from her back and gazed into the distance in the direction of the nearest red dot.

There was nothing blocking their view across the open ground. Black shadows were already visible on the distant horizon.

A dense black line kicked up clouds of dust across the sky.

They were hundreds, even thousands, of Cultists.

The Cultists at the very front rode modified motorcycles and moved the fastest. Behind them came those on foot and heavy vehicles.

The commotion from their battle with the Orks had alerted the Chaos Cultists on the planet.

For some unknown reason, an astonishing number of Chaos Cultists had gathered on this planet. Wearing bone masks, they surged toward them like a tide.

There were far too many of them—so many that the three of them had no chance of winning.

"Run!!!" Cecilia shouted.

Lin En and Iron Hammer immediately began running. Cecilia fired backward as she ran, shooting the cultists riding motorcycles at the front and slowing the advance of those behind them.

Lin En's [Stamina Enhancement] took effect, and he ran quite quickly.

Iron Hammer, however, was much slower.

A tech-priest's physical fitness was nothing special. His robes got in the way, and the tool bag at his waist was heavy.

Lin En glanced back at him. Iron Hammer's freckles stood out against his pale face, which had gone completely white.

Danger Sense kept screaming in his mind, giving him a headache. Lin En looked back again. The shadows had grown larger, and the motorcycle-riding cultists were much faster than them.

Lin En gritted his teeth, turned back, and began pulling Iron Hammer along. But an ordinary human dragging a grown man could not run quickly, and his own speed slowed as well.

This wouldn't work.

Lin En hurriedly called out to Cecilia. "Sister!!!"

Cecilia looked back and understood the situation.

She stopped firing, turned around, scooped up Iron Hammer, and tucked him under her arm before running alongside Lin En.

With so many cultists, shooting was no longer useful. They were better off running.

As long as they could reach Iron Hammer's survey station, they still had a chance of survival.

Iron Hammer's survey station was his spaceship. It was merely called a survey station, much like how a Chapter's fortress-monastery flagship was called a monastery.

As long as they got into the spaceship, took off before the cultists caught up with them, they could still escape alive.

During his flight, Lin En glanced back.

The cultists had already closed to within one kilometer of them.

The dozens of bone-faced cultists at the front fired at them. Fortunately, their aim was poor, and bullets whizzed into the ground around them.

Iron Hammer was tucked in Cecilia's arm and gasped for breath.

"How much farther?!" Lin En shouted.

Iron Hammer glanced at his data slate. "Almost there, almost there! Less than one kilometer left!!!"

A thousand meters did not sound like much. An ordinary person could cover it in four minutes.

But amid this hail of gunfire, no one knew whether a bullet would fly over and hit them the next second. Every second was dangerous.