Crushing Force

Please, please, please. I, a devout man, swear to eat a balanced mix of meat and vegetables, get enough fruit, vegetables, and protein, exercise for half an hour every day, and maintain a healthy routine—

Please give me a combat skill!!! For the Emperor!!!

It was fine. Although he had yet to even see the Emperor's face, he was a bona fide screw in the Emperor's machine. He might as well shout first and worry about the rest later.

"Start the draw. Just start it. No need to warm up!"

Lin En clasped his hands together.

The wheel appeared in his mind.

Densely packed patches of every color covered its surface. White, green, blue, purple, gold, and multicolored sections interlaced with one another, each bearing tiny words crammed into thin entries.

The wheel began to spin, faster and faster, until all the colors and writing blurred into a stream of light.

Lin En stared fixedly at the wheel and pointer.

The wheel spun so fast that nothing could be seen clearly anymore. There was only a dazzling blur of light.

He still had to rely on luck.

"Stop!!!!"

The pointer came to a halt.

A purple halo burst before his eyes.

A purple entry!!!!

Not bad. Purple entries had already proven their worth. [Danger Sense] was purple, and it was so useful it was practically divine.

The result had appeared. He could already see that the first character was "battle."

He was overjoyed.

A purple combat skill had to be a proper damage-dealing skill, no matter what—

Battle, battle, battle, a combat skill!!! He had known that sincerity moved the heavens! His balanced diet really had worked! For the Emperor!!

...The full name appeared. It was [Tactical Rehearsal].

The system announced without a hint of emotion:

[Congratulations, player. You have obtained the purple entry, Tactical Rehearsal.]

[Entry Name: Tactical Rehearsal.]

[Level: Purple (Epic).]

[Entry Function: Before combat begins, rapidly simulate the battlefield situation, predict the actions the enemy may take, and forecast the outcome of the battle.]

[Note: A qualified commander must learn to anticipate the enemy. Go ahead and celebrate. How is this any different from loading a save?]

"Smack!!!!"

Lin En hurled a stone and roared at the system, "Does your wheel even have combat skills in it?!"

His mind went quiet for a moment, as if even the system had not expected him to be so terrible at drawing.

The system smiled politely.

[There are, player. There are.]

It then displayed the numerous combat skills on the wheel.

A large portion of the wheel lit up.

The system enlarged the entries, allowing Lin En to see the name of every single one clearly.

How many of them lit up?

Put it this way: at least seventy percent of the slots were glowing.

[Thunder Fist], [Flame Slash], [Psychic Blast], [Storm of Arrows], [Void Rend], [Gravity Crush], [Lance Projection]...

...There were so many that he could not possibly take them all in.

The names were more dazzling than the last, and the descriptions more powerful than the last.

Their colors ranged from green to blue to purple to gold. There were even one or two flickering with rainbow light, half-hidden in the corner.

Next, a small section lit up. This time, they were defensive skills.

[Steel Body], [Reflective Shield], [Elemental Resistance], [Indomitable Will]...

They accounted for roughly twenty percent of the entry area.

In truth, support skills were the niche category.

Only after the defensive skills did the support skills get their turn.

The area that lit up was pitifully small, accounting for less than ten percent of the entries.

Of that less-than-ten-percent section, six were brightly lit, representing the entries he already possessed.

Six.

He had drawn six times.

Six support skills.

Even the system fell silent.

Did such a cursed person truly exist?

Lin En knew he was in the wrong, but he still threw a tantrum. "Six times!!! Six times landing in an area that makes up less than ten percent! Do you know how low those odds are?! I don't believe it, I don't believe it! Did you rig the draw against me?!"

[...]

"Why are you silent?!!!"

[...The program stalled for a moment.]

"You're a system and you can stall?"

[It happens occasionally,] the system said, as though this were perfectly reasonable. [After all, this is the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Warp interference is rather severe, so occasional signal problems are perfectly normal.]

"I don't believe a word of that!!! You aren't even afraid of the Four Gods, but you're afraid of Warp interference?!"

The system did not dare tell him that he might simply have been born with a support-oriented fate. If it did, Lin En's mental state would collapse again.

These days, hosts were all treated like lords. Little systems like them did not even dare speak the truth.

[...Actually, if you look closely, although they are all support skills, they really are quite useful.]

Lin En threw another fit. "Did you secretly change my odds in the background?!"

[No, player. Our systems have professional ethics. What benefit would I get from making you draw a support skill?]

"Then tell me this: can I draw a combat skill within the next fifteen days? Give me a straight answer."

The system did not take the bait.

[That depends on the player's luck. When the pointer stops is entirely determined by the player. We systems do not manipulate the result of the wheel.]

...Damn.

He had originally planned to pester it until he could cheat another draw out of it, but this system simply refused to take the bait.

Lin En sat down cross-legged again and leaned against the rock wall. He opened the entry list and looked at the brand-new purple card for [Tactical Rehearsal], quietly resting at the very bottom.

Effect: Before combat begins, rapidly simulate the battlefield situation, predict the actions the enemy may take, and forecast the outcome of the battle.

Lin En carefully read the description once, then read it again.

Speaking honestly, this card really was quite powerful.

Its effect could practically be called a battlefield save file.

If Lin En could one day rise to become a battlefield commander, this skill would be a trump card capable of deciding the battle.

But...

"When will I ever become a battlefield commander—"

The system said, [No idea. At your current pace, maybe in another eighty or a hundred years.]

Lin En: "Shut up!!! I just made peace with myself! Don't drive a wedge between us!"

********

Lin En's daily life had now settled into a fixed routine.

More than ten days had passed since his last draw.

Every day, he slept until he woke naturally. After getting up, he first listened to the sounds outside to confirm that [Danger Sense] had not sounded an alarm, then slipped out to take a dump.

After returning, he fetched water from the underground river and washed his face. Then he ate an energy bar, walked back and forth around the cave a few times as exercise, and afterward sat before the rock wall studying its geological patterns or chatted with the system.

Sometimes he practiced using [Tactical Rehearsal] to analyze imaginary combat scenarios.

At night, once the cultists outside had finished their patrols, it was usually deep into the night. Then he went to sleep.

It was a little boring, but it was safe enough.

It was far more peaceful than when those cultists had been chasing him around.

By his count, there were only two days left until the thirty-day deadline Sister and Iron Hammer had promised.

Two days was neither long nor short.

He had water, and enough food as well. Lasting through these two days would be effortless.

The only uncertainty was whether they could return on time.

Although he had one hundred and twenty percent confidence in Cecilia and Iron Hammer's reliability, this was still the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Anything could happen.

What if their ship broke down? What if they could not find reinforcements? What if Cecilia and Iron Hammer were intercepted by another enemy?

Those thoughts occasionally circled through his mind, but every time they did, Lin En would consciously throw them out.

The situation was already what it was. Anxiety was useless. Rather than worry about all sorts of hypothetical problems, he might as well chat with the system for a couple more rounds.

Today, not long after Lin En had finished debating with the system over whether "Tactical Rehearsal" counted as a high-end skill—

He leaned against the rock wall and was just about to take a nap. His head had only just touched the wall when—

He suddenly heard an explosion outside.

There was also a sound of footsteps—extremely fast, extremely violent, carrying a force that swept everything away.

"Mm-mm-mm-mm?!!!!"

Lin En sprang to his feet.