Who the Hell Cares-!!!

Taking advantage of a moment when the cultists had gone farther away, Lin En crawled out of the crack.

So what if he was running away? He had the Blood-Lock Cheat active now. He could do this!!!

He yanked out the Flashlight.

It was bright.

The quality was genuinely good.

Made in China. Worthy of trust.

He crouched at the cave entrance and listened. There was no sound to the left, and none to the right. The cultists should have gone farther away by now.

There was a fork ahead, while the path behind him was the one he had come from.

"Bro System, are you there?"

[Yes.]

"Which way do you think I should go?"

[I don't have a map.]

"Aren't you a system?"

[I'm a trait-drawing system, not a navigation system. If you want navigation, go find Gaode.]

"Then find me a Gaode."

[Want me to find you a computer screen instead?]

What a pain in the ass.

Lin En took a deep breath. Knowing that Bro System wasn't going to help, he decided to rely on his instincts.

He chose the left fork, hunched over, keeping the Flashlight pointed low at the ground and doing his best not to make a sound.

After walking for about five minutes, he heard something.

A rushing, splashing sound. Water.

Lin En's eyes lit up. It might be an underground river. Underground rivers usually led outside. Where there was flowing water, there was an exit.

He quickened his pace and headed toward the sound.

Then he rounded a bend and saw light.

—The kind of dark-red light that made his scalp prickle.

He ran straight into a Chaos Cultist face-to-face.

The cultist wore a tattered robe. His face beneath the hood was so thin that he looked as if he had never eaten his fill. It was as though something had burned out through his eyes, making them glow red.

The two of them stared at each other for a second.

"Ahhhhhhh—!!!"

Lin En turned and ran.

The cultist behind him let out a roar. "He's here—! We found him—!"

Then came the footsteps of several more people.

Lin En ran even faster than before.

He had [Thirty Days] now. He wouldn't die, but he could still feel pain. And honestly, even if he couldn't die, being chased by a group of cultists was still terrifying.

These cultists had no humanity.

"Bro System, save me!!!!"

[You're bugging the game. Aren't you alive right now?]

"I mean, is there any way to make them stop chasing me?!"

[You can stop and negotiate with them.]

"You're serious?!"

[No. Keep running.]

Lin En ran into a relatively wide passage. A slippery, moss-like substance had appeared inside it.

When the Flashlight shone over it, he saw that the ground was covered in a layer of dark-green, glowing slime mold.

"What is this?!" he shouted while running and hopping over the slime.

The system said:

[It may be a trace of Nurgle.]

"Nurgle?! There are Nurgle's followers here too?!"

[Uncertain. But if you step on it, you may develop some skin diseases.]

"What do you mean, 'some skin diseases'?!"

[The kind of skin disease that makes mushrooms grow on your skin.]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh—

Lin En ran even faster.

The cultists' voices behind him drew closer and closer. One of them shouted something, but Lin En couldn't make it out. Immediately afterward, a streak of red light grazed his ear, struck the stone wall beside him, and exploded in a burst of sparks.

He flinched.

What the hell was that?!

Then a second streak of red light came.

This time, it struck him in the shoulder.

It hurt!!!!

It felt as if someone had pressed a red-hot branding iron against his skin. The pain drilled straight into his bones.

Lin En almost let out a scream. His steps faltered, and he nearly fell.

He glanced down at his shoulder.

His clothes had been burned through, and the skin beneath was red.

But the redness was fading at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if an invisible angel had rubbed his wound for him.

Three seconds later, the pain was gone, and his skin had returned to normal.

It turned out to be the System Angel:

[Host injury detected. Blood-Lock Mechanism activated. Rapid recovery initiated. Estimated recovery time: 3 seconds.]

"...Badass!!!" Lin En shouted as he ran, rubbing his shoulder.

Using [Thirty Days] to flee through the Chaos Cultists' encirclement and search for an exit, but only able to take hits and unable to fight back.

Getting hurt was extremely painful, but he recovered quickly. Enduring it for a while wasn't a big deal.

The Chaos Cultists couldn't kill him no matter what they did. Helpless against him, they decided that he was a special kind of psyker and wanted to capture him alive and sacrifice him to the Blood God.

"Capture him alive! Capture him and offer him to the Blood God! The Blood God will be pleased!"

Listening to the shouts behind him, Lin En's eyes nearly filled with tears.

It really was the Blood God Church—the one belonging to Khorne.

Chop off heads, offer skulls to the Skull Throne, sacrifice blood to the Blood God. The classics.

"I don't want to be sacrificed, ahhhhh—!"

[Then run faster.]

Lin En ran even faster.

The cultists behind him also seemed to have been injected with stimulants, chasing him with even greater ferocity.

"He can't run fast! Most psykers are physically weak!"

"Chase him! He must have companions!"

"Capture him alive! Long live the Blood God!"

He didn't have any companions!!!

Gritting his teeth, Lin En turned into another fork.

He had no idea where he was running—up or down, left or right. None of it mattered anymore. As long as there was a path, he ran.

As long as he wasn't caught, they couldn't do anything to him.

Another streak of red light flew from behind.

This time, it struck him in the back.

Lin En pitched forward and caught himself with his hands on the ground.

The same red-hot-branding-iron pain spread from his back to his shoulders, then to his neck. He bared his teeth, and tears nearly sprang from his eyes, but he held them back.

It hurt—!

[Rapid recovery initiated. Estimated recovery time: 3 seconds.]

Lin En gritted his teeth, got back up, and continued running.

He felt like a character in a game with a locked health bar. Every time he was hit, his health dropped, only to instantly refill. All he could do was keep holding down the W key and run forward, never daring to look back or stop.

The cultists behind him went crazy.

"He recovered again!"

"What exactly is he?!"

"He's not an ordinary psyker! He has some kind of protection!"

"The Blood God will love him! Capture him alive! The Blood God will grant us even greater power!"

Lin En cursed them inwardly as he ran.

The Blood God liked chopping off heads. He didn't want his head chopped off.

If they had the guts, they should go chop off a Primarch's head! Damn bastards, all they knew was how to bully ordinary people!

Blood God followers, my ass!!!

"Bro System, my stamina's almost gone! Can't you give me some useful advice—!!!"

[You currently have only a Flashlight and one Thirty Days. The Flashlight can't make you faster, and Thirty Days can't teleport you. What do you want me to advise you with?]

"Can't you say something comforting for once?!"

[Keep it up. You can do this.]

"...You'd better stop talking. You sound exactly like Siri!!!"

Forget it. He would have to save his own life.

Lin En's heart pounded as if it were about to explode. He made another sharp turn and dove into yet another passage beside him.

The ground was covered in loose stones, and every step made him slip. He crawled forward using both his hands and feet.

The cultists behind him were still chasing.

"He went up! Don't let him get away!"

"The Blood God is watching us!"

After leaving the passage, he found three exits ahead.

Left, right, and center.

He randomly picked one and ran inside.

The cultists behind him followed, but they were laughing.

"He went into a dead end! The end of this passage is sealed!"

"Block him off! He can't escape!"

Lin En's heart lurched.

"Bro System!!!"

[They're telling the truth.]

"Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

[You were the one who ran in here.]

"...Then what do I do now?"

[Two choices. One, turn around and fight them. Two, go to the end and wait for them to capture you.]

"What kind of choices are those?!"

[That's how Warhammer 40,000 works. There are no good choices, only choices that suck less.]

Lin En gritted his teeth and continued forward.

When he reached the end, he saw a stone wall.

There really was nowhere else to go.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Lin En turned around. The cultists behind him had surrounded him.

One after another, they closed in, excitement flushing their faces red. They held all kinds of strange weapons: rusty knives, staffs made of bone, and that thing that emitted red light, which looked like some kind of Psychic Focuser.

The red-eyed cultist at the front looked at Lin En, making goosebumps rise from his neck all the way to his heels.

His voice was as hoarse as though he were scraping his throat with sandpaper. "You can't escape. Kneel obediently and offer yourself to the great Blood God."

Lin En took a step back, his back pressing against the stone wall.

"Bro System, you're sure Thirty Days really works, right?"

[Yes.]

"Even severed limbs will grow back?"

[Yes. But it will hurt.]

"How badly?"

[More painfully than anything you can imagine right now.]

Lin En took a deep breath.

Fine, then.

He tightened his grip on the Flashlight.

Then he did the bravest thing he had ever done in his life. He didn't run or hide. Instead, he faced the cultists and raised the Flashlight like a sword.

"Come on." His voice trembled, but every word was clear. "Who's afraid of who?"

The cultists froze for a moment.

Then they lunged at him, reaching for Lin En.

Like a savage bull, Lin En slammed back into them and broke into a crazed escape, charging through the pain, dodging as he ran, and searching for an opportunity.

He snatched up a large stone from the ground and wildly smashed it into the cultists' heads.

Injuries and all that didn't matter!!!

He wasn't going to die, so who the hell cared--?!!!!

Come on, fight me!!!!!!

The cultist who took Lin En's fist head-on screamed as he fell backward, knocking over the two people behind him.

Taking advantage of the split-second confusion, Lin En charged straight ahead and squeezed through the gaps between the cultists.

He dashed into the passage he had come through, with the enraged roars of the cultists surging after him.

"He's getting away! After him!!!"

"Catch him! Don't let him get away--!!!"

Ugh, I really can't beat them.

I'll slip away for now.