Blood Ravens' Glorious Tradition

Outside the door was daylight—a white light from a truly vast space, like the light of the sun on an overcast day.

Before him was a vast space he had never seen or imagined in his entire life.

Outside the door was a gigantic human city hive.

A city.

A city built in the shape of a colossal tower.

He couldn't see the top when he looked up. Countless buildings were stacked layer upon layer, stretching upward like a mille-feuille.

Hive City. A hive city.

The most common form of city in the human Imperium: a massive, self-sufficient vertical city capable of housing billions of people.

A medium-sized hive city had a designed capacity of roughly three to five billion people. Large hive cities were even bigger.

A colossal structure capable of housing billions of humans—a hollow tower with layer upon layer of interconnected ring-shaped structures. Each level had enormous arches and passageways that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The edges of those vertical arches looked especially sharp in the gray-white light, like the spires of a monastery.

However, this human city was now in utter ruin. A massive hole had been torn into its side, as though a giant beast had raked it with its claws, leaving irregular shards jutting from the edges.

An abandoned hive city.

Light spilled through that hole and scattered across the entire space. In the faint dust, the Tyndall effect formed shafts of light, creating a strange solemnity like that of a ruined church.

Lin En looked up from the bottommost level, feeling like an ant gazing at the moon.

So this underground cavern was at the bottom of the hive city.

Lin En looked once more at the space whose top he couldn't see. "Wow..."

The game hadn't conveyed how enormous a hive city was. Seeing it in person, the visual impact was simply too shocking.

Lin En asked the system, "Are there still people in this hive city?"

System: [Try stepping on the stairs beside you.]

Lin En put one foot down lightly.

Concrete—probably concrete—so brittle it had already crumbled into grit. The instant he stepped on it, it fell apart and drifted down like sand.

[The Imperium's stuff is very durable. The technology in Warhammer 40,000 is a legacy of the Dark Age of Technology. Things built back then could last for thousands of years. Judging from the thickness of the dust and the extent of the structural damage, this hive city had been abandoned for at least several thousand years, and possibly over ten thousand.]

"Ah..." What a shame.

Lin En held onto the stairs and looked up again.

The passage of time had reduced the buildings to ruins. Many load-bearing structures had already failed. The only things still standing were hollow shells that looked ready to collapse at the slightest touch. He couldn't climb up.

Leaving from here probably wasn't going to work.

He still had to find an exit through the underground caverns.

Still, this abandoned hive city was quite spectacular.

A building from tens of millions of years ago. All life had vanished, leaving only stone and metal to silently decay here.

The damage to the side of the hive city might have been caused by a Chaos invasion, a Tyranid attack, an internal rebellion, or perhaps the depletion of resources.

There were too many reasons for a hive city to be abandoned in Warhammer 40,000. Any one of them could fill an entire book.

Lin En asked the system again, "Do those cultists live here?"

System: [No. They live in the underground caverns. That cave system connects to this hive city, but the cultists' camp is deep within the caverns, not inside the hive city's structures. You have to remember that they aren't human anymore. They don't like operating in places exposed to the light.]

"Oh."

Lin En asked again, "This place won't suddenly collapse, will it? Will the thirty days protect me from being crushed to death?"

[I'm not sure whether abandoned buildings count as enemies. But if you really get buried beneath several million tons of construction rubble, why bother worrying about the thirty days? You won't be able to climb out anyway. You'll die regardless.]

That made sense. There was no point worrying about it—it wouldn't help anyway. "...You have a point."

Lin En sighed and gave up on the idea of taking the risk to investigate above.

He could only search around the entrance for anything he could salvage and use.

He found some textiles that could improve his quality of life, such as bedding.

Unfortunately, the daily necessities had long since expired too. No one knew how many years this place had been abandoned. All the organic matter had rotted away and turned to ash at the slightest touch.

He searched the area again and discovered that a storage room dug into the mountain wall near the entrance was surprisingly sturdy. The door could even be locked from the inside.

The room was fairly well sealed, with poor air circulation. Inside, he found some metal and ceramic pots, cups, bowls, and utensils that were still barely usable. There was even a somewhat rusty dagger that would still be very sharp after a little polishing, a telescope, and several zombie cans of unknown age.

System: [Why not give them a try? Although the chances are very low, Warhammer's food-preservation technology could sometimes last for several thousand years. Rations from the 30k era aren't necessarily inedible even now.]

"Goodbye."

Even if those zombie cans had developed layers of patina over who knew how many years, he wouldn't dare eat them.

"Bro System, I'm hungry. I have nothing to eat or drink here. What am I supposed to do?"

[Search.]

"Where do I search?"

[Do I really have to teach you this? Did you shove all the games you played into a dog's stomach? Scavenge. Steal. Cultists have to eat too, and their supply line is your supermarket.]

Fine.

Still, at least he could survive.

"What if I can't beat them?"

[That's why I told you to steal.]

"Good point. If I'm discovered, I'll run."

Lin En decided to use this place as his base, then return to the cultists and steal their daily necessities.

This abandoned hive city would be his base, while the cultists' side would be his supermarket. He would run back and forth between the base and the supermarket, steal their things, and survive these fifteen days.

[That sounds like a very novel way of life.]

"This is called survival." Lin En pulled his coat over his head and touched the dagger at his waist. "Next, please watch Warhammer 40,000-style wilderness survival. Your host, Lin En, carrying a flashlight and a rusty dagger, will teach you how to survive thirty days in this abandoned hive city."

The system applauded for him.

[Your aspirations are lofty.]

Lin En retreated to the door he had previously entered through from the cavern.

On the other side of the door was a dark, damp cavern without a trace of light.

Lin En stood at the doorway and took a deep breath.

"Bro System."

[Hmm.]

"If I go back and steal from the cultists, what happens if I'm caught?"

[Thirty days. Run the moment things look bad. As long as they don't catch you, nothing will happen.]

But if they really caught him, he could only pray for the best.

Fine. No matter what happened, he had to survive thirty days.

Lin En gritted his teeth and stepped over the threshold.

Darkness wrapped around him once more.

He followed the path he had taken earlier, step by step, toward the cultists' camp.

Although he had talked big, he was still a little afraid.

It's fine, Lin En. You can do this.

You're only going to steal a few things from them. You can't die anyway. They can't kill you, so what's wrong with stealing a few things from them?