A consecrated tongue

At the very center of the city stood the statues of Gork and Mork that Cheng Mingrui had built with the Boyz before secluding himself to make the Tunnel Boring Machine. Back then, they had only been painted; there had been no gold available to gild them.

To find out what had happened, Cheng Mingrui activated the Krakka Teleporter for the third time. After teleporting to the city center, he saw something he would remember for the rest of his life.

Draped in clothes that looked outlandish even by Ork standards, Kuka led a dozen Weirdboys in dancing and singing at the top of their lungs beneath the statues of Gork and Mork, which were wreathed in golden light!

"Gork says make it big!"

The tens of thousands of Ork Boyz below answered in unison: "Big!!"

"Mork says Waaagh!"

The Orks and Gretchin roared: "Waaagh!!"

"We're all good Orks, and we're gonna make the statues of Gork and Mork..."

Kuka pointed the microphone toward the audience below the stage.

"Tall and big!!" the audience sang together, loud and excited.

"And plenty waaaaagh!!!"

The whole concert was absolutely wild. Even the statues of Gork and Mork seemed to sway and dance beneath the multicolored spotlights.

Weren't concerts supposed to feature pretty girls in skirts? Why was it Kuka and this bunch of eyesore Orks?!

No, no, putting Orks and pretty girls together would never get past the censors. Stop right there.

Their eye-searing outfits aside, the song Kuka and the Boyz sang was genuinely catchy, perfectly suited to Ork personalities and culture. What surprised Cheng Mingrui most was that the names Gork and Mork in the lyrics were pronounced in pure Chinese!

Coupled with the gleaming golden halos above Gork and Mork's heads, it seemed something extraordinary had happened during his seclusion.

Interrupting the concert was out of the question. Worked-up Boyz could hack Space Marines or the Emperor's Bane apart with axes. Even as their Boss, Cheng Mingrui couldn't spoil their fun.

Standing five meters tall, Cheng Mingrui was soon spotted by the nearby Boyz, who eagerly pulled him into the revelry. Clever Git flew over in his flight-capable Power Armour.

"Boss Slick is great! Boss Slick is Waaagh! Follow Boss Slick and we laugh all day!"

After finishing his tongue-twister, Clever Git landed at Cheng Mingrui's feet like the most faithful lackey imaginable.

"Why are you still following me? With that Power Armour, ordinary Ork Boyz are no match for you. You could be a Boss yourself and lead your own bunch of underlings," Cheng Mingrui asked, looking down at Clever Git.

Ork society was loosely organized. Besides rallying beneath a Boss's name, they could lead Boyz of their own or follow the second-strongest Boss.

As long as following a Boss was fun and made them happy, the Boyz would stick with him. Once he died or wasn't strong enough anymore, they would take his place.

"I like Boss Slick! Boss Slick takes me charging and fighting. Boss Slick lets me command a warship and drop big shells on the humies' heads! Boss Slick even made me armour that can fly and fight. I just like following Boss Slick," Clever Git said without hesitation.

"Because following Boss Slick is fun, exciting, and waaaagh!"

Cheng Mingrui knew Weirdboy was every bit as much of a scoundrel as he was, and might have even more devious ideas in his head. When he swindled other Orks out of their teef, he never told the same lie twice.

But this time was different. Clever Git seemed to be telling the truth-a rare honest statement from the cunning fellow's mouth.

With a smack, Cheng Mingrui slapped Clever Git to the ground. "Then you'd better keep up. If you fall behind, I won't wait for you."

Clever Git wasn't angry about being knocked down. He scrambled up and eagerly trotted after him.

Eventually, Cheng Mingrui joined in the cheerful atmosphere too, cheering and singing with the Ork Boyz. It was the first time since transmigrating that he had relaxed so completely and let himself cut loose.

Living like a human meant endless worries. Living like an Ork meant eating when you wanted, singing when you wanted, and fighting when you wanted-happy and carefree.

After the concert ended, Cheng Mingrui took a proper rest and got some sleep before seeking out Kuka to ask what exactly had happened while he was away.

"Boss Slick, Chinese is the most amazing, most powerful language I've ever heard." Kuka didn't forget to dance even as he answered. "After you left, I kept practicing the Chinese sounds I'd recorded with Psychic Power."

"At first, the other Orks all thought I'd gone loony again. Then I said the second Chinese sentence you taught me to them. For the first two days, it really didn't do anything."

"After that, Word of Power really started working. A lot of Boyz said they had loads of mechanical knowledge in their heads, but they couldn't properly make guns and other equipment. When they had questions, they came to me."

At this point, Kuka puffed out his chest and said proudly, "I told them these were divine words that Kuka, Divine Messenger of Gork and Mork, learned from Slick, Mork's Chosen. They have the effect of Word of Power, and they'll work miracles as long as you're sincere."

"After that, those Boyz showed incredible mechanical talent. In their words, endless blueprints kept popping into their heads. They felt bad if they didn't finish making them, and the more they made, the better they felt."

"Word of the divine words spread among the Boyz too. More and more curious Boyz came to find me. Sometimes I told them the first divine sentence, sometimes the second. Bit by bit, what the divine words described came true! There were more and more Mekboys, and even the statues of Gork and Mork gained a ring of golden light!"

Kuka grinned and chuckled. "And that's not all. When I'm dancing, every time I call out Gork and Mork in Chinese, I can feel myself touching powerful beings somewhere beyond."

"Boss Slick, I wanna learn more Chinese."

Cheng Mingrui panicked. I can't just teach him anything! If I teach them carelessly, what happens when the Greenskins start saying whatever they want?

He wasn't sure what a world where everyone had Word of Power and a consecrated tongue would look like, but chaos and destruction were certain. Changes in the material world could never keep pace with the variety of language, and that imbalance would inevitably cause a collapse.

"Next time... next time. Chinese is vast and profound. Its mysteries aren't so easily understood. When the time is right, I'll teach you more."

After brushing Kuka off, Cheng Mingrui teleported away, giving him no chance to say anything else.

With more Mekboys now available, he could keep expanding production. Drilling rigs, weapons, and mining could all be worked on simultaneously.

He could also recruit a group of Mekboys to assist him and finish the Tunnel Boring Machine as soon as possible.

Five days later, beneath the gleaming statues of Gork and Mork, the mighty Tunnel Boring Machine, twenty meters in diameter, was complete.

"Boss, what's this? What's it for?" asked an Ork Boy who couldn't make sense of it.

The name Tunnel Boring Machine definitely didn't suit Ork tastes. It might even make them unwilling to operate the thing.

"This is called the Big Digga. It's bigger and more Waaagh! than a big drill-a Big Digga that can bore through any mountain." And so Cheng Mingrui gave the Tunnel Boring Machine a catchy new name.