Chapter 19: A Turn of Events |
Everyone was a coin in the hand of The Emperor.
Lower Hive citizens were the lowest denomination, the very first to be spent and consumed by the Imperium of Man.
Wealth, knowledge, physical strength, upbringing—by every possible metric, the people of the Lower Hive sat at the very bottom.
The sole meaning of their existence was to sacrifice their lives for the hive world.
The Planetary Defense Force was short on manpower?
They forcibly conscripted able-bodied young men directly from the Lower Hive.
The Imperial Administratum arrived to collect the population tithe?
Ship after ship of Lower Hive citizens packed into the Administratum's transport vessels to plug labor shortages on distant worlds.
The forge worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus required wetware?
Only when the Lower Hive ran out of people would it ever be the Midhive's turn.
This was the true, unfiltered portrayal of a Lower Hiver's destiny.
Every single person who completed the training today hailed from the Lower Hive.
They had merely been fortunate enough to attend a few years of school; they had never truly escaped their predetermined fate.
A 33.3% injection mortality rate was terrifying, without a doubt.
But looking at it the other way, a 66.6% chance of promotion was an irresistible temptation.
With just a little luck and a bit of perseverance, they might survive it.
"Ah! I can't take it anymore! It's too loud! Stop talking! Stop talking, all of you! It's so noisy!"
Someone was frantically clawing at his own hair, screaming like a madman.
Ever since Robnos finished speaking, the hall had fallen into a terrifying silence, yet this man was inexplicably hearing an endless torrent of chatter.
Screaming that it was "too loud," he snatched the syringe off his desk and slammed the needle straight toward his own ear.
The security guards reacted swiftly, wresting the syringe away just in time, but they couldn't stop the man's self-mutilation.
He smashed his ear against the sharp corner of the desk, headbutted the edge of the table, and even leaped high into the air to plunge headfirst into the hard floor.
Again and again, the security guards restrained him from tearing himself apart.
Finally, amid choked whimpers, white foam spewed from the man's mouth. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he went completely still.
A security guard checked his pulse and pupil dilation, then looked up at Robnos and shook his head.
"Take him away. Send him to the recycling department."
Robnos waved a hand, ordering the security guards to haul the corpse out.
The recycling department—it was always the recycling department.
When they reported in this morning, the people who failed the screening were sent to the recycling department.
Now, dead bodies were being routed to the recycling department too.
What exactly was this so-called recycling department harvesting, and how could they accept everything regardless of whether it was dead or alive?
Lino glanced up at the dead body, his heart churning with anxiety.
The enhancement serum contained a concentrated extract of Ghost Fungus, and Ghost Fungus was notorious for inducing hallucinations.
The primary symptom of those hallucinations was hearing whispers. That man just now had lost his life precisely because his mind snapped under the strain of those whispers.
Lino heard the whispers too.
Unlike before, even when he consciously tried to tune them out, the whispers grew louder on their own, forcing him to hear all kinds of indescribable, grating static.
"Ah——"
"Sa——"
"Mo——"
"Se——"
Unable to tell if other people were screaming or if the murmurs had transformed into piercing shrieks, Lino felt complete chaos erupting around his ears, as though endless loudspeakers were blaring inside his skull at once.
He couldn't escape the assault of the noise. All he could do was clamp his hands over his head and struggle desperately through the tidal wave of static, fighting tooth and nail to guard his own soul.
Heavy beads of sweat poured down his face like rain, and his bones creaked and popped as if pinned beneath a crushing weight.
His fat burned, his muscles boiled, and his eyes seared so fiercely it felt like molten lead was pouring into his sockets.
Lino gritted his teeth and endured it in silence.
Some time later, the static receded slightly, and the crisp, wet crack of an explosion met his ears.
"Splat!"
The sound came from somewhere nearby, followed by a warm spray across his cheek.
Lino regained a shred of clarity and turned his head toward the source of the spray.
Someone's head had detonated. Security guards were already hauling the headless corpse away.
Scanning the room, Lino finally noticed that quite a few empty seats had appeared throughout the hall.
Without him even realizing it, seven people had already been carried out.
That man just now happened to be the seventh.
Just then, a profound peace descended, and every last trace of sound vanished from Lino's ears.
One second, he was battling raging storms and towering waves.
The next, he was cast into a vacuum, embraced by a deathly silence.
With the noise gone, a refreshing sensation bloomed inside his brain, surged through every corner of his body, and finally returned to his mind.
Lino experienced an unprecedented wave of absolute relief.
[Congratulations, you have successfully absorbed one portion of Ghost Fungus concentrated extract.]
[A new system function has been unlocked. Please check your personal panel.]
A new system function?
What kind of function?
Holy crap, don't tell me it's Fungal Ability?
His heart racing, Lino hurriedly pulled up his personal panel in his mind.
[System Name: Mushroom Farm]
[System Host: Lino]
[System Functions:]
[Appraisal, Fungal Storage, Analyze Fungus (Upgrade conditions unmet), Fungal Simulation (Upgrade conditions unmet), Fungal Ability (New skill points available).]
Fungal Ability was finally usable!
Lino prodded the [Fungal Ability] entry with his thoughts.
The ability interface expanded. After a quick scan across the text, pure ecstasy washed over him!
[Function Name: Fungal Ability]
[Available Skill Points: 1]
[Function Description:]
[Select a fungus from the Fungal Storage and spend a specified number of skill points to acquire a Fungal Ability associated with that species.]
[Currently unlockable Fungal Abilities:]
[Milk Mushroom (Domesticated) — Fungal Ability: Hunger Satiation Technique — Unlock Requirement: 1 skill point.]
[Water-ball Fungus (Domesticated) — Fungal Ability: Water Manipulation — Unlock Requirement: 1 skill point.]
[Fluorescent Spore (Undomesticated) — Fungal Ability: Illumination — Unlock Requirement: 100 skill points.]
[Function Notes:]
[1. Fungal Abilities have no connection to The Warp and can be used safely without risk.]
[2. For undomesticated fungi, unlocking their associated Fungal Ability requires one hundred times the standard skill point cost.]
[3. Activating a Fungal Ability consumes specimens stored in your Fungal Storage.]
[4. Absorbing the concentrated extract of any ancient fungus grants skill points.]
Holy... crap...
Lacking poetic eloquence, a single curse word was all he had to conquer the world.
Lino stood frozen in shock!
He had originally assumed the system he received possessed zero combat capability.
Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that the locked feature would turn out to be this powerful!
A lab rat with a combat rating of less than five had transformed overnight into an extraordinary human wielding Fungal Abilities.
The contrast was staggering enough to make anyone gasp in awe!
The emergence of Fungal Ability provided immense positive feedback for researching the fungi of the Warhammer world—it was a shot of pure adrenaline.
A wave of enthusiasm flooded Lino's chest.
His mind immediately leaped to the mortality rate of injecting the enhancement serum.
Robnos had mentioned earlier that the lethality rate of the first shot was 33.3%. From the second shot onward, taking one injection daily carried an 11.1% mortality rate.
The risk dropped significantly, but it couldn't be ignored; nobody could guarantee they would walk away unscathed.
From the looks of it right now, the fatal trigger was tied to the hallucinations induced by the Ghost Fungus.
If he wanted to absorb the Ghost Fungus concentrated extract and secure a steady stream of skill points, he had to figure out a way to overcome those hallucinations.
At their core, hallucinations were a form of mind-affecting psionic energy.
If he could track down a fungus resistant to mind-affecting psionic energy and unlock its Fungal Ability, he might be able to suppress the Ghost Fungus's hallucinations and slash the enhancement serum's lethality rate.
That way, he could inject the enhancement serum boldly and safely, harvesting a limitless supply of skill points.
As an added bonus, the hallucinations he suffered while excavating root systems would drop as well—truly killing several birds with one stone.
Lino nodded to himself, establishing a clear road map for his near-term research.
A fungus capable of resisting mind-affecting psionic energy was unlikely to exist here in the Eighth District, but there might be specimens out in the Ruins Zone.
When he traded with Lai Ya tomorrow, he would make sure to ask her about it.
