Chapter 20: Boarding a Pirate Ship |
Clap, clap, clap.
Robnos clapped vigorously, his face beaming. "Congratulations, everyone, on welcoming your first metamorphosis. Let us begin dinner."
The bloodstains and corpses in the lounge had been cleared away. Security personnel wheeled in dining carts and distributed the food.
The hearty dinner exceeded Lino's expectations.
Five synthetic meat sausages, two large bowls of Synthetic Starch, a bowl of liquid synthetic protein that resembled milk, and two boiled eggs with purple yolks.
In terms of portion size, dinner was at least double that of lunch.
As the food hit the table, a violent hunger erupted within him.
Lino grabbed a sausage and scarfed it down. He lifted a bowl of starch porridge with his other hand, gulping it wildly while taking a moment to check his own condition.
He noticed that his muscles had thickened slightly, and their lines had become more defined.
All of this pointed to enhanced muscle strength, though he didn't know exactly how much stronger he had become.
No one spoke in the hall. Everyone who had been injected with the enhancement serum was gorging themselves.
Robnos held his pipe, pacing slowly as he checked on the apprentices one by one.
He paused from time to time, using his Dataslate to emit a beam of light and scan their physical data.
Whatever data he was seeing, the smile on Robnos's face only grew brighter, as if he were admiring a masterpiece he had crafted with his own two hands.
"Perhaps you have already guessed. The enhancement serum you just injected contained the hallucinogenic substance from the Ghost Mushroom."
Robnos took a drag from his pipe and slowly exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, meeting everyone's gazes with a smile.
"Do not think for a moment that this hallucinogenic substance brings only harm and no benefits. In fact, after a complex processing procedure, this substance can be transformed into painkillers, stimulants, enhancement serums, and even crafted into the Ghost Serum, which grants psionic energy to ordinary people."
Granting ordinary people psionic energy with a serum?
How was that possible!
Wasn't psionic energy innate?
If a person wasn't born a Psyker, it was absolutely impossible for them to awaken psionic energy later in life.
This was written in black and white in the textbooks.
How could anyone awaken psionic energy just by injecting a serum?
Was the wily supervisor tricking them again?
"How do we know if what you're saying is true?"
"Are your words more authoritative than the textbooks?"
"Heh, unless you prove the authenticity of the Ghost Serum to us, we won't believe a single word you say."
The apprentices voiced their doubts one after another.
Robnos offered a faint smile, not bothering to refute them.
"Changing a person's inherent perception is one of the most difficult things to do, but facts speak louder than words. One of you was injected with an enhancement serum laced with the Ghost Serum. Let him prove whether my words are true. Marzachs, stand up and tell them how you feel right now."
Robnos walked toward a certain apprentice.
The man named Marzachs became the center of attention.
He was a robust man in his early thirties, with sharp facial features, well-proportioned muscles, and calloused hands. He had an honest, simple look about him.
He set down his tray and stood up. Panic flickered across his face, but he forced himself to remain calm.
"Supervisor, thanks to you, I feel my strength is much greater than before. As for the psionic energy you mentioned, I seem to have grasped a little bit of it, but I don't know how to use it."
Robnos picked up a dining knife and handed it over. "Cut your wrist. Then concentrate. Stare at the wound and imagine it healing itself."
"Yes, Supervisor." Marzachs gripped the knife, took a deep breath, and forcefully slashed his own wrist.
Drops of blood seeped from the scarlet gash. Marzachs shot a nervous glance at Robnos, then widened his eyes and stared fixedly at the wound.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the bloody gash stopped bleeding and scabbed over in just a few short seconds.
Marzachs gasped, utterly dumbfounded. "Good heavens, my wound healed. I-Is this my psionic energy?"
The crowd sat frozen in shock, feeling their common sense crumbling.
Marzachs had absolutely not been a Psyker before this; otherwise, he would have been taken away by the League of Black Ships long ago.
The only explanation was the Ghost Serum.
A serum capable of granting ordinary people psionic energy actually existed!
Robnos burst into laughter.
"See? This is the efficacy of the Ghost Serum. In the past, Ghost Serums could only grant the user random psionic energy. The serum Marzachs used is the newest model. It contains special additives that can help him awaken self-healing psionic energy. Now, does anyone still harbor doubts about the Ghost Serum?"
That was all well and good.
But Supervisor, weren't you worried that the League of Black Ships would come and take Marzachs away?
Marzachs had attended school for a few years, so he naturally knew of the League of Black Ships' existence.
Faced with the psionic energy he suddenly possessed, he felt no joy, but rather extreme terror.
"W-W-Will I be taken away by the League of Black Ships? Supervisor, what should I do now?"
Marzachs panicked, falling just short of kneeling before Robnos.
Robnos's expression remained unchanged, his smile steady and confident.
He pulled a metal card from his pocket and patted Marzachs's shoulder to comfort him.
"Do you see the card in my hand? This is an Artificial Psyker certificate issued by the head of the Kram Family. Any Artificial Psyker loyal to the Kram Family can obtain a certificate like this. With it, the League of Black Ships will not take you away. Come, Marzachs, take it. This certificate belongs to you."
"Yes, Supervisor! I am absolutely loyal to the Kram Family!!"
Thrilled beyond measure, Marzachs roared at the top of his lungs.
He took the card with both hands and stroked it affectionately, looking as if he wanted to kiss it.
The apprentices present didn't know the relationship between psionic energy and The Warp. They merely viewed psionic energy as a supernatural ability.
A longing for the Ghost Serum sprouted in their hearts, and the gazes they directed at Marzachs were filled with envy.
There was only one exception.
That was Lino.
He frowned slightly, faintly sensing that something was wrong.
It was currently the end of the 30th Millennium, the late stages of the Great Crusade era.
To conquer the galaxy, The Emperor had established the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and the Court of the Astronomican.
Under the Adeptus Astra Telepathica were the League of Black Ships and the Psyker Academy.
The League of Black Ships was responsible for gathering Psykers from various planets and screening them.
The Psykers who passed the screening would be sent to the Psyker Academy. After undergoing training at the academy, they would become lawful Psykers for various departments of the Imperium.
Those Psykers who failed the League of Black Ships' screening would be sent to the Court of the Astronomican.
The Court of the Astronomican was responsible for maintaining the Astronomican.
The light of the Astronomican could pierce through The Warp, providing guidance for the Warp navigation of the Imperium's fleets.
The fuel for the Astronomican was the psionic energy of Psykers.
The good news was that the old man, The Emperor, was currently in good health and hadn't yet been permanently glued to the Golden Toilet.
The Psykers who provided psionic energy to the Astronomican wouldn't be instantly sucked dry the moment they took up the post, unlike in later eras. Generally speaking, surviving for a year or two was no problem at all.
So the question was, what was Marzachs panicking about earlier? Didn't he have a chance to become a lawful Psyker?
Yes, he did have a chance to become a lawful Psyker, but the probability was terrifyingly low.
The academy textbooks stated that less than one in ten Psykers could pass the League of Black Ships' screening. The rest all became fuel for the Astronomican.
Marzachs was not a true Psyker.
He was artificial. His chances of passing the screening were practically zero, meaning he could only serve as fuel for the Astronomican.
That was the reason for his panic.
Furthermore, there was the Ghost Serum that the Kram Family had concocted, along with that so-called Artificial Psyker certificate.
Lino could only conclude that this was playing with fire.
During the Great Crusade era, instances of the Imperium of Man abusing psionic energy emerged one after another.
To conquer the galaxy, The Emperor turned a blind eye to the abuse of psionic energy.
Therefore, the various worlds possessed a certain degree of discretion over the Psykers on their respective planets.
Only those Psykers who were not needed by the major factions of their world would be tossed to the League of Black Ships.
Let alone shielding Artificial Psykers, the head of the Kram Family could even forge a Psyker guard for himself.
This massive abuse of psionic energy was only effectively curbed after the conclusion of the Council of Nikaea.
At that council, The Emperor declared the vast majority of Psykers illegal; only Navigators, Astropaths, the existing Librarians of the Legions, and a few other Psykers were granted legal status.
What year was it right now?
985.M30!
When would the Council of Nikaea convene?
If he remembered correctly, it should be 001.M31.
The Kram Family was clearly aiming to expand and strengthen their Ghost Serum operation.
Wouldn't teaming up with them right now mean he'd boarded a pirate ship?!
Lino secretly drew in a sharp breath, his mind made up.
He could handle taking injections, swallowing pills, and grabbing skill points, but getting on a pirate ship was out of the question. Worst case scenario, he would just make a personal trip to the Underhive for the Ghost Fungus later.
