Galactic, Halo Stars, Cheslatan, Main Continent Human Colony Outpost.
Bright, mottled warm yellow light streamed through the windowpanes onto the floor, and a gentle breeze drifted in through the door.
Fu Qinghai, shirtless and wearing trousers, sat on the edge of the bed, turning his head to look out the door. The dazzling star hung in the sky, slightly larger than the sun.
He had been in this world for a week.
More precisely, one standard Terra week.
He had a general understanding of his current situation.
Fu Qinghai was currently in the Warhammer 40K Universe.
warhammer 40k is a popular cultural IP created by the British company Games Workshop, which began releasing its first edition of the wargame in 1987. It is a long-standing and distinctive cultural IP with a large following both domestically and internationally.
Fu Qinghai had, of course, heard a little about it.
Fu Qinghai spent a week diligently recalling the warhammer 40k games he had played and the novels he had read in his previous life, combining them with his current predicament to figure out a way forward.
He was now on a colonized planet named Cheslatan. This planet was initially a savage world without civilization or intelligent life, discovered by the Human Empire during the Great Crusade, with Imperial designation 17-974.
This meant it was the 974th planet discovered and conquered by the 17th Expedition Fleet. “Cheslatan” was the name given by the colonists.
Although it was a savage world, Cheslatan was neither too close nor too far from its star. The planet's surface had water, an oxygen-rich atmosphere, and a dry, pleasant climate, making it a rare Terra-like planet. Not to mention the potential minerals underground, its current conditions alone were very suitable for development into an agricultural world.
The Imperial administrative departments could directly establish bio-farming factories on the planet without incurring the enormous cost of terraforming the planetary surface.
The only drawback was that Cheslatan was on the edge of the Halo Stars, a bit far from star systems with dense human activity.
Thus, after inspecting the planet's natural environment, the 17th Expedition Fleet from the Blood Angels Legion carried out species extinction on a large lizard-like creature that, after comprehensive evaluation, might pose a threat to human survival. They then notified the nearest Hive World to send immigrant ships to Planet 17-974, leaving behind a few unfortunate administrative officials, and then eagerly departed for the next world to be conquered.
The closest Hive World, Li Want Hive, began sending colonial ships here. However, after the first colonial ship arrived at the planet via a long Warp navigation, the entire sector suddenly began to be engulfed by violent warp storms, cutting off astropathic communication with the Hive World, and subsequent colonial fleets were never heard from again.
One colonial ship and its more than six thousand colonists were thus stranded on this savage planet in the distant universe.
It had been two years.
Fortunately, any potential threats on this planet had been thoroughly cleared by the Space Marines, and with the climate suitable for survival, the first human colonists settled down here, albeit with anxiety and apprehension about the prolonged warp storm.
In the simple hut built of yellowish-brown concrete, Fu Qinghai stood up from the bed and walked to the full-length mirror, looking at his reflection.
It was a handsome young man with black hair and black eyes, bearing a seven or eight-tenths resemblance to his previous life's self. His skin was fair, his nose bridge high, his eyes deep, and compared to traditional East Asians, he had a mixed-race feel. He had a large build, reaching over 1.8 meters in height at the age of 17, with subtle muscle contours even without training.
Such a young man, handsome in appearance, intelligent, with strong learning abilities, excellent physical qualities, great developmental potential, a temperament like Zunlong, a face like Yanzu, and a physique surpassing Kimura.
In the Warhammer 40K Universe, there is a simple and uniform term for him—
Mortal.
A creature that can die by the billions in any minor local conflict within the Human Empire.
In the Warhammer 40K Universe, the Galactic is dark and cruel.
“A Luo! A Luo, come eat!” A familiar, cheerful voice sounded from outside the door.
A blue-eyed, short-haired girl bounced in, unfazed by Fu Qinghai's bare torso, and tugged his arm to pull him out, “Come on, let's go eat.”
Fu Qinghai was interrupted from his thoughts and quickly grabbed a shirt from the bed, but he was already being pulled out of the room by the girl.
Stepping out of the room, the metal door behind him automatically closed. Fu Qinghai, now dressed, found himself on a yellowish-brown street where people walked in twos and threes, occasionally raising their face coverings to shield themselves from the slight dust carried by the wind.
The climate of Cheslatan's main continent was a bit hotter and drier than most parts of Earth. The vegetation was not abundant, but such a climate was already a rare and valuable habitable climate in the entire Galactic.
The girl led Fu Qinghai to a low building where food was distributed. They both received their standardized meals and found a corner, eating while listening to the girl chatter about the outpost's happenings during Fu Qinghai's unconsciousness.
Thanks to the first colonial ship not carrying too many people but instead a lot of large pioneering equipment, the mere three thousand people in the current colony outpost were minuscule compared to the entire planet's resources, so life in the outpost was relatively peaceful.
With no new bureaucratic system arriving, the few administrative officials from the original Expedition Fleet became the highest authorities of the colony outpost. The ship captain, who was forced to remain there, also counted as an official of the outpost, establishing a temporary management order for the colony outpost.
No, it could no longer be called “peaceful.” At this moment, Cheslatan was simply a paradise, a haven in the cruel Galactic!
As mentioned earlier, the Warhammer 40K Universe is dark and cruel. The quality of life for most humans is far inferior to that of ancient Earth's Terra era, and the Human Empire constantly faces invasions from various alien species and mysterious Warp forces.
Ordinary humans living in Hive Worlds and Forge Worlds either fight to the death on the front lines against heretics and xenos, perhaps without even leaving behind a trace of honor or their names, or they toil to death in the dark, heavily polluted lower levels of the Hive City, eating corpse starch from recycling systems their entire lives.
Compared to these two unfavorable options, the colony outpost on Cheslatan, currently isolated by the warp storm, was entirely a sanctuary in the cruel Galactic.
For now.
Unlike the bewildered people in the colony outpost, Fu Qinghai, of course, knew why this sudden warp storm had lasted so long.
The supreme military commander of the Human Expeditionary Force—the Gene-Seed Father Warmaster Horus—launched a rebellion at the end of the unfinished Great Crusade, with half of the Space Marine Legions joining the rebel faction.
The Chaos Gods in the Warp seized the opportunity to stir up warp storms, severing communication and travel between different parts of the Empire and various Space Marine Legions.
Fu Qinghai's new identity after reincarnation was Locke, with no surname, just a simple word.
A typical name for a Lower Hive person, as simple to the point of being outrageous, just like his orphan background. He got the immigration opportunity by lottery, which was still the result of the Planetary Governor's great mercy.
Of course, it was also possible that Li Want Hive's population capacity had reached its limit.
The blue-eyed girl was named Fei Yi. She was also an orphan, but unlike Locke, who boarded the immigrant ship as a Hive City orphan, Fei Yi once had parents. They were botanists, residents of the middle level of Li Want Hive, dispatched by the Imperial government to study the flora and fauna of the new world, but they unfortunately contracted a disease and died during their exploration of the colony world.
During the long journey of the colonial ship, Fei Yi's family took good care of Locke, who was an orphan. The two of them were able to stick together and rely on each other in the colony outpost. Besides both being orphans, there was another reason—Fei Yi was not well-liked.
No reason, no explanation. Everyone in the entire colony outpost, except for Locke, inexplicably found the little girl annoying and were unwilling to approach her.
Recalling this, Fu Qinghai found it a bit incredible. How could such a beautiful and kind girl be disliked by anyone?
Fei Yi's ethereal yet wild beauty and her height, nearly 1.7 meters at just 15 years old, meant that in his previous life on Earth, she wouldn't need any special talents to become a million-follower Instagram beauty blogger, and she'd even save on photo editing and makeup. Developing a career in modeling would be even more promising.
However, Fu Qinghai didn't dwell on it. What he needed to consider now was another, more pressing issue.
How to participate in the current main storyline of the Human Empire and the entire Galactic—the Horus Heresy.
Unlike the previous universe, this time Fu Qinghai didn't have the beginner's gift package of freely choosing a faction; he randomly selected the Emperor's faction.
Not bad. At least it was a faction where he could win by just lying down, without interference from other Reincarnators.
However, recalling how the Reincarnators in the previous universe even dared to target Iron Man, and almost succeeded, Fu Qinghai couldn't be happy—how could there be no Reincarnators to interfere?
With a thought, Fu Qinghai opened his attribute panel in his mind.
【Name: Fu Qinghai (True Name)
Reincarnation ID: 60731920
Race: Human (Space Human)
Height: 184cm
Weight: 75kg
Ability: Tony Stark Electronic Soul Backup (Completion 17%) Bound to Brain Region
Reincarnation Equipment: None
assimilation points: 124 points
World Anchor: X1
Reincarnation Lives: X2】
His name hadn't changed, and he had one less Reincarnation Life. However, the “True Name” in parentheses made Fu Qinghai's imagination run wild. Connecting it to the fantasy novels he had read in his previous life, could this “True Name” be related to certain magical rituals or Jiang Tou?
His race had changed, from the original Earth Human to Space Human. Unlike Earth Humans, when Fu Qinghai focused his thoughts on the words “Space Human,” a description appeared:
During the long process of cosmic exploration, humans gradually adapted to the microgravity environment and radiation background in space, developing a certain resistance to cosmic rays and an increased tolerance for extreme G-forces.
A reasonable change. Fu Qinghai knew that traditional Earth Humans couldn't stay in space for extended periods. Research by scientific institutions in his previous life had found that prolonged exposure to low-gravity environments in outer space could lead to various chronic diseases, affecting vision and cognitive abilities, and causing genetic mutations, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, and cerebrospinal fluid accumulation, among others.
“Tony Stark Electronic Soul Backup (Completion 17%) Bound to Brain Region.”
And this was the reward Fu Qinghai had fought for with one life in the previous universe.
It was also the reason Fu Qinghai had fainted from pain immediately after waking up in this universe.
A week ago, Fu Qinghai, who had just understood what the extra thing in his brain was, was uncontrollably ecstatic.
He knew that in the Marvel storyline, Iron Man had electronically backed up his own brain, and after his death, a Tony Stark, composed entirely of data, often appeared as a blue holographic projection and participated in subsequent plots, even once threatening to destroy the universe at his strongest.
However, those storylines primarily occurred in the Marvel Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610 Universe) and other parallel universes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) currently has not shown Iron Man electronically cloning himself, so Fu Qinghai initially did not think in that direction.
Unexpectedly, in the MCU's 2013, Tony Stark had already begun his plan to electronically back up his brain, perhaps also due to post-New York Battle anxiety, proceeding simultaneously with the Ultron project.
Currently, the completion rate of this electronic cloning project is still very low, only 17%, but when Fu Qinghai's thoughts entered it, he found that the knowledge contained within was already vast.
This is also very easy to understand. According to Fu Qinghai's perception, it should be very easy for Iron Man to back up the knowledge he possesses—it's just about creating a database of knowledge documents, which even a junior programmer could do. After all, knowledge is dead; no matter how vast, it is still dead.
But this is not Artificial Intelligence at all, let alone an electronic soul. The real difficulty of this electronic soul cloning project should be how to digitize and clone Iron Man's emotions, personality, likes and dislikes, and the choices and judgments he would make in different situations. This is the core of this black technology.
Fu Qinghai guessed that when the electronic soul backup is truly completed, knowledge and logic will at most only account for 30% of the data, with the remaining 70% being a clone of Iron Man's personality and emotions.
After all, there are countless smart people in the Marvel Universe; Iron Man is Iron Man not entirely because of that knowledge.
It seems that Tony Stark probably hasn't found a solution yet, so the plan has been put on hold for now.
As for how a hard drive's data interface connected to Fu Qinghai's brainstem, that might be attributed to the mysterious Reincarnation World.
Fu Qinghai extended his mental tendrils into that vast sea of thought, and bits of knowledge appeared and disappeared in his mind.
It was a very strange experience, like trying hard to recall a memory fragment, but unlike recalling, it wasn't vague. Fu Qinghai could clearly feel that there was an ocean in his head, cool and refreshing, and bubbles occasionally burst from the ocean. But when he tried hard to "think" about that thing, to chase that bubble, it disappeared.
Fu Qinghai gave up.
He was a little disheartened.
What's the use of this? They say I have 17% of Iron Man's electronic backup in my brain, but I haven't become 17% of Iron Man.
Fu Qinghai took a bite of food, sighed, and looked around in confusion.
Suddenly, he saw a Servitors placed by the roadside not far away.
It was a short, sturdy humanoid creature, with nearly half of its flesh and blood body replaced by various agricultural machinery. It stood motionless by the roadside with a vacant gaze, its back hunched, as if the excessively added mechanical arms were about to crush him.
Servitors are not people; they are flesh-and-blood machines used to replace Artificial Intelligence, with most brain functions stripped away, originating from cloned organs in cultivation pods or criminals, serving as the labor foundation of the Human Empire.
That's why Fu Qinghai used the word "placed."
Fu Qinghai, upon arriving in the Warhammer 40K, also took some time to adapt before he could view Servitors as something like a refrigerator or washing machine, rather than a living person.
At this moment, as he gazed at the Servitors, a bubble suddenly burst in the unfamiliar sea of thought within Fu Qinghai's brain.
"Servitors, mechanical prosthetic humanoids, additional hand modification: shallow drilling arm, additional left shoulder modification: high-power lighting, additional waist... Preliminary analysis indicates modifications exceed original factory load, insufficient output power... Optional modification directions: 1. Remove shoulder... 2. Modify... 3...."
As Fu Qinghai watched, a large chunk of fragmented information suddenly flashed through his mind. Fu Qinghai, who had originally been completely ignorant of the manufacturing principles of Servitors, found more and more problems with this Servitors the more he looked, feeling that this wasn't right and that wasn't working. It could be improved by him, and there was a vague urge in his mind, driving him to dismantle this Servitors for study.
Shaking his head, Fu Qinghai dismissed this impractical idea.
The colonial outpost's officials seemed very benevolent to the people, but this was only because he needed to ensure the survival rate of the immigrants. In this time of severed communication and transportation, every person was quite valuable.
However, the Servitors and various large-scale pioneering equipment in the colonial outpost were all property of the Imperial government, not something Fu Qinghai could just mess with casually. He was a Lower Hive commoner with no education, not a Tech-Priest of the Mechanicus.
So that's how it is… Fu Qinghai mused, gaining a rough understanding of this “Tony Stark Electronic Soul Backup (17% complete) bound to brain region.”
Just as I thought, a superpower linked to Iron Man shouldn't be useless; it just needs to be developed.
Who would have thought that a random alloy hard drive he pulled out at the time would turn out to be Iron Man's electronic backup.
No wonder a mere hard drive required a massive 7012 assimilation points to assimilate… Fu Qinghai then thought, could I be the legendary European Emperor?
Indeed, to get rich, make big bets. Win, and you get a club and young models; lose, and you reincarnate… Fu Qinghai thought happily.
"Hey, hey, A Luo!" A slender hand waved twice in front of Fu Qinghai's eyes. "Why are you smiling foolishly at the Servitors? Is your head still not right?"
"Uh…" Fu Qinghai composed himself and came back to his senses. "Where were you just now?"
"I was saying, something terrible happened in the outpost yesterday!" Fei Yi said in a tone of shocking secret news.
"What big deal? How terrible?" Fu Qinghai asked casually.
"Do you still remember what caused you to faint?"
"Didn't you tell me I was hit on the head by a falling rock from the sky?" Fu Qinghai looked at Fei Yi strangely, thinking, does such a terrible thing need to be repeated?
"Yes, later Calvin and Caesar found out that a spaceship crashed about two hundred kilometers away from the outpost. That day, many iron chunks and stones fell from the sky, piercing through some of the outpost's roofs."
Calvin and Caesar were the administrative officials of the colonial outpost.
"Including the one that hit your head," Fei Yi added.
Why do you keep bringing that up… "And then? Didn't Calvin take people to see it? After they came back, they sealed off the information, said nothing, and forbade anyone from the outpost to go to the spaceship crash site."
Fu Qinghai also knew what happened next.
Fei Yi lowered her voice and said, "I heard that the night before last, Sidrick and his group quietly went to the spaceship."
"Oh?" Fu Qinghai also concentrated.
"After Calvin and his group first returned from inspecting the spaceship crash site, there were private rumors in the outpost that the spaceship was a warship, a ship from the expedition fleet, but for some unknown reason, Calvin ordered the outpost residents not to approach the ship. Sidrick and his group had long been clamoring to go into the spaceship to search for treasure, to find weapons, saying things like they'd be rich if they got a Boltgun."
Sidrick's small group was a bunch of sixteen or seventeen-year-old youngsters, hooligans, some of them orphans, in the outpost. If they were peers on Earth in his previous life, they would at most be considered unruly and mischievous. However, these young people who grew up in the Lower Hive of the Hive City could not be described as mere "naughty kids." The dirty streets of the Lower Hive were filled with drugs, guns, bloody murders, and violent gangs. Compared to those child warlords in Africa who could start a rebellion with just an AK, they only lacked an environment conducive to rebellion.
Sidrick's gang used to frequently gang up to bully Locke, who was Fu Qinghai. Perhaps they were jealous of Locke's good looks, or for some other reason; after all, hooligans don't need a reason to pick a fight. And Fei Yi, just like when her parents were alive, always bravely stood in front of Locke to protect him. Of course, Fei Yi didn't rely on her fighting prowess, but rather on the fact that Sidrick and his group found Fei Yi annoying and didn't want to get close to her.
"Then this morning, only one person came back, it was Raziel. He was covered in blood, his face pale, his mind unclear, looking utterly terrified. He was muttering about demons, white demons, and such things. He was severely injured and died shortly after returning!"
Fei Yi's tone was unclear whether it was fear or schadenfreude, as Sidrick's small group often caused trouble for Locke and had frequently caused problems for the colonial outpost.
Hearing this information, Fu Qinghai narrowed his eyes.
Even without considering participation in the main storyline, Cheslatan's colonial outpost could only be a temporary refuge. Regardless of who the ultimate winner of the Great Crusade was, this place would eventually fall under the rule of some faction again.
And a worse outcome would be the arrival of other alien races from the edge of the Galactic before the Human Empire's rule, which would undoubtedly be a disaster for this weak colonial outpost.
Therefore, for whatever reason, Fu Qinghai could not just muddle along; he would eventually have to consider a way to leave this place.
And that spaceship that crashed half a month ago was an opportunity.
"Demons, white demons?" Fu Qinghai murmured, this information was too vague.
Fu Qinghai frowned in thought.
Warp demons appearing in reality?
Not to mention how complex and massive the sacrifices and rituals would need to be for Warp demons to break through the barrier and enter reality, if there really was some kind of Warp entity in the spaceship, Raziel would have had no chance to escape back. Those things that do not belong to the rules of the real world are difficult for even powerful Space Marines to harm.
What's more, the colonial outpost's officer, Calvin, had also taken people to investigate.
Right, then I'll just go ask Calvin directly and see if I can subtly extract anything.
"Let's go!" Fu Qinghai took Fei Yi's hand and stood up, walking towards the outpost official's residence.
"Where are we going?" Fei Yi, being led by Fu Qinghai, was confused.
...