"Hahaha! Even three against me isn't enough!"
After easily taking down three opponents, Name laughed wildly, spinning in place, his voice, enhanced by the stimulant, carrying a hint of hoarse excitement. He raised both arms, pointing at the surrounding players, and defiantly shouted, "Again! I want to fight ten!"
However, no sooner had his boast left his lips than a sweet taste filled his throat. A gush of hot, bloody liquid surged uncontrollably, splattering all over the anti-gas mask's lenses. Crimson blood dripped down the mask, leaving the onlookers stunned.
Realizing something was wrong, Name quickly opened his system panel. He didn't know until he looked, and when he did, he was startled.
Some attributes had directly skyrocketed, such as Muscle Strength, which had soared to the heavens:
Muscle Strength - 35.6 / 10.6 (Liberator + 20.4) (Physical Enhancer + 5.2) (Holy Sedative + 3.4) (Adrenaline + 6.0)
But other attributes had plummeted, dropping to the level of a paramecium, which left Name deeply alarmed:
Liver Function - 1.2 / 10.1 (Ice Point Element - 3.2) (Sentinel - 2.0) (Physical Enhancer - 1.7) (Liberator - 1.9) (Adrenaline - 1.3)
Kidney Function - 1.7 / 9.5 (Ice Point Element - 2.8) (Sentinel - 1.8) (Physical Enhancer - 1.5) (Liberator - 1.7)
Even worse, just from moving around a bit, Name had already accumulated numerous DEBUFFs, such as: Severe Chest Hemorrhage (Suppressed) Bone Fractures (Suppressed) Heart Rupture (Suppressed) Multiple Organ Failure (Suppressed)
Each of these was enough to kill a mortal within minutes, but they all had a "(Suppressed)" suffix. Clearly, when that "(Suppressed)" suffix ceased to exist, it would be Name's time to die, and now... only a few seconds remained.
"This shouldn't be!" Name's eyes widened, and he let out an unwilling cry to the sky, "They said after taking the drug, I'd live for at least 24 hours..."
Before he could finish speaking, with a "crunch," his body, encased in carapace armor, snapped like a broken piece of wood, falling stiffly to the ground, utterly silent.
Initially, the onlookers thought he was performing some kind of performance art. It wasn't until Name's system ID disappeared above his head that they realized he was truly dead, and he died so abruptly, without even a struggle.
"Oh my god, he went full George Floyd."
"He died right on the spot!"
"Excuse me, excuse me." Archer pushed through the crowd, walked over to Name's corpse, squatted down, and took off Name's anti-gas mask for a look. "Hmm... it should be the neutralizing solution. The formula still needs to be changed..." he muttered to himself.
As he spoke, Archer hoisted Name's body onto his back: "Later, tell Name to send me his bank account number. I'll transfer him some money, for experimental funds and the cost of the body."
The players' eyes lit up at the news; this was real money! They immediately asked enthusiastically, "Sir, do you still need experimental materials?"
"Sir, I think I'm very healthy, I want to be an experimental material too!"
"My body is super strong, I can take hits and dish them out, definitely good material!"
"Don't worry, I'll let you know when I need you," Archer waved his hand, then carried the body away, apparently intending to examine Name's cause of death in detail.
In the distance, Reddito and Robert stood together, observing everything.
Reddito's mechanized voice echoed through the hall: "Even by Krieg Death Korps standards, your disregard for life has reached a level I cannot comprehend."
Robert casually replied, "This world is so awful, perhaps an early death is a good thing? If we're lucky, we might even return beneath the Golden Throne."
Reddito seemed pensive, data streams flickering in his optical eyepiece: "Is that your view on life and death? It's thought-provoking..." He didn't seem to fully understand, but he didn't delve deeper.
Reddito proactively changed the subject: "Have you figured out how to kill the high-ranking genestealers?"
"I've been looking at the Trinity Foundry Workshop these past two days," Robert said. "You can produce Grav-chutes and Valkyries, right?"
"The production difficulty of both is indeed not high," Reddito said. "However, the difficulty in using them is not low... Can your soldiers handle it?"
"They will learn," Robert said calmly, his tone carrying an unquestionable conviction, "They definitely will..."
"I think I know what you're thinking," Reddito said. "I have no right to interfere with the lives of your soldiers, but I think I do have the right to express dissatisfaction regarding potential damage to Grav-chutes and Valkyries during training."
"What do you want?" Robert asked directly.
"All those pieces of equipment that appear out of nowhere, no matter how damaged they are, send them to me for maintenance. I think this is a win-win situation," Reddito proposed his condition.
At a high point in the Mid-Hive, fierce winds howled. Below lay a dense, sprawling hive city, a labyrinth of steel and concrete. Over a dozen players, each carrying a Grav-chute provided by Reddito, fine equipment from the Trinity Foundry Workshop, stood ready.
Robert stood before them, his voice remarkably clear in the wind: "According to the Astra Militarum's original procedure, to become an airborne soldier, we should undergo complete training, from theory to ground training, then to low-altitude parachuting. But Perditia doesn't have that much time!"
He surveyed the players, each of their eyes gleaming with excitement, devoid of any fear.
"So, our training is to put on the Grav-chutes and jump directly from a high place!"
At this, the players were not shocked; instead, they erupted in a fervent cheer.
"We land on both feet, the first to step into hell!"
"For Super Earth!"
"This is the way!"
Robert nodded with satisfaction, then looked at Archer beside him: "The rest is up to you, Magos Archer."
Archer sighed helplessly upon hearing this: "I can hardly be called a Magos now, captain Robert. I'm just an apprentice who gets ordered around..."
He complained verbally, but his body honestly stepped forward, beginning to prepare to teach the players how to operate the Grav-chute.
Robert watched as Archer stepped forward, calmly picked up a model of a Grav-chute, and began explaining its structure and operational essentials to the players, nodding inwardly.
He had initially thought that without missions or battles these past few days, many players would go offline out of boredom, but the result was unexpected—players almost all went offline briefly and then returned.
Thinking about it, it was normal. After all, this was a game with a three-times thought acceleration, which, when converted, meant three times the lifespan. Players spending a day here was equivalent to one-third of a day in the real world; they could experience three times their real-life lifespan, which held immense appeal to anyone. Furthermore, the superhuman physical qualities of the Astra Militarum in the game were many times stronger than in reality. These two points alone were enough to attract people.
Robert's gaze once again fell upon the players listening to Archer's explanation, and a thought flashed through his mind: For players using Grav-chutes for the first time, most of them would probably experience a physical "landing on both feet" next...