The 'shooting star' in the sky expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye, rapidly transforming from an initial flash of light into a scorching fireball, tearing through the atmosphere with an unnerving roar. The sand-swept desert seemed awestruck by this immense energy, and the air was thick with a burning, charred smell.
"No, that's not right… This doesn't look like a meteorite…" RNGesus squinted. Despite his blurry vision, he still made out the true nature of the colossal object—it wasn't a meteorite at all, but a warship!
Judging by its thick armor and villain-like appearance, it was clearly an Imperial vessel. He just didn't know which faction it belonged to: a Rogue Trader? The Imperial Navy? Or a space marines' Battle Barge?
The warship's landing was clearly a hard landing, a catastrophic crash. It slammed directly into the ground about ten meters in front of RNGesus, precisely crushing the greenskins who hadn't run more than a few steps, in a terrifying manner.
"Rumble!!!"
The deafening roar was like the sky collapsing and the earth rending. The terrifying impact lifted yellow sand thousands of feet into the air, forming a circular sandstorm that instantly engulfed everything around.
The warship plowed a bottomless gully into the ground, and due to its immense inertia, it dragged forward for dozens of meters, leaving no trace of the greenskins in its path.
Even the greenskins who reacted quickly and fortunately escaped the initial impact were not spared. Various fragments—perhaps a twisted metal frame, a sharp steel plate, or even a frozen piece of excrement—splashed out as the warship disintegrated, raining down and striking them one by one, killing them instantly.
Throughout the entire process, RNGesus was unharmed, except for being unable to open his eyes due to the wind stirred up by the warship's fall.
"So, that's all taken care of…" RNGesus murmured, looking at the massive, burning warship wreckage in front of him, billowing thick smoke.
At this moment, Pyro stepped forward and gave RNGesus a thumbs-up: "You're awesome! I apologize for my previous remarks."
Pyro shifted his gaze to the massive metal wreckage in front of him, scrutinizing it up, down, left, and right, then said with some uncertainty, "This ship… it seems a bit like a Battle Barge?"
"Are you saying that what landed in front of us is a space marines' chapter fleet?" RNGesus asked, surprised. If that were true, it would be no ordinary stroke of luck.
"Don't get excited, don't get excited," Pyro waved his hand, trying to extinguish RNGesus's fantasies. "I said it 'seems' a bit like it. I haven't really studied Wahammer much, and besides, this ship is completely disfigured after this crash landing, so what it really is, is anyone's guess."
"True," RNGesus muttered, "If only we could go inside and look, but the ship crashed so badly, we can't even find the door."
No sooner had he spoken than a huge metal plate on the warship wreckage in front of RNGesus suddenly let out a piercing "creak" of friction. It seemed to have reached its limit, then crashed down, stirring up another cloud of yellow sand and revealing the warship's dark interior. It was pitch black inside, bottomless, as if leading to an unknown abyss.
"Uh…" Pyro looked at RNGesus, then at the 'door' that had appeared out of thin air, wanting to speak but holding back, then wanting to speak again. He seemed to want to say something, but something was stuck in his throat.
"If you can't speak, then don't," RNGesus shot him an annoyed glance.
"Cough, cough," Pyro coughed twice to cover his embarrassment, then asked, "Speaking of which, I suddenly became curious about one question: Does your god dice kill the person you want to kill, or the person who wants to kill you?"
"Now that you mention it, I'm curious too," RNGesus mused for a moment. "But it's hard to test. Not to mention whether we'll find an enemy in the next hour, if an enemy develops killing intent towards me, it's hard for me not to develop killing intent towards them, right?"
"No problem," a cunning glint flashed in Pyro's eyes. He swiftly pulled out his pistol from his waist and pointed it at RNGesus, "I'll just try…"
Before he could finish, with a "whoosh!", a steel bar as thick as a man's arm, whistling through the air, shot out from the warship wreckage, piercing directly through Pyro's abdomen and carrying him several meters before pinning him firmly to the ground. Blood instantly stained the yellow sand.
"You… must… take… my… flamethrower… back…" Pyro struggled to utter his last few words, the light in his eyes rapidly dimming, just like an NPC in an RPG game who gives information before kicking the bucket, completely falling silent.
"Hmm…" RNGesus looked at the burning warship in front of him, at the greenskins' corpses scattered everywhere, and then at the recently deceased Pyro. There were too many things to complain about; he no longer knew how to express himself.
After a moment of thought, RNGesus decided to shift his focus. He recalled Pyro's dying question and his own recent experience: "I definitely had no killing intent towards Pyro just now, so is it an ability similar to Miracle For You?"
He fixed his gaze on the newly opened door of the warship. That door seemed to silently invite him in.
"This is clearly an invitation to me, isn't it?" RNGesus muttered to himself, "Then I shall respectfully comply… After all, there's no way I'll encounter danger."
RNGesus strode into the ship. The ship's interior was pitch black, illuminated only by the faint daylight occasionally filtering through damaged areas and the distant firelight from the burning wreckage, barely lighting the twisted metal corridors.
The air was thick with a strong smell of char, mixed with ozone, blood, and an indescribable scent of decay. Underfoot were scattered debris, twisted pipelines, and unidentified wreckage, each step producing an unsettling creaking sound.
He randomly chose a direction and walked forward along a relatively intact corridor. Most of the cabin doors on both sides of the corridor were tightly shut, while some were torn open by explosions, revealing chaotic scenes inside. He just didn't know if it looked like a catastrophic battle had occurred here before the crash, and perhaps that battle was the direct cause of the ship's demise.
Within a few minutes, he reached a dead end; in front of him was a locked door. This door appeared thicker than the surrounding cabin doors, seemingly leading to an important area. The door panel was covered with scratches and charred marks, clearly having suffered violent attacks.
Next to the door, the body of a human crewman lay in a twisted posture. His uniform was tattered, and there was a large hole in his chest. It looked like he had fought something fierce before he died, ultimately losing the battle.
RNGesus knocked on it with his hand; it didn't budge, clearly not opening with brute force. He carefully examined the door frame and found a card slot, indicating that the door required an access card to open.
He seemed to have thought of something and turned his gaze to the human crewman's corpse. Sure enough, in the human crewman's pocket, a small portion of an access card, glowing with a faint light, was clearly visible.
"It's turned into a puzzle," RNGesus muttered, "And it's a puzzle difficult enough to stump a zoo chimpanzee: Find the obviously placed key, figure out the connection between the key, lock, and door, and deduce that the key is needed to open the lock…"