Perditia, Upper Nest District.
On the magnificent and empty streets, there was only the faint sound of wind sweeping up dust. Grand Gothic buildings, like silent mountains of steel, cast enormous shadows, compressing what should have been wide roads into deep canyons. This place was once a paradise for the planet's ruling class and wealthy merchants, but now, it was as silent as a ghost realm.
Three soldiers, clad in matte black, full-coverage carapaces, patrolled this dead silence in a standard combat formation. Each step they took on the ornate paving stones produced a crisp, solitary echo.
"It feels so quiet," said Garry, who was at the end of the squad. "There's no one on the streets except us, such a big difference from the Mid and Lower Hives."
"Yeah, they probably moved all the combat power outside to deal with the orks," Name, who was in the middle, chimed in.
"But none of that matters anymore…"
"Can you two stop for a moment?" AlphaBravo's voice came through the comms. "I know you're eager to make jokes, but the Upper Hive is really likely to be hiding uncleared Chaos contamination. Even if you want to make jokes, make some auspicious ones."
"Hmm, auspicious jokes?" Garry thought for a moment, then said in a tone as if taking an oath, "After this patrol, I'll wash my hands of this business and go back home to get married…"
"That's even more inauspicious, isn't it?!"
"Seriously, after this, I'm done with patrols," Garry dropped his joking tone and complained, "Let's leave this job to the casual players. I prefer going to the battlefield and chopping people, doing things for real."
"I think the most important point is that during long patrols, he can't reset his status by committing suicide when he gets hungry, which forces him to gnaw on that thing," Name mercilessly exposed his true thoughts.
"It's perfectly reasonable to think that!" Garry said, narrowing his eyes. "Who would love to eat something that tastes like cowhide dried in the sun for forty-nine days?! If I had to eat that every day, I'd rather swallow excrement and kill myself!"
"But I see the local workers in the hive city eating it happily," Name shrugged. "And from the looks of it, they can keep eating it."
"That's because they're eating human flesh in the Lower Hive," Garry said. "And it's human flesh full of nuclear radiation, parasites, and unknown sewage. In comparison, at least the nutrient paste is clean."
"Hmph," Name sneered, lowering his voice and speaking in a mysterious tone, "What if I told you that the raw material for this nutrient paste… is also human flesh?"
"What?!" Garry was shocked on the spot. He instinctively touched the nutrient paste at his waist. "I knew it tasted like rust when I gnawed on it. Is it really human flesh?!"
"Of course not, I just made that up!" Name was also shocked. "The rusty taste is due to metal residue from the production line! Why did you believe it immediately?!"
"Because this is Warhammer," Garry replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "Isn't it natural for such grimdark things to happen?"
"Uh…" Name was silent for a moment, finally managing to squeeze out, "I'm speechless."
"So I still miss the intense fighting outside the hive city," Garry muttered. "Staying in a quiet place for too long, my bones are almost rusting. Aren't we playing this game to fight? Oh, right, do you still remember when I cut off an ork's neck with one strike, sending its head flying three feet high?"
"You just told that story three minutes ago," Name replied expressionlessly.
"Then you've probably almost forgotten it, so I'll reluctantly tell it again," Garry cleared his throat, completely ignoring the speechless looks of the other two, and began to speak voluminously:
"Back then, on the wilderness outside the city, the yellow sand stretched endlessly, and bones lay everywhere. I saw that ork beast, over a zhang tall, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with a green face and fangs, its eyes gleaming fiercely! In its hand, it held a rusty, large cleaver that had drunk the blood of who knows how many heroes. It let out a strange roar, like muffled thunder, and charged straight at your grandpa, me. That momentum, it was truly…"
Name said weakly, "I finally understand why Horus kept muttering about 'thirty years of golden rings' and how it made people so… disheartened."
AlphaBravo nodded in deep agreement.
Just then, the distant skyline suddenly brightened like daylight. The world was instantly bleached, stripped of all color, leaving only black and white. All buildings and debris cast sharp, infinitely long, blade-like shadows behind them, which were then completely erased by the sweeping light in the next moment.
Immediately after, a deafening roar came without warning, as if the sky was torn apart and the earth was wailing. The entire Upper Nest District trembled violently with this colossal sound, and countless building windows shattered into dust from the shockwave.
The three reacted with inhuman speed.
Almost at the very moment the sound began, they didn't even have time to think; their bodies, obeying well-honed muscle memory, lunged at the nearest cover at top speed. Garry rolled behind a magnificent sculpture base, Name slid under the wreckage of an abandoned luxury hovercar, and AlphaBravo crashed directly into the doorway of an adjacent building.
After ensuring their safety, they immediately began to cautiously peek out to observe the source of the sound.
This was also a common characteristic of veteran players of this game. When walking, they would always subconsciously observe where there were places that could serve as cover, and after hearing sounds similar to gunshots or artillery fire, their bodies would already have taken cover before their brains even reacted… It could be considered mastering a valuable skill that could be used in reality.
Although most players probably wouldn't want the opportunity to use this skill in reality, and this instinct would also cause some unnecessary trouble during firework displays for the New Year, having a new skill is always a good thing, right?
Among the three, AlphaBravo, the most experienced, reacted first and said in a low voice over the comms, "It's an explosion from outside the hive city."
"What could make such a big noise?" Garry also stood up from behind cover, brushed the dust off his carapace, and looked into the distance in shock. "Did they detonate a nuclear bomb?"
Garry's casual guess was actually correct; it was indeed a nuclear bomb, and not the small-yield tactical nuclear bombs used before, but a large-yield nuclear bomb actively used by their side.