I'm in Warhammer, I just want to grow mushrooms

Chapter 164: Echoes of the Perfect City

"Pfft-"

Pushing the piston and injecting the medicine, Li Nuo used the truth serum imitated from fungal material to enter the target's body.

After the brain freeze was lifted, the truth serum began to take effect and indistinct mumbling sounds were heard in the house.

"What's your name?" Li Nuo asked in a low voice.

"My…my name is Fremont."

Fremont has an ordinary appearance, rough skin, thick knuckles, and calluses on the bases and palms of his hands.

Judging from the thickness and distribution of the calluses, he must have worked as a miner for a long time.

He inhaled dust from mining solid promethium ore, and over time his voice became muddy.

Fremont received orders from headquarters to participate in the riot within the 131st Regiment's security zone.

Li Nuo believed in the military proficiency of the Sun Army, and they must have a plan for the so-called riot.

In contrast, the location of the headquarters and the intelligence of the rebel leaders are what Li Nuo really cares about.

"Tell me, who is your commander?"

"Our commander is Defias Silverlight."

"Where is your headquarters?" Li Nuo asked as he took out the second injection and stabbed it into Fremont's neck.

This injection contains the vaccine against the Bone Drinkers.

As he didn't have time to make a finder, Li Nuo chose to use a vaccine to confirm whether the man in front of him was infected by the Bone Drinker.

This step has a bit of PTSD in it.

There's nothing we can do. Ouman's incident had a huge impact on Li Nuo.

When Li Nuo was controlling the witch boy Sak to talk to Oman, he didn't realize that the other party was infected by the Bone Drinker.

It wasn't until the vaccine on the orcs took effect that the fact that Oman was parasitized by the Bone Drinker was exposed.

This covert and highly deceptive infiltration method forced Li Nuo to be on guard and use various means to verify whether the person he came into contact with was the host of the Bone Drinker.

When the potion entered Fremont's body, a small lump quickly formed on the latter's neck.

The pimple is the same color as your skin and there is no swelling or redness.

This means that Fremont was not infected by the Bone Drinkers.

Li Nuo nodded secretly, breathed a sigh of relief, and listened to Fremont's answer.

"Our headquarters... is in the City Hall of the Fifth District, which has been transformed into the base of Silver Light."

"Silver light? What is the silver light you keep mentioning?"

"Silver light is our hope." A strange smile appeared on Fremont's face.

His eyes were out of focus, saliva from the truth serum hung from the corners of his mouth, and his smile turned from a smile to a grin, as if he had seen some glorious picture.

"The silver light will guide us to build our own world. We will kill the Empire's lackeys and defend our homeland. Even if... even if we can't kill the Imperial Army, we can... we can also die with them."

Fremont's voice became high-pitched, and his unfocused pupils rapidly shrank, looking like he was about to break free from the control of the truth serum.

Li Nuo took out a new truth serum and gave the other party an injection. He had some guesses in his mind about the so-called "silver light".

This should be the idea used by the rebel leaders to brainwash the armed personnel, and it has a strong heretical color.

As the new truth serum took effect, Fremont's condition stabilized and he told Li Nuo everything he knew.

About 10 minutes later, Fremont breathed his last.

Li Nuo used mechanical witchcraft to use the scraps in the iron house to make guns, armor, object finders, scrap shield generators, "Mao Ge Jing Quietly" force field generators and other equipment.

Judging from Fremont's confession, the rebel leader Defias Silverlight made his fortune by secretly spreading the ideas of the "Silverlight" cult.

Over the past six years, Defias has used his excellent speaking skills and ability to paint a picture to quickly control a large number of hard workers who are eager to escape from mining work.

Not only that, he also extended his influence to the local planetary defense forces and governor's guards.

By the time the former Governor discovered the existence of the Defias, it was already too late.

Defias started a rebellion and personally led the rebels to attack the Governor's mansion, uncovering the truth about the former Governor's family's extravagance.

After burning down the mansion and destroying the orbital tower, the Defias returned to Sector 5 and planned a plan to perish together with the Imperial Army.

Yes, die together.

Defias knew from the beginning that the rebels were doomed to die. When he promoted the concept of "Silver Light", he always emphasized the sentence "When the Silver Light comes, the planet will be silent."

All those who followed him in rebellion were basically mentally prepared to die together with the Imperial Army.

There are two reasons why they made this decision:

One is that mining life in the past was too hard.

These people have been locked in the mines for generations, with no hope of escaping from mining work.

When idealists meet a doomed tragic fate, an extreme campaign of revenge is inevitable.

The second reason that prompted them to make up their minds to die together with the imperial army was related to "Silver Light".

Defias declared that when the "Silver Light" comes, those who dare to resist the tyranny and bloody suppression of the Human Empire can ascend to a carefree spiritual realm.

Defias gave this so-called spiritual kingdom a name, the City of Perfection.

On one side is the nightmarish reality, and on the other side is the ideal spiritual kingdom.

Most people who dare to resist reality are willing to embrace the spiritual kingdom.

These people may know in their hearts that it is a false scene described by the Defias, but so what? It is better than being caught and executed by the Imperial Army, or being labeled a criminal.

In short, in the bird world of Warhammer, death is not scary, but a life worse than death is the scariest thing.

Li Nuo had reason to believe that if a certain Warp Demon extended an olive branch to the Defias at this time, the Defias would lead the rebels to surrender without hesitation.

Of course, mortals are like ants, their strength is too small and insignificant in the face of the power of chaos.

The fate of the Defias and the rebels is to become chaos spawn, plague zombies, blue horrors, succubi, bloodletters and other bad things.

Li Nuo didn't know how to evaluate the cruel and ruthless side of the human empire, so he could only silently prepare the props he needed.

"By the way, I have to figure out how to get to the fifth district." Li Nuo slapped his forehead and suddenly remembered that he didn't know the way.

Fremont dictated the route from the surface to the underground city.

Li Nuo needs to find a map to avoid getting lost when following the route to the fifth district.

He thought for a moment, and ordered Bond 2 to stay alert and make props, and then "went offline" on the spot.

With the eyes closed and opened, consciousness returned to the human body.

Li Nuo operated the communicator and called up the layout map of Granite 5.

The mineral deposits on the ground have been mined out and are shrouded in black sand all day long. The miners and major buildings are concentrated underground.

The buildings are distributed around the underground rail network.

There are two routes to the fifth district.

A ground route requires crossing mountains and enduring the invasion of wind and sand, which is obviously not suitable.

The second route is to take the underground rail train, which is controlled by the rebels.

Li Nuo copied the map using a yeast cartridge, stored it in the fungal warehouse, and started the Waaagh simulation again.

The consciousness traveled through the sea of stars, arrived at Granite 5, and entered the body of Bond 2.

The necessary weapons, equipment and props have been produced.

Li Nuo stood up, reached out to touch Fremont's body, and activated his transformation ability.

[You used genetic recombination technology to give the special forces boy "Bond 2" the ability to change his own form. ]

[During the activation of this ability, 1 universal psychic material is consumed every hour. ]

[Please make sure that there are enough universal psychic materials to prevent the deformation effect from ending prematurely. 】

[The current number of universal psychic materials is 15/15. ]

The system text flashed across his field of vision, and ripples appeared on Li Nuo's body. His height increased from 1.5 meters to 1.7 meters, and his skin color, facial features, and body shape became exactly the same as Fremont's.

Li Nuo stripped Fremont's clothes and put them on, packed up his weapons and props, and used the corpse transformation technique to destroy the body and erase his own traces. After confirming that there was nothing missing, he opened the door to the deepest part of the iron house.

Behind the door is a stairwell extending downwards. The corridor and handrails are made of rusty iron. A cold wind carrying the smell of smoke and dust blows from below, and the low roar of a passing train can be faintly heard.

Walking down the stairs to the underground area, a simple platform appeared in front of us. The dim promethium lamp provided insignificant light, and the lampshade was blackened by smoke.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

The sound of a train came from far away, and a transport truck loaded with solid promethium ore came from the tunnel on the right.

There were five figures in the train's cab.

After seeing "Fremont" on the platform, the train slowed down and finally stopped with a harsh friction sound.

"Hey! Fremont! Why are you still here? Didn't I tell you? Your team needs to reach the orbital tower as soon as possible, prepare for the riot, and delay the Empire's lackeys as much as possible."

The speaker was wearing a miner's hat, and the searchlight on the hat shone a beam of white light.

These people are not only members of the train's freight crew, but are also responsible for conveying orders from headquarters.

Defias was worried that the Imperial Army would monitor their communication signals, so they gave up convenient wireless communications and turned to manual transmission of messages.

Li Nuo faced the light shining on him, showing some excitement, with expectation in his eyes:

"I want to go to District 5 to say one last prayer before I leave! Help me, guys, it won't take much time!"

"This..." The five people in the cab looked at each other and discussed it in whispers.

The leader waved to Li Nuo:

"Well, the riot is still five or six days away. It's the same if you go there after you finish your prayers. Get in the car!"

Li Nuo walked through the iron gate and entered the cab.

The leader of the freight team started the train and asked without turning his head:
"Where are your team members? Aren't they coming?"

"Before I brought the order to the ground, my team members had been picked up by the shuttle." Li Nuo explained casually and looked around quickly. He saw a lot of gray faces. They were all young people. There were no old people. The average life expectancy in the mining world would not exceed 30 years old.

The train started and slowly accelerated. The team leader tilted his head and smiled at Li Nuo:

"Your team members were lucky. They didn't have to walk over by themselves. Instead, you were left behind because you were delivering orders. This might be a test for you from Silver Light. The more tests we get, the better our future will be, right?"

Li Nuo nodded without saying anything more.

The train's speed increased to 30 kilometers per hour, and it passed through six checkpoints and three inspection stations and successfully entered the fifth district.

Unlike what Li Nuo expected, he did not see any ordinary people being eaten by the rebels along the way.

In fact, according to Fremont's confession, ordinary people who did not participate in the rebellion were all driven to the surface by the rebels and were now gathering in the security area of the orbital tower.

The food the rebels eat underground is the planet's reserve food, looted from the warehouse of the former governor, and the drinking water comes from industrial water purifiers.

After getting off the car, Li Nuo stepped into the fifth area of Granite 5.

Tin houses are piled together to form a dirty refugee slum, the muddy roads are covered with dust, and all kinds of sewage gather in low-lying areas, emitting a foul odor.

The same scene occurred in all the districts of Epimet's Lower Nest three months ago.

However, after Li Nuo became deputy governor, the street scene there changed drastically.

The sewage is collected by the newly built water purification plant and converted into pure water.

Previously, the people in Xiachao could only drink sewage for free, but now they can drink filtered water with relatively hard water quality.

Once the rebellion on Granite 5 is quelled, Vorges will make major changes to the existing infrastructure on the planet, with the standards for the changes being based on Epimet's current lower nest.

This is not entirely out of kindness, there is also an economic consideration involved.

Improvements in water quality and living conditions will lead to a steady increase in the population of the lower nest, increase food and water consumption, and raise the operating costs of the hive.

Therefore, most governors did not regard the Xiachao people as human beings, as long as they did not starve to death or die of disease before being used to pay population taxes.

But Li Nuo's transformation of the lower nest allowed Fu Gaisi to discover another path.

The improvement of water quality and living conditions will certainly increase the cost of providing shelter for people, but the resulting additional population can be used to offset material taxes, thus saving a large amount of material expenses invisibly.

This principle also applies to the mining world.

When there are not enough miners, the governor of a mining planet needs to pay out of his own pocket and apply for population support from the Imperial Ministry of the Interior.

As living conditions improve, miners live longer, the mining world becomes less dependent on foreign populations, and the amount of throne coins spent on population introduction will naturally be greatly reduced.

Many governors in the mining world know this.

But they are unwilling to do so.

The miners could potentially sabotage the expensive water purification equipment as a way of negotiating terms with the Governor.

Not only did the governor have to pay for repairing the equipment, he also had to pay out of his own pocket to meet the miners' demands. In the end, he even had to send people to kill the troublemaking miners. It can be said that he wasted his energy and lost money.

Therefore, for most governors in the mining world, they would rather let miners die of illness, exhaustion, or tragic death in production accidents at the age of 30 than provide them with a healthy living environment.

This makes the miners' lives bleak and they see no hope at all.

“Rejoice, for I bring you good news of hope.”

A large number of people gathered in front of the Fifth District Town Hall, blocking the surrounding streets. Even the roofs of the surrounding tin houses were filled with people.

Li Nuo couldn't squeeze to the main entrance of the city hall, so he simply found a high point outside the crowd, turned on the vibration sensor, monitored the speaker's voice, and searched for the whereabouts of Defias.

By feeding a bullet to the rebel leader and Silver Light Cult leader, Li Nuo would have completed most of his mission on this trip.

Look far away and look at the main entrance of City Hall.

The preacher stood at the top of the steps in front of the door.

He was dressed in a priest's attire and used a crude loudspeaker to broadcast his voice.

“He walks among us.

“Wherever He sees, there are natural disasters, man-made calamities, pestilence, and despair.

“He said that natural disasters are trials, man-made disasters are sins, plagues are purification, and despair is the road to salvation. Do not be afraid of the suffering that destroys the body, because He brings liberation to the soul…”

The more Li Nuo listened, the more he felt something was wrong.

Why does this feel like something from the Book of the Holy Scriptures?
Also, the name Defias gave to the spiritual kingdom is the City of Perfection.

Li Nuo had felt that it was a bit strange before, and now, combined with the preacher's speech, he saw that the faith followed by the rebels was definitely inseparable from the Word Bearers Legion.

As the thought flashed through his mind, a voice sounded beside him.

"You've come at the right time. The last round of preaching has just ended. Now a new round of preaching is underway. The pastor on the stage will start from the first verse of the Book of the Holy Word and talk about the past of the Perfect City."

The speaker moves silently, without heartbeat, breathing or footsteps.

He was like a massless soul, coming to Li Nuo in a quiet manner.

Li Nuo became alert, turned his head slightly, and felt a chill in his heart.

Defias Silverlight!
This man looked exactly like Defias Silverlight as described by Fremont.

He has a broad forehead, a high nose bridge, deep eye sockets, light grey pupils, and strong facial lines, but his expression reveals tenderness and sadness.

Li Nuo's right hand was on his waist, his fingertips clasped the handle of the laser pistol. With just a light rub of his fingers, flames would gush out from the muzzle.

"I beg you not to destroy the peace of mind of these people. They have nothing else."

Defias bowed.

Li Nuo glanced at the rebels who were listening to the speech, put his right hand on his abdomen, and made no further movements.

Defias bowed again, looked towards the direction of the City Hall, and asked in a low voice:
"Do you know the origin of the Perfect City?"

"No." Li Nuo replied coldly.

He knew what the "perfect city" meant, but he had no intention of revealing what he knew.

Defias said as if talking to himself:
"The City of Perfection is the city where I once lived. We sang praises to the Emperor's great deeds in the sacred and solemn cathedral and carved lifelike marble angels for the Emperor. My daily work is to write oath papers, make prayer scrolls, and record the glory of the Emperor with holy words and parchment scrolls."

Defias paused:

"Until one day, the god we worshipped and followed came to our homeland. Everything there disgusted him. He was filled with rage and sent groups of angels to bring disaster. His anger set the sky on fire, and the raging flames engulfed our homeland. Six billion believers who welcomed the Holy Word were reduced to ashes.

"The scene of that day is deeply engraved in my memory..."

(End of this chapter)