Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 351 Imperial Corpse Eater
In the empire’s towering capital, millions of lives are born every day amidst the roar of machinery, and perish in the same roar.

These lives, as insignificant as ants, will mostly meet the same fate after death—becoming another cog in the machine that keeps the empire running.

Very few deceased individuals are granted the right to a full burial, which requires them to have a distinguished status, a high position, and, most importantly, substantial wealth during their lifetime.

In this empire built upon countless corpses, every body is a precious resource. For ordinary citizens, obtaining a place of rest after death is even more difficult than seeing the sunlight in the depths of the hive capital.

Nobles built luxurious family cemeteries on their private estates, where members of their families from generation to generation were laid to rest in tombs decorated with exquisite statues.

Some particularly favored servants were even granted a resting place in a corner of their master's cemetery.

But for the general public, such treatment will always remain an unattainable dream.

When an ordinary person's life comes to an end, they often only have two choices.

They could either be transformed into semi-mechanical servants, continuing to serve the Empire in another form.

They would either be towed away by the Pale Guild's recycling trucks, turned into grayish-white powder in the roaring shredder, and eventually become "corpse starch" on the plates of the Nest City residents.

This is the most common fate of the people of the empire—to work for the empire in life and to continue to contribute their final value to the empire after death.

(The Corpse Guild lady, when you see her, she's probably about to be dragged away and turned into corpse starch.)

(Pale Guild)
When 32 arrived at the Pale Guild in the Nest City, a fully loaded transport truck happened to stop in front of the guild's gate. The heavy metal doors slowly opened, and several workers wearing stained protective suits were busy unloading the goods.

She watched coldly as hundreds of corpses were roughly dragged out of the carriages, piled on trolleys like discarded cargo, and then quickly transported to the processing workshop.

Dark red bloodstains remained on the ground, and the drag trail extended deep into the factory.

Among those corpses, several seemed to be twitching weakly, their fingers unconsciously scratching the ground, and emitting dying groans from their throats.

However, the guild members ignored this and skillfully grabbed their hands and feet, throwing them into the processing line without hesitation.

"Those people aren't dead yet, are they?" 32 frowned and asked in a flat tone.

The Pale Guild leader standing beside her immediately put on a fawning smile and explained in a low voice, "Your Excellency, those are gang thugs from the Bottom Nest. Their injuries are beyond saving."

In places like the bottom nest, serious injury is tantamount to death; no one will waste medical resources to save them.

Although his words were somewhat exaggerated, they did reflect the harsh reality of the bottom nest.

There, the injured either have to rely on their own willpower to pull through, or they can only slowly rot in the shadows.

To ensure a stable supply of raw materials, the Corpse Guild will even actively intervene in gang wars, offering to collect corpses as payment after the war.

However, they are not always willing to wait until the battle is over.

After all, the losing side might not even leave behind a corpse, while the winner sometimes cuts the enemy to pieces, resulting in poor quality of the "raw materials" recovered.

Therefore, the guild members preferred to enter the fray at the height of the battle, drag away the wounded who were barely alive, conduct a brief assessment, and then send them directly to the processing workshop to ensure their "freshness." 32 simply shook his head slightly at this explanation, saying nothing more.

She knew perfectly well how the empire operated—cold, efficient, and ruthless. Even if she forcibly ordered these people to spare the half-dead gang members, it wouldn't change anything. The laws of the Underbelly wouldn't waver because of her momentary pity.

Moreover, she had more important things to do than that.

"Take me inside and have a look," 32 said coldly.

The leader of the Corpse Guild dared not delay and quickly led 32 into the guild.

Two Kaslan intelligent machine guns followed behind her, protecting her safety under the control of an intelligent craftsman.

32 originally wanted to bring the Death Soldier, but the Death Soldier was too big. Using it inside the hive would be too powerful and the terrain would make it impossible to maneuver.

After all, the size of a Deathbringer is almost the same as that of a Knight mech, and even larger than that of a Servant mech.

In comparison, the smaller Caslan mechs are much more agile.

Inside the hive, 32 wasn't worried about encountering any trouble, but if they did find out something, these intelligent mechs could protect him, eliminate the enemy, or buy him time.

The Corpse Guild's internal operations revolve entirely around the processing of corpses, with various rusty cutting tools and grinding devices arranged in the dark factory.

The bodies that had just been brought in were being skillfully dissected and processed by workers wearing decorative breathing filters. Sharp saw blades cut through the stiff limbs, internal organs were removed in different categories, and bones and muscle tissue were sent to different processing lines.

The entire workshop reeked of blood, dark red liquid flowed in the drainage ditch on the ground, and the air was filled with the sticky sound of flesh being crushed by machinery.

Such an environment naturally breeds cult beliefs—the omnipresent stench of blood, mountains of corpses, the oppressive atmosphere of death, and even the illegal executions carried out by some workers in private, can all become bloody sacrifices to the chaotic evil god.

If cult members secretly perform corruption rituals during the processing, the consequences will be extremely terrible.

Because these processed corpses undergo high-temperature grinding and purification, eventually transforming into grayish-white corpse starch, which becomes the main source of protein at the bottom of the nest.

They are compressed into synthetic food blocks or high-calorie energy bars and distributed to all levels of society through a rationing system, sustaining the lives of hundreds of billions of Nest City residents.

If the raw materials are contaminated with chaotic pollution, the toxins will spread rapidly along the food chain, causing large-scale mutated plagues at best, and directly plunging the entire nest into the abyss of chaotic corruption at worst.

For this reason, both the purification priests of the state religion and the law enforcement agencies of the governor of Nest City closely monitored the Corpse Guild, regularly inspecting the production line and testing the purity of the finished products.

As for those hives that are poorly regulated... when hives begin to see ghouls or cults begin to perform large-scale sacrifices, the rulers will understand the price they will pay for their dereliction of duty.

However, perhaps because this hive city was the capital of the sector, or perhaps because it had been cleansed by the Inquisition and the Department of Justice after the previous cult rebellion, 32 did not find any traces of corruption here.

The entire Pale Guild was very clean; even the workers who handled the corpses were devout followers of the state religion.

However, during a conversation with the Corpse Guild staff responsible for collecting corpses, she obtained a clue: the number of corpses produced by the Bottom Nest recently had decreased by about 5% compared to before.

(End of this chapter)