Warhammer: Filial Piety Makes Power

Chapter 361 Sisyphus, the worst of the worst

Sisyphus is a metaphor for a futile person who can never reach their goal and can only roll a boulder up the mountain day after day.

In this world that is described as science fiction but is actually magical, everything has a symbolic meaning, especially names.

Perturabo is a researcher, born with knowledge; Vulcan is a forger, the furnace fire revealing his intentions; Johnsen is a general, his blade composing his loyalty and instincts; and Mordred is a rebel, forcefully rejecting everything.

Such examples abound. Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that virtually all Primarchs have been assimilated. Regardless of what they were before, they were forcibly integrated into humanity after becoming Primarchs.

Based on this insane act of turning warp juveniles into biological weapons, Vashtor will never be able to ascend to godhood in his lifetime. Even if he does, he will only be a servant to the yellow weasel. The last person to do this was the Ancient Saint, who single-handedly created the Eldar gods.

If the Primarch being swept out by the warp storm was an accident, then the world he descended upon was definitely not accidental.

The exact origin of the primordial gene is unverifiable; this refers not to its physical form, but to its core subspace essence.

Mordred once asked the Emperor Primarch about the origin of his essence, whether it came from the course of human history or something else, but the Emperor could not answer that question.

The essence of the Primarch, or rather the fusion material of the Primarch, was obtained by the Emperor through deception, though it was more like outright robbery.

After the Emperor had swindled the four peddlers out of their minds, these five scoundrels devised a plan: the four peddlers would provide money and supplies to help the Emperor go fishing in the depths of the Warp.

That godforsaken place, in layman's terms, is neither within the Three Realms nor within the Five Elements. Even evil gods keep it a closely guarded secret, and only a fool like the emperor would dare to venture there.

When Mordred asked what the hellish place looked like, the Emperor said he had forgotten. He only knew that he went inside and then blasted out a group of fish, which were still unformed warp entities.

The four vendors started fishing together, then raised funds to join the franchise, handing over these incredibly precious fish fry to Emperor to make figurines, and even had a honeymoon period.

At this time, the four vendors, or rather the subspace behind them, were relatively peaceful. After all, the yellow weasel was the Black King's jinchūriki, and no matter how you looked at it, he was an ambitious person who would do anything to become a god.

The four peddlers thought the same thing. They were just young people who were only tens of thousands of years old, but their spiritual energy shone so brightly that it could blind people. And then they said they were human? Wasn't that ridiculous?
We certainly can't be mistaken. Although your golden light is dazzling, it's all black inside once you tear it open. It's just a costume, a virtual idol. We all know that.

However, what happened next was more abstract. When all the evil gods, and even the entire warp, believed that the Emperor was the Dark Lord who would destroy everything, Old Man Huang denied it.

He was clearly a chess player, yet he insisted on jumping onto the card table. With unparalleled willpower, he suppressed his divinity and slapped the black king hard across the face, frantically borrowing money while shouting, "I am not a god!"

Loans must be repaid, but the emperor thinks, "What the hell am I supposed to do? Repaying the debt is impossible. When I get angry, I even deceive myself. Besides, I'm going to be a deadbeat."

These prototypes are all my offspring, and I won't give them a single one. Not only will I not give them any, but I'll also build a network to stab you in the ass.

You think you can tell me to avoid your sharp edge? Mordred, send the money; Horus, serve the food.

And then that was it. The perpetual deadbeat was beaten to his knees for not being able to pay his Huabei bill, becoming paralyzed and turning into a toilet plug. The logistics manager, Mordred, ate and drank excessively, died suddenly from his bloated stomach, and committed suicide to thank God. The son of the first returnee was unable to serve the food properly, losing both his wife and his army, and becoming infamous for eternity.

As for the other two partners, Macado was half-dead and vanished without a trace, while Waldo disappeared without a trace, and his Imperial Guards ended up as naked, reclusive nerds.

As the least noticeable and least prominent of the eleven, Sisyphus was a mistake from birth, unlucky to the core, even worse off than the two unfortunate fellows, Brut and Angron.

Born on Randan's home planet, it was reborn by the madwoman Dahl and used as a seed bank, where it produced and consumed aliens for fun.

Just by hearing the name, you know it's incredibly ironic – "Sisyphus" is such a sarcastic name. Add to that Dahl being an old acquaintance of the Emperor and having a name that sounds so much like his own mother, and just thinking about it, Mordred could make at least 800 episodes of a melodramatic love story.

According to the research institute's logs and Sisyphus's confession, Sisyphus was fully resurrected 100 years after the Great Rebellion ended.

But her resurrection was useless. Those who knew about it were either in a resurrection battle or had become vegetative. And without anyone activating her, she remained asleep for a full 9700 years.

It was automatically ejected 300 years ago when the energy was completely exhausted, but unfortunately, the laboratory's energy was depleted while the automatic defense measures around the research institute did not fail.

When Sisyphus finally managed to dig a dog hole in the wall using laboratory equipment, she encountered automatons and was nearly beaten to death. Only the Primarch's thick skin and ability to survive by eating dirt saved her life.

What happened next was a 40k version of The Shawshank Redemption.

Through persistent digging and repeated trial and error, Sisyphus finally reached the research institute's main hall, successfully disabling the Extinction Relic that served as the gatekeeper and obtaining a large amount of supplies.

Then, with these supplies, she continued upwards, managing to dig through the entire Mount Everest, and finally reached the underground palace.

"No, didn't you notice the red button on the door? Back then, I was afraid you idiot wouldn't be able to find your way out when you woke up, so I painted the button bright red."

I've even entered your genetic code into the security system. As long as you don't do anything reckless, the defense system simply can't attack you.

"I don't know. I've never been to school. When I woke up, my mind was blank. All I knew was that my name was Sisyphus. I didn't know anything else."

Sisyphus was truly devastated, especially after Mordred demonstrated how to open the door to her: "20 years! I've been digging for a full 20 years!"

"You haven't dug in the right place in 20 years?" Guilliman couldn't believe there could be such a stupid person in the world, but upon hearing Guilliman's words, Sisyphus burst into tears.

"I'm lost!"

That's well-reasoned and convincing. No wonder Guilliman found that a section of the mountain around the palace seemed to have collapsed when he returned to Terra. It turns out it was you who did it.

"And then what happened? Didn't you say you dug up the area beneath the palace?"

"Yes, and then I slipped and fell to the bottom of the nest."

Upon hearing this, even Zhuang Sen, who had played Monster Hunter since childhood, was stunned. Compared to her, he felt that his luck was quite good.

If Koz was found by Mordred early and lived a good life, then Sisyphus made up for Koz's childhood deficiencies.

According to Sisyphus, after entering the Underhive, she became a junk collector. With the Primarch's physical abilities and extremely low presence, she learned a lot and collected a lot of good junk.

However, what's more, she didn't climb higher because of this. Instead, she became addicted to being a rat and even dug another tunnel, using the research institute as her hiding place.

After several years of cautious waiting, Sisyphus finally mustered the courage to go to the lower nest, and then spent a few more years as a mouse before finally running to the middle nest.

It was during this period that she finally realized she might not be a normal human being, and began collecting books extensively to study.

And this thing is incredibly honest, unlike anything an Imperial would do. While other Primarchs were out there swindling and conquering planets, she had no ambition whatsoever. She simply relied on her brute strength to work as a laborer, carrying bricks to earn money. Sisyphus was quite proud of this experience. "What are you so proud of? Although this body of yours was pieced together from fragments of Angron and your remains, and it's a bit small, it's still 99% rare, no different from ours."

He's definitely a little weaker than me, and would probably get beaten to a pulp by Magnus, since Magnus is all about building muscle. But at least he could fight Arfa to the death. With such great potential, why are you doing manual labor?

Faced with Mordred's questioning, Sisyphus replied, "How could I only do bricklaying? Just doing bricklaying would definitely attract attention. I sell pancakes at a stall on Sundays, collect garbage and sell scrap on Sundays, and only do bricklaying on Sundays."

"You don't know, although I have a low profile and am often subconsciously ignored, I am not a novice. I have a natural talent for treasure hunting and can also see through people's hearts."

I always manage to find the best items when scavenging trash. No one can fool me when selling trash; I don't even need customers to say what flavor they want when selling pancakes. However…”

"But what?" ×3
The three brothers spoke in unison, sounding even more anxious than Sisyphus himself. They were now in a rather conflicted state of mind, on the one hand thinking that it was good for Sisyphus to do what he liked.

On the other hand, he was also a little disappointed and eager to hear that his little sister had achieved something. He didn't expect her to unify the planet, but at least she should have something to show for herself.

"However, I like surfing the internet. Shenyin Network is indeed a good thing. It can help me learn knowledge and even learn to write books."

"Great! Studying is good; we need to learn knowledge."

“Writing books is fine too. Our empire has no shortage of generals who can fight and win battles, but it lacks political and political talents.”

Mordred was pleased with Sisyphus's love of learning, and Guilliman appreciated Sisyphus's writing; they both understood each other's sentiments. Only Johnson, standing apart from the group, asked:

"Is there any evidence?"

“Yes, come with me! I have another residence in a corner of the palace.”

Without a word, Sisyphus tried to crawl through the dog hole, but Mordred grabbed him and pulled him back. Their eyes met, and Sisyphus, rather embarrassed, said he was used to it and didn't react for a moment.

Before, Mordred hadn't noticed, but after stepping into the elevator, he indeed felt a lot of holes around him. What was unsettling was that none of these holes were straight, and the closest one to the outside was only 200 meters away.

Following in Sisyphus's footsteps, the three finally arrived at a storeroom in a corner of the palace. As the lights came on, even the most discerning lion king couldn't help but nod in approval:
"Not bad, clean and tidy, easy to defend and difficult to attack. This is much better than that doghouse from before. Let me see what kind of book you're writing."

Zhuang Sen casually pulled a book from the shelf, and couldn't help but gasp. Under Mordred and Zhuang Sen's puzzled gazes, he continued to flip through the pages, quickly scanning the shelf, only looking at the titles and not the contents. He even threw the book directly to the ground at the end.

"This is the book you wrote?"

"Zhuang Sen, why are you yelling? It's just writing a book. Even if it's not well-written, you can't yell at people. It's your personality that makes people annoyed."

Johnson dismissed this as nonsense, simply tossing the book to Guilliman and telling him to read it himself. Guilliman was stunned.
"The Emperor's Beloved Childhood Sweetheart," "Sealed Heart, Back to 30k," "Coconut Heart Bobo: So Well-behaved and Sweet," "Golden Ring Three—My First Son," and "My Rare Story with Four Domineering CEOs"

"Oh my god!" Guilliman was still somewhat unwilling to believe this fact. He glanced at the gloomy-faced Zhuang Sen, then at the expectant Sisyphus, and finally opened the book cover and read a passage from the previous chapters:
"The great Lord of Mankind once admired the Goddess of Life, which is why the benevolent father turned green with envy. Later, the Goddess of Life gave birth to a son, who was sent to the Lord of Mankind at birth. Because the benevolent father was an alcoholic and abusive, the emperor could not bear to see the goddess suffer, so he adopted the orphan and named him Mortarian, with the nickname Little Green Plum."

"..."

"How was it? Did I write it well?"

"Good, great! If Mortarian sees this, he'll beat you to a pulp with a stick. Is this the kind of book you wrote?"

Sisyphus looked slightly aggrieved, saying that he didn't like reading it before, but now this kind of book sells extremely well. He also mentioned that he has a stable customer named Carlos, who is his biggest financial backer.

"Carlos?"

"Yes, Carlos is my online friend. He is very knowledgeable and has taught me a lot. But he has a strange habit. Sometimes he calls himself Carlos and sometimes he calls himself Morgan. I suspect he has a split personality."

"..."

The three brothers looked at each other, speechless. Only Mordred, with his strong mental fortitude, quickly tried to smooth things over:

"It's alright, it's nothing. My little sister may not be the brightest, but she's incredibly strong. She managed to dig a hole through Mount Everest. Hand me that little cake; I need to eat something to calm down."

Taking the small cake from Guilliman, Mordred looked at the little thing and felt it looked familiar. After thinking about it carefully, she realized it was the leftover from the banquet they had held a few days ago.

"These are the ones you left over. I took them because nobody wanted them, but I didn't steal them. I paid for them."

"Don't do that again. You have to pay for a cake you pack. That makes me look mean, okay? I bring cakes home by the boxful."

Mordred never disappoints when it comes to moral principles, which also suggests that Sisyphus people are relatively kind-hearted, at least pulling back the average score a bit.

But Mordred soon changed her mind, because Sisyphus then shared his astonishing wisdom with them.

"You mean you bought a lot of game items through Shenyin Network, planning to wait for them to appreciate in value, and even invested all the money you've earned over the years from collecting scraps, selling pancakes, and doing manual labor?"

"Yes!"

Mordred's heart sank completely. He could only try to console himself, but in the end, he couldn't hold back any longer and pulled out his belt to hit someone, but Guilliman and Johnson quickly stopped him.
"Second brother, second brother, don't be angry, calm down, calm down! Didn't you say the communicator was fixed? We should focus on the important matters now!"

Mordred thought about it and agreed. Anyway, this unlucky thing couldn't escape, and he had plenty of time to deal with her. The most important thing now was to untie the weasel's gag.

"I'll deal with you later. Now come with me to see the weasel. It's time to make this idiot talk."

Sisyphus wanted to retort, but Guilliman glared at him and silenced him. The original trio became a group of four, a classic combination from a shonen anime.

With Mordred, the Empire's greatest tech master, present, the speaker was perfectly placed on the golden throne. As soon as the power was turned on, a burst of electronic noise immediately rang out.

“Eek~ Eek~ Eek~ Eek~ Eek~ Eek~ Eek~ Eek~ Eek,”

"Ugh, my toes hurt so much, my nose is so itchy, I can't feel my butt, and everything is dark before my eyes."

"Quack—Stop hitting! Stop hitting!"

(End of this chapter)