Warhammer: Filial Piety Makes Power

Chapter 69 The Wrath of the Mushroom Demon King!
Looking to the future, Khan's words, "Let the true commander of the Fourteenth Legion emerge," have made Poop Superman a figure of endless remembrance, allowing everyone to mock Mortarion.

It is easy to imagine what kind of person Goff, whom Peturabo called ambitious, really was. He was a second Sima Zhongda, which frightened Fricks so much that he retreated and ran away.

Only Atlas's own people knew how important Goff and the Second Company were, who were responsible for the political affairs of the entire Legion and even the sector. They were the core of the Legion's core.

In an empire without intelligent AI-powered offices, even with human-centered, living computer assistance like the Thinker, complex tasks still require human intervention.

It's not that the Thinkers are bad; in Mordred's view, these processors, which are genetically modified and specialized, have very high computing power and can be combined and stacked into Thinker arrays, which is already very powerful.

Playing games is so smooth and lag-free, it's incredibly enjoyable and completely blows away those crappy computers back home that keep crashing with blue screens.

But is something this good really useful? The answer is yes, but not particularly useful.

No matter how trash it is, the Empire is still a massive power spanning multiple star systems. You can call it a cesspool, but you can't call it weak. People aren't stupid; the tech enthusiasts already thought of that.

Putting everything else aside, if there really is no electronic automation system, how will cruise missiles hit their targets? You can't just stuff a brain into every type of missile.

Such a technologically advanced empire does exist, and it's even quite cyberpunk. The only problem is the lack of strong artificial intelligence. It's something we really can't mess with; if we do, we'll die.

In an empire measured in light-years, without the assistance of strong artificial intelligence, the Terra Council would work itself to death and still be useless; they'd scrape the parchment until it sparked.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Space Marines with powerful physiques became the best government servants, and even Mordred had to appease his precious second company.

After all, Atlas could kill as many embryos as he wanted, and the only ones capable of serving as political officers were Goff and his group of powerful young men who had absorbed Guilliman's extraordinary wisdom.

Meanwhile, Goff, who was allocating logistics resources on the Abomination, was furious because they were starving. He unleashed a torrent of abuse at the holographic image, even though the person was a Primarch named Vulcan.

"Gan! You are a genius! Because you distributed the supplies to others, we have no food. Can you stop being so kind?"

Prince Ruth, don't laugh. Tell me why the Space Wolves legion alone ate all our rations. Are you all gluttons? We're about to face a famine.

And you, my great Majesty! Please have some consideration for us, and stop being so impulsive. Our supply lines are already stretched to the limit. We must wait for the next batch of supplies to arrive, at least for food, before we fight again.

Throughout Atlas, including the conscripted merchant ronin, there are a total of 1,700 ships of various sizes. I am in charge of almost half of the star system. Even the cannibals have been captured to serve as dispatchers. The dogs are doing the work, but you are only thinking about charging forward.

"I really can't take this anymore. You should find someone else!"

Looking at Goff, who was calling out names one by one at the holographic meeting and criticizing almost everyone, the two Primarchs and the big golden guy were speechless. After all, even through the holographic image, Goff's appearance of being on the verge of sudden death was undeniable.

And it wasn't just him; almost every Atlas looked like they were about to die, their eyes bloodshot, talking nonsense, and clearly on the verge of death.

In order to prevent these very useful cattle and horses from dying all at once, the emperor rarely used his remaining emotional intelligence, which was a bit inhumane.

"Goff, as Mordred's proudest son, you are only in your nineties, the prime of your life. You need to stand up for yourself!"

"Send over a fleet, and after another six months of fighting, this vital corridor connecting to Alteramar will be open!"

"What? You want a fleet too!" Lady Go was stunned when she heard this. This expedition had been going on for two and a half years, and they had been bleeding out their tanks without a single refueling station.

Moreover, you can't just leave a stronghold after you take it down. You have to leave troops there, and you have to divide your forces. Considering the casualties and losses, you should have been resting a long time ago, but you're still fighting. People are all gone.

"Your Majesty, as you can see, our fleet has already lost three-fifths of its strength, supplies are running low, and almost everyone is wounded. We really can't make it any further."

"We can charge!" The Emperor's large face was right in front of the camera, completely transformed into a gambler: "As long as we go all out and turn Atlas from logistics to combat forces, with our strength, we can definitely win."

"Moreover, Guilliman's Ultramarines are also on their way here, so the advantage is on my side!"

Goff, who was focused on stability, would never joke about the Legion. He dared not refuse the Emperor's orders and made up an excuse that he was not Mordred and could not command the Legion.

Upon hearing this, the Wolf King, who knew Mordred's character well, was so angry he laughed:

"Come on, with my second brother being the kind of person who's full of little secrets, how could he not have a backup plan? Don't tell me he hasn't been communicating with you behind your back, I know that."

Goff, whose secrets had been exposed, naturally wouldn't admit it. Instead, he changed the subject and sent over a lab log with Mordred's signature:

"Your Majesty, Father actually foresaw this situation long ago and prepared an experimental weapon that could solve our predicament. I just don't know if you would be willing to use it." After the data was received, a dense document totaling more than 1,300 pages appeared in front of the three of them. After quickly browsing through it for a moment, everyone fell into deep thought.

The first to speak was the kind-hearted Vulcan. Don't let his dark and muscular appearance fool you; the Lord of the Fire Dragons is incredibly intelligent. He was the one who recreated the Empire's Saturn Terminator and even developed some cool disintegration weapons.

"Are you sure this biological weapon is reliable? Especially since it says it's edible. I'm not very knowledgeable about genetic technology."

"Indeed. These are the degraded products after our Atlas perfected our experiments. They are not only edible, but they also taste extremely delicious! They can completely solve our food shortage problem."

Like a graduation defense, the decision-makers, led by Emperor Vulcan, began to discuss the matter repeatedly, asking specific questions from time to time, but Goff was always able to answer them immediately.

Only Ruth stood there with her eyes vacant, like a husky mixed in with a pack of wolves, pretending to know everything.

In the end, the Emperor gave up his ridiculous demand for the fleet and jumped over with his men as soon as the Abomination approached, where they saw the so-called secret weapon sealed in the incubation chamber.

Upon seeing the giant mushroom, which was at least the size of the Intrepid, Vulcan's mind went blank:

"Why is it so big!"

"It's better if it's bigger, Your Highness. Otherwise, how can we all eat it?"

After a thorough on-site inspection and even tasting it himself, even the emperor couldn't help but sigh that Mordred, that bastard, had indeed done something human.

"I approve Atlas's use of this biological weapon. Ruth, you glutton, stop eating! If I find out you've used up the fleet's food supplies again, I'll kill you, Eleven Draw!"

With the Emperor's order issued, this biological weapon, known as the "Power Mushroom," was immediately taken to the testing ground for testing.

As for the effect, looking at the super mushroom that could crush the Oglin ape-man with its power and could be eaten after death, everyone's mentality changed slightly.

"You're saying this is a degraded version? What does the original, genuine version look like?"

The Wolf King's doubts were quickly answered when a gigantic, nine-meter-tall Mushroom was released. With a single punch, it smashed the Leman Rustank used for testing into scrap metal, and it could also throw golden lightning spears.

"This thing is called the Mushroom King, the absolute best among the Mushroom Kings. Apart from still being brainless, it is a perfect biological weapon. Most importantly, it is extremely cheap to make, costing only one-third of the price of a Patrol Knight. It can also be equipped with weapons."

The only downside is that it's inedible.

After saying that, Goff took out a game controller and handed it over, letting Wolf King personally experience the ultimate thrill of controlling Mushroom to punch and smash Lemanrus.

Although he had a lot of fun, Russ always felt something was off, and had no choice but to accept the strange fact that Leman Russ was not as good as Mushroom.

Then he saw the extremely conspicuous huge red button on the handle:

What does this button mean?

"Ah, you mean this? This is a self-destruct program. Once you press it, the Mushroom King will produce an extremely explosive chemical reaction, with power comparable to a giant Katachampong Toad. Father calls it the Wrath of the Mushroom King. It's so satisfying when it explodes!"

Upon hearing the words "barking toad," the Emperor, who was engrossed in his meal with Vulcan, shuddered and turned to see Russ's finger already pressing the red button.

"Russ..."

"boom"

Meanwhile, the Iron Warriors, who had already conquered the Olympia Sector and exceeded their mission targets, returned to their home base in Olympia.

Despite the significant losses, Peturabo firmly believed that he was now capable of handling things on his own. The most important thing now was to deal with the aftermath and bring the Olympians who had come with him home.

However, as the ship passed the tracks and looked at the homeworld that had been ravaged by the Mechanical Cult and could only be suppressed by force, forcing the people to work illegally, Peturabo's eyes lost their luster, and Mordred's laughter echoed in his ears.

"Congratulations, you have made Olympia a standard imperial world."

(End of this chapter)