The player is playing like a god, and has already advanced to Space Marine level at the start.

Styx Galaxy, Death Song Academy.

The space rippled, and Snow emerged carrying the unconscious Thornton. He casually tossed Thornton onto the stone slab. Thornton rolled over, mumbled in his sleep, and continued snoring.

Snow straightened his robe and walked into the academy hall.

Snow stepped forward and knelt on one knee.

"My God," Snow said, bowing his head, "the mission wasn't completed well."

Karl's pen never stopped.

"Did you bring it back?" Carl's voice was flat.

"I brought it back," Snow said, pointing to the doorway. "But at a price."

Karl then stopped writing and looked up.

"He's very strong." Snow kept his head down. "The Great Clock can't calculate his strength. In order to bring Thorton back, I followed your instructions and used two sets of third-generation divine body resources to exchange for him."

After speaking, Snow lowered his head even further. Two sets of third-generation divine body resources would be an astronomical price for any civilization.

He stood up and walked over to Snow.

Get up.

Snow stood up and stood to the side with his hands at his sides.

"I don't blame you." Karl walked to the center of the hall, looking into the void. "I'm more interested in Lu Xiao than resources. The secrets he holds, the ones that left you helpless and who could capture Thornton like a chicken, are more valuable than resources."

Karl raised his hand.

The operating interface of the giant clock unfolded above the academy, with countless streams of data hanging down.

"Try again," Carl said.

He pulled up Lu Xiao's data model, preparing to use the core computing power of the large clock to forcibly analyze the target.

The data stream began to wash over Lu Xiao's model.

"Target for analysis: Lu Xiao."

"Start building the conceptual model."

"Defining the composition of matter..."

The screen was instantly filled with red warning boxes.

"Parsing failed".

"Logical error."

"Data source does not exist."

"Unknown encoding format".

The data stream crashed instantly, turning into a jumble of gibberish that the large clock couldn't recognize at all.

Snow frowned as he looked at the screen full of gibberish.

"Still not working?" Snow asked.

"It's not that it's impossible." Karl withdrew his hand, staring at the garbled text. "It's incompatible. Its form of existence doesn't conform to the physical rules of our universe and the dark energy system."

Karl thought for a moment and came up with an analogy.

"It's like a two-dimensional paper doll that forcibly entered a three-dimensional world, bringing with it a set of physical laws that we can't understand."

Carl turned and walked back to his desk.

"Since the large clock can't calculate it, let's use the most primitive method."

He tapped a few times on the virtual keyboard.

"Search Earth web database. Keywords: Lu Xiao, power armor, chainsaw sword, double-headed eagle insignia, blue giant."

The giant clock connected to the Earth network, and a massive amount of information was quickly sifted through. A few seconds later, a window popped up.

Carl stared at the contents for a moment, stunned.

The screen displayed a game forum page titled "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II Walkthrough." The accompanying image was of a giant clad in blue power armor, wielding a chainsaw sword and standing on an alien corpse. A golden double-headed eagle emblem was emblazoned on the giant's shoulder armor.

Karl continued flipping through the pages: novels, art books, model drawings, game videos. Information about "Warhammer 40" and "Space Marines" was everywhere.

He read very quickly, finishing in a few minutes the amount of information that an ordinary person would take months to finish, and learning about the Emperor, Primarchs, Warp, and Astartes.

Carl's expression turned somewhat strange. He closed the page and looked at Snow.

"Snow".

"exist."

"Do you believe that a character from a fictional story could actually come to life?" Carl asked.

Snow froze, then shook his head.

"Impossible, my God. Virtual is virtual, and reality is reality. This is a fundamental law of the universe. Unless the Void Engine rewrites reality, but that would also require a material basis."

"I don't believe it either," Carl smiled. "But it doesn't make sense."

He pointed his finger, and a diagram of human modification appeared in the air; it was a surgical illustration of the "Original Forged Space Marine" modification procedure.

"Look," Carl said, pointing to the organs in the picture, "this is the 'super soldier' ​​that Earthlings have envisioned."

Snow leaned closer for a look and commented, "This structure is very crude. It's all about physical organ transplantation and hormone stimulation. There's no dark matter computer, no gene engine. This kind of modification is far too crude."

"But he survived." Karl pointed to an organ called the "Belissau Furnace." "The lore says it can secrete repair hormones when a warrior suffers a fatal wound, putting the warrior into a state of suspended animation. And this, the Hymn Pituitary Gland, can control muscle bursts."

Carl pulled up the battle video Snow had sent back. In the video, Lu Xiao was hit by the Taotie, his body sluggish for a moment, and then he burst out with even greater speed.

"Exactly as set in the original story," Carl said. "And that sword is a power sword, with a disintegrating force field. That shield is a storm shield, with an energy field. All the data and performance match the setting of this 'story'."

Snow looked at the comparison chart without saying a word.

"He's most likely someone who stepped out of a storybook," Carl concluded.

Snow thought it was absurd.

"How is this possible? Can Earthlings' fantasies change reality?"

"Perhaps it is a power from a higher dimension."

Karl sat down again and continued flipping through the documents, trying to see what else was in this "Warhammer 40" universe. He came across the setting of "Warspace".

"Warspace, which is what we call the void?" Karl muttered to himself, "Let's see how this story defines it."

He clicked on an entry called "The Four Gods of Chaos".

Karl's gaze swept over the words and images: Khorne, the god of blood and slaughter; Nurgle, the god of plague and decay; Tzeentch, the god of change and deception; Slaanesh, the god of desire and indulgence.

As he watched, Karl's expression changed, and for the first time, a look of disgust appeared on his usually calm face.

"Snow," Carl's voice was tense.

"exist."

"It's best if these four lumps of answers don't exist in the void," Karl said, pointing to the four Chaos Gods on the screen. "Otherwise, this universe will be unusable."

Snow peered inside and saw only a jumble of twisted flesh, pustules, and tentacles.

"This is..." Snow frowned, "some kind of higher-dimensional being?"

"No." Karl turned off the projection. "This is pure chaos and filth. We study the Void in pursuit of higher wisdom. The Void should be cold and rational."

Carl walked around the hall twice.

"But these four things," Karl shook his head, "are just a dumping ground for emotions. Turning killing, plague, conspiracy, and desire into gods? That's a simplistic and disgusting concept."

The "ultimate fear" he pursued was awe of the truth of the universe, while the warp in this setting was a filthy cesspool, no, even worse than excrement. If the void was truly like this, Karl shuddered; he would never allow such a thing to happen.

"That Lu Xiao," Karl began again, "if he dares to submit a false report, bring those four dissertations with him."

Karl stopped in his tracks, his eyes turning cold.

"Then he must die."

Snow sensed a murderous aura.

Snow asked, "Should we get the Void Warriors involved?"

Karl was silent for a few seconds.

"No rush." ​​Karl waved his hand, suppressing his murderous intent. "For now, he's just a warrior. The 'Emperor' is set up to be the mortal enemy of these four things. As long as Lu Xiao doesn't betray his principles by engaging in sacrifices or summoning these things, he'll be safe."

Carl sat down again and picked up his pen.

"Continue to observe. His decision to trade indicates that he is rational and has a need. If there is a need, things will be easier to handle."

Carl glanced at Thornton, who was lying by the door.

"Get this thing out of here," Carl said with a look of disgust. "It's annoying to look at."

"Where to send it?" Snow asked. "They're keeping a close eye on things on Earth right now."

"Send him to Mars," Karl said without looking up. "The Taotie has an outpost there; send him there and don't let him come back to Earth."

"Yes."

Snow went over, grabbed Thornton by the tail, and dragged him outside.

"Oh, right," Carl called out to him.

Snow stopped.

"Tell the Gluttonous King Shihao," Karl's voice echoed in the hall, "when you attack Earth, stay away from Lu Xiao. Unless you're confident you can kill him in one blow, don't provoke him. There's one rule in the 'Astartes' setting that I'm very concerned about."

"What?"

"They have an absolute hatred for aliens."

Snow nodded and dragged Thornton out of Deathsong Academy.

The hall fell silent again. Karl glanced at the large clock again, hesitated for a moment, and then opened the Warhammer 40K database once more, finding information on the Tyranids and Necromancers.

"Insects that devour everything... soulless metallic undead..."

Karl stared at these settings, a glint of fanaticism flashing in his eyes.

"That's much more interesting."