The Bizarre Adventures of Cloud Hammer

"It seems like we're being targeted." Apu looked around and saw more than 20 mutants, all of them looked strange, and some even had tentacle-like things growing on their bodies.

"We were all carrying big bags, so it would be strange if we weren't targeted."

Luochen shook the backpack on his body, and the sound of the backpack attracted the attention of the mutants.

Xianyu put his hand on the combat knife and asked Wei:

"What do you mean, Wei, can you handle it alone?"

"It feels okay. These guys don't look very smart."

Maybe because he had fought against Dark Tide too many times, Wei's impression of mutants was that they were just big, stupid guys who could only rush around. After understanding his own combat capabilities, it didn't take much effort for him to deal with these mutants alone.

The battle was about to break out, but the sudden sound of gunfire attracted everyone's attention. A group of people with homemade guns appeared not far away and they shot at the mutants.

Because it was a surprise attack, the mutants who were holding guns were killed first. Seeing that they had lost their long-range firepower, the mutants fled directly. These despicable guys were very afraid of death and did not want to die here even if they could win. Soon, only Apu and the new team were left in this place.

The mutants were driven away, and a new group of people approached Apu and others. There were eight of them in total, all wearing worn protective suits and gas masks, and it was unclear whether they were enemies or friends.

Everyone exchanged glances and decided not to take any action yet. They would wait and see who this group of people were. If they were still robbers, they would kill them directly.

"Are you from other nests?" the leading man asked Apu and others.

Everyone answered each other's questions, and after several rounds of questions and answers, the identity of this team was revealed. They were a scavenger team composed of real residents living in the suburbs. They specialized in finding usable things among the large amounts of garbage discharged by the hive city. They carried weapons to resist attacks from mutants and robbers.

"It's very dangerous here. The mutant group is likely to make a comeback. Come with us."

During the communication, we learned that this was not the first time that these suburban residents had encountered people from other hives. People from other hives came here almost every once in a while.

The capital hive is the political and economic center of a planet. It offers more opportunities than other hives. Residents of other hives have to cross dangerous wastelands and deserts to get here. Most of them die on the way due to various dangers, and only a very few can successfully arrive. In the end, they discover that there is no difference between the lower hive and the bottom hive of any hive.

Knowing that Apu and others were going to enter the nest city, the scavengers advised everyone to go to their residence to rest for a night before leaving. Most of the entrances to the bottom nest are guarded by gangs. If you go in directly, you will be killed or injured. They will help everyone enter from another way tomorrow.

"Will there be any problem?" Brother Ou asked in a voice that only they could hear.

"What are you afraid of? At worst, you can just kill yourself."

Xianyu was not worried at all that the other party would play tricks to lure him into a trap. Each of them carried rose beads on them. The weapons in these people's hands were not even as good as automatic rifles. It was estimated that even a burst of bullets would not consume much energy from the rose beads.

Everyone was taken to a gathering place that was transformed from an abandoned residential area. The radiation and pollution here were much less than those garbage dumps. There were also instruments in the gathering place that could purify the environment of this small area, making it one of the few habitable places in the suburbs.

When they arrived near the gathering place, the scavengers took off their gas masks. There were both men and women among them, and most of them looked middle-aged.

Luochen also told everyone that the radiation here has reached an acceptable range. After entering the gathering place, everyone took off their gas masks. Under Luochen's psychic disguise, everyone looked like embarrassed travelers.

Not long after the crowd and the scavenging team entered the gathering place, they were surrounded by a group of children. The children asked the scavenging team if they had picked up anything new, and were also curious about where Apu and the others came from.

After driving the children away, the scavenging team quickly disbanded. The man who had previously communicated with Apu and others also introduced himself. His name was Joel, and he was the captain of this scavenging team.

"Welcome here." Joel said to everyone.

There are hundreds of people in this settlement, and the electricity for the entire settlement is provided by generators that were left here and those brought out when leaving the hive. Here, except for young children, everyone has their own responsibilities. There is more than one scavenger team that goes to various places in the suburbs to look for usable supplies, hunters who go to the wilderness to hunt for food, and farmers who grow crops to maintain their basic livelihoods.

Yes, you read that right. Farming can be done in such a weird place like the suburbs. The sewage discharged by the hive city pollutes the environment, but it also ensures a relatively fertile agricultural environment and a fairly rich fungal harvest. The extra fungal crops can also be sold to merchants in exchange for other daily necessities.

Joel told everyone that if they wanted to rest, they could find a deserted place. The gathering area had been cleaned up and they wouldn't encounter any danger, but they should pay attention to their belongings because if they lost something, they might not be able to find it.

Everyone found a place to rest. Eryu put down his backpack and said:

"I thought we were going to have a big fight, but I didn't expect the people here to be so..."

"It's quite simple, isn't it?" said Apu.

It can only be said that no one expected to meet normal people. Meeting mutants before was in line with their expectations.

After sitting for a while, everyone prepared to go to the gathering place to take a look. Luochen said that he wanted to continue resting for a while and also keep an eye on everyone's backpacks to make sure they were not stolen.

After walking around the gathering place for a while, the group was pestered by the children who had come before, especially Eryu. Perhaps it was because of the bonus of the emperor's genes, Eryu was easy to make others like him and was also liked by children, so the most children gathered around him.

For the children here, they have lived in the gathering place since they were born. This is their entire 'world', so they are very curious about things outside the 'world', such as the huge nest city that can be seen with their own eyes, and people from other places.

"Uncle Joel said you came from a hive somewhere else. Can you tell us what a hive looks like?"

The children's questions stumped Eryu. He was not even a cloud expert in Warhammer 40k, so how could he know what a nest looked like?

Eryu wanted to seek help from others, so he asked the children:

"Didn't the adults here tell you?"

"They refused to tell us. My brother said that the inside of the hive is a million times better than here," a child answered.

"What about your brother?"

"He went to the hive a long time ago, along with many others."

A doubt in everyone's mind was answered. No wonder they didn't see many young people in the gathering place. Just now, after hearing what Joel said, they thought that all the young people had gone to work, but they didn't expect it to be the case.

The adults here are reluctant to tell the children about the Hive City. They are afraid that the children will become interested in it. But children are rebellious. The more the adults hide things from them, the more curious they become. Even if they are told the truth, it will be considered a lie by the adults. Living in the ruins in the suburbs, they have too many beautiful imaginations about the Hive City and do not understand that the adults are protecting them.

Apu gave Eryu a look and asked him to answer the children's questions.

Gathering the children together, Apu told them that they were not from a hive city elsewhere, so they knew nothing about the hive city.

In order to divert the children's attention, Apu first distributed candies to the children. The snacks he brought with him by chance played a role here. Then Apu began to tell the children some interesting stories to make them forget about the things in the nest city.

Whenever a child asked where they were from, Apu would answer:

"secret."

After finally getting rid of the children, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and decided to act separately and regroup in the evening.

It was getting dark, and when Apu returned to the meeting point, there was still some time before the agreed time. At this time, the teams that had gone out had returned to the gathering place, and the entrance became lively.

The hunters returned to the gathering place carrying several giant snakes that were half the size of an adult, several meters long, eyeless and had wings. These were creatures native to Aitis and an important source of meat for the gathering place - the eyeless winged snake.

The eyeless winged snake is a dangerous predator in the wilderness. It has no eyes but extremely keen perception and the ability to fly. Once it finds its prey, it will swoop down and wrap it around it. Both its strength and venom can kill its prey.

The people at the gathering place dissected and slaughtered the eyeless winged snake. Tonight they could have a meat meal after a long time. Thanks to Awei, Apu and others were also invited.

After acting separately, Awei helped the gathering place repair many broken machines and also repaired the damaged protective walls around the gathering place. After the repairs, the walls were even stronger than before. If the people in the gathering place had to repair them themselves, it would have taken much longer.

Thanks to Awei's contribution, everyone was given a small bowl of snake meat soup at dinner.

"It tastes so bad."

Xianyu took a bite of the snake meat and found it tough, dry and had a strange smell that he found hard to accept. The others simply left their bowls untouched.

"This is the best food you can eat here. At least it's real meat." Eryu said, pointing to the crowd not far away.

A bowl of snake meat is not enough to fill the stomach. People here usually eat mushrooms, low-quality bread, corpse starch and carbohydrate bars. Even the water is sewage that has been filtered countless times.

As for meat, sometimes you can exchange it for some synthetic meat from the hive merchants, but such opportunities are rare. Even if you see animals in the suburbs and wilderness, most of them are inedible. Eyeless winged snakes are already the highest quality protein.

"It's hard for people here just to survive."

During Eryu's solo operation, he saw a lot of things, which also refreshed his understanding of the Warhammer 40k world.

"But even so, they still live strong."

Apu pointed in a direction to everyone, where some children were looking at their untouched bowls with their eyes sparkling.

Everyone passed the bowls over. The food that they couldn't accept was a rare delicacy in the eyes of these children.

"This is one of the reasons why we say the empire is bad."

Ou Ge looked at the top of the hive in the sky. The gap between the two areas was even more outrageous than that between heaven and hell. Not only the environment, but even the air they breathed was very different.

"The Empire is already in this state anyway. What can we do to change it?"

Luochen rested his pillow on his backpack and said, there are no telling how many nest world empires there are like this one, and there are countless people gathering in places like this one.

They can't save the empire, nor can they save the people here, so don't worry about it.

"Alas, the Empire." Everyone sighed.

"Rest now. There will be more eye-opening things to see when we get to the bottom nest."

Chapter 14 Welcome to the bottom nest

Before the sun shone on the earth the next day, Joel brought Apu and the others to a pipe that could lead to the Bottom Nest according to yesterday's agreement. Through this pipe, everyone could reach an abandoned factory in the Bottom Nest. Because the waste piled up in the factory was still emitting radiation, this passage was temporarily not occupied by the Bottom Nest gang.

To pass through this passage, you need to wear protective clothing, otherwise the radiation will harm the body of the person passing through. This is not a problem for fully armed Apu and others.

Before they separated, Joel hoped that Apu and others would not have any illusions about this capital hive city. The suburbs were just a wasteland where life was difficult, while the bottom nest was a real hell. Many people came to the suburbs just to escape from that environment.

Everyone who has left the hive city understands that even though life in the suburbs is difficult and hard, they can live for themselves here. However, young people who were born and raised in the suburbs do not know this. They yearn for the hive city and a better life. No matter how much the adults try to dissuade them, they will enter the hive city without hesitation, and in the end most of them will stay in the hive city forever.

Joel certainly knew that Apu and the others were not ordinary people. This could be seen from the combat knife in Wei's hand when they met. But in a place like the Bottom Nest where evil breeds, being just a little bit powerful is not enough.

Everyone expressed their gratitude for Joel's advice, but they had their reasons for entering the hive (referring to travel, adventure and treasure hunting), and if they encountered any danger they would leave the hive in time.

Everyone who entered the bottom nest quickly felt the local customs and culture. Not long after they came out of the factory where the pipeline was located, they were attacked by several different groups of robbers in succession. Not even a few minutes after they got rid of these guys, they were involved in a fight between several gangs.

It is more abstract and chaotic than any country or place on Terra during the 3K era. Any crime you can imagine is commonplace here.

"Fuck you, Laopu, you call this firepower gangster?!" Xianyu cursed loudly in the communication.

The increasingly fierce firepower made everyone scatter and hide behind a bunker. At the beginning, most of the gangs were using some rubbish homemade firearms (muskets), and a few could get better weapons such as shotguns and automatic rifles. More of the lower-level minions were still drawing knives and fighting. Later, I don’t know which side started the heavy firepower first, which made everyone angry. They used lumberjacks and rocket launchers directly. The gang fight was like a local battlefield. Lumberjack, in Warhammer 40k, generally refers to a heavy machine gun, usually operated by two soldiers as a fire support weapon. If you are strong enough, you can also charge alone with a lumberjack.

"Don't scream, it's Warhammer 40k now. What's wrong with a stronger gang firepower? Just be happy that I didn't pay you for heavy logging!" As soon as Apu finished speaking, a rocket flew over his head.

Heavy felling is a position and vehicle weapon, and is a lower-level substitute for heavy bombs. Heavy felling also has strengths and weaknesses. The shoulder machine gun of the Knight Mech is a type of heavy felling.

"What the hell is this? How are we supposed to get out of this firepower?" Ah Wei looked at the battlefield where thousands of people were fighting. Several main roads were blocked by gangs. Even if they wanted to go around them, they would bump into a group of people.

"Luochen, aren't you a mage? Can you cast a spell to destroy the entire map for them?" Eryu asked while twisting the neck of a gangster who hid in their shelter.

Luochen was also enraged, so he just killed these bottom nest scums with an AoE. By the time psychic organizations like the Star Language Hall and the Inquisition found them, they would have already run away.

"Give them some time to prepare, and I'll kill them all with a psychic storm."

"Wait a moment, it seems like someone else has entered." Brother Ou asked Luochen not to use magic first, as there was something new happening on the battlefield.

A new force joined the fight. They rushed into the center of the battlefield with cold weapons, hacking and killing their way through. There was only a small amount of long-range firepower behind them to cover them. The leaders were tall and strong, with red tattoos on their bodies. They were so strong that they could knock down anyone in front of them just by sprinting. They ignored the bullets and died completely until they were shot into sieves.

These berserker-like guys relied on the chaos on the battlefield and the piling up of lives to hack and chopped the gang members who operated the logging guns into pieces one by one. The brutality of their behavior scared many people.

After eliminating the biggest threat, this group of people started to kill the people closest to them, regardless of what gang they were from, and even killed their own people.

This style of killing anyone you see is very recognizable in the battlefield 40k universe.

A Pu: "The strange eyes are really true, and they identify him as a pure K-party member."

Brother Ou: "How long have we been here? We've already encountered Chaos Followers?"

The K Party, that is, the followers of Khorne, one of the four Chaos Gods. Khorne is the god of war, killing, tyranny, and bloodthirstiness. Most of those who believe in Khorne are a group of lunatics who like killing. They are characterized by their focus on melee weapons, especially axes. Dominated by bloodthirstiness and anger, they are not afraid of pain and will not stop until they have chopped off the heads of all their enemies.

Khorne is also the strongest evil god in the 40k period, because there are wars and killings everywhere in the galaxy, and courage and fearlessness can also attract Khorne's attention. No matter justice or evil, invasion or resistance, as long as it is an act of killing, it is likely to be distorted and corrupted by Khorne, and even the noblest warriors will be turned into bloodthirsty madmen.

It's not surprising to encounter Chaos Cultists in the Underhive. It would be strange if there were no Khorne Cultists in a place as violent as the Underhive. If there were really no Chaos Cultists in the Underhive, it could only mean that everyone here was a chicken-eating thief (genestealer).

"This paralyzed ogre is really involved in everything. Wait, is there someone else coming?" Luo Chen stopped casting the spell. It would be troublesome if he was noticed by the believers of Khorne. These crazy people really hate wizards.

While this group of Khorne believers were killing people, another group of people appeared on the battlefield. The neat clothes on this group of people did not make them look like the scum of the Underhive, and the guns in their hands were definitely not comparable to those hand-rubbed garbage. The leader was wearing a windbreaker and leather pants, with a large-caliber pistol in his left hand and a long blade in his right hand. Under his command, this team launched an attack on the Khorne believers.

"Who is this?" Eryu asked.

"I don't know, but they don't look like people from the Dichao Gang." These people didn't have any obvious markings on them, and Apu couldn't tell what organization they came from.

"Bounty hunter?" Ou Ge guessed.

"Not really. Would bounty hunters act in groups like this?"

In the Hive Cities of the Empire World, there is a profession called bounty hunters. These desperate criminals will complete the commissions of their employers to obtain commissions. These commissions may come from the leaders of a gang or from the dignitaries of the Upper Hive. In short, those who can become bounty hunters in places like the Lower Hive are basically the best and toughest people.

This team relied on their excellent weapons and equipment to kill the few remaining Khorne believers in the melee. Occasionally, one or two Khorne believers who rushed over were quickly killed after killing several people. The captain also killed a believer easily. His movements and speed were obviously the result of special training and strengthening. If nothing unexpected happened, they could eliminate all the Khorne believers with minimal casualties.

"Should we run away?" Ah Wei said to everyone. Since the Khorne believers entered the scene, many gang members have fled, and those who did not escape were basically killed.

"It's boring to watch, Run!"

No one wanted to stay here any longer. They were not here to watch the gang fight. Besides strolling around the hive, they also had serious business to attend to.

Gloria marked some shining points on the hive structure diagram. These were the items she scanned that needed attention. Some of them could be used to replenish the energy of the battleship, so she asked everyone to take them away when entering the hive. If they couldn't take them away, they would place a teleportation beacon and she would directly teleport the items back to the battleship.

Most of these items are scattered between the bottom nest and the bottom of the nest, and a few are at the bottom of the nest.

The bottom of the nest is the underground zone of a hive city. It is the last and deepest place in the hive city, and also the most dangerous place in a hive city. The original things here have long since decayed and collapsed, leaving only ruins, rubble and radioactive lakes filled with sewage and wastewater. Except for mutant monsters, nothing can survive here.

Everyone has to go to the center of the bottom nest to find the way to the bottom of the nest, so they can't stay in this ghost place for too long. Who knows if something unexpected will happen again.

Everyone approached an exit stealthily. At this time, the Khorne believers had almost been killed by that team. Just as the captain expected, they only suffered very few casualties, but accidents always happen when people think everything is going well.

A tall figure fell into the team from above. This man was stronger than those Khorne believers. He was covered in metal armor with the symbol of Khorne, the Chaos Octagram, and various blasphemous symbols engraved on it. He held a huge battle axe in his hand, and with one swing, he chopped off and knocked away the people beside him.

"Woc!? The Mortal Champion of Khorne?" Luochen was shocked by this guy who suddenly appeared.