章 1: Chapter 1: A Tragic Beginning
In the low-lying white cornfields of Barbarus.
A chubby-faced, pale little boy was laboriously digging the ground with a hoe.
His name was Hades. In his previous life, he was a shut-in on Earth named He Shi. One day, while painting a GW Death Guard Plague Marine miniature, he blacked out. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself reincarnated as a newborn on the death planet Barbarus.
At first, he knew nothing. He only realized he had been reborn into a world extremely hostile to humans when his haggard-looking parents taught him to speak and told him that the land beneath his feet was called Barbarus.
The Emperor above! Barbarus?! Are you kidding me?!
This is the Warhammer universe!!!
Hades felt like he could cough up blood on the spot.
What kind of place is Barbarus? Barbarus is a famous death world in the Warhammer universe, the homeworld of the Primarch Mortarion. The entire planet is covered with deadly poisonous mists, and humans can only survive in the relatively less toxic lowlands. The true alien overlords of this planet reside in mountain fortresses shrouded in the thickest poisonous gases.
Humans have never been the masters of this planet; they are merely livestock being raised.
Every time the planet's brief daylight ends, the poison gas slowly seeps into the lowlands. Strange, pale creatures laugh and frolic in the toxic mist, slowly surrounding the villages and picking their future slaves.
There is no resistance; humans have long been scared out of their wits. They huddle in their villages, praying not to be chosen.
Those who are chosen are either killed on the spot or dragged to the mountain fortresses, where countless sorceries and experiments await them. Humans are mere materials, dissected and twisted together, given new life through sorcery to become the lords' eternal slaves.
The humans here have no hope, just like in the Warhammer universe, where there is only eternal darkness.
Hades wanted to smash his head and start over. He was already restraining himself, trying not to cry like a fairy whose toe had been stepped on.
Although he was a transmigrator, he currently had no cheats or golden fingers! Where was the promised power of a transmigrator?!
His current small body could be crushed by even the lowest-level alien.
As a transmigrator, Hades knew the trajectory of this world, but that was not necessarily a good thing.
The reason is simple: this is a world where thoughts also possess power.
This world consists of the physical world and the Warp. As humans, our bodies exist in the physical world, while our souls have a flame-like projection in the Warp.
Among humans, those with a closer connection to the Warp are called psykers. Psykers can use the power of the Warp, known as psychic powers. They can conjure energy that clearly defies the laws of physics with their bare hands. Powerful Alpha-level psykers can even destroy stars single-handedly.
But becoming a psyker is not necessarily a good thing.
Because their connection to the Warp is closer, their soul sparks are brighter and more enticing, attracting the entities of the Warp.
These malevolent entities whisper to psykers through the Warp, driving them insane, twisting their thoughts, and turning them into their eternal slaves. The more a psyker uses their powers, the brighter their soul flame becomes, the more likely they are to be noticed and corrupted by Warp entities.
Hades tried it himself and found he had no psychic talent at all; he couldn't even spark a small flame. While he was disappointed, he was also increasingly relieved—
A person's soul and thoughts truly cause ripples in the Warp, and as a transmigrator, Hades knew those clearly forbidden pieces of knowledge.
If a person's thoughts attracted the interest of a powerful Warp entity... Hades didn't even dare to think about it.
In fact, ever since Hades realized he was in the Warhammer universe, he immediately forced himself to control his thoughts, never thinking about the Warp gods.
As long as he thought about that knowledge, he might be noticed by those four Chaos Gods immediately!
But what Hades didn't know was that his "transmigrator" constitution and the planet he arrived on barely allowed him to escape the gods' notice.
So, for now, Hades could only recall and think about his knowledge of the early Imperium of Man.
Originally, humanity in this world flourished under technological development, colonizing numerous planets in the galaxy. However, after experiencing the Men of Iron Rebellion (AI rebellion) and other cataclysmic events, human civilization was fragmented and on the brink of extinction.
In such a chaotic time, a great man named the Emperor stood up!!!
The Emperor, the greatest Perpetual in human history, the strongest psyker—so powerful he could defeat Warp entities in seconds, the ruler of Terra, the leader of the Great Crusade...
This formidable man, who had always kept a low profile, unified warlord-dominated Terra at lightning speed, created the Space Marines, allied with Mars, and launched the Great Crusade, reclaiming human planets lost due to the cataclysms and conquering alien-occupied worlds.
To ensure the success of the Great Crusade, the Emperor created twenty-one Primarchs using his own genes as a template. Each Primarch possessed unmatched wisdom, strength, and talent. Some could see through all physical and mathematical principles at a glance, some could slay a Warlord Titan with a single sword strike, and some could manage the affairs of hundreds of planets simultaneously.
Well, in fact, most Primarchs could do all these things to varying degrees, though they had different specializations.
The twenty Astartes Legions created from their genes became the main force of the Great Crusade.
These 2-3 meter tall giants were all highly skilled and incredibly charismatic, striking awe into ordinary humans.
It's no exaggeration to say that this level of power would make them top-tier characters in any other setting, but in the Warhammer universe, even the mighty Primarchs, even the Emperor himself, ultimately...
I can't think about that anymore!
Hades stopped himself instantly.
In the end, half of the Primarchs betrayed the Emperor, becoming monstrous beings. The Emperor was trapped on Terra...
After the Great Crusade, humanity's bright future turned dark once more—
—but none of this had anything to do with Hades, who was currently struggling to survive.
The most useful memory from his past life was related to the Death Guard Primarch Mortarion.
The twenty-one Primarchs were scattered across the universe by a Warp storm from the Emperor's lab. Mortarion landed on Barbarus.
In the original lore, Mortarion was adopted by the strongest alien lord on the mountain. He was treated as a war machine and endured constant abuse during his childhood, like being thrown into a beast pit before he could stand, being tossed into deadly acid rain, and forced to fight other alien lords...
Even as a Primarch, he wasn't that strong in his childhood, especially since his alien foster father was the planet's most powerful psyker. Thus, Mortarion endured a miserable childhood.
This miserable childhood shaped Mortarion's twisted personality, sowing the seeds for his eventual rebellion against the Emperor.
Of course, Mortarion's final betrayal... had a lot to do with the Warp entities' manipulation.
But that was a long time away. The nearest event was Mortarion escaping his foster father's control, leading the people of Barbarus in a rebellion against the aliens.
Then, at the final showdown against his foster father, the Emperor stole his victory, planting the seeds of hatred...
But for a long time afterward, Mortarion quietly took over the leadership of the Fourteenth Legion, leading them on the Great Crusade.
And the people of Barbarus gained the right to join the Death Guard.
Based on his past life's memory, Hades set a mid-term goal: survive until Mortarion is found by the Emperor, and then become a Death Guard.
An additional task was, of course, to gain Mortarion's favor while still on Barbarus.
A perfect plan.
However... becoming a Death Guard might not be a good thing, considering they are on the rebel side... The later stages are miserable, and he doesn't want to become...
But those are long-term concerns, and Hades thought it unnecessary to worry about them now.
Given his current status as likely cannon fodder, becoming a Space Marine would be an incredible stroke of luck.
Damn it, why is his transmigration so frustrating?!
His short-term goal was simply to survive. Life on Barbarus could be fatal at any moment. Before Mortarion led the uprising against the aliens, the average lifespan here was only thirty years.
As it stands, Hades was in a small village called "Hailer Pass." His parents had been killed by aliens when he was three or four years old, so he had no emotional attachment to them, only a faint memory of their pale, poison-corroded faces.
Hades had no siblings either. Fortunately, food in Barbarus's villages was distributed based on need, so he lived in his parents' mud house, collecting his small ration of food and struggling to survive.
He had no choice—he was too weak. At seven years old, Hades did not have the strength to match the aliens.
Every day, he worked in the fields with the villagers during the brief daylight, and at night, he huddled at home, crafting tools and weapons.
His proudest creation was a small crossbow he modified himself. The materials were treated to resist the corrosive effects of the poison gas.
Though it took a lot of effort to draw, it was quite powerful.
He once secretly searched the alien corpses left in the toxic fog, and apart from the thick-skinned, tough-fleshed aliens, his crossbow could pierce their hides, sometimes even going through completely.
He once considered making a gun but found he lacked the skills to work with iron. His only iron weapon was a dagger left by his father.
Additionally, he had been researching the design and chemical composition of gas masks—everyone on Barbarus had a crude gas mask to fend off the poison gas.
To be honest, there was progress, but not much.
His range was limited to the village and the nearby fields, so the herbs he could gather were limited.
Hades was confident that if he could gather other medicinal herbs, he could improve the current gas masks.
The village bell rang, signaling the end of the workday. Hades hefted his hoe and looked with satisfaction at the ground he had just tilled. It was quite a large area—though still young, he was adept at farming.
He jogged back to the village with the other villagers, and at a call, the village gate was raised.
Hades skillfully returned to his mud house, wiped his hands with a cloth, and began boiling water to make porridge.
After eating, Hades picked up the draft of his design for a repeating crossbow—single-shot crossbows were not very practical in combat.
If he were to encounter a real fight, his opponent wouldn't give him time to reload. This crossbow would only give him an initial advantage.
...
As he was absorbed in his thoughts, sudden screams erupted.
Damn it! Are the aliens attacking the village tonight?!
Hades quickly extinguished the light, donned his gas mask, and put on as much anti-corrosion clothing as possible. He then grabbed his crossbow and arrows, placed the dagger at his waist, and crouched behind the door.
There was no other place to hide in his house, which was furnished with little more than a large dirt bed.
The creatures known as the Pale Laughers crawled slowly along the village paths. They had pale faces with twisted smiles, and their overly long limbs lay eerily against the walls of the houses.
They reminded Hades of spiders with human faces and extremely long legs.
Except these were giant versions, just slightly smaller than a single-room mud house.
Yellow-green toxic gas was bound to their elongated bodies by their psychic powers.
Hades' pupils contracted sharply.
He saw it—the gas slowly seeping in through the crack in the door—
He had been chosen.
Hades gritted his teeth, aimed his crossbow at the doorway, and gave a bitter, ironic smile.
It looked like he was going to have to fight.
He hoped he could survive.
Once again, Hades was doing his best not to cry like a fairy who had just had their toe stepped on.
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Post-Launch Warning:
I am a casual Warhammer fan, I've read the original, but not all of it (too much), and I can't afford all the miniatures.
If you like the Warhammer vibe, you might want to skip this. This story borrows the Warhammer 40k setting but is essentially still a light novel. The original Warhammer lore is too hardcore for me to write accurately.
If you're here for the setting, feel free to continue reading. The protagonist currently has two cheat abilities, similar to "Untouchable" and exceptional rational thinking, but since it's early in the story, he's still at a rookie level.
This is essentially a story of an individual against chaos.
Corrections and informative comments are welcome.
The first chapter is the Barbarus arc, detailing the protagonist's interactions with Mortarion and the process of building the resistance.
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