Chapter 75: Gene Stealer (Requesting First Subscription)

The twisted, profane hallucination did not last long.

As if a cold sun had driven away all those horrific visions and ear-splitting shrieks.

Alvin suddenly woke, as if his throat had been clenched—his lungs strained to expand, yet not a breath of air entered; the sensation of suffocation felt like an invisible hand gripping him.

Breathe!

Breathe!

Finally, Alvin broke free of that restraint.

“Huff… huff…”

He gasped for air in deep, ragged breaths.

Though he had escaped the hallucination’s influence, the fear lingering within him did not diminish one bit—in fact, it grew even stronger.

“What was that?!”

Struggling to calm his terror, Alvin recalled the scene he had just witnessed: “Twisted flesh constructs, shadows of the Warp, and… that cold sun!”

The twisted, profane creations radiated overwhelming malice at a single glance, as if echoing the will of the Highest Heaven.

Had it not been for that cold sun, he might have been utterly drowned by the Warp’s malice!

“Could it really be the Emperor’s divine intervention?!”

Alvin shrank back, suddenly feeling a strange dread.

They say the Emperor’s projection in the Warp is a cold sun—but how could he be certain it was truly the “Emperor,” and not something else entirely?

Even if there was a 99 percent chance it was the Emperor protecting him, who would dare gamble on that one percent chance that it wasn’t the Lord of Lies?

“No—no more psychic use in the Warhammer universe… too dangerous!”

This sudden Warp surge made Alvin realize psychic power was no universal solution; each time he drew from the Warp, he faced immense risk.

The essence of a psyker is drawing power from the Warp.

But using it carries uncontrollable dangers and severe side effects.

Among the most typical are: Pillar Delusion, Aetheric Stench, Memory Worms, Breath Siphon, Demon Masks—severe backlash can kill!

So Alvin deduced that his suffocation must have been one of these: “Breath Siphon.”

As for the visions he saw… he could not determine whether they were hallucinations caused by side effects.

His gaze turned again to the Ironstone Mine.

No twisted flesh constructs, no corrupted symbols—only Gungun black smoke still spewing forth, as if what he had seen had been nothing but a hallucination.

“Was that… really just a hallucination?”

Alvin couldn’t help doubting—the images he’d seen had been far too real.

So real… it was hard to dismiss them as illusions.

The twisted, corrupted flesh constructs, the torrent of malice from the Warp, and that cold sun—all signs seemed to warn him: that factory was extremely dangerous!

Step inside, and his life might end there.

But if he fled now, he might save his life—yet could he escape the fifteenth if he escaped the first?

Alvin knew well: running wouldn’t solve anything.

When the cult grew to a certain scale and the entire hive fell, where could he run to?

“To hell with it! It’s just one life!”

His experiences in the Underhive stirred Alvin’s blood—he glared fiercely at the factory and spat: “I don’t believe there’s a Daemon Prince hiding inside!”

With the Navigator System, if he couldn’t fight, couldn’t he at least run?

“Switch to optical camouflage stealth mode!”

Alvin adjusted the settings; the Mark V exosuit refracted light, vanishing as if it had never been.

Having made all preparations, he no longer hesitated—he flew straight toward the Ironstone Factory, deliberately shutting off his energy thrusters as he neared.

Watching the mine draw closer, Alvin descended slowly, studying the chasm before the Ironstone Bridge: “The gate’s sealed. I’ll need another way in.”

The main entrance to the mine was completely blocked.

Flying over from above was too risky—even with the suit’s stealth mode, he might still be detected.

“Can the system scan a path inside?”

He placed his hope in the suit’s built-in system.

Though stripped of AI, the suit’s functions remained formidable—it immediately began scanning the mine, constructing a 3D model.

Soon, a miniature mine model appeared on the helmet’s display—Alvin had indeed found a hidden route.

“Right beneath the chasm!”

Now that he’d found the entrance, Alvin hesitated no longer.

He piloted the suit straight into the chasm beneath the bridge; as he descended, he saw remnants of mining operations everywhere—clearly, this had been the Ironstone Mine’s vein over fifty years ago.

At the deepest point of the valley, Alvin confirmed his suspicion.

The exposed mineral veins in the surrounding rock layers, and the abandoned, rusted mining equipment long left to the wind and sand, all proved his guess correct.

“According to the model… this path leads here?”

Alvin glanced at the 3D model and found the route: it was the waste and slag discharge pipe, built by the mine before its abandonment.

Following this pipe straight would lead directly into the mine’s core area.

Alvin took from his personal space the deflection field pendant gifted by Aruman’s Aid, and embedded it into the suit’s core.

“Deflection field generator detected!”

“Auto-charging mode activated!”

"Defense system fully taken over!"

“Scanning mode initiated!”

“Suit entering full power mode!”

Watching the prompts appear, Alvin sighed in admiration—no wonder it was Stark tech, so thoughtful!

Who knew what demons lurked inside?

After careful thought, Alvin pulled out his plasma rifle—only then did he feel slightly reassured. He sneered: “Let’s see how many plasma shots a psyker can take!”

Loyalty ensures plasma never overheats!

And he, Alvin Valsias, the Emperor’s most loyal subject, would never overheat!

With all preparations complete, Alvin cautiously advanced along the pipe; in night-vision mode, though darkness filled the tunnel, everything remained perfectly visible.

The abandoned pipe was piled high with assorted mining debris, but that posed no obstacle—thanks to the suit, he easily scaled over it.

“Almost there…”

According to the 3D model, he was close to the exit.

Alvin raised his vigilance to the utmost, disengaging the plasma rifle’s safety, slowing his steps, inching deeper.

But at the front corner!

The suit’s display suddenly showed a grotesque, twisted statue—several meters tall, with four jointed limbs, a monstrous face not of human form, yet arranged in a posture of pity, as if in prayer!

“By the Emperor, what the hell is this profane abomination?”

Alvin stared at the grotesque statue, frozen for half a minute before regaining his composure.

"Detecting numerous traces of suspected biological remains!"

The suit chimed; Alvin, startled, followed the indicator—and saw, inside the massive cavern carved by machinery beside the statue, piled high with… corpses!

But what made him tremble:

All the corpses discarded in the cavern had been burned by intense flame, their bones charred and carbonized.

“Analyze their cause of death and time of death,” Alvin ordered the suit.

“Likely died from extreme high-intensity flame. Time of death… fifty years ago!”

The system’s voice sent a shock through Alvin:

“Could these be the Ironstone Town residents slaughtered by the Planetary Defense Force fifty years ago?!”

Suddenly,

The suit’s system reconstructed one of the deceased humans into a graphical image and displayed it before Alvin: “Preliminary analysis: biological signature does not match human genetics. Suspected to be an arthropod lifeform!”

Staring at the simulated humanoid figure—its limbs multiplied, its face and skull grotesquely twisted—Alvin swore: “Holy shit!”

“Gene Stealer?!”