From Skaven to God of War

Chapter 457, Great, great, great!
This is how the times are, everything becomes unfamiliar all of a sudden.

In the Ratman Empire, on a certain planet, there was a crooked steel city.

Lao Kuangao has been in a bad mood recently. He lost his job. Well, well, he never thought that there would be a day when he would be unemployed.

This planet was brought under the control of the Ratman Empire three hundred years ago. It is a small planet and does not even have a name, only a string of messy numbers.

Planet 2133 is a mining planet. There is no way around it. Not all planets are suitable for living. Even among the planets that are suitable for living, some are more suitable and some are less suitable.

The sky is gloomy, the climate is cold all year round, and the world is gray and white.

This is an ice planet where life is not prosperous. Even for the ratmen, it can only be barely colonized. The only value of this planet is its minerals. There are several lead veins with huge reserves on this planet, so the ratmen visited this planet and left behind several small and crooked steel cities.

Every year, a caravan would arrive on the planet on time to receive the mined ore.

To be honest, mining this planet is a business that barely makes a profit, and that's because the coal reserves on this cold planet are relatively abundant.

Perhaps many, many years ago, this was also a prosperous planet.

In the crooked city, gears of all sizes rotate on the city's frame, accompanied by the boiling steam that occasionally spurts out of the huge steam furnace.

The railway tracks are built directly along the roads in this city. These facilities are important routes for transporting underground lead ore to the surface after being mined. They were also the main means of transportation for miners in the city to go to the mines to work.

In this crooked steel city, eighty percent of the guys do the same job, that is, miners.

But now, the industry is in decline, and the scene of densely packed rats crowding onto a rail car and heading underground is no longer seen.

As the old miner looked at the scene in front of him, he couldn't help but start cursing angrily at the rat nobles who dominated the planet, those greedy rat merchants, and also at those damn automatic machines.

His ancestors had been working in this city almost since the day this planet was created, three hundred years ago, in that huge lead mine, digging one shovel after another, one draft after another. It seemed that this lead mine would never run dry, and the ratmen of their lineage have been wielding the tools in their hands until now.

He felt that he had lived up to his name and the lord of this planet. Every day he tried hard to wave the mining draft in his hand, but this was the result that greeted him.

Such cursing continued until he came to the door of a tavern with a huge gear hanging at the door. He pushed the door open and a wave of hot air hit him in the face. This heat came from the crowded crowd in the tavern. Of course, more of it came from the thick central heating pipes in the center of the tavern.

He walked through the dense crowd of ratmen and came to the bar. He took out five blood gold coins from his pocket. After hesitating for a moment, he did not hand over all the money in his hand. Instead, he left two and shouted loudly to the bartender in front of him.

"Give me a glass of yellow mushroom wine."

The hunchbacked, one-eyed rat man pushed a dark, greasy cup to him. Inside, there was a turbid liquid that was still bubbling.

The old miner yelled at the guy in front of him in dissatisfaction.

"Why is it that the quality of your yellow mushroom wine is getting worse and worse?"

But what he got in return was an indifferent chuckle. The bartender spread his hands towards the old miner indifferently.

"Life is getting harder and harder. In a few days we may even have to stop heating!"

This sentence made Lao Kuangao speechless. He sat on the stool sulking and didn't say anything. He just pulled his yellow mushroom wine over and kept scooping up piece after piece of the black stuff from an iron can on the long table in front of him.

The turbid yellow wine also took on a bit of black after being stained by these black blocks. The old miner suddenly poured a gulp of the stuff into his mouth.

The black square is lead ore. Adding this will make the wine sweeter and stronger. This sweet wine can make people forget their worries. Usually, after drinking a glass of this, Lao Kuangao can sit here for a long time. It is one of the few pastimes.

But today, he seemed a little restless. He drank all the wine in the glass sip after sip. This process would usually take an afternoon or a whole day, but now, he didn't know whether it was half an hour or just ten minutes, he swallowed all the yellow mushroom wine in the glass.

After finishing the wine, it was naturally not right to stay here. Lao Kuangao grabbed the coat beside him and was about to go home. At this time, the one-eyed bartender called Lao Kuangao.

"The bar is short of some lead ore recently. We need purer lead ore from the deepest part of the mine, in the haunted area!"

Lao Kuangao remembered these words in his heart. Not long after, he once again passed through the crowded rat-men and appeared on the cold street outside. Unconsciously, snow began to fall. Snowflakes fell one after another. He put on the dirty coat in his hand and drank the glass of mushroom wine, which temporarily kept the cold away.

The snow quickly accumulated into a thick layer on the street. He walked on the street with one foot deep and one foot shallow. He also wanted to buy some more candy and hoped that the candy store on the next street was still open.

Among the crooked houses, the old miner walked forward holding the things in his arms. He was almost home. Fortunately, the candy store was still open.

But damn, that damn profiteer raised the price!

Finally, he gritted his teeth and bought some.

Got home!
Pushing open the door, the once warm house was now ice-cold. A little fire was flickering in the bedroom deep in the house. Striding forward, Lao Kuangao began to tidy up his expression. He no longer had that bitter face, but forced out a smile.

Pushing open the bedroom door, a gentle rat woman was seen lying on the bed. Beside her, red coals were burning in a small stove.

"How's it going? Is everything going well?"

A gentle voice sounded, and the old miner forced a smile on his face. He took off his dirty coat and hung it aside, then walked over to the rat woman with a smile and sat on the bed.

"It's going smoothly. You know, how can those machines really replace us old guys? Just now, when I went to the city hall with my co-workers, the old drills and rail cars, the guys inside promised us that we will be able to resume work soon!"

She said this with a smile, but the worry on the woman's face had not completely disappeared. She spoke to the old miner worriedly.

"But I heard the situation is very bad."

"Hey, the situation is very bad for other people, you know, how can they compare with us!" "Oh, oh, let's not talk about this for now! Look, look at what I brought you!"

As he spoke, Lao Kuangao took out some candies as if he was offering treasures. At that moment, the woman's eyes lit up for a moment.

To be honest, this picture is actually quite impactful. The rat-man woman in the bedroom is not the old miner's daughter, or anything else, but his wife.

Well, it is indeed hard to imagine at first, but it is true, even though the old miner looks like an old guy with a hunched back.

It can only be said that over the long years, miners are a group of people who age very easily, and this is particularly obvious among the ratmen.

A woman's voice sounded.

"Won't you eat something?"

"No, no, I ate it on the way back!"

"The baby in my belly kicked me today!"

The gentle woman gently embraced Lao Tiekuang in her arms and pulled him closer to her belly, which was now slightly bulging.

If nothing unexpected happens, Xiaokuangao will be born soon, if the name can be passed down at that time.

In the room, in the corner, a rustling sound came from a radio.

The ratmen have fully entered the interstellar age, and most of the ratmen planets have essentially entered a new state. Of course, most of the ratmen planets, and some of them, are still extremely barren, and the ratmen living there do not have the living standards that a powerful interstellar empire should have.

However, even though the gap between the upper and lower limits is so large, some traces can still be seen, such as the radio that is constantly playing a rustling sound in the bedroom. This radio was once the pride of Lao Kuangao, and its existence allowed him to get the most beautiful rat girl in the entire outer city.

Amid the rustling sound, fragments of some sentences were played out.

"Great evolution, gift, freedom from the constraints of the body, potion of immortality!"

These fragmented and completely incomprehensible words were constantly played from the radio. Fortunately, these confusing sentences did not interrupt the embrace of the two rat men in the room.

Next to this precious radio is a clean photo frame. It can be seen that this radio and the photo frame are the only ones on the table that have been specially cared for. They are much cleaner than other things, as if they are wiped frequently.

The radio seemed to be stuck, or perhaps the snow outside made its signal fuzzy and unstable.

A word was repeated over and over again, with a strange and sharp feeling.

“Great, great, great, great, great, great!”

Next to the radio, there was a photo frame with a photo on it. On the photo, there were two rat men's figures. One of them was very clear and obvious, and it was undoubtedly the gentle woman. It was very easy to recognize.

As for the other one, it was difficult to see clearly who he was. He was a young rat man with his arms raised high and a grin on his face.

………….

That night, a figure carrying a mining manuscript appeared at a steam train transfer station on the edge of the outer city. Taking advantage of the dim sky, he nimbly climbed onto an empty freight train.

For many things, Lao Kuangao needs money now, a lot of money.

The snow has not stopped yet, and it has even become heavier. Snowflakes continue to fall. Even though the old miner is wearing a thick coat, he cannot withstand such cold. He can only curl up in the corner of the empty train compartment.

His target was a particular area deep within the vein, a haunted mine.

He had never been active in that mine, but he had heard about what happened there. He heard that the ratmen miners who had stayed there eventually went crazy, shouting that they had seen another world, a monster, and a god.

This situation was a bit confusing, but more and more guys were going crazy. Gradually, no rat miners were willing to approach this haunted mining area, and this place was officially abandoned.

His target today is there. Is he afraid? A little bit. After all, his father, the old miner of the previous generation, told him a lot of bizarre things and taboos that happened in the mines. At first, he scoffed at these things until he became the old miner and began to take over his father's work in the mines.

Some things definitely don't come out of nowhere.

But what does it matter even if that's the case? He must go this time. No matter how scary it is or how crazy it drives him, he will go. He must go.

He needs money, a lot of money, a lot of money.

Just like this, the old miner curled up in the corner of the carriage. Snowflakes kept falling, and soon the carriage was about to be buried. He was also buried in the white snow.

For some reason today, the transport train has not started yet, but the old miner cannot move. He is now somewhat glad that it snowed so heavily today.

A beam of light shone on the train, and a cold metal figure appeared here. He was inspecting the freight train. The inspection was very careful. Fortunately, there was such a heavy snow today, otherwise Lao Kuangao would have been caught on the spot.

After a long time, the inspecting metal figure disappeared. The coat of the old miner buried in the snow was soaked and he was shivering with cold.

But even so, he did not get out from the thick snow, but shivered and hugged his arms.

He needed the money badly, right now.

(End of this chapter)