How can a retired savior be considered retired if he drops to 40,000?

This really angered Curze. He straightened his back, and his anger made his already huge body seem like it was blocking out the sky. A suffocating pressure flowed through the control room of Storm's Edge, but the primarch in anger still barely restrained his behavior, intending to gather all his negative emotions, including dissatisfaction, into words -

But at this critical moment, the alarm of Storm Boundary suddenly sounded. The silver-white main control room was immediately immersed in the flashing red light, which interrupted the process of Koz's brewing emotions. Somni, who seemed to have turned into a sculpture in front of the control console, was also "transformed into a human" by this sudden situation. The holographic projection screen floating in the air suddenly disappeared by more than half, and the golden figure was willing to move slightly from the original place, leaning forward to look at the monitoring data emerging on the Storm Boundary control console.

"Sheba detected an abnormal subspace disturbance. The waveform has been compared with the database. It is highly suspected to be the psychic energy leakage caused by the opening of the Eldar Webway Gate." Somni quickly read and summarized the data on the screen while reaching out to operate on the console. "According to the emergency handling protocol, the mission priority has been changed. The relevant information has been passed to the Ortnaus-type spirit-based exoskeleton."

All right. Curze thought bitterly. Of course he knew what the so-called agreement was - to put it simply, it was nothing more than throwing him over to wipe out any aliens that might exist if the situation allowed. Although they had their own missions, as the Imperial armed forces appointed by the Emperor himself, when there was nothing else important, they should not stand idly by when they encountered such basic defense work on an Imperial planet.

The keyboard input device and the old operating interface on the Storm's Edge, which originated from the second millennium, did not affect Somni's processing speed, and shopping with a native farm girl and a self-retired Astartes obviously did not affect Fujimaru Ritsuka's speed in making judgments. Soon, the real person in charge of this messy team reported her decision back to the main control room.

"If there aren't many of them, we'll have to find a way to drive them away. At the very least, we have to find out what they're doing here." Fujimaru Ritsuka whispered in the communication channel, "The more we dig into this damn place, the more we find out. I suspect that the First City is at a critical juncture. If a third party comes in and fishes in troubled waters, the variables will be too great."

Somni said he understood, and then temporarily closed the communication according to Fujimaru Ritsuka's request. He looked at the screen that Sheba was connected to for a while, and then said to Coze in an unquestionable command sentence: "You need to enter the frame. The soul transfer will begin in one minute and thirty seconds."

"You're just going to throw me over there like that?" Koz asked harshly, but Somni didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

"If you were a Custodes, you would never ask this question." He said calmly but mechanically, "The spirit particle transfer project is already in preparation, which certainly means that I believe the number of Eldar coming into this world through the Webway Gate will not exceed the range you can deal with. However, the Sheba Lens does receive the Eldar's unique psychic interference, which can only roughly determine the size of the team, and cannot accurately observe the actual lineup. Therefore, I cannot provide any valuable intelligence, but theoretically, you can still complete this mission. You just need to obey orders."

"——But as you said before, there is no clear command or coordination relationship between us." Curze asked with clear malice, "What will you do if I refuse to carry out this mission?"

"I will report this to the captain and apply to go to the battle to resolve this hidden danger." Somni's answer was smooth and natural, as if he had already thought of such a thing and made a plan in advance. "If you insist on doing this, I will immediately activate this backup plan."

Coze was silent for a few seconds. It was hard to say whether he was threatened by this "backup plan" or what his motivation was for taking action. Anyway, after these few seconds, he chose to get into the original body transfer frame specially built for him in the last thirty seconds of the spirit particle transfer project.

"I hope that group of Eldar... No, never mind." He said viciously in the frame, and it seemed that he had made up his mind to vent his anger on these unfortunate aliens. "Ritsuka said that he wanted to find out what they were doing here. That's good."

I'll let you tell it all.

He thought viciously in the dizzying brilliance of the spirit particle transfer technology.

-

"...So during the nine days of the festival, there will be a parade like this every day?" Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the crowd of people in strange costumes in front of him and asked Alita beside him, "What's the meaning of this route?"

They were now in the First City, but in the 41st millennium of humanity, the definition of the word "city" had changed greatly from the one that Fujimaru Ritsuka was familiar with. Even in a sparsely populated agricultural world, the size and flow of people in this perfunctorily named "First City" on Jestal far exceeded the Tokyo she was familiar with.

——After all, this is the administrative center and interstellar transport port of the entire planet. Its characteristics lead to a large number of facilities for floating populations in addition to permanent residents. At this critical juncture when the imperial department came to collect taxes and celebrated the harvest, this city that had gained temporary false prosperity easily carried countless foreign populations: most of them were workers in the local farming area who were allowed to stay, and a small number were soldiers and sailors who were approved to go to the surface of the planet to "take a walk" from the tax collection ship.

These outsiders caused great inconvenience to Fujimaru Ritsuka's investigation: considering that "blue-gray disease" is a chronic disease caused by "long-term exposure to pesticides", then in theory this obviously abnormal symptom (or mutation) should be more common in front-line personnel working in farming areas.

If she could confirm that this change was relatively rare in people who lived in cities and were responsible for administrative work, then she could be sure that the specially formulated pesticides on Jestal were the culprit. However, due to the impact of a large number of foreign populations, Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't even be sure where the people who passed by him lived, and of course there was no way to observe the problem of the incidence rate.

She didn't know whether to be happy or sad, but this entry into the city actually made her discover other problems.

"It seems that the parade starts from the 'ancient ruins', takes nine days to go around the city, and returns to the ruins at noon on the last day. Because Technical Officer Hastings will give a speech in the square in front of the ruins, anyone can follow the parade into the inner city on that day." Alita was holding a piece of chocolate from Fujimaru Ritsuka on the side of the road, looking at the "juggling teams" in front of her that were completely organized by local residents and had only half-baked skills, and said happily, "Everyone thinks that even if it is just to take a close look at the star port, it is worth following the parade into the inner city on the last day - but since you came here from outside the planet, you should be able to go in at any time to get back to the ship, right?"

"...Ahahahaha." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had never passed through the airport or entered the inner city and had landed on the planet completely through informal channels, laughed dryly and changed the subject to muddle through the issue. "Come to think of it, this is clearly a harvest festival on an agricultural planet. Although there are small stalls on the street, how come almost all of them sell handmade crafts? There is not even a stall selling food?"

"Hmm?" Alita was puzzled by this question, "Food... can food be sold?"

"Jestal is a planet with very scarce resources, young lady." Sevata's voice floated down from above with a hint of sarcasm. "The only product here is food, and because food is the only product here, it is heavily taxed by the Empire. Perhaps those bureaucrats who make decisions based on parchment think they are already very kind, but even the lowest tax rate in the Empire is still too heavy for this planet that once had frequent accidents. For a long time, Jestal even owed a large amount of taxes. Until Governor Deville took office, Technical Officer Hastings improved the genes of round wheat and kept trying to increase food production, which lasted until this year's bumper harvest."

Alita didn't know what these things had to do with the topic, and looked up at "Jacob" beside her with a bit of confusion, but Fujimaru Ritsuka already understood what he wanted to say:

"I see. So before this, the food on this planet was rationed and controlled as a strategic resource, and private transactions among the people were strictly prohibited, right?"

"That's pretty much it."

Sevatar seemed to want to say more, but Alita naturally turned around and interrupted him: "If Ritsuka is curious about what round wheat tastes like, I can give you my rations after we return to the cargo station. Everyone has a lot of rations during the celebration, so it's not a problem to share some with others."

This spontaneous kindness made Sevatar a little angry for no reason. Even Fujimaru Ritsuka was stunned: "Isn't this bad? After all, these are things that can only be obtained through rationing. If there is a surplus temporarily, it is better to save them just in case, right?"

"It's okay. The yield of the improved round wheat is already very high. No one will go hungry in the future." Alita said happily, "Besides, you also shared the candy with me. I should feel sorry for only giving you the round wheat rationed to ordinary workers in return."

"...No, a piece of chocolate is really nothing to me, you don't have to take it seriously..."

"But it's very important to me. I've never eaten such delicious candy!" Alita happily unfolded the translucent plastic wrapper towards the light. "The candy wrapper is also beautiful. I want to keep it. I am also a person who has received a gift from another planet!"

Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly felt that this thing that was supposed to be a casual thing had become heavy.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 16: Generally, the Eldar cannot pass

"Now that you've said that, I'd be ungrateful if I refused. But now that I mention it, I remember that I don't even know what round wheat looks like." Fujimaru Ritsuka changed the subject a little stiffly, "I've come to an agricultural planet, but all I see are bare fields and huge piles of straw... Maybe I chose the wrong time."

Alita, who grew up in the farmland, obviously didn't understand the appeal of "endless wheat waves", a scene that she thought was already aesthetically tired, to outsiders. She said in a puzzled tone: "But this is a harvest festival that has never been held before. I can't think of a better time than this."

Sevatar, who was listening in, was not in a position to comment on this topic. He was an Astartes, once a member of the Night Lords Legion, and should have spent his life with guns, war, blood and fear. All the peaceful and perfect things around him should not have had any contact with him beyond "passing by". Even if fate played tricks on him, he stood in the crowd of the celebration after ten years of self-exile, his height that was too outstanding among ordinary people and his fierce face with scars still made him look out of place.

This "out of tune" made him very conspicuous in the crowd, and there were always some curious or fearful looks around him. As the captain of the Night Lords, Sevatar had long been accustomed to being the focus of attention in the crowd, but this situation still made him feel irritated.

Unfortunately, the two girls who dragged him out (only Sevatar thought so) were completely unaware of this and were just chattering together, leaving him alone and awkwardly standing there.

After a brief thought, Fujimaru Ritsuka agreed with Alita's point of view: "...Indeed, the first time always has a special commemorative significance. However, if this kind of harvest celebration becomes a regular festival, it will definitely become bigger and bigger in the future."

"It seems that there are no plans in this regard at the moment, but I wish you good luck in your words." Alita said happily.

Perhaps most people who struggle in endless repetitive heavy work are pessimistic, but Alita generally does not refuse an opportunity to imagine a beautiful future. The girl clasped her hands together and nodded in prayer: "God Emperor, if Governor Deville wants to make the harvest celebration a festival, I hope it will be once every farming season."

There was nothing important to do at the moment, so Ritsuka was happy to let his thoughts wander along this lighthearted topic: "If it could be held once a year, maybe it could be made into a special project to develop tourism. The harvest season in Jestal is around this time every year, right?"

"Huh? No?" Alita looked at Ritsuka in confusion, "The harvest season changes every year."

Li Xiang also began to feel confused because of this sentence: "Ah? But, but, isn't the growth cycle of the crop - round wheat different every year?"

"How is that possible? Barley matures in five months, and a farming cycle consists of two sowings and two harvests. The land is then left fallow for a while to adjust, allowing for periods when the climate is not suitable." Alita counted on her fingers. "I've heard that other agricultural worlds have technology to avoid the influence of weather, allowing crops to grow all year round, but Jestal is not liked by the Mechanicus and rarely receives support in this regard. It can only sow according to phenology. Since we have to follow phenology, it is of course impossible to start work at the same time every year."

Ritsuka Fujimaru stood there in a daze, trying desperately to figure out what Alita was saying, but unfortunately the result was not satisfactory. She only succeeded in expressing the four words "I don't understand" with a simple expression on her face.

"Wait a minute, let me start from the beginning again... Doesn't Jestal use the Terran standard calendar? A year has twelve months, a month has about thirty days, and a day has twenty-four hours..."

After watching the confused look of what he thought was the "pampered young lady from Terra", Sevatar mercifully explained, "If you're talking about the official calendar, it's true, but this is because Jestal's rotation period is very similar to Terra's, about 24 hours and 7 seconds per rotation, so the original pioneers didn't think much about it and simply moved the Terra standard calendar over, and it has been maintained as a tradition until now - but in fact, Jestal's revolution period is about 405 days per week. If you only use the Terra standard calendar to guide farming time, the phenology will not correspond."

This is indeed the fact, but it still takes time for people to understand the facts. Fujimaru Ritsuka held his head and thought for about three minutes before he sorted out the logic of the whole thing. Then he raised his eyes and asked blankly: "Isn't this troublesome? This is an agricultural planet that depends on the weather for food? Has the local governor never intended to reform and create a local calendar?"

Sevatar, who was used to all this, shrugged indifferently, indicating that the ruling class of the empire was basically a conservative group that refused to reform. Alita raised her hand happily, saying that because the calendar and phenology did not match, the planetary government would issue a farming time guide to guide workers on how to work during each farming season: the guide would combine the actual seasonal phenology on Jestal with the dates of the Terra standard calendar, so as to arrange a suitable schedule for the farming cycle.

"I can calculate this 'farming calendar' too!" Alita proudly showed off, pinching her waist, "... although I'm not as fast as Jacob."

Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed.

"Why don't you think of competing with him in brains?" She crossed her arms and said to Alita.

Sevatar raised his brows at this.

Although it is indeed an act of seeking trouble and humiliation for an ordinary person to want to compete with a superman who has undergone transformation surgery in brain computing power, she specifically mentioned this point when she knew that Sevatar was in a state of hiding his identity and retiring. If one must over-interpret it, it is not impossible to taste a hint of threat from it.

If it was just this sentence, it could be regarded as a slip of the tongue by Fujimaru Ritsuka, but the sentence she said next was even more outrageous logically: "If you really want to compete with him, why not fight him - you will definitely win."

"Ah?" Alita's confused expression returned to her face. "How is it possible, Ritsuka? Just in terms of physique, Jacob is the biggest person I know—"

"Of course it looks like that, but what about the reality? The factors that affect the outcome of a fight are not just basic qualities like physique and strength." Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly began to talk nonsense in a serious manner, "If you fight him head-on, of course you can't win, but what about the reality? Jacob will definitely not be willing to use heavy hands on you. I think he would feel more uncomfortable seeing you injured than asking him to cut himself with a knife. By this calculation, you have already 'won outside the field'!"

This could be said to be true, but Sevatar was sure he would never admit it.

Fujimaru Ritsuka succeeded in making these words sound like a joke, and Alita obviously listened to them with a giggle as if it were a joke. But Sevatar felt a strong sense of disobedience in his heart - he didn't know whether it was an ability inherited from his genetic father or he had this talent himself, his feeling was rarely wrong.

Fujimaru Ritsuka slowly blinked an eye at him.

Sevatar had only known this girl, who still had many mysteries, for less than a day, so they were not familiar with each other, let alone had any tacit understanding. But somehow, he succeeded in interpreting the message from that hint - a simple instruction that did not contradict his own intentions.

So he nodded slowly: "Indeed. 'If you see Alita getting hurt, you might as well cut me with a knife.'"

"Wow—" Alita turned her head in surprise, "Jacob, this is not something you would say."

"Hey, compared to how he talks, Alita, Alita," Li Xiang reached out and poked the other person's arm, "I remember that you said you would treat me to round wheat, so don't forget it when we meet next time."

Being prodded like this, Alita turned back in confusion: "Eh? Why are you suddenly saying this, Ritsuka, what are you going to--"

What interrupted her sentence was a fierce push from Fujimaru Ritsuka. The power that erupted from her thin and small body was much greater than Alita had expected. Even though she looked taller and stronger than Ritsuka, she was still thrown back by this push without any defense. The strong impact and surprise almost made her bite her tongue.

She instinctively tried to stagger backwards to keep her balance, but it was too late, and it only accelerated her unbalance speed - but she did not fall, because Jacob was guarding behind her in the direction she fell. The man's broad palm grasped one of her shoulders like an iron clamp at the critical moment, and stopped her downward trend with his body.

In this emergency situation, Alita's first reaction after being "rescued" was not to breathe a sigh of relief, but to feel something poking behind her shoulder that was not grabbed. But before she could react, Jacob's other free hand tightly covered the lower half of her face.

She wanted to ask in confusion, only to find that she couldn't make any sound, and even had difficulty breathing. At this time, the hand that had been holding her shoulder had loosened, and Jacob had put his arm around her waist with a very skillful technique, and before she had time to struggle, he picked her up from the ground like a grain bag, and after a dizzy spin, he appeared in a dark alley on the side of the road.

Alita had no idea what was going on, because Jacob immediately ran away at a speed that was almost impossible for a human to achieve with bare hands, and got away from that place of trouble.

The girl, who had not received any relevant training, soon lost consciousness under the torture of such speed, bumps and difficulty breathing. The only clue she got from the scene was that after they turned and merged into the shadows, the cheers of celebration behind them suddenly turned into screams of fear within a few seconds.

-

During the three minutes when Fujimaru Ritsuka seemed to be in a headache and thinking, she was not thinking about the calendar problem of Jestal. She immediately figured out that problem after Sevatar explained it.

In fact, during those three minutes, she paused and pretended to think, only because Conrad Curz sent her a message through the telepathic link of the contract:

+Those Eldar. +

+Why so sudden? You scared me. +

+I can confirm that those Eldar have nothing to do with the events on this planet. They are simply here for you, the famous man - by the way, one of them escaped and is heading your way. It is expected that they will find you in six minutes. +

Koz's tone when stating this sentence was quite righteous, and Fujimaru Ritsuka had to try very hard to restrain himself from sighing when rereading it.

+...The Eldar's webway gates should not be located near the city, and I don't think you would make such a low-level mistake as letting the enemy escape. What do you want to do? +

+Just making the best use of it. +

As he spoke these sentences, he was like a naughty child, as if he could dismember the beetles caught nearby just for his own pleasure. There was an innocent malice hidden under his cheerful tone.

+What can you find out from investigating among the civilians? If there is a problem in an Imperial world, the most efficient way is to investigate from top to bottom. Before, you thought that showing up in front of the planetary governor without any reason might alert the enemy, but now I have sent you a living excuse - don't waste it. +

+…Conrad, this is downtown! I have company with me! Do you realize how much collateral damage this will cause? ! +

+What does it matter? We are pressed for time, and a little collateral damage is acceptable. In the Empire, you get used to this trade-off. +

+…Maybe you guys like it, but I have my way of doing things. We'll have to talk about this later. And don't think I can't see that you're trying to push me into this kind of situation! +

Fujimaru Ritsuka pursed his lips tightly, trying his best not to let anger appear on his face.

+Just wait and see, no one in the city will get into trouble because of this today! +

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 17: The Supreme King of Time!

I was the only one left in the army.

Ranger Ada silently set up his gun at the sniper point he had hastily selected.

The mission given by the prophet must be completed.

He looked into the distance. His trained eyes, which were particularly sharp even among the elves, could clearly see the crowds of people on the distant streets, and it was easy for him to distinguish those details that were irrelevant to humans.

He tried to steady his mind and focus on his task, but he couldn't.

He was the only one left of the troop that crossed the webway and came to this world.

He now has no vehicle, no support, and no companions. This is not terrible, he is a ranger, a wanderer, he should have been accustomed to acting alone and wandering the stars with only scarce supplies, he is highly skilled and should be able to complete his mission excellently under any circumstances.

But he is afraid—not because of the enemy he faces, but because he has not so far succeeded in recognizing the enemy.

The prophet might have been able to see through the bloody fog, but she was the first one to die in the group. At that time, there were Aspect warriors guarding her, and she herself was a good fighter. They had just passed through the Webway Gate stealthily, and no one thought anything would happen. But, just a misalignment, a coincidence that no one happened to be looking in that direction, the prophet disappeared from where she was supposed to be.

No one noticed what was going on. This made them alert and they carefully tried to look for any suspicious traces nearby, but found nothing. Until five minutes later, the prophet appeared again as quietly as she disappeared.

In a broken and profane way.

This caused the team to fall into a brief panic, and other members began to argue. They were not sure how this happened, and could not decide whether to continue this mission. As for the ranger himself, he was very sure that this was an ominous sign: it had nothing to do with the fate flowing in the warp, but simply because this incident clearly showed that there was an unknown and powerful entity near them, and it was not friendly to their arrival.

He thought that no matter whether they were going forward or backward, they should leave this troubled place as soon as possible. He made this suggestion, and although the people in the team were nervous, they still kept their rationality, so the correct suggestion was quickly agreed. They had to spend a little time to recover the prophet's soul stone - it was more difficult than they originally thought to find the correct position to install the soul stone from a pile of indistinguishable blood, minced meat and armor fragments - then, they left as a team, and when they counted, they found that there were two fewer people in the team.

A more intense argument broke out in the team that lacked a decisive leader. Some people thought they should look for their lost companions or at least recover the soul stone, while others thought it proved that they were not welcome here and they should leave immediately.

In any case, this incident once again proved to everyone that the situation was serious, and the second argument was more intense but also shorter. After only thirty-four seconds, they decided to continue the mission and move forward to leave the hidden cave where the webway gate was located. But when they reached the exit of the cave, they found the two people missing from the team.

They were impaled on poles, their flesh was bloody, their limbs were crushed, their skin and flesh were rolled up to expose the bones underneath, their abdomens were cut open, their internal organs were removed, and then deliberately twisted back to the incorrect position, their faces were peeled off, and their eyes were gouged out. There were signs of struggle on their bodies, and it was obvious that they were still alive during all this. All the companions mourned for the miserable experience of these two compatriots and collected their soul stones. Then they were once again ready to step onto the vehicle and set off -

——This time, there were four fewer people in the team.

This was pretty obvious, as there were two Windrider jetbikes sitting alone.

They finally panicked. This time they did not argue or wait any longer, but set off immediately. They jumped on the vehicle and rushed into the vast plains of Jestal. They thought they could get rid of the unknown monster, but -

The ranger took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

Now he was alone.

In this situation, the reason why he still chose to continue to complete the mission was actually very simple and realistic: his vehicle was destroyed, and he was obviously much closer to the mission target than the Webway Gate. He judged that his chances of survival would be very low if he returned.