273: Chapter 274 Legion Battle Report

On the surface of the Outpost Planet, inside the central garden of the Shelter.

The sun was shining, and the breeze was gentle.

Lin Li was lying on a rattan rocking chair, his head resting naturally on Frannie's resilient lap.

He was leisurely scrolling through the game forum, checking the latest battle reports posted by the various expeditionary legions.

Frannie kept her head lowered, her face slightly flushed.

It wasn't that she hadn't engaged in such intimate acts with Lin Li before, but this time it was in public, with patrolling guards passing by from time to time.

This made her somewhat uncomfortable; her hands had nowhere to rest, and it felt rather strange.

Lin Li sensed her stiffness, so he turned over to lie on his side.

He gently wrapped one arm around Frannie's waist, returning his attention to the battle reports in his hand, reading with great interest.

The featured post at the very top was a battle report sent by Ming Shen, the commander of the Scourge Legion.

As a widely recognized top-tier workhorse among players, he was also one of the veteran players who had followed Lin Li since the server launch to conquer the world.

The financial strength and power of the Scourge Legion, led by Ming Shen, were unquestionable.

At this moment, they were pushing westward along that Golden Age Warp route.

"We encountered a Warp storm along the way and were forced to exit the route early. As it turned out, we stumbled upon a star system that was under attack by a small Tyranids fleet!"

The post also included a video.

Ming Shen said excitedly in the video.

"There are two mining planets in this system belonging to the Adeptus Mechanicus. The surface of the planets is covered with massive mining machinery and smelters, primarily producing plasteel. Meanwhile, the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii forces on the planet seem to be engaged in a brutal positional war against the swarm on the surface."

As soon as the Scourge Legion's fleet warped in, they didn't waste any time; they immediately launched a fierce artillery strike against the Tyranids' living bio-fleet hovering in near-orbit!

"Bugs are just points, brothers!" Ming Shen shouted in the video.

Watching the skillful boarding actions and heavy fire suppression in the footage, Lin Li nodded with satisfaction.

Now that this group of players had extensive combat experience against the Tyranids, dealing with a small fleet without main force support should be absolutely no problem.

Lin Li continued scrolling down.

It was a text and image battle report from the Brotherhood of Steel regarding the southern direction.

This group of muscle-bound bros, who specialized in heavy firepower, had arrived in an uninhabited star system.

They discovered that there were indeed traces of human civilization here, but unfortunately, only massive metal ruins, weathered beyond recognition, remained on the planet. They saw no living people, nor were there any signs of Chaos corruption.

However, this group was quite lucky.

The report mentioned that while clearing out an ancient core buried deep underground, they seemed to have found an STC template fragment!

As for exactly what kind of black technology it was, they would have to wait until they brought it back to the base camp for Iron Man 73 to analyze.

The battle report from the Galactic Empire Stormtroopers in the north seemed a bit crude.

"Brothers, we seem to have gotten lost in the Warp. The navigator says he can't find the glimmer of the Astronomican. The currents outside are very chaotic, and we don't know where we've drifted!"

Lin Li shook his head helplessly and swiped past this report.

Immediately following was a battle report with a very eye-catching title: "Bear Ridge: Our Great Life Experiment While Hunting Bugs!"

The Bear Ridge guild was composed mostly of Beastman players.

After reaping the benefits of fighting the Tyranids, they continued to hunt down scattered bugs across various star systems; no one knew exactly how many they had captured.

However, when Lin Li clicked on this report.

A bolded section of text inserted in the middle of the report made Lin Li's eyes nearly pop out!

"Yesterday! Our guild player, Void Terror, achieved a miracle of life! He used his own clone's human DNA to fuse with the Tyranids gland genes of a Norn Queen! He paid a heavy price to commission the NPC Stone Man Hong to artificially synthesize and cultivate a half-human, half-bug mutant daughter for him in the gene laboratory!"

"Unfortunately, due to a genetic chain collapse, this beautiful daughter only lived for less than half an hour before melting into a puddle of blood. But this experiment proved that Tyranids and human genes can be forcibly mated... wait, I mean fused!"

"What the f*ck!"

Seeing this, Lin Li felt a violent shock in his heart.

What kind of half-human, half-bug daughter is that?!

How is it that he recognized all these Chinese characters separately, but couldn't understand them at all when put together?!

"Damn it! Is this guy's brain broken?!"

Lin Li couldn't help but curse wildly in his heart, "You f*cking play warhammer 40,000, and instead of piloting a mech to fight demons, you actually want to play some hardcore xeno-incest in here?! The bottom line of players is truly unfathomable!"

In fact, as the planner and leader, Lin Li had always been very lenient regarding the players' various behaviors in the Warhammer World.

Including some 18+ content, as long as it didn't violate the Alliance Constitution, he couldn't be bothered to care.

After all, players were human too. In this universe, quite a few players had even fallen for the Warhammer natives, gotten married, and even had offspring!

Take Flash, for example.

His child with his local wife was born just a few days ago.

After the most precise genetic testing by Stone Man Hong, the child had not only perfectly inherited the player's healthy genes, but there was also a high probability of breaking the genetic lock in the future, becoming a super soldier as powerful as a normal player!

These were all good things that Lin Li was happy to see.

But! What the hell was this pervert called Void Terror doing by creating a half-human, half-bug monster?!

Lin Li took a deep breath and thought for a long time.

In the end, he opened the communication channel and sent a message to Stone Man Hong, who was far away in the gene laboratory: "From now on, if these clones make any similar anti-human genetic fusion requests, they must be reported to me for personal approval first!"

After finishing this blood-pressure-raising battle report, Lin Li closed his eyes and rubbed his head forcefully against Frannie's soft lap. Smelling the faint incense on her, he finally managed to suppress the anger in his heart.

After calming down, Lin Li continued to read the battle reports.

This was an extra-long text battle report from Dumpling, the leader of the Baby Bus guild.

The players of Baby Bus belonged to the life-skill category and had set off very early.

They had gone all in, daring to take people into deep space with only one Void ship.

Two days ago, Lin Li had seen them post on the forum about arriving at a world with traces of a highly advanced human civilization.

Lin Li carefully read the detailed report sent back by Dumpling.

The report described in detail three major knight mecha families composed of people with Eastern faces.

In terms of political systems, these three planets practiced an ancient and somewhat rigid feudal Knight system.

"Although the technological level retains the foundation of the Golden Age, and they can even casually bring out knight mechas, their level of social civilization is just so-so."

Looking at the social survey attachment at the end of the battle report, Lin Li made an accurate assessment, "In this centralized system where Knight nobles absolutely control family resources, the living conditions of the bottom-tier farmers and workers definitely won't be any better."

At the end of the report, Dumpling also highlighted this point.

Among the three major families, even the Melissa Family—the Lady of the Lake, who was relatively the best to the lower classes—exercised very strict control over the commoners.

This included restricting the freedom of movement for commoners, levying high taxes, and strictly controlling weapons, among other things.

In the eyes of the Spark Alliance, this was completely a backward feudal dross, and such a world would eventually become a stagnant pool.

Following that, Lin Li finished reading the entire process of Baby Bus's confrontation with the Rogue Trader, up to them just voting in the group to jointly launch a full-scale attack against the Son of the Sun family with the other two houses.

With Lin Li's keen political intuition, he realized in an instant that there was definitely something fishy about the situation!

Lin Li rubbed his chin, "The Lady of the Lake is using this bunch of brainless players as guns! She wants to use the players' firepower to deal with that disobedient Son of the Sun family!"

"What a cunning plan," Lin Li laughed. "If the players lose, she can dump all the blame for inciting the civil war on these outsiders; if the players happen to win, she and the other family can legitimately carve up the vast territory and resources of the Son of the Sun family. And since the players have too few people and too shallow a foundation, no matter how big their appetite is, they won't be able to hold onto much actual territory in the end. She gets all the benefits!"

Lin Li felt that, given Dumpling's intelligence, he should have at least partially seen through the Duchess's little scheme.

But after all, the players were new to the area and in urgent need of a foothold; they also had to rely on the local power of these two families to establish trade routes. So, this was just an exchange of interests, a willing victim scenario.

"As long as the players don't suffer a loss, let them mess around."

After reading all the battle reports, Lin Li exited the forum, closed his eyes, and began to ponder the overall macro situation of the entire Galaxy.

The current timeline was the 42nd Millennium.

If Lin Li remembered the official plot correctly, the Primarch of the Ultramarines, the 13th, should be launching the Terra Crusade right around this time!

He would fight his way back to Holy Terra and then forcefully repel those Chaos Daemon forces besieging the Terra Imperial Palace!

After entering the Golden Throne and having a meeting with Old Man Huang, Guilliman would emerge and immediately engage in political maneuvering and interest exchanges with the High Lords.

Subsequently, Guilliman would begin preparing for the Indomitus Crusade aimed at reclaiming lost territories!

This series of epic wars that would follow, capable of changing the course of galactic history, seemed to be a hundred thousand miles away from the remote Ghoul Stars where the Spark Alliance was currently located. But the butterfly effect it would bring was absolutely enormous!

Because, in the official background setting, the Carcharodons Chapter, as a force from the fringe, later participated in this Indomitus Crusade and joined the 13th's massive fleet!

"And right now, there are players serving as recruits in the Carcharodons Chapter!" Lin Li thought. "If things go well, as soon as the timing is right, The Fourth Calamity might have a chance to directly participate in this epic Indomitus Crusade event!"

But as a leader, what Lin Li needed to consider most right now was what substantive benefits the Spark Alliance, this emerging regime, could gain in this chaos sweeping across the entire Galaxy?

Bringing his gaze back to the micro level, as the Alliance's fleet completely began to venture out, the main quest issued by the Shelter system would also be successfully completed in the near future!

Once the main quest was turned in, the system's B8-level permissions would be fully unlocked!

Thinking of this, Lin Li couldn't help but curl his lips upward, "At that time, the quota limit on the number of The Fourth Calamity will be directly lifted! The true era of infinite players is about to descend!"

As long as these new players adapted to the game for a while, with the improvement of their base levels and the upgrading of their equipment, the overall combat power of the Spark Alliance would definitely rise with the tide, undergoing a terrifying quantitative change!

Thinking of this, Lin Li clenched his fists in excitement. The Ghoul Stars were not peaceful at all, and with this batch of truly infinite fresh troops joining, in the future, that plan which the players were always talking about—going directly to the Warp rift to camp the spawn—had a high possibility of becoming a reality!

Lin Li rubbed his throbbing temples. He reached out and patted Frannie's thigh twice, signaling that he was about to get up.

Frannie felt a sense of relief. She hurriedly straightened her slightly wrinkled black nun's habit and then followed behind Lin Li.

Lin Li stood up and stretched, his bones popping with a crisp sound. "Let's go, I'll take you back to the convent first."

Frannie didn't speak, just followed silently behind Lin Li.

The afternoon sun was a bit blinding, and a dry breeze blew across the dust of the wasteland. The two walked side by side through the orderly streets on the surface of the Shelter.

Patrolling Alliance guards passed by from time to time on the streets. These guards were wearing brand-new armor and holding self-made Alliance rifles, looking in excellent spirits.

After escorting Frannie to the outside of the convent gate, Lin Li watched her walk inside before turning around to return to the underground base.

However, the moment he stepped into the elevator compartment, his PV suddenly let out a low buzzing sound.

The screen lit up, and Iron Man 73's cold, synthesized electronic voice sounded in the channel: "Creator, detected an Imperial Department of Justice shuttle approaching the Shelter, expected to land in thirty minutes. The visitor is Marshal Miller of the Adeptus Arbites sector."

Iron Man 73 added on the side: "Based on underlying logic calculations, there is a 90% probability that his visit is related to the changes in the northern war situation."

"Understood. The usual rules, have him go to the No. 2 reception room."

Lin Li first returned to his lounge. He took off his casual clothes and changed into a well-tailored black formal outfit, pinned with the double-headed eagle and torch emblem.

This outfit made him look upright and capable. As the supreme Archon of the entire Spark Alliance, when facing high-ranking Imperial officials, he still had to maintain the necessary dignity and appearance.

After changing, he arrived at the reception room. The decor of this room was very elegant, using a large amount of dark wood and brass components. The walls were hung with exquisite star maps of the Alliance territory, and a set of white porcelain tea set was placed on the table, emitting a faint aroma of black tea.

Lin Li sat in the main seat for less than ten minutes when a heavy and rhythmic sound of boots stepping on the floor came from outside the door.

A moment later, the carved double doors of the reception room were pushed open.

Marshal Miller, wearing a heavy black trench coat and a standard Adeptus Arbites dome hat, walked in with a smile on his face.

His mental state looked very good, his eyes were bright, and his complexion was ruddy.

"Long time no see, my friend, Leader of Dawn."

Marshal Miller took off his hat, handed it to the attendant nearby, and reached out his hand proactively.

Lin Li stood up, shook his hand, and with a polite smile on his face, said: "Long time no see, Marshal Miller."