Just like that, Duanmu Huai successfully obtained a horse girl familiar… and for him, this was an unimaginable surprise!
The reason was simple—it lay in this horse girl's trait.
[Truly Clever (Superior Charm)]
[Superior Charm: Cuteness and allure far beyond ordinary people; the individual herself is also advancing toward becoming the cutest in the world]
Ohhhhhhh!!
When Duanmu Huai formed the contract and saw this trait, he was almost moved to tears.
Finally, finally, he had made it out of the gutter ahhhhh!!!!
The reason Duanmu Huai felt so emotional wasn't without cause.
Why, after transmigrating into this world, had Duanmu Huai never chosen to follow the route he used to walk back in the game?
The reason was very simple. Aside from the fact that his original server had been in Cathay rather than the Empire, there was one biggest reason above all else… most of his quests had been triggered by charm.
Back when Duanmu Huai created his character, he had deliberately set his character's charm extremely high, so some hidden quests could only be triggered by him. In fact, in the game, from Cathay all the way into the cosmos, Duanmu Huai had basically lived off charm-triggered chain quests.
For example, not long after he first entered the game, he was stopped in a tavern by an old man who smiled and said, "This young lady is clearly no ordinary person at a glance, a heaven-sent genius. This old man has a matter he wishes to ask about…"
And after Duanmu Huai went into space, the reason he triggered his very first interstellar chain quest at a space station was also because an NPC proactively came to him and said that such a beautiful young lady—would she be interested in participating in an underground competition… After that, Duanmu Huai followed that quest line and encountered another member of a different organization who was undercover in that dark organization at the time, gaining a new profession and identity…
Simply put, that was how high charm worked. Even if you did nothing and just walked down the street, hidden quests would actively come looking for you.
Even street thugs lusting after your beauty could end up triggering an edge quest hiding an enormous conspiracy behind it.
This was also one of the foundations that allowed Duanmu Huai to strive to become a top-tier player in the early stages. His charm was high, and through a twist of fate he obtained the Primarch gene of the Blood Angels, which directly meant starting with maxed-out charm. All kinds of quests practically lined up at his doorstep. While other players were racking their brains to dig out hidden quests, Duanmu Huai already had hidden quests lining up and taking numbers to be accepted.
And precisely because of this, when Duanmu Huai himself transmigrated into this world, he fell straight into despair.
With his current charm value, it was absolutely impossible to meet the requirements to trigger hidden quests. Even if he knew which NPCs had hidden quests and went to them proactively, the other party probably wouldn't say anything—and if they threw in a line like "ugly bastard, get lost," Duanmu Huai would directly beat them into becoming hostile…
When charm was maxed, all kinds of quests lined up and rushed toward him.
In his current state… let alone hidden quests, even normal quests probably went out of their way to avoid him. After all, those lust-crazed devotees of the God of Desire would definitely want to make a move when they saw a beauty, but they'd have to be brain-dead to actively provoke an enemy who looked terrifying at a glance. In that situation, it was basically impossible for Duanmu Huai to receive any useful quests from others.
But now things were different!
With Truly Clever's Superior Charm, Duanmu Huai could finally go look for his original plot route and trigger some charm-restricted quests!
After all, logically speaking, Truly Clever was his pet, so the pet's charm value equaled the owner's charm value. Rounding up, that meant Duanmu Huai's charm was maxed again—wasn't that right?
Moreover, this horse girl who called herself Karen was indeed extremely cute. There was no need to say anything about her appearance: soft, fluffy white curls, paired with playful ears and a tail, plus her own cute and delicate face—just looking at her made one's heart skip a beat. She was also extremely cheerful and lively, basically a social terrorist. Not long after she blended into Duanmu Huai's group, she had already gotten along with everyone else.
However, unlike TuTu's kind of innocence that looked like her mental age was under ten, Truly Clever was closer to the lively, cheerful, and mischievous type. And according to her own words, she wanted the whole world to recognize her cuteness, to let her cuteness heal the entire world… well, alright, at least that could be considered a dream.
Honestly speaking, she was quite suitable for countering the Spawn of Obsession. At the very least, this kind of cuteness was genuinely cute and pretty, not something that twisted one's aesthetic sense.
In fact, the influence of the God of Desire—or rather, the Spawn of Obsession—spread far more easily among interstellar civilizations than among indigenous ones, and the reason was simple. Interstellar civilizations usually had many alien species, and these alien species naturally came in all kinds of bizarre shapes. Of course, for most ordinary people, they definitely couldn't accept species that looked completely different from themselves.
But in the space age, because there were simply too many alien species, the aesthetic sense of humans in interstellar civilizations also became broadened.
Thus, many interstellar human aesthetics evolved along a path like this—from "only recognizing humans" → "only recognizing humanoid beings" → "tentacles seem kind of cute too" → "that sticky monster doesn't seem that dirty" → "as long as it feels good, it doesn't matter what it looks like"… and then sprinted all the way straight into the domain of Chaos cultists.
This was also one of the reasons why the Empire had been so strict in cracking down on alien civilizations back then. If aesthetics continued to be twisted like that, humans might end up being directly fascinated when they saw Warp daemons…
As for those activists who loudly proclaimed, "There are countless races in the universe; we should ignore appearances and focus on the soul and inner self," they were directly hanged in the streets by Inquisitors.
What, were you also planning to have a soulful exchange with Warp daemons?
Heretic—die!
Compared to those aliens, the pretty and cute Truly Clever fit Duanmu Huai's aesthetic far better. Besides, the Inquisition's standard for certifying a pure human was the skull. Although Truly Clever was a horse girl, from X-ray scans of her skull structure, she still met the Inquisition's criteria for a pure human. So… even being infatuated with horse girls was better than having one's aesthetic twisted by aliens.
And moreover, the moment she joined, she brought Duanmu Huai a huge surprise.
"Is it here?"
Staring at the massive steel gate in front of him, Duanmu Huai asked, while Truly Clever beside him nodded.
"Mm, Karen discovered it by chance while taking a walk before. How is it? Isn't it strange? It kind of gives off a villain vibe, right?"
"Hmm..."
Hearing Truly Clever's words, the corner of Duanmu Huai's eye twitched slightly. He raised his head and looked at the steel gate before them—at this moment, the group was at a cliff face on the edge of the grasslands, and here, beneath layers of vines, was a steel gate that looked like it hadn't been opened for many years.
Although the gate was covered in dust, Duanmu Huai still spotted the skull-and-gear emblem at its center at a glance.
"This is the emblem of the Adeptus Mechanicus…"
Duanmu Huai sucked in a cold breath. Even if beaten to death, he would never have expected to encounter a creation of the Adeptus Mechanicus in this mysterious world!
The skull, the gear, and the aquila were the representative symbols of the Empire.
Among them, the aquila was the symbol of the Imperial government, the gear was the symbol of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the skull was the symbol of the Imperial state religion.
The Inquisition's emblem was also derived from this.
It was just that Duanmu Huai had modified it slightly.
Was it a bit of an oversight not to bring power armor here?
Looking at the emblem before him, Duanmu Huai felt some regret. He had never expected that this world would actually conceal a dormant secret base of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Although he didn't know what was inside, based on Duanmu Huai's experience, this kind of thing… was usually not easy to deal with.
But danger also represented opportunity. Generally speaking, bases of the Adeptus Mechanicus were full of good stuff. After all, many things were only known to those damned Tech-Priests themselves, and they hid many of the Mechanicus's secrets very deeply… In fact, among the T1-tier equipment and weapons excavated by players, a large portion came from Mechanicus ruins, warehouses, or some secret base.
"What's wrong? Did Karen cause trouble?"
Seeing Duanmu Huai's serious expression, Truly Clever beside him looked at him uneasily. Duanmu Huai shook his head.
"No, you did very well. I didn't expect a secret like this to be hidden here. If it hadn't been discovered…"
"Rumble…"
However, before Duanmu Huai could finish speaking, the massive steel gate suddenly shook, then slowly opened, revealing a pitch-black and silent interior.
"Tch…"
Seeing this, Duanmu Huai clicked his tongue. He had originally planned to leave this ruin here for the time being and come back to deal with it after lifting his seal. But now it seemed that man proposed while heaven disposed. Although he didn't know what had gone wrong to activate this base, it looked like he had no choice but to explore it now.
"I'll go in with Olgis to check the situation. You stay outside."
Thinking this, Duanmu Huai quickly made his decision. Hearing it, the three familiars were all taken aback.
"But, Master…"
"This is an order. It's very dangerous inside. If you go in, I can't guarantee your safety."
Duanmu Huai cut off the maid's words. From a system perspective, these familiars were just his pets. They might have some combat ability, but Duanmu Huai didn't believe they could retreat unscathed in front of Mechanicus creations. Even as an Inquisitor, he himself might not be able to deal with these damned things. Bringing them in would only increase the risk.
Fortunately, although the situation was sudden, Duanmu Huai still had Soul Cards he could use. So he took out his warhammer and, together with Olgis, strode into the sleeping underground base before them.
"Boom!"
Just after the two of them entered the gate, the massive steel door that had been open suddenly slammed shut at lightning speed.
"Huff…"
Although the retreat path was sealed, Duanmu Huai instead let out a sigh of relief.
At least this way, he didn't have to worry about something sneaking out to cause trouble while he was away.
But…
"How laughable—do you think this can trap me?"
Looking at the pitch-black, dim corridor ahead, Duanmu Huai snorted coldly. If it were an ordinary player or NPC, encountering this situation would probably mean having no choice but to fight their way in alone, passing through a series of dangerous traps and dark ruins, not knowing what they would encounter in the end… Unfortunately for them, this trick didn't work on him!
Thinking this, Duanmu Huai raised his hand and snapped his fingers. In the next moment, hundreds upon thousands of puppets suddenly materialized out of thin air, cramming the originally empty corridor to the brim. Duanmu Huai simply stood there holding his warhammer and calmly issued his command to the puppets.
"Search every corner of this place and uncover everything hidden here!"
That's right—the Soulwalker was never alone. He was an army!
In the next moment, following Duanmu Huai's command, the puppet legion sprang into action, spreading out in all directions!
(The chapter ends)