The passage was deep and silent, leading to the depths of the underground.
The HUD panel of the helmet continuously displayed various prompts and values, indicating that the radiation intensity in the area had exceeded the limit for mortal survival.
Even a Space Marine could not stay for ten minutes without power armor protection.
It was hard to imagine how many nuclear weapons those people from Baal threw at their homeworld during the Age of Strife to keep the Baal world at such high radiation levels even after so much time.
The Players of the Emperor Niuma Battle Group stood before the large door at the end of the passage.
"You said there's good stuff inside?"
Upon hearing Tenjiro's words, Warmaster became interested.
His eyes showed no fear of the unknown world, only greed for the dungeon rewards.
No one could stop him from getting the rewards, not even Cthulhu.
Warmaster walked to the heavy door and knocked on it with his fist.
From the dull sound, it was clear that the door's sturdiness was beyond imagination.
It would take a lot of effort to break it open by force.
"By the way, how do we open it?" Twisted person asked.
"Look for a switch or an identity verification device nearby," King of Mount & Blade said.
The Players began searching around, scanning the surroundings.
"This game's pursuit of realism is truly meticulous; the handling of every detail is perfect."
"Even for a small dungeon in a ruin, Players have to find a way to open the door themselves."
"It's more immersive than those so-called escape rooms on the market."
Sea Turtle exclaimed sincerely.
"I also can't figure out what's so fun about escape rooms?" Twisted person complained, "I played it once and felt like I was wasting my life."
"Mainly, the escape rooms made in Reality are too crappy; the venues aren't spacious enough, and the props are crude and lack immersion," Wan Lao also complained.
"And once you clear it, there's basically no desire to challenge it again. The second time I went, I just looked for the key directly."
Tenjiro scanned the wall for clues while chatting with Twisted person and other Players.
"Still, Warhammer OL is the most conscientious. Given the official's usual behavior, this is likely a one-time dungeon that's gone once completed, so there's no need to worry about repetition."
A few minutes later, the Players searched around but found nothing; they couldn't find anything that could serve as a switch.
The passage was all stone, with no traces of electronic equipment detected.
"Damn it, do we have to solve a puzzle?" Wan Lao looked distressed, "But there isn't even a puzzle here."
"It looks like a dead end. Let's go back and get the excavator," Sea Turtle suggested, "As long as the steel drill is strong enough, there's no secret room that can't be opened."
"There's no tomb-raiding spirit at all. If you just break it open, where's the fun of the dungeon? They painstakingly create a dungeon for you, and you just break it open."
Twisted person said.
"Next time, they won't even set up puzzles; they'll just seal it with hundreds of meters of steel and cement, letting you slowly dismantle it."
"Those with a tomb-raiding spirit are now in jail writing novels; why don't you go and study a bit?" Sea Turtle rolled his eyes.
Warmaster stepped out, interrupting their argument.
"Alright, this game claims to be 100% realistic, so breaking it open is naturally feasible."
"But if the official goes to such lengths to create a dungeon, and we forcibly break it open, I'm afraid the rewards we get won't be high, and we might even trigger penalty measures, like the dungeon directly exploding or something."
"At that time, our losses would be severe. We need to find a way to solve the puzzle; that's the most cost-effective approach."
"The puzzle should be the patterns on the door," Tenjiro said.
"The Golden Angel, the Black Angel, and the Angel King—these three patterns are closely related to the Blood Angels."
Warmaster examined the patterns, also showing a thoughtful expression, "By the way, do these three angels corroborate the idea of Planet Souls in the Warhammer Universe?"
"The existence of the three angels predates humanity's arrival in this world by far, which means the previous races that colonized Baal should also have been plagued by the Blood Thirst and Black Rage, just not as intensely as humans, and unable to observe them concretely."
Wan Lao looked excited, "Planet Souls? Could it be that the worlds where the Primarchs landed are all similar to worlds like Azeroth?"
"What do you mean?" Husky was a bit confused.
"Doesn't the concept of the World Soul sound a lot like the World-Soul in Warcraft? The world is just the shell that nurtures it," Wan Lao explained.
"Actually, that's not entirely wrong," Tenjiro nodded, "In official documents, it has been mentioned multiple times that those Imperial heroes can utilize the power of their homeworlds."
"For example, the Space Wolves, Salamanders, and so on, their Rune Priests and Librarians can communicate with the World Soul through meditation, thereby unleashing even more powerful abilities."
"When Vulcan was resurrected, the will of Nocturne also communicated with him, so the concept of a World Soul might actually exist."
"Could it be that later on, we'll even be able to receive blessings from the World Soul?" Wan Lao scratched his head, "Then wouldn't I, as a World Eater, be out of luck? The Lion destroyed Angron's homeworld, Nuceria."
"I think you guys are getting a bit off-topic," Warmaster interjected, "Our top priority right now is how to get in?"
Zhuge, as an Iron Warriors, stood still, examining the door with a thoughtful expression.
"This angel pattern is the puzzle, and it should also be the answer."
Zhuge seemed to have thought of something.
He removed his wrist armor and used a knife he carried to cut his palm, placing it on the wall.
A miraculous scene unfolded: the fresh blood did not flow downwards.
Instead, it flowed along the pattern of the Angel King on the door, outlining a bloody Angel King.
Subsequently, the blood was completely absorbed, and the bloody Angel King radiated light, transforming into a sacred angel with glowing, pure white wings.
The patterns seemed to come alive, as both the Golden Angel and the Black Angel knelt before the Angel King, offering eternal loyalty.
Immediately after, the heavy door slowly opened, revealing a dark, lightless hall, like an abyss.
Many Players widened their eyes, looking at Zhuge, giving him thumbs up and showing expressions of admiration.
"How did you think of that?" Tenjiro asked.
Zhuge organized his thoughts before explaining in detail to Tenjiro and the others.
"From our perspective, the Angel King in this pattern corresponds to Sanguinius, the Golden Angel corresponds to Saint Geleno, and the Black Angel corresponds to the Blood Thirst and Black Rage—all three are related to the Blood Angels."
"But when this door was created, the Blood Angels had not yet appeared on Baal, which means the creator's original intention was not to refer to the Blood Angels."
"Furthermore, the person who created this door was very certain that as long as humans lived on Baal, they would definitely know what this pattern represented."
"Because the purpose of creating this door was for people to open it. If the creator didn't want later generations to get the things inside, they could have simply destroyed the contents or completely sealed off the path."
"Placing a door here indicates that the creator wanted later generations to open the door and take the things inside."
"If the later comers cannot guess the answer to the riddle, then this riddle is meaningless."
"This pattern is connected to the Blood Angels, but when it was created, the Blood Angels had not yet been born." "This means it points to a certain characteristic of the Blood Angels, something that is bound to appear as long as someone lives here."
"There isn't even a hole here, so fangs or anything like that definitely can't be the key to opening the door."
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
"Therefore, the key to opening this door must be blood."
The Warmaster clapped, "Amazing! Even though I didn't understand a single word, I just feel like it's awesome."
Tenjiro, Twisted person, King of Mount & Blade, and other Players also clapped.
"That's right, awesome is all that matters."
"I don't understand anything, but just yelling along is correct."
"Zhuge 666."
"From now on, the task of solving riddles in these dungeons will be yours."
"..."
After praising Zhuge, the Players stepped into the hall.
It was pitch black inside, with no light source. Without the armor's lighting system, they couldn't see anything.
"Are these cultivation pods?"
The Warmaster, using his power armor's visual enhancement device, saw rows upon rows of densely packed gene-pods in the hall.
They were all the same cylindrical shape, with dormant, unlit mechanical devices on them.
"It looks like this place should be a Golden Age gene laboratory." Twisted person surveyed the surroundings.
"I feel the power of psionics." Tenjiro looked uneasy. "It seems some kind of blasphemous experiment was conducted here."
The Warmaster walked up to a gene-pod and, through the reinforced glass, saw the experimental subject immersed inside.
The experimental subject was vaguely human-shaped, but its appearance was extremely grotesque.
Its entire head was covered by swollen bones, and white bony spikes grew from the back of its head.
Its eyes were hollow, with no visible eyeballs, and its mouth exposed sharp teeth.
Rows of exposed ribs could be seen on its chest, giving it a gruesome and terrifying appearance.
Its limbs had well-defined, taut, strong, and thick muscles, looking powerful.
From its back grew astonishing bone spurs, as if forming a pair of white bone wings.
This was a monstrosity, a nightmare creation.
"Brothers, there's experimental documentation here."
His words immediately attracted the attention of the other Players, who all walked over.
Through comparison and scanning of the language database, they successfully translated a portion of the document's content.
"Project Gene Ascension"
The translated document title immediately made the few of them look at each other.
Goodness gracious!
They seemed to understand why Baal's Mutants disaster was more severe than on other planets.
"Using technological means to project the power of mythology into Reality, just a trace of the Black Angel's power can make humans evolve, possessing incredible strength…"
The Warmaster and other Players continued to flip through.
The experimental document detailed how Golden Age humans stole the power of that Black Angel and injected it into experimental subjects.
This experiment was carried out in multiple locations, ultimately leading to a self-inflicted disaster.
After the Age of Strife descended, the Warp became extremely active, coupled with the AI ban.
This led to malfunctions in the laboratory's containment devices.
Large numbers of mutated species broke free from their restraints, rushed out of the laboratory, and entered human cities, slaughtering indiscriminately.
These mutated species possessed incredible combat and recovery abilities.
They could easily leap seven or eight meters, destroy human vehicles, and also had a learning ability far beyond that of ordinary people.
"We are gods, the next stage of human evolution. Baal should be ruled by us, not you damned ants."
A powerful Mutant once made such high-profile statements to humanity.
Ultimately, humanity activated those forbidden high-powered weapons, and the entire Baal was reduced to ruins.
This is also why Baal's radiation levels are so exaggerated.
To win the war, humanity had no choice but to activate a scorched-earth policy.
They cleansed Baal and its two moons over and over again, until they turned paradise into a burning hell, only then did they stop.
"Good heavens, is the ending of such stories always so gratifying?" The Warmaster grumbled.
"Haha, the ambitious scientists' lab went wrong, and the whole world suffered, hahaha, even Warhammer 40K can't avoid this kind of plot." Tenjiro teased.
"No wonder the Emperor is so wary of the Tech-priests. These guys who do research can really court disaster." Twisted person suddenly understood the Emperor's reluctance to innovate.
Anyone who experienced a few more incidents like Baal would be just like the Emperor.
Just as the Players were lamenting the messed-up past of Baal,
A loud bang came.
The Players were startled and quickly raised their boltguns, surrounding the source of the sound.
"The gene-pod is damaged."
Tenjiro saw the nutrient solution flowing out of the broken gene-pod and immediately felt a sense of dread.
"These things are still alive!!"
Roar!
A roar came.
A pair of scarlet eyes appeared in the darkness, filled with extreme malice.
Just as the Players were about to attack, more loud thuds came.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sleeping monsters awoke. They broke out of their gene-pods and surrounded the Players.
Each one was dripping wet and emitted a strange smell.
Their flesh was swollen and ghostly pale from prolonged immersion.
"I feel like the dog planner is targeting us."
The Warmaster activated his chainsword and grumbled as he looked at the surrounding monsters.
Then, boltguns roared, chainswords howled,
A brutal slaughter erupted in the dimly lit hall.
...
Achoo!!
Alex, who was on the Imperial Glory, sneezed.
He instinctively rubbed his itchy nose.
"I'm already on par with a Primarch, and I can still catch a cold??"
"Master is very healthy, it should just be a normal sneeze." Cortana said from the side, "Master, are there any more corrections needed for the eleventh batch of Player names?"
"No." Alex waved his hand, "Just recruit according to this list."
"Understood, Master."
Cortana's projection disappeared.
Achoo!!
Alex sneezed again.
"Could it be that someone is badmouthing me??"
"Never mind, let's go get the rewards first. I haven't received the equipment for saving Baal yet!!"
Alex stepped towards the Praying Sanctuary, preparing to claim the reward for completing the "Saving Baal" quest.