Vect is a madman!
Recalling the unbearable days he spent in his hands, Erebus couldn't help but shiver.
It was utterly terrifying!
All the methods controlled by the Drukhari / Dark Aeldari were used on him, so one can imagine how terrifying it was.
Erebus immediately jumped out of the damaged part of the Webway.
He was mentally prepared; even if he was swept into the depths of the Warp by the Aether Phase Engine's energy flow, he absolutely could not fall into the hands of that madman, Vect.
Vect quickly noticed the commotion, but by the time he ran over, Erebus had already escaped.
He escaped into the depths of the Warp, aided by the Aether Phase Engine's energy flow.
He could only rage ineffectually, watching him escape, powerless.
"I finally got rid of that guy."
Erebus felt a surge of relief.
He secretly chanted ancient incantations to prevent being attacked by certain monsters in the Warp.
However, Immaterium was unusually quiet.
The demons and Warp creatures that had once been everywhere were now nowhere to be seen.
It gave off an indescribable sense of desolation.
"What in the world is going on?"
Erebus used an ancient incantation to summon a demon.
After several failures, he finally forcibly summoned a demon burning with flames.
Erebus asked what had happened during this time.
"The army of The Cursed swept through the Eye of Terror, annihilating the Despoiler's forces, and even the demon sword that bound 'the destruction of the Imperium' was snatched away and sealed by them."
"Now, those outsiders enter the Warp to hunt, slaughter demons, and plunder their essence to strengthen themselves, causing many demons to flee and hide."
Erebus listened, stunned.
He had only been imprisoned for a while, how could so many changes have occurred?
Just then, a terrifying sound came.
The flaming demon immediately trembled, utterly terrified.
"What is that?" Erebus asked.
"It's the outsiders; they've come to hunt again."
Hearing this, Erebus felt a sense of absurdity.
In the past, the Warp always invaded the Reality, but now, how could it be reversed, with humans invading the Reality?
"Let's go take a look."
Erebus used a ritual to force the demon to obey his command.
The demon was very reluctant, but due to the power of the ritual, it still led him there.
The Warp has many materialized domains, shaped by the collective beliefs or fantasies of ancient races or certain worlds.
Erebus and the demon arrived in a lush forest and witnessed the Imperium of Man's warships burning, killing, and plundering the area.
Demons lived in the forest, so they burned the forest to force them out.
Then they used warship fire to kill them; the entire process was swift and brutal, like a planned hunt and slaughter.
"The Imperium of Man has grown to this extent."
Erebus watched in astonishment.
The Warp's greatest advantage had been lost.
"How are the Chaos Gods doing?"
Erebus lowered his voice and asked the demon beside him.
"They have closed their respective domains and are frantically devouring Warp energy to resist the impending depletion," the demon recounted the recent actions of the four Chaos Gods.
They are recruiting various powerful Warp creatures to join their factions, then frantically devouring Warp energy to prevent their strength from dropping too much due to the loss of Warp energy.
"Are even the Chaos Gods having such a difficult time?" Erebus's heart sank.
"It seems it's time to abandon them and seek out those Extradimensional Old Gods who have existed for eternity."
Erebus had an idea.
Like Lorgar, he had conducted in-depth research on the Extradimensional Old Gods long ago.
These ancient beings existed even before the universe was born and wielded unimaginable power.
The Chaos Gods were merely crude imitations of them by the Old Ones.
Those Extradimensional Old Gods were the true masters, the true controllers of this universe.
The entire forest was destroyed, and countless demons were captured, becoming materials for the Players to extract law fragments.
As soon as the open beta expansion pack was released, it instantly caused a stir across the entire network.
Countless people cheered, exclaiming that it was finally their turn.
On the day of the open beta, a scene of ten thousand empty alleys unfolded.
If it weren't for the rapid development of robots and various technologies by Dongda during this period,
production could still be maintained even without workers,
only requiring regular maintenance and data correction.
To accommodate the people entering the game,
Dongda's leadership accelerated the absorption of in-game technology by major state-owned enterprises,
launching various unmanned workshops, dark factories, and so on.
They also distributed living allowances to all social strata, officially entering an era where the state supported all citizens.
Now that nuclear fusion has been achieved, energy is very cheap, and the development of various cultivation technologies has made food, meat, and milk more abundant than ever before.
Advances in materials science have also promoted the development of intelligence, allowing one person to easily complete work that previously required tens of thousands of people.
With a large number of people entering Warhammer OL, coupled with the living allowances provided by Dongda,
game helmets are free; as long as one registers, they will be delivered the next day.
As long as there is electricity, one can connect to the internet, so the cost is very low, and everyone can enjoy it.
"...
You never thought of giving me a raise for a 3,000-yuan job, and now you're complaining about me just playing a game."
"Yellow Old Man has already suffered for us; why can't we enjoy ourselves now?"
"Go into the game and tell Yellow Old Man; see if he slaps you."
"..."
The same was true for other countries.
Some chaebols also tried to use these technologies to extract more wealth, demanding that Congress enact various laws.
Who knew that those people simply ignored them and emigrated.
If they couldn't go to Dongda, they went near Dongda to enjoy the industrial overflow.
Dongda's industrial facilities were too complete, and after nuclear fusion technology came out, the cost of various materials was extremely low.
Even with industrial overflow, it was enough to support many people.
Without a market, the chaebols' money became useless, and no one was willing to work for them, so they naturally lost their influence.
With oil losing its value, countries no longer schemed, bringing a long-awaited peace to the world.
Because resources were so abundant, people no longer needed to rush for three meals a day, their mentality became calmer, and their aggression lessened significantly.
Therefore, from the day Warhammer OL open beta began,
the most beautiful era also arrived, which many called the Golden Age, or the Paradise Era.
Of course, not everyone was addicted to Warhammer OL; some became pioneers in Reality.
They piloted spaceships produced by Dongda to explore the true void.
Of course, these were all side notes.
The main focus was still on the Players who entered the game.
At the beginning of the open beta, they immediately plunged into the game.
Now the Warhammer Universe had finished fighting in the Eye of Terror; all that remained were the insignificant Xenos, the Tyranids, and the Chaos Gods' domains.
These remaining ones were enough to trouble the junior Players.
To gain experience, all races that could not cooperate with humans were annihilated; the Tyranids, in particular, became a hot commodity.
Wherever there was a Tyranid infestation, as long as someone shouted in the world channel, within three hours, a swarm of Players would arrive, afraid of being too slow and missing out.
The Great Devourer was once bewildered.
This remote galaxy had eaten all its tendrils; one entered, one was eaten, and no waves could be stirred.
This made it even begin to wonder who the food was.
Clearing Xenos and Tyranids was the task of low-level junior Players.
For powerful Player organizations like Emperor's Cannon Fodder, Combat Roses, and the Han Da Gang, their current mission was to conquer the Warp.
Burning, killing, and plundering various parts of the Warp was what they did.
After obtaining law fragments, they could ignore Chaos's corruption and observe the Warp with their own perception, thereby establishing a foothold in the Warp and hunting Warp creatures and demons.
As they hunted, the once-proliferating Warp creatures and demons also entered their darkest hour.
Their lairs were constantly being destroyed by humans, and their comrades became raw materials for humans to grow stronger.
After this continued for some time,
there were basically no more wandering wild demons in the Warp.
They either defected to the Chaos Gods or had become human raw materials.
Even the T'au'va Goddess was dealt with.
A group of Players launched a siege against this newborn deity, with the Eldar gods also participating.
Because it was not created by the Old Ones, it could be bound and negotiated with from the start.
Nor did it possess its own humanity like the Emperor.
It was merely created by the T'au's Ethereals using the Greater Good, worshipped by their client races.
Essentially, it was more akin to a demon than a god.
Similar to Vashtorr's existence, if it had the chance to ascend to a Chaos God, it would undoubtedly do so without hesitation.
Previously, helping the T'au was only out of consideration for maximizing benefits.
After all, the Greater Good relied on the T'au for maintenance and promotion.
Without the T'au, the Greater Good would collapse, and it would also perish.
That is why it helped the T'au Empire's expansion fleet.
In the new era dominated by the Imperium of Man, there was naturally no place for such a deity.
Therefore, it was quickly surrounded and annihilated.
It was eventually shattered into fragments, becoming nourishment for Players to advance.
Farsight did not protest this matter; he had long understood the true nature of Warp creatures.
One day, if the T'au'va Goddess grew powerful, she would inevitably try every means to maintain her faith, even at the cost of stifling the T'au's creativity.
Farsight used this incident as an entry point to submit a letter of allegiance to the Imperium of Man, hoping to gain an opportunity for procreation and survival.
In the past, the T'au were one of the few races in the galaxy that allowed humans to become client races.
They were completely different from those races that readily enslaved humans and regarded them as food.
The T'au Empire only wanted to rule the galaxy and never thought of completely annihilating humanity.
Challenging the old Imperium and ruling the galaxy is an idea every nascent race has; it is not a heinous crime.
Therefore, after careful consideration, the Emperor and Alex agreed to accept the T'au and allocated an area for them to procreate and thrive.
At this point, humanity truly unified the galaxy; any race that had even a slight possibility of challenging the Imperium of Man had become a client race of the Imperium.
The Tyranids were treated as leveling monsters by the new Players entering the game, being slaughtered to the point of utter defeat, with some Players even chasing them out of the galaxy to kill them.
When rushing out of the galaxy to hunt down the Tyranids,
some junior Players accidentally encountered the Extradimensional Old Gods that the Old Ones had once feared.
Their bodies were immeasurably vast, stars merely embellishments on their tendrils, and their eyeballs were larger than the largest blue supergiant in the galaxy, incredibly exaggerated.
Human warships were like dust before them.
When they gazed at these junior Players, the Players were all disconnected and logged out of the game.
Their power was too strong, affecting the dimensional connection, and these junior Players lacked sufficient strength to maintain their own connection, leading to a forced logout.
But these Extradimensional Old Gods were blocked by an invisible force, unable to enter the galaxy.
The edge of this force was the edge of the Warp.
After leaving the edge of the Warp, one would enter the primordial non-material realm.
The primordial non-material realm would not obstruct the Extradimensional Old Gods.
The appearance of the Extradimensional Old Gods also sparked discussions among the Players.
They also resolved a long-standing confusion.
For example, whether the Warp only existed in the galaxy.
"The Warp really only exists in the galaxy."
"Beyond the Warp is the true primordial non-material realm, which is even more chaotic and unbearable than the Warp."
"..."
As for why the Eldar and Necron of the past never encountered these Extradimensional Old Gods,
that was because the Warp's radiation range was very large in the past.
It not only covered the entire galaxy but also radiated tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of light-years out.
These races had never traveled that far, so they naturally couldn't see them.
But with the passage of the Time Calamity and the operation of the Aether Phase Engine, the edge of the Warp was gradually shrinking.
The Extradimensional Old Gods were closer to the galaxy, which is why they were observed by the junior Players who ventured out of the galaxy.
"I originally thought that after defeating the Four Chaos Gods, there would be no more to the story, but who would have thought there were Extradimensional Old Gods?"
"This is awesome."
"It feels like we're going to fight Cthulhu."
"It looks like after defeating the Four Chaos Gods, we'll have to fight the Extradimensional Old Gods."
"It feels like we're going to challenge the Lord of the Universe."
"..."
The Players were very excited about this, all believing it to be a pre-planned plot by the game's official operators.
It was simply to give the Fourth Scourge a place to continue wreaking havoc after they had finished with the galaxy.
It even planted plot hooks, waiting for them to move towards a more vast universe in the future.
Alex and the Emperor were not so optimistic, after all, the Extradimensional Old Gods were much more powerful than the Chaos Gods.
A slight misstep could lead to everything being lost.