A blood-red warning box, like a congealed blood clot, floated right in the center of Leticia's field of vision.
[Warning: To enter the instance [Horus Heresy: The Lament of Isstvan III], you need to consume [Warband Points]: 1000.]
Beneath that jarring text, another line of smaller numbers, like a cold verdict, silently announced their predicament.
[Currently held [Warband Points]: 0.]
Zero.
A perfect, round, and mockery-filled zero.
The ambition that had just been ignited was thoroughly chilled by this bucket of cold water from the system.
Leticia's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
"What the..."
She muttered to herself, her voice carrying a trace of exhaustion and absurdity that even she hadn't noticed.
"You give me godly equipment at the start, only to find out it's bound, and I have to buy a ticket to go out and fight monsters?"
This trope is too wild.
Beside her, Terrania, though unable to understand the text, could clearly sense the subtle changes in Leticia's emotions.
In those golden eyes that had just regained their luster, the fire of Hope that had just been ignited dimmed slightly, tinged with a layer of worry.
Subconsciously, she moved half a step closer to Leticia, her slender fingers gently and tentatively clutching the corner of Leticia's clothing.
It was an extremely small, dependent, and anxious gesture.
Leticia's heart stirred, and she reached out to hold that cold little hand in her palm.
As the warm body temperature, carrying a divine fragrance, was transferred, Terrania's body visibly relaxed.
"It's alright."
Leticia turned her head and gave her a reassuring smile. In those pitch-black eyes, all negative emotions were swept away, leaving only a calming peace and confidence.
"Just encountered a small problem, leave it to me."
After soothing this bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, Leticia refocused her attention on the predicament before her.
One thousand points.
She had to find a way to get this startup capital in the shortest possible time.
The first thing she thought of was loot.
The Chaos Space Marine she had shaken off with a warp jump had left quite a few traces of battle on the ship.
Leticia took Terrania by the hand and began a carpet search of the brand-new "genesis".
She walked past the docking hatch that had been violently torn open and then restored to perfection by the system's great power.
On the jade-like alloy bulkhead, not a single scratch could be seen anymore.
She walked down the long, narrow corridor that had witnessed her awakening. The cold metal deck had been replaced by a more flexible polymer material, making her footsteps silent.
She even checked the bridge entrance where the giant was finally torn into a stream of light.
There was nothing.
Let alone a Chainsword, not even a fragment of armor or a shell casing was left behind.
The entire ship was as clean as a new car fresh from the factory.
"Does the system come with a battlefield cleanup function? That's too thoughtful... so thoughtful that it makes one want to curse."
Leticia muttered to herself in her heart.
With the search yielding no results, she could only return to the bridge and try to communicate more deeply with the cold system.
"System, how do I obtain [Warband Points]?"
Without any unnecessary chatter, her question was straightforward.
After a moment of silence, that grand and indifferent voice sounded in her consciousness.
[Any action beneficial to the "genesis" cause can earn [Warband Points].]
[For example: rescuing key allies, developing one's own forces, recruiting followers, acquiring rare technology, purifying chaos corruption, correcting history...]
A series of keywords flashed before Leticia's eyes like a waterfall.
She quickly filtered through them.
Rescuing allies? Currently, there is only Terrania, and she herself needs to be rescued. Excluded.
Developing forces? Recruiting followers? On this empty spaceship, she couldn't exactly recruit the bridge chairs as subordinates. Excluded.
Acquiring technology? Correcting history? These all require entering an instance first, falling into a dead loop.
Finally, Leticia's gaze locked onto the end of that line of text.
"Purifying... Chaos corruption?"
This term, like a glimmer of light, illuminated her stalled thoughts.
Her gaze, slowly and with a hint of uncertainty, fell on the corner of the bridge, on the section of the bulkhead that had once been rammed by the giant with brute force.
Although it had been physically repaired by the system, Leticia, by virtue of the natural sensitivity of her [Divine Charm] power to Chaos energy, could still "feel" a trace of extremely faint, almost imperceptible filthy residue, like ink dropped into clear water.
It was a kind of "pollution" on a spiritual and psychic level.
It was like an invisible scar left in the depths of the ship's soul.
"System, can I earn points by purifying this?"
Leticia extended a slender finger and pointed at the seemingly undamaged bulkhead.
[Yes.]
The system's answer was concise and certain.
Having received confirmation, Leticia's heart skipped a beat.
She took a deep breath and hesitated no longer.
Following the most basic energy-channeling method that appeared in her mind from the system, Leticia closed her eyes and sank her consciousness into the deepest part of her soul.
There, four runes representing supreme authority were quietly floating.
The pink-purple [Divine Charm], the scarlet [Battle Intent], the sky-blue [Intellect], and... that emerald green [Vitality] rune full of the breath of life and cycle.
A pure power that originated from Nurgle but was the exact opposite of that rotting evil god.
Leticia gently and focusedly touched her will to that emerald green rune.
Hum—
A gentle, warm current filled with the fragrance of grass and trees surged from the core of her soul, flowed along the meridians of her arm, and finally gathered in her palm.
Leticia slowly opened her eyes.
She saw that above the palm of her right hand, a soft, emerald-green ball of light full of vital energy was quietly rotating.
The ball of light was not dazzling, but it emitted an aura that could revive all things and was refreshing to the mind.
Even Terrania, who was standing behind her, felt a hint of healthy flush rise to her pale cheeks the moment she sensed this aura, and she felt much more energetic.
Leticia looked at the ball of light in her hand with a strange expression.
"In the games I used to play, Nurgle represented plague, rot, and despair..."
She looked down at the green light in her palm, which symbolized new life and Hope, and couldn't help but laugh.
"I didn't expect that with me, it would become a little cleaning expert."
With a playful smile, she gently pressed that hand wreathed in emerald light onto the bulkhead contaminated by Chaos energy.
Sizzle—
It was as if a red-hot branding iron had been thrust into ice and snow.
A very faint sound of purification, audible only on a psychic level, rang out.
Where Leticia's palm touched, that jade-like bulkhead seemed to be imbued with life.
The emerald light spread out like ripples in water, and wherever it passed, those invisible, evil, and blasphemous Chaos energies vanished instantly, like shadows dispersed by sunlight.
Even the material of the bulkhead itself became smoother and tougher, emitting a faint, fresh scent like grass after rain.
Almost at the same moment of purification.
A new prompt popped up before Leticia's eyes.
[Purified trace amounts of Chaos corruption (Slaanesh), dispelled mental pollution.]
[Obtained [Warband Points]: 10.]
It worked!
Leticia's eyes lit up instantly.
It was the joy of discovering a new world, or rather, discovering a brand-new way to "farm money".
She immediately turned her head to look at Terrania behind her, and like a child who had scored 100 on a test and was eager to show off, she waved the green light in her hand.
"Look, the problem is solved."
Terrania looked at her, at the bright and confident smile on her face, and couldn't help but laugh along.
That smile was as pure as the melting snow on the peaks of the Alps, without a trace of impurity.
The next few hours.
The bridge became Leticia's "cleaning" scene.
Like a housewife with high-tech cleaning tools, she began a thorough, from physical to psychic level, deep cleaning of the entire "genesis".
Every footprint, every impact, and every weapon slash left by the Chaos Space Marine became the target of her search.
"Here, he kicked it, and there's a lingering aura of brutality... Purify!"
[Obtained [Warband Points]: 5.]
"And here, his Chainsword scraped the ceiling, leaving an echo of resentment... Purify!"
[Obtained [Warband Points]: 8.]
"Oh? Is there a drop of evaporated filthy blood mixed with his body fluids in this corner? How disgusting... Deep purification!"
[Obtained [Warband Points]: 15.]
Terrania followed closely behind her, like a small, loyal assistant.
Although she couldn't help much, she would silently watch Leticia exert that magical power, her eyes full of curiosity and admiration.
When Leticia was somewhat exhausted due to excessive consumption, she would immediately hand her a cup of warm water.
When Leticia was focused on finding those subtle traces of corruption, she would stand quietly to the side, not making a sound, for fear of disturbing her.
In this strange "deep cleaning," the atmosphere between the two became increasingly harmonious and tacit.
The points rose rapidly with each purification.
100... 300... 500...
When Leticia had thoroughly purified the last trace of corruption located in the gap of the engine room pipe, she let out a long sigh and leaned against the wall, somewhat exhausted.
She pulled up her attribute panel.
On it, the balance of [Warband Points] had changed from the jarring "0" to a pleasing number.
[Currently held [Warband Points]: 990.]
The smile on Leticia's face slowly froze.
Nine hundred and ninety points.
She had turned the whole ship upside down, almost prying up the floorboards to check, and confirmed that she could no longer find even a trace of Chaos corruption.
All the "ore" had been mined clean.
The result... was still ten points short.
Just ten points short.
Leticia looked at the number and fell into a long silence.
A sense of madness known as "driving a perfectionist to death" welled up.
"Where am I supposed to find these last ten points?"
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the fanfiction has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 or more chapters in advance over on my patreon: patreon.com/FTLGenBen
Also every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone, Thanks.