On the fringes of Ultramar, in a remote town on a hive world of the Imperium—
Beneath a dim and ashen sky, a frenzied crowd had gathered in the middle of the square. The air reeked of cheap promethium burning, the unmistakable sign that an execution was about to begin.
"Listen to me! Let me explain, folks!"
Tied tightly to an execution stake with coarse hemp rope, Zhou Yuan put on an innocent face and shouted at the grotesque-looking Imperial citizens below the platform:
"I'm really not a xenos! Just look at these honest eyebrows and big eyes of mine! My loyalty to the Emperor shines brighter than the sun and moon! My heart is red, and my blood runs hot!"
The only response he got was an even more fanatical roar.
"Burn them!"
"Purge these filthy xenos!"
"For the holy Master of Terra!"
Torches waved in the air, throwing flickering light across the twisted, zealous faces of the mob.
Zhou Yuan sighed. The innocence vanished from his eyes in an instant, replaced by the weary resignation of someone who had seen through the absurdity of the world.
"Yeah, right. There's no reasoning with zealots who've only got one brain cell left. Figures—backwater dump, backwater people."
"S-Sorry, big brother… this is all my fault…"
Tied to another stake beside him was a thin young girl of seventeen or eighteen.
Claire kept her head lowered, tears soaking into her clothes.
"Don't be silly. It's not your fault." Zhou Yuan's voice suddenly turned calm and gentle. "People are shaped by the land they live on. In a shithole world full of lunatics like this, there's a limit to what a human can do."
At that moment, one man raised his torch and stepped toward the pile of firewood.
"Repent in the flames, heretic!"
The fire caught the dry wood, and a wave of heat instantly surged upward.
"Claire, if you want to survive here…" Zhou Yuan said, ignoring the flames licking at his feet, "…then you have to become even crazier than they are!"
"Huh? B-Brother, what are you talking about? I… I don't understand."
In the wavering firelight, Zhou Yuan's eyes were no longer human. A cold, eerie gleam rose within them.
He suddenly threw back his head and let out a deafening roar.
"What I mean is—I'm done being human, Claire!"
The moment the words fell, a horrifying ripping sound drowned out the crackle of the fire.
Zhou Yuan's chest bulged violently, as though something beneath his flesh was writhing in a frenzy.
Then, with a wet tear, the human skin covering his body split open from within.
Large amounts of viscous, transparent slime with powerful corrosive properties burst out, splattering onto the burning wood and producing sizzling sounds of acid eating through it.
Under the crowd's horrified gaze, a black, smooth skeleton with a metallic sheen forced its way out from the shredded human hide.
His body began mutating at a visible rate.
His once-human head rapidly stretched backward, turning into a huge, sleek, streamlined skull.
His limbs lengthened, his fingertips sharpened into deadly claws, and from his back emerged a long, powerful tail tipped with a bony spike.
His distinctive jaws split apart, revealing jagged steel-like teeth.
In barely two seconds, the harmless-looking young man was gone.
In his place stood Zhou Yuan—transformed into a xenomorph.
"M-My Terra…"
The man holding the torch went weak at the knees and collapsed to the ground.
"What kind of monster is that?!"
As for how things had ended up like this—
That story began with a disastrous transmigration four years earlier.
Four years ago, in a pure white space—
"Congratulations, lucky victim of sudden death. You have been granted a chance to be reborn."
The glowing orb that called itself a god cheerfully pointed at the giant wheel in front of him.
"Spin it, and your new life will begin in a game you've played or an anime you've watched! There's a very high chance it'll be some lovely, hope-filled two-dimensional world!"
Looking at the roulette wheel, ninety-nine percent of which was pink—Blue Archive, Genshin Impact, even Pokémon—Zhou Yuan figured this was a sure win.
But fate decided to play a colossal joke on him.
The pointer slowly came to rest on a black sliver so thin it was almost invisible—
The game he had been playing before he dropped dead, the one where he'd been controlling Titus and hacking each other apart with Tyranids:
Space Marine 2.
The moment Zhou Yuan saw that double-headed eagle symbolizing despair and endless war, his smile froze.
"Uh… can I reroll?"
"Nope, dear customer. Our recommendation is that you reincarnate immediately."
Although he'd been thrown into this cosmic cesspit of a universe—one where everyone claimed to be loyal but no one actually wanted to live there—the god, perhaps out of pity, gave Zhou Yuan a chance to freely assemble his own cheat abilities.
Since the world was already beyond saving, the only option was to make himself more monstrous.
As an experienced gamer, Zhou Yuan knew that if you wanted to survive in Warhammer, the first thing you needed was protection against madness.
So his first choice was immunity to Warp corruption.
After all, he had no desire to wake up one morning and discover he'd become a complete lunatic.
Next, considering the scarcity of usable resources in the Warhammer universe—especially normal food—he chose the combo of Devour All Things and Infinite Leveling.
Eat dirt and grow stronger. Eat Tyranid bugs and get a bonus meal. As long as he could digest it properly, he could even bite a god if he had to. And every time he leveled up, he would gain stat points and skill points as rewards, which could then be used to learn all kinds of abilities.
Finally, to make up for his lack of offensive variety, he chose Thought Manifestation.
It was a purely will-based divine skill: as long as he had enough mana and mental strength, whatever he imagined could become real. He could even use sheer imagination to reshape his own body.
But precisely because he had spent all of his points on these god-tier talents, by the time it came to choosing a race, he didn't have enough points left.
"Slime it is, then."
Looking at his initial body—a blob of jelly-like goo—Zhou Yuan consoled himself:
"At least it's highly malleable. Paired with Thought Manifestation, I can turn into whatever I want."
Perhaps the god felt sorry for him. There was also a bonus system included, complete with AI support. Zhou Yuan named it Great Sage.
[Main Quest: Join any one faction to unlock the main storyline. You may also create a faction of your own to unlock the main storyline. Rewards vary depending on the path chosen. Specific rewards can be viewed after joining or creating a faction.]
[Note: To create your own faction, you must possess at least one planet of your own, and every species on that planet must submit to you.]
It did not take long for Zhou Yuan to reject all the major factions one by one.
Work for the dried-up corpse sitting on the Golden Throne? No future in that, and he'd probably end up as disposable material.
Join Chaos? Forget it. They were too ugly and ruined his appetite. Especially Grandfather Nurgle's lot—eating that stuff wasn't much different from eating shit.
Orks? Easy to raise, sure—they could practically be planted in the ground and grown—but he had no intention of turning into an idiot who only knew how to shout Waaagh!.
Necrons? He didn't want to sleep in a coffin.
Tyranids? No way to communicate with them… though the meat probably tasted decent.
"So in the end… being my own boss is still the best option!"
If you want, I can continue with Chapter 2 in the same polished format.
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My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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