Amid the smoke and chaos of the battlefield, two groups were behaving very differently from everyone else.
[Regional Channel: Light of the Emperor]
[The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable] crouched inside a shell crater, scanning the area ahead through his rifle scope.
He wore standard-issue Imperial Army armor, and the lasrifle in his hands had been polished until it practically gleamed.
Beside him lay a bolter he'd purchased from the game store.
"Left flank, three o'clock. Five of the false Emperor's soldiers are setting up a heavy machine gun."
He reported over the channel.
"Who's taking them out?"
[Loken Did Not Betray the Luna Wolves] immediately responded.
"I've got them."
A figure burst out of another crater and raced through the ruins.
His movements were smooth and fluid.
Three seconds later, bolter fire erupted from that direction.
"Done."
[Thirty Years a Centaur Gold Ring] leaned against a piece of cover, gasping for breath.
"Fuck, this battle is insane."
"Gotta admit, being ordinary humans and following those Astartes badasses around to pick off the leftovers is pretty damn fun."
[I Don't Eat Bear Biscuits] immediately interrupted.
"Fun, my ass! I almost caught a stray bullet just now."
"If my reflexes were a little slower, I'd already be back at the respawn point waiting for my cooldown."
[I Want to be the Imperial Regent] joined the conversation.
"Enough messing around."
"Watch your surroundings. Those Chaos faction bastards have definitely infiltrated the battlefield too."
"They must've figured out what we're doing by now."
"And to stop us, they'll definitely try to kill Sejanus."
"Which means we've got another objective besides helping Lone Wolf and Sejanus."
"Kill every single Chaos faction player we find."
The channel went silent for a second.
Then the players began cautiously scanning the surrounding Imperial Army soldiers, searching for suspicious figures wearing the same uniforms as themselves.
Three hundred meters away, inside another ruined building, the atmosphere was completely different.
[Chaos Warmaster Abba-Egg] leaned against a wall, studying the entire battlefield through his holographic map.
More than two hundred Chaos faction players had gathered around him.
Every one of them wore high-quality equipment purchased from the game store, and their eyes practically shone with excitement.
"Everyone clear on the plan?"
His voice sounded across the Wings of Freedom channel.
"Sejanus is definitely still somewhere inside the High City's palace complex."
"All we have to do is wait for the main army to advance toward the city, then bypass the main battlefield and sneak into the palace."
[Your Salt, My Vinegar] frowned.
"You're making that sound way too easy. The High City has to be crawling with troops right now."
"Wouldn't going there be straight-up feeding the enemy free kills?"
[Chaos Warmaster Abba-Egg] glanced at him.
"That's exactly why we need to sneak in!"
"Think about it. The main Luna Wolves forces are busy fighting on the front lines. Who's going to pay attention to a bunch of ordinary Imperial Army soldiers like us?"
"Otherwise, once the main army gets inside and Sejanus reunites with the Luna Wolves, how the hell are we supposed to kill him?"
"Our only real chance is to slip inside while the High City's army is busy fighting the Luna Wolves Legion."
[Poor Men Buy Cars, Rich Men Buy Watches, Billionaires Play Boonie Bears Run] suddenly perked up.
"That actually makes sense!"
"Let's do it! We should hurry over to Abaddon's front. His forces are advancing the fastest."
More than two hundred players rose from the ruins and quickly moved north.
Unfortunately, they didn't get very far.
At the intersection ahead stood more than a hundred and fifty figures wearing the exact same Imperial Army uniforms.
And leading them was none other than [The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable].
The two groups locked eyes.
For a moment, the air itself seemed to freeze.
[Chaos Warmaster Abba-Egg] frowned.
A faint smile appeared on [The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable]'s face.
"Well, well. If it isn't our friends from the Chaos faction."
His voice carried an unmistakably mocking edge.
"Fancy running into you guys here. Out for a little stroll?"
[Chaos Warmaster Abba-Egg] stared at him coldly.
"Move."
[The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable] shook his head.
"Nope."
"We know exactly where you're trying to go."
"And Sejanus isn't someone you're going to lay a finger on."
"So give up on that little plan to drag history backward."
"We're not letting the Horus Heresy happen."
"That rebellion brought ten thousand years of darkness. Humanity suffered across the entire galaxy because of it."
[Chaos Warmaster Abba-Egg] slowly clenched his fists.
"You Imperial faction players really make me sick."
"I bet you're the same self-righteous idiots who sit on your moral high horses in real life, judging everyone else like a bunch of sanctimonious saints."
"We're just here to play a game. Who gives a damn whether the galaxy enters some dark age?"
"If you really care so much about the people living in this galaxy, why don't you actually come here yourself?"
"Funny how everyone online talks about being loyal to the Emperor, but the second someone asks if they'd actually go there, nobody volunteers."
"Because that's what you Imperial faction players are."
"A bunch of hypocrites."
[The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable] shot back.
"Only an idiot like you would think the Emperor is some kind of villain."
"Sure, maybe he wasn't a good leader."
"And he definitely wasn't a good father..."
"But when it comes to humanity as a whole, he was absolutely a worthy protector."
"Across countless possible timelines, he's fought against the Four Chaos Gods, desperately searching for even the slightest chance to prevent humanity's extinction."
"He was willing to sacrifice everything for that."
"So what right do you have to condemn him?"
[Chaos Warmaster Abba-Egg] merely sneered.
There was no point arguing with people who refused to listen.
Some disagreements could only be settled with violence.
He drew a light bolter from his waist.
At the same moment, the two hundred-plus Chaos players behind him raised their weapons.
[The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable] raised his own bolter.
The Imperial faction players behind him immediately followed suit.
The two groups stood facing each other across the narrow street.
The tension was so thick it felt like a wire stretched to the breaking point.
Then, in the next instant...
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Bolters erupted from both sides simultaneously.
The two groups opened fire at a distance of less than thirty meters.
Ordinary Imperial Army soldiers scattered in terror, completely unable to understand why their supposed allies had suddenly started shooting each other.
But the players didn't care.
Only one thing mattered to them.
Killing the other side.
Doing whatever was necessary for their respective factions.
[The Emperor's Will is Unstoppable] took three bolt rounds to the chest during the first exchange.
His username immediately turned gray.
But as he fell, he managed to put a round through the head of a Chaos player standing opposite him.
"WORTH IT!"
He shouted into the channel.
"BROTHERS! THEY'RE TRYING TO GO AROUND US! DON'T LET THEM THROUGH!"
More Imperial faction players poured in from every direction.
Some wore Imperial Army uniforms.
Others wore Solar Auxilia power armor.
A few had even purchased light power armor from the game store.
Their weapons were just as varied.
Bolters, meltaguns, plasma guns...
Some were even carrying rocket launchers.
The Chaos faction wasn't about to back down either.
More and more of their players arrived as reinforcements.
Both factions now possessed numbers, equipment, and firepower far beyond anything normally available to ordinary Solar Auxilia or Imperial Army troops.
They exchanged furious volleys down the streets.
Bolter fire shook the surrounding buildings, while rockets blasted blackened craters into the walls.
Players fell one after another, their usernames turning gray.
But seconds later, they would respawn at nearby respawn points and immediately throw themselves back into the fighting.
This was a war between members of the Fourth Scourge.
A war without mercy.
Without any hope of compromise.
It would continue until one side achieved its objective, completely ran out of Imperial Coins, or finally gave up.
Meanwhile, behind the players, real Imperial Army soldiers were dying in droves.
Some were struck by stray rounds.
Others were blown apart by rockets.
Countless more were caught in the crossfire.
Their bodies lay scattered across the streets, blood flowing together into crimson streams.
Nobody paid them any attention.
Because once you stepped onto a battlefield, there was no such thing as innocence.
--
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