It was cold and damp, like being at the bottom of a lightless abyss, where you could be devoured by scavengers at any moment.
In a daze, amidst the darkness, Marcus saw a distant, warm sun. A figure sat on a throne within it, seemingly watching him. As his muddled mind instinctively tried to drag his stiff body toward the warmth, a rough voice broke the silence, snapping a chain that had been binding him. The next second, Marcus's eyes flew open.
"Soldier, soldier! I'm bloody well calling you!"
Before he could figure out what was happening, a rude voice, accompanied by the roar of artillery fire, pierced his ears. Still disoriented, Marcus instinctively mumbled "Hm" in response. As his senses returned, he realized he was in a huge, muddy trench. A dozen other soldiers lay prone along the edge, firing their weapons.
A man in green armor stood three or four meters in front of Marcus, holding a strange weapon. "Damn it, I thought you'd been deafened by the blast," the man shouted, leaning out of the trench to fire. "If you don't want to die, pick up a gun! Those damned Tyranids are about to charge! FOR THE EMPEROR!"
Before Marcus could react, a black spike with an eerie green shimmer whistled through the air and struck the man squarely in the head. The green helmet offered little resistance, and the spike pierced clean through. Marcus instinctively dropped to the ground, staring at the man's corpse, which was now oozing brain matter. For some reason, Marcus wasn't as frightened as he'd expected. Instead, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. With a surge of adrenaline, he half-crouched and scrambled to the corpse, dropping beside it.
He noticed that a green liquid, starting from the head, was rapidly corroding the body. Marcus suppressed a wave of nausea, quickly stripping off the dead man's battle-scarred green armor and putting it on himself. He didn't understand what was happening, but he knew survival was his first priority, and the armor, though damaged, would offer some protection. After donning the armor, Marcus picked up the strange weapon the man had dropped.
This was when things got weird. Marcus had never seen this armor before, yet he put it on with an expert's efficiency. Now, as he held the weapon, he instinctively inspected it like a seasoned veteran. He pulled the trigger and fired a few test shots into the sky. Blazing red plasma erupted from the muzzle, soaring into the air and disappearing.
A plasma gun? A look of surprise crossed Marcus's face. The weapon was both unfamiliar and strangely familiar, and a bad feeling crept into his mind.
As if to confirm his terrible premonition, a virtual panel appeared before his eyes.
Multiverse travel complete, system loading finished.
Current world: Warhammer 40,000.
Initiating Phase One Main Quest: Assist Titus Squad in reactivating the giant Plasma cannon on the surface of Planet Kadak.
Quest Objective 1: Kill one Tyranid Warrior. Reward: 1 Lottery Chance, Title: "Warrior Slayer."
Quest Objective 2: Kill one thousand Hormagaunt and Gun Worm. Reward: 1 Lottery Chance, Title: "Tyranid Slayer."
Quest Objective 3: Successfully reactivate the giant Plasma cannon. Reward: 1 Lottery Chance, Title: "Behemoth Slayer."
Current pending Newbie Items × 1.
Astonishment, panic, disbelief, and a hint of despair flashed across Marcus's face. The panel was like a switch, unsealing a flood of memories in his mind. For a moment, the world seemed to freeze. The artillery fire, the other soldiers, and the Tyranids rushing from a distance—everything was paused. Only Marcus and the virtual panel remained. A torrent of fragmented memories flooded into his mind, as if someone had violently stirred his brain.
After a long moment, Marcus finally understood. First, as he had suspected, he had been transferred to another world. The good news: he had a system. The bad news: he was in the GOD DAMN Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Fortunately, the system panel before him offered a glimmer of hope. Based on the fragmented memories, Marcus understood the panel's function: it granted him the ability to travel between different multiverses. It would issue main quests based on his current world, and completing them would give him a chance to travel to the next one. The system would also issue sub-quests, which, when completed, would grant him a chance to draw rewards in a lottery—anything from a rusty bayonet to a planet-sized Necrons World Engine.
Marcus began to analyze his situation. The body he was in belonged to an Astra Militarum soldier, which explained his newfound proficiency with the armor and plasma gun—they were simply muscle memories from his host. According to the memories, the current timeline was after the Great Rift had torn the galaxy apart and Roboute Guilliman had initiated the Indomitus Crusade. The location was the Pacificus Sector, a jungle world named Kadak in the Rishidio System.
The names "Kadaku" and "Recidious" struck a chord. When he saw "Titus Squad" on the system panel, he realized the terrible truth. He had been dropped into the plot of the video game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. At this very moment, the planet beneath his feet—the entire system, in fact—was under attack by the Great Devourer, the Tyranids!