After Daniel's words made the players realize that the gun in Fred's hand wasn't all that cracked up to be, their interest fizzled out, and they checked out.
I just figured that the next time I went to collect the loot, I'd need to be quick on the draw and snag a gun myself.
Rigby and Mordecai were a little bummed they hadn't bought Fred's gun.
But hey, look on the bright side, the game was just getting started.
There'd be plenty of chances to get better guns later, so I shook it off and cheered right up.
After this little episode, Daniel led the players to continue their exploration, starting with the strategy room.
He checked the overall layout of the Imperial Glory on the console.
He knew there was an armory just around the corner from the strategy room, and it was packed to the gills with firearms.
He planned to score some weapons first to arm the players.
There was no way on earth they could regain control of the Imperial Glory with just simple tools like water pipes and wrenches.
The Gloriana-class battleship was about 5 kilometers long, 0.8 kilometers wide in the middle, and could accommodate nearly 100,000 crew members.
Even though some crew had bought the farm on the Cadia battlefield.
And a whole other group perished in a warp accident.
Plus, another huge chunk was slaughtered by warp creatures.
That still left at least 20,000 to 30,000 people who had turned into monsters.
Sixteen players had to wipe the floor with tens of thousands of monsters.
Without guns, it would be a Sisyphean task—even if those monsters were to just stand there and take it.
On top of that, the enemy wasn't going to just play dead.
There might still be warp creatures lurking on the lower decks.
There was a strong possibility that armed crew, scavengers (armed elites), and others were present in the cargo hold, accommodation area, and lower Deck A class sections.
Even if these guys were contaminated by Chaos, they still retained the instinct to use guns.
To defeat those enemies and reclaim the Imperial Glory, they absolutely had to have sufficient firepower.
The armament room wasn't far from the strategy room—about three hundred meters away.
The only fly in the ointment was that there were a ton of monsters along the way.
If they made any noise, the mutants would come at them from the woodwork.
Roaring, blood, and death intertwined.
Bullets tore through flesh, and sharp blades cut through bone.
Daniel, holding an automatic pistol in one hand and an engineer shovel in the other, led the charge and charged headfirst.
~Boom!
The mutant who was spitting mad at Daniel and baring its fangs had its head blown right off by a bullet.
Another mutant that rushed over was smacked upside the head with the engineer's shovel.
The brutal force caused the creature's head to explode like a melon, and it fell to the ground twitching.
The players following Daniel were also giving it their all.
They formed small teams and cooperated with one another.
The three players—Yuji, Rigby, and Mordecai—stuck together and worked like a charm.
A mutant rushed over and was knocked down by the Warmaster using a wrench.
Yuji capitalized on the situation and put his foot down, making sure the mutant couldn't get up.
Fred put the muzzle of his gun right up close to the mutant's head. "In the name of the Emperor, I grant you mercy."
With that, he pulled the trigger.
The muzzle flashed red, and a ruby-like beam of light shot out, instantly piercing the mutant's head.
After a few final twitches, the mutant was down for the count.
"I hit level 3 and acquired the skill 'Firearm Shooting (Beginner)'!"
Fred sounded a little taken aback.
"I leveled up too, but the new skill I gained is 'Warp Siphon (Beginner)'."
Yuji stretched out his hands, a faint halo covering them.
"No kidding, you're a psyker?" Rigby looked at Yuji's hands in surprise. "That's awesome! When are you gonna level up enough to pinch my head off?"
"I didn't expect I was a wizard," Yuji shook his head. "I guess I'm just a psychic rookie. I need to go up a few notches before I can learn to pinch heads."
A loud roar sounded.
Two mutants came howling and running over from afar.
Yuji turned his head to look, then subconsciously pushed his hands forward.
An invisible force burst out, creating a massive impact.
The two mutants instantly flew through the air as if they'd been rear-ended by a Dayun semi-truck.
~Boom!~Boom!
The two mutants slammed into the wall.
Their bones and tendons were broken, and they died instantly.
The Warmaster and Fred looked gobsmacked, staring at Yuji's hands and then at the mutants that had flown away.
They shouted in unison.
"Holy smokes, that's the ticket!"
A look of pure ecstasy also appeared on Yuji's face.
"Who knew my psychic power was this strong?!"
With a little practice, decking Ahriman, kicking Magnus, and being neck-and-neck with the Lord of Change wouldn't be out of the question.
"Hehehe, it's high time we let this world feel the wrath of the wizard." Yuji was getting ahead of himself.
"Bro's got game! I gotta see him humiliate them ten times over!" Fred shouted.
The Warmaster followed suit, waving the flag and shouting, "Go hog wild on this world, young man!"
Right then, another mutant bolted out from the corner at the end of the corridor, howling and rushing towards the three players.
"Help him out, bro!"
Fred and the Warmaster backed up, silently handing the reins over to Yuji.
"Watch this!"
Yuji was just about to use the same trick again—absorbing the warp energy and knocking the mutant away.
Suddenly, his head felt as if it were being stabbed with a thousand needles, causing extreme pain.
A terrifying laugh sounded in his ears, as if it had come straight from the bowels of hell.
The next second, Yuji was on his knees, covering his head, which seemed like it was about to blow, and letting out a shriek of pain.
This sudden change left the old man and the War Commander standing behind him dumbfounded.
How come the wizard who just shouted he would humiliate this world was now hitting the deck?
Before he could even humiliate the world, he was already being pushed back by it and getting rubbed in the dirt?
"Don't abuse your psychic power." After a few gunshots, Daniel, who was walking over, shot the mutant dead.
He helped Yuji up and gave him a stern warning.
"Your mind is not strong enough. Excessive use of psychic energy will overwhelm you. In a worst-case scenario, your head might just up and explode."
"Looks like this mage has a lot of strings attached and isn't the best build in this version," the old man said with some regret.
"Alright, put a pin in insulting the world. Just stick with your guys and shoot well." The Warmaster supported Yuji and advised earnestly, "Messing around with psychic powers is a recipe for disaster. A real man should shoot, and shoot straight."
"I'm getting the feeling you're not exactly playing with a full deck!" Yuji, who had a headache, was at a loss for words.
The mutants on the path leading to the armory were low-hanging fruit—weak and unarmed.
Under Daniel's command, the players made it to the armory door without a hitch.
He entered the password he'd received from the console.
With a sound of grinding gears, the door creaked open.
The armory space wasn't very big—only about 30 square meters.
Inside were four shelves stacked high with a dazzling array of guns.
The players, like kids in a candy store, rushed into the armory in pure ecstasy to grab their favorite weapons.
"I want this, and this!"
The Warmaster quickly snagged a laser gun and two automatic pistols and strapped them to his waist on both sides.
Other players followed suit, scared to death that they wouldn't get a piece of the action.
"Holy cow, is this the holy Plasma?"
The player SeriousSam, nicknamed Sam shouted excitedly while holding up a plasma gun with a blue glowing handle.
"M35 Magna Plasma Gun, typically used by Cadia assault troops." Yuji took one look and recognized the model of the plasma gun in Sam's hand.
"Seriously, you even know this? That's off the charts." Sam gave Yuji a thumbs-up.
"I'm not really into playing the game or the pieces; I prefer to dive deep into the lore and data. So I'm pretty up to speed on all the equipment, ships, and that kind of stuff." Yuji was a little sheepish.
"Concussion grenades, score! Better take a few extra."
Mordecai scooped up a few grenades and stuffed them in his pockets.
"Melta bombs! Bring 'em here." Fred followed suit.
"Guys, come help me roll this big boy out!" Rigby waved to everyone.
"Holy smokes, this is a multi-barreled laser heavy machine gun—a bona fide heavy weapon."
He walked over and saw that Rigby had found a multi-barreled laser heavy machine gun with a guard plate, wheels, and a support frame, and his eyes were bugging out immediately.
"Holy Sword MK-III Multi-Laser Gun, a standard multi-tube laser design. It's like a Gatling gun from the interstellar age.
If we set this thing up on the battlefield, we won't be sweating no matter how many mutants show up."
Yuji walked up and stroked the cold gun barrel with gentle movements and a tone chock-full of excitement.
"This game is so detailed, they even included the binary prayer on the gun barrel."
"Let's go, push it out!" Rigby waved and shouted, "Let's give those darn mutants a taste of the Omnnisiah' power."
Several players who were in Rigby's corner helped push the multi-barrel laser heavy machine gun to the door.
This thing was no lightweight. Even without the batteries, it took two players to haul it.
Players had stormed the armory like a bunch of looters.
Some of the guys had multiple guns slung over their backs and three or four pistols on their hips.
Believe it or not, they still weren't satisfied and kept grabbing grenades, decking themselves out with explosives.
"Hold your horses!" Daniel stopped the players from continuing their frenzy.
"These are the Emperor's property. Take what you need—no waste allowed."
"These weapons all need a purification ritual. I'll purify them one time for you. For anything else, you can head to the shrine and spend Exp Points to purify them yourself."
After hearing Daniel's words, the players cried foul.
But they knew they were up against a brick wall, since Daniel held all the cards and could ban them.
They could only grudgingly put back the extra guns and ammo.
Daniel used purification to help the players expel the chaotic power from their weapons.
When the Imperial Glory suffered its accident, the entire ship was exposed to the Warp.
Naturally, these guns didn't get off scot-free and were all contaminated.
It was just a matter of how much.
After letting the players get their fill, Daniel closed the armory again and switched up the password.
This was their first big asset.
It was a nice little ace up his sleeve for players who might log in later.
With the guns, clearing out the mutants went much faster.
Players also generally hit level three during the battle and unlocked basic skills such as firearms shooting.
Several corridors near the strategy room were cleared out in no time.
After Daniel led the players to mop up a group of mutants, they arrived at the tactical projection hall.
The metal explosion-proof door in the hall was eight meters high and looked majestic.
The door's surface featured a large relief of an Imperial double-headed eagle.
Daniel entered the password on the verification tablet.
With the flashing of lights and the humming of gears, the heavy metal explosion-proof door slowly groaned open.
Roar!
A low growl came from inside.
With the help of the rotating scarlet lights in the hall, players saw a group of hideous mutants and two Chaos Ogryns wearing heavy armor, holding heavy shields and power clubs.
"You know the difference between an Ogryn in heavy armor and an Astartes?"
Yuji nudged Fred's shoulder with his elbow and posed the question.
Fred looked like a deer in headlights. "What's the difference?"
"Exactly—there is no difference!"
"That joke's a real knee-slapper. It's not funny in the slightest."
The Chaos Ogryn roared at the players, then charged forward with a rumbling roar.
The mutants howled and came at them like a tidal wave.
"Open fire!" Daniel shouted, and he pulled the trigger first.