"Get him! He's just one guy and there's five hundred of us! 500 to 1—we've got this! We'll wear him down if nothing else!"
"For the Gods! For the Warmaster! Move your asses!"
The traitor commander in the tank kept shouting, urging his soldiers to deal with Dachi.
"Bring it on! For the glorious Emperor Himself!"
Dachi roared as he charged at more traitors.
Lightning fast, he weaved through the crowd like a bullet.
The traitor soldiers were no match—he left corpses in his wake.
A group of fanatical cultists strapped with explosives rushed at Dachi, going for a suicide attack.
"Stomp!"
Dachi activated his skill. With one foot-slam, a shockwave erupted outward from him as the epicenter.
The cultists went flying, crashing hard to the ground.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Their explosives detonated, shredding them into bloody chunks. Gruesome as hell.
"FIRE! OPEN FIRE!"
"Blow that corpse-worshipping bastard to pieces!"
The traitor commander's eyes locked onto Dachi, a flicker of genuine fear showing through.
He screamed orders to fire, not giving a damn about his own men anymore—just wanting to obliterate Dachi with raw firepower.
The traitors had plenty of heavy weapons—Leman Russes, twin-linked lascannons, meltaguns, you name it. Most still bore the Imperium's aquila markings.
After Cadia's fortresses fell, the Imperial forces had abandoned their heavy equipment during evacuation.
The traitors took it all. Now they were packing serious heat.
BOOM! BOOM!
Dense artillery fire rained down on Dachi, blasting him off his feet multiple times. His health bar plummeted.
Then the traitor commander's Leman Russ took direct aim and fired.
The massive shell blew away half of Dachi's body in an instant.
Watching from a distance, Creed felt despair wash over him.
He'd been hoping that unnamed Angel of the Emperor could take out the enemy positions and relieve the pressure.
Who could've predicted the traitors would have this much firepower? Even an Angel of the Emperor had fallen.
"HAHAHA! The corpse-worshipper's dead!" The traitor commander laughed excitedly, slapping the tank's hull with loud bangs.
"That's what you get for serving the corpse—you idiots, this is your en—en—en... wait... HOW IS THE CORPSE-WORSHIPPER ALIVE AGAIN?!"
A flash of light appeared. Dachi walked out completely unharmed.
The traitors who'd been celebrating seconds ago went slack-jawed.
What the hell?
Didn't we just kill this guy?
How's he back already?
Someone's hacking! Gods, there's a hacker!
The traitor commander looked at where the blown-apart corpse had been—it was gone, as if it had never existed, erased by some unseen power.
"Thank God I'm playing on Easy Mode, or I'd have to restart from a checkpoint."
Dachi had always considered himself mechanically challenged. He only played games on Easy—purely for casual fun.
On Easy Mode, you respawned right after dying. Even scrubs could beat bosses.
He'd bump up the difficulty for New Game Plus.
Right now, first playthrough—Dachi just wanted to mow through enemies and finish in a month.
Ever since VR games came out, completion times had gotten longer and longer.
To build complete worlds, games usually had their own internal timelines.
But players couldn't actually waste years or decades on one game, so time dilation was standard.
In single-player mode, VR game time ratios were player-adjustable.
Dachi had set it to 3660:1 time compression. He'd finish in about a month—the limit of his pod's life support system.
In-game experiences wouldn't affect reality.
When the game ended, players would just feel like they'd had a dream.
"FIRE! KEEP FIRING! BLAST HIM!"
The traitor commander screamed.
By the Gods, what kind of monster is this?!
Even daemons need time to revive—this guy just...
Damn it, must be the Corpse Emperor's doing. This guy's definitely a Living Saint.
Says he's not a god, then pulls shit like this!
Dachi sprinted and leaped, landing on top of the Leman Russ.
He swung his chainsword through several traitor soldiers, grabbed the traitor commander, dragged him out of the tank, and crushed his skull with his bare hands.
Then snatched a grenade off the corpse and tossed it inside the tank.
BOOM!
After the explosion, black smoke poured from the tank. It stopped moving. Everyone inside was chunky salsa.
The whole sequence—smooth as butter, perfectly executed.
"Man, those controls are buttery smooth. And that looked badass."
Dachi figured this game easily deserved an 82 out of 100—because the other 18 points needed to be sent as 666s.
After the traitor commander's gruesome death, the traitor soldiers fell into chaos.
The remaining heavy weapon positions were easily destroyed by Dachi. He slaughtered loads of traitors.
The survivors lost their nerve and fled.
"Hey, hey! Running already? I was just getting warmed up!"
Seeing the traitor soldiers run, Dachi got pissed. He chased them for several hundred meters, killed everyone he could catch.
The rest hauled absolute ass—Dachi couldn't keep up and had to give up.
"This game's AI is so annoying. Can't they just stand there and let me clear them out? Why do they have to run around?"
"Well, these guys are probably just tutorial mobs anyway. Getting me familiar with the controls."
A system notification appeared.
[Congratulations on completing your quest: Destroy enemy heavy weapons units 10/10]
[Rewards obtained: 500 XP, Reputation +10, Doom Slayer's Super Shotgun x1]
A massive-bore shotgun materialized in his game inventory.
After equipping it, the weapon automatically appeared in a holster at Dachi's waist.
Dachi drew the gun and examined it carefully.
The overall design was rugged and heavy, full of mechanical texture and industrial style.
The main body was black plasteel with special surface patterns.
Hefty weight. Felt real.
According to the item description, it was a green-tier Epic weapon with one blessed trait.
Mangle: +50% damage to enemy torsos, with high chance to cause limb severance or decapitation.
"Nice! First green-tier item acquired. Next mini-goal: get a full set of greens."
Dachi shoved the bolter back in its holster and walked toward the shocked Creed.
He'd just been blown in half moments ago, then seconds later was fighting fit again.
But thinking of Celestine, the Living Saint he'd fought alongside, she could resurrect too.
Right. This had to be the Emperor's power.
"Thank you for your aid, my lord," Creed said genuinely. "Praise the Emperor for sending you here to save us poor wretches—"
Dachi hated story scenes. He cut in: "Skip, skip. What's the next quest?"
Creed: (⊙o⊙)...
This Angel of the Emperor's kinda impatient, huh.
Complaints aside, Creed patiently continued: "We would be honored if you would accompany us to the evacuation point."
A quest notification appeared.
[Quest: Evacuation]
[The Cadia battlefield has fallen. Protect Lord Castellan Creed and the accompanying soldiers and civilians to the evacuation point]
[Quest Rewards: 600 XP, 600 Credits, Reputation +20, Render's Oath Chainsword x1]
"Let's move, let's move!" Dachi urged.
"We depart immediately."
Creed didn't dare delay. He immediately ordered the column to resume toward the evacuation point.
The captured Imperial soldiers—he also sent people to grant them the Emperor's mercy.
Along the route, Creed absorbed routed soldiers and civilians into the column, doing his best to maintain order.
The evacuation wasn't safe.
Chaos traitor forces bombarded the retreating Imperial troops. Every transport vehicle on the plains became a target.
Rotov's group wasn't spared either—heavy fire rained down around them.
Each shell made a shrieking sound as it fell, like laughter. Their explosions were the punchlines to cruel jokes.
Traitor ground forces also converged on the evacuation point. Daemon-possessed cultists mixed among them, waiting for opportunities to strike and slaughter at will.
"KILL! KILL! KILL! MAIM! MAIM! MAIM!"
Four World Eaters devoted to the Blood God used jump packs to leap over the crude outer defenses, crashing into the evacuation crowd to butcher the innocent.
Dachi charged over with his Super Shotgun.
One World Eater spotted him and immediately pivoted, rushing at him with a chainaxe.
BOOM!
Under the shotgun, all are equal—even Chaos Space Marines.
One shot sent the World Eater flying backward, mangled beyond recognition. Deader than dead.
Two words to describe it: efficient.