39: You guys fight over territory, I'll steal the instruction manual.

[Holographic Operations Cabin - Settlement Interface]

The transport plane's engines let out a tooth-grinding screech of metal fatigue, as if two rusted iron plates were scraping against each other.

This requisitioned industrial transport barge, trailing a thick plume of black smoke, stumbled toward the ground like a giant bird with broken wings.

The landing gear slammed onto the concrete of the landing pad with a loud bang; the entire ship bounced violently before finally screeching to a halt amidst a series of piercing brake sounds.

The hatch opened.

A heatwave mixed with the smell of burning, blood, and radioactive dust billowed out from the cabin.

Servitors and medical robots, who had been waiting nearby, rushed forward.

On the stretchers lay Dark Ravens warriors with missing limbs and shattered armor.

They didn't groan; only when the medical Servitors used chainsaws to cut through their deformed power armor did they occasionally let out a low, muffled grunt.

This was no triumph. At least to an uninformed bystander, it looked more like a panicked, frantic escape, leaving armor and equipment behind.

On the light screen, a series of glaring yellow warning pop-ups were frantically scrolling, like heartless mockery.

[World Event: Sunken Hive City - Settlement Complete]

[Result Determination: Evacuation (Mission Objectives Not Met)]

[Core Asset (Geothermal Energy Pile): Occupied by the Pan-Pacific Empire.]

[Regional Control: Lost.]

Li Cang looked at this "defeat" report, but there was no sign of dejection on his face.

On the contrary, the corners of his mouth curled into a meaningful arc, his fingers lightly tapping on the casualty statistics.

[Dark Ravens Assault Squad: 68/80 Surviving.]

[Thunder Warrior Decoy Squad (Remnants of the First Company): All Signals Lost (MIA).]

"Using twelve old models destined for the scrap heap with high maintenance costs in exchange for eighty percent of my cutting-edge forces, plus..."

Li Cang's finger slid across the screen, finally stopping on a small, gray icon labeled "Miscellaneous Data Fragment" by the system.

"A manual."

...[Era League - Official Livestream (District 9527)]

In the livestream room, bullet comments were scrolling like a blizzard, obscuring half the screen.

The audience had just witnessed that heart-pounding yet anti-climactic battle for the Hive City.

They saw the Pan-Pacific Empire's submarine fleet that blotted out the sky, surfacing like deep-sea behemoths.

They saw the Thunder Warriors launching a desperate charge like tragic heroes.

They also saw... Li Cang's main force, the "Dark Ravens," after blasting open the bottom gate.

They had merely wandered around inside; they neither occupied territory nor transported supplies, just threw a few smoke grenades and ran away like startled rabbits.

"That's it? That's it?!"

"I took my pants off for this? The Thunder Warriors died just so the main force could go on a sightseeing tour?"

"That geothermal core is a T2-grade top-tier energy source! With that, you could produce infinite troops! Is the streamer stupid?"

"He definitely chickened out. After all, Pan-Pacific's Drill Cannons are too fierce. Even that D-01 that could tear tanks apart was smashed down. Who could withstand that?"

Doubts, mockery, and frustrated curses rose one after another.

In the eyes of the vast majority of viewers who only cared about "occupancy" and "kill counts," this was a classic strategic blunder—losing both the bait and the fish, losing face and substance alike.

"No, that's not right."

At the judges' table, the usually taciturn tactical analyst Karen suddenly interrupted the director's screen switch.

His mechanical eye stared fixedly at a corner of the replay, his pupil zooming and capturing every pixel change.

"Enlarge the footage of C-19's evacuation. Stop! Right here."

The image froze at the moment C-19 carefully tucked a battered Servo-skull data core, dug out from the sludge, into his breastplate's sealed compartment.

"He took something." Karen's voice was a bit dry, carrying a slight tremor from discovering the truth.

"Although I don't know what it is, that Commander—his troops showed no panic during the evacuation; they could even be described as composed. Their tactical objective was very clear from the start: not to occupy, but to 'steal'."

Beside him, Isabelle pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes:

"In this 'survival' season, most civilizations are desperately fighting for 'matter'—food, energy, territory. Because these things let them survive today."

"But Li Cang gave up on 'today'."

"What he snatched was some kind of 'information,' a type of knowledge that could potentially change the future."

Isabelle paused and gave a meaningful evaluation:

"On this wasteland, sometimes a treasure map is worth more than a ton of gold. Provided... you can read that map and have the life to go dig it up."

...Li Cang couldn't hear the external commentary, but what he was doing right now perfectly confirmed Isabelle's guess.

[Connecting...]

[Decryption Protocol Initiated...]

[High-encryption star map data detected. Source: Black box of the Golden Age deep-space exploration ship 'Horizon'.]

On the light screen, the originally disorganized static began to reorganize and align.

Countless green lines traced in the void, gradually constructing a fragmented but heart-pounding holographic star map of the Sol System.

On this star map, the vast majority of planets were dim, unknown regions shrouded in the fog of war.

Only one red planet was locked on by a highlighted red beacon that pulsed like a heart.

Mars.

And near the equator of Mars, deep within that massive canyon known as "Noctis Labyrinth," a unique data frequency was being emitted.

[Identification Code Confirmed: Adeptus Mechanicus (Mechanicum) - Titan Legion Hibernation Chamber - Emergency Awakening Protocol.]

"That's it." Li Cang let out a long breath, slumped back into his chair, and revealed the wild smile of a gambler who had just hit the jackpot.

That geothermal core?

That was a battery for Mortals.

The Pan-Pacific Empire snatched it, but at most, they'd build a few more submarines and feed a few tens of thousands more mouths.

On this resource-scarce, peril-filled Terra, that's just a slow death, merely delaying the future's destruction by a second.

But this map... what this map marks is the location of the "Titan Legion" that the Adeptus Mechanicus lost on the surface of Mars.

More importantly, it contains the low-level communication frequencies and encrypted handshake protocols to establish contact with the Mars Adeptus Mechanicus.

In the Warhammer lore, the Emperor relied not only on the might of the Thunder Warriors to unify Terra but also on his journey to Mars.

He was revered by the Adeptus Mechanicus as the incarnation of the "omnissiah (omnissiah)," thereby gaining Mars's terrifying industrial capacity and technical support.

Without Mars, there would be no Astartes.

Without Mars, there would be no epoch expedition fleet sweeping across the galaxy.

"You're fighting for territory, fighting for batteries, fighting for that scrap metal." Li Cang looked at the crimson planet on the star map, whispering to himself, the light of Mars reflected in his eyes.

"But I, I've snatched the manual."

"This means the Empire has snatched the ticket to godhood."

He clicked on the [Tech Tree].

That node which had always been grayed out and locked, stalling all his high-level unit research—[Olympus Treaty (Mars Protocol)]—finally showed a hint of loosening.

[Prerequisite Conditions Updated:]

Establish communication with the Adeptus Mechanicus (Incomplete).

Possess high-value STC Data as a bargaining chip (Completed: Noctis Labyrinth Coordinates).

"Just one step away."

Li Cang glanced at his resource bar.

GP: 0.

Although the post-battle settlement would give a little, it certainly wouldn't be enough to build a spaceship.

He was currently like a pauper holding a lottery ticket worth five million, but unable to even cough up the two dollars for the bus fare to go redeem it.

"Can't fly up there..." Li Cang rubbed his chin, his stubble stinging his fingertips.

His eyes scanned back and forth between the star map and his wasteland base.

In a conventional playthrough, he would need to climb the tech tree, build rockets, and then fly to Mars.

That would take at least several months of development time and massive resources.

But in the [Survival] season, under the pressure of the impending "Unknown Threat," he couldn't afford to wait.

"Since I can't fly up..."

Li Cang's gaze suddenly fixed on a cheap building at the end of the [Communication Tech] branch that he had long ignored.

[Wasteland Communication Array (Repaired Version)]

[Cost: 500 GP]

[Description: Utilizes the remains of deep-space communication base stations from the old era. After repair and amplification, it can send a high-power, encrypted signal to specific coordinates that cannot be easily intercepted by physical means.]

"I don't need to fly there." The corners of Li Cang's mouth curled into the cunning and dangerous arc of a profiteer.

"System, settle the rewards for this campaign."

[Settlement Complete.]

[Obtained: GP + 1500 (S-rank Evaluation + Exploration Reward).]

"Enough." Li Cang didn't hesitate for a second and pressed down hard.

" put up【Wasteland Communication Array】."

"Target Lock: Mars."

"Send Content: The first 10% of the [Noctis Labyrinth] low-level key... and, a greeting."

He was going to erect an antenna in this corner of the wasteland.

While everyone else was still brawling in the mud, fighting for scraps, he would be the first to look up and send the first proclamation to that red neighbor.

A proclamation powerful enough to shatter the logic circuits of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

His finger didn't tremble as he pressed the confirmation button.

As the resources were deducted, several giant mechanical arms on a patch of ruins outside the base began to roar into operation.

They dug up the rusted remains of communication towers left over from the old era from the sand and re-erected them.

Brand new cables were implanted into those dead metal skeletons like veins, and the high-power signal generator began to preheat, emitting a low hum.

That humming grew louder and louder, eventually turning into an invisible sword that pierced the clouds.

A segment of specially encrypted binary code, carrying the awakening key for that ancient hibernation chamber deep within Noctis Labyrinth, along with Li Cang's greeting filled with mystical flair, penetrated Terra's thick radioactive atmosphere at the speed of light.

It crossed the cold, silent void, traversed tens of millions of kilometers, and headed straight for the red planet.

On the distant surface of Mars, atop the highest peak of Olympus Mons, a giant receiving array that had been silent for thousands of years suddenly lit up with a red light without any warning.

Then came the second light, the third... until the entire mountain peak was illuminated by red warning lights.

Countless Tech-Priests sleeping deep underground were urgently awakened.

They looked at the signal source from Terra with terror and fanaticism, looking at the only identification code they had waited countless centuries for.

[Signal Source Identified: Holy Terra]

[Information Content Decoding...]

[Decoding Complete: omnissiah... Descends.]

The gears began to turn.

The sleeping giant god opened its eyes.

—Praise the omnissiah!

—Praise the omnissiah!!

—Praise the omnissiah!!!