Li Qingyu's dagger froze at the sergeant's throat, not biting into flesh.
Unlocking a new extraction point and a fixer? That was a chance.
Until now, he'd had only one extraction route—through a gigantic ventilation channel, wide enough to fit two Leman Russ tanks side by side. It led from the surface straight to the Hideout beneath the Underhive.
His only fixer was the Black Trader, who bought and sold junk. That was all.
Now—another route and another contact. Refusing was impossible.
He jerked the sergeant upright and tried to assess the wounds, but the man twitched and shouted:
"Traitor! Die!"
Li Qingyu swore and slapped him twice, hard.
"Listen, enough! I'm not a rebel—I'm a Scavenger! From the Underhive, just picking trophies! By the Emperor, if I were a traitor, your throat would already be cut open!"
After that Rudolf calmed down and fell silent, staring at him with distrust.
"Right. Don't jerk around. I'll bandage you up and we'll get out of here. You don't want the rebels turning you into meat, do you?"
Rudolf said nothing. Li Qingyu examined the wounds—right hand crushed, a bullet hole in the shin, blood pumping.
He tore a strip of cloth from the uniform, wrapped the hand, then twisted an improvised plug and pressed it straight into the bullet hole in the leg.
Rudolf almost howled, but held on. A few more turns of the bandage—and the bleeding stopped.
He'd live. But how to haul him?
He weighed close to seventy kilos, and carrying him was impossible. So what to sacrifice—his weapons?
Li Qingyu swept his gaze over the trench and spotted a steel cart left behind from building the fortifications.
He rolled it over, stacked the autoguns, ammo, and tools, then seated Rudolf on top.
"Don't try anything. I'll take you to your people and I'm gone."
"Wait..." Rudolf rasped. "My tags... take them."
Now there was no doubt—the man wasn't a rebel. Just a scavenger. Besides, there were rumors that Underhive folk sometimes climbed to the surface to steal supplies.
Li Qingyu shrugged, went back into the trench, tore the tags off bodies, and tossed them to the sergeant.
"Now we're square. Remember that."
The road promised to be long. He pulled the cart with a seventy-kilogram lump of a man and five autoguns, nearly tearing himself apart.
And all around—green fields and a clean blue sky. In Warhammer 40,000, that was a rare luxury.
He made his way across the ploughed earth, taking breaks, regenerating strength—and watching his stats rise: Strength +1, Endurance +2.
Once he stopped in a low hollow, ate rations and drank water, checking the map in the System interface.
Two kilometers remained to the PDF line—and a full twenty to the extraction point. The thought alone made him groan.
After eating a couple more packs of biscuits and filling his hunger and hydration to one hundred percent, he moved on.
By night, the sky had hardened into a dome of stars. Shadows drifted among them—orbitals and war cruisers.
Soon, searchlights and the outlines of heavy stubbers glinted ahead—the PDF defenses. Mines, wire, watchtowers. Patrols pacing back and forth.
Li Qingyu shoved the cart closer, splashed water into Rudolf's face.
"Up you get, pretty boy. Home's right there."
Rudolf blinked awake, recognized the searchlights, and, realizing where he was, brightened and opened his mouth to call for help—but Li Qingyu instantly clamped a hand over his lips.
"Shh! Quiet. I leave first—then scream all you want."
Rudolf nodded. He understood: if they caught a scavenger, his fate was sealed—arrest or a bullet.
The sergeant stared at him and quietly asked:
"Who are you?"
"Remember my face. Li Qingyu, Scavenger. You owe me your life now. Pay it back someday. Now count to a hundred and then shout."
He turned and vanished into the darkness, the cart rattling over stones.
Rudolf watched him go and muttered:
"Scavenger Li Qingyu... Remembered. ...Hey, damn it, where's my lasgun?!"
Meanwhile, Li Qingyu tore toward extraction. He ran until a dozen stamina bars emptied, sagged for a second—and forward again.
In the cart, four autoguns clinked and, best of all, the coveted lasgun. His heart sang.
"A little snack song! I'm the best!"
He softly whistled the tune, racing for the ventilation channel under the light of dawn.
Ahead yawned a gigantic tunnel of rusted metal and ceramite—a part of the hive, forgotten, corroded, leaving a breach straight down to the Underhive.
When Li Qingyu crossed the boundary, a green ten-second timer flashed before his eyes. When the countdown ended, his silhouette dissolved; he woke up in a dark room in the Hideout.
Lines flashed across the System screen:
Extraction complete. Excellent work. Total value of loot: 36,300 fertilizer coupons. Objective complete. Fixer Rudolf unlocked.