Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 459

Motalian remained silent, holding the corncob in his hand, until finally he couldn't help but open his mouth and ask.

[…Who are you? ]

And… Mortarion hesitated, glancing at Hades, whose height was clearly not that of an ordinary human. The Primarch realized that the giant before him was the first being of similar height and race to him…

Could it be… Mortarion stared at his adoptive father’s head, and an absurd idea surfaced in his mind like a bubble.

Could it be...? Could it be...?

Mortarion watched Hades take a few steps back, and the Primarch panicked for a moment, but then he saw Hades assume a contorted stance.

"I am Hades, don't envy me, I'm just a legend."

Hades, standing in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure pose, tossed his stylish short hair and said, "And also, call me—"

Hades saw Neos' handsome face before his eyes; the emperor was looking at him with a kind and gentle gaze.

For the sake of the Primarch's physical and mental well-being, and to make it easier to sabotage teammates without any psychological burden in the future, Hades ultimately abandoned the "Big Daddy" plan, his final words taking an abrupt and winding path.

"Call me brother, I'm young."

Hades said he successfully saw that Mortalian's eyes were full of question marks.

But a hint of regret seemed to flash in the Primarch's eyes?

【Oh. 】

"Motalian said dryly."

Chapter 538 Extra: Sorry, but this is my second playthrough (3)

This giant, who calls himself "Hades," is a very powerful psychic.

Mortarian realized this.

He stood beside Hades, watching blankly as Hades chatted and laughed, while the fleeing puppet army in the distance fell to the ground one after another, like kites with broken strings.

Mortarian slowly raised his eyes and saw the flock of carrion vultures swirling in the sky fall directly down without even letting out a cry of pain. Carrion vultures have always been a major weapon of the Nacre. On this planet where firearms are not very accurate and there is a lack of air forces, a combat-capable air force is an extremely oppressive presence.

But now, before Mortarian, those monsters were as if they had been plucked from the sky by a giant hand... smashed to the ground and died like stones. It was truly... unimaginable...

Mortarian's pupils dilated as he stared at the defeated soldiers, who seemed to have had their souls erased. What kind of beings were these...?

Hades's rambling continued in his ears.

"...Oh dear, I've already thought it through. The first harvest of white corn has just ripened in those two villages to the east of the hinterland, so we'll go and exchange some... If that doesn't work, we'll beg for some... I've also scouted out suitable wasteland for mining, and so on..."

Is this a spell?

Mortarian wondered, but did such a spell really exist?

But if it weren't for... a deadly spell cast without chanting or an altar... Mortarion's soul trembled. This man who could make Nacre feel like he was facing a formidable enemy and successfully kill Nacre was no ordinary danger.

It's actually quite dangerous!

He might have the power to wipe out the entire Barbalus—no! Hasn't he already purged the entire ruling class from Barbalus?!

Mortalian's pupils dilated in shock, and he followed Hades down the mountain in a daze.

"...Motalian?!"

Stunned by Hades' power, Mortarian snapped out of his daze. Before him, Hades stood, looking at him with a serious expression.

When did Hades come up to him from beside him?!

Even Mortarion's usually formidable reflexes were outmatched!

Hades looked at the dazed Mortarian and sighed... He knew this would happen... Hades patted Mortarian's shoulder earnestly.

“I know you may not like farming, but it’s necessary, otherwise we two—no, you’ve been eating too much. Barbarus is at least half an agricultural planet, you can’t forget the old ways.”

?

arable land?

Mortarion hadn't listened to Hades's rambling at all; he was simply absorbed in the fact that the Nacre army had been so easily destroyed.

【Geng,】Motalian tried his best to keep his voice steady. Although he had just had a fleeting thought that Hades might be one of his kind, Motalian was now more worried about what would happen to him.

Faced with such a powerful being, the Primarch's instinct to flee in battle has become deeply ingrained.

I till the land.

Hades seemed taken aback by Mortalian's decisiveness, then burst into laughter.

"Alright! I'll make a few simple tillers... but can machines really outperform Primarchs..."

Hades' voice trailed off again.

He could certainly add points to Barbalus's mechanical tree, but Barbalus wasn't originally a mineral planet. If they wanted to upgrade their machinery, materials of sufficient strength were essential—given the current variety of minerals on Barbalus…

Hades quickly deduced the highest level of technology that Barbarus could reach.

It seems that it's indeed impossible to create a tillage machine that is more efficient than the original.

Let Mortarion come instead.

Hades chuckled awkwardly twice, then decisively sold his Primarch and said, "Go farm, Mortarion!"

In any case, in his memory, the original Motalian would always run away whenever he didn't want to work, under the pretext of increasing productivity.

The fog around them gradually thinned, and the outline of a village began to appear in the distance. Mortarian glanced at Hades without leaving a trace, only to see that Hades was still "naturally optimistic" and walked directly toward the village.

He hadn't been to the village yet, Mortarian thought.

But where he went... he probably went to farmland.

He wanted to become stronger, he wanted to learn the spells Hades used, Mortarion thought... but...

Should he just ask Hades for it? No, if it were Nacre, Mortarion would have been kicked off the cliff by now.

...It's best to be cautious for now.

--------------

[One month later]

He was wrong, very wrong.

Mortarian looked utterly dejected as he gazed at Hades, who was now plundering wildly in the distance.

He roared, kicked the oxen that were plowing the field aside, grabbed the plow and ran off.

This person simply has a mental disorder and is not dangerous.

Beside the Primarch, a group of villagers had gathered, carrying farm tools to modify. Mortarion squatted in front of a huge reversible plow, teaching the people how to modify it.

There wasn't much to teach about this simple tool, so Motalian quickly finished explaining it, then let the villagers try it out themselves and answered a few of their questions.

"Next time, I'll just teach them how to make engines," Mortalian thought. "We'll select three people from each village who are interested in machinery... and also those interested in potions. It's time to put the antidote update on the agenda."

Seeing that there was nothing else to do, the villagers who had gathered together did not disperse. They stood or squatted beside Motalian, all staring at the figure that was speeding across the wasteland.

Mortarian had already realized that some of these people weren't there to learn the technology at all; some were simply there to see Hades. A bunch of young people stared at the giant in the distance with starry eyes—the story of this king conquering the beast and liberating Barbarus single-handedly had already spread.

"Lord Mortalian, what are your plans next?"

A more mature-looking man squatted down beside Mortarian and tentatively asked a question. Mortarian recognized him as Heim, the village chief from a nearby village.

"No need to call me sir," Mortarian said calmly. "And—his plan is to first develop productivity to a point where he won't starve."

What is productivity?

Heim then asked, and Mortarian sensed that people's eyes had returned to him.

The ability to create wealth—you can think of it as the ability to farm or weave.

The people around them exclaimed in sudden realization.

“My lord…” Heim said cautiously, “he does have a very good appetite. We also struggled with this problem at the time.”

Heim saw Mortalian abruptly turn his head and stare directly at him, which startled the mortal. Under the gaze of Mortalian's sharp yellow eyes, Heim almost trembled.

"No," Mortarian said solemnly, "you had already spontaneously prepared food for us before this—I am very grateful for that, as is Hades."

Just because Hades killed the beast, the villagers who benefited from his actions would spontaneously prepare food for him... Mortarian was almost shocked; this was a virtue that would never be seen in the Alien Lords.

"This is humanity," Mortarion thought. Hades had told him they were all human, and Mortarion was glad to be of that race.

They look alike—but Mortarion has no idea why he and Hades are so big—are they two different subspecies?

Hades, who knew nothing about biology, chuckled and said, "They eat a lot, so they grow big!"

Mortarian tacitly accepted that this was nonsense.

According to his summary, two-thirds of Hades's daily speech was nonsense, while one-third was very useful.

He always said strange things, like, "Motalian, you wait, decades from now, a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and generals will come from the sky and make you king! You will be draped in green robes! And your descendants will be numerous!"

What?! "Old Huang! Cold-blooded capitalist! Why are you making me work overtime again?!"

“Motalian! I want a Coke—you're definitely better than that idiot Tarasin, right? Can you even make Coke? I'm telling you, the ingredients are syrup and carbon dioxide—where am I supposed to get syrup from?! Everything on Barbarossa is bitter! Nurgle! Holy crap!!!”

This doesn't sound like something a rational being would say.

Sometimes, a kind of melancholy would inexplicably creep over Mortalian.

He knew that powerful psionicists were often insane, a consequence of their sanity being corrupted by the warp. Could Hades be in the same situation?

This symptom is very similar to Nacre's... No... He doesn't want Hades to become like Nacre.

However, Mortarian did not observe any other symptoms that would typically appear in Hades, so Mortarian began to suspect that it was pathological, but Barbalus only had two branches of medicine: treating external injuries and detoxification.

He needs to develop medicine in Barbarossa as soon as possible.

It was also for... Mortarian looked around at the villagers who, like him, were completely shocked by the figure in the distance, and also to delay their deaths.

He was not opposed to Hades's proposal to build Barbaros.

After descending the mountain that day, Hades exchanged some grain with a nearby village. In the evening, he randomly found a wasteland near a village, lit a fire, and told Hades about the next steps.

That doesn't look like a madman at all...

Mortarian sighed silently once more.

Behind the flickering campfire, Hades casually picked up a dry branch and began to seriously analyze and discuss the next steps of the plan with Mortarian—Motarian found it somewhat amusing that Hades was consulting with him.

The strong can decide everything themselves.

However, he didn't say those words out loud.

“First of all,” Hades said earnestly, and Mortarian had never seen Hades so serious since then.

“We need to go to the heartland—the soil is most fertile there,” he said, drawing a map on the ground and circling it.

"Previously, this place was not well utilized due to the presence of various carnivorous animals, but now it can be. Let's hurry up and plant white corn. The first crop of corn is ripe now, and it will be just the right time to plant the second crop."

Hades said gravely.

"We must harvest the first batch of food before we have completely devoured Nacre's army."

Mortarian's right eyelid twitched suddenly.

What should we eat?

Hades looked at him with a pained expression. "The Nacre army, aren't they all just meat?"

【poisonous.】

"Will you be poisoned?" [No.]

【…】

Mortarian remained silent for a long time, then spoke again amidst the crackling of the campfire.

We can trade Nacre's weapons for food with the villagers.

Hades gave a wry smile and waved his hand.

"The food people grow is barely enough to sustain themselves. If we change their food, what will they eat?"

This is the hellish difficulty level of playing Hades. Other overpowered protagonist stories involve killing the dragon and enjoying life, but Hades kills the dragon and then rushes to farm.

This planet is so barren! So poor that it has nothing at all!

Hades and Mortarion might be able to seize the remaining food after killing the alien lord, but Hades doesn't intend to do that... let civilization develop on its own first.