Some people are born extraordinary! The Transmigrator thought so.
His innate rationality allowed him to grasp the situation within 13 seconds of waking, understanding and accepting the reality of his transmigration—or, strictly speaking, his rebirth!
Only 47 seconds until birth!
Yes, he possessed such intellect even before birth! He could simultaneously calculate the time and feel the powerful strength within this unborn body, a strength unlike that of a normal human infant! The vague yet constantly swirling inherited knowledge in his mind, though not yet received or sorted, already felt incredibly sacred! Incredibly vast!
13 seconds left! In this life, he would surely lead humanity to its peak! He would have no regrets even if he died a hundred times! He would bring destruction to the enemies of the Imperium of Man!
9 seconds left! Knowledge is so wondrous! So sacred! In this life, he must acquire more knowledge! He must witness more changes in the world!
8 seconds left! Power! Justice requires power! Both thoughts and actions require power! Power is the foundation of everything! Ignoring the inherent strength of this body is the greatest mistake!
7 seconds left! Immortality! Time is the greatest enemy! Longevity and health are what should be pursued!
6 seconds left! Since he transmigrated, not having a harem would be a waste! Give me one woman, and I can create a family! Give me a group of women, and I can create a nation! Give me a group of Xenos, and I can create a species!
5 seconds left! Haha, calm down, don't overthink the current situation, there will be plenty of time to ponder later. Adjust your mindset, he's about to be born from the cultivation pod...
4 seconds left! Cultivation pod? Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
3 seconds left! Imperium of Man? Ah! Xenos? Ah!
2 seconds left! Wait! Time stop! STOP! Σ(っ°Д°;)っ Hold on! Time stop!
1 second left! What the hell are you counting for?! What else can you do besides count down?! Stop! Time stop! Don't you understand?! Don't force me to beat you up the first thing I do after birth! Bro, just stop, and I'll kneel and talk to you!
Facts proved that when a person's brain is working well enough, he can even fight himself and beg for mercy on his knees.
With a 'plop~' sound, the Transmigrator was ejected from the cultivation pod. After opening his eyes and adjusting to the light, he saw several red-robed half-robots kowtowing to an operating console, muttering: '01101101…'
Fortunately, he understood. Unfortunately, he understood.
"Praise the omnissiah!"
"Wah…" The Transmigrator let out his first cry as a newborn.
Years later, during a joint secret investigation by multiple Inquisitors from the Inquisition and the Alien Tribunal into a certain Mechanical Sage (Tech-Priest) suspected of heresy on Tyeedan Forge World, the earliest records concerning this Sage were obtained, as follows:
Production Record: 139876th Batch Cultivated Humans (Shortened Cultivation Time Experimental Batch)
Product Physiological Age: 6 (Normal Cultivation: 18)
Purpose: Candidate Priest; Advanced Wetware;
Quantity: 10000
Product Requirements: Knowledge Implantation (Completed); Genetic Testing (Completed); Personality Cognition Shaping (Completed);
Pass Rate: 13% (Far lower than normal, this type of production experiment will no longer be conducted in the future)
Anomaly Record: Product Code 139876-9527 - Omega, his crying at birth resembled some kind of low-grade green-skinned Xenos. A second genetic test was performed, revealing no mutation, conforming to the predetermined product requirements.
This record has been permanently archived in the Inquisition's archives.
The Transmigrator, no, Grandfather 139876-9527 - Omega, did not yet know that his dark history would, years later, be written in ink made from the ashes of the loyal, on parchment adorned with purity seals, and permanently preserved by the Imperium.
Right now, he only wanted to be chosen quickly, to leave the magnificent and sacred Great Forge Temple of Tyeedan. He felt that staying even a second longer would kill him under the omnissiah's blessing (radiation).
This was no longer a matter of health risk; through the fine, radiating curls in the mist produced by the evaporation of coolant in the Forge Temple, the radiation was already visible to the naked eye!
Omega had no choice now; he could only be selected, to be taken back by the Mechanical Sages in the Mechanical Temples located in the various factory districts under the vast branches extending from the Great Forge Factories across the entire planet.
To better pursue the knowledge of the Omnissiah, and to better serve the Omnissiah, every Mechanical Temple was required to cultivate and discover more humans who believed in the Omnissiah to become more excellent Gears (Tech-Priests) of the Omnissiah. The Omnissiah would not refuse any pure human who believed in Him and pursued knowledge.
You say that the omnissiah's blessing is too high in the factory managed by your Forge Temple, causing workers' lifespans to not exceed 30 years, and naturally born children either die prematurely or have obvious mutations, with no one capable of becoming an apprentice.
You say that because the Sage developed… *cough*! Improved!… Repaired! Oh, you scared me, young man, watch your words! Repaired the incomplete STC template, and now there are no workers on the factory production line, only Servitors, so no one can become an apprentice. No worries, I have people. Wait, why are you leaving? After so many years, don't you know what kind of person I am?! Hey, hey! Don't go!
You say that half the workers died suddenly and half rebelled (uprising) because they drank wastewater blessed by the omnissiah, and they have already been suppressed by the Adeptus Ministorum. Now the factory is still under repair, so there are no apprentices. These damned heretics!
You say that after checking everyone in the district, not a single one has an acceptable IQ!
The above examples are not exhaustive. For various reasons, the Mechanical Temples that failed to cultivate Tech-Priests capable of maintaining normal factory production were thoughtfully provided by the Forge World with simple and easy-to-use artificial beasts of burden: Bio-Cultivated Humans.
What else could be expected when the land and water of a Forge World are not conducive to human life!
Conceived and improved with the genetic material of the most excellent Mechanical Sages throughout history, these beings grow rapidly in cultivation pods, reaching adulthood in just a few years from birth. While developing in the pods, they are simultaneously imbued with all the knowledge required to become Tech-Priests. Upon exiting the pod, they are qualified mechanical beasts of burden, *cough*, Tech-Priests, ready to be deployed after simple training, becoming excellent Gears of the omnissiah.
As mentioned earlier, "adult upon exiting the pod," Omega's batch was clearly not normal production, and the reason is simple.
Several years ago, Great Sage Will, the Overseer Great Sage of the Great Forge Temple on Tyeedan Forge World, looked at the orders on his desk: orders from the Departmento Munitorum; orders from various Planetary Governors; orders from large and small Rogue Trader Dynasties; orders from various Astartes Chapters; orders from… and so on, all the large and small orders from the Imperium.
Then, looking at the continually expanding production capacity chart, even with this expansion, orders were already backlogged for another 160 years.
Praise the omnissiah! Glory to the omnissiah!
The remaining flesh of Great Sage Will still allowed him to feel a genuine sense of pleasure, while data displayed on another report made him sigh, "Flesh is weak!"
This month alone, 130 Fabricator-Adepts (low-ranking Tech-Priests) either plunged into the melting furnaces due to fatigue, turning into a wisp of smoke; or fell from Titan trains due to distraction, being crushed into a pile of debris; or died while blessing products in the Forge Temple, found having collapsed before the omnissiah's sacred creations;
Nervous breakdowns; ruined spines; attempts to assassinate the Great Sage, and so on, were too numerous to count.
At the same time, the proportion of pure flesh contract-slaves voluntarily applying to become mindless Servitors increased by twenty percent compared to last month! Damn you, do you not know that some tasks cannot be completed by Servitors?! Can becoming a Servitor repay the tithes you owe the Emperor?! This is betrayal! This is blasphemy! This is heresy! Rejected! All rejected!
Two more districts experienced riots! This made Great Sage Will recall the cunning slave-workers who, before being discovered, had always been diligent and exceeded production targets. You are pure and noble humans! How can you lose to the detestable Xenos cunning ones!
He silently repented to the omnissiah for the sin of missing the detestable Xenos, while his brain, composed of organic and inorganic matter, began to ponder the current problems.
The solution to the contradiction was actually quite simple: nothing more than increasing supply and reducing demand.
"Reducing demand" means cutting production, which is impossible!
"Increasing supply" means increasing personnel. Contract-slaves are easy to solve; the Imperium never lacks planets that cannot pay their tithes. The problem lies in the number of Tech-Priests serving as linchpins. Outsiders cannot be trusted; it's better to cultivate them locally on Tyeedan Forge World.
However, by statistically analyzing the number of Priests cultivated by each Mechanical Temple under each macro-branch over the years, the capacity of artificial cultivation pods, and the proportion of Tech-Priests who go to meet the omnissiah each year, it can be foreseen that the shortage of Tech-Priests will grow year by year.
While some production capacity can still be squeezed out, a decision must be made now. The conditions for selecting Priests cannot be relaxed, otherwise it would be a blasphemy against the omnissiah.
However, the number of apprentices can be increased by collaborating with industrial worlds, knight worlds, and friendly planetary nobles of Teyedan, solving the problem of student sources while also building significant goodwill, killing two birds with one stone.
Why don't the people of the Forge World reproduce? The Great Sage was at a loss, as the number of normal infants naturally born locally was far below the Imperium of Man's average!
The artificial cultivation chambers need to be increased, but just building and blessing them would take decades, requiring time and occupying a lot of manpower, which would make the already strained workforce even tighter.
It's not entirely impossible to make everyone suffer a bit; after all, long pain is worse than short pain. But just thinking about a few factory inspections where a few small Priests actually backstabbed their own Overseer Great Sage!
The reason, when investigated, was that they felt it was better to die quickly than to be worked to death. These young people nowadays are truly too impolite! Their ideas are utterly ridiculous!
Which Overseer Great Sage didn't fight their way through a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood?! Sage me! I've fought guerrilla warfare with aliens, bayonet-charged Chaos, snatched food from Tyranid, and even suppressed the Imperium of Man… I can't say that. You pick up a flashlight on the production line and dare to shoot Great Sage me!
After much hesitation, Great Sage Will still abandoned the plan to increase artificial cultivation chambers. After all, constantly keeping the shield active wasn't practical. Although the relic shield generator he possessed was stable and powerful, it still required regular appeasement of its machine spirit.
Abandoning doesn't mean not trying, so Great Sage Will decided to shorten the planned cultivation time for the 139876th batch of cultivated individuals, who had just been nurtured, by two-thirds to see the effect.
On a side note, to demonstrate Great Sage Will's benevolence, and adhering to the principle of not wasting valuable manpower, the Sage decided to weld those Gear Kids who backstabbed him to the production line without excising their brain lobes, sentencing them to a hundred years of servitude.
Apparently, the Priests were not satisfied with this batch of Omega products. They had expected to receive qualified workhorses that could be used immediately, but instead found them to be defective, unusable, and still requiring care. This naturally caused an uproar.
In the end, Great Sage Will appeared with his force shield activated and settled the matter with the words, "Aside from their small bodies, they have everything they should. Take them back; they're just as useful."
Thus, 139876-9527 - Omega was led out of the Great Forge Temple by Sage Lauster. At the same time, the Half-Tech-Priest Omega was deeply worried about his future, because from the moment he stepped out of the Forge Temple, Priest Lauster, who was hurrying ahead, kept muttering, "I'll kill that old bastard Will sooner or later!"
However, a year later, he no longer worried, because the phrase he muttered and heard was also: "I'll kill that old bastard Will sooner or later!"
Of course, these are all future matters. Currently, Omega has no other thoughts to dwell on; he is already being tormented to death by the Tech-Priest's three-piece set and the Forge World's survival three-piece set that were issued to him.
Tech-Priest's Three-Piece Set:
Mars Red Robe (had to be tied around his waist due to his height).
Back-mounted multi-functional mechanical arm (connected to artificial neural nodes in the spine, capable of micron-level operations, pure metal modular design, self-upgradable in multiple ways, self-weight 15kg).
Mechanical Great Axe — Axe of the omnissiah (pure metal material with multiple upgrade paths, embodiment of the omnissiah's authority, symbol of a Tech-Priest's identity, self-weight 9kg).
Forge World Survival Three-Piece Set:
Retractable full-enclosed chemical protective suit (partially metal material, self-weight 3kg, the land blessed by the omnissiah is not for just any human to tread upon).
Air purification and filtration integrated machine (includes mask, air conduit, self-contained power supply air purification filter, self-weight 5kg, the air blessed by the omnissiah is not for just any human to breathe!).
Geiger counter (the sacred blessing of the omnissiah is not for just any human to touch!).
Omega, carrying 1.5 times his own body weight and forced-marching for 1 kilometer, finally couldn't hold on and had to call out:
"Sage, Sage Lauster!"
"Hmm? 139876-9527 - Omega, what is it?"
Priest Lauster, walking ahead, frowned and turned his head to ask.
Although he didn't want to provoke his Sage and future direct superior at this moment, even Omega's genetically modified body felt utterly exhausted.
"Sage, I can't walk anymore. Based on my calculations, if I continue like this, I will faint from exhaustion after about another kilometer."
Omega, using all the emotional intelligence from his previous life and the rationality of this life, looked at Priest Lauster with innocent, wide eyes and a boyish face, saying.
He had been thinking about this sentence since he walked out of the magnificent gate of the Forge Temple. Considering the Sage's attitude towards their batch inside the Forge Temple, to salvage the impression of being useless in the Sage's eyes, he had to demonstrate the "rationality and cold, accurate calculation" advocated by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Combined with observations of Sage Lauster's external appearance, Sage Lauster showed obvious mechanical modifications only on his arms and lower legs, with no signs of modification on other parts of his body. The parts of his body exposed outside the Priest's red robe—his forehead with hair, face, and neck—were indistinguishable from a normal person. From this, Omega inferred that Sage Lauster belonged to the faction within the Adeptus Mechanicus that revered the human body.
The characteristic of the Human Body Sacred faction is that being human, one should act human. Even body modifications prioritize simulation, with performance not being the primary option. Therefore, Sage Lauster was one of the few who looked human among the many monstrous figures in the Forge Temple at that time, and his humanity should also be the richest.
"Oh…"
Sage Lauster was clearly taken aback when he heard Omega's words, assessing the boyish-looking Omega with an inscrutable expression.
Feeling a little unnerved by the gaze, Omega had to bite the bullet and continue:
"Yes, Sage, I do not know how much further it is to your Mechanical Temple, but if I were to collapse, it would undoubtedly cause you unnecessary trouble."
"Hmm, indeed. But according to my observation and calculation, you still retain at least two-thirds of your physical strength. Am I wrong then?! Or are you lying?!"
Oh no! What to do when your direct superior is deliberately looking for trouble!
"Haha, of course the Sage isn't wrong. It must be my miscalculation, after all… after all…"
Omega hurriedly and flusteredly explained, while attempting to project the honesty in his eyes through the transparent visor into Sage Lauster's heart, hoping the other party would let him off the hook.
But Sage Lauster clearly had no such intention.
"After all what?"
"…"
"Are you trying to think of an excuse?! You just met your Sage, and after 13 minutes and 13 seconds, you're already lying and trying to deceive me!"
"No! I'm not! Sage, you've misunderstood. The calculation error is my fault, but I am, after all… after all, still a child!"
How embarrassing! How can an adult say such a thing?! Wait! I'm only six years old in this life, no problem!
"Hiss…"
One tall, one short; one big, one small. The two looked into each other's eyes. After a moment of silence, Sage Lauster's multi-threaded processing brain still couldn't find an excuse to continue teasing his new apprentice.
So he had no choice but to unfasten his cloak and the robe underneath. Then, to Omega's aghast expression, he clanked and clattered as his body below the chest transformed into half a motorcycle—a Half-Human Motorcycle!
"Get on."
"…"
Is it still too late to run back to the Forge Temple and ask for a different Sage?! After realizing I had transmigrated to a warhammer Forge World, I thought I'd encounter eccentric Tech-Priests, religious fanatics, mindless servitors, soulless automatons, and even sneaky Gretchin! But I never, ever thought I'd encounter a lunatic!
Oh Emperor! Oh Omnissiah! Oh Omnissiah! Oh Source Power! Please descend and take away this demon!
What kind of Tech-Priest transforms himself into a motorcycle?!
"Hurry up and get on! What are you thinking? Don't be shy, you're not the first to ride upon this body, which is condensed from the omnissiah's sacred wisdom."
Sage Lauster looked at his shocked young apprentice with considerable pride, twisted around, and patted the back seat, urging the apprentice to get on quickly. It had been a while since he had felt "speed and passion," and it was all that damned Great Sage Will's fault!
Oh! What blasphemy! He even added a back seat! Exterminate the heretics! Exterminate the heretics!
"Understood, Sage."