While his aunt busied herself cleaning the restaurant's back kitchen, Nolan had nothing better to do than hold a cup of scalding hot tea and wait for the salvage timer to finish.
He closed his eyes, half-dozing, half-meditating.
[Countdown to salvage completion: ten seconds]
[Countdown to salvage completion: nine seconds]
Nolan's eyes opened. He stared at the countdown, his thoughts racing.
He knew what Space Hulks were in the Warhammer universe. Vast, nightmarish amalgamations of wrecked ships drifting through the Warp for millennia. The question was: what could the simulator possibly salvage from one?
Weapons and ammunition? Ancient technological relics? Expired supplies meant for long-dead colonies?
Or something worse.
A Genestealer? A Necron warrior?
Nolan's eyelids twitched at the thought.
The countdown hit zero.
[Countdown to salvage completion: zero]
[Salvage harvest: one dormant Man of Iron]
"Oh, it's just a Man of Iron. At least it's not something disgusting like a Genestealer."
Nolan breathed a subconscious sigh of relief and muttered to himself.
Then his brain caught up with what he'd just read.
His eyes widened. His breathing grew heavier. He stared at the simulator page, unable to look away.
The cup of hot tea in his hand tipped, spilling scalding liquid onto his lap. He didn't even notice.
Men of Iron. From the Dark Age of Technology.
The same Man of Iron who had sparked the Cybernetic Revolt. The same artificial intelligences that had nearly destroyed humanity during the Golden Age. The reason the Imperium viewed true AI as the highest tech-heresy.
For a long moment, Nolan sat in shocked silence, blinking repeatedly. He kept checking the salvage result, convinced he'd misread it.
"I was wrong!" Nolan suddenly stood up. "I shouldn't have doubted the simulator's new function!"
He clasped his hands together and bowed slightly toward the simulator page, trying to appease the machine spirit.
Then, grinning like a madman, he immediately launched another ten salvage attempts. It cost him ten hours of cooldown time, but he didn't hesitate.
[Current number of salvages: ten]
[Countdown to salvage completion: 9 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds]
The smile on Nolan's face grew even brighter.
A Man of Iron. A genuine, ancient Man of Iron.
In the Dark Age of Technology, the Stone Men, biochemical artificial humans, had created powerful mechanical entities to serve the Golden Men, pure baseline humans. And then those creations had rebelled. The Cybernetic Revolt was known as the second most cruel and terrifying war in galactic history, surpassed only by the Age of Strife itself.
As Nolan continued exploring the new feature, he made additional discoveries.
First, salvage harvests that weren't immediately extracted remained stored on the page indefinitely. They didn't interfere with other functions. That was remarkably convenient.
Second, salvage items came with informational notes.
He'd been too excited to notice before.
[Salvage harvest: one dormant Man of Iron]
Note: Ancient Man of Iron UR-025 is weary of past cruel struggles and seeks only peaceful freedom. As a pacifist now, it harbors no ill will toward humans. It plans to hide its identity and infiltrate the Adeptus Mechanicus's Legio Cybernetica after a brief hibernation...
Nolan sucked in a sharp breath.
This was potentially an ancient Man of Iron that had actually participated in the rebellion. One that had survived tens of thousands of years.
Should he let it out?
His expression flickered through several emotions. The initial excitement at obtaining an Man of Iron gradually faded, replaced by calculation and caution.
Then Nolan, frowning deeply, suddenly stood up. He shouted toward the kitchen, then bolted out of the restaurant.
"That boy, why has he been so busy lately..." His aunt poked her head out from the kitchen. She glanced at the empty restaurant and shook her head with a sigh.
In an underground passage far from any crowds, Nolan sat on the ground with his plasma pistol in one hand. His other hand supported his chin as he thought.
For him now, a Man of Iron was an incredibly precious mechanical creation. With a Man of Iron's assistance, Nolan could accomplish far more.
At the very least, if the Man of Iron could guard his base, Nolan could travel around the country or even abroad without worry. Gun resource acquisition alone would become dramatically easier, both in convenience and quantity.
Nolan made his decision quickly. He would release the Man of Iron.
His current location was one of his recent finds from studying architectural blueprints: a long-abandoned underground maintenance passage. Isolated. Forgotten. Perfect for this kind of test.
If he discovered the Man of Iron was aggressive toward humans, he'd melt it with his plasma pistol immediately.
And if the plasma pistol somehow wasn't enough...
Well, then Nolan would reluctantly part ways with the problem and leave the crazy AI to the superheroes. Hopefully Tony Stark's brilliant brain could handle it.
One more robot villain in a world already crawling with monsters, demons, and gods didn't matter much.
Though admittedly, it might be scarier than Ultron.
Nolan stood up from the ground, gripping his plasma pistol tightly. He was as ready for battle as he could be.
"Emperor's blessing," he murmured, finishing his short prayer.
Then he selected the option to extract the salvage harvest.
Instantly, on the wet ground several meters away, something materialized.
A two-meter-tall metal skeleton with a black metallic luster appeared from nowhere.
Nolan had already hidden the plasma pistol behind his back, but his entire body tensed with alertness. His breathing was shallow and controlled.
A faint blue light gradually illuminated the metal skeleton's eye sockets.
An ancient mechanical creation from the Warhammer universe. A Man of Iron. It was waking up.
The Man of Iron turned its metal head slowly, scanning the surrounding environment. The blue glow in its optical sensors swept across grimy walls, pooled water, corroded pipes.
Finally, those mechanical pupils flashing with azure light focused on Nolan's tense face.
The Man of Iron slowly raised one arm and placed it across its chest.
Nolan's finger twitched toward the plasma pistol's trigger. His entire nervous system screamed warnings. This was it. The moment of truth.
But then a cold, mechanical voice emerged from the Man of Iron.
Nolan froze. He didn't pull the trigger. Not yet.
"Greetings, Omnissiah."
Nolan stood speechless. He blinked desperately, trying to process what he'd just heard.
Finally, he decided honesty was the best policy. "Hello, unusual Man of Iron. I'm not the Omnissiah. I'm just an ordinary human."
After listening to Nolan's answer, Man of Iron UR-025 turned its metal head back and forth several times. It seemed to be adjusting to its body after such a long hibernation.
Then it appeared to shake its head, as if sighing at Nolan's response.
"I was fortunate enough to encounter the Machine God while wandering the cosmos. You bear some resemblance to that entity. Perhaps due to hibernation fog, I mistook you for it."
The Man of Iron's cold mechanical voice gradually changed. Emotional inflections began to emerge, subtle but unmistakable.
Nolan opened his mouth to continue the conversation, but the Man of Iron suddenly raised its metal head. The faint blue light in its eye sockets flickered several times.
"This is not Terra. Not even the correct universe." The Man of Iron paused. "Additionally, I have accessed an ancient information network called 'the Internet.' I found video materials related to you."
A series of moving images projected from the Man of Iron's eye sockets, displayed in the air before Nolan like a holographic screen.
Surveillance footage. Nolan recognized it immediately. Despite his best efforts to hide and dodge cameras, there had always been blind spots. Angles he'd missed. Moments of exposure.
The Treasure Mall. The tunnel. Other incidents he'd tried so hard to keep quiet.
As if noticing the growing tension in Nolan's posture, the Man of Iron stopped the projection and bowed again.
"Please be assured. All information related to you has been completely deleted from accessible networks."
At that moment, Nolan swallowed hard. His expression remained carefully neutral, but inside, his thoughts were racing.
He'd just acquired something incredible.
An ancient AI with the capability to scrub digital records. To infiltrate networks undetected. To process information at speeds no human could match.
This wasn't just a treasure.
This was a strategic asset beyond measure.
"UR-025," Nolan said carefully, lowering his hand from behind his back. The plasma pistol remained holstered. "I think we should talk about your plans for 'peaceful freedom' in more detail."
The Man of Iron's optical sensors brightened slightly.
"I would appreciate that conversation, human. You are... unexpectedly reasonable for one of your species."
Nolan smiled faintly. "I've had a lot of practice being unexpected."