Panacea was something invented during Humanity's black-tech era.
A gene-pharmaceutical that could cure any disease.
Once injected, a person became almost completely immune to poisons and toxins. They would no longer fall ill, and could not be infected by any virus.
At the same time, they would be granted astonishing regenerative ability.
It was precisely because he had injected that drug that Kain possessed a physique strong enough to rival even the rank-and-file troopers.
Still, it was not the kind of strength that let him swagger around and do whatever he pleased. In a world like this, you could not afford to be reckless. The lower-profile, the better.
As for just how strong he was, Kain estimated that, at most, he was roughly at the level of an ordinary Adeptus Astartes Space Marine.
The so-called Adeptus Astartes were superhuman bio-warriors created through the implantation of gene-seed and more than a dozen surgical augmentations.
After the transformation, each of them stood, on average, well over two meters tall—towering brutes.
Once they donned power armour that weighed close to a tonne, they became walking tanks.
The process itself carried risk, and it was not something just anyone could undergo.
First of all, only males could be chosen to become Space Marines. The reason was simple: the gene-seed derived from Primarch stock that was male, and required the Y chromosome to function properly.
After that, as a normal human, you would need to endure years of harsh selection, proving you were exceptional—an elite among elites.
Even then, being approved for implantation did not mean you were "done" quickly.
You still had to survive a long, grim sequence of more than a dozen augmentation surgeries.
During that period, you would undergo endless recruit training, carry out missions, and be subjected to all manner of psychological conditioning to ensure your mind was "properly adjusted" (brainwashed) to guarantee loyalty.
Once the entire procedure was completed, you became a Space Marine—an engine of slaughter, desiring nothing except to fight in the Emperor's name.
So how formidable was a Space Marine, exactly?
An ordinary Space Marine could perform the battlefield role of at least a hundred "grunts."
And those "grunts" were the Astra Militarum—more commonly called the Imperial Guard.
Their numbers were so vast that even the Imperium itself could not truly calculate them, because the daily lists of new recruits and casualties could each run into the millions.
Among civilians, the more exaggerated estimates claimed there were tens of trillions of Guardsmen defending the Imperium's million worlds.
And what was the fighting strength of a single Guardsman like?
In Kain's mind, one "grunt" was roughly as capable as the protagonist of an old film he had seen—someone named Rambo.
Then Kain judged that a mere one hundred Space Marine recruits in power armour, so long as they were not hit with nuclear weapons, could reduce a twenty-first-century modern military to total chaos.
After all, a Space Marine could sustain centuries of high-intensity guerrilla warfare. They could survive on toxic food, and endure irradiated environments with almost no air.
Even if they lost their supply lines, they could decode local organisms—or even the enemy's genetic information—to find a way to stay alive.
In short, a Space Marine could live and fight in brutally harsh conditions.
Then would a Space Marine's lifespan be longer than that of an ordinary human?
Of course. If they died too quickly, the investment would be pointless.
But there was no precise, definitive number for how long an Astartes could live, because almost none of them died of old age. They died in war.
The longest-lived one, it was said, had already endured more than ten thousand years.
Though that was a special case: their body had been interred within a life-support chassis called a Dreadnought.
That kind of war machine looked like a robot, but inside it was an Astartes pilot whose body was too shattered to continue fighting unaided. The two were linked tightly through neural interfaces, allowing the Space Marine to return to the battlefield.
Overall, however, a Panacea-enhanced body would be even better than a Space Marine's in terms of resistance to toxins and viruses, and in terms of regeneration after injury.
Of course, having a physique comparable to a Space Marine did not mean he was as strong as one.
His combat experience, techniques, and instincts could not compare at all. He was not someone who spent his life rushing from battlefield to battlefield, trading blows with the galaxy's worst monsters and horrors.
He was just an archaeologist... an archaeologist who specialized in stealing STCs.
"Haa…"
He let out a long breath, relaxing slightly.
In the next instant, Kain's body stiffened, and then—very naturally—he began putting his power armour back on.
Throughout that process, he maintained absolute focus.
He had felt a gaze from within the forest.
Was it mechanical surveillance?
With a hard click, he sealed the helmet in place, flexed, and confirmed the armour's function.
Then, in the same heartbeat, he snapped around one hundred and eighty degrees and charged into the forest like a rampaging beast.
Aside from having to sidestep a few thicker trunks, he simply smashed through everything else, forcing his way forward.
Only after he had sprinted nearly a hundred meters did the internal display finally catch the target.
The image was still unclear, but it looked humanoid—moving with remarkable agility through the trees.
Was the target human?
Hard to say. It might be a humanoid machine.
He tried thermal imaging.
That function was broken.
Then the only option was to catch up and confirm with his own eyes.
As the distance closed, the helmet's display sharpened.
The target had long white hair, wore what looked like torn, battered leather clothing, and was female.
Thunk. Thunk.
He casually fired two grenades, without even needing to aim—because the helmet's optics were synced to the weapon's sighting, letting him effortlessly place shots where he intended.
He did not shoot at her.
He shot at two towering trees ahead of her, one to either side of her path.
With a pair of booming blasts, the giant trunks crashed down in a crossing collapse, forming a massive barrier that would restrict her escape route.
At his current speed, he would catch her in three seconds.
However—
"Huh?"
He stepped into a snare hidden beneath leaves.
It yanked hard. It did not hoist him up, but it did trip him and wrench his balance.
And the snare was not ordinary rope.
It was steel cable.
By the time he tore it away, the target was gone.
"What are you? Do you understand your situation right now?"
A woman's voice spoke suddenly.
It was right beside him—no more than a meter away.
But there was no one there.
Then he saw it: a device like a walkie-talkie mounted on the tree trunk beside him.
She was speaking through that.
"Answer properly. Otherwise, I will treat you as a threat and send you back to your original world."
That last line was interesting.
So it was not the one on the "Golden Toilet" end who had brought him here?
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]