Having confirmed it, Datch decided to put the Pantheon back into his game inventory.
In an instant, the magnificent Pantheon shrank in his palm into an exquisitely crafted miniature sculpture.
As the little stars circling the dome shrank, they left behind extremely thin, faint trails of seven-colored light.
In the end, the whole temple became a warm golden point of light and was stored in his inventory.
The decision of which gods to grant amnesty had to be considered carefully.
An item this important was bound to affect the match's final flow and final score.
Each god's seat in the Pantheon corresponded to a separate authority in the Warp.
If the wrong person took a god's post, the final score might drop, or a hidden bad ending might trigger.
He needed to discuss with the Emperor and the Primarchs who ought to be granted amnesty.
Only those who had given everything for humanity and had the necessary ability could receive a god's post.
But before that, he would log out, look for a strategy guide on the forum, and check what to do next.
After all, once the Pantheon was sealed and the Tyranids were cleaned up, it would be time to think about wrapping up and ending the game.
With that in mind, Datch raised a hand and lightly swiped the air, opening the game settings screen.
A semi-transparent rectangular panel slid in from the edge of his vision and floated before his eyes.
System settings, character status, inventory/warehouse, quest log, map navigation…
More than a dozen icons were neatly arranged on the left side of the interface.
Datch scrolled down, looking for the "Exit Game" option at the very bottom.
But even when he scrolled all the way down, there was nothing there.
"Huh… where's the exit button?"
Datch blinked and carefully checked every corner of the settings screen again.
Normally, a red emergency-exit icon was displayed at the very bottom of the screen.
It couldn't be missing, could it?
After a moment's thought, Datch opened the customer-service screen to ask where the exit button was.
A light-blue customer-service chat window popped up in the center of the settings screen.
At a glance, a polite but formulaic AI prompt greeted him.
Dear player, is there anything I can help you with?
[Stuck on terrain and unable to move, in-game currency problems, interrupted quest chains, etc. Please describe your problem in detail.]
"Where's the exit button?" Datch asked.
The AI responded instantly, clearly with a canned answer.
[Dear player]Open System Settings and scroll to the very bottom, where the "Exit Game" option is displayed. Click this link to go directly to the exit page.
When Datch clicked the link, the system settings screen opened automatically.
The gear icon in the center of the screen was still slowly turning.
Even scrolling to the very bottom showed nothing. There was no exit option.
"…"
This garbage AI customer service feels like it's mocking me.
Datch took a deep breath and opened the customer-service interface again.
"I need a human agent."
[Please wait a moment. Live chat is currently busy. For questions about quests, bug reports, and similar issues, we can help you directly in this chat.]
The AI's response was swift and polite, every word carrying the gentleness and patience polished by endless training.
"Human agent, human agent, human agent. I need a human agent, do you understand? Human agent…"
[Please wait a moment. Live chat is currently busy. For questions about quests, bug reports, and similar issues, we can help you directly in this chat.]
The reply was word-for-word the same, in the same calm tone.
"Damn it! @#!¥@#%¥@#¥%… I said I want a human agent!"
This time the AI's response changed.
Please keep your language polite.
Datch stared at that line for a long time, deflated. He let out a heavy sigh and decided not to waste any more time on this stupid customer-service bot.
Talking to it got him nowhere. If anything, it just made his lips twitch with anger.
Damn it, this idiot bot is deliberately giving me a hard time!
Where is the exit button?
Damn it, am I getting drafted into Warhammer?
Datch recalled the clichés of the novels and anime he had read. When the protagonist entered a game and couldn't get out, he got sent to another world.
Whoa.
The Warhammer universe is hell. Anyone who wants to go can go!
What if the terms of service said I had to go to the Warhammer world and swear loyalty to the Emperor? Is this some kind of joke?
Eh, seriously?
Someone small-fry like me would end up as a snack the moment I got there!
Picturing the infamous reputations of those four big players, Datch's legs trembled.
But he quickly pulled himself together and realized he was overthinking it.
"No exit button. Then I'll open the console and see if I can force-quit."
Datch closed the customer-service interface and followed the security backdoor procedure common in other virtual-reality games.
He tapped repeatedly, in rhythm, on the almost invisible gray text "Security Protocol Version Number" at the bottom of the system settings screen.
After several taps, the border of the system settings screen changed from pale gold to the faint deep blue of engineering mode.
A prompt appeared.
Workbench unlocked.
Scrolling to the very bottom of the screen revealed a row of hidden icons.
[Workbench]
The workbench, also called universal creative mode, was normally used by game designers as a backdoor for making adjustments to the game.
When he selected Continue, a security warning appeared.
[The workbench contains low-level code. Please proceed with extreme caution.]
Datch ignored the warning and followed the safe procedure he knew from other games.
In the lower-left corner of the workbench interface, he found a force-quit button, partly hidden under a gray semi-transparent overlay.
He reached out his index finger and pressed it hard.
[Exiting program and disconnecting player. Please wait…]
The light-blue progress bar in the center of the screen slowly crept to the right one notch at a time.
Datch held his breath, a smile spreading across his face.
He stared intently as the progress bar climbed from 0% to 99%.
Then it stopped.
The instant it stopped, the whole interface flashed violently.
[The program encountered an error and could not complete normally. Please contact customer service. Click here to visit the Customer Service Center.]
Datch stared at the text for a long time, then, in an extremely calm tone, couldn't help greeting the entire design team, word by word, along with their families, their pets, and their pets' families.
Terrible review. Truly terrible.
This garbage game even hides the exit button.
When he got back, he would definitely post a ten-thousand-word one-star review on the forum.
His complaints would range from the UI design and the customer-service AI to the missing exit button and the bloated main story.
He wanted to lie down in front of the game company's office and loudly denounce the damage they had done him.
After several failed attempts, Datch's irritation was building badly.
Where's this garbage game's exit button?
Suddenly an idea floated into his head.
"Do I need to submit my game result before I can exit?"
Datch thought that was impossible. He had browsed the forum before and never heard of such a setting.
A few players had complained that pausing and resuming mid-game broke the emotional flow and spoiled immersion, so most people seemed to finish the whole main story in one go.
Forget it, it's probably a bug. Programs having bugs is perfectly normal.
Don't aim for a perfect ending on the first playthrough. Save that for the second.
With that, he took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to tear apart the whole settings interface at the system's lowest level.
He forced himself to calm down and did his best to focus on the match itself.
Since I can't exit right now, I'll focus on clearing this playthrough's ending first, then submit the result.
And I'll look for an exit option on the ending screen.
Datch turned his attention back to the Pantheon and the post-war situation in the Warp.
The four Chaos Gods had been completely destroyed.
Among the Imperium of Man's enemies, the only ones who still held real power were the Tyranids.
The Tyranids were xenos whose gigantic fleets kept advancing from the abyss of the void beyond the Milky Way toward the galactic center.
Each fleet was a tentacle of a gigantic predator in the material universe, an extension of the senses of this vast interstellar predator that fed on biomass and existed only to evolve.
Its influence and power in the Warp were in no way inferior to the Chaos Gods', and in some respects it might even be stronger than any single Chaos God.
After all, to project into the Warp, the Tyranids didn't need a supply of faith tied to specific emotional frequencies as the four Chaos Gods did.
It didn't need believers, prayers, or intelligent life in the Warp to sustain its existence.
It simply ate, endlessly devouring, multiplying, and expanding its biomass stockpile in the material world.
Every time it successfully absorbed something in the material world, its Warp projection grew in step.
If the four Chaos Gods were a malignant tumor feeding on galactic civilization…
the Tyranids were a greedy, gigantic organism invading from outside the galaxy.
Datch's strategy was extremely simple: attack the Great Devourer's main body directly.
The Tyranids were, at their core, a top-down, completely centralized gestalt.
From the lowest Tyranid warrior to the highest Hive Tyrant, every individual consciousness was an extension of the Great Devourer's.
Once the Great Devourer was defeated and its main body caught in a Master Ball, the entire Tyranid race could be controlled.
The Tyranids were brutal and inhuman, but they were also excellent biological weapons.
They could keep absorbing their enemies' genes and actively adapt to the battlefield.
In every battle, they could evolve bio-armor that countered the enemy's weapons at an exponential rate.
With a little improvement, they could become a powerful tool for the Imperium of Man to conquer the universe.
Think about it. Let's try teaching the Tyranids farming.
Send them to other star systems, plant fungal carpets wherever there's water and sunlight, and have them generate organic matter on their own.
That way they can mine resources everywhere, use those resources to mass-produce soldiers, and sweep away every enemy.
Once every enemy is eliminated, the Great Devourer orders every Tyranid to withdraw, leaving behind only planets with transformed ecosystems.
Then the Imperium of Man sends colony ships to those planets and takes control.
Unifying the universe is just around the corner.
Planets terraformed by the Tyranids would be every bit as habitable as planets terraformed by the Mechanicus.
Heh heh, whoever came up with a plan like this must be a genius.
Datch grew more and more convinced the plan would work.
It would not only completely eliminate the Tyranid threat to the galaxy but also leave the Imperium of Man with a powerful biological weapon and a fully automated terraforming system.
This approach would surely raise his final score, and might even unlock hidden achievements.
Something like "Tame the Ultimate Predator from Beyond the Milky Way."
Let's get started right away. Clean up the Tyranids fast, submit the result, get the final score, then exit the game.
Datch raised the hand still wearing the Infinity Gauntlet and opened teleport portals to the Imperial strategy room for the NPCs entitled to attend the council.
He wanted to gather everyone to discuss how to fight the Tyranids and capture that gigantic predator.
Above the chairman's seat at the strategy room's circular holographic star-chart table floated the Emperor's psychic projection.
He had only just returned from Tzeentch's domain, and the golden light he gave off had become even steadier and calmer than before.
The new Four were Pudge the great life-form, Skarbrand the new god of war, the masked dancer as the new god of desire and beauty, and the spirit of transformation as the new god of change and knowledge.
They stood at the four corners of the strategy table, the four new gods radiating a gentle yet resolute light clearly different from that of the old Chaos Gods.
Many Primarchs, celestial beings, representatives of the dead, and Eldar representatives were present, along with Eldar gods such as Khaine, Cegorach, Isha, and Ynnead, each taking a seat.
The attendees whispered about the battle that had just ended and why the Nameless One had summoned them.
Once everyone had arrived, Datch stepped out of the teleport tunnel, his exquisite combat boots ringing crisply on the strategy room's flagstones with each step.
He announced the next objective bluntly.
Locate the Great Devourer's true form, use a spatial portal to strike directly at the heart of the hive, concentrate everyone's power to deal it severe damage, and then subdue it.
Then bring the Tyranid bioweapon firmly under human control.
At the Nameless One's words, the attendees exchanged puzzled looks, astonished at his audacity.
They had only just finished the fight with the Four, and now he wanted to go straight after the Great Devourer.
Still, none of them objected.
Because objecting was useless.
The Nameless One only ever gave them information and never listened to their objections.
"As long as the Nameless One is leading us, we will surely win this battle," Guilliman stated. "The main problem is that we know almost nothing about the Tyranids. We have never even seen their main body."
"The Silent King once left the galaxy. His archives hold records on the Tyranids. We may be able to get some leads from him," said Orikan, the new leader of the Necrons.
"The Silent King? Does this man really expect him to share with us?" Cegorach wasn't optimistic about the proposal.
"He has no choice," said the Deceiver, Mephet'ran. "There are any number of ways to make him talk."
"Then let's try to get information on the Tyranids from the Silent King. If that doesn't turn up anything useful, I'll go to the edge of the galaxy myself," Datch said.
At that, the room fell silent. Everyone sensed the Nameless One's resolve. He would not bow to this challenge, and he would never retreat.
After discussing the Tyranids for a while and drawing up a preliminary plan of action, Datch looked around at everyone and decided to bring up the Pantheon first.
That would give the Emperor and the Primarchs time to prepare and consider whether there were suitable candidates.
…