In the grim darkness of the far future, there was only war.
I stood at the edge of the Sea of Warhammerized Shit(Chinese Warhammer Fan-fics) where countless cursed hammers had been forged, broken, and forgotten beneath the tides.
Then I saw it.
Half-buried beneath the filth was the last Warhammer.
I reached into the abyss and pulled it free.
The heavens trembled.
The God-Emperor watched in silence.
I raised the sacred hammer above my head and declared:
“Finally… a good shyt.”
And thus, Warhammer 39,999 became Warhammer 40,000.
~Excerpt from WARHAMMER_39999
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“Ding!”
“Ding-ding—!”
Phone notification sounds rang out one after another, yet Leo acted as if he hadn’t heard them.
He stood in front of the silver-white gaming capsule, his gaze passing through the window as he looked at the sky outside.
Over the city in the afternoon, a giant promotional airship hundreds of meters long slowly sailed past.
On both sides of the airship, huge holographic images constantly changed.
Human knights clad in heavy armor strode across the wilderness.
Elves stood atop ancient trees.
The orc army stretched as far as the eye could see.
Swarms of insects that blotted out the sun poured out from the canyons.
Finally, a vast planet occupied the entire screen.
Several large golden characters emerged accordingly.
[The world’s first surreal lord game — Galaxy, officially opens its open beta today!]
Leo looked at the promotional screen, which couldn’t have been more familiar to him.
After a long while, he slowly let out a breath.
“Really…”
“I’ve returned once more.”
It wasn’t a dream.
The electronic calendar on the wall, the takeaway helmet on the table, and the gaming capsule in front of him, which he had purchased with almost all his savings, were all exactly the same as he remembered.
Today was precisely the first day Galaxy launched!
Leo lowered his head.
The phone screen was still lit.
In his previous life, he had also stood here at this exact time.
But back then, all he could see was money.
Blueprints, resources, and equipment in Galaxy could all be freely traded.
On the first day of the server launch, advanced building blueprints were even bid up to astronomical prices by various major consortia.
And after entering the game, his luck had been exceptionally good.
He had received a medium territory and a Grade A barracks!
When the vast majority of players were still struggling with Grade C and Grade D barracks, his starting position had already surpassed that of more than ninety percent of players.
Yet he made a decision that he would regret countless times later.
He sold the Grade A barracks blueprint.
He exchanged it for money.
Then he bought a Grade B blueprint at a low price.
At the time, Leo felt that Grade A and Grade B only differed by one rank.
If he could cash out hundreds of thousands of credit points immediately, he could pay his younger sister’s tuition and give himself a break.
It wasn’t until the beginner trial began that he realized how ridiculously wrong he had been.
Every player entering their territory for the first time in Galaxy would encounter a beginner stage.
The difficulty wasn’t considered high, yet it determined the true beginning of their journey.
Pass, and the territory would be retained.
Fail, and the territory would be demoted.
If a large territory failed once, it would be downgraded to medium.
A medium territory would become small.
Once a small territory failed, its lord would directly lose their qualifications and be permanently unable to enter Galaxy again!
In his previous life, his Grade A barracks would originally have been completely sufficient to defend that medium territory.
But after switching to Grade B, his strength fell short by one crucial step.
It was precisely that difference that caused him to lose.
His medium territory was downgraded to small, causing him to fall from the top tier into the dust in a single step.
During the half-year that followed, he tried desperately to catch up, but he could never reach those lords who truly stood at the apex.
What was even more terrifying was that half a year later, everyone finally learned the truth.
Galaxy was never just a game!
The gaming world and reality completely underwent Fusion.
Countless monsters descended upon Earth.
Cities collapsed.
Order disintegrated.
Immediately afterward, the entire Earth was dragged away from its original starry sky by an incomprehensible force and thrown into a macro-Universe truly vast beyond imagination.
There, the territories, troops, and heroes from the game all turned into reality!
And those who had lost their lord qualifications could only become the lowest-tier ordinary people in the torrent of the era.
Including Leo.
Until his death, he never forgot the choice he had made the first time.
Hundreds of thousands of credit points had cost him the future he could have originally grasped.
Leo raised his eyes.
Outside the window, Galaxy’s promotional airship was sailing across the sky above the city.
“This time, I want the money.”
“And I want the territory too.”
“What was lost in my previous life…”
“This time, not a single one will be missing.”
Leo stepped into the gaming capsule.
The capsule door closed, but he did not log in immediately.
His eyes stared fixedly at the digital clock in the upper right corner of the gaming capsule.
The clock displayed the time in three sections:
[Hour : Minute : Second]
This was a small trick that had only begun circulating in player forums long after Galaxy opened in his previous life.
No one knew why it worked.
They only knew that entering Galaxy at the exact moment when the hour, minute, and second displayed the same number would significantly increase the probability of drawing an advanced initial barracks.
For example:
[13:13:13]
Hour: 13
Minute: 13
Second: 13
That was the moment Leo had been waiting for.
Many top lords later verified this phenomenon by reviewing their own login records.
When Leo learned about it in his previous life, it was already too late.
This lifetime, he would not miss it.
The numbers continued to change.
[13:13:10]
[13:13:11]
[13:13:12]
Leo’s eyes narrowed.
One second.
Just one second remained.
Then—
[13:13:13]
Hour: 13.
Minute: 13.
Second: 13.
All three numbers were identical.
The moment had arrived.
“The three numbers are the same!”
“Log into Galaxy!”
Hum!
At the exact moment Leo pressed the login button, the digital display froze on—
[[13:13:13]]
Darkness instantly swallowed his vision, and countless starlights flew past Leo.
[Identity confirmed.]
[Welcome player Leo to Galaxy.]
[Randomizing initial territory.]
[Randomization complete!]
[Congratulations on obtaining — Small Territory!]
[Small Territory: The territory scale is relatively small, the location is relatively remote, and the initial territory residents and resource gathering population are limited. It can be continuously expanded through war, construction, and special items.]
Small territory.
It wasn’t particularly impressive, but it was enough.
What truly mattered was the barracks!
[Randomizing initial military building.]
Leo’s breathing slowed slightly.
The next instant, the entire sky suddenly turned emerald green!
The phantom of a golden ancient tree that blotted out the sky descended from the firmament.
At the same time, a crisp server-wide broadcast resounded in the ears of all players!
[Server-wide Announcement!]
[Congratulations to player “Leo” for obtaining Grade A barracks — Elven Empire Fortress!]
Before Leo’s eyes, a blueprint shimmering with emerald-green light slowly unfolded.
[Grade A — Elven Empire Fortress]
[Type: Advanced Barracks]
[Maximum recruitable: Tier 6 troops]
[Basic troop: Elven Longbowman]
[Advanced troops: Silver Moon Sword Guard, Ranger General, War Tree…]
Grade A!
Tier 6 troops!
The corners of Leo’s mouth curved up slightly.
It was done.
This start alone was already enough!
At that moment, the entire server completely exploded.
Before Leo could even open the chat channel, private message notifications were already jumping wildly.
[Unread private messages: 27]
[Unread private messages: 56]
[Unread private messages: 99+]
“Brother Leo, are you selling the blueprint?”
“Twenty thousand dollars, immediate transfer!”
“I am from the Firmament Group. We offer four hundred thousand for the Grade A Elven Fortress!”
“Fifty thousand!”
“The price can be discussed!”
Looking at those familiar offers, Leo merely let out a laugh.
In his previous life, it was these numbers that had made him sell his future.
This time?
Let alone fifty thousand.
He wouldn’t sell it for five hundred thousand either.
[Permanently disable broadcasts from other players?]
Yes / No.
“Yes!”
“This lifetime, I don’t care about others! I want to be the protagonist of my own story!”
Leo raised his hand, preparing to use [Elven Empire Fortress].
The very instant his fingertips were about to touch the blueprint, his vision suddenly turned black.
A red window, completely different from the Galaxy System, silently emerged.
[Transformable building blueprint detected.]
Leo’s movements suddenly stopped.
[Convert the current building blueprint to the Warhammer version?]
“…”
Leo’s pupils contracted bit by bit.
Warhammer?
Which Warhammer?
Today, two hundred years later, this name already belonged to the culture of the old era.
Yet Leo happened to know it.
One could even say he was extremely familiar with it!
In his youth, he loved browsing cultural databases of the old era.
And Warhammer was precisely one of the grandest and most insane classical science-fiction works among them.
That was an era when countless towering heroes fought in bloody battles for humanity, faith, and the right to rule the galaxy!
The Emperor.
Astartes.
Imperial Guard.
Machine Cult.
Titan…
Names that had long been buried deep within his memories rapidly emerged.
Leo’s heartbeat accelerated.
What if it really was that Warhammer?
He pressed down firmly.
“Yes!”
The emerald-green Elven Fortress blueprint shattered abruptly.
All the lights representing forests, ancient trees, and elven civilization vanished instantly.
Boom!
A mechanical roar so deep that it made his chest feel stuffy rang out.
Steel.
Smokestacks.
Searchlights.
Armored walls.
Densely packed gun emplacements.
A colossal War Fortress surrounded by black smoke and steel slowly manifested from the darkness!
Crimson text appeared accordingly.
[Conversion successful!]
[Congratulations on obtaining a special barracks]
[Armageddon Steel Legion War Fortress!]
Leo stared fixedly at the behemoth before his eyes, completely armed with steel and war.
His breathing stopped for a fraction of a second.
Then he laughed.
“It really is…”
“Warhammer.”