After filling a bowl with porridge and grabbing five pieces of bread, Old John sat down at a vacant dining table and stretched his aching body.
His rejuvenated physique had given him a false sense of invincibility, leading him to work like a madman.
Now that he had finally relaxed, every inch of his body felt the strain.
“I’d better slow down this afternoon,” Old John thought to himself.
If his body broke down now, he’d have nowhere to go to cry about it.
He dipped the bread into the porridge, finishing it off in a few large bites, then headed back to the window to line up again.
While waiting in line, he smacked his lips, tasting the thin porridge.
He still found it hard to believe that the liquid in the bowl was actually pure water.
Pure starch plus pure water—to Old John, this was no different from a luxury good.
The single bowl of porridge he had just consumed would have cost him more than a year’s wages as a loader in the Underhive.
Over these past few days, the food he’d eaten was already worth more than he was, not to mention that pocket watch which functioned like a divine artifact.
The servant of the Lord Angel had told him when handing over the watch that if he worked without error, the watch would be his to keep as a bonus.
At that moment, only one thought had occupied his mind: Loyalty!
Forget moving cargo—he’d be willing to assassinate a nobleman for this!
As he stood there lost in thought, Old John suddenly realized the soreness in his muscles was fading.
In just those few moments, the discomfort had significantly lessened.
*By the Throne!
Ice!*
Old John had heard of substances that could rapidly relieve muscle pain.
Though he could never afford them, it hadn’t stopped him from fantasizing about how comfortable they must feel.
The sensation he was feeling now was exactly like his fantasies.
If he’d had this back in the day, he could have moved three times his daily quota!
And the canteen was providing this for free?
He could never repay the Lord Angel’s kindness!
As for whether it was just “vitamins,” Old John didn’t even dare to consider it.
That was far beyond his imagination.
Of course, Lugft Huron wasn’t as deranged as Old John thought.
He had simply mixed vitamin tablets into the porridge, just as before.
Being a nano-therapeutic agent, minor issues like muscle strain were naturally within its scope of treatment.
Furthermore, a civilian factory could only produce one type of consumer good and couldn’t split its output.
After paying out the “wages,” there were still plenty of leftover units from the daily production of one billion vitamins.
The Warp routes in the Maelstrom Zone were treacherous and unpredictable.
A single trade mission could take years as a base unit of time, and the return on investment cycle was so long it left Huron speechless.
Instead of counting on external trade to absorb his surplus capacity, he figured he might as well add them to the rations as nutritional supplements to improve the workers’ health.
After all, if people did nothing but consume carbohydrates every day, things would eventually go wrong.
While these “vitamins” weren’t strictly vitamins, they could convert starch into other nutrients to maintain stable vital signs.
Even putting aside the values Huron had formed in his previous life, he already viewed the entirety of Badab as his personal property.
What was the harm in giving his own people a few benefits, especially when it cost him nothing?
Of course, only Huron thought this way.
Odinson, unaware of the true source, looked at the daily consumption statistics and felt as if the sky were falling.
If the Chapter Master hadn’t been able to produce massive quantities of supplies every single day, Odinson would have risked his life to petition Huron to lower the welfare standards.
In the past, even the Chapter Serfs couldn’t afford to eat vitamin tablets like they were candy, but now these common laborers were doing exactly that.
Huron didn’t neglect his own, however.
Of the remaining two civilian factories, one was dedicated to producing “Gene-Enhancement Agents.”
This substance could only be produced for 100,000 people per day, making it quite precious.
Its effects were naturally impressive, enhancing human biological functions across the board.
It was usually reserved for elite units like the Schola Progenium’s Stormtroopers.
Having accumulated millions of doses over the past few days, Huron wasn’t about to let them sit and collect dust.
He fed every Chapter Serf a double dose.
The effect could be stacked with multiple doses, though the marginal gains decreased over time.
Usually, a Stormtrooper would only receive two or three doses.
Huron didn’t care.
The stuff literally fell from the sky as far as he was concerned, so they might as well eat up.
[System: I have no objections.]
If other nobles saw this, however, they would likely be overcome with grief.
Setting aside the expensive and extremely rare Gene-Enhancement Agents, even the relatively “cheap” vitamins were a tangible resource.
Scattering pure white vitamin tablets among the dregs of the Underhive?
What a sin!
What a waste!
With the support of the vitamins, the efficiency of the entire project remained at a high level.
Otherwise, even with the System boosting their enthusiasm for work, it couldn’t change the physical wear and tear on the human body.
In fact, under the combination of high-intensity physical labor and the healing effects of the vitamins, many of the workers were actually growing stronger.
It could only be said that high technology and “supplements” truly do wonders for the physique.
Time passed.
A month later, the reaction zone of the massive starch factory was nearly complete.
Since the equipment was pre-fabricated, they had already begun trial runs.
The power zone, feeding zone, control zone, and the transport channels between them were still under frantic construction.
Old John, who had been working diligently this whole time, was called to the management office for an interview.
“Become a servant of the Lord Angel?
M-me?” Old John looked at the administrator before him with a mix of pleasant surprise and trepidation.
The administrator had just told him that after an evaluation, he was eligible to join the “Chapter Auxilia” for training.
He didn’t know what a “Chapter Auxilia” was, but he understood it was an organization managed by the Angels.
Not only would he see the Angels often, but he might even become one himself!
But he didn’t understand what was so special about him that he had caught the Lord Angel’s eye.
If it was about hard work, the hundred-plus men in his crew worked just as hard, and other crews were much the same.
If it was about results, there were plenty of men stronger than him—some were built like mini-Ogryns and could lift a ton without breaking a sweat.
Seeing his nervousness, the administrator comforted him.
“If you really can’t figure it out, just chalk it up to luck.
There will be more selections later; you’re just lucky enough to be in the first batch.”
“Then…
what will I have to do?” Seeing how kind the administrator was, Old John relaxed and asked curiously.
The administrator thought about the Chapter’s orders.
“Probably work similar to mine.”
Old John was so startled he fell to his knees with a thud, only to be hauled back up by the administrator.
“What are you doing, you maniac?”
“My…
My Lord, can I really become someone like you?” Old John’s voice trembled.
This was the highest-ranking official he had ever met in his life.
The man could command a PDF regiment and chat casually with Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Old John had even seen him accompanying the Lord Angel on site inspections.
The administrator understood and sighed, somewhat speechless.
“The work I do is exhausting.
You’ll find out when the time comes.”
Lord knew he had originally been a Captain in one of the Chapter Serf artillery companies.
But when Odinson saw the army had no current missions and they were short on staff, he’d been dragged over to do management work.
He couldn’t wait for these people to start working so he could return to his original post.
Especially since he’d heard the Chapter Master was reorganizing the Chapter Serfs; he expected to be promoted then, perhaps even becoming an Astartes Aspirant.