Outside the door was daylight, true white daylight coming from a massive space, like the sunlight on a cloudy day.
Before him was a colossal space he had never seen nor imagined in his entire life.
Outside the door was a massive human urban nest.
A city.
A city built in the shape of a colossal tower.
Looking up, he couldn’t see the top; countless buildings stacked layer upon layer, stretching upwards like a mille-crepe cake.
Hive City.
The most common city format in the Imperium of Man, a massive, self-sufficient vertical city capable of housing billions of people.
A medium-sized Hive City had a designed capacity of roughly three to five billion, and large Hive Cities were even bigger.
A colossal structure capable of holding billions of humans, a hollow giant tower, layer after layer of ring-like structures connected to each other, with massive archways and passages on every level extending to the very end of his line of sight.
The edges of those vertical archways looked exceptionally sharp in the grayish-white light, like the spires of a monastery.
However, this human metropolis was now extremely dilapidated.
A massive gaping hole was torn into its side, as if it had been swiped by the claws of a giant beast, exposing irregular, jagged edges.
An abandoned Hive City.
Light leaked down from that hole, scattering across the entire space.
The faint dust formed light beams due to the Tyndall effect, carrying a bizarre solemnity like a ruined cathedral.
Looking up from the very bottom layer, Lynn felt like an ant gazing up at the moon.
So this underground cave was right at the bottom of the Hive City.
Lynn took another look at that space with no visible ceiling.
“Wow…” In the game, you couldn’t tell how big a Hive City was, but seeing it right in front of him, he found the visual impact to be simply too breathtaking.
Lynn asked the system, “Is there anyone still in this Hive City?” The system said, [Try stepping on the stairs next to you.] Lynn lightly stepped on them.
The concrete, or what was probably concrete, was so brittle that it had turned to slag; it disintegrated right when he stepped on it, drifting down like sand.
[Imperial things are very durable.
Technology in Warhammer 40k is the legacy of the ‘Golden Age of Technology’; things built back then can last for millennia.
Judging from the thickness of the dust and the extent of structural damage, this Hive City has been abandoned for at least thousands of years, possibly even tens of thousands.] “Ah…” What a pity.
Lynn held onto the stairs and looked up again.
The endless passage of time had left the structure in ruins.
Many load-bearing structures had failed, and what remained standing was just for show; it felt like it would collapse with a single step, making climbing up impossible.
The idea of leaving from here probably wasn’t going to work.
He still had to find an exit from the underground caves.
But this abandoned Hive City was still quite magnificent.
It was architecture from thousands or tens of thousands of years ago; all life had vanished, leaving only stone and metal silently decaying here.
The damage on the side of the Hive City could be from a Chaos invasion, a Tyranid attack, an internal rebellion, or possibly resource depletion.
There were far too many reasons for a Hive City to be abandoned in Warhammer 40k; any random one could fill a book.
Lynn asked the system again, “Do those cultists live here?” The system said, [No.
They live in the underground caves.
That cave system and this Hive City are connected, but the cultist camp is deep within the caves, not inside the Hive City structures.
You have to remember they aren’t human anymore; they don’t like moving around in places with light.] “Oh.” Lynn asked again, “This place won’t suddenly collapse, right?
Can Thirty Days guarantee I won’t get crushed to death?” [I’m not sure if an abandoned building counts as an enemy.
But if you really get crushed under millions of tons of construction debris, there’s no need to stress over Thirty Days, right?
You wouldn’t be able to crawl out anyway; you’d be dead regardless.] That made perfect sense; there was no need to stress at all, as it would be useless anyway.
“…You make a good point.” Lynn sighed, abandoning the idea of risking a climb to investigate.
He could only look around the entrance area to see if there was anything salvageable.
He found some textiles that could improve his quality of life, like bedding and such.
But the daily necessities had long since expired.
Who knew how many years this place had been abandoned; all the organic matter had rotted away, turning to dust at the slightest touch.
Searching the area again, he found that a storage room carved into the mountain wall near the entrance was quite sturdy, and surprisingly, the door could even be locked from the inside.
It had relatively good sealing and slow air circulation.
Inside, he managed to scrounge up some barely usable metal and ceramic pots, cups, bowls, and spoons.
Shockingly, there was also a slightly rusted but still sharp—after a bit of grinding—dagger, a pair of binoculars, and a few ancient cans of Corpse-Starch of unknown age.
The system gloated, [Aren’t you going to try them?
Although the probability is very low, Warhammer food preservation technology can sometimes last for millennia.
Rations from the 30k era aren’t completely inedible even now.] “I’ll pass.” He wouldn’t dare eat these ancient Corpse-Starch cans caked in who-knows-how-many-years of patina even if they were given to him.
“System, I’m hungry.
What do I do with no food or drink here?” [Scavenge.] “Scavenge where?” [Do I even need to teach you this?
Have you forgotten everything you’ve learned?
Scavenge for trash, steal things.
Cultists need to eat too; their supply lines are your supermarket.] Alright.
But it wasn’t too bad; he could live.
“Then what if I can’t beat them?” [That’s why I told you to steal.] “Makes sense.
If I’m discovered, I’ll just run.” Lynn decided to use this place as his base and then go back to the cultists to steal their living supplies.
This abandoned Hive City was his base, and the cultist side was his supermarket.
He’d run back and forth between his base and the supermarket, stealing their things to survive these fifteen days.
[Sounds like a very novel lifestyle.] “It’s called survival.” Lynn pulled his jacket over his head and touched the dagger at his waist.
“Next up, please enjoy watching the Warhammer 40k edition of Man vs.
Wild.
Host Lynn, armed with a flashlight and a rusted dagger, will teach you how to survive for thirty days in this abandoned Hive City.” The system applauded him, [So ambitious.] Lynn retreated to the door he had originally walked through from the caves.
On the other side of the door was the dark, damp, and lightless cave.
Lynn stood at the doorway and took a deep breath.
“System.” [Yeah.] “Say I go back to steal the cultists’ stuff; what happens if I get caught?” [Thirty Days.
Run immediately if things look bad.
As long as you aren’t caught by them, you’ll be fine.] Alright, for better or worse, survive for 30 days.
Lynn gritted his teeth and stepped over the threshold.
Darkness enveloped him once again.
He followed the path he came from, walking step by step back toward the direction of the cultist camp.
Despite talking big, he was actually still a little scared.
It’s fine, Lynn, you can do this.
Isn’t it just going to steal a bit of their stuff?
You won’t die anyway.
They can’t beat you to death, so what if you steal some of their things?
(T/n: The Glorious Tradition of the Blood Ravens.
This joke originated from the Dawn of War video game series.
Throughout the games, players could equip the Blood Ravens with countless sacred relics belonging to other chapters, hostile factions, or even the Adeptus Custodes.
The in-game item descriptions often contained suspicious lore claiming the items were “gifted” or “exchanged,” despite the original owners having no record of such events, leading fans to joke that the Blood Ravens simply steal everything that isn’t nailed down.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.