Meanwhile, after leaving the conference room with his government team, Odinson didn’t immediately head down to the lower hive to recruit people.
Instead, he went to the Chapter serfs’ quarters and conscripted all the available serfs to serve as project managers.
Odinson only led his team to the upper hive after everyone had arrived.
He held a bolter to the head of a nobleman and explained the dire consequences.
The nobleman immediately reformed and led Odinson to several key figures in the lower hive.
Odinson again pointed a bolter at their heads, explaining the consequences and demanding that they gather at least one hundred million in labor for the project, and that the methods be gentle.
He warned that if anyone died, their entire family would be beheaded.
The men immediately repented and readily agreed.
With the support of the civilian factories, or rather, the system, these men were completely timid and showed no intention of deceiving or cheating.
They immediately summoned their henchmen and ordered them to notify all the gangs in the lower hive to gather 100 million laborers, emphasizing that they must be young and strong.
They also stressed the need for gentleness, warning that anyone who caused death would have their entire family beheaded.
These henchmen were terrified and scrambled to inform the gang leaders, repeating their instructions.
The gang leaders, also terrified and fearing divine retribution, immediately gathered their subordinates to assign tasks and repeat the instructions.
Thus, these usually arrogant gang members were also terrified, nervously knocking on doors and calling for help, carefully avoiding any deaths, lest the Emperor’s angels be watching them…
Driven by fear, these gang members were extremely efficient, and soon the entire lower hive was engulfed in a massive yet cautious conscription operation.
The Emperor, who had been secretly observing the entire process, slowly typed a question mark: “?”
As the ruler of the human Imperium, He was quite qualified to speak on this matter.
Fear can indeed increase efficiency, but it can also distort the transmission and execution of orders.
The fact that not a single one of these people falsely relayed the order, or even made a single mistake in repeating it, something was amiss.
Moreover, among so many people, from top to bottom, not a single one harbored any thought of getting away with it.
No matter how arrogant they had been in the past, they were now terrified of being discovered for incompetence, each walking on thin ice, as if they had always been cowardly and timid.
The problem is, if you were truly cowardly and timid, could you have survived to this point in the Underhive?
Impossible!
If fear were so effective, He would have directly supported Konrad Curze and Lorgar in the first place!
This must be due to that unknown force; it amplified these people’s fear while simultaneously keeping them rational, thus allowing them to display extraordinary efficiency amidst their fear.
But He couldn’t discern how this power had manifested, nor could He find the slightest inconsistency in these people.
This filled Him with a sense of dread.
He was now a true god of the human race, stuck on the path to godhood, possessing a trace of the power that could rival the Chaos Gods, while these people included some fanatical followers of the Imperial Cult.
In this situation, how could He be at ease knowing He couldn’t detect how that unknown force was influencing these people?
If it could affect ordinary people so subtly now, wouldn’t it later affect Space Marines, the Custodes, Primarchs, and even…
Himself?
The thought that his awakening was also related to this unknown force cast a shadow over His heart.
(PS: Actually, it had already influenced them, but the Emperor hadn’t discovered it yet)
But He was now weaker than ever before and couldn’t do anything, only secretly increasing his vigilance.
Meanwhile, the gang’s operation to gather people had drastically changed the fates of countless individuals.
Lower Hive, Castor District, Hyena Gang territory.
“Bang bang bang, open the door!”
The loud knocking and shouting startled Old John awake.
He instinctively held his breath, trying to pretend he wasn’t home.
But the gang members outside seemed to know someone was inside, continuing to knock incessantly, even attempting to break down the door.
The door, made of two sheet metal panels, was no match for the well-prepared gang members.
In no time, it was broken open, and two gangers barged in.
Old John instinctively covered his head and cowered, bracing himself for the beating to come.
In this underhive, anyone who dared disrespect these gangers would be beaten — the beating was the minimum, with no upper limit.
For someone as disobedient as him, a beating was considered lucky.
But instead of the expected punches and blows, he was yanked out of bed.
“Sleep, sleep, all you do is sleep!
I told you to open the door, are you deaf?!”
The other ganger paced back and forth, yelling impatiently at the now-standing Old John.
“M-Sir, I really am hard of hearing, I really didn’t hear you.” Although he didn’t know why the gangers were being so good-natured today, Old John quickly tried to back down.
The thug who had dragged him out of bed hesitated upon hearing this: “Hard-of-hearing?
Can we bring someone like that?
What if he angers the Angel and ruins our whole family’s fortune?”
Another thug abruptly stopped: “Hard-of-hearing my ass!
I already found out!
This son of a bitch heard about the payout a couple of days ago and ran off like the wind!
Hard-of-hearing my ass!”
Old John, being a well-trained underhiver, understood the implication and immediately took out the Hyena Coins he had just received: “Sir, this is all for you.”
The thug who had dragged him out of bed’s eyes light up and reached for it, but was slapped across the face by the impatient thug: “You want your whole family to be rich right now, huh?
If he tells the Angel, your whole family will be in trouble.”
The thug who had dragged him out of bed covered his face, feeling wronged, but didn’t dare to argue.
His actions just now were purely instinctive, without any thought; now fear had taken over his mind, controlling his muscles.
Old John was bewildered by the two men’s actions.
His hand, holding the money, froze in mid-air, unsure whether to hand it over or not.
The agitated thug tried to explain, “There’s a huge project for you, a really big one.
Do you want to go?”
Old John cautiously replied, “Um…
can I not go?
I can pay for it.”
He cursed inwardly, “What a load of rubbish!
‘Huge’ project, no less!
It’s obviously the kind of project where you’d be working for the nobles for free, or even risk getting killed.”
This wasn’t the first or second time this had happened.
Whenever a noble wanted to undertake a major project, they’d scramble for labor.
If you were lucky, you’d bring your own food and work for free; if you were unlucky, you’d simply vanish into thin air.
Only an idiot would go!
“You son of a bitch!” The agitated thug started getting agitated again, but he didn’t mention the Angel.
His boss had said that if he didn’t get enough men to hand over, he’d be beheaded!
If the Angel hadn’t specifically mentioned not wanting gangers, he’d have handed himself over.
Suppressing his anger and fear, he patiently explained, “This isn’t work for nobles; the God-Emperor’s angels are expanding the starch factory.
Not only is food provided, but there’s extra starch and vitamin pills as wages and bonuses.
I heard that if you’re lucky, you might even be selected for some army, where you can directly serve the angels — this is an incredible opportunity!”
Seeing that he was actually patiently explaining, Old John was skeptical: “If it’s such a good thing, why don’t you go yourself?”
“Because the angels look down on people like us!” the thug said, looking aggrieved.
He’d wanted to sign up after hearing about the chance to directly serve the angels, but then he heard this devastating news.
Old John hesitated.
He couldn’t believe a word these gangers said, but they probably wouldn’t dare to blaspheme the God-Emperor’s angels.
And the temptation of the vitamin pills made him waver.
The vitamin pills, though called vitamins, were actually a type of nano-therapeutic agent that could treat most common diseases.
Even if it couldn’t regenerate limbs, it was practically a miracle cure for someone like him, a lowly mortal.
After all, every one of the Underhive members was riddled with illnesses; having this thing was practically like being reborn.
Old John hesitated for a long time, while the restless thug paced back and forth, even considering moving on to the next location.
Old John, however, thought of the angels’ stories and reputation, and felt that this might be true.
He nodded in agreement: “Okay, I’ll do it.
When do we leave?”
The restless thug’s face lit up with joy, and he relaxed completely: “Wait for my message.
I’ll go to a few more locations to gather enough people, then we’ll set off.”
With that, he led the thugs to the next location.
Old John looked at the metal door with a hole in it, then at the Hyena Coins in his hand, and thought this must be true.
The Emperor, who had watched the whole thing: “6”
This was clearly due to that unknown force strengthening this person’s trust in the Astral Claws; otherwise, how could a mere name appearing in mythology make an Underhiver believe a ganger?
But the Emperor still didn’t detect anything amiss; everything proceeded naturally, without the slightest abnormality.
Moreover, similar events were occurring simultaneously in countless corners of the Underhive, with minor variations, leading the Emperor to believe that this power seemed quite beneficial to ordinary people.
While it used fear to motivate the gangers, it primarily aimed to build trust with ordinary people.
Furthermore, the Emperor knew that Huron genuinely intended to fulfill his promise, all of this caused Him to slightly raise His assessment of that unknown power.
Hmm, slightly higher than the Chaos Gods.