Emperor's Bane

Chapter 892 Sandwich Theory

He knows what people say about him behind his back.

He always knew.

They said he was brutal, crazy and extreme.

They say he is heartless and tearless, that he is unreasonable, and that he is arbitrary.

They say he is a moonlit Caligula, with nothing but his own vanity and madness.

They said he was Vlad the Bloodthirsty, terrifying to his enemies and his own people alike.

They said he was Ivan the Terrible, raising his scepter and killing his own children in an act of unbridled cruelty.

They said he was an incorrigible tyrant.

They say he was a genius who went astray.

They said he was a madman who insisted on having his own way.

They say he is this, they say he is that, they accuse him of one thing and another thing the next day: in the eyes of a thousand people there may be a thousand Hamlets, and in the eyes of a thousand people there may be ten thousand Perturabos.

They didn't know, or rather, they never cared to begin with, what Perturabo was.

They said he was a tyrant.

But is Perturabo really cruel?

They said he was stubborn.

But is Perturabo really paranoid?

They said he was crazy, heartless, and that he didn't care about any beauty in this world.

But is this really the truth of the matter?
No.

No one cares.

They did not know Perturabo.

They never wanted to understand Perturabo either.

Therefore, they have no idea what the real Perturabo looks like.

But he knew.

He knew what the real Perturabo should look like.

Because: he is Perturabo.

------

He knew that Perturabo was not cruel.

He just thought that mercy was not important.

Perturabo was not paranoid, he knew.

He just wanted to believe that there was no one around him who was trustworthy.

He knew that Perturabo was not crazy, Perturabo was not a monster without blood or tears, and Perturabo was not someone who had no one worth caring about.

Perturabo can also understand all the beautiful things that have ever existed in this world. He also advocates the noble connection between logic and thinking. He will also shed tears and be moved by his sincere feelings.

Even deep in his heart that he never wanted to admit, Perturabo also had someone he was willing to do his best to protect.

It’s not that he doesn’t know how to love, cherish, understand and tolerate each other.

He just...

He simply doesn't care.

That's it.

------

Because Perturabo believed that from the moment he was chosen and came into this world, his existence was for only one purpose: in the face of the great mission of guiding race, history, the galaxy, and time, everything about the individual was insignificant.

Even: everything about him.

He knew their value.

That's why he doesn't care.

Because he has a truly great goal.

------

"That is: to find a third world for humanity that can completely avoid the subspace."

Perturabo, who looked only a few years old, stood in front of documents and data that were taller than him, talking to the newcomer in the room.

There was a rare joy on his face, an innocence that only belongs to a child: for this genius who always likes to have a stern face and pretend to be an adult, this kind of genuine joy is extremely rare: it is not only because he has just completed the entire study of a complex subject, but also because of the newcomer standing in front of him.

This is someone of his age, and he looks only about a head taller than the youngest Perturabo. According to the original being who created him: This is Perturabo, who has stayed in the city-state of Rocks for two years and is beginning to feel disgusted for the first time.

There is no doubt that he is a suitable person to talk to.

The youngest, Petrable, wanted to know everything he had experienced in his first homeland: although he had heard countless stories before, they all lacked the familiarity that came from his peers, especially the original body. Although he knew the most, he always stubbornly refused to reveal any memories of his past.

Just as he always firmly forbade any of them to meet Kelly Fanny: of course, at most stages, Perturabo maintained a disdainful attitude towards meeting his sister, and the youngest Perturabo had no impression of this person at all.

As for a newcomer who had just been born and only retained a few years of memories of Rocks City and was still full of curiosity about this strange world, he also wanted to know what these instruments in front of him were: compared to these new things, meeting his sister Kelly Finney was not so important.

While answering and explaining things to each other, they had arrived at a workshop abandoned by the original body.

"I don't like to work in one place for a long time."

The senior avatar was introduced.

"After each stage of the experiment, he would prepare a new workshop for himself, but out of habit, he would make a copy of all the research data and store it in the workshop he had abandoned. In his words, this was to prevent future accidents, so that even if he failed, he would not really start from scratch."

"Accident?"

The newcomer obviously doesn't like this word very much.

"Are you saying [we] will fail?"

"At least that's what the original thinks: but most clones scoff at it."

“They even don’t quite understand why the entity has become so pessimistic: to even consider failure.”

"That's normal: failure is intolerable."

The newcomer nodded seriously, but his eyes were still lingering on those sophisticated instruments he had never heard of: But what was surprising was that although the memory of the newly born Perturabo still remained in the city-state of Rocks, when faced with these advanced instruments that were far beyond his understanding, he was able to recognize their general functions.

"let me guess."

A few minutes later, the newcomer standing in front of a petri dish asked in a positive tone.

"He is conducting an experiment here: How to preserve the activity of human brain tissue and organs with the greatest efficiency?"

"Yes: I'm not sure what the results of the experiment will be: the subject showed no obvious emotions."

"Is he always like this?"

“This has been particularly evident in recent years.”

Perturabo, the youngest, nodded.

"And what you see before you is just a tiny branch of a much larger plan."

"It took the original only a few days to complete the experiment: they were just a new preparatory plan for him."

"To prevent failure again?"

"It should be so."

"Tsk...excuse my bluntness."

The newcomer frowned.

"The subspace you mentioned..."

"Yes."

Before he could finish his question, the youngest Perturabo nodded affirmatively, for he had heard the same question many times: whenever Perturabo, whose memories were still in Olympia, stood before him, they always asked the same question.

"The subspace we are talking about is indeed related to the huge eyeball we can see."

"You can think of them as..."

It only took a few minutes of explanation for the newcomer to understand the nature of the subspace.

Then, more possibilities burst out from his brilliant brain. For the next period of time, the two Perturabos, who were still children, stayed in this dark laboratory, enthusiastically discussing each other's sparks of inspiration. If someone heard the content, they might think that this was a summit between two scientific masters. "In other words: The main body believes that it is not a good thing for humans to rely on the subspace for a long time?"

The newcomer finally understood this truth.

"He certainly thinks so."

The youngest, Perturabo, pushed open the door in front of them and they walked into a new room.

In the layers of giant culture tanks, human brains of all sizes were piled up like cargo, and when two children, both less than twelve years old, witnessed all this, there was no fear on their faces. On the contrary, their pupils flickered with terrifying excitement, as if the things inside were not from human beings.

"However, it is precisely the existence of the subspace that gives the main body a very novel idea."

"What is it?"

"It's very simple."

"If there is a pure emotional universe: and it can also affect our real universe."

"Does that mean that, on the other side of it, there exists a universe of pure logic and numbers?"

"what do you mean……"

“It’s like a sandwich.”

Perturabo, the youngest, spread his hands.

"The real universe is the meat in the middle, and the subspace is the top layer of bread. You know, a sandwich usually only has vegetables on one layer, and there is only a layer of salad dressing between the other layer of bread and the meat. So, when you exist on this layer of meat, the difficulty of seeing the upper and lower layers of bread is different."

"In other words, the veil between the warp and the real universe is like salad dressing. It cannot completely isolate the connection between bread and meat. So we can feel the warp bread not far from us very early, but this does not mean that there is no other piece of bread in the other direction of our meat."

"It's just that it's blocked from view by things like lettuce, so we can't feel it for the time being."

The newcomer continued this conversation.

"Is this what you mean?"

"It's worth a try, isn't it?"

The youngest Perturabo smiled.

"Just like what the entity said: If the subspace cannot bring more benefits to mankind."

"Then why don't we try another possibility?"

"But the prerequisite is to prove that there is indeed a bread on the other layer of lettuce."

The newcomer retorted cautiously.

“We live in sandwiches, not hot dogs.”

"That's right. Any sane person would ask the same question after hearing the sandwich theory proposed by the original."

“What would happen if the third dimension didn’t exist?”

"And to be honest: at the beginning, the main body himself was not too sure about his guess."

“But now: We don’t have to worry about that.”

Perturabo, the youngest, tapped the petri dish.

"Do you know why the main body started to study these experiments that seem to have nothing to do with the third dimension?"

"Why?"

"because……"

He smiled, a smile that showed he was confident of victory.

“We have found the way forward.”

“And what we need to do next is to reach the other side.”

------

But open that door.

Push it aside: the purpose of his trip is behind it.

Perturabo stopped. Although there was only an ordinary iron door in front of him, the Primarch still adjusted his state carefully, as if he was facing the most important thing in the galaxy. He waited for a while until a heavy footsteps sounded.

It was a towering shadow, a humanoid monstrosity of pure metal and logic: had anyone been able to witness it, they would have cried out that this mad machine had violated the Emperor's will and would have brought ruin to the Primarch and the IV Legion.

But for Perturabo, this was just a tool he made in order to save more time: Well, he did not deny that this thing did cross the red line.

After all, he knew very well that these creations were powerful enough to hold back his Primarch brothers.

But so what? He had enough skill and confidence to hold them firmly in his hands: this was not an empty statement.

"Scanning……"

The figure of the Iron Man was more than five meters tall, and its voice was like an echo from the depths of the void. A chilling sound of metal friction and cables running slowly passed over the whole body of the Lord of Iron.

"Number: 00001."

"Authorization level: Highest."

"Greetings to you, Supreme Operator."

The metal monster saluted somewhat stiffly, but Perturabo simply waved his hand nonchalantly.

"Tell me: how is she doing."

"Requesting permission..."

"Entering latest data..."

"A report is being prepared..."

"Number: 00002."

"Authorization: High, Utopian treatment."

"Additional permissions: travel restrictions and communication restrictions."

"Physical condition: healthy."

"Disease: None."

"Psychological state: Depressed, angry, and withdrawn. It is recommended that you seek immediate counseling."

"Physical status: intact."

"Since last eating: three hours."

"Since last rest: nine hours."

"Since last cleaning: eight hours."

"Since last excretion: two..."

"Cough cough!"

"That's enough! Go down."

Perturabo coughed heavily, and there was a faint embarrassment in his voice.

But the metal monster naturally didn't care about these things. It retreated to the side obediently, and the door behind it opened immediately.

It's still a bit inconvenient.

The Lord of Steel shook his head.

Maybe he should reprogram it some time.

but now……

Perturabo took a deep breath.

He hesitated for a while, but in the end, he chose to raise his head arrogantly and walked in step by step.

------

I’m in a very bad state today, so I’ll write these first and make up the rest tomorrow.

Also, there is one more thing.

Please don't doubt it, Perturabo in my book will not be the Joker in the end. He will be a character with a more complex image and solution. Although Morgan's change of him was not out of true goodwill, it did allow the Lord of Steel to have a new path.

Perturabo may not necessarily have a good ending, but his ending will not be that of a clown, nor will it be a mixed one.

So don't worry, I'm not going to destroy a guy that I've spent so much time and effort on so easily.

(End of this chapter)