Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 301: The Riddler of Mars

"Why don't we sit down and talk?"

Kelbor Har pointed to the seat in front of him.

That was the chair where the person who had come to go through the interrogation process had sat before.

Qin Xia thought about it again and again, and finally chose to sit on the chair, facing Kelbo, the Martian Casting General.

Quadrant stood behind Qin Xia, ready to remind Qin Xia not to fall into the trap of his mentor if necessary.

As Kelbo's apprentice, Quadrant is very clear about his mentor's inclinations.

"I want to tell you a story," Kelber said.

Qin Xia listened carefully.

Because he had realized that Kelber would use stories instead of dialogue.

Some things are difficult to express directly, so they are expressed through metaphors and the like, and analyzed by listeners who have the same thoughts as them.

Qin Xia still remembered that in the pre-space age of Terra, his ancestors in the Warring States Period used the Book of Songs to have confusing conversations, which was actually similar to the current situation.

"There is such a world in the galaxy. It believes in a religion, and it is this religion that helps the people of this world unite and survive together in a world that is comparable to a death world."

"Then one day, a powerful psyker arrived in this world... just as you arrived in Nukeria."

"The psychic creates supernatural wonders that are impossible to appear in the world, and displays all kinds of amazing supernatural powers. Then he claims to be a prophet of the gods in the religion, sent to guide the lost lambs."

Kelbo's voice was calm but powerful. Qin Xia could sense that when Kelbo, who was using an advanced sound-generating device, said these words, there must have been some personal emotions mixed in.

Or dissatisfaction or resentment.

Maybe it's excitement or excitement.

“Then almost everyone in this world believed what the prophet said.”

"The prophet declared that there would be a tall and handsome man with amazing abilities and extraordinary intelligence... In short, a very powerful person would come to this world after her. He is the true prophet of God, and all of you must obey him forever."

"Then the prophet died but the prophecy was passed down. Many, many years later, such a person really came into the world, so we obeyed him..."

"..."

Qin Xia didn't listen carefully to what Kelbo said next because he already knew what Kelbo was talking about.

This story is a replica of The Emperor's Reconquest of Mars, and it is a one-to-one copy without any metaphors.

The Emperor once went to Mars disguised as a member of the Mechanicus, and then announced that in the future a super powerful person would come to Mars, and you need to obey him. He is your leader, the prophet of the God of Machines, and the Messiah of Om.

Qin Xia still remembers the original declaration made by the person disguised as the Emperor on Mars.

To be honest, that declaration was a sincere self-boasting, a self-boasting that didn't seem inappropriate, but the words were so corny and childish that Qin Xia felt his scalp tingling.

Maybe the emperor was just a middle school student at that time.

Then many years later, the Emperor disguised himself as the super-powerful man he had predicted, descended on Mars, and performed all kinds of miracles.

Like making it rain, repairing Titan this and that.

The Emperor then signed the Olympus Accords with Mars, establishing the cooperative relationship between the Mechanicus and the Empire.

But did the emperor really fool many people with this action?
Not so.

Kelber was the one who wasn't fooled.

Kelbor Har, the current Fabricator-General of Mars, felt from the bottom of his heart that the Emperor was a liar. If one could claim to be the Messiah of Omni just by performing some psychic miracles, then if Magnus went to Mars, wouldn't he be able to pass himself off as the Primal Might of the Mechanicum faith?
There are even quite a few people like Kelbo.

There were so many people like this that after Kelbor was elected as the Forge General, the Emperor had no choice but to acquiesce, because at least Kelbor could bring a brief period of superficial peace and cooperation, allowing the Great Crusade to come to a quick end, and anything that happened afterwards would be easy to deal with.

All for the Great Expedition.

The Emperor was willing to pay any price for the Great Crusade and ignore any crisis that was not about to explode. It was like a person standing in a pile of mines. He watched the countdown of the mines exploding and chose to do something urgent before the countdown reached zero.

"So, do you think the so-called prophet in this story I told is a detestable liar?"

Kelbo finished the story and brought Qin Xia's thoughts back to reality with a question.

Quadrant looked at his mentor in disbelief.

Mentor, this is no different than speaking directly to the Emperor... but some things are just like that, as long as they are not said out loud, it's fine.

"..." Qin Xia did not answer.

"I'm talking about something very important, and I've tried my best to make the story as simple and understandable as possible for you," Kelber urged. "Give me an answer, a well-thought-out answer."

Kelbor's story is essentially a question of "how to view the Emperor".

If Qin Xia answered: Yes, the emperor is a damn liar, tying everyone to the chariot and rushing towards the abyss of destruction.

Then Qin Xia is the person who can cooperate.

If Qin Xia answered: Don’t ask, I’m asking for the emperor.

Then there can be no cooperation.

But since Kelber dared to say this, he was sure that Qin Xia would not give a second answer. The Mechanicus had spies throughout all the legions, and the people of the 19th Legion often complained that Lord Corax, under the instigation of Angron, had become distrustful of the Empire and the Emperor, and distrusted the Terrans themselves, even those who had not been exiled with Farr and remained in the legion.

As for the first meeting between the Emperor and Angron, Angron's evaluation of him as a "big slave owner" is well known to everyone.

Kelbo felt that he might not get a satisfactory answer, but he would definitely not be too disappointed.

"Let me change your story."

Qin Xia organized his words before speaking.

"The world you mentioned is on the verge of destruction, and that so-called prophet has descended into the world. He can reverse the fate of the world being destroyed and everyone dying. At least he thinks he can, and other people really don't have a better way."

"So if the people in the world in your story were able to clearly recognize the existence of the crisis of destruction, they would probably be divided into two groups, which would be the majority."

"One is the group that believes that the prophet is undoubtedly the prophet of God, and the other is the group that has to compromise and intends to leave the identity recognition issue to be resolved after the prophet saves the world."

"These are the two 'majority' groups, but the situation is actually much worse. Only a few people know about the coming of the Doomsday Crisis, or even its existence."

Qin Xia said this and waited for Kelbo to understand what he meant.

At the same time, Qin Xia was also preparing to persuade Kelbo.

Kelbor was the leader of the Martian rebels. There is no doubt that when the Horus Heresy broke out, Kelbor led his supporters within the Mechanicus and those who were still loyal to the Empire to start a war on Mars. If Mars had been more stable and had helped Terra after Horus entered the solar system, the rebels' battle would never have been so smooth.

There is a reason why the Mechanicum and the Empire have a cooperative relationship.

Productivity, war machines, technology... these are the advantages of the Mechanicus.

The mechas that Kelbo had brought with him looked ugly and stupid, but if they had really fought with Kiel and his men, it would have been good enough if Kiel and the three companies he brought with him could leave some fragments behind.

So Qin Xia really didn't want to see Kelbo rebel, and he wanted to persuade him.

“Crisis?” Kelber’s body trembled, as if he was laughing. “Those crises are the prophet’s weapons. The prophet uses them to intimidate us, to make us give up our rationality in fear, and then let him do whatever he wants.”

Qin Xia was still thinking about how to persuade him, but when he heard this, he immediately gave up.

Just like when he was with Avida before, when both parties held their own logical loops and there was no evidence to break the logical loop of either party, persuasion was worthless and the only thing he could do was to say something to spoil the fun and express that he was not reconciled.

"So if you lived on the planet in the story I made up, you would just be a person who questioned the Prophet's orders on the surface, but was actually still willing to serve him, right?" There was some sarcasm in Kelbo's voice.

Qin Xia admitted frankly: "Of course. Because I know we need a prophet to save everything. I know this sounds depressing, but the coming crisis cannot be dealt with by us uniting together. Objectively speaking, the combined strength of all of us is not enough to hold out for even a second when the crisis comes."

"So what else can we do?"

Qin Xia shrugged.

"I need the prophet to resolve the crisis, and I am willing to cooperate with him to resolve the crisis, but I will also oppose him on some matters that will not affect the resolution of the crisis."

"This is the attitude I would have if I lived on the planet in your story."

After saying that, Qin Xia thought about it.

He had explained to Kelbor why he would try to dissuade Angron from obeying the Emperor's orders completely, but why he would not teach Angron to take action directly against the Emperor.

The human race needs to accomplish many, many things in a very short period of time, and those things are beyond the reach of ordinary human power.

As long as the goal is not to watch the destruction of the human race, we cannot completely stand against the Emperor. The worst that can be done is cooperation.

"Your problem is that you are really stupid enough to believe that the crisis used to threaten us to be obedient will happen, and then you are in a self-contradictory psychological state." Kelber spread his hands and expressed his own views. "But I think the real reason is not that you don't resist, but that you are cowardly, fearful, and timid. You don't have the courage to resist someone who is actually enslaving you."

Hearing this evaluation, Qin Xia remained calm: "In any case, a person who saved the original body and exterminated the slave owners in the hell of Nuxing cannot be evaluated by a person who claims to be opposed but is actually being dominated like a toy with a righteous body."

"But at least you are right about one thing."

Qin Xia raised his index finger.

“I do have fears.”

“I fear the crisis that I have witnessed with my own eyes. I fear that after the crisis, everything that was once prosperous will fall into the abyss of ignorance and chaos again.”

"My fear comes from the horrors I have witnessed, not from believing the empty mouth gymnastics of a damned tyrant!"

Kelbo listened to everything Qin Xia said in silence.

Suddenly, the Forging General realized that Qin Xia might have come from a certain time point in the future. After all, the Mechanicus had not found out the source of the gene seeds used by this person.

But this idea was quickly dismissed.

As the Forging General, Kelbo has a collection of several ancient technological relics that can give insight into the future.

The future he saw was a future of enslavement by a tyrant, a future where the faith of the Mechanicus gradually declined, and was completely abandoned after being exploited.

The predictive abilities of those creations of the Golden Age even surpass the most powerful psychics, and are definitely more convincing than what came out of Qin Xia's mouth.

So Kelbo didn't believe what Qin Xia said, but he also thought that there was something right in what the other party said.

That is, what Qin Xia said was just empty oral gymnastics, which was not worth mentioning compared with the creations made in the golden age when humans could unleash their nature of invention and creation without restraint.

I will go back to Keer Road in two days. I went to practice driving today. I will update two chapters.

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(End of this chapter)