Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 365 STC Template
A noble treasury.

The name itself is easy to misunderstand; "Ku" is simply a name.

The Grae family's treasury is made of extremely sturdy refined gold on the outside and decorated with marble on the inside, with soft, non-glaring lighting.

This is a vast palace built from collections, with crystal chandeliers hanging from the dome, and epic paintings slowly unfolding to present the history of the Grae family.

The collection is vast, featuring a variety of rare items, each with detailed descriptions and historical information.

Noble treasuries hold few treasures; money is worthless in a lost age. What truly has value are things that can bring power.

"Tsk~ tsk~ tsk~" Harlan shook his head and clicked his tongue in amazement. The brilliance of various treasures intertwined and reflected on his white armor, making it dazzling.

“So many things,” he looked up, seeing display cases of all sizes lined up one after another, seemingly without end. “The Grae family must have plundered quite a bit.”

While marveling at his creation, the champion swordsman's eyes darted around, searching for suitable collectibles as spoils of his journey.

Doom was tall and had a wide field of vision. His gaze swept across the treasure vault, and he memorized all the collections.

The Grae family collection mainly consists of relics and weapons, as well as some handicrafts and historical artifacts; the most valuable items have not yet been seen.

He walked up to a display case, immediately became interested, and quickly called Harlan over: "Come and take a look at this."

"coming!"

Harlan, who was searching for spoils, heard the noise and immediately ran over, thinking that Doom had found some good treasure.

"What is this?" He saw the item in the display case, which was just a ceramic jar with a blue landscape painting on it.

“A precious ancient relic.” Doom lowered his finger and pointed to the description on the display case: “Blue and white porcelain from ancient Terra, a treasure that historians have dreamed of.”

He raised his hand and opened his palm: "There are no more than five antiques like this in the entire galaxy."

After learning its origin, Harlan's eyes lit up. He carefully examined the porcelain in the static field and exclaimed, "You really understand me!"

Doom curled the corners of his mouth into a slight smile.

Apart from Harlan, the Ogrivi family had no other outstanding members, making them a small to medium-sized family in the constellation of stars in Nur.

Now that Harlan holds a high position, his mind is naturally becoming more active.

He wanted to enrich the family's cultural heritage and pursue diversified development, so that even if future generations lacked powerful warriors, their glory could continue in other areas.

Harlan took out a knife and engraved a mark on the display case. He nodded in satisfaction and looked at the other display cases, looking for a piece of equal value.

"Some things are a matter of chance, not something you can force." Seeing his expression, Doom gently reminded him, "Don't be too greedy, lest you lose sight of the bigger picture."

Having said that, he strode forward, heading deep into the vault to search for the true treasure.

Harlan abandoned his search and hurried after him. He was exceptionally strong, but his cultural knowledge was quite limited; he didn't recognize many things.

Instead of searching aimlessly, it's better to follow the knowledgeable Doom; you're sure to gain a lot.

As the two continued on their journey, Doom pointed out many unique items and gave them all to Harlan, who grinned from ear to ear.

Upon reaching the depths of the treasure vault, the sight before them captivated them, their eyes filled with joy.

At the far end of the spacious hall, several 100-meter-long spheres stand on bases on the wall. Their surfaces are made of bright white porcelain, and their unfolded chrome-plated cavities contain many silver-white pipes, resembling a sophisticated man-made machine.

“STC.” Doom sighed leisurely, reaching out to stroke the white porcelain sphere, as if he were witnessing humanity’s glory through the spherical machine.

STC is a vast database and artificial intelligence design program that contains all of humanity's scientific and engineering knowledge.

Its original intention was very noble: to enable any human colony, even one lacking professional engineers and scientists, to survive and thrive on an alien planet.

Users only need to input local available resources, environmental conditions, and requirements, and STC will automatically generate the optimal and most suitable design scheme, construction process, and a complete set of user manuals.

This incredible technology laid the foundation for human glory and enabled humanity to set foot across the Milky Way.

It serves as a constant reminder of how great humanity once was and how degenerate it is today. What we now call "high technology" was once just a basic tool used in colonies.

“What a pity,” Harlan said after examining it, his deep voice tinged with a rare, uncharacteristic pity. “It’s not the complete STC system, just some kind of standalone template.” Doom glanced at him and chuckled. “The complete STC system? That’s an unattainable legend.”

"If it still exists in the Milky Way, it would be enough to drive anyone crazy and start a war that shatters the Milky Way."

The complete STC system contains all of human knowledge and can even replicate itself, enough to allow users to relive the golden age.

It may still exist, but no one will be able to find it.

Most STCs in the galaxy today are templates, a single-item construction template; or STC fragments, blueprints containing scientific knowledge.

"The harvest here far exceeded my expectations," Doom said, his joy barely concealed, pointing to the four STC templates: "Four relatively complete STC templates, one of which is a shield template, and whatever the rest are, they are unimaginable treasures."

“And those,” Harlan pointed to a corner of the vault, where small display cases held rings, earrings, brooches, and other ornaments, “miniature weapons made by space apes.”

Doom counted them carefully; after these miniature weapons had sustained the Gera family's glory for centuries, there were still over a thousand left.

He was secretly surprised. The space apes that had crashed back then were indeed grateful for the life-saving grace of their ancestor, Gra, and had created many miniature weapons.

Next to the miniature weapon lies a capsule-shaped single-person escape pod, a testament to what happened.

"What a pity," Doom muttered under his breath. It was a pity that the space apes were nowhere to be found; that was the real "treasure."

The space ape was created by the ancient saints and was given "inspiration".

It allows apes to analyze scientific tools and create amazing artifacts with rudimentary technology; miniature weapons are just one example.

"Sir, have you found what you need?" A humble greeting came from behind, and Gra jogged up to catch up, his face flushed with weakness.

“We’ll be taking these STCs with us,” Harlan said bluntly, pointing to the ceramic spheres, then haphazardly tapping around in the vault. “There are also some collectibles.”

“That’s how it should be.” Grah forced a smile, his eyes slightly red, and nodded with a heavy heart, saying humbly, “You can choose whatever you want.”

Even though he was mentally prepared, when he actually faced the plunder, Grae's heart was still bleeding, and he was almost drowning in grief.

When the family's accumulated wealth vanished overnight, Gra almost fainted.

Seeing his grief-stricken face and his bewilderment at life and death, Harlan unusually offered words of comfort: "After all, we are not pirates or bandits. We left you most of your belongings, so you can rely on them to make a comeback."

"Thank you for your generosity, sir." Gra's face was stiff, but he tried his best to maintain his composure and did not point at the other party and start cursing. He was able to keep a very good mindset.

The most valuable items in the treasure vault were looted, and they still say they weren't bandits? Their generous tone is truly infuriating.

However, Grah secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had no doubt that his family could make a comeback, because that thing had not been discovered.

“Kid,” the Void Dragon suddenly spoke from inside the Archon’s armor, and Gra’s body immediately projected out: “This kid is very dishonest.”

"When he came to you, his gaze shifted slightly to the left, his pupils dilated by 0.2 millimeters due to relaxation, and blood flowed from his core muscles to his skin and internal organs."

"It's obvious that he's hiding something from you, and he's glad he got away with it."

As the Void Dragon spoke, he displayed various data about Gra's body and pointed out the location of the cheapest viewpoint.

“I know.” Doom’s voice was confined within the armor. Although he lacked the detailed data, he clearly sensed Gra’s relief.

“But I don’t understand,” he asked the Void Dragon, “why remind me when exposing you does no good at all?”

Doom wasn't too concerned about the hidden matters, but the size of the Void Dragon raised many questions for him.

To the Star God, this Archon Armor is a prison of His free will.

He did not do evil because he was intimidated by Doom's majesty; it was absolutely impossible for him to help voluntarily.

"..."

The Void Dragon fell silent, then chuckled maliciously, "I have no other intentions. I just want to see how dejected this mortal will be after he's been exposed."

The Star God's voice was full of wicked pleasure, anticipating the suffering of others, as if licking his lips in the shadows of the data stream.

(End of this chapter)