I summoned the Fourth Scourge in Warhammer

Chapter 2 The Lost Star [Peditia]

Bit began his aimless wandering in the subspace. Here, there was no concept of time or space, only an eternal, chaotic tide of energy and emotion. Thanks to his authority over [Information and Data], he was like a stealthy stalker with top-notch early warning radar, always able to sense signs of potential danger in advance—those sudden surges of abnormal emotions representing something, and the energy fluctuations stirred up by the movement of certain powerful beings.

Whenever he encounters this situation, he always decisively "turns around." After all, in his current state, encountering a powerful demon might lead to a fierce battle.

This extremely cautious approach, while ensuring his safety, also caused him to miss out on every possible opportunity. He didn't feel particularly regretful about it; after all, you have to be alive to have anything to do, right?

After an unknown amount of time, Bit's senses detected another subtle energy fluctuation. He had seen this type of energy fluctuation before—it was a subspace rift connecting to the real universe. Last time, he had personally witnessed a Tzeentch Blue Fearful Demon struggle to squeeze through a rift with such energy fluctuations. He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided against trying to steal it. If it were an unclaimed chaotic creation, he might analyze it, but one with powerful backers was best left alone.

This time, Bit repeatedly observed the rift, scanning it countless times from the inside out with his authority, confirming that there were no anomalies. It was a naturally generated, ownerless subspace rift.

As for why he wasn't afraid of being ambushed, it was because during his long wanderings, he had "seen" the first archdeacon under Khorne, "The Exile" Skabrand, from afar. He silently memorized the archdeacon's energy intensity as a benchmark. Afterward, he found a Chaos Demon Lord of Unbounded Power, whose strength was roughly half that of Skabrand, and conducted a remote, undetectable "probing experiment."

The experimental results confirmed one thing for him: his authority was unparalleled in the three areas of escape, concealment, and detection. Unless the difference in power was too great, and the five great evil gods personally intervened to set him up, no one could catch him. And if he really did attract the attention of those five, then there was no need to resist; with his current power, he couldn't resist anyway. He might as well think about which position would be most comfortable for him to lie down in.

After confirming that it was safe, Bit carefully extended a sliver of his perception, like the finest probe, into the subspace rift, attempting to probe the situation of the material universe on the other side.

The next second, a feeling of surprise surged through his consciousness, which was composed of data.

This subspace rift happened to open on a planet in a material universe!
To his even greater surprise, intelligent life existed on this planet, and in considerable numbers! His perception, like an invisible giant net, spread out from the crack across the entire planet in an instant. In a flash, the entire macroscopic situation of the planet was revealed.

This is a planet called Pedithia. Humans, orcs, dark elves, chaos cultists, gene stealers... all sorts of forces gather together on this rusty, dead world.

Hmm, looking at it this way, it seems like humanity's situation isn't so good, is it?
However, a troublesome fact also emerged. Bit realized with some helplessness that he was now far too weak; his perception range could barely cover this planet, and he couldn't even reach the star system in which the planet was located.

He had originally planned to use this crack to gradually expand his perception, covering as far as he could, growing stronger like a snowball. But now, the situation had put him in an awkward predicament. He had already scanned the entire planet's "static information," which had alleviated his weakness somewhat, but the amount of information was still far from sufficient.

However, there is another way. He has already scanned the fixed information, such as technological blueprints, genetic makeup, and biological structures—the "existing stock." But there is also constantly changing "incremental" information, such as communication, combat, construction, and betrayal among intelligent beings… These behaviors can continuously generate new information; this is dynamic information.

Bit was growing weary of his nomadic life of hiding and running in the warp. He figured it was better to stay here and continue absorbing this dynamic information. After all, even if he found another warp rift, it might not be unclaimed, and even if it was, there might not be a planet on the other side, and even if there was, there might not be intelligent life.

Moreover, Bit quickly discovered that the most efficient activity for producing dynamic information on Peditiana was war. Among these activities, information produced by humans was of the highest "quality".

He thought for a moment and quickly came to a conclusion: the souls of the Dark Eldar were gradually withering away; the Genestealers did everything for the Hive's will, and their individual thinking was almost zero; the Orcs lived very purely, just "WAAAGH!" and that was it; and the Chaos Cultists had long since become puppets of the evil gods.

Only humans retain a considerable degree of intellectual agility. And war is the best catalyst to unleash the potential of this species. A brutal war can propel the creativity, destructive power, emotions, and strategies of the human species forward a thousandfold, generating a massive amount of high-quality information.

Therefore, if he wants to absorb information most efficiently, he needs to ensure the survival of humanity as an "information source." Even if humanity wipes out all other races in the future, it doesn't matter; after eliminating external enemies, internal strife is inevitable. At that time, both sides in the war will be humans, providing him with even more information.

However, Bit scanned the human forces on Peditian again and found the situation precarious. All they possessed that could be considered armed was a tattered regimental-level unit of the Astral Army. Given this disparity in strength, even if he were to package up all the intelligence and technology—the Orcish technology, the Dark Eldar tactics, the Genestealers' deployment maps—and pass it all on to the commander of this Astral Army, humanity still wouldn't be able to win. The sheer difference in quantity and quality was too great.

Therefore, the only solution seems to be for humanity to magically "sprout from the ground." Ideally, these beings would immediately be able to shoot guns, drive tanks, and fight without fear of death. Otherwise, humanity on this planet is doomed.

Bit knew that, with his authority, it wouldn't be difficult to conjure a physical body out of thin air through the skillful manipulation of energy. The difficulty lay in his inability to create souls out of thin air. If creating human souls were so simple, the warp gods wouldn't be so eager for souls from the real universe.

Thinking of this, Bit's data consciousness stirred slightly.

He shifted some of his attention back to Earth on the other side through that mysterious link.

Although I cannot gain power in that low-magic world without warp, my information can go there. Does this prove that information from the other side can also come over?
If so, then perhaps the "souls" inside those empty shells he needs... will finally be found!

(End of this chapter)