Warhammer: Empire Reboot

The third thousandth.

Three thousand living metal shadow blades silently spread out around him, like a dark star ring composed of metallic killing intent.

In the past, 1,081 Shadow Blades were enough to turn a battlefield into a slaughterhouse.

Now, the quantity has expanded to three thousand.

What's even more frightening is not the number.

Rather, it's about controlling precision.

Lawson's psychic perception radius has expanded to 500 kilometers.

Within a 500-kilometer radius, every location can be detected by the swarm's computing power and Lawson's own psychic perception.

Lawson had a sudden thought.

Three thousand shadow blades scattered in the air, then reassembled into three dark gold chains in the next instant, which then transformed into a round shield, a spear, a cutting array, and a metal storm as thin as a cicada's wing.

Andrei stood to the side, watching this scene unfold.

“BOSS, now it’s like walking into a meat grinder for any ordinary battle captain to come within 500 kilometers of you.”

Lawson smiled.

“An ordinary battle group commander is not worth me spreading out 500 kilometers.”

Andrei lowered his head.

"Where is the Demon Prince?"

Lawson flicked his finger lightly.

The three thousand shadow blades instantly converged into a single line, their sharpness slicing through the room, leaving visible traces in the air.

"It depends on which company it belongs to."

The changes in psionic energy are not only reflected in the Shadow Blade.

Shields, psionic lightning, earth and rock manipulation, gravity disturbance, air compression, and metal shaping—these abilities are not acquired through deliberate learning, but rather are methods that naturally emerge after psionic power reaches a certain level.

Just like when a person is strong enough, they don't need to specifically learn "stone-moving techniques" to move stones.

When enemy shells come flying in, he can deflect them with his psionic shield.

The demon bombards with psychic lightning, but he can also reverse the flow of energy.

The increase in individual strength is only the first change brought about by the billion nodes.

What truly captivated Lawson's gaze was the new privileges unlocked by swarm intelligence.

[Core privileges upgrade complete.]

[Unlock special sequence: Hero units.]

Lawson narrowed his eyes and looked up the system's description of the underlying parameters for "hero units".

A moment later, he sat up straight.

This new permission is different from any previous one for any unit.

Prior to this, individual differences would emerge in swarm networks due to their large size and the experience gained in battle.

Bai Zhi, the top-ranked member of the White Tiger Battle Group.

Xiong Da and Xiong Er from the Xiongwei Brigade.

The second and third dogs in the Imperial Guard.

These individuals, whom Lawson labeled as “emerging elites,” possess greater tactical autonomy, higher command authority, and more complete battlefield experience loops.

But there is still a line they cannot cross.

Template limit.

No matter how good Xiong Da is at fighting, his foundation is still a fifth-order Euglin template.

He can smash killing jars on the battlefield, turn orc leaders into mincemeat, and ram Dhaka jets with his Flying Bear motorcycle.

However, his muscle density, nerve reflexes, bone pressure resistance, and basic cellular structure remained within the fifth-order template extreme values ​​set by the system.

If Lawson wants to make Bear Big stronger, he must invest in subspace energy.

Overall template jump.

Or targeted enhancement of a single organ.

Hero units break this static parameter lock.

The newly unlocked hero units possess dynamic code that evolves autonomously.

When a hero unit selected by the system or designated by Lawson enters the battlefield, it will initiate a mutation path unique to itself.

Every swing of the sword, every wound, every kill of a high-value target, every survival in extreme environments.

All of these will be transformed by the system into the underlying nutrients that drive gene chain recombination.

Lawson quickly mentally reconstructed the feedback from actual combat.

Imagine a hero unit skilled in melee combat slaying a Khorne Bloodletter on the battlefield.

The warp debris generated when a demon collapses will be intercepted and re-encoded by the system.

This hero unit's weapon may gradually develop a permanent soul-cutting attribute.

His muscle fibers may evolve into a structure more suited to generating power in a slashing motion.

His neural reflexes will be specifically enhanced to adapt to the demon's high-speed assault.

If he repeatedly hunts psionicists, his neural structure and cerebral cortex may develop anti-psionic resistance.

These changes cannot be replicated in batches.

They grow along the path of combat; these are monsters that hatch on the battlefield.

Chapter 195 By order of the Lord Seal Master, take over the defense line here!

"interesting."

Lawson closed part of the explanation and pulled up the candidate list.

The nine regimental commanders, including Xiong Da, Xiong Er, and Bai Zhi, as well as Er Gou, San Gou, and even some cornerstone sequences that showed special tendencies in past wars, all appeared in the recommended sequences of the bee colony.

The number of hero units is not unlimited.

One billion nodes, with only initial permissions enabled.

Lawson cannot convert all the elites into the program for the time being.

This makes the choice important.

Hero units are not just regular upgrades.

Once confirmed, it means that this individual will break away from the purely standardized template and embark on an independent evolutionary path that is not entirely predictable.

"There's no rush yet."

"Let's wait for the next big battle and see who deserves the first batch of spots."

A hero unit is a seed.

He was eager to see what these units would become after years of struggling in the galactic meat grinder.

He then switched back to the macro-level troop strength panel.

The system privilege upgrade did not change the maximum number of battle sequences.

Limited by Lawson's current sixth-order genetic base, the pure combat sequence is still locked at 210,000.

Lawson pulled up the garrison map of the Agrippina sector and began a large-scale reorganization of the core forces.

He outwardly followed the Astartes Code.

Robert Guilliman wrote this code with the aim of limiting the size of legions and preventing a repeat of the Horus Rebellion, with each legion consisting of one thousand men.

Lawson had little respect for the code, but he respected its superficial value.

In the Imperial Military Affairs Department's filing system, the nine regular battle groups—White Tiger, Crimson Dragon, Luan Bird, Black Tortoise, Bi'an, Yazi, Zhulong, Suanni, and Taotie—each maintain a standard force of one thousand soldiers.

The regimental commander, company commander, tenth company organization, firepower allocation, logistics records, and battle flag numbering were all done in a very professional manner.

Any inquisitor who comes to inspect the Agrippina Sector will only see nine sub-churches that conform to the code's regulations once they have reviewed the public ledgers.

Taking advantage of the vastness of physical space, Lawson committed a blatant fraud that violated the bottom line of the law.

During the Great Vortex Raid, the Lurker Chapter emptied more than three thousand intact Space Marine power armors from the Black Huron Vault.

These powered armor models are mixed.

The T-series tech assassins disassembled, cleaned, repaired, and then repainted all of these power armors.

The paint spraying generator operates continuously on the assembly line of the arsenal.

Each set of armor was given a new identity.

They were distributed to regular combat suicide soldiers who were not officially registered in the nine warbands' ledgers.

The troops were completely scattered.

These "super-sized Space Marines" were scattered into the vast star sector in platoons.

These planets are separated by a vast void.

Unless Lawson issues a full-scale mobilization order, thousands of heavily armored assassins wearing the same paint scheme will never appear at the same physical coordinates simultaneously.

If the Inquisition's spies discover traces of the White Tiger Chapter on Collins-IV, they would assume it is a detachment.

If you go to Castis-VI, you'll think it's another deployment of forces.

They will never be able to piece together the total number of heavy troops that Lawson actually commands through partial observations.

Under the absolute dominance of swarm mentality, battle group designations are merely paint schemes, badges, and external rhetoric.

The real battle is made up of different blades under the same will.

The second core aspect of the tactical reorganization falls on the Xiongwei Brigade.