Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

[You seem to have a deep prejudice against Plato, Conrad? 】

"Plato? Are you talking about the stuttering orator who committed suicide?"

[That's Demosthenes. 】

"I've never been able to tell them apart."

【real? 】

"real."

The voice was firm and the eyes were very sincere: but it was just unbelievable.

【……】

The Spider Queen raised her head from her literary work, and her long silver-white hair spilled on the table, like a boiling corona thrown into the top of the snow-capped mountains, creating a river of gray frost that meandered to the river beach.

The Lord of the Second Legion was sitting behind her desk, which was the largest piece of furniture in the room, big enough to accommodate stacks of precariously stacked books and scattered with bundles of messy notes. On the edge of the table, countless electronic boards and electronic devices filled with information are the cages belonging to Virgo, nailing her to the Primarch.

Once upon a time, the Spider Queen would secretly mock the Lord of Macragge in her heart, thinking that he was not even capable of cleaning his own office: but now, Morgan's office is actually no neater than Guilliman's, and is even cleaner. A little bit messy and sloppy.

After all, these seemingly messy books and instruments actually already have a unique layout logic, which is related to the order of placement and the memory in the Primarch's mind. Any cleaning of them will cause Morgan and Virgo to feel distressed. And had to reorganize the memory context: weighing the two aspects, it is better to maintain this superficial chaos.

So, under this compromise, the Spider Queen moved her office to a remote room behind the throne room. After all, she usually only receives her heirs in the throne room. This move prevents the Dawnbreakers from being able to see To the messy side of the mother of genes.

Morgan still attaches great importance to her image and influence in front of her children, because she has witnessed with her own eyes how every move of the Primarch can inadvertently change the entire legion. It is no exaggeration to say that even one of her actions when she gave an order Commonly used gestures will attract countless high-ranking officers and even squad leaders to imitate them, becoming the most popular trend in the entire legion: even that gesture has no meaning at all.

Under the pressure of this heavy idol burden, apart from the Star Maids, the only person who can truly enter the Primarch's office is Conrad: given that his image in Conrad's eyes is already so bad that it cannot get any worse. , so when facing the Nostramos, the Spider Queen unexpectedly let go, without concealing the sinful attitude in her behavior.

Because of this, Conrad even received a small gift: he was assigned an equally sturdy small desk, placed on the right side of the Spider Queen, so that when the Lord of the Second Legion was handling all kinds of internal affairs, When the time comes, she can supervise and teach her blood relatives in time.

Of course, it is also easier to beat: Conrad knows this well, and the Spider Queen is too lazy to say anything more. After a few years, what kind of actions can make both parties safe, and what kind of actions will The close communication that leads to cordiality and friendship has long been a tacit secret between the two siblings.

In other words, every beating Conrad has received so far has been deserved: the Spider Queen is surprisingly fair and impartial in this regard, and every one of her atrocities occurs in the context of extremely clear complaints and What happened after the debate left the King of Night speechless.

Conrad even felt that compared to the Carrion Queen who slowly clenched her fist, the midnight ghost running rampant in the shadow of Nostramo was like a dumb beast: he had no use of language at all. value, and it does not allow fear and punishment to penetrate deeply into the heart of every guilty person through the ears.

In terms of fear, Morgan seems to have an advantage over him: not through the most obvious violence and torture, but through some more subtle but colder methods. What she uses is compiled with language, ridicule and logic. The ice-cold snare made of it is a wonderful thing that the Nostramo people have never heard of, and it is very useful.

Conrad wanted to learn this craft and this fear: this was an important reason why he tolerated Morgan's stupid compulsory education plan and memorized textbooks as thick as bricks. In his inner thoughts, he still looked down upon this seemingly empty palace of knowledge.

But he learned [Compromise] and experienced the value of taking a step back: this is the first thing that the Primarch has learned that he thinks has some value, after [Stun], [Caution], [Respect] and [Communication]. Five lessons, he engraved them deep in his heart, higher than those who don't know the so-called "all men are created equal" or "wind can enter, rain can enter, but kings cannot enter".

However, it needs to be explained that the Midnight Ghost is still the Midnight Ghost. Although his behavior seems to have changed a lot, hidden in his bones is still the King of the Night who makes the entire Nostramo obey: Kang Ladd cannot erase this existence. At some moments when he loses control of his emotions, he will involuntarily release this monster and continue to ravage everything.

Moreover, he often loses control of his emotions.

Sometimes, his rampage was unintentional, caused by certain scenes and fantasies that stimulated the darkness deep inside his heart; but at other times, his so-called "loss of control" was intentional, a timely cover-up in an attempt to evade responsibility. It was a necessary preparation to give some eye drops to his corpse blood relatives.

After all, severe punishment should not be used for mentally ill people: Conrad was lucky to have learned this content in time, and he even took the initiative to major in psychiatry for this purpose.

Therefore, when the Spider Queen's distrustful gaze came, Conrad had already been able to adjust every detail of his face to create a smile that was enough to leave his rotten blood relatives speechless. .

This smile was not perfect, but it was full of signs of madness: he knew that Morgan was always busy at work, and she would adopt some appeasement policies in a timely manner, and she also had a higher tolerance for his random behavior. Will resolve differences with talk rather than fists.

This was the first time Conrad knew the benefits of [communication].

Now, he likes [communication], whether it's listening or talking.

In this way, with the madness hidden in the eyes of the Nostramo, the Spider Queen did not scrutinize whether he was lying or not. She put down the heavy documents in her hand, picked up Conrad's test questions, and scanned them casually. A few glances.

Then, she raised her brows, selected one of the verses, and read it slowly.

[Law is the crystallization of all human wisdom and intelligence, including all social thoughts and moral qualities: this is Plato's famous saying. 】

[With this sentence as the center, I designed three questions, and then, using this as the initial argument, there were seven questions involving other subjects, and they were not related to each other: However, in a total of three hundred Among the twenty test questions, you only got these ten wrong? 】

Morgan's words were very soft, starting with a slightly confused murmur, but soon, her cold gaze penetrated the heavy documents symbolizing the world, fleet, legion and supplies, and landed on Conrad Her words turned into heavy accountability, causing the Nostramo to involuntarily touch his cold shoulders.

He coughed, as if to gain confidence in his words.

"I think this is probably an academic mistake: you know, I can't tell Plato or anyone else. I made random guesses about questions related to him, and it's normal for me to answer wrong questions. "

[It is indeed normal. 】

Morgan snorted.

[However, among all the questions, only the ten questions with Plato happened to be all wrong: Do you think this will be a small miracle in probability, my dear parasite brother? 】

[A zero score in the test also requires skills. 】

Conrad coughed twice more. He lowered his head and stopped talking. He tried hard to retract his head into the fortress of books about philosophy and law. This fortress was carefully built by him and he hid in it. , you can completely lose sight of the Spider Queen's sharp gaze.

In order to maintain this wonder, Conrad must be careful in every move he makes: for example, when he wants to take out the "Meditations" on his left hand, he must travel thousands of miles to get the "Nicomachean Ethics" Study] was taken first as support, and although [Utopia] has always been shelved by Conrad, no one can deny that it forms the core support point of this spectacle and cannot be shaken.

But for now, Conrad actually prefers the book [1984] and the book [Brave New World] copied by the Spider Queen herself. Those are very few that he can really read and understand. Wonderful book to learn a little something from.

Just as the Night King imagined, Morgan didn't have to deal with him for too long. She still had thousands of official duties to review, involving tens of millions of completely different fields in hundreds of worlds. , which makes people's scalp numb: this kind of fatigue is the price of monopolizing power, and it is also the poison that the Spider Queen must drink now.

Putting down the corrected test booklet, the Spider Queen glanced at the documents on the desk. They were all the backlog of official business she had accumulated during her expedition to the Gothic Sector. Most of them were work reports of some secondary expedition fleets, and The results of the Ministry's activities throughout the galaxy.

Among them, there is no shortage of strange news that makes the Spider Queen cover her forehead, or good news that makes her smile.

For example, the popularity of the [Psychic Codex] in various Legions of Astartes is one of the pieces of information that the Queen of Avalon is most concerned about. The black warriors of the Ministry of Internal Affairs snoop on information from the mortal auxiliaries of each legion, and even It is prudent to develop some offline to satisfy the curiosity of the Primarch.

At present, the [Psychic Codex], as a comprehensive textbook focusing on safety and low threshold, is still very popular in various legions that accept it. The more intimate legions such as Salamanders and Ultramarines have even become popular among mortals. It was promoted discreetly among psykers: Morgan was pleased, even surprised.

What made her eyes shine even more was that legions such as the Space Wolves and the White Scars, which already had psychic heritage, could already draw inferences from one example through the Psychic Codex and promote some unique and fresh products.

For example, the runes of Fenris...

【……】

The Spider Queen's fingers gently crossed the page of the report, causing a slight tremor in the air. Her eyebrows were lowered, and she temporarily forgot about Conrad, watching the Nostramo people carefully. , the pupils of the Lord of the Second Legion gradually relaxed, apparently falling into some kind of meditation.

Conrad saw this scene. He blinked, stretched out his head from the pile of books, and shook his head tentatively: After discovering that his corpse blood relative did not respond, the King of the Night quietly held his hand in his hand. Putting down the textbook, he grabbed [us] placed in the dark, stuffed it skillfully into the textbook, then lowered his head and continued to pretend to study hard.

Morgan is satisfied with the progress of the spread of the Psychic Code, or in other words, this good development trend is within her expectations, and it is galloping along the best path in her expected plan.

To give an inappropriate example: In the Spider Queen's plan for the psionic code, she positioned herself as a young [game developer], and this low-threshold summary of psionic instructions is what she was observing. After meeting the market demand, the main purpose of the first [game] launched by focusing on the field in which it is best at using excellent technology and low price is to establish a reputation and establish a foothold in the market.

For this purpose, the Lord of Avalon has taken great pains. She gave up the so-called [depth] and did not explore even the slightest bit of profound spells in the book. Instead, she kept all indicators at the most suitable for popularization, but yet It has a balance point that does not lack rich content, and strives to be both educational and entertaining: when you can clear the [game] of the Psionics Code, you are already a qualified psyker.

But apart from that, the biggest advantage of the Codex of Psionics is its extremely low configuration. As long as you are a psyker, you can learn it smoothly: this is equivalent to, even if it is a stand-alone masterpiece, as long as you have a computer, Regardless of the configuration, you can run this game proficiently.

By the way, it's still free forever.

With these points as a foundation, the best-selling of the Psychic Code was expected, but Morgan did not stop: she quickly started thinking again, about the future possibilities of the Psychic Code.

For the sake of long-term interests, the Spider Queen specially marked the Psychic Codex as a [reference type book], and deliberately relaxed the rules at some key points to leave room for those capable readers to draw inferences. Provide her with new ideas.

In other words, Morgan is giving away the [Game] [Psychic Codex] for free, and also comes with a fairly complete creative workshop, in order to let experienced [players like Space Wolves and White Scars] 】While entering the pit, do it yourself, have enough food and clothing, and try to grow a bunch of game modules for her. If it doesn't work, she can also give her some rewards.

In the planning of the Primarch, in the next time, she only needs to wait patiently, carefully collect feedback, observe public opinion, explore new blue oceans, and harvest the game modules she grew from the [Creative Workshop]. , after limited integration with new ideas, and continuous free [updates], [modifications] and [patches], and finally through the increasingly perfect masterpiece of the Psionic Codex, it laid a foundation of public opinion in various legions and even the entire empire. .

Public opinion is a very important thing, and the Spider Queen has no doubt about it: otherwise, look at the famous Ultrama melon farmer next door who makes a living selling "Ambition", and you will know what will happen if he doesn't care about public opinion.

Thinking of this, the Spider Queen couldn't help showing a brisk smile: Robert may be the most proactive among all [players]. When the Ultramarines Legion promoted the psionic code to its mortal auxiliaries, they encountered The problems I encountered, the solutions I came up with, and the mistakes I made are all worth learning from.

However, the consequence of this is: the number of [regular psykers] possessed by the entire Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar is now approaching seven figures. According to the relevant information submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Morgan is only After a cursory glance, my scalp felt numb.

Um……

It would be better for Guilliman to continue to be ambitious: he has the qualifications.

The Primarch nodded, confirming this. Ultramar's growing strength made her a little helpless and a little angry. She temporarily lost interest in continuing to review official documents, so she breathed a sigh of relief and subconsciously turned her gaze away. On to her parasite brother.

Conrad studied very seriously.

【……】

This is very wrong: Morgan has not seen this kid actively and autonomously learning any subject in several years. With her eyes closed, she can guess that this Nostramo fruit bat is hiding in the blind spot of her vision. What to do.

So, the Spider Queen pretended to straighten up, cleared her throat, and after making a few strands of Conrad's hair stand up in surprise, she told him a decision in a low voice.

[Which book are you studying today, Conrad? 】

"Uh... "The History of Herodotus" and "The Constitution of Athens."

[Very good, then I will conduct a spot check in fifteen minutes and be prepared. 】

"..."

Because of nervousness and surprise, the Nostramo man's voice paused for a second.

"I just started reading these two books today. In fact, I haven't learned the latter one yet. Is it too fast to randomly check now? From a technical point of view, it is not feasible for me to answer all the questions."

The Nostramo's tone was as fast as a bomb burning in his mouth.

Morgan didn't look at him, her eyes always wandering through her files.

[Every book I give you is copied by me personally. I know all the opinions and contents above, as well as the time required to read them: Don’t worry, I will randomly check those you are sure based on your study time. You will definitely be able to answer the parts you have read as long as you are not lazy. 】

[You're not lazy, are you? 】

"……certainly."

Conrad responded in a low voice at first, and then he could hear a hurried sound of rummaging through the wonders of his books, and then an even more hurried and urgent sound of turning pages, like a bird. The civet cat was playing with a handful of hot green chestnuts and didn't dare to stop.

The Spider Queen chuckled and ignored her blood relatives. She waved to the Virgo standing beside her and got a cup of milk tea with just the right temperature.

[Next time I want to drink juice, apple and peach juice, with double the sugar and ice cubes. 】

The Primarch gave instructions casually, while Virgo glanced at his mother's streamlined body, opened his mouth, and ultimately didn't say anything. Instead, Morgan saw her embarrassment and showed a comforting smile.

[Don’t worry, I will lose weight the day after tomorrow. 】

"..."

Virgo knew that she might not be able to wait until the day after tomorrow when there is a high probability that the Primarch would have been buried in the subspace turbulence.

But compared to these small questions, Virgo was more curious about another point. She glanced at Conrad's morning test paper and felt a little uneasy: whether it was these test questions or the words written by the Primarch himself. The ancient books were actually written by the star maids headed by Virgo, and Morgan's daughters were afraid of any mistakes in them.

"Is there anything wrong with Lord Conrad's mistake, mother?"

During the psychic exchange, Virgo's concerns made the Spider Queen laugh.

[No big problem, just...]

Morgan raised the corners of her lips, and she repeated Plato's famous saying again.

[The law is the crystallization of all human wisdom and wisdom, including all social thoughts and moral qualities. 】

[This sentence is indeed good. 】

[But: Do you know how much my dear Conrad hates this sentence? 】

——————

Virgo stepped back. Although she still had some doubts, these small problems required her to think independently: the Spider Queen was happy to see the light of thinking bloom in her daughters, and she was even promoting this.

After all, strictly speaking, the Star Maids who were created by her, who also inherited her bloodline and will, and whose hearts are connected to hers, as her [daughters], are even better than the [sons] of the Dawnbreakers. Much Kinder: Not everything can be revealed to the Dawnbreaker, but to Virgo and her sisters, the Spider Queen can safely say everything.

Just like that, after glancing at Virgo, who was still bowing his head in thought, and then at Conrad, who was memorizing things by rote, Morgan suddenly realized that there was no reason for her to continue fishing.

Therefore, the Primarch just threw himself into the work sadly. After all, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was still very efficient. Through visits, legion exchanges and some more tactful means, they could always get what Morgan wanted to know.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the Spider Queen is not very interested in the core secrets of her Legion of Astartes: if you just want to know some public matters such as public opinion, then the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be almost impossible to discover.

In this way, there is not a lot of information about the legions piled on the desk of the Lord of Avalon, and there are also priorities among them. For example, the two legions closest to Avalon, the Ultramarines and the Iron Warriors, need to focus on Objects to be visited and investigated.

But unlike the generally prosperous Five Hundred Worlds, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stationed in the Fourth Army was always able to pass back some information that made Morgan's eyes darken, and even made her doubt the authenticity of the information.

For example...

The Spider Queen picked up the latest report on the Iron Warriors Legion and frowned deeply: In the first half, this report showed that the [Psychic Codex] has been popularized under Perturabo's vigorous promotion. It is good news for the entire Iron Warriors Legion.

But then, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported a use of the [Psychic Code] by the Lord of Olympia. In just a few words, the Spider Queen sketched a stunning image in her mind that could rival Magnus. .

After reading the summary of the battle [Using Think Tanks on a Large Scale and Winning], there was only one huge doubt left in the mind of the Lord of Avalon.

【……】

How did Perturabo do it?

How on earth did he use the Think Tank to achieve an 89% death rate in a battle that was unquestionably victorious?

#morganconfused#

Could it be that he regarded them as psychic cloud bombs and fired them one after another?

Confusion and confusion were like two entangled dragons, constantly colliding with echoes in the Lord of Avalon's mind, urging her to open the cover of this report and read it carefully.

Perhaps they guessed that their mission report would arouse doubts. Those members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who were active in the Iron Warriors also specially submitted a rather detailed battle description to their genetic mother. Even those who participated in this battle The action trajectories of those steel battalions in the war are all available.

It can be seen from this that the performance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Fourth Legion is still very good: after all, the Iron Warriors Legion has a large number of mortal auxiliary troops. Due to the neglect of the Sons of Perturabo, this army The composition of the organization is a mixed bag, and it is easy for Avalon's agents to find opportunities to crack open cracks, obtain secrets, and even develop informants.

And this was also one of the original purposes of the Spider Queen's establishment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: I still remember that during the Second Randan War, the Lord of the Dark Angels once took a short break after making a loud noise, with a kind of silent pride, Showing off to his blood relatives in a subtle way, he also has some friends in Holy Terra.

And this scene is also one of the driving forces for the Lord of Avalon to establish a Ministry of Internal Affairs directly under her after taking charge of the Legion: she also wants those useful [friends] to solve some deficiencies in intelligence and gray areas.

Under the leadership of this idea, the agents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs happily established their own relationships among careless legions such as the Iron Warriors. Their biggest worry is that the sons of Perturabo have no regard for mortals. The attitude of the auxiliary army can be called "squandering", and they even simply call the mortal army "meat".

The daily routine is: [When we run out of meat, ship another batch over. 】

Many mortals who have just been developed into informants will be thrown into the battlefield meat grinder in the blink of an eye, never to be seen again, leaving the executives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in tears.

If there is an oversight and the network is not updated for several months, Morgan's agents will be pleasantly surprised to find that the entire Iron Warriors Legion's mortal auxiliary army has been completely reshuffled on the battlefield, and there are no old faces left. Not to mention a network of contacts: put another way, this may be Perturabo's unique counterintelligence skills.

But even in the face of such a dilemma, these sons of Morgan, dressed in black armor, still sent back the information the Gene Mother needed, allowing her to marvel at the operations of her blood relatives.

The matter is actually not complicated. When besieging a certain psychic race, the Iron Warriors encountered a problem. The enemy's fortress needed the Primarch to lead the team in person, but the enemy's great wizard was also so powerful that he needed the Primarch. The opponent can only be defeated by going into battle in person.

How to remove these two factors that were detrimental to the battle at the same time became a brief confusion in Perturabo's mind, but he quickly thought of a solution.

By observing the combat performance of the alien wizard, and comparing it with the think tanks in his legion who had initially grown up by studying the [Psychic Codex], the Lord of Steel calculated an accurate ratio: with only three hundred think tanks, he You can [replace] that wizard.

So, he immediately dispatched 300 think tanks: Yes, not one more. After all, the alien military strength has already stretched the Iron Warriors Legion a bit, and the Lord of Steel is sure of the results of his calculations.

The facts proved: he was right.

After paying the price of the explosion and death of a mere 267 think tanks, the remaining thirty-three Iron Warrior think tanks stepped on the corpses of their comrades, dragging their own seriously injured or mutilated bodies, and finally The exhausted head of the alien wizard was shattered: at the same time, the horn of victory also sounded on the skyline.

After the war, excluding those who died of serious injuries and those who entered the Dauntless Army, only three Think Tank members successfully returned to the team. However, Perturabo expressed that the casualties were acceptable. He formally approved the expansion order of the Think Tank unit and verbally commended them. All the think tanks participating in the war even personally built their own steel tombs for those think tanks who needed to join the Fearless.

According to a report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs: There are even many Iron Warriors who are jealous of the think tank troops, or simply apply for psychic potential testing.

【……】

Well, maybe this is the Olympian steel spirit that she just can't understand.

Morgan blinked and slowly put down the report: In any case, the establishment of the Psychic Codex and the Think Tank has finally gained a firm foothold in the Fourth Legion, which is also a good thing for the Spider Queen.

Now, except for the Thousand Sons, Death Guard and the Alpha Legion that has been silent, all Astartes Legions have accepted the existence of the Psychic Code and the Think Tank, and the situation is much smoother than Morgan imagined.

Of course, there will inevitably be many shocking operations like Perturabo's, but the Spider Queen has neither the energy nor the time to care about those now.

after all……

Morgan glanced at Conrad, who was immersed in reading at this time. The speed of flipping through the book was like a wind and sand, which inevitably made people wonder whether he had read and understood it carefully.

【……】

After all, she didn't even fully manage this in her own home.