Warhammer: Rebuilding the Golden Age Starting with Farming

Chapter 40 Andy Lying Lying Dead, The Beautiful Misunderstanding of the Cunning

[Unauthorized access! Unauthorized access!]

[Logical contamination source detected.]

[Defense protocol activated: Logic deadlock/Neural burnout.]

Before Andy could react, a huge red warning box exploded right in the center of his field of vision.

Immediately afterwards, an extremely powerful data stream rushed in through the interface.

This is not ordinary data; it's a "logic bomb."

In the Golden Age, to prevent industrial mother machines from being contaminated by subspace obfuscation codes or hijacked by alien hackers, humanity installed this defense mechanism on all important STC devices.

Its principle is very simple: once it detects that the external input instruction logic does not conform to the factory specifications, or the operator's identity authentication is questionable, the defense system will release a high-frequency pulse along the connection line in an attempt to physically burn out the intruder's electronic brain or neural interface.

The Helios Group must have tinkered with this machine a lot before. In order to bypass security restrictions, they injected a lot of junk code and forced overwrite instructions into it, causing the black box defense system to be in an extremely sensitive and stressed state.

In its judgment logic, whatever is inserted now, whether it's Andy or anything else, is a virus!

Andy felt his processor core temperature instantly spike by twenty degrees.

The tingling sensation from the electric current turned into a stinging pain.

But he didn't rush to pull out the probe.

He's an iron man; even a logic bomb of this magnitude is just a little too hot for him.

"You want to burn me alive?"

Andy's electronic eye emitted a bright blue light.

"Your computing power is still a bit too green... Ouch, it's hot!"

Andy shut up.

In his next steps, he did not attempt to crack the messy encryption layers left by Helios, nor did he try to fix the control code that was already logically confused.

That's a huge waste of time, and patching up a system full of shit will only result in a working shit mountain in the end.

Andy chose the simplest, most direct, and most effective method.

format!

He directly mobilized his highest-level computing power as an Iron Man, bypassing the machine's application layer and directly entering the underlying BIOS system.

Andy wrote an extremely domineering set of system commands.

Whether it's an efficiency optimization script written by Helios or a security restriction patch, delete them all!

[Command executed: Full disk format.]

Objective: Restore factory settings.

The progress bar raced forward on Andy's retina.

The defense program, which had been putting up a stubborn resistance, collapsed instantly under the overwhelming computing power.

Now, the world is peaceful.

As the progress bar reaches 100%.

"Buzz—"

The suffocating low-frequency hum that had filled the entire core workshop suddenly disappeared.

The black cube, suspended in mid-air, flickered twice with the purple light flowing across its surface before extinguishing completely.

Then a yellow breathing light, representing standby status, lit up.

The machine stopped.

The critical "core meltdown containment protocol" was also forcibly terminated.

But Andy didn't feel relieved.

The moment the connection was lost.

"Sizzle—!!"

A massive surge of residual energy and a stream of erroneous data with nowhere to go rushed back into Andy's body along the probe that hadn't been pulled out yet.

Andy felt everything go black before his eyes, and his entire hydraulic system instantly failed.

"Clang!"

The half-ton metal body fell straight backward and crashed heavily onto the concrete ground.

[WARNING: Core overload.]

[WARNING: Motion control module forcibly taken offline.]

[Emergency cooling is underway... Estimated time: 300 seconds.]

Andy lay on the ground, unable to move.

His cooling fan was spinning wildly, making a whooshing sound, and the armor on his wrist was so hot you could fry an egg on it.

Although he couldn't move, he was still conscious.

For an Iron Man with an extremely fast thinking speed, this 300-second cooldown is tantamount to a long prison sentence.

I'm just idling around anyway.

"Let's find something to have some fun."

Andy began to peruse the last system log that he had just exported from the machine.

The content describes what the machine recorded about its operating status and external interactions before it was formatted.

Most of the error messages are in red, indicating abnormal core temperature due to lack of coolant.

But among these error messages, Andy discovered a very strange set of data.

"What is this?"

Hundreds of "no response" records.

The timeline is very close together, focusing precisely on the period before Andy entered the underground.

That is, when that pureblood gene stealer was frantically digging a tunnel with its minions.

"strangeness……"

Andy muttered to himself.

"These bugs don't understand electronics; they don't even know where the data interface is, so how could they send connection requests to a black box?"

A connection request typically refers to an external device attempting to establish a handshake with the host via electronic signals.

But these cunning fellows are digging a tunnel with pickaxes and claws, unless...

Andy pulled up the detailed waveform diagram of the rejected signal.

He compared this set of waveforms with the radiation waveforms emitted by the machine at that time.

A few seconds later.

A conclusion that Andy found absurd emerged.

According to his previous understanding, when the black box goes out of control, it releases a high-energy radiation field in order to reconstruct the surrounding matter.

The wavelength of this radiation is extremely unique, remaining stable between 380 nanometers and 420 nanometers.

However, behind this violet radiation is a low-frequency magnetic field pulse that oscillates thousands of times per second.

In physics, this is just a byproduct of energy overload and has no special meaning.

But in biology...

Andy quickly searched the STC biological database for the term "Terranids".

The Tyranids are a hive-mind race.

They communicate not by shouting, but by a type of biological signal called a "synaptic network".

This signal is essentially a special frequency band that is a mixture of psionic energy and bioelectricity.

And coincidentally...

This out-of-control Golden Age industrial machine emitted low-frequency magnetic field pulses that, in terms of frequency, wavelength, and even oscillation rhythm, were 99% similar to the "Gathering/Merging" signals emitted by the advanced synaptic creatures of the Tyranids, such as the Hive Tyrant or the Norn Queen.

It turns out the gene stealers didn't actually want to move the machine.

In their perception, this machine emitting intense purple light and pulse signals was not a machine at all.

That was a god!

It is a newly arrived Zerg hive mother that is sending out a strong summoning signal!

The signal, roughly translated, is:

"I am hungry, my children. Come back to your mother's embrace and give me your life force so that we may become one."

This kind of call from the genetic level is irresistible to a cunning person.

That's why that purebred chicken thief recklessly ordered his men to dig a tunnel.

The purple-skinned, bald workers who had just been casually smashed by Andy showed not fear, but fervent happiness on their faces just seconds before they were turned into crystal by radiation.

Because they believed they were responding to God's call and undergoing a sacred union with the Great Mother.

They didn't even care that the result of this fusion was that the stone turned purple.

In their minds, simply entering is a form of spiritual elevation.

"this……"

Andy lay on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling, feeling that it was all too abstract.

The Helios Group's disastrous actions resulted in the creation of a counterfeit Zerg beacon.

And a pure-blooded gene stealer lurking in the bottom nest, who was originally preparing to destroy the world, was deceived by a false signal and lost his life.

The purple-skinned bald men, one after another, died in front of a malfunctioning printer...

"This is what happens when you blindly believe."

Whether they believe in Old Man Huang, the Subspace, or the will of the Insect Nest.

If you don't understand science, you'll eventually be taught a lesson by the laws of physics.

Especially for those from XinYa Space, that's truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

[Cooling down is complete.]

The motion control module is back online.

System restart successful.

As the red lettering on his retina disappeared, Andy felt he regain control of his body.

The hydraulic pump was repressurized, emitting a slight hum.

He got up from the ground and moved his stiff joints.

The tan hazmat suit he was wearing had completely crystallized and shattered into pieces with his movements.

Andy didn't care.

The radiation here has now disappeared, and the purple light is gone too.

He walked up to the black box that was now obediently floating in mid-air.

The surface of the black box was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting Andy's cold, metallic face.

It has now been restored to its factory settings and has become an obedient industrial unit.

All you need to do is power it up, input the correct blueprint, and feed it junk food.

It can then spit out any raw materials that Andy wants.

"Alright, you're saved."

Andy reached out and patted the outer shell of the black box.

"Go home with my brother."

"From now on, follow me, and I'll let you eat all the garbage."