"According to legend, every so often, a secret event known as the Ascension Ritual is held on Autanta."
"At that time, the gaze of the God-Emperor will sweep across the entire planet. Even the filthiest and lowliest scum of the underhive may earn the right to take part in the ritual."
"Through the trial of blood and fire, through the most loyal hymns, the one most worthy will be chosen."
"He will see in the sky clouds of flame and war drums roaring with thunder."
"As the stars fall, the great angels will descend beside him with wings forged of holy fire."
"And he will rise to the flaming summit of the clouds, receive the God-Emperor's blessing, become an angel before the Golden Throne, and become the Emperor's warhammer to punish evil."
"Through the Ascension Ritual, even the scum of the underhive may have a chance to become the Emperor's angel."
By the time he finished, Old Bill's shriveled heart seemed to have come alive again, beating excitedly in his thin chest.
Watching Old Bill lose his composure in excitement, Gavo fell into thought.
She knew that this so-called Ascension Ritual was simply Space Marine recruitment.
That meant this planet called Autanta was a recruiting world.
No wonder she had never once seen anyone come down to the underhive to collect tithes over the years.
But for some reason, the phrase "a recruiting world in Segmentum Obscurus" always gave her an uneasy feeling.
[Stories heard +1]
[Objective complete: Listen to 1,001 stories. Physical attributes comprehensively improved.]
[Reward granted: Emotion Visualization. Emotions are fluctuations of the soul, and now you can choose to observe those fluctuations through a unique perspective.]
"Finally, a decent talent. It wasn't for nothing that I spent so long being a listener."
She immediately shifted her perspective and turned her gaze toward Old Bill.
Under this new perspective, Old Bill became semi-transparent, like a glass vessel filled with clusters of colored light.
These clusters constantly vanished and reappeared, rising and falling in dynamic changes.
They were as dazzling as the auroras said to appear in the polar regions of ancient Terra, and as brilliant as the fireworks of her homeland during the New Year in her previous life.
She could roughly guess that different colors represented different emotions.
And although the soul constantly generated new emotions while old ones faded away, the overall number of differently colored lights would not drastically change in a short period of time.
In other words, the emotional light clusters as a whole remained in a kind of linear dynamic equilibrium.
For example, Old Bill was currently filled with orange light clusters.
"Too bad I don't know what emotions these colors correspond to..."
Just as that thought appeared in her mind, she suddenly realized that she could completely understand the meanings of those colors.
Orange represented joy. Red represented anger. Purple represented confusion...
"Why can I understand the exact meaning of these emotions?"
Gavo was puzzled for a moment, but quickly understood.
This was the effect of her other talent, Unhindered Communication.
Emotions were fluctuations of the soul, and language was the same.
"So the combination of Emotion Visualization and Unhindered Communication can, in a way, let me read minds!"
Gavo was overjoyed, like a child who had just gotten a new toy.
At the same time, Old Bill had also finished today's story.
And she had finished listening.
Through this long period of listening, she had roughly concluded that the current era was clearly after Horus's grand betrayal and the War of the Beast, but before the Age of Apostasy's great church wars.
Then it was very likely that the current time was around the Age of Apostasy.
Her system objective was complete, and her purpose for estimating the era had also been achieved.
That was right.
It was time for her to leave.
"Old Bill, then I'll head back for today."
Gavo stood up and was just about to leave when a weak voice came from behind her.
"Little one... you'll come again tomorrow, right?"
She froze, not only because Old Bill seemed to have guessed that she was planning to leave for good, but also because his tone carried something he had never shown before.
Weakness.
Yes, weakness.
That tone sounded like someone about to lose everything, begging the one taking it away.
Gavo subconsciously turned around and saw the face of an old man already nearing death.
At this moment, Old Bill was filled with blue and white light clusters, and his terror at falling back into loneliness was almost overflowing from his clouded eyes.
She understood now that blue and white represented sadness and fear.
But Gavo had already completed her listening objective. What she needed now was to seize every second to grind her stats, struggle for survival in the underhive, and prepare for the Ascension Ritual that might come one day.
Even if her sex did not fit the requirements, she still wanted to try.
So from a rational point of view, she should decisively...
"Kindness is the greatest virtue."
Suddenly, her adoptive father's words appeared in her mind.
Yes, if she spent every moment training her body, perhaps she really could one day become physically comparable to an Astartes.
But what about her soul and her morality?
Would someone like that truly be qualified to become a Space Marine?
As the greatest dream of her previous life, she knew very well that a qualified Space Marine needed not only the body of a demigod, but also a noble soul.
That was the meaning of the Codex Astartes.
Gavo raised her head, looked at Old Bill, whose eyes were practically pleading, and slowly said,
"No..."
Just as Old Bill's face visibly turned pale, she changed her tone and continued,
"I'll come listen to your stories every day, Old Bill."
"So you'd better dig up plenty more from that old head of yours. Otherwise, when the time comes, you'll have nothing to say and can only sit there staring at my gas mask."
Gavo's slightly playful words left Old Bill stunned.
After a long moment, he suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, then you don't need to worry. Old Bill's stories are endless. All you need to do is perk up those little ears and listen."
"Then it's settled, little one. Come find Old Bill every day to hear stories, alright?"
Gavo nodded solemnly.
Only after seeing orange light clusters reappear in Old Bill's body did she feel at ease enough to start heading home.
And as she walked along the road, a brand new system objective appeared.
[New objective established: Travel 10,000 kilometers.]
[9,999 kilometers remaining until objective completion.]
"Tch. That objective is absurdly exhausting."
Gavo faintly sensed that the system's requirements seemed to be steadily increasing.
Jogging all the way home, Gavo saw her adoptive father standing at the door as always, waiting for her to return after listening to stories.
"What kind of emotion does Father have?"
With that thought in mind, Gavo activated Emotion Visualization.
In the next moment, dazzling golden light flooded her vision.
Gavo froze, staring blankly at that hunched figure, at the golden clusters of light overflowing from him.
Radiant gold represented pure love.
(End of Chapter)
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