Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

[The Sigillite told me that he would give me something unexpected when we meet next time: a surprise?]

"Is it related to the Emperor?"

[Well... sort of.]

"Sort of? What do you mean sort of?"

The Spider Queen's absent-minded answer obviously did not satisfy her brother, but Conrad did not immediately express his dissatisfaction because he was busy with other things: Midnight Ghost was leaning on his own soft chair, carefully grinding his nails, and his beloved niece Virgo was sitting next to him, preparing the cleansing essence for him to use later.

And these items, whether it was the cushion under the Primarch's buttocks, and the file that could cause real damage to him, or the cleansing essence that only needed a small pinch to be in stock: they were undoubtedly local products of Nostramo, just like every object that Conrad would use in his daily life.

Midnight Haunter has always maintained such habits, especially when he is in public, he likes to use this method to make his people full of confidence in the industrial products produced locally: although this sounds a bit of a fuss, it will not cost him anything in reality anyway.

And as long as this [idol effect] can have even a little effect, it will be profitable for Conrad, especially at the critical moment when the whole ghoul country is undergoing industrial upgrading: although Conrad's home planet has made a lot of money in the past few decades because of the export of raw materials and various ancient artifacts, this does not mean that Midnight Haunter's ambition is limited to making Nostramo a pure raw material exporter.

The profit from selling mines may support a rich place, but it cannot support a big country.

The real dream of the Primarch is to establish a complete industrial base in Nostramo. If a certain internal circulation can be achieved, it will be even better: of course, the ocean trade with other Far Eastern countries and various forces in the empire must not be stopped. After all, these two points are not actually in conflict.

The ocean trade is for [profit], while the internal circulation is for [establishment]: the former only needs to be handed over to the invisible hand, and let the wandering merchants and related industrial chains be responsible for their own profits and losses, but the latter actually requires real-time monitoring and precise control by the legion and even the primarch himself, and is the lifeblood of the country that cannot be easily handed over.

Especially considering the current prosperity in the human empire, it will never be an eternal scene: Conrad, who can foresee various futures, knows better than anyone that the Emperor's cause is destined to go through some tests, and everything he has built will be annihilated in the flames of war in a few decades.

By then, let alone long-distance trade with Corax, the Great Vortex and various forge worlds, even the material transportation routes within the Far Eastern Three Kings, and even the communication between Nostramo itself and various agricultural satellites, are very likely to be greatly affected, and may even be directly cut off by the subspace storm.

At that time, the importance of having a self-sufficient internal circulation system and, at the very least, the production capacity to supply sufficient food, weapons and ammunition is self-evident: Conrad may not have learned any profound secrets under Morgan, but his history major is still quite good.

He clearly remembered that the main reason why human civilization collapsed so quickly after the strife era was that each developed civilized world had completed its own industrial division of labor and mutual dependence early, and many basic materials were completely imported by air routes. When the subspace storm of the strife era completely blocked the possibility of communication between the worlds, many originally prosperous human civilizations regressed directly to the Stone Age in a few generations because of lack of food or water, which sounds incredible.

Globalization has its pros and cons after all. It is always uneasy to hold the industrial chain in the hands of others.

Who knows if there will be any strange bombs in the next product shipped?

And Conrad didn't want such a thing to happen again on Nostramo, just like hundreds of years ago: after these years of growth and experience, and after private conversations with many Nostramo recruits, Midnight Haunter now recognizes a fact from the bottom of his heart

That is: the reason why the people of Nostramo regard Midnight Haunter as a god, remain loyal to him for generations, and implement every one of his decrees so firmly is not because of the so-called law, justice and glory that Conrad originally expected, but because Midnight Haunter who returned from the human empire really brought [bread and peace] to this star of eternal night.

Bread is even more important than peace.

When they no longer have to worry about their wives and children dying on the streets for no reason one day, or starving to death in front of them, Conrad, who has solved these two millennium disasters, naturally becomes a living god in the eyes of the Nostramo people, and his rule is unshakable: and once Midnight Haunter cannot guarantee this in the future, then his kingship is very likely to come to an end.

However, the particularity of the Ghoul Kingdom means that if Conrad cannot ensure the stability of Nostramo, the core world, then his entire legion will most likely be stuck in the quagmire of the northeastern part of the galaxy, busy with various repression and defense operations: by then, let alone taking the opportunity to intervene in the chaotic situation within the empire, even ensuring peace in this area will be a fantasy.

Konrad, who had figured this out, resolutely led his Nostramo on the dual-core road: just like the other two Primarchs in the Far East, not only did they each have their own internal circulation to ensure self-sufficiency in times of crisis, but they also had a developed trade network to generate more common interests.

As for how to build this system that sounds simple but is actually complex: Conrad left it to Morgan and Guilliman, and was not worried that they would take the opportunity to do something. After all, if this internal circulation system needs to work, then his two good brothers may not care about Nostramo's problems.

Because of this, Conrad developed these strange little actions, such as paranoidly choosing products with Nostramo labels in various public places. Even if the products from other places are more effective, they will be firmly rejected by the Midnight Ghost.

The same is true now: the Night Lord has a whole set of weird but complete cosmetics, which he customized from his home planet. Although the quality is far inferior to the imported products from Holy Terra, Conrad is very happy to hear that this cosmetics factory has kept thousands of families going.

Maybe thousands of families are just a trivial number for the Primarch?

Anyway, Conrad feels that this number is enough for him to pay attention to. He has made more mistakes than this: before he walked out of his paranoid illusion, countless innocent people who did not deserve death fell under the ruthless claws of the Night Ghost. Now everything is just a compensation for the bloody mistakes in the past.

It is also a celebration of his self-aesthetics.

However, others may not understand the aesthetics he follows: I saw that the Primarch of the Eighth Legion was grinding his nails, which should have been round, into sharp claws, until they were no different from the beast-like teeth in his mouth, so sharp that they could directly pierce the table.

It must be interesting to shake hands with his brothers with such nails: his palms are just big enough, no less than those of Volgan and Magnus, and most of his brothers can't escape.

Conrad smiled with satisfaction.

Then, he reached out and grabbed the cleansing essence that Virgo had just prepared, rubbed it in his palms and applied it on his face, until the whole ugly horse face changed from the flesh color that still had some human breath to the paleness that was no different from the protagonist in the horror story, which made the Midnight Haunter slightly satisfied.

Conrad needed this complexion precisely to confirm the random rumors about him in the human empire: many brothers, like those ignorant mortals, thought that he was a ghoul who hid in the shadows all the time and was afraid of seeing the sun and noble spirit, and Conrad would never get angry because of such evaluation.

In the past, he would sadly acquiesce.

And now? He doesn't care!

On the contrary, the Night Haunter has been deliberately maintaining the influence of this rumor, making many Primarchs and ambitious people belittle his actual mental state and self-control: in time, this contempt will surprise those bastards.

Conrad still learned this trick from his dear sister: he witnessed with his own eyes that Morgan not only maintained his weak posture outside to reduce the fear of outsiders about the Far Eastern Frontier, but also creatively established the sign of Guilliman, which the Macragge people still use very well.

Conrad is happy to imitate her. He doesn't even need the sign of Guilliman. The crazy but pathetic Night Haunter in the past is Conrad's best disguise now: anyway, the main force of the Eighth Legion is mixed in the Ghoul Stars and other dark corners, and people don't know the specific situation of this legion in fact.

Many people still think that the Night Lords are just like before, a gangster group that is only good at street fighting and melee? Conrad did not deny the bias of his descendants. He only hoped that those who held these prejudices would have the leisure to laugh at the independent armored forces he had built with a lot of money, and the independent Terminator formation of up to 4,000 people.

You know, the Terminator of the Eighth Legion was a special product of Conrad after inviting many forge worlds to participate and constantly comparing prices: this new equipment sacrificed strong defensive performance and was extremely expensive, but its mobility and firepower output in a short period of time were impeccable, and it was the most suitable professional counterpart for the Eighth Legion.

How good is it?

Guilliman imitated the first batch in less than three years.

But Conrad didn't care much about it. After all, what the Macragge people imitated was just the smoke bomb he deliberately released. The real essence of this new Terminator Armor was now stored in the joint weapons laboratory of the Night Lords and Raven Guard Legions: and the legal person of this laboratory was Morgan's Dawnbreaker.

In their secret base, Corax, Morgan and Conrad are trying their best to develop a Terminator Armor that can achieve the real [invisibility] effect through optical means, silencers, new materials and psychic interference rituals.

It will subvert the battlefield: the combat effectiveness of the Night Lords and the Raven Guard will be turned upside down, and the research progress has made gratifying progress. Although Conrad doesn't care much, Morgan has been loyally telling him, not to mention that Sevatar is supervising for him.

With this double guarantee, Midnight Ghost naturally has enough leisure to care about those trivial things that have nothing to do with him: for example, Morgan has not received the gift yet.

"Didn't Malcador tell you clearly what gift he is going to give you?"

[The details are vague: but it can be guessed. ]

The Spider Queen snorted.

[After all, he himself has nothing to show in front of me: after all, he is only a minister of the Emperor. Curry's treasures are far inferior to our genetic father in terms of quantity and quality. It is only in some very niche aspects that he has surpassed. ]

[As for the Emperor's private collection, anyway, our father always owes me a salary. I can ask for it whenever I want. As long as the object I am interested in is not particularly important, the Emperor does not mind generously: this may be the only advantage of him. ]

"I agree."

Conrad nodded and gently blew away the residue on his fingertips.

"So, you have to go to the Emperor's Dream before going to the ground?"

[The Emperor gave me a teleporter that can reach his flagship directly: but the shelf life is only until next year, and it is specified that it will be teleported to the guns of two hundred guards. ]

"What a great favor."

Midnight Ghost laughed.

"In other words, this time you and Malcador will also need to work together to deal with our Gene Father first, and then let him deal with other Primarchs according to your wishes: just like the time in the Perfect City?"

[Almost: But this time the script can't be settled in ten sentences. ]

"...Seriously, Morgan."

"Don't you think that your behavior with Malcador is very...some kind of déjà vu?"

The Spider Queen sneered.

[If this was my initiative, it would indeed have a sense of déjà vu, but unfortunately the Emperor was the one who took the initiative: Besides, don't be so pessimistic, maybe our father just wanted to give me a gift. 】

"For example?"

[...]

[I don't know: Can your remaining prophetic ability provide any clues? ]

"Hmm..."

Conrad suddenly hesitated. He looked at Virgo next to him with concern, and there was a hint of evasion in his eyes. It was not until Morgan waved her eldest daughter to leave first that Midnight Haunter considered it and spoke slowly.

"I did dream of some unbelievable fragments last night."

[Ridiculous? ]

"Yes."

[Then it is probably true: fictional things need logic, but things in reality do not. ]

[Tell me: What did you dream about? ]

"I dreamed about... uh..."

"I dreamed about our genetic father: giving you a daughter."

[...]

"Looks exactly like him."