In Warhammer, please don’t mix Doraemon with the Omnissiah.

Asford, Fudiya City, Upper Hive.

District 9, Residential Block 18, Street 33.

Zhou Yun stood by the broad street, glancing at the finely-crafted metal street sign.

According to Rena, District 9 was one of the oldest areas of Fudiya's upper hive, its history stretching back ten thousand years. It was also the dividing line between the upper and lower hive, and they had entered the upper hive through the massive gates at its entrance.

Even though it was an old district close to the lower hive, the streets here were still wide and the buildings clean. The air still carried the faint scent of chemical purifiers, but compared to the lower hive it was positively fresh.

Bright lights replaced the sun, and bridges, walkways, and galleries connected the towering buildings, their lights shining like stars in the sky. Beneath these buildings were workshops and shops, and even roadside stalls selling the products of private artisans.

After living in the cramped alleys of the lower hive for so long, Zhou Yun felt a little lightheaded just being here. This place even reminded him a little of the city he'd lived in back in his previous life.

Zhou Yun strolled eastward down Street 33, glancing at the wares being sold along the way.

The major factories of Asford mainly produced military goods, but these streets sold the products of private workshops, made from materials bought off the void-faring merchant ships.

Their prices were enough to make any lower hive dweller turn pale and tremble.

But Zhou Yun had money now—thanks to Rena the fool. Or rather, Rena the big fool. She'd bought two upper hive passes from him at four times the price, one of which belonged to him.

When Zhou Yun had taken the pass from the PDF at the checkpoint, Rena's eyes had gone wide, full of amazement. She kept muttering in wonder at how Zhou Yun knew someone who could get the PDF to handle it, and how worth the money was.

That had made Zhou Yun feel a little guilty… but the guilt vanished the moment he pocketed her money.

Once in the upper hive, Rena didn't rush anywhere. Instead, she confidently led him to a roadside stall and sat down, as if waiting for something.

While she waited, Zhou Yun wandered the streets nearby.

Though his pockets were heavy now, the money was still just Asford's local currency—useless off-world. The Imperium was vast, with almost every planet having its own currency system.

Asford's money was pegged to the governor's stockpile of bloodstones—a crimson gem commonly mined on Baal, even worn by the Blood Angels as ornamentation.

Asford's currency was called blood coins.

Zhou Yun converted seventy percent of his cash into bloodstones—including the money from the rifles and the passes—then stowed the stones into his four-dimensional pocket and sold them, bringing his total to 1.4 million. He kept the remaining thirty percent as blood coins for daily expenses.

His footsteps stopped at a roadside food stall.

Asford's toxic suns made growing normal crops impossible, so food came from nearby agri-worlds—vast, polluted oceans of farmland.

This stall sold snacks made from melons: thick yellow-orange slabs of oily melon flesh, and palm-sized roasted melon seeds.

Zhou Yun could only imagine how massive those melons must've been.

"Roasted seeds? Or roasted melon flesh?" the cheerful upper hive woman tending the stall asked.

Her demeanor was far better than any lower hive resident.

Zhou Yun handed her a few blood coins and bought a piece of greasy melon flesh and a bag of roasted seeds. Then he returned to sit opposite Rena the big fool at her stall.

"Want some?" Zhou Yun plucked a huge seed from the bag and wiggled it at her.

He pushed the bag toward her and cracked a seed open with his teeth.

The giant seed released a pleasant, nutty oil in his mouth.

Rena looked at him in surprise.

These seeds were so big, and there were only nine in the bag.

"I remember eating these as a child. They were never cheap for someone from the lower hive," Rena said hesitantly. "You shouldn't have spent so much."

It's fine—I conned the money out of you anyway, Zhou Yun thought, but didn't say it aloud.

He chewed the seed, swallowed, and nodded. "Just eat. It's a tradition where I'm from to treat a friend like you to seeds."

Rena even shot him a grateful look.

But just as she was about to eat one, she suddenly froze. "Wait. Didn't you say… your hometown's tradition was that if you teased a fool, you had to buy them seeds?"

Rena the big fool's eyes went wide.

"Ahem." Zhou Yun coughed and casually changed the topic. "So what are we waiting here for?"

"Oh. We're waiting for that actuary-slash-mathematician," Rena said as she nibbled on a seed.

So easy to fool. Easier than an Ogryn.

Zhou Yun cast her a sidelong glance.

He'd seen her handle gang affairs and ledgers with remarkable efficiency. Clearly she wasn't actually stupid.

But… she seemed to have some strange mental dullness about certain things. Likely a spiritual problem rather than a physical one. Psykers were often vulnerable to the warp, prone to madness, anger, depression, paranoia.

Maybe this intermittent foolishness was her mind's way of protecting itself, keeping her from falling into true insanity.

After all, Ogryns resisted chaos better than most humans.

Zhou Yun idly theorized.

"Look, there she is—the actuary-slash-mathematician I told you about," Rena said, pointing.

Zhou Yun followed her gaze.

(End of Chapter)

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