What is an Untouchable?
Those who know what psychic power is should understand that an Untouchable is a psychic null.
Does this mean they're people who can't use psychic powers?
No, that's not it.
People who can use psychic powers are quite rare throughout the vast Imperium.
The overwhelming majority of the Imperium's citizens are ordinary people who cannot use psychic powers.
And these ordinary people are certainly not psychic nulls.
So what exactly is the difference?
Generally speaking, most sentient beings—including humans—have consciousnesses connected to the Warp. Their markers in the Warp are typically called souls.
For psykers, the connection between their souls and the Warp is much closer, allowing them to draw energy from the Warp to perform superhuman, miraculous acts.
In ancient human history, those who could use witchcraft, magic, or supernatural arts—witches, wizards, Taoists, and others who could utilize supernatural powers—were what we call psykers.
The so-called Untouchables are the complete opposite.
They have no connection to the Warp whatsoever. Their brains, for incomprehensible reasons, block out the Warp, driving it away from the material universe.
As a result, these Untouchables become suppressors of any psychic or Warp-related powers existing around them.
For psykers with close ties to the Warp, being in the presence of an Untouchable is extremely painful—a form of torture.
As for ordinary people, while their reactions aren't as severe as psykers', they still feel unnatural discomfort and may experience provoked anxiety and hostility.
Untouchables are like bottomless black holes, seemingly consuming the souls of those around them bit by bit, so almost no one can bear their presence.
Therefore, most Untouchables exist as marginalized people on the fringes of society.
Currently, those who know about the existence of Untouchables believe they are the result of mutant genes, so Untouchables are treated as pariahs.
Now back to the question—what about suddenly shooting two soldiers and claiming they were beguiled by daemons?
This is because daemons are creatures of the Warp.
Under normal circumstances, they cannot physically enter the material universe and generally attach themselves to humans to operate in reality.
Since human consciousness can connect with the Warp, their souls—serving as markers in the Warp—easily attract daemons.
However, under normal circumstances, the brightness of an ordinary person's soul isn't enough to attract daemons.
Only when the Warp and material universe come into close contact do daemons easily beguile humans in that area.
They seduce humans, instigate them, infiltrate their minds to provoke evil thoughts, and even take over and occupy human bodies.
There's another situation where daemon invasion becomes likely: when humans want to navigate quickly through the vast starscape, they need to use the Warp as a fast passage.
Therefore, when warships translate into the Warp for travel, they easily attract the gaze of daemons.
Although warships have Gellar fields to protect the crew from the Warp itself or whatever lurks within it, people with insufficient willpower easily fall into chaos.
Moreover, if the Gellar field malfunctions while in the Warp, it's almost certain death.
The true face of the enemy humanity is currently fighting is daemons—they are invading the material universe.
They are difficult to kill; at most, one can only destroy their human vessel, forcing them back to the Warp.
And because daemons are Warp creatures, they also have strong adverse reactions to Untouchables.
The two soldiers who were suddenly killed had been shot because abnormalities were detected in them.
So the person who did this—Lance Plain, or rather, his real name is Ejie—remained tense.
Like someone who had wandered into a wolf pack's territory, one wrong move would result in being attacked from all sides and torn to pieces.
He was truly unlucky.
He had just spent over a week digging like a rat in the local underground, finally finding what he wanted—an STC.
It was a product of humanity's Dark Age of Technology, called the Standard Template Construct (STC) system, which stored manufacturing knowledge for certain products.
With this device, one could replicate high-tech products from ancient times that had already been designed and templated.
Using it wasn't difficult. Anyone with a normal brain who could understand instructions could follow the directions and manufacture items in a fool-proof manner.
In fact, if one possessed a complete set of the STC system, it could provide various construction details allowing someone with no relevant knowledge to build desired items using all available local materials.
For example, if an STC contained templates for manufacturing a starship, you could command locals on a medieval-era planet to manufacture according to the STC's instructions. Within a few years, the starship would be ready to launch.
This was how incredible this black technology product was.
Technologies such as Warp engines and Gellar fields that now support the Imperium's operations largely come from STCs.
Therefore, the value contained within this device was immeasurable.
Just as Ejie found this item and returned to the surface, he encountered this situation—truly terrible.
Perhaps now this device could become his lifeline.
There was a group exceptionally passionate about excavating STCs. Once they learned he had an STC, they would likely immediately dispatch their fleet.
They would also issue orders to protect the STC at all costs, even if everyone on the planet died—the STC must be protected.
However, that would require transmitting this intelligence, and he had no intention of handing over what he had acquired, so he wouldn't reveal his possession of the STC.
Although he couldn't expose that he possessed an STC, he could reveal that this world had STCs, prompting those oil-smelling fellows to come.
But first, he needed to assess the situation—escaping on his own would be best.
He had just returned to the surface from deep underground when a member of this company discovered him. Before the soldier could make a sound, he had already incapacitated him and put on his equipment to blend into the squad.
Then, after organizing the chaotic content from the communication channel, he understood that the current situation was extremely dire.
This hive city appeared to be under Chaos invasion.
The lower level of this hive city had already contracted toward the center.
By the looks of it, the fall of this place was only a matter of time. He needed to leave quickly.
Suddenly, his ears twitched slightly as he heard a massive mechanical rumbling behind him—if he wasn't mistaken, that was the elevator out of the underhive being locked down.
There was no time; he couldn't stay here.
Just then, a strange communication request seemed to enter his ears.
[Soul wave pattern confirmation complete, initiating connection to super-dimensional channel]