What happened on the front lines quickly reached the rear command center through reports from the resurrected players.
The core of the intelligence was just one thing: psionics could still be used on Planditium!
This news greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.
"The Tyranid Swarm didn't deploy a black screen? Or rather, the black screen is very weak?" In the command center, an intelligence analyst officer frowned, completely baffled. "Why is that?"
"Who cares why, we definitely need to take advantage of this," an executive committee member tapped the table, his eyes shining. "I think the proposal that was discarded due to the black screen can be tried again."
The officer's expression became a bit hesitant: "Are you referring to… the plan to summon Warp daemons to delay the Tyranid Swarm? But this is an Ultramarines planet, they trust us so much, and we would turn around and summon daemons on their planet, wouldn't that be too…"
"Oh, my comrade," the executive committee member impatiently waved his hand and pointed to the deep green sky outside the command center, which had already been transformed by the tyranid.
"Planditium is already being messed up by us like this, so a little bit of Chaos corruption won't make much difference. Besides, think about it, once the Tyranid Swarm discovers that we are starting to summon Warp daemons on a large scale, they will definitely immediately strengthen the black screen to counteract it. At that time, won't the pollution solve itself?"
"Hiss…" The officer gasped, "When you put it that way, it really seems to be a closed loop."
Supreme Commander EGO was clearly tempted. He turned to his chief of staff beside him: "How much longer until the Tyranid Swarm reaches our third line of defense?"
"Reporting, sir, most of the fortresses on the second line of defense have not yet fallen and are generally in the stage of close-quarters combat after running out of ammunition," the chief of staff quickly replied. "According to model calculations, we have approximately three to four hours before the tyranid launch a large-scale attack on the third line of defense."
EGO looked around at the others in the command center: "Does anyone have any other opinions?"
No one spoke.
"Then execute it!" EGO slammed his hand on the table, making a decision… On the scorched earth, a military truck rattled to a halt. A small squad of Helldivers jumped out of the truck, and the air was filled with the smell of burning.
The captain pulled out an ancient, tattered, yellow-paged tome from his inventory and, after opening it, began to direct his team members to arrange a strange formation using the Helldivers corpses brought on the truck.
However, after directing for a short while, the captain began to scratch his ears and cheeks.
"Damn it, why did these chaos cultists design the magic circle to be so complicated? All these twists and turns, I can't understand it! Can't they make it simpler, like one-click casting?"
Hearing the captain's complaint, the other team members who were dragging corpses all put down their work and gathered around.
"Really? Let me see, maybe I can understand it?"
"Oh, it's too crowded! captain, let me see, I'm telling you, when I was a kid, a fortune teller said I was a once-in-ten-thousand-years magic prodigy, comparable to Merlin!"
The captain ungraciously handed him the book: "Here, you look."
Thus, this ominous-smelling magic book began to circulate among the players. However, the result was a chorus of curses.
"What the hell is this drawing? I don't understand it at all."
"Holy crap, it's all lines and abstract patterns, what am I supposed to look at?"
"Writing code without comments, drawing magic circles without explanations, this Chaos is truly messed up!"
"Is there a basic magic book? This one feels like an advanced magic book, we've skipped a few grades."
Just as everyone was at a loss, a corpse they had casually thrown on the ground suddenly spoke: "What don't you understand? Why don't you let me take a look?"
They had found this corpse on the road; it looked relatively intact, so they brought it along as a sacrifice.
One player paused, then naturally placed the book in front of the corpse's eyes: "Here."
The corpse's cloudy eyeballs rolled twice, seemingly reading. After a moment, it said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Hey, isn't this quite simple? Look, this arc represents the flow of entropy, this symbol signifies the decaying cycle of life, and these few points connected together form the smile of Grandfather Nurgle…"
He explained the meaning of the complex lines and patterns in a clear and concise manner.
The players suddenly understood.
"Oh—so that's what it means!"
"Holy crap, now that you say it, I get it!"
The captain patted the corpse's shoulder: "I see, that's how it is. Thank you, brother!"
"We're all brothers here, so it's only right that I help you," the corpse responded enthusiastically. "We're all family, right?"
"Right! All family! Hahahahaha!" The Helldivers burst into hearty laughter.
Under the guidance of their "family member," the magic circle was quickly set up. The captain cleared his throat, stood in the center of the formation, and began to chant the awkward and blasphemous incantation from the book.
However, even after he finished the last syllable, the entire magic circle showed no reaction.
"Strange, why can't I summon a Nurgle daemon?" The captain scratched his head. "The number of sacrifices should be enough, right?"
The corpse, which was at the center of the formation as the core sacrifice, also said: "I find it strange too… How about you help me up, and I can look at the full layout of the formation?"
A player stepped forward and helped the corpse up. The corpse carefully looked it over several times and confirmed: "How odd, there are no errors in the formation?"
It fell into deep thought: "Could there be a problem with the sacrifices? Where did you find these sacrifices?"
"Except for you, who we found on the road and brought along," the captain pointed around, "the others are all bodies of our people who committed suicide on the spot."
"The problem might be there!" The corpse suddenly realized, "Is there something wrong with your souls? I'm afraid we might need to change the batch of sacrifices."
"Besides us Helldivers on Planditium, there are only tyranid corpses," the captain said, spreading his hands. "I don't think using bugs as sacrifices would work."
"Hmm…" The corpse pondered for a moment. "If you really want to join our big family, there is an unconventional way."
"What way? Tell us quickly!" Everyone immediately urged.
"Although this formation cannot be activated due to the sacrifices, it is undoubtedly already a holy emblem representing Grandfather," the corpse said with some difficulty. "If… it is treated with some insulting behavior, that would be equivalent to insulting Grandfather himself. Everyone will be very angry, and at that time, a very powerful family member will come over and kindly 'teach a lesson' to anyone who dares to insult Grandfather."
"Holy crap! Why didn't you say such a good method earlier!" The captain was instantly enraged. "You made us set up this damn formation for an hour!"
The corpse froze. He suddenly realized that these guys… didn't seem to be summoning out of love and worship for Grandfather, as he had imagined… Before he could react, the captain had already waved his hand: "Guys! Pants down! Pee on it!"
"Wait, wait…" The corpse wanted to say something, but several streams of warm yellow liquid had already accurately splashed onto its face, and unfortunately, some of it flowed into its newly opened mouth.
"Gulp… gulp gulp…"
After a volley, the captain looked left and right, but the magic circle still showed no reaction.
"Strange, still no reaction? Is this not insulting enough?"
"Captain," a Helldivers raised his hand to report, "it's possible that I have a Diabetes debuff in my status bar, which made it taste sweet."
"Holy crap! Why didn't you say so earlier!"
"A soldier's first duty is obedience, so when you gave the order, I naturally executed it immediately, no time to check status."
"Oh, what do we do now!" The captain rubbed his forehead. "Should we squat down and doa number two? But by the time we eat something and feel the urge, the tyranid will have already attacked! I wish I had gnawed on some nutrient bars before coming, those things are good for quick bowel movements."
"Captain!" Another player had a sudden idea. "I have an idea! How about we circle the formation and then wiggle our butts towards the center? Like… twerking! Or teabagging!"
The captain was a bit hesitant: "This… will it work? It's too abstract."
The other players egged him on: "Captain, there's no other way now, let's try it, nothing to lose."
"Yeah, captain, I think this idea is very creative! Extremely insulting!"
"Alright!" The captain gritted his teeth. "Then let's try it!"
So, a group of Helldivers surrounded the magic circle, all simultaneously sticking out their butts, facing the center, and began to vigorously wiggle. The player who first proposed this idea even rhythmically chanted: "Daemons, come quickly… Daemons come to papa, come quickly… Daemons, come quickly…"
To everyone's surprise, after they wiggled like a chaotic dance for a few minutes, the center of the formation truly began to emit a faint, green light, representing plague and decay!
The captain was overjoyed: "Hahahahaha! It actually worked! You, kid, get the first merit this time! Quick! Everyone, put in more effort, wiggle your butts hard! Give me all you've got!"