Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 100: Return to the Experimental Unit (Seventh Update)

Mann's team reappeared on the circular platform in the abandoned town workshop, which was covered with teleportation runes.

The shift in space is not a smooth transition, but rather an almost brutal substitution of reality.

Just a moment ago, their senses still lingered on the dry, metallic, and ozone-filled air of the dead world, and the unique tactile sensation of the hard rock beneath their feet;
The next second, the familiar workshop scene forced its way into my field of vision, accompanied by a violent upheaval within my body.

The process of returning was exactly the same as the departure, and even more unbearable because of the previous "experience".

The feeling of being completely broken down by an invisible force, having one's consciousness float in nothingness, and then being forcibly reassembled and reshaped, challenges the limits of physical and mental endurance no matter how many times one experiences it.

This is far from a simple dizziness or discomfort; rather, it stems from a violent disturbance at the existential level, causing a tremendous impact on the nervous system and delicate implants.

A suppressed groan, tinged with pain, suddenly echoed from the platform.

His body fell uncontrollably, the metal prosthetic body colliding with the platform surface, making a chaotic and heavy sound.

Rebecca nearly dropped the heavy bomb gun from her hand, but she instinctively clung to it tightly. However, the impact of the gun hitting her leg armor was negligible in the chaos of the moment.

Pira’s proud long arms tangled together like tentacles that suddenly went out of control, making it impossible for him to support himself for a moment.

Falco's sunglasses were hanging askew on one ear. He tried to straighten them with his hand, but found that his arm was trembling slightly uncontrollably.

Sasha and Qiwei slid back to back to the ground, their electronic warfare interfaces flickering with unstable noise due to strong neural signal interference, clearly unable to effectively process any complex information in the short term.

Dorio managed to avoid collapsing completely thanks to her superhuman core strength and reinforced tendons. However, when she steadied herself by kneeling on one knee, the muscles on her bronze face were taut, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, clearly indicating that she was also fighting against the intense sense of imbalance within her body.

Chen Yu's tall, dark red figure had been standing still in front of the main control panel, as if he had never moved.

His crimson optical lens calmly scanned each of the temporarily incapacitated members of Mann's squad on the platform.

In his sensor field of view, various vital signs parameters were clearly presented in the data stream on the side of his field of view like a waterfall: heart rate was generally more than 50 percent above the safe baseline, adrenaline levels were soaring, neural electrical signals showed characteristic chaotic waveforms, and feedback from muscle microcontrollers was generally malfunctioning...

All of this data points to the same conclusion: severe spatial transfer stress.

However, the data also clearly show that these disturbances are fluctuating within a predictable range and have not reached the dangerous threshold that could lead to organic failure or permanent neurological damage.

He thought to himself that this marked an initial success in terms of physiological tolerance for the live transdimensional teleportation experiment, as expected, although the accompanying side effects were indeed significant and severe.

At the heart of his logic, a series of new data entries were rapidly generated and archived: the time difference between the individual's return to consciousness after teleportation, the degree of loss of basic limb coordination, the duration of dysfunction in the main sensory systems, and so on.

These valuable empirical data from individuals with varying degrees of modification will be incorporated into his vast analytical database to further optimize the energy output curves and phase stability of the transmission protocol, as well as future specific buffering measures for different biological components and implants.

Mann was the first to fight against his physical discomfort with sheer willpower and struggle to stand up.

His heavy, modified left arm, equipped with a precision plasma cannon, took the lead, its mechanical knuckles rubbing against the cold metal surface of the platform, producing a teeth-grinding "creak" sound, barely supporting part of his weight.

One of his legs was still trembling slightly uncontrollably, but he gritted his teeth and tried to get the other leg to keep up. Dorio followed closely behind, her strengthened tendons bursting with power, allowing her to maintain a stable kneeling position, though her slightly heavy breathing betrayed that she was not unaffected.

Rebecca completely abandoned her plan to get up immediately, and instead lay down on the ground in a "spread-eagle" position, her chest heaving violently as she breathed in the familiar air in the workshop, which smelled of machine oil and static electricity.

Her green prosthetic eyes were unfocused, as if she was still trying to piece together the fragmented visual signals in her mind.

Pila, Falco, Sasha, and Qiwei were in a state somewhere in between. They needed to reach out to each other for support or lean against the cold, rough wall at the edge of the platform to barely maintain a posture that prevented them from collapsing completely. The physical pain and extreme mental exhaustion were clearly written on each of their faces.

Only Mowell, thanks to Chen Yu's in-depth optimization and systematic reinforcement of its spatial disturbance tolerance during the renovation, showed the most stable performance.

She made no sound like the others, but moved silently to the shadows at the edge of the platform, blending into the background.

The enhanced composite optical lenses scanned the familiar workshop environment at an extremely high frequency, quickly confirming the safety status, while her internal system was also performing a rapid self-check in parallel.

Although her system logs clearly recorded signs of severe shocks such as sensor readings soaring to the warning line and brief packet loss in the neural interface during transmission, her recovery speed and stability far surpassed all her companions.

“Boss…” Mann’s voice was unusually hoarse and clearly weak. He raised his head, his gaze focusing with difficulty on Chen Yu. His eyes were filled with a mixture of the disorientation of surviving a disaster, the shock of the unknown experience, and a trace of unanswered confusion. “Over there…that world…”

Chen Yu's synthesized voice rang out smoothly, interrupting his still-forming question. There was no hint of reassurance or explanation in the voice, only a purely conclusive statement: "Experimental sample retrieval complete. Vital signs stable. Preliminary assessment indicates that the teleportation experiment has achieved its preset goals. You need time to recover your physiological functions. Return to the base to rest and remain on standby, awaiting subsequent body data collection and in-depth analysis."

His words were concise and clear, like inputting a command, leaving no room for doubt.

Mann opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to ask something more, but the intense feeling of exhaustion deep within his body and Chen Yu's emotionless attitude made him swallow back the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

He glanced at his teammates around him, who were also in poor condition and walking unsteadily, and finally just nodded, gesturing with difficulty for everyone to follow him away.

Dorio reached out and forcefully pulled Rebecca, who was still lying on the ground, up.

Falco promptly steadied Pissa and Qiwei, who were staggering and about to fall, and they continued to support each other.

The group moved slowly and silently toward the workshop exit.

Their backs looked particularly tired and heavy, not only because of the physical exhaustion caused by the high-intensity teleportation, but also because of the intense impact of their experiences in this other world over the past three days on their established worldview.

The vast territory of the empire, the unique beliefs of the Mechanicus, the harsh environment of the world of death, and their own insignificance and powerlessness in that unfamiliar land all weighed heavily on their hearts.

Chen Yu's attention did not linger on their departure for long.

For him, the instrumental value of Mann's team in this mission had been realized.

As valuable living samples, they verified the initial feasibility of two-way transmission and successfully brought back the key communication tokens and the data carrier prepared by Ignis.

As for the impact on their current psychological state and worldview, in his current assessment system, these are non-core variables that need to be observed but do not require immediate intervention with additional resources.

(End of this chapter)