Chapter 160: Great Chaos and Great Invasion (5)
“Hey, you worked hard today…”
“Shin Woo is sleeping right now.”
After making a sound, the Guardian Alliance’s executive, Mary, cautiously stepped into the barracks. She flinched at the sight inside.
Indeed, Shin Woo, who had just been awake moments ago, was now asleep as if dead, and the only one left awake by his side was Eve.
‘I’ll keep an eye on this.’
I could see this scene, but I didn’t bother to change my form again. It was because Eve had confidently declared that she could handle things by herself now.
“Then I’ll come back when Kang Shin Woo wakes up.”
“…Are you avoiding me? You come in as you please but plan to leave as you wish.”
“Yikes!”
Mary, whose eyes were shaking, tried to openly escape her position, but that action was a slight provocation to Eve, who took pride in her ‘human acting’ and felt it was similar to treating someone weaker with disdain.
At Eve’s sudden cold remark, Mary’s body flinched. In this society, she was indeed our superior, but her reaction suggested she had suffered enough at Eve’s hands and had been left to clean up after her.
“That’s not it! This is something that needs to be discussed with both of you, and I thought it wouldn’t be good to wake someone who just fought for no reason.”
“Hmm, I don’t think that’s true.”
Eve, arms crossed, maximized her senses for an instant, catching Mary’s eyes, heartbeat, and subtle facial changes, detecting that it was a lie.
‘Just let it go. We can talk together later.’
“Tsk…”
I preemptively controlled Eve before she could latch onto the conversation again. Eve’s reputation in this camp was already at its lowest, being a tyrant that anyone regardless of status could clash with.
Nonetheless, she didn’t care at all about her image, so it was up to me to take care of her.
“Then go.”
“Yes…? Oh, understood. Well then, see you next time. But don’t worry too much. It could be a good story.”
Mary seemed visibly pleased that her conversation with Eve was over.
“She’s gone. There’s no sign of anyone around. It should be quiet for a while.”
“Good. Then I should move now.”
Eve spoke to me, but in the body of a Legion, not a human. This was not a temporary barrack set up on a battlefield either.
I was also awake and active here.
“What’s the situation in other places, in your view? I feel like I’ve just overcome one hurdle.”
“You’re right. It’s going according to my calculations.”
Both Eve and I looked at places other than REDRIUM.
The three planets where Eve had newly spread her nests: Eden, Baren, and Senzel.
According to Eve’s plan, those places must undergo complete nesting, and in fact, Eden, which had once been a lush nature with Mages and people living in harmony, had already completed the task.
“Although we pounded hard, do you think they can keep up with our endurance? It seems they’ve completely given up on the attacks on Eden and the recovery of Baren. What’s left is where Reina is, but that place has already been mostly taken.”
Eve recounted the situation with a satisfied smile.
In the end, Eve, as a newly arisen entity, made her presence felt and emerged victorious in the war against the existing forces.
Well, while she had mostly been advancing since she grew in size, I had hardly helped in that war. I barely clutched onto it at the end.
Eve would continue to evolve and grow without my help.
If she needed information on necessary samples, she would go out and devour them directly, and if her opponents became stronger with the help of Players or Units, she would observe, consume, and analyze them to become stronger.
“And what about you? In the demonic realm, although it flows in a three-party structure without the support of the fleet, can you win without my help?”
“I don’t know. According to your standards, I’m just starting to ascend the maze.”
Maybe it was a sign of confidence, but Eve gave me a self-assured smile.
“If it gets too tough, feel free to ask for my help. I might be tight on the fleet, but I can still spare some ground troops.”
“…Do you think I’m going to fail?”
“According to my calculations, the path you’ve chosen is nothing but a fog of uncertainty. It means it’s outside the realm of calculations. The risks are high, and the stability is low.”
It was probably just my imagination, but Eve’s nose seemed to be getting higher. Her chest seemed to puff up, and her shoulders broadened, clearly intentional. This girl… is teasing me. She’s becoming cuter. Of course, from Eve’s perspective, me struggling must appear cuter.
“Regardless, the result will come out soon. And isn’t it going to be harder for you than for me? You’ll have to fight against a properly organized coalition army by yourself, you know?”
“If the enemies are strong, I’ll grow one level beyond them. So I won’t lose. The day I lose is the end of the world.”
I lightly countered, but, of course, Eve had no expectation of her own defeat.
Defeat means death. Therefore, born as a battle organism ingrained with the belief that only victory is the correct answer.
“Then let’s try from our respective positions. You there, me over here. But we’ll be together on this Earth.”
Completely covered in a mask, I crossed the gate towards Earth, heading home before heading to the demonic realm.
This operation was to place my body to use there.
*
“Goblin scouting party?”
‘That number is too high; it’s hard to call it a scouting party.’
The first nest we established in the demonic realm was in a cave, an environment far too familiar. As I passed through the gate set up in that cave, reports immediately came in.
“I’m observing. There are quite a few. But… most of those goblins aren’t units.”
I scrutinized the enemy with the perspective of a higher species watching while camouflaged. And soon, I discovered a peculiar point.
The way we distinguish whether a subject is a unit or not is whether they have a strand of external connection to their soul. If there’s a thread visible, they are a unit or a player.
“In that case, perhaps we can use them.”
How fortunate. While they seem to form one group, there were clearly distinctions.
The unit green-skinned mountain goblins were all equipped with good armor, riding wolf-like one-eyed beasts.
In contrast, the majority, the red-skinned redfaces, were dressed shabby and wielding nothing but crude weapons.
Even in Earth, where discrimination and deprivation are prevalent, couldn’t those simple beings march out openly?
‘Could it be the red goblins?’
“We, another legion, cannot become the emotionless killing machines that endlessly swarm. But we can manipulate motivations and emotions like a need for revenge. Just like Eve’s subminds.”
I couldn’t calculate whether it would succeed or not. Even Eve continued to use the term ‘experiment’ when employing subminds like Reina or Liam.
Where their emotions ultimately lead is not within the realm of calculation. We would only know after we spoke.
“From now on, let’s attack them. Only target the green ones as much as possible.”
Wearing a mask, I led the gathered troops out of the cave while simultaneously camouflaging.
Kang Do-yeon, hiding in the air near the site along with some of the troops, was the same. All of us were higher entities equipped with propulsion systems. We quickly approached their group with the privilege of flying.
‘There are a total of 2699 of them. But we are all elites. Surely we won’t lose?’
‘Of course not.’
Kang Do-yeon was the first to signal the start of the battle.
With the camouflage intact, four black wings shot down from the sky. It wielded destructive power that was known in another world as the wings of death.
“♧♤@%?!!”
The goblins’ leader, a grotesque figure wearing a horned helmet, equipped with a handgun and various gear on his vest, raised its head as it sensed Kang Do-yeon’s approach.
It seemed that the title of being one of the pillars of the demonic coalition was not something it acquired by chance.
It abruptly raised its staff to the sky.
‘Magic!’
The goblins’ player was a magician from another world. The leader unleashed the magic it had learned towards the heavens.
The magic fired was, in essence, a reverse lightning strike. Contrary to Reina’s statement that thunder-type magic was a more difficult dream magic than the gate for humans, it seemed that the magic they learned handled lightning quite easily.
“Ugh?!”
However, Kang Do-yeon ignored the lightning, which was minimized by her barrier, and accelerated towards the surprised leader, wrapping her body with her wings.
That enormous impact, which could pierce even gigantic warships, was now plummeting towards the ground.
‘Many redfaces have also died, you know?’
‘…Accept the sacrifices. Move.’
The entire ground within kilometers shook, and the center became a crater as if a bomb had fallen.
Every single one of the thousands of goblins fell to the ground or died.
Particularly, the area where Kang Do-yeon landed was where the unit mountain goblins had gathered around the leader.
“Kyah!”
The goblins showed hostility towards us as we landed right behind Kang Do-yeon. Of course, it didn’t matter that such tiny creatures displayed their animosity.
‘Spray it.’
I cut one of the mountain goblins that was casting magic at me in half and instructed the others.
Immediately, the black gas equipped in our bodies was released at the scene.
These infectious agents couldn’t move as freely as Eve to interrogate or control the enemies, as they were programmed with only a single command.
‘You can hear me, right?’
I forcefully connected my consciousness to the brains of the infected goblins and unilaterally hammered it in.
Since they had an intelligence level that’s barely above that of elementary students, I didn’t expect them to develop a self. They would simply act as loyal hunting dogs, driven by primitive emotions.
