Chapter 1: Do You Admit Your Guilt? I Admit You’re a Fool!
Episode 37 – The Secret of the World (3)
[The survivor we discovered in this ruin was not normal. Therefore, the Legion ceased reconnaissance and deployed Legionnaires to subdue them.]
An all-purpose Legionnaire was urgently deployed.
The opponent’s condition seemed abnormal, but we stood at 2 meters tall, with strength surpassing that of several Orcs.
[I was thinking of assessing their strength in a one-on-one confrontation.]
Before long, the Legionnaire reached the target and approached without hesitation.
However, at that moment.
“Oh no.”
It was the opponent who rushed in first.
With a scream, the enemy charged madly across the ground, and the Legionnaire extended an arm to seize them.
With the difference in height and arm length, the opponent was pinned down.
“Kyahh! Kieek…”
Yet the opponent, who showed no sign of shrinkage, was thrashing wildly within the hand of the Legionnaire, grinding their teeth and screaming.
[The state of losing rationality is similar to the Phantoms under a spell, but it’s different. First of all, there was no strange power sensed.]
Whether tired or not, the woman continued to struggle.
Watching her was making my heart uneasy.
[If we subdue and analyze them, we’ll understand. However, an unexpected development occurred at that moment.]
The variable emerged then.
Suddenly, the woman who had been flailing stopped and bit down hard on the hand of the Legionnaire that held her.
[The Legionnaire’s entire body is covered in armor, with exposed joints reinforced with tough leather to enhance defense. However, this attack managed to cause a tiny scratch on the finger joint’s leather. Of course, under normal circumstances, such a minor scratch would be meaningless, but]
“What the hell…?”
[Just look for yourself.]
This footage was already a record of an event that had happened.
Suddenly, the speed decreased, and the screen began to zoom in.
More, even more.
Until the screen was filled with details of the finger.
In a view magnified as if seen through a microscope, I could finally understand what was happening.
[It has been a long time since a cellular-level war, but I have experienced it before. The problem is that the current Legionnaire’s cells have most autonomous functions removed for energy efficiency, making them helpless against the assault.]
“No way…”
[The fluid mixed with their saliva is not poison. It is countless living bacteria. The toxins they excrete weaken the Legionnaire’s skin and cause slight scratches with their weak teeth.]
“That’s a zombie!”
No matter how I looked at it, that was the zombie I knew.
An entity from fiction that bites and infects people.
On the screen, two types of cells were visible.
One side was the normal original cells, while the other side was the invaders.
These bizarre invaders, upon seeing healthy cells, unleashed spikes and ultimately killed them.
[Once the attacked cells are destroyed, they become part of the invaders. The overall effect resembles cancer cells.]
The screen shrank again.
The Legionnaire’s arm was swelling and twisting uncontrollably.
The enemies that spread through the bloodstream quickly seized control of the entire body of the Legionnaire and began to alter it.
[Interesting. Although it involves infecting other cells, it can be considered accelerated growth. Moreover, even though the Legionnaire lacks a brain to control its body, they continued to assimilate without problems. It’s still uncertain, but it potentially indicates another ‘colony’ beyond ours.]
“Is being intrigued the right reaction…? Can we respond? Right now, our Legionnaire is aiming a sword at us.”
[…Of course.]
The footage ended there.
Now, what was visible was the real-time situation.
“I can win!”
I saw Kang Do-yeon running.
I momentarily clenched my fist, fearing for my sister’s safety.
[Don’t worry. The Legion won’t put your sister in danger.]
“How can you be so sure? The Legion is still…”
[Because it’s your sister. I can assure you, the Legion doesn’t want to see you sad.]
I was left speechless.
In the meantime, Kang Do-yeon aimed her sword at the infected Legionnaire charging at her and leaped off the ground.
[Will a Legionnaire that has left the Legion be able to exert even half of its power? It’s an existence designed solely with the teeth and claws of the Legion.]
Kang Do-yeon’s sword cleaved the opponent in half.
Certainly, even I could see that the movements of the Legionnaire no longer under the Legion’s control were pathetic.
“We’ve secured a sample. The issue is whether we can analyze that or not. If necessary, it could backfire as a biological weapon.”
[It is certainly possible to analyze it. Being helpless against the unidentified bacteria does not apply to us. Our Legion can manipulate down to the cellular level, making us the only adversary capable of countering those tiny predators that have concluded a glorious civilization and species.]
Such bold claims. In that case, I had no choice but to believe it.
“I want to observe more. But it seems that’s not possible.”
[As always, exceptional matters will be notified and recorded, so it doesn’t matter.]
I had to shut off my phone there.
It hadn’t been long since I lay in wait, and soon the target revealed themselves.
“Units…?!!”
“As you know, Shin Woo, currently, I am in a position where I cannot move recklessly.”
When I met Chae Yeon to receive a request,
She made a single proposal to me.
“Thanks to that, even if I manage to find out about the Unit, I cannot act carelessly. Hence, I effectively gave up on activities in Korea.”
“…That’s right. There are only a few abilities in South Korea, after all.”
“In exchange, my player promised to give this to you if you succeed in this request.”
She handed me something.
It was a stone carving I had seen the first time I met her.
“What is this?”
“A Mana Stone. It’s a precious item made directly by my player, inscribed with spells inside.”
She explained the concept of the Mana Stone to me.
Hearing that explanation, a thought crossed my mind—the gem embedded in the golden hammer the Legion had discovered.
Inscribing complex spells on energy-infused ores to trigger them.
Wasn’t that a very similar concept?
“Will it be useful?”
“Yes. I will accept it. And besides, this isn’t the real thing anyway.”
I nodded.
The real objective wasn’t about this reward.
It was about gaining recognition and participating in the upcoming Gate expedition.
The things I could salvage there would undoubtedly aid in the Legion’s rapid growth.
“Then…”
“Uh, please don’t worry too much.”
Her blue eyes darkened as if she was concerned for me.
Sure, it was understandable. The version of me she knew seemed far from normal right now.
“Thank you. See you next time.”
Yet in the present, I felt more composed than ever.
I had made my sister, who was pushed to the brink of death because of me, part of the Legion with my own hands.
Other matters were trivial in comparison.
Even if it meant killing.
After all, the moment a Unit or Player participates in this app, they’ve jumped into the wild, haven’t they?
Life and death are the laws of the ecosystem.
If I don’t kill, I’ll be the one to be killed.
“Um, it’s me. I’m entering now.”
Returning to the present, my target brushed past me while speaking on the phone.
On the outside, he appeared to be an ordinary large man.
But according to the information Chae Yeon provided, he was a Unit working under a Player’s command.
I gulped down the potion I had prepared in a drink bottle.
*
[Right now, he has begun his mission. It is solely for you.]
“…That’s a lie. He doesn’t know anything about me.”
[Why didn’t you inform him of your existence?]
Why?
I nodded slightly.
My meeting and interaction with him had been something I had longed for the moment he recognized my existence.
But now that I had the means to do so, I hesitated.
“What… is God, you say? God is…”
Kang Do-yeon also imparted her understanding of the concept of God.
Of course, it was somewhat lengthy, at a level of ordinary high school girl knowledge, but it nonetheless had its core.
And the Legion made a judgment.
[He is not a God, is he? Then what exactly is he to you?]
“Well…”
The Legion frowned beneath the mask.
It was one of the ways to express emotion I learned from Kang Do-yeon.
Who exactly was he?
Not a God. Not a parent, either.
Player? Unit?
He was undoubtedly a Unit belonging to the system, but that was not even a consideration for the Legion.
“One.”
He murmured softly while placing a hand over his heart.
Through that single connection, our souls were intertwined.
We could share each other’s emotions. The more we developed, the better we could feel.
He had been involved with me since I was just one cell.
The entire Legion, including the Nest, pulsed together.
“We are one.”
[…The sample has arrived at the Nest. It’s time for a new enemy to undergo disassembly and analysis.]
Nothing was clear yet.
With the incident concluded, the Legion shifted its focus elsewhere.
The corpse that Kang Do-yeon brought back after slashing.
That corpse still held the information of the enemies.
[If needed, they could reverse-infect the Nest, but that’s only if we lose in this war.]
The Legion began digestion, as it always did.
From the corpse now locked within the flesh walls of the Nest, the bacteria that were still alive recognized the new cells as prey and charged at them.
To infect and increase their numbers.
But this time, it was entirely different from encounters before.
[Toward those trying to stab with spikes, our ally cells, reinforced with cell walls and equipped with tentacles and pincers, charged in mass.]
Ultimately, it was just like the wars we had fought thus far.
The Legion steadily killed and disassembled the enemies.
Faster and stronger than the speed of infection.
