Chapter 52: Legion vs. Legion (6)
“Anger, and joy, at the same time… annoyance?”
Kang Do-yeon, half-removed from her mask, took a breath.
The emotions of the legion were naturally shared by her as well.
Soon, the ground nearby began to tremble.
Watching the fierce battlefield, she smiled.
The secret weapon of the legion that would shatter the tedious balance of this battlefield was now arriving.
The mutant devouring fungi seemed disconcerted, their movements stiffening.
It was no surprise. They had never imagined that the enemy would emerge from this solid labyrinthine ground.
However, the legion, having consumed the monsters of this world and analyzed and improved upon all their abilities, caught them off guard.
‘It was complacent, but this is the end.’
At the same time, the legion made its decision.
The war with the mutant devouring fungi had inflicted many wounds and lessons upon the legion.
For the first time, the legion, which had devoured everything under its birth and trampled upon its enemies, was outmatched in strength.
The pride in their predation and genetic manipulation had also faltered due to negligence, almost leading to disaster.
As a result, they had lost most of their stored energy.
This was a catastrophe that must not be experienced again.
[But the legion was a unit. An entity that could develop anywhere and in any way through interaction with the player. With that strength that the devouring fungi did not possess, the legion regained the upper hand once more. And this time, they would not lose that advantage again.]
The ground, which had been shaking, exploded.
The nearby devouring fungi were torn apart and flew into the air.
A new legionnaire emerged from the ground, brandishing solid armor that encased its strong arms and sending the enemies flying.
“Ha.”
Regaining her breath, Kang Do-yeon charged in alongside other legionnaires.
Within their swords and fangs, anger and cold rationality were both contained.
Though they had claimed to be strong, they were not overwhelming.
With cracks forming in that balance, the rift widened and began to collapse.
“What? Are they fleeing?!”
[I was already aware that they had some form of communication. The only problem was the possible existence of a commanding entity directing them.]
Perhaps it was due to the sudden emergence of variables that they could not respond quickly.
The mutant devouring fungi, being slaughtered and neutralized, turned their bodies and retreated towards the upper levels.
The legion did not pursue them immediately.
[The remaining flora in this place, untouched by them, needed to be consumed to replenish energy, and new legionnaires had to be reproduced.]
Amidst the unending war, a small gap had appeared.
‘You should rest too.’
“Ah, okay.”
The legion ordered her to take a break.
The mask had entirely vanished.
Kang Do-yeon walked slowly to where the nest was located.
Tendrils for nutrient supply slithered up and pierced into her lower back.
“Ugh…”
She shuddered at the strange sensation.
The initial repugnance had almost entirely faded, giving way to a strange pleasure.
‘Interesting.’
“What is?”
‘The brain remains unaltered, just like a human’s. Yet, it is evolving itself to match the flesh that has been modified as part of the legion. As all existing systems are inverted and the places to feel pleasure have vanished, it has changed to feel pleasure from nutrient supply instead; otherwise, it could not endure.’
“My brain?”
Her heart sank, and she flinched.
Unconsciously, she placed her hand on her chest.
Her heart no longer beat.
It had been replaced by a power source.
After calculations determined that the energy used for pumping was more than the energy required to circulate blood through the minute energy waves of the power source, she had been modified accordingly.
“I…”
She bit her lip.
Until now, she had not particularly concerned herself with the modifications to her body.
She had survived, and fighting was ultimately helping her brother.
But it was possible only because she had confidence in herself.
No matter how much her body was altered, her mind would remain unchanged.
Thus, the fact that her brain, which the legion had not properly touched, was adapting itself to the flesh was a tremendous shock.
‘What’s the problem with that?’
Of course, she could not protest this issue. She understood it well.
For the legion, it was only natural that they would be altered and evolve to become stronger.
“Rather, let’s talk about something else.”
The legion approached her, who was receiving nutrients with a dark expression.
“Something else?”
“He has developed feelings of affection again.”
“Um, liking someone is a natural feeling for a human.”
“A human? But according to the human knowledge he provided, the emotional spectrum of humans…”
“My brother is not that complicated a person. He’s an ordinary guy.”
Kang Do-yeon shook her head in disgust.
All the information the legion had learned was, of course, shared with her.
Yet, she rejected that knowledge even more.
Having knowledge that was not to her taste being forcibly instilled in her mind was quite uncomfortable and mentally exhausting.
“It’s true that he likes long hair, right?”
“Ah, probably. Chae Yeon also had long hair.”
She swallowed hard.
The mention of Chae Yeon had come from a very trivial trigger.
When the legion had asked her to describe a face that he might like, she had simply talked about Chae Yeon, the beautiful woman she had most recently met.
“Well… I think she’s pretty enough. She’s not even wearing makeup.”
As the legion slowly removed its mask, revealing a bare face, she hesitated and spoke.
“It’s not a lie, but your opinion isn’t important.”
However, the legion put the mask back on.
No matter what face it produced, the truly important criteria were elsewhere.
“Still insufficient. Data is still needed.”
There were clear limits to self-modification.
It was one of the realizations felt since the time of enhancing the legionnaires.
One could not achieve true leaps by merely burrowing alone.
[They have begun to move again. They already know that, no matter how strong we become, they can evolve more quickly. And there are more of them.]
“What now?”
Kang Do-yeon shared the gaze of the scout and pondered.
The devouring fungi began to gather again.
Although they had been pushed back temporarily due to the brief variable, they knew that in war, victory was certain.
“I want to stomp them down, but it’s inefficient.”
However, the legion had already found a way to confront them.
This time, utilizing the newly acquired Demonic Earth Puppies, the legion would collapse and block all paths leading to the upper levels.
[The energy shortage is not something the legion alone faces. Furthermore, the devouring fungi have squeezed out their available power to transform and evolve in order to confront the legion. But ultimately, it means that those who were eating their own kind have no energy left to store like us. Moreover, they do not have the ability to burrow into the ground.]
“No, that means we’ll starve to death too.”
“We can just open up another path elsewhere.”
New soldiers emerged, tearing through the eggs in the nest.
They were vastly enhanced entities, modified legion-style from the original Demonic Earth Puppies.
They began to burrow through the solid rock of this cave, not in places that had originally been opened.
[The mutant devouring fungi were powerful. They had ended a world and evolved even further, competing amongst themselves.]
They had instilled a sense of alertness in the legion, which had grown somewhat arrogant from their previous triumphs.
The legion was never an absolute stronghold.
They had always been challengers rising upwards.
“…Right. In the end, survival signifies strength, doesn’t it? It’s the ecosystem.”
Kang Do-yeon understood the intent and smirked.
The detection organs possessed by the Demonic Earth Puppies and the sensory organs of the legion combined to detect the positions of the enemy and decipher the structure of the cave from even the slightest vibrations and sounds.
The legion avoided those detections to burrow through the bypass.
Why should they engage with those endlessly die and resurrect?
It would be enough to wait for them to starve or to devour their own kind, then finish them off.
“Or, we could just collapse everything.”
At that moment, Kang Do-yeon murmured absentmindedly.
“That is entirely possible for us now.”
In an instant, the legion’s eyes sparkled as they considered the proposal raised by Kang Do-yeon.
The idea of collapsing the cave was something the legion had thought of even when they were much weaker.
It had just been shelved due to the increasingly larger scale of the cave ascending upwards.
But now, it was different. They had soldiers capable of breaking through the solid rock of this cave.
They could also use the power of Formancy, an outlier force.
“But what if it all collapses wrong?”
“We can detect, survey, design, and calculate everything.”
And they possessed knowledge that allowed for meticulous design.
It was the mathematical, scientific, and engineering knowledge that a race had developed over thousands of years.
The corners of the mouth of the physical body lifted, and an overall sense of well-being emerged.
The side effect of taking on emotions and a self led to the inefficiency and contradiction of knowledge utilization.
To prevent that, the submind they intended to utilize this time diligently pointed out aspects the legion had not considered.
“Go to the designated point and wait.”
The legion operated dozens of legionnaires capable of digging, simultaneously exploring and surveying every point, immediately completing the optimal calculations on the spot.
The powerful force to collapse everything was also set in motion.
[Predation, growth, evolution. They are merely means; one cannot be satisfied with just that. The ultimate goal is to become absolutely strong in every aspect.]
“And I will exterminate those mutant creatures, taking possession of everything that I have yet to uncover.”
For example, the command entity of the devouring fungi colony, still shrouded in mystery.
The war among those who prey and evolve was still not over.
The victor of this battle would devour everything possessed by the defeated and become even stronger.
