Chapter 61: Entangled (5)
“What do you mean by ‘master’? You’re one of the top hunters in the country.”
I asked casually, pretending not to know. That master would obviously be a player or a unit, but I was more concerned that he still didn’t seem to know my true identity. I couldn’t be sure if he really didn’t know or if he was just acting.
“Of course, it’s a bit strange to say that a hunter with their own powers has a master, but it’s true. We recently established a new organization. I rushed over as soon as it was finalized.”
“A n-new organization, you say?”
“…An organization that can help ordinary people, who can’t keep up with upheavals and changes, to have the strength to resist and adapt to this new world.”
His expression seemed somewhat detached. I judged it didn’t at least appear to be a deception.
“If you’re interested, please contact me. I’d like to have you with us.”
He left it at that and closed his mouth.
I subtly stepped back. He was standing quietly in front of my cousin’s corpse.
I heard that Yoon Su-Ah had secretly volunteered, deceiving those around her.
It was hard to judge easily whether what he said was sincere and what kind of picture he was drawing.
After all, if we were still bound to this game, wouldn’t we ultimately end up killing each other?
“Have you already made up your mind?”
He spoke without even turning around as I approached.
“I just want to hear more. And I want to get stronger.”
“You’re currently with the Evolution. May I ask how you got in there? Chae Yeon, she is definitely not an ordinary hunter. She’s of the same unreasonable sort as I am.”
He turned his body and began to talk about Chae Yeon.
I naturally knew she was a unit. So, I wanted to listen to what he had to say. About someone who describes herself as unreasonable.
“It’s not a short story.”
Ji Chang-hyun began to explain the app, the game, players, and units to me.
What I focused on was his demeanor as I already knew all of that.
*
“…”
[He is currently quite busy. A notification was sent, but he can’t monitor it in real time.]
“It doesn’t particularly matter.”
The legionnaire, whose head was sticking out from the ground, withdrew the hidden body again. Meanwhile, Kang Do-yeon was furrowing her brow, analyzing the information currently being collected by the legion.
The legion had finally succeeded in digesting the entire Great Army Body and had secured a passage upwards.
[Currently, two paths have appeared.]
Naturally, reconnaissance activities continued. Information from those reconnaissance activities was incoming.
[The first path is the existence of another labyrinth we broke through. The upper levels of this other labyrinth, which was filled with Devouring Fungus, are blocked by special spells so that the fungi cannot ascend. It’s similar to the spell used by the Moonlight Fairies to seal off pathways in the 36th Level.]
“Another survivor? They mentioned there were many cities.”
The legion postulated one hypothesis. In the upper levels, which still had unknowns, there might be Moonlight Fairies thought to be extinct.
[The remaining path is blocked by a mutant Devouring Fungus Great Army. The reconnaissance soldiers heading there discovered a hint as to why the Great Army deemed further evolution impossible.]
“What is that?”
Kang Do-yeon murmured as she shared vision with the reconnaissance soldier. The legion’s gaze shifted.
The stem level of the 47th Level that the reconnaissance soldiers were exploring.
At first glance, this place seemed ordinary, presenting a typical ecosystem devoid of Devouring Fungus. However, there were dozens of ‘things’ present.
Their appearance resembled giants made from large stones. Even the smallest of them surpassed 3 meters in height.
A peculiar feature was the glowing gemstone embedded in what appeared to be their chest. The legion realized that this gemstone functioned similarly to the Moonlight Fairies’ sacred stones or the power sources of the legion.
“A kind of… golem that operates by intertwining matter and directing the flow of Formancy…”
“It’s a golem!”
Kang Do-yeon compressed the identity of the beings the legion had been mumbling about into a single exclamation.
“I think I understand now. Why the Devouring Fungus gave up fighting.”
[They are made of matter. If beings that move through the power of spells didn’t have the same strength and numbers, there would be no possibility for the Devouring Fungus to win.]
The fighting style of the Devouring Fungus was infection, and the mutants also had the ability to replicate the opponent’s power through assimilation and absorption via that infection.
However, all of that power was only possible if the opponent was a living being like themselves. If the opponent’s entire body was just made of stone, the Devouring Fungus, unaware of the concept of Formancy, would have no choice but to be crushed.
“However, those guys are definitely not naturally occurring.”
But the legion, uninterested in the tales of the defeated, focused elsewhere—on who the players and creators of those golems were.
[The answer is obviously higher up.]
“That’s right. Commander of the Legion. Prepare immediately.”
The entire nest began to stir.
During this time, the legion had stored energy and further improved the legionnaires, restarting their activities.
The wall of the lifeless legion that the Devouring Fungus couldn’t surpass.
“We’re eating those stones this time too.”
Yet the legion, already influenced by its player, had a method to break through the limits of living beings and the concept of Formancy.
Kang Do-yeon let out a soft sigh and picked up her weapon.
A great sword made entirely of crimson gemstones.
After several enhancements, it was born from the idea that creating a solid piece was more explosive and powerful than mixing or combining.
…
This was the 47th level.
After cleaning out and driving away the Devouring Fungus, a long period of peace had followed.
The flora fed, reproduced, and died, fulfilling their instincts. The golems, commanded to guard this place, had deactivated after the Devouring Fungus disappeared, with only rare test activations since.
“…?”
But finally, now.
The golems, having detected a faint and unfamiliar vibration, started to rise one by one, supplying their magical power.
However, they didn’t know that their opponent had already thoroughly investigated them.
– Large group of living beings discovered –
They discovered the black wave revealing itself from below one of them.
Those who had lived as ordinary stones instantly ignited their hostility as programmed.
Whether the opponent was a Devouring Fungus or not was of no concern.
– Execute annihilation order, exterminate all group living beings –
Due to the limitations of their command system, they could not selectively kill only the Devouring Fungus.
Every living being in the mass was a target they had to eliminate.
In an instant, with loud rumblings, the golems gathered in droves.
They were not living beings but merely entities acting according to orders.
– Annihilation –
The gathered golems charged in, relying on their mass and size.
No living being could withstand them; not even the ruthless Devouring Fungus had the detachment and severity to give rise to mutants to control.
“Knock them down!”
But the opponents were just as aggressive and unrestrained.
“!”
With a loud crash, the ground shattered.
Huge mining-type legionaries, based on the demonic Earth puppy, who had been standing by, all burst forth in unison, blowing away the ground where the golems stood.
The strange vibrations detected by the golems were caused by this.
– Seeking countermeasures –
The tumbling golems quickly stood up again.
However, this time, what flew toward them was Kang Do-yeon’s crimson strike.
The explosive energy, emitted from the power unit implanted in her body and the sword resonating together, was a sort of power similar to what the legion’s master had implanted in them.
– Countering… –
The bodies of the golems, which could not even scratch with ordinary teeth and claws, were sliced and exploded as if they were being decapitated.
“Crush them.”
The legion stomped the golems under a new tactic different from the past.
Both the mining-type legionnaires and the charge-type legionnaires, based on the cave bulls, were large soldiers whose size and weight exceeded that of the golems.
All were upgraded by the legion, their size and strength at levels that these cave beings could never achieve.
They suppressed the golems, which had relied on mass until now, by weighing them down.
[Simply suppressing them will not be enough. They neither feel pain nor fatigue.]
“That’s why we need to obtain this.”
Kang Do-yeon, glowing with red energy, climbed onto the chest of a subdued golem, poised her sword, and thrust it down.
She recovered the golem’s power unit.
About the size of her head.
Other higher-ranking legionnaires who had implanted power units in their cores also used their methods to break the golem’s resistance and destroy the power unit, pulling it out.
‘A method somewhat different from the legion’s, akin to that of the Moonlight Fairies.’
The complex sigils and spells drawn and inscribed on the power unit resembled the spells of the Moonlight Fairies she had met in the past.
In other words, it meant it wouldn’t take even a few seconds to reverse-engineer and analyze.
‘I can utilize it more easily.’
“Ugh.”
The legion modified the bodies of the upper-ranking legionnaires, including Kang Do-yeon, right there.
From her wide-eyed hands, tiny root-like tendrils grew, burrowing into the core of the golem.
