Chapter 1: Do You Admit Your Guilt? I Admit You’re a Fool!
“How is he? What’s he doing? Is he happy?”
[…Of course, he’s checking the footage you sent. He must be quite busy. Yes, he is very, very happy.]
Eventually, even the observer opened their mouth in response to the legion’s barrage of questions.
“I worked so hard to optimize it for my brother.”
Kang Do-yeon grumbled next to her.
In fact, it was Kang Do-yeon’s achievement to learn the newly developed ‘Mind Technique’ by the legion, which possessed superintelligence, from the legion’s perspective, and then understand and optimize it from a human viewpoint.
During that process, with the legion’s help maximizing her brain function, she was currently in a very fatigued state.
“But the newly created Resonance Method is ultimately only half of what it could be.”
The legion had issued a vague judgment on the new Mind Technique that dealt with Formancy.
“It was created strictly for humans, no, humanoids.”
“But aren’t all high-tier beings humanoid…?”
Kang Do-yeon asked back, seemingly unable to comprehend. The legion nodded at that question.
In fact, all high-tier beings produced by the legion to operate Formancy were humanoid and took forms that utilized weapons, such as humans and orcs.
“I’ve never seen a beast that uses Formancy.”
The reason was simple. The legion had yet to encounter any other species that utilized Formancy.
Reluctant to the inefficiency of creating things directly, the legion had refrained from taking such risks.
“In the end, because they are humanoid, we have no choice but to rely on other techniques.”
However, these versatile soldier types had a critical weakness. Compared to other types of soldiers with size or developed fangs and claws, they had a lower lethality if they were unarmed.
Thus, although they had barbed tails and the like, it was still best if they were born with hands and arms to hold and wield anything.
“We need swordsmanship. Whether it’s spear techniques or martial arts, everything.”
The legion’s eyes behind the mask gleamed.
Weapons could be created, but those weapons were definitely not a part of the body and required proper techniques to wield.
That was the only way to make them more efficient. They had felt that firsthand in battles against the Moonlight Fairies, who had developed a fairly systematic form of swordsmanship.
This was the basis for the legion’s judgment that the Mind Technique Resonance Method was only half complete.
“Then it’s resolved. Ji Chang-hyun said he would teach my brother martial arts, which was swordsmanship.”
“Tsk.”
The legion didn’t bother to hide their emotions at Kang Do-yeon’s words.
“Tsk?”
“Learning directly from him through video isn’t bad, but he’ll be happy if I teach him.”
[…]
“You’re really honest in this aspect.”
Kang Do-yeon clicked her tongue at the legion’s unexpectedly difficult-to-predict response and subtly observed them.
This was no longer the legion that had learning emotions and the means to express them from her.
Now, there was no hesitation in understanding and expressing their own emotions.
‘I think I understand why he cares so much.’
Now that they were bound as one existence, it was easier to understand.
In those fleeting moments, she recognized that this seemingly ordinary and sometimes childlike creature could turn into an infinitely cruel and horrific being.
[Scouting has been completed up to the 68th level. At the same time, traces have also cut off here.]
“There is one possibility.”
The legion turned their gaze.
That location was more than ten levels above this one.
The scouts that had been dispatched long ago were already operating up there without any interference.
“It’s the golem’s trace. Could it be that child was taken down by a golem?”
“The severed traces lead upwards. The golem took the survivor upwards.”
Even with the same information, the legion, which could see and process countless things in the city, denied Kang Do-yeon’s reasoning and pointed upwards.
The legion already knew about the Moonlight Fairy survivor, Oleson. They had already absorbed all the missions the boy was entrusted with through the clan leader’s mouth.
“Human.”
The whole nest flinched slightly.
Startled, Kang Do-yeon instinctively touched her own heart, which was not beating.
She could hardly speak. The legion was already thinking of hunting the humans on the surface.
And the legion’s hunting meant one thing: to consume and annihilate all opposing races.
“Legion Commander.”
“Yes..”
“Let’s go up to the surface right now. To take everything they have.”
The reorganization was complete. The legion decided to venture to the surface.
[The lower levels have already been cleaned by the humans’ golems, and naturally, they will not be our enemies.]
With a chilling silence, the march of the legionnaires began. The lush vegetation of the labyrinth was left as it was.
The expansion of the nest devouring the entire labyrinth continued without any pause, since they could afford to take it slowly.
The only obstruction was the golems that the humans had scattered for management, but those were all crushed and fell as their cores were shattered by the swords of the high-tier beings.
[The scouts’ location is at the 78th level. Traces of them have been discovered here, but they are a bit old.]
[At the 88th level. They are being attacked by cave bats, and the scouts are starting to get hurt.]
[At the 96th level. Artificially polished corridors and spaces can be seen. A hefty door blocks the passage, but there are some minute gaps.]
[At the 99th level. Up there, a light can be seen.]
‘I found it.’
The entire legion stirred.
At the 100th level, the scouts of the legion discovered humans there.
The 100th level was quite a massive facility.
Quite a few humans were gathered in this facility, each holding one or two strange crystal spheres.
A surviving scout cautiously approached some of them, as they were just a bit larger than ordinary wasps.
The humans were so engrossed in chatter that they didn’t notice the scout.
Those wearing robes were preoccupied with casual conversation, making no mention of the crystal spheres.
“Are they some kind of mage…?”
Kang Do-yeon, who already knew that golems moved by a special method rather than a scientific method, muttered absentmindedly.
The legion also knew what magic was.
Not the fictitious magic learned from earthly knowledge, but the magic of humans in this world learned from the testimony of the Moonlight Fairy clan leader.
“The gaze reflected in the crystal spheres. It’s the scenery of the cave. They are looking at the golems.”
The legion confirmed that the images visible in the spheres resembled the cave scenery and realized their identity.
“It wasn’t automatic… Then doesn’t that mean they saw us? But it’s too quiet for that.”
“There are a total of 69 crystal spheres and 38 humans. It was never about seeing all the golems.”
Quickly calculating, the legion entered a new computation.
There was a surviving Moonlight Fairy that they had missed through the crevice, but it was clear that they had not yet been recognized by the humans. This could be utilized to conduct a more efficient battle.
“First, I want to see outside.”
With a momentary pause in the march, the legion moved one scout separately. They quickly devoured a bug along the way to replenish energy.
The small scout had intact digestive organs to procure energy on their own.
[Were they desperate enough to endure inefficiency? Then, how is it after waiting so long to see outside?]
The scout advanced toward the increasingly bright light.
And finally, the scenery changed.
A clear sunlight, filled with the essence of origin and life, shone upon the world—completely different from the powerless luminescent stones of the cave that resembled captured prisoners.
The wind, holding true freedom, could now go anywhere, entirely different from the inescapable current of wind in the underground labyrinth.
The earth, the energy of countless lives existing above it—all of it was brand new to the legion, who had just emerged from the ground.
Like a child opening their eyes for the first time to see the world, the world of the legion, which began with a single cavity in the cave, expanded once more.
[Did you not already know what was outside, what the sun was, what this world was?]
‘No… it’s completely different.’
It was certainly true that they had knowledge gained through growth, but that was ultimately just a piece of knowledge seen and heard.
The scenery experienced and directly viewed through a part of themselves was shockingly overwhelming for the legion, enough to stop their transcendent brain.
‘The sky. The place where gods reside, at the same time a window to the vast universe.’
The legion’s gaze turned upwards. The sky was something they had longed to know.
An endless expanse of blue. The specially developed scout’s vision conveyed that blueness in a very clear color.
‘Beautiful.’
At that moment, they were able to see the sky of the cerulean heavens for the first time.
The open scenery of this world under that sky was something that could not be compared to even the largest cavity.
While the legion had not yet clearly defined the standard of beauty, for the first time, they established the criterion of what beautiful truly meant.
[Then, what do you think upon seeing that sky, that world?]
‘I want it.’
The obsession for that desire faded for a moment, but the legion’s insatiable gluttony, which had never hesitated before, was fueled even more fiercely.
It was the natural result. If something was desired, it must be obtained. That was the legion’s common sense.
The whole legion trembled violently with a fervent instinct to devour all of this and stain it with their cells.
