Chapter 36
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: The World's Secret (2)
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In the center of the dark nest.
While some began their determined course of action, and others watched over the nesting of a conquered territory.
Something was happening even here, in the deepest part of the nest, the origin and brain of the Legion.
A throbbing pulse could be heard periodically.
The source of that heartbeat was a special nest, set off to one side.
A life slumbered within that special nest.
Until now, every Legion unit had been produced from an egg.
This was the first and only being to be born from a special, womb-like nest.
[Technically, she wasn't born. But yes, this time is different. Truly created and brought to life from start to finish by our power.]
The flesh wall split open, and a viscous fluid that had served as amniotic fluid gushed out.
Then, something suddenly emerged from the opening.
A soft, white hand.
The hand gripped the flesh wall, pulling it apart, and soon revealed its entire body.
[...The Legion currently possesses the genetic data of only one human. Therefore, everything it can create is identical to her.]
She—no, 'it'—stepped onto the ground, its naked body dripping with fluid.
Its expression was chillingly blank, but its face and all its physical features were identical to the only human it knew: Kang Do-yeon.
Kang Do-yeon did not know this.
The Legion had controlled the flow of information.
[What are you doing? After expending so much energy to create it, you intend to discard it? Are you displeased?]
But the copy of Kang Do-yeon soon pointed a blade at its own throat.
[Are you wondering what meaning this has? Thinking that a form identical to his sister cannot represent your true self? You've already grown that much.]
Its fingertips trembled.
Proof that it was genuinely struggling.
[But isn't it amusing? Your identity is only just beginning to form. You must think efficiently. Surely this body can be of some use.]
"Ah, ah."
It opened its mouth and made a sound.
The Legion had not yet learned human language.
What it uttered now was purely a reenactment, a memory of the muscle and nerve reactions of Kang Do-yeon's vocal organs when she spoke.
"Shut. Up."
[...Yes. I suppose so.]
The Legion had perfectly copied the words Kang Do-yeon had spat out in annoyance at the screeching enemies.
It didn't know what it was saying.
But it understood the intent, at least.
Its body twisted, its skeleton shifted, and its appearance began to change.
The result was a form similar to the one Kang Do-yeon used while operating as part of the Legion.
However, after a moment's hesitation, the Legion added one more feature.
[So you'd rather die than have the same face as her?]
A mask-like carapace covered its face.
A red light flared from the eye slits of the mask.
[Go to her and learn. Only then can you get closer to him.]
It began to move.
It was essentially an experimental subject, a concentration of the Legion's desires.
[This... will be recorded in history. The moment the Legion's consciousness evolved to a higher dimension.]
From somewhere, the sound of rustling pages could be heard.
"Hm?"
36th Floor, inside the temple where the ritual had been cast.
Kang Do-yeon, who had been searching the area, flinched at the unfamiliar presence.
She could sense it because she was connected to the Legion's Hive Mind.
"...What is this?"
Despite being part of the Legion, she instinctively showed hostility toward this unknown entity.
Especially when its physique, hairstyle, and even its usual posture were so similar to her own, despite the mask.
"..."
But it remained completely still and silent, only the light from its eyes shining through the mask.
For a moment, Kang Do-yeon felt a chill run down her spine. She had no pores to get goosebumps from, but that's what it felt like.
"You... you're the Legion."
Despite the controlled information, she had guessed its identity through her intuition and sharp senses.
Intuition and guesswork. Both were things the Legion, a race of logic and calculation, did not possess, or if it did, could not easily use.
[Can you not feel it? The Legion wishes to learn from you.]
"Learn? Learn what? You already know everything."
[Things that cannot be understood through genetic analysis. We are retransmitting a portion of the information the Legion had restricted. Your mission is temporarily on hold.]
Kang Do-yeon furrowed her brow and bit her lip.
The incoming data contained more than just simple information.
"I understand."
She too was part of the Legion, after all.
Understanding its will, Kang Do-yeon sighed.
"Should we start with... words? We both know what learning is."
"Yes."
It was the first time it had answered since they met.
Hearing her own voice with her own ears, she flinched and recoiled.
Of course, that word 'yes' was also spoken by inferring its meaning from memory.
"You're curious about what I'm feeling right now? This is called being flustered."
She finally began the lesson.
Pouring everything she knew onto a blank white canvas.
Words, emotions, common sense—every single thing.
"Understood."
But that canvas was a vast hive mind with unbelievable hardware.
It took less than a few hours for it to completely assimilate the knowledge and experience accumulated by a seventeen-year-old human girl like Kang Do-yeon.
There were subtle changes in the process of interpreting what it learned, but nothing major.
"...Really?"
"It's easy. Compared to calculating and analyzing the genetics of various life forms, or new concepts and worlds with only a handful of clues."
It, the Legion, turned its back.
"Kang Do-yeon. The first Legion Commander. The rest of your teachings can wait. Go to the 37th Floor. There is another enemy."
Then it pointed a finger toward the passage to the 37th Floor.
Simultaneously, the scene the Legion was currently witnessing was transmitted to Kang Do-yeon's brain.
"I-I'll go!"
Her face pale, she hastily departed.
But it just stood there.
[Do you understand now? How to express what you feel, what you see and hear, what you think?]
"..."
[But I know. We are not human. We learned of humanity from a human, but the moment we made that knowledge our own, it ceased to be human. It is merely reference material.]
[What do you think of him?]
"...Him. Kang Shin-woo."
It muttered blankly.
It had blindly accumulated and perfectly memorized the knowledge, but actually matching that knowledge to reality wasn't something good hardware alone could solve.
Right now, the Legion's consciousness was still like that of a baby.
None of the emotions it had learned from Kang Do-yeon could explain this.
*
"What's going on? What happened?"
[On the 37th Floor, where we suspect an incident occurred, a scout has discovered something.]
"Damn. Well, it looks like we still have some time."
I first checked my phone, which was buzzing with a notification.
The situation did indeed seem urgent.
The Legion units led by Kang Do-yeon were awakening from the dormant state they had entered to conserve energy and were now moving in unison.
"What the hell is it?"
[A movement, discovered on the 37th Floor. I will show you the video recording.]
This time, the point of view switched to a scout.
It was clearly in the middle of scouting some ruins.
But in that moment, it saw something.
"A person?! No, wait. Anyway! It's alive! Or is it dead?"
I was so excited my words got jumbled.
But it was definitely something to get excited about.
[Correct. Its appearance and features are similar to the wraiths we saw on the previous floors. Of course, it is not a long-dead corpse. Nor are there any ritualistic symbols drawn on its body.]
"What on earth is it doing?"
I furrowed my brow and looked more closely.
It appeared to be a woman.
Seeing the tattered rags she wore, it was hard to guess how much time had passed.
She clearly seemed to have some life in her, yet she sat completely still with her head bowed, as if she were dead.
[The scout approached, but there was no movement. However, it is certainly alive. The scout's onboard sensors detected faint breathing.]
The scout buzzed over and landed right on her face.
But even with an insect larger than a thumb crawling on her face, she remained silent.
"Is she sleeping?"
[No.]
But in that instant.
The scout was caught with lightning speed.
The view spun wildly, then disappeared between red gums and pearly white teeth.
Followed by a crunching sound.
"Did it... just get eaten?"
[That is not the biggest problem. The next video.]
Setting aside the fact that a scout getting eaten wasn't the problem.
I gasped as I watched the next video.
This footage was from another scout.
The one that had observed the moment the first scout was eaten by that strange person.
"...That crazy..."
I couldn't help but curse.
The fiend that had devoured the scout in one bite rose to its feet.
Its wildly contorting body, the crazed look in its wide-open eyes, the drool dribbling down its chin, and its growling breath all indicated that this woman was not normal.
I had a feeling that this might be the very reason they had perished and sealed themselves away.