Chapter 44
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Struggle for Survival (4)
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[The Legion has taken the time to interrogate the prisoner and has learned a great deal. Their language, history, characteristics, culture, religion, and so on.]
"...Is that what's important right now?"
[The new units have been exterminated. There will be a reward.]
"What's your intention? Why hide this until now and only show me at this moment?"
The chattering text was a blur.
Having checked my phone as soon as I woke up, I went through the videos with trembling hands.
These were events that had unfolded while I hadn't been able to check, conscious of Cha Ji-yeon's presence.
[Since I cannot act proactively, I am simply making the most of the functions I possess.]
The text carried no emotion.
I barely managed to pull myself together.
The videos, sent like a barrage of bombs.
Their contents were all records of the Legion's actions.
From creating a body for itself, to hiding it from me, and recently, to placing a mask on Kang Do-yeon.
"I, I don't understand. Why now, of all times?! You should have just told me from the beginning!"
[Think for yourself, and please, find the answer. Why I am playing the double agent and revealing the truth to you.]
The usually talkative entity was being concise. It was clear there were restrictions on it.
I groaned and clutched my head.
[An untethered colt, but if you bridle it, its full potential cannot be realized.]
"...Potential?"
That last word was a hint.
As I began to understand, a hollow sigh escaped me.
"The Legion needs to continue this radical growth. So, you didn't tell me from the start because you were afraid I'd get in the way. But you're telling me now because I have to know the truth."
[You are close to the correct answer. The Legion is now a runaway locomotive, hurtling forward with its own values and convictions, and it has picked up enough speed. That is why I am telling you.]
"You're incredibly shameless. Then again, you've been that way since we first met."
My thoughts were a tangled mess.
If you didn't trust me, then you should have hidden it to the very end.
What's the point of me finding out like this anyway?
[A parent should know what their child is up to.]
"I'm not in the mood for jokes."
[Nevertheless, through your training with Cha Ji-yeon, you must temper yourself and learn to control your emotions. Strictly speaking, the string connecting you has the greatest influence on the Legion, and as it is now developing its ego, it is associating everything with you in its thoughts. That is one of the few ways you can still interfere.]
"...Crazy."
It felt like my emotions were being monitored in real time.
But as I was now, I had no way to escape it.
"How can I believe a word you say? How do I know you're not lying right now? How do I know you're not cleverly hiding and deceiving me, trying to pull my strings? You've already lost my trust. How do I know you won't pull something like this again?"
[In your breathless rush until now, you have forgotten one thing. No matter that the essence of this game is a food chain where you must fight and survive, remember that in the end, it is just a game.]
"...Right. It's a game we were forced into, against our will."
I slumped down on the bed.
Whether you're a Player or a Unit, whether you've gained an advantage or grown stronger, you still have to keep fighting, keep waging war.
"What is the real purpose? The purpose of this game. By creating the strongest units in each world, which you call servers, what are you trying to do?"
I prayed it wasn't some bullshit like a server-merge war.
[It is correct that we are cultivating the strongest who survive. New beings who will surpass their limits.]
"...Creating such groups on every server, no, in every world, what for?"
[The final war. You will learn of this when you become the victor who survives to the end. I can assert one thing: the true enemy is elsewhere.]
That was it.
A hollow laugh escaped me. As I thought, getting swept up in this in the first place was the mistake.
['We' exist solely for that purpose.]
The word "we" caught my eye.
It was interpreted differently from the "we" it usually used.
"So in the end, to you... Players and Units are just pawns for that purpose, aren't they? The restrictions you have are just to foster competition between fellow Observers, right?"
[Is that a problem? Nothing changes. I am merely a being who observes and guides; in the end, all the important decisions are made by you all. I may hide information and choose not to speak of things first, but I cannot tell you lies. Using me well is also part of your ability.]
It was a brazen admission, but I was at a loss for words.
Even if I could escape this game.
This world had already been entangled for a long time.
The faces of those who had been killed in the raids were still vivid in my mind.
As was the image of my sister, lying there as a gruesome chunk of flesh.
The only reason I had survived and was able to save my sister, even as a part of the Legion, was all a price for participating in the game.
"Just tell me the rewards. What did we get?"
I changed the subject.
For the first time in a long while, I craved a cigarette, a habit I'd quit in the army.
"300G... is that it?"
[There is no reason to put a high price on a race that was defeated and destroyed. Especially not for a group at the level of a mere hamlet that had not even developed properly.]
The value gained from killing the units, the Moon Elf survivors, was less than a single Execution Ticket.
It had been like this before, but now that it happened again, I couldn't help the bitter taste in my mouth.
"This game is ridiculously unfair. The levels of Units and Players vary so wildly, yet aside from some bizarre, meaningless restrictions, there's no balance patch whatsoever."
The Moon Elves had certainly been a race with potential.
Who knows what might have happened if they hadn't been refugees on the brink of extinction, but had started in a proper village.
[True fairness does not exist in this world.]
Of course, complaining about how unfair it was did no good.
Whatever the outcome, the weak die. That was the entirety of the law.
[This is the reward for exterminating one type of unit.]
[Unit Summon Ticket x1]
Instead, there was another reward.
This time, it was an item that certainly looked out of the ordinary.
"Is this what I think it is?"
[It is a fine item that allows you to summon your own unit for a certain period of time.]
A chill ran down my spine for a moment.
I wondered if using this meant the Legion could take root here as well.
[However, it will be sent back after a certain time has passed. Everything the Legion possesses is a part of itself. Even if it leaves something behind, that too will be recalled in its entirety.]
Unfortunately, that thought was immediately shot down.
Still, it was a good enough item.
Even a short period of time was enough to make use of it.
"So that's it for the systemic rewards. But that's not all we gained, is it? Show me."
[The Legion has already gathered a great deal of information.]
The dark screen slowly brightened, revealing the inside of the cavern.
Having driven out the Ruin Fungus abominations, the Legion's nest, which had spread this far, was still writhing and covering its surroundings.
"...It doesn't know I'm watching this right now, does it?"
[Correct. As you said you were sleeping.]
In a corner of the nest, Legionnaires in a dormant state were receiving nutrients.
The same went for Kang Do-yeon.
And next to her was she, no, it.
A single being with the same physique as my sister, wearing a mask.
"Tell it I just woke up and I'm about to turn on my phone."
[I will relay that exactly.]
As a test, I had my words relayed.
As if the message had been delivered, my sister, who had been sitting and dozing off, snapped her eyes open.
"..."
And the Legion, which had been sitting next to her, instantly scurried to hide the humanoid body it had created inside a flesh wall.
The grand throne it had been sitting on vanished as well.
This... seeing it like this, it kind of shattered the illusion.
Even more so after hearing the reason it didn't show me was because its form wasn't perfect yet.
"Oppa! Can you hear me?!"
At that moment, my sister looked up at the sky and shouted.
"I saw the video. You fighting."
"Oh?! Uh, yeah... I'm really okay. Seriously. This was my choice."
Her lie was obvious. It must have told her to say that.
But it seemed the Legion who ordered the lie hadn't thought that far ahead yet.
A lack of experience was likely the cause.
"I see."
I didn't press the issue.
I also knew what the Legion had done to my sister.
Though the act was harsh, its intention, and its result, was to protect my sister's mind, so for now, I held back.
"Don't you worry about it either. They were units. In the end, one side had to die."
"I think so too. If we hadn't killed them... we would have died."
As I tried to comfort her, she forced a smile.
I too tried to maintain my composure.
Because if my emotions wavered, the Legion would notice.
I had confirmed it for certain with what I just saw.
No matter how smart, how terrifying, or how radical it was, the Legion was still an inexperienced child that hadn't even escaped this labyrinth.
[Based on the information extracted from the prisoner, their Player is one of the elven race from a world called Eden, who are raising the World Tree, Garsil.]
"That's not very important information right now. Next."
[They were originally descendants of survivors who were barely scraping by, who had managed to live in the ruins of a civilization that fell about 200 years ago.]
I calmly listened to the information we had acquired.
Fell 200 years ago? Was it that long ago?
[It is unknown where the Ruin Fungus originated, but one thing is certain: it started from above. The Moon Elves, as we suspected, were driven from the surface and had no choice but to enter this labyrinth, where they were developing in their own way. However, their failure to unite in time for the Ruin Fungus's attack was their greatest misstep.]
"So in the end, we have to go up to find out anything?"
The information gained was plentiful, but insufficient.
I could guarantee that the war with the Ruin Fungus abominations was not yet over.
[But we have grown much stronger. We learned something from the prisoner. The blue ore from the vajra we've been using to good effect. That ore, which they call a Divine Stone, held dormant energy that could be used for Form Power.]
A portion of the Legionnaires searched the nearby caverns, including the survivors' hideout.
Weapons and ornaments embedded with minerals similar to that ore came pouring out.
"Why didn't they use this?"
[The most likely possibility is the loss of the technology to use it. Of course, the Legion had methods of utilization unknown to them.]
The collected ores began to be gathered in one place.
I had seen its power with my own eyes.
As I intended, the Legion, which had learned Soul Weaving in an instant, had acquired a new power in its own way.