Chapter 52
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Legion VS Legion (6)
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"Anger, and joy, at the same time... irritation?"
Kang Do-yeon, her mask half-removed, caught her breath.
The emotions the Legion felt, she naturally shared them too.
Soon, the ground nearby began to vibrate.
Watching the fierce battlefield, she smirked.
The Legion's secret weapon, one that would shatter the balance of this grueling battlefield, was now arriving.
The mutant Ruin Fungi seemed to panic, their movements freezing.
It was only natural. They had never imagined an enemy would burst forth from the ground of this solid labyrinth.
But the Legion, which had devoured otherworldly monsters, analyzing and improving upon all their abilities, had caught them by surprise.
'They were complacent, but this is the end.'
At the same time, the Legion made a decision.
The war against the mutant Ruin Fungus legion had given the Legion many wounds, and many lessons.
The Legion, which had devoured and trampled everything in its path with unstoppable momentum since its birth, had been pushed back by sheer force for the first time.
Its proudly held predation and genetic manipulation, due to neglecting their development, had nearly been turned against it.
Thanks to that, it had lost most of its stored energy.
All of this was a disaster that must never be repeated.
[But the Legion was a Unit. A being that could evolve anywhere, in any way, through interaction with the Player. With that power the Ruin Fungi lacked, the Legion had once again seized the upper hand. And now, it would never let go of that advantage again.]
The constantly shaking ground erupted as if exploding.
The nearby Ruin Fungi were torn apart and sent flying into the air.
A new Legion soldier that burst from the ground swung the hard armor encasing its powerful arms, sending the enemies flying.
"Hoo."
Having steadied her breathing, Kang Do-yeon charged in with the other Legion soldiers.
Their swords, teeth, and claws held both intense rage and cold reason.
In the first place, while the creatures had grown stronger, they weren't overwhelmingly so.
Now that a crack had formed in that balance, the gap widened instantly, and it began to collapse.
"What? They're running away?!"
[We already knew they had their own means of communication. The only problem is the possible existence of a command entity directing them.]
Was it because they failed to react quickly to the sudden appearance of a new variable?
The mutant Ruin Fungi, being slaughtered and neutralized, turned and retreated toward the upper floor from which they had come.
The Legion did not immediately pursue them.
[We had to replenish our energy by devouring all the remaining vegetation the creatures hadn't touched, as well as their corpses, and reproduce the newly improved Legion soldiers.]
A very brief lull occurred amidst the ceaseless war.
'You rest, too.'
"Ah, okay."
The Legion ordered her to rest.
The mask disappeared completely.
Kang Do-yeon trudged over to where the nest was.
A tentacle for supplying nutrients slithered over and plugged into her lower back.
"Ugh..."
She trembled at the strange sensation.
The disgust she initially felt was now almost gone, replaced instead by a strange sense of pleasure.
'Interesting.'
"What is?"
'Your brain hasn't been modified; it remains human. But it is evolving on its own to match the body that has been remodeled as part of the Legion. Since all your existing systems have been overturned and the sources of pleasure have disappeared, it has changed to feel pleasure from nutrient supply. It couldn't endure otherwise.'
"My brain?"
Her heart sinking, she flinched.
She unconsciously placed a hand over her chest.
Her heart no longer beat.
It was because her heart had been replaced with a power organ.
She had been modified after the calculation that the energy used for beating was greater than that required by the power organ's minute energy waves to circulate blood.
"I am..."
She bit her lip.
Until now, she hadn't paid much mind to her body being modified.
Her life had been saved, and her fighting was ultimately to help her brother.
But that was only possible because, deep down, she had confidence in herself.
That no matter how her body was torn apart and remade, her mind would remain unchanged.
So, the fact that her brain, which the Legion hadn't even properly touched, was changing on its own to match her body was a tremendous shock.
'What's the problem with that?'
Of course, she couldn't protest this. She knew that all too well.
To the Legion, tearing apart, evolving, and fighting to become stronger was just common sense, a fundamental law.
"Let's talk about something else."
As she received nutrients with a dark expression, the Legion approached her in its own body.
"Something else?"
"He has developed feelings of affection again."
"Look, liking someone is a natural emotion for a human."
"For a human? But according to the human knowledge he provided, the human emotional spectrum is..."
"My brother isn't that complicated. He's just an ordinary guy."
Appalled, Kang Do-yeon shook her head.
All the information the Legion learned was, of course, shared with Kang Do-yeon.
But she was the one who rejected that knowledge.
Having knowledge that wasn't to her taste forcibly engraved in her mind was quite uncomfortable and mentally exhausting.
"Is it true he likes long hair?"
"Ah, probably. Cha Ji-yeon has long, straight hair too."
She swallowed nervously.
The topic of Cha Ji-yeon had come up for a very trivial reason.
When the Legion had asked her to describe a human face he might like, she had simply mentioned Cha Ji-yeon, the most beautiful woman she had met recently.
"Um... you look pretty enough to me. And you're not even wearing makeup."
As the Legion slowly made its mask vanish, revealing a bare face, she spoke cautiously.
"It's not a lie, but your opinion isn't what's important."
However, the Legion put its mask back on.
After all, no matter what face it created, the truly important criterion was something else entirely.
"It's still not enough. I need more data."
There's a clear limit to self-improvement.
This was one of the realizations it had come to since it began improving its soldiers.
Delving into it alone would not lead to a true leap forward.
[The creatures have started moving again. They already know. That no matter how strong we become, they can change faster. And that there are more of them.]
"What do we do now?"
Kang Do-yeon shared the scout's vision and grimaced.
The Ruin Fungi began to swarm again.
They had been pushed back by a brief variable, but they knew that if the war dragged on, they would be the ones to win.
"I want to crush them, but it's inefficient."
However, the Legion had already found a way to deal with them.
Utilizing the newly acquired Demon World Mole Crickets, the Legion collapsed and blocked all passages leading to the upper floor.
[Energy shortage is not a problem exclusive to the Legion. The Ruin Fungi, moreover, squeezed out what little power they had to transform and evolve to fight us. This means that for creatures who resorted to cannibalism due to a lack of food, they have no stored energy like we do. Plus, they lack the ability to dig.]
"Hey, won't we starve to death too then?"
"We just need to dig a new path elsewhere."
New soldiers tore through the eggs in the nest and revealed themselves.
Individuals far stronger, modified from the original Demon World Mole Crickets in the Legion's style.
They began to dig through the hard bedrock of this cave, not where the original path was, but in a completely different direction.
[The mutant Ruin Fungus swarm was powerful. They were creatures that had ended a world, and on top of that, had competed and evolved amongst themselves, becoming ever more refined.]
They were the ones who instilled a sense of caution in the Legion, which had grown somewhat arrogant from its unstoppable advance.
From the beginning, the Legion was not an absolute power.
It was always in the position of a challenger, climbing upwards.
"...You're right. In the end, the one that survives is the strong one, right? It's an ecosystem."
Kang Do-yeon understood the intent and smiled bitterly.
The detection organs of the Demon World Mole Crickets combined with the Legion's own sensory organs allowed it to pinpoint the creatures' locations and understand the cave's structure through minute vibrations and sounds.
The Legion used that to dig a detour, avoiding them.
Why bother fighting creatures that are endless, no matter how many you kill?
It was enough to wait until they starved to death or cannibalized each other, and then deliver the finishing blow.
"Or, we could just collapse the whole thing."
Kang Do-yeon muttered absently.
"With our current strength, that's entirely possible."
Its eyes flashing for a moment, the Legion reviewed the proposal Kang Do-yeon had raised.
The idea of collapsing the cavern was something the Legion had considered even back when it was far less developed.
It was an idea that had been shelved simply because the caverns grew larger and larger as it ascended.
But things were different now. Now, it had soldiers that could even dig through the hard bedrock of this cave.
It could also use the exceptional power of Form Power.
"B-But what if we mess up and the whole thing comes down on us?"
"Detection, surveying, design, and calculation are all possible."
And it also possessed the knowledge to discuss sophisticated designs.
The mathematical, scientific, and engineering knowledge that a species had developed over thousands of years.
The corners of its physical body's mouth turned up, and its overall mood improved.
The side effects of gaining emotions and an ego: inefficiency and contradiction in the use of knowledge.
The sub-mind, which it had intended to use to prevent this, proved its worth this time by pointing out something the Legion had failed to consider.
"Go to the points I've designated and wait."
The Legion deployed dozens of soldiers capable of digging, simultaneously scouted and surveyed all points, and immediately completed the optimal calculations on the spot.
The powerful force that would bring everything down had also been dispatched.
[Predation, growth, evolution. Those are merely means, and not satisfying on their own. The ultimate goal is to become absolutely strong in all aspects.]
"And by exterminating those mutants, I must take everything I have yet to uncover."
For instance, the command entity of the Ruin Fungus swarm, which is still shrouded in mystery.
The war between those who prey and evolve was not yet over.
The victor of this battle would devour everything the loser possessed, take it all, and grow even stronger.