Chapter 61
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Tangled (5)
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"What do you mean, 'master'? You're one of the top Hunters in the country."
I asked nonchalantly, feigning ignorance. Of course, this 'master' he spoke of had to be a Player or a Unit.
What concerned me more was that he didn't seem to know my true identity yet. I couldn't be sure if he was genuinely unaware or just acting.
"Of course, it might sound strange for a Hunter who fights with their own unique abilities to have a master, but it's true. We have recently established a new organization. I rushed here as soon as it was finalized."
"A n-new organization?"
"...An organization that can help ordinary people, those left behind by the upheaval and change, gain the strength to resist and survive—to adapt to this new world."
His expression seemed somewhat detached. I judged that, at the very least, it didn't seem like a deception.
"If you're interested, please contact me. I'm very keen on recruiting you."
He said no more and fell silent.
I subtly stepped aside. He stood silently before his cousin's body.
I heard that Yoon Soo-ah had deceived those around her and volunteered in secret.
I couldn't easily judge him—whether he was sincere or what grand picture he was painting.
Even so, if we're all bound by the game, don't we ultimately have to kill each other?
"Have you already made your decision?"
He spoke without turning around as I approached.
"I'd like to hear you out. And I want to become stronger, too."
"You're currently a member of Evolution. May I ask how you joined? Cha Ji-yeon... she is no ordinary Hunter. She's an unreasonable sort, like me."
He turned and brought up Cha Ji-yeon.
I already knew she was a Unit, of course.
So I decided to listen to what he had to say—to the words of a man who called himself 'unreasonable.'
"It's not a short story."
Right then and there, Ji Chang-hyun began to explain to me about the app, the game, Players, and Units.
As someone who already knew everything, what I paid close attention to was his attitude.
*
"..."
[He is a bit busy right now. I've sent a notification, but he is not in a position to check it in real-time.]
"It doesn't really matter."
The Legion, which had only its head poking out from the floor, revealed its hidden body again.
Meanwhile, Kang Do-yeon, frowning, analyzed the information currently being collected by the Legion.
The Legion had finally succeeded in completely digesting the Hive Mind and had secured a passage leading upward.
[Two paths have now appeared.]
Naturally, reconnaissance continued.
Information from that reconnaissance was now coming in.
[The first path is another labyrinth, which we reached by breaking through a wall. The upper levels of this labyrinth, once filled with Ruin Fungus, are blocked by a special spell to prevent the fungi from ascending. It is similar to the spell of the Moonlight Elves who sealed the passage themselves on the 36th Floor.]
"More survivors? You said there were numerous cities, didn't you?"
The Legion formed a hypothesis.
That the Moonlight Elves, thought to be extinct, might still be alive in the other labyrinth connected to the unknown upper levels.
[The remaining path is the passage that the mutant Ruin Fungus Hive Mind was blocking with its body. The scouts sent there have found a hint as to why the Hive Mind determined that its own evolution was impossible.]
"What is that?"
Kang Do-yeon muttered, her eyes closed as she shared the scout's vision.
The Legion's gaze shifted.
The Stem Layer of the 47th Floor, which the scouts were exploring.
This place, which appeared ordinary on the surface, had the appearance of a normal ecosystem, devoid of Ruin Fungus.
However, there were dozens of 'them' here.
Their appearance resembled giants made of large, attached stones. Even the smallest among them was over three meters tall.
What was peculiar was a single glowing ore embedded in what appeared to be their chests. The Legion realized that this ore was a device that functioned similarly to the Moonlight Elves' divine stones or the Legion's own power cores.
"A type of... thing made by weaving together inorganic matter and operated by the flow of Form Power..."
"Golems!"
With a single word, Kang Do-yeon summarized the identity of the creatures the Legion had been trying to define.
"Now I think I get it. Why the Ruin Fungus gave up the fight."
[They are inorganic. If these beings, moved by the power of spells, were not outmatched in strength and numbers, there would be no chance for the Ruin Fungus to win.]
The Ruin Fungus's method of fighting was infection, and the mutant variants also possessed the ability to replicate an opponent's strength through assimilation and absorption via that infection.
However, all of that was only possible if the opponent was a living creature like itself.
If the opponent's entire body was made of mere rock, the Ruin Fungus, ignorant of the concept of Form Power, would have been unable to resist and simply been crushed.
"But things like that are definitely not naturally occurring."
But the Legion, uninterested in the tales of losers, focused on something else.
On who the Player, creator, or god of those golems was.
[The answer, of course, must lie further above.]
"You're right. Legion Commander. Prepare at once."
The entire nest stirred.
The Legion, which had been stockpiling energy and further improving its soldiers, resumed its activities.
The wall that the Ruin Fungus could not overcome: an army of inanimate beings.
"This time, we will devour those lumps of rock too."
But for the Legion, which had already acquired the concept of Form Power under the influence of its Player, there was a way to shatter that wall that tested the limits of living beings.
Letting out a small sigh, Kang Do-yeon picked up her weapon.
A longsword made entirely of a dark red ore.
A weapon born from the conclusion, after several modifications, that forging it from a single piece was more explosive and powerful than mixing or combining materials.
"..."
This was the 47th Floor.
After the Ruin Fungus had been cleaned out and driven away, a long period of peace had ensued.
The flora and fauna merely ate, reproduced, and died, fulfilling their instincts. The golems, ordered to protect this place, had ceased operations after the Ruin Fungus disappeared, only rarely conducting test runs.
"...?"
But now, at last.
Detecting a faint and unfamiliar vibration, the golems began to rise one by one, supplying themselves with mana.
But they were unaware that their opponent had already thoroughly investigated them.
-Large-scale collective lifeform detected-
One of them spotted the newcomers appearing from the floor below.
A jet-black wave, swarming as a collective.
The beings that had been living as ordinary stones instantly blazed with hostility, just as they were programmed.
It didn't matter whether the opponent was the Ruin Fungus or not.
-Executing extermination order. Annihilate all collective lifeforms-
Due to the limitations of their command system, they couldn't selectively kill only the Ruin Fungus.
Any creature that formed a group was a target for them to kill.
In an instant, the golems gathered with thudding vibrations.
They were not living beings. They were merely existences that moved as commanded.
-Annihilate-
The gathered golems charged recklessly, relying on their mass and size.
It was an indifference and aggression that had forced even the ferocious Ruin Fungus to evolve a variant to bring itself under control.
"Knock them down!"
But their opponents were just as aggressive and relentless, if not more so.
"!"
With a loud *boom*, the ground exploded.
Mining-type Legion soldiers, based on the giant subterranean Demon World Mole Cricket, burst out in unison from where they lay in wait, blowing away the ground the golems were standing on.
This was the cause of the strange vibrations the golems had detected.
-Searching for countermeasures-
The golems that had fallen and rolled on the ground quickly righted themselves.
But what flew at them this time was a crimson slash from Kang Do-yeon.
The explosive energy erupting from the resonance between the power core implanted in her body and her sword was the same type of power that the golems' master had embedded in them.
-Counter...-
The bodies of the golems, which couldn't be scratched by ordinary teeth and claws, were sliced and blown apart as if they were tofu.
'Crush them.'
The Legion trampled the golems with a new tactic.
From the mining-type soldiers to the assault-types based on the Cave Ox, these were large-class soldiers whose size and weight surpassed the golems.
All of them had been modified by the Legion, reaching a level of size and strength impossible for these cave creatures to achieve naturally.
They overpowered the golems, which had until now relied on mass to win their battles, by crushing them in turn.
[Simply suppressing them isn't enough. They feel no pain, nor do they tire.]
"Which is why we need to get this."
Her eyes glowing with a red light, Kang Do-yeon climbed onto the chest of a suppressed, struggling golem, aimed her sword, and plunged it down.
She retrieved the golem's extracted power core.
It was the size of her head.
The other high-tier Legion soldiers, who also had power cores implanted in their chests, used Form Power in their own ways to break the golems' resistance, destroy their power cores, and pull them out.
'A bit different from the Legion's method. If I had to compare, it's similar to the way of the Moonlight Elves.'
The intricate spells drawn and carved onto the power core were similar to the magic of the Moonlight Elves it had encountered in the past.
Meaning, it would take less than a few seconds to reverse-engineer and analyze them.
'I can use this much more easily.'
"Ugh."
On the spot, the Legion modified the bodies of Kang Do-yeon and the other high-tier soldiers.
Her eyes widened as fine, root-like tendrils grew from her hand and burrowed into the golem's core she was holding.