Chapter 79
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Invasion and Encroachment (8)
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"Kuhuk..."
A single strike. My swordsmanship was still clumsy, but the power behind it was beyond comparison.
With the power Eve had created just for me, I defeated everyone who sparred with me.
"You've changed somehow."
"Let's just say I've finally come to my senses."
Even at Ji Chang-hyun's astonished words, I found it hard to relax my expression.
I gave a nod to the officer-turned-trainee who had dropped his sword after taking a hit from mine, and left the training grounds.
"From my perspective, it seems less like you've come to your senses and more like you've found a new reason."
"...A new reason?"
"My master says the same. That your sword now carries a burden. A mission, a duty, something of that sort."
"A burden."
I couldn't deny his words. I had no more excuses.
Now that I had seen with my own eyes the path my seventeen-year-old sister chose—to fight for herself—I had to fight, too.
"Ten years ago, I had the excuse that I was just a kid. Now, I'm an adult, and I have people helping me. I have to seize this chance. You hate being powerless? So do I."
"...That's a good mindset. My master's teaching is to not simply swing a sword, but to imbue it with one's true will. In that, Mr. Kang Shin-woo, you are already far ahead."
Ji Chang-hyun smiled and clapped. To be honest, I still didn't quite grasp what he was saying about the sword.
Unaware of my true circumstances—the Legion, my sister—he seemed to have misunderstood things slightly, but since I couldn't tell him the truth, I just kept my mouth shut.
"We'll be deploying soon. Be ready."
Ji Chang-hyun walked past me and headed toward the others.
Deployment. Just as he said, the allied forces were going on the offensive once more. The battle would likely be completely different from before.
We had a rough idea of the enemy's strength, and those who had trained with the Guardian Union had been organized as a new force within the allied army.
The thought that this might be just the beginning crossed my mind. What had been a death game of strict individual combat was gradually shifting into a war between factions.
At this rate, this game I thought would be a playground for the established powerhouses might drag on much longer than I anticipated. They would interact out of necessity and continue to grow stronger.
"At my current level, can I even take on a Legion soldier?"
[...You mean a higher-tier one?]
I had only muttered it to myself, but I could almost read emotion in the text that appeared. I gave up on getting an answer, gathered my things, and left.
"I'm going with you this time. Both sides are serious now, so this will be an all-out war."
"Did your Player say anything?"
"He's probably focused on other things."
Cha Ji-yeon, whom I met in the barracks, gave a faint smile and nodded.
The Step-Up Hunters under her Player's command were spread across the globe, working in close cooperation with the allied forces.
I could definitely sympathize with her saying he must be busy; my Legion had grown, and I had many places to oversee.
"Honestly, I wish you didn't have to fight..."
"He trained me to make use of me, you think my Player would just let me sit on the sidelines? Besides, I can fight."
"It's not like you're under a restriction. This isn't your Player talking, it's just me. Not that my feelings are worth much right now."
She muttered dejectedly and lowered her head. At this point, I grew curious.
The relationship between a Player and a Unit isn't absolute. This meant she herself had accepted the restriction, which was basically a leash.
"He said he wouldn't give me power unless I accepted the restriction. Since what he wanted and what I wanted were the same anyway, I figured it didn't matter as long as I could get stronger."
"And what you wanted was..."
"To kill the monsters and save people."
She confessed her inner thoughts calmly. In a way, her ideals aligned perfectly with those of the Guardian Union.
"I have... bad feelings about the monsters."
"...Right. Most people probably do."
I'd heard a little about it. That one of her family members had been killed by a monster on that day, ten years ago.
Perhaps that shared experience was why she had been so furious, so comforting, and so adamant about getting revenge for me when she heard my story about what happened to my sister.
"So I have no regrets. I'll think of being used like a pawn as the price I pay for the power I've gained. Those things were monsters hurting people even before they became Units."
Biting her lip, Cha Ji-yeon's fighting spirit flared.
Without a word, I brought up a screen that she couldn't see, just beyond her face.
Just like us, my Units—the Legion and Eve—were also preparing for war.
Switching the view to a scout's perspective, I could see the enemy's camp.
Countless humans were gathered there. We still hadn't encountered any Units or Players from that world.
So, how would the Legion, crawling out of the Labyrinth, appear to them?
To those who knew nothing, wouldn't the Legion look just like the monsters, invaders crawling out of the Demon World?
"We just have to fight."
I muttered blankly. My thoughts on good and evil had already changed a great deal.
There is no good or evil in a struggle for survival. There is only the law of this world: devour or be devoured.
Even if the Legion bore no hostility toward humans, as long as it continued to encroach upon the world, a clash with them was inevitable.
So, we can just hate each other freely and fight.
There's no need for guilt in a hunt where lives are on the line.
"You're right. With them... we just fight. No need to overthink it. Just for what I want."
Cha Ji-yeon smiled, her expression looking much lighter.
"Um..."
"W-weren't you and Chris an item?!"
I was flustered by her action of openly fiddling with my hand.
"What are you talking about? That guy already has a fiancée back home."
Of course, I was well aware by now that on a battlefield where you could die at any moment, everyone's emotions ran differently than usual.
"Ever since I came here—no, ever since I first became a Unit—I've always lived as if there's no tomorrow. So, I try my best not to do anything I'll regret or leave behind any lingering attachments."
Leaning forward, her face came closer, crossing over the desk.
Just as I was at a loss for words, she was stopped not by me, but by the urgent shout of someone from Evolution calling for her from outside.
*
[The faction he belongs to has begun full-scale war preparations. They are moving very busily even now. He will likely deploy tomorrow at the earliest, or within two days at the latest.]
"I don't care about that. More importantly, who is it? Who dared to stir his emotions? I can roughly tell now. This... this isn't excitement from battle or tension."
[Is that important? To you, he may be some grand existence, but in the end, he is an ordinary person. No matter how much you see yourself as a daughter-like figure, he'd naturally be more drawn to a member of his own species, someone of the opposite sex he can actually connect with, rather than a being whose face he's never seen and with whom he's never directly spoken.]
"No!"
Stomping her foot, Eve let out a shout filled with Form Power.
In her fierce rage, the entire nearby nest twisted and trembled.
"I-I need to show him my face and talk to him. Then he'll look at me."
[...I'm not so sure you'll even be able to have a conversation.]
Eve tried her best to ignore the voice.
Unfortunately, she couldn't fully concentrate on communicating with him right now.
The human forces, having begun to assemble, were heading toward the nearest base nest.
"What do we do now?"
Kang Do-yeon, who was also on standby in one of the base nests, asked for a plan. Eve quickly began her calculations.
"I've said it before. Humans are constantly swayed by useless emotions. The choice is ours."
The calculation itself finished quickly. Eve issued a new order to the scattered Legion soldiers.
"Those fools have massed into a single bloc and are slowly advancing, demanding an all-out battle. But our objective is to buy time. So there's no need to play into their hands."
The order Eve gave was for thorough rear disruption and guerrilla warfare.
She had already extracted all the information on the emotions, behavioral patterns, and circumstances of the humans here.
Knowing they couldn't simply ignore relief efforts, Eve planned to continuously attack the towns and cities in their rear, shattering the very justification of those who had things to protect.
Besides, it didn't matter even if this plan failed.
Rear disruption was just one of many options. If it failed, they could just gather and fight.
"When this battle is over, I'm going to show him my face. With a gift."
"I-I don't think you need to say that."
A horrified Kang Do-yeon interjected at Eve's words.
"No need to worry. As long as they don't show us something new that we don't know about, we'll win."
"That's not what I meant...!"
[Receiving their orders, the Legion soldiers began to scatter in all directions, avoiding the enemy's main force. It was a simultaneous movement happening in hundreds of locations across a front line stretching for hundreds of kilometers. As long as the enemy didn't notice this, a decisive blow would be unavoidable. However... it seemed the enemy still had plenty of strength in reserve.]
Kang Do-yeon's ominous feeling was right on the mark. The moment the Legion began to move, something rose high into the sky from the main body of the massed human formation.
Glowing a translucent blue, it was a giant, magical eye.