A Legion Grows From My Smartphone

“He is afraid.”

“Yeah. I can feel it too.”

“And I can sense deep resentment as well.”

“Oppa has despised and loathed demonic creatures ever since that day. They destroyed our family.”

“How dare they…”

Rage boiled up.

It wasn’t an external emotion flowing in. It was a fiery anger felt by the Legion itself.

The entire Legion was agitated.

“Calm down. Oppa has already crossed the Gate, and we have our own tasks to handle.”

Kang Do-Yeon stepped forward to soothe the Legion.

The Legion soon regained its composure.

Kang Do-Yeon understood that this was precisely what the Legion expected of her.

“You’re right. If we want to meet him… we have to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Me-meet him? And then what?”

“…I don’t know.”

The Legion frowned.

This kind of situation was still quite common.

Even though it knew, its reason and emotions often couldn’t keep up with or understand each other.

Now that the Legion had accumulated a certain amount of knowledge, it understood the cause of this phenomenon.

It was due to its lack of experience and an incomplete ego compared to the knowledge it had acquired and the computing power it could mobilize.

“This inefficiency isn’t good.”

From the Legion’s perspective, the emergence of an unnecessary ego was causing inefficiency.

To reduce this inefficiency, it relied on Subminds like Kang Do-Yeon.

However, even Kang Do-Yeon, who was more “mature” than the Legion, was still just a mentally immature 17-year-old girl.

[The scouts are continuously being intercepted. As expected, they definitely have advanced intelligence and a communication network.]

“You know the situation, right? Go deal with them.”

“…Understood.”

With its thoughts shifted, the Legion focused its consciousness elsewhere.

He had thrown himself into danger for its sake.

So it absolutely had to achieve results as well.

“Grooo…”

A sorrowful yet eerie wail echoed through the dim passage.

The Legion’s scouts, spread out in all directions, observed and shared all aspects of the entities with their eyes and ears.

[They are different from ordinary Destruction Fungus Infected Entities. Their appearance and behavioral patterns do not match the data.]

The Destruction Fungus Infected Entities that began appearing sporadically on the 40th stratum and above.

But their appearances were all strange.

Since they had infected Moonlight Fairies and other creatures of the cave, they should only exhibit excessive tumors or minor physical deformations.

“What is this…”

But these entities were different.

Though based on the Moonlight Fairies, some had something resembling a head attached to their chest, or their limbs had grotesquely transformed into hooked claws, and so on.

The degree of mutation had reached the point where the original form was obscured.

[A prisoner did mention this before. They said that the infected entities in the Upper Stratum were so grotesque and dangerous that the Ancestors warned to avoid them at all costs.]

Despite their hideous appearance, these entities were more aggressive than other infected entities.

Detecting the movements of scouts, they extended tentacles or swung their limbs in various ways to capture and devour them.

[It is clear. These peculiar Mutant Destruction Fungus are attempting to manipulate the Legion’s genetic information through the scouts they’ve consumed. This was the first time the Legion encountered an opponent capable of genetic manipulation.]

“How dare they.”

The Legion was naturally enraged.

If it were anything else, it might be different, but genetic manipulation and analysis were among the Legion’s prides.

Devouring, analyzing, and merging incomplete and primitive things to evolve—this was the essence of the Legion.

These Mutant Destruction Fungus were, in essence, challenging the Legion.

“Kill them.”

Kang Do-Yeon gritted her teeth.

The mask did not appear. By now, she had grown to a certain extent and understood it herself.

She drew her sword.

The Core Engine embedded in her chest emitted energy.

One in the heart, one in each arm, and one in each leg.

Kang Do-Yeon’s body housed a total of five Legion’s Power Cores.

With power incomparable to other Legion Soldiers who had only one in their hearts, she stomped the ground and surged forward.

“That… ah… aaaah!”

[The infected entity, noticing her approach, let out a horrifying scream from what seemed to be mouths scattered across its body and charged, swinging massive hooked limbs.]

Disturbed by its grotesque and eerie appearance, Kang Do-Yeon’s face was half-covered by the mask.

At the same time, her sword erupted with dark crimson aura, unleashing energy in the form of a slash attack.

“Ugh…”

Kang Do-Yeon staggered in place.

Even though it was her own strike, she hadn’t expected it to be this powerful.

Since this was her first battle utilizing the Core Engines, the Legion had no data on it either.

The unleashed slash attack cut through the infected entity, which had a build over 2 meters, cleaving it in half and leaving a massive gash on the ground that extended over a dozen meters before dissipating.

“Disgusting.”

However, the infected entity did not die immediately.

Even with its body split in half, it somehow lifted itself up or crawled toward her to attack.

[Other infected entities began flocking toward the sound. But they, too, seemed somehow anomalous.]

The cavern—or rather, the entire area—shook.

Gritting her teeth, Kang Do-Yeon struck the crawling enemy, swinging its hooked claws, once again.

The result was a mass of minced flesh, but even then, it was hard to say it was completely dead.

[The Legion decided it needed to learn more about them in detail.]

Soon, the Mutant Infected Entities, shrieking and charging madly, began to swarm.

The Legion also dispatched troops to confront them.

By now, war with the infected entities had become a familiar affair.

“Ugh?!”

She tilted her head to avoid something that suddenly flew toward her.

What was shot was a large, poisonous stinger-like bone spike.

The enraged Legion began bombarding them with poisonous thorns in return.

‘…This might not be easy.’

Kang Do-Yeon and the entire Legion instinctively realized it.

The enemies charging so ferociously at this moment might be stronger than any foes they had faced before.

The Legion kicked forward, rushing toward the infected entities.

At the first direct collision without slowing down, Kang Do-Yeon unleashed another slash attack forward.

[The elite Legion Soldiers pushed their individual outputs to the limit.]

Even so, the Legion had already taken another leap forward.

[Resonance and amplification. This is the ability we acquired from the Sacred Tree of the Moonlight Fairies.]

Before anyone realized it, Kang Do-Yeon’s entire face was covered by the mask, and a dark crimson energy condensed into a shield barrier in front of the Legion Soldiers leading the charge.

[The Moonlight Fairies, the Destruction Fungus’ oldest nemesis. Their final legacy will suppress them.]

“Krrk…”

“Kieeek!”

With a loud crash, the infected entities that struck the energy barrier were repelled with equal force.

Poison stingers, acidic fluids, and other horrific attack methods of the Mutant Destruction Fungus Infected Entities could not penetrate the energy barrier.

However, the attacks of the Legion Soldiers within the barrier struck the entities relentlessly.

The black wave, composed of diverse forms and sizes, hesitated briefly before pushing forward again.

[Their aggression and abilities are incomparable to the existing Destruction Fungus.]

At the center of the nest, while the Legion’s soldiers continued their battle.

The Legion utilized some of its medium to small-sized troops crawling across the ground to continuously transport fragments of Destruction Fungus Infected Entities produced on the battlefield back to the nest.

“How dare those insolent creatures attempt to transform the Legion into part of themselves and devour it.”

At the same time, they were both the source of the Legion’s nutrients and the subjects to be analyzed and understood.

Moreover, there was an odd mix of anger now.

“Decompose and digest them.”

The Legion’s tentacles mercilessly descended upon the writhing masses of flesh.

The mucus secreted from the tentacles was the Legion’s digestive fluid.

The countless cells contained within the secretion began to weaken and decompose the target at the cellular level.

Normally, most sacrifices at this stage were disassembled and dismantled without any resistance.

“…?!”

[However, this time, the enemy turned out to be the only beings among all the creatures we had encountered capable of engaging in cellular-level warfare. They began to devour the Legion’s cells that they were attacking.]

The Legion’s nest, which had been undergoing digestion, quickly hardened and began to twist simultaneously.

The Legion started to falter under the toxins emitted by the Mutant Destruction Fungus.

The enemy first took control of the nutrient supply system by infecting the Legion’s cells.

The energy invested into the process ended up nourishing the enemy instead, causing the Destruction Fungus to multiply infinitely like cancer cells within the Legion.

[If this continues, the entire Legion will be consumed. The predator capable of devouring anything is being devoured in return.]

Voracious appetite was the inherent essence and nature of the Legion.

To have that denied was to have its reason for existence denied.

“No.”

However, the Legion had already finished all its calculations.

At the same time, it acknowledged its mistake.

“Focusing only on claws and teeth is insufficient.”

It was true that it had been solely concerned with enhancing its soldiers.

This was because, until now, it had never encountered an enemy capable of defying its abilities.

Taking this incident as an opportunity and a learning experience, preparing for such scenarios would itself be a significant gain.

This was the conclusion the Legion reached.

The Legion attempted a new form of attack within the nest, where the fierce battle was taking place.

Slender tissues, resembling the roots of a tree, began forcibly burrowing into the infected tissue.

Simultaneously, strong energy waves were released in succession from the roots, annihilating all the cells in the vicinity.

“The possibilities of formative power are limitless.”

Another power that granted transcendental strength beyond reality to the Legion’s soldiers.

The Legion’s Sacred Tree was already rapidly growing at the center of the widest trunk layer.

There was no rule that the power had to be used solely for visible battles.

Eyes glinted from behind the mask.

The thirst for knowledge that would make it stronger only deepened.