A Legion Grows From My Smartphone

“Anger, and joy, at the same time… annoyance?”

Kang Do-Yeon, who had half-removed her mask, caught her breath.

The emotions felt by The Legion were naturally shared with her as well.

Soon, the ground nearby began to tremble.

Watching the intense battlefield, she grinned.

The Legion’s secret weapon, which would shatter the oppressive balance of this tiresome battlefield, was now arriving.

The Mutant Destruction Fungus seemed flustered, their movements stiffened.

It was only natural. They had never imagined that an enemy would emerge from the solid ground of this labyrinth.

However, the Legion, which had devoured the monsters of the Otherworld, analyzed and improved all their abilities, catching them off guard.

‘Complacent, but this is the end.’

At the same time, the Legion made a decision.

The war against the Mutant Destruction Fungus Legion had inflicted many wounds and taught many lessons to the Legion.

Under Birth, they had devoured and trampled everything with Irresistible Momentum, but for the first time, they were overpowered.

The abilities they had been so proud of—devouring and genetic manipulation—had nearly backfired due to their negligence in development.

As a result, they had lost most of their reserved energy.

All of this was a catastrophe that should never happen again.

[But the Legion was a Unit. Through interaction with the Player, it could develop anywhere, in any way. With that power, which the Destruction Fungus lacked, the Legion once again regained superiority. And now, it would never lose that superiority again.]

The ground, which had been shaking continuously, exploded as if it had burst open.

At the same time, the nearby Destruction Fungus were torn apart and sent flying into mid-air.

The new Legion Soldier that emerged from the ground swung its sturdy armor-clad arms, sending the enemies flying.

“Hu.”

Kang Do-Yeon, having steadied her breath, charged forward with the other Legion Soldiers.

Their swords, teeth, and claws carried both fierce anger and cold reason.

From the beginning, no matter how strong the enemy had become, they were not overwhelming.

Now that cracks had formed in that balance, the gap widened all at once, causing it to collapse.

“What? Are they running away?!”

[It was already known that they had their own means of communication. The only issue was the potential existence of a Command Entity leading them.]

Perhaps because they couldn’t respond quickly to the sudden emergence of an unexpected variable, the Mutant Destruction Fungus, which had been slaughtered and neutralized, turned around and retreated toward the Upper Stratum they had come from.

The Legion did not immediately pursue them.

[They needed to consume everything—remaining vegetation untouched by them, as well as their corpses—to replenish energy and reproduce the newly enhanced Legion Soldiers.]

A very slight reprieve emerged amidst the continuous war.

‘You should rest too.’

“Ah, got it.”

The Legion commanded her to rest.

The mask disappeared completely.

Kang Do-Yeon trudged toward the nest.

Tentacles for nutrient supply wriggled toward her and attached themselves to her lumbar region.

“Ugh…”

She shuddered at the peculiar sensation.

The disgust she initially felt had almost disappeared, and instead, a strange pleasure began to emerge.

‘Fascinating.’

“What is?”

‘Your brain remains unmodified and entirely human. Yet it is evolving on its own to match the body that’s been transformed into part of the Legion. With all prior systems overturned and the capacity to feel pleasure removed, you’ve adapted to find pleasure in nutrient supply. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to endure.’

“My brain?”

Her chest sank as she flinched.

Unconsciously, she placed her hand on her chest.

Her heart no longer beat.

It had been replaced with a core engine.

After calculations showed that the energy used for a heartbeat was more than the energy micro-waves from the core engine used to circulate blood, her heart had been modified.

“I…”

She bit her lip.

Until now, she hadn’t paid much attention to her body being modified.

Her life had been saved, and the battles she fought ultimately helped her older brother.

But beneath it all, she had been able to accept it because of her conviction.

No matter how much her body was altered, she’d believed her spirit would remain unchanged.

So the realization that her brain—barely touched by the Legion—was evolving on its own to adapt to her body was a tremendous shock.

‘Why does that matter?’

Of course, she knew she couldn’t protest this issue. She understood it herself.

For the Legion, it was only natural and a fundamental rule to modify, evolve, and fight in order to become stronger.

“Rather than that, let’s talk about something else.”

As she received the nutrient supply with a dark expression, the Legion approached her with its form.

“Something else?”

“He’s developed feelings of affection again.”

“Hey, liking someone is a natural human emotion.”

“Human? But according to the human knowledge he provided, human emotions are—”

“My older brother isn’t that complicated. He’s just an ordinary guy.”

Kang Do-Yeon grimaced and shook her head.

The knowledge the Legion had absorbed was, of course, shared with Kang Do-Yeon.

But she rejected that knowledge instead.

Having preferences and information forcibly etched into her brain was deeply unsettling and mentally exhausting.

“Is it true that he likes long hair?”

“Ah, probably. Cha Jiyeon also has long straight hair.”

She swallowed dryly.

The mention of Cha Jiyeon had been purely incidental.

When the Legion asked her to describe a human face her brother might like, she’d brought up Cha Jiyeon—someone she’d recently met in person and considered a beauty.

“Well… From my perspective, she’s pretty enough. And she doesn’t even wear makeup.”

As the Legion gradually removed its mask, revealing its bare face, she cautiously spoke, observing its reaction.

“That isn’t a lie, but your opinion doesn’t matter.”

But the Legion put the mask back on.

After all, no matter what face it created, the truly important criteria lay elsewhere.

“Still lacking. I need more data.”

There were clear limits to self-improvement.

It was one of the realizations the Legion had come to while enhancing its Legion Soldiers.

No matter how much it delved into itself, it couldn’t achieve a true leap forward.

[They’ve started moving again. They already know. No matter how strong we become, they believe they can evolve faster. And that they outnumber us.]

“What should we do now?”

Sharing the scout’s viewpoint, Kang Do-Yeon spoke with a subdued voice.

The Destruction Fungus began to swarm again.

Though temporarily pushed back from the battlefield due to a variable, they knew that if the war continued to the end, they would ultimately prevail.

“Overwhelming them would be ideal, but it’s inefficient.”

However, the Legion had already devised a way to deal with them.

Using the newly acquired Demonic Mole Cricket, the Legion collapsed all the passages leading to the Upper Stratum.

[Energy depletion is not unique to the Legion. Even the Destruction Fungus, which squeezed out every bit of power to evolve and mutate in resistance to the Legion, lacked stockpiled energy. For those who resorted to cannibalism due to the lack of sustenance, this meant they had no reserves like ours. Additionally, they lacked the ability to dig through the ground.]

“Wait, doesn’t that mean we’ll starve too?”

“If that happens, we’ll just reopen paths elsewhere.”

From the nest’s eggs, new soldiers emerged.

The original Demonic Mole Cricket had been modified in the Legion’s way, vastly strengthened.

Instead of digging through pre-existing paths, they began excavating entirely new routes through the dense rock of the cave.

[The Mutant Destruction Fungus Legion was powerful. They had ended an entire world and continued to evolve through internal competition, becoming ever more formidable.]

The ones who instilled a sense of urgency in the Legion, which had become momentarily arrogant due to their Irresistible Momentum, were them.

From the beginning, the Legion was not an absolute powerhouse.

They had always been in the position of challengers aiming to climb higher.

“…Right. In the end, surviving is what makes you strong, isn’t it? It’s the ecosystem.”

Kang Do-Yeon chuckled bitterly, understanding the intent.

The detection organs that the Demonic Mole Cricket possessed combined with the Legion’s own Detection Organ, enabling them to pinpoint the location of the enemy through Subtle Vibrations and sounds while also understanding the structure of the Cave.

The Legion avoided them and dug a bypass.

Why should they waste their time confronting endless enemies that would keep coming even when killed?

It was enough to wait until they starved to death or resorted to Cannibalism before finishing them off.

“Otherwise, we could just collapse everything.”

At that moment, Kang Do-Yeon muttered absentmindedly.

“With our current strength, it’s entirely possible.”

The Legion, whose eyes briefly gleamed, reviewed the proposal Kang Do-Yeon had suggested.

The idea of collapsing the Cavern was something the Legion had considered even in its much weaker days.

However, as they ascended and the Caverns grew larger in scale, the concept had been shelved.

But now, things were different.

Now, they had Soldiers capable of digging into the solid bedrock of the Cave.

They could also use the unconventional power of Formative Power.

“But what if we miscalculate and everything collapses?”

“Detection, measurement, design, and calculation—all possible.”

Additionally, they possessed knowledge to discuss detailed designs.

The mathematical, scientific, and engineering knowledge that one Species had developed over thousands of years.

The Legion’s mood brightened, its Body showing a faint smile.

The emergence of Emotion and Ego had side effects, namely inefficiency and contradictions in the use of knowledge.

To prevent this, they had intended to utilize the Submind, which this time paid off significantly by pointing out aspects the Legion had overlooked.

“Go to the designated point I ordered and wait.”

The Legion deployed dozens of Legion Soldiers capable of digging into the ground and simultaneously conducted exploration, measurement, and immediate optimization calculations on-site.

The immense power to collapse everything was also set into motion.

[Devouring, Growth, Evolution. They are merely means; they cannot be the sole satisfaction. The ultimate goal is to become absolutely strong in every aspect.]

“And by driving those Variant creatures to extinction, I must take possession of everything we have yet to uncover.”

For example, the Command Entity of the Destruction Fungus Colony, shrouded in mystery.

The war among those who devour and evolve was not yet over.

The victor of this battle would consume everything the loser possessed, consolidate it all, and grow even stronger.