A Legion Grows From My Smartphone

Chapter 69

"How is he? What is he doing? Is he happy?"

[...Of course, he is currently checking the video you sent. He must be very busy. Yes, he is extremely happy.]

Faced with the barrage of questions from the Legion, the Observer eventually opened his mouth.

"Do you know how much effort I put into optimizing it for Older Brother?"

Kang Do-Yeon grumbled beside him.

In truth, it was Kang Do-Yeon's achievement to learn the new 'Internal Technique' that the Legion had developed and refined using its superintelligence, then understand and optimize it from a human perspective.

Thanks to the Legion's assistance in maximizing her brain function during the process, she was now in an extremely fatigued state.

"But the newly created Resonance Method is ultimately incomplete."

However, the Legion gave an ambiguous assessment of the new Internal Technique designed to handle Formative Power.

"Because it is a technique thoroughly crafted for humans—or rather, humanoids."

"But aren't all Higher Species humanoid...?"

Kang Do-Yeon asked back, as if she couldn't understand. The Legion nodded in response to her question.

Indeed, the Higher Species the Legion produced to wield Formative Power all took forms like humans or orcs, with arms and legs for wielding weapons.

"Beasts that use Formative Power—we haven't seen any yet."

The reason was simple. The Legion had never encountered other kinds of creatures that used Formative Power.

The Legion, which disliked the inefficiency of creating something directly, had no reason to take such a risk.

"Ultimately, because they are humanoid, they have no choice but to rely on other techniques."

However, these versatile unit types had a critical weakness: compared to other types of soldiers with developed builds, teeth, or claws, they had a lower lethality rate against enemies unless armed with weapons to deliver fatal blows.

For that reason, even if they were equipped with something like a Barbed Tail, if they were born with arms and hands, it was best to grasp and wield something.

"They need swordsmanship. Spear techniques, martial arts—everything."

The Legion's eyes sparkled behind the mask.

Weapons could be made easily. However, those weapons were clearly not part of the body and inevitably required a method of use.

That was the most efficient approach. This was something they had felt keenly in battles against the Moonlight Fairies, who had developed their own relatively systematic swordsmanship.

This was the basis for the Legion's judgment that the Resonance Method it had developed was incomplete.

"Then it's settled. The martial art Ji Changhyun said he would teach Older Brother is swordsmanship."

"Tsk."

The Legion did not bother to hide its emotions at Kang Do-Yeon's words.

"Tsk?"

"It's not that strange a voice. Learning directly from him via video is not bad, but if I teach him, he will be happier."

[...]

"...In this regard, you're really straightforward."

Kang Do-Yeon clicked her tongue at the Legion's completely unpredictable reaction and glanced at him.

This was no longer the Legion of the past, which had learned emotions and ways to express them from her.

Now, it had no hesitation in understanding and expressing its own emotions.

'I think I understand why Older Brother is so concerned.'

Because they were now bound as one entity, she understood better.

In everyday moments, this being was ordinary and peculiar, sometimes like a younger sibling. But she knew that this creature could transform into something endlessly cruel and horrifying.

[Reconnaissance up to the 68th Stratum is complete. At the same time, the traces end here.]

"There's only one possibility."

The Legion turned its gaze.

The location was over ten levels above this place.

The scouts scattered long ago had reached that point without any interference and were operating there.

"Traces of Golem. Could it be that the child fell prey to a Golem?"

"The broken traces continue upward. The Golem took the surviving individual above."

Even with the same information, the Legion, capable of seeing, hearing, and processing countless things in the city, denied Kang Do-Yeon's conjecture and pointed upward.

The Legion already knew about Yelson, the Moonlight Fairy Survivor. It even knew about the mission entrusted to that boy, having assimilated the knowledge from the mouth of the Moonlight Fairy Great Chief.

"Humans."

The entire Nest flinched slightly.

Startled, Kang Do-Yeon instinctively touched the core of her heart, which no longer pulsed.

She couldn't bring herself to speak. The Legion had already decided to hunt the humans on the surface.

And for the Legion, hunting meant only one thing: devouring the entire opposing species to the point of extermination.

"Commander of the Legion."

"Mm."

"Let's ascend to the Surface immediately. To seize everything they possess."

The reorganization was complete. The Legion decided to move to the surface.

[All the strata have already been cleared by the humans' Golems. Naturally, there are no potential enemies remaining.]

Accompanied by an eerie silence, the march of the Legion Soldiers began. The abundant vegetation in the Labyrinth was left untouched.

The Nest's expansion, which continuously devoured the entire Labyrinth, never stopped, as there was no rush—the process could proceed slowly.

The only nuisances were the Golems deployed by humans for maintenance. However, all of them had their cores shattered by the Swords of the Higher Species, collapsing in defeat.

[The scouts' location is the 78th Stratum. Traces of them were found here, though they are somewhat old.]

[The 88th Stratum. The scouts were attacked by what seemed to be Cave Bats and began to sustain damage.]

[The 96th Stratum. Artificially polished passages and chambers are visible. Massive doors block the passage, though there are slight cracks.]

[The 99th Stratum. Above, there is light.]

'Found it.'

The entire Legion stirred.

The 100th Stratum. The Legion's scouts discovered humans there.

The 100th Stratum was a fairly vast facility.

A significant number of humans had gathered in this facility, each holding one or two strange Crystal Spheres.

The surviving scouts cautiously approached some of them. After all, they were merely slightly larger insects.

Engrossed in their conversations, the humans failed to notice the scouts.

Those wearing robes were holding the Crystal Spheres as if they were mere afterthoughts, completely absorbed in their chatter.

"So, they really are some kind of wizards...?"

Kang Do-Yeon, knowing that Golems moved through methods other than scientific means, muttered absentmindedly.

The Legion also knew what magic was.

Not the fictional magic they had learned of through Earth's knowledge, but the magic of this world, revealed through the testimony of the Moonlight Fairy Great Chief.

"The gaze reflected in the Crystal Spheres... It's the scenery of the caves. They are observing through the eyes of the Golems."

The Legion confirmed that the screens on the Crystal Spheres displayed similar landscapes from countless angles and identified their purpose.

"It's not automatic... Does that mean they've seen us? But it's too quiet for that."

"The total number of Crystal Spheres is sixty-nine, while the number of humans is thirty-eight. They aren't observing all the Golems."

Having completed the calculations, the Legion immediately began new computations.

Although a Moonlight Fairy Survivor had escaped through a Small Hole, it was certain that the humans had not yet discovered the Legion's identity. This could be leveraged for a more efficient battle.

"For now, I want to see the outside."

The Legion temporarily halted its march and moved one of the scouts separately. Along the way, it devoured a bug in one swift motion to replenish its energy.

The Small Scout was equipped with a Digestive System to procure its own energy when necessary.

[Was it desperate enough to accept inefficiency? So, now that you see the outside you've longed for, how is it?]

The scout moved toward the increasingly bright light.

And finally, the scenery changed.

Unlike the powerless light of luminous stones in the cave, the radiant Sunlight, full of vitality and the essence of life, illuminated the entire world.

The Freedom-Carrying Wind, embodying true freedom, could now go anywhere, in stark contrast to the constrained wind of the underground Labyrinth.

The soil, and the energy of countless living beings thriving upon it—all of it.

To those who lived here and saw it daily, these things went unnoticed. But to the Legion, leaving the underground for the first time, everything was new.

It was like a newborn child opening its eyes to see the world for the first time. The world of the Legion, which had started in a mere cavern within the cave, expanded once more.

[You already knew, didn't you? What lies outside, what the Sun is, what this world is.]

'No... It's completely... different.'

It was true that the Legion had learned countless pieces of knowledge through its growth. But in the end, that was merely acquired knowledge.

The scenery it now saw and experienced directly through a part of itself was so overwhelming that even its Transcendent Brain momentarily stalled.

'The sky. A place where gods dwell, and at the same time, a gateway to the vast universe.'

The Legion's gaze turned upward. The sky was something it had always wanted to know.

The endlessly spreading blue. The specially enhanced vision of the scout conveyed the vivid hue of that blue with stunning clarity.

'Beautiful.'

At this moment, for the first time since its birth, it could see the azure heaven.

The scenery of this world, open and vast beneath that sky, could not be compared to any cavern, no matter how large.

The Legion, which had not yet clearly determined what the standard of beauty was, decided on the standard of "beauty" for the first time.

[Then, upon seeing that sky and this world, the thought that arises is]

"I want it."

The obsession over that thought briefly subsided, and the Legion, which had never hesitated before, ignited an even stronger flame for its voracious appetite.

It was a natural outcome. If it desired something, it would take it. That was the common sense of the Legion.

The entire Legion shook violently with an inborn intense instinct to devour all of this and dye it with its own cells.