Chapter 19: The Game Board (2)


    First, units will unconditionally consider units of other affiliations as enemies when encountering them. Kang Do Yeon calmly began organizing her thoughts.


    Unable to speak with my mouth sealed, I nodded.


    Likewise, yers are also hostile to other yers. But there''s a contradiction here. What if the units of the opposing yer are in apletely different world? On a different ''server.'' Yes, you''re right. Units from the same world are invariably hostile, but yers may not necessarily be. asionally, they might even form alliances to target other yers of the same affiliation. The thought sent a shiver down my spine.


    The units currently rampaging on Earth have no connection to us. But consider this: what if the owner of those units is a yer in your world? They would aim to find and eliminate not just the units, but that type of yer as well. Eliminating the yer would make war unnecessary. My head began to pound. The situation was excessivelyplex and convoluted.


    But how does that rte to Oh Yoon-ah being dangerous? You got hurt! I won''t forgive her either. But Yoon-ah doesn''t know anything about you. The kid spoke slowly, her breath uneven and her eyes wavering.


    I She prioritizes her own safety first and seeks to connect with other yers whose worlds don''t intersect. She doesn''t just stay still, she aggressively expands her forces. To keep close? Since I''ll keep asking her, wait for a clearer opportunity. There''s an advantage in making the first move. Unterally obtaining information and exploiting it. Logical. Yes, thinking about it efficiently and logically, my sister was right.


    I''m worried about you. ...Then buy me some bread. The kid let out a weakugh. In the end, I left the room as it was. That kid isn''t a ''unit,'' right? [That''s correct. Units and yers are predetermined from the start. Anyone recruited, bound, or contracted afterward is not affected by the rules.] Returning to the room, I dismissed thest possibility I had been worried about. *


    [Don''t me yourself.] Do I look like I am? [On the contrary, your goal has be clear. Check it. Your ount level has increased to 3.] Leveling up was a painfully slow process. However, the bright side was the increase in the number of samples and nutrients I could allocate. This is an investment.


    I waved an envelope containing 1 million won. It was money that the young girl had risked her life to earn, not spending a single penny until now. But now, it was time to use it.


    I fiddled with my phone, reminding myself that it wasn''t the right time yet. But when that time came, I would capture and consume anything, even if it was a human.


    [Observe the legion. As it has grown in size, so have the maintenance costs. But thanks to its racial traits, growth and digestion have elerated proportionally.]


    I nced at the screen. The legion was in the process of eradicating the remnants of the rat hordes that once popted the area. I wondered, looking at the entirety, if any


    organismrger than us truly existed in this cave. We hadpletely upied 20 zones, including 2 entire strata.


    It won''t stop, will it? [Of course not. Victory is victory. There are still so many ces left to consume.] On my screen, I saw members of the legion gathering the rats'' tools. They seemed unusually thoughtful. [Tools are indeed a fascinating concept, but should we utilize them in the same primitive manner as the rats?] Difficult to determine. The legion seems to have its own constraints at present. [Indeed. The legion has reached the same conclusion.] The legion soldiers discarded the tools.


    More urately, they stopped acquiring tools from external sources.


    After all, we couldn''t manufacture steel.


    [However, there are alternatives. One day, we might be able to create weapons more robust and sharper than steel.] ...That''s a distinct possibility. While preserving the concept of tools, the legion dispatched scouts to unexplored territories.


    [The surrounding area has been depleted by the rats. But we can consume not only their carcasses but also the mushroom houses and structures they''ve constructed.] They''re quite the pest, aren''t they? I examined the screen.


    The scout had discovered a route leading to the upperyers, already fully excavated by the rats.


    And at the end of that path, which the rats had imed as their domain, there was something. They''vepletely sealed off another path here, I wonder why? A passage firmly blocked withrge rocks, mushroom fragments, dirt, and so on. It was undoubtedly the rats'' handiwork.


    Given the situation, this was the only upward path.


    Which meant the rats had obstructed the sole route avable for their forces to expand upwards.


    I wonder why. They had no problem descending. No, if we hadn''t acted swiftly, they might have sealed off the lower levels as well. [Regrettably, the legioncks the capacity to analyze data in its brain. However, the legion is aware that the rats deliberately barricaded that passage.] So, what''s the strategy? [Isn''t it clear?] The legion soldiers began to mobilize.


    They deployed the strongest soldiers to gradually dismantle the barricade.


    [We cannot halt. Halting signifies death. Our size has be toorge to stagnate.] Even if strange creatures resided beyond this point. We had to battle and consume to survive. I certainly believe that.


    And now, I was hoping for that oue as well.


    The legion needed to grow stronger.


    Expand and gain more power, to be my strength.


    [The obstruction is nearly removed. Scouts are now entering the slight crevice that has been revealed.] As soon as a crack appeared, several small scouts slipped inside.


    Simultaneously, the view of what the scouts observed was linked up. Initially, it was a typical cave. A typical cave, but... [Having experienced reaching a ''branch'' known as the grandyer for the first time, the legion was less shocked this time. This ce...can definitely be considered part of the ''trunk''.] It''s both awe-inspiring and amazing. It was certainly a cave.


    But only superficially, as I had never witnessed such a vast cave before.


    The dense vegetation, including mushrooms asrge as trees, the ceiling towering dozens of meters high, and the luminous stones twinkling like stars on that ceiling. The caves I had encountered so far paled inparison. [Is that a problem?] Of course not. I sneered.


    In the end, it didn''t really matter what kind of ce this was. The legion would continue to devour its way through here. [The most important thing is whetherpeting units exist here. Next is whether forces or powerful beings that might dare to oppose us exist.] The scouts did not stop and continued scouting around.


    Since the environment had changed so drastically, everything around them was new information. Smander?


    In the midst of it, I saw a familiar sight.


    A fire-breathing giant smander the size of a car, a red-scaled cave ground dragon. The smander that had once dominated Layer 10 was crawling amidst the mushroom jungle. It was nice seeing a familiar face, but... Hm? [As expected, this is an upperyer. Beings that acted cocky in the loweryers be easy prey here.] I blinked in surprise.


    The hulking smander fell prey in an instant. ...Uh.


    Its predator was a giant beetle, asrge as the smander itself. What I had initially mistaken for a nearby boulder was actually the dust-covered carapace of the beetle. This fantastical world defied all logic. This was the reality of the cave.


    [Does it matter?] Of course not. I smirked. Ultimately, the nature of this ce was inconsequential. The legion would persist in its relentless consumption. [We don''t blindly charge in. We are learning beings, all experience umted so far has been recorded in history.] You''ve already experienced proper war.


    I conceded. We had evolved beyond the rudimentary concept of group hunting. Our focus was now solely on warfare, maximizingbat power by integrating various troop types. The legion soldiers had metamorphosed from predators seeking prey into a sharp, cold army. They initiated their assault on the beetle that was tearing apart the smander.


    [The carapace is quite hard. Harder than the carapaces of creatures from the loweryers. That''s why it''s so tempting.]


    Trusting in its sturdy back shell, the beetle swiftly burrowed into the ground, assuming a defensive posture. Most predators would have given up at this point. But we were different. The legion persistently harassed the creature until it seeded in flipping it over. As I watched the screaming beast being torn apart, I furrowed my brow. [No big deal, right? In the end, beasts are beasts no matter how evolved, not worthparing to us.] ...That''s the legion''s opinion you''re voicing, not your own feelings, right? [That''s right. Did you sense something?]


    Sense something? Watching the ck tide engulfing this cavern, I hesitated briefly. What if self-awareness disappears?


    The legion had clearly developed the seeds of emotion during thest battle. I didn''t want this nascent organism to be arrogant and twisted.