A Legion Grows From My Smartphone

Chapter 29

The Soul String created through the app’s mechanism was extremely important to both the Player and the Unit.

Not only did it allow them to become Two Bodies, One Mind across the dimensional wall, but it also enabled them to exert a strong influence on each other.

Although the Unit had to share a single strand of String with other Units, making its effects weak, the Player was different.

There were even Players who actively utilized it with their own abilities.

“This is…”

[It is a medium to assist the Player’s curse. Use it in moments of battle. It is an item that will help you forget your fears and unleash the potential etched into your soul.]

Cha Jiyeon received the bestowed item.

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary transparent potion.

“Now they want to turn us into drug addicts, huh.”

A burly white man standing nearby sneered.

He, too, was a Unit like her.

Likewise, he had received a potion.

[The objective is to annihilate their stronghold in a short amount of time.]

The date was already set.

They planned to join the Allied Forces of several nations, which had decided to cooperate after becoming alarmed by the recent events, to strike the stronghold of the demonic creatures that kept launching raids on Earth through the Gate.

“It’s literally war. Hah… Who would have thought we’d end up waging a war against demonic creatures?”

“You’ll have to get used to it, Chris. There’s no telling how many times this will repeat.”

“Getting used to war? This isn’t just some simple defensive battle.”

Chris sneered.

He wasn’t wrong.

Cha Jiyeon herself was only barely managing to steel her nerves.

[Being connected by the Soul is an incredible thing. That fear, that hesitation. If you realize through the potion who you are truly connected to, you can overcome it all.]

The voice reverberated in her mind, as if it had sensed her unease.

“Connection.”

She felt uncomfortable with that wording.

Even though she shared the String with over a hundred comrades, it felt as if even her most private aspects were exposed.

[Can you feel it?]

Under such circumstances, the sensations shared between the only two beings connected by an unbroken String were even stronger.

[You will now clearly understand what he truly desires.]

The Swarm, which had grasped the essence of the soul, tried to comprehend the flood of information.

The most significant information pouring in through the Connection of Souls was the other party’s emotions.

Because it was a single, unbroken String, the feelings were even more intense.

[He is anxious and afraid. He fears losing something precious and blames himself for still being weak. He is so fragile… in both body and mind.]

The entire Swarm flinched.

They understood his emotions and inferred his circumstances.

[At any rate, he is a very important existence to us. Without him, we cannot grow stronger. He is our parent.]

[Thus, we must help him.]

[The way to do so is to first grow stronger.]

As they developed further, they found more meaning in his actions.

When they finally realized that he provided food and specimens “for their sake,” the Swarm redefined their perception of him.

[He has given us so much. On the contrary, what can we ‘give’ him?]

After prolonged contemplation, the Swarm reached this conclusion.

And as if waiting for this thought, a function activated.

[Your will has been confirmed. Activating the Sacrifice Function.]

A glowing mark appeared in the dark nest.

What should they offer?

The Swarm hesitated nervously, then tentatively extended a small tentacle.

A single tentacle was placed on the mark.

[Living beings cannot be transmitted via the Sacrifice Function. Investigate further.]

Perhaps embarrassed by the lack of change, the tentacle was withdrawn.

After the tentacle’s failure, the Swarm tried offering more items.

Various Swarm Soldiers, fragments of the nest, eggs, and so on.

Finally, they succeeded in transmitting something.

With a flash of light, the mark where the item had been placed vanished entirely.

*

“Ugh.”

Morning.

I stretched my body, twisting and turning, and got up from the bed.

Still half-asleep, I sat on the bed.

Feeling sluggish lately, probably due to fatigue, I grabbed the handle beside the bed to help myself stand up with a groan.

“…Handle?”

Startled, I groped at what I had grasped.

Something smooth and stone-like was standing next to the bed.

This wasn’t here before.

“Ahhhh!”

I screamed and fell back onto my butt.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Well, how could I? Something I’d only ever seen on the screen was now stuck right in front of me.

“What the hell is this?!”

[The Swarm has repaid your kindness.]

I turned on the app and shouted.

The response that appeared made me feel dizzy.

“This is a… repayment?”

I pulled out the object embedded in the floor of my rented room.

It was a sword.

A weapon forged by the Swarm using the hardest Hardened Carapace in the hardest possible way.

[A sacrifice dedicated to you.]

Seeing its obsidian-like gleam, I instinctively swallowed hard.

“What on Earth is going on?”

[It means the Swarm has grown that much.]

“Is that really all there is to it? What was that moth, anyway?”

[The moth was a kind of clue. By disassembling and absorbing it, the Swarm gained more understanding and grew further. For example, its flash of light had the power to disrupt our control system. We concluded that it was a force interfering with our souls, related to him.]

“What kind of growth led to you sending me this?”

I chuckled bitterly and inspected the sword closely.

Made entirely of a single piece of Hardened Carapace, it was heavy and sharp.

“Still, receiving something like this makes me want to give something back, but I don’t really have anything right now.”

[That is enough. The Swarm is already receiving a lot.]

“Receiving? What do you mean?”

Today, its words seemed especially cryptic.

For now, I hid the sword in a corner.

It wouldn’t do any good if Kang Do-Yeon or my mother saw it.

“Who knows how long this daily life will last.”

I left the room.

Although I was starting my day as usual, having directly experienced an attack, I still felt uneasy.

[Upon analyzing the specimens of the Guardian Spirits, the Swarm discovered a singularity.]

“A singularity?”

[We think we now understand why they exhibited such peculiar behavior. They possessed artificially engraved genes.]

It was a shocking revelation.

If the Guardian Spirits were artificially created beings, then what on Earth was this labyrinth?

“Th-that’s all?”

[What we know for now is that the genes were manipulated. However, the nature of that manipulation can be inferred from the irrational behaviors they have exhibited so far.]

“What kind of beings are they?”

[The answer must lie above.]

Right. It must be above.

The screen shifted upward.

It was the passage to the Trunk.

My heart suddenly began to race.

Why was this happening? Of course, it could be because it felt like we were getting closer to uncovering the Labyrinth’s secrets.

[The Swarm has begun regrouping. One of our strengths is that we have no need for rest.]

The Swarm deliberately left much of the Vegetation on the newly conquered stratum untouched.

It was a different approach compared to their past behavior of devouring everything in sight.

Perhaps it was being preserved as emergency food, or maybe they deemed even the time spent digesting it a waste.

[There are no Guardian Spirits here. It seems they were all wiped out in the previous battle.]

It was an anticlimactic conclusion for something that had made me feel tense.

All that lay ahead was ordinary Vegetation.

The Swarm’s Scouts hurriedly spread out, searching through various Caverns and Passages.

[Ah, what is this?]

Then, at that moment.

One of the leading Scouts appeared to have discovered something.

“It’s definitely not natural. Then what is it? In this Labyrinth, the only ones other than us who aren’t natural are—”

[It must be the work of the Guardian Spirits. Judging by the state of it, quite some time has passed.]

It was a kind of remnant, classified as a “Branch” of the Grand Stratum, gathered in one area.

Most of it had long since decomposed and decayed, thanks to the Scavengers.

The size was about as large as a human palm—vertebrates, at the very least.

[The damage is so extensive that identifying the Genetic Specimen is impossible. The Swarm has drawn a reasonable suspicion based on this information.]

“…A Unit?”

Even I could figure that much out.

This was yet another trace, following the Rats we had encountered before.

Unfortunately, it seemed they hadn’t developed much and were annihilated.

“Come to think of it, I wonder if the Rats that escaped last time survived.”

[The fact that they aren’t in the sections we’ve occupied so far means they must have started anew at a higher level. There’s a high likelihood they failed to rebound.]

“You’re right.”

The Guardian Spirits, as well as the increasingly diverse and colossal flora and fauna, were far beyond the level of the Lower Stratum.

We had grown significantly larger and more advanced compared to back then. If those Rats had fallen into this place with their former capabilities, they wouldn’t have survived.

[We must ascend further.]

Doubts continued to grow.

Thus, after roughly assessing the situation, the Swarm immediately sent the Scouts to the Next Stratum.

It was from there that faint signs of change began to be observed.