002. Legion’s Hive Mind (1)
A small, pretty woman sitting on a mat in the park by the Han River was eating chicken while watching the hot sun and blue sky. She enjoyed this peaceful riverside view for a long time, and at some point naturally turned her head.
Before I knew it, two very handsome men were standing next to the woman.
The men, dressed in comfortable casual clothes, not combat suits and protective gear stained with demonic blood, sat right next to the woman without saying a word.
They are actually seeing each other for the first time today, but they already knew each other very well.
The woman casually handed them a can of beer and a chicken leg, then sucked the chicken-soaked finger and said,
“Jinhyeok, are you going to erase it?”
“… … I don’t know such a bastard.”
The woman put on a puzzled expression for a moment at the harsh reply that came back to her. I felt that the subject of the question was a bit misleading.
“Kang Han-ah, haven’t you seen Ji-woo?”
“I didn’t see it. I’ve been using wide-range search magic since the first day of return to try to find it, but this guy doesn’t get caught at all.”
“… … okay? Jiwoo, isn’t this guy in Korea?”
Hearing the woman’s words to herself, the man who was about to bite off a chicken leg slightly frowned.
If anyone remembers what this man looked like before, it’s bound to feel very foreign, but surprisingly, he’s a very normal figure now with the screws firmly in place.
“… … Garam. After all, I am the world’s strongest wizard. As long as the system is interlocked, even super-powered cows in New Zealand can be found right away. No matter what species he returned to, I can definitely find him. There’s no way he’ll be eaten because he was born as a weak animal, and the manager said he probably won’t be born as a subhuman being because of the achievements he’s accumulated.”
The man pondered for a moment, then added some more words afterward.
“… … Garam, by the way. Well, it seems to me that this bastard is not on Earth at all?”
Pooh-!
The woman who heard that almost spit out while drinking beer.
“… … What?! Hey, is that possible in this day and age?”
“… … It makes no sense. Because there is no way to go outside the earth in the long term unless you return to some kind of ‘alien’. Even though the Pandemonium hasn’t opened, there won’t be any way to cross over to another dimension.”
The man laughed and finally took a bite of a chicken leg and chewed it while looking up at the sky.
At the time when the thick and black clouds brought by the Demon World had not yet appeared in the world, the sky they had to protect was clear and transparent and dazzlingly beautiful.
The man who finished one chicken leg quickly said while drinking beer.
“Garam. Jiwoo This guy, it’s clear that Kang Jinhyeok is trying to trick him into doing something. Hey Jinhyeok, why didn’t you just play hero? Did you really naively think that you returned to protect the world alone?”
“… … .”
The woman and man looked at each other for a moment and then nodded in affirmation to these two guesses, while the other man, still nonchalant, simply chewed chicken and drank beer.
“Well, I will be back soon. Ji-woo isn’t a kid with second grade disease, isn’t he a really important position on our team?”
“Garam, don’t worry too much. Even if he has a bit of fine hair, there is a limit to hiding from my ability anyway.”
They thought that sooner or later they would find Han Ji-woo on their own, or that he would soon reappear on his own feet.
‘… … If he doesn’t show up, will we really fuck up? Ji-Woo Han is the world’s best player specializing in defense. Was there another player who could replace Ji-Woo Han?’
The woman thought about her duties as a leader for a moment and fell into deep trouble, but soon she shook her head and started to inhale the chicken and beer again.
The chicken and beer they were eating while looking at the Han River was so delicious that they quickly forgot their worries.
‘Jiwoo, no matter how much I think about it, there is no answer other than you. my sister is waiting Solve your anger quickly and come quickly!’
* * *
My name is Jiwoo Han. If hearing this name reminds you of something familiar, the person is probably quite old.
It was once one of the most famous names in Korea.
Of course, I was a well-known player who had a very good authority called [Defense Master] and an idiot-like authority called [Life is ‘three times’]. In other words, he was never a player of the same class as [Taming Master].
So, please ask me, ‘Do you have any ball-shaped powers or items that trap demons?’ I wish I hadn’t asked anything like that.
In particular, the madman with the missing screw was a problem. I thought he had a real mental illness because he had been talking about that in my ears for three years.
A screwed-up lunatic is actually worse than a serious hero game junkie.
‘… … End of mental break.’
… … First of all, I had to spend a lot of time figuring out this unimaginable situation I was in.
It was really tiring mentally to find out what information I could use right away in the vast memory of the ‘will of the legion’, which disappeared forever after hitting me with a lot of information.
‘… … No, what should I do if I put 1.5 billion years worth of memories into one room?’
Because of the enormous memory data beyond human imagination, the process of finding the information I needed took an awfully long time. Really, if my current body didn’t have a brain the size of a commercial building, I think the work itself would have been impossible.
… … Shit, I never really imagined that I would return with a hideous body that looked similar to the ‘Overmind’ I saw in a game.
What am I supposed to do with this terrible sense of shame?
‘… … I keep thinking more and more. Let’s concentrate.’
Anyway, I first looked first and foremost to see where the burning planet was stuck in the corner. And as a result of the search, the conclusion I came to is that the nobleman called ‘The Legion’s Will’, who has lived for 1.5 billion years, has never left this planet.
Oh, this is serious.
‘… … Fucked up.’
If this was the case, the road to George the Demon King would have to be very difficult.
This race has a giant jellyfish-type airborne creature that plays a role similar to the ‘overlord’, but there is no such thing as a battleship-class creature called ‘giant monster’ like the Zerg in the game.
I was told that I had no choice but to create it myself, or capture and extract the genes of a species that happened to be passing over the planet.
Or should the demons who have lost their fear come to fight here on their own.
By the way, I haven’t abandoned ‘human identity’ yet. So, from day one, I wanted to return to Earth.
‘… … I want to have chicken. I’ve been regressing at best, but why can’t I eat chicken?’
Second, I started looking for information on how to manage this race of bugs, which have an ecology and system similar to those seen in a popular game.
Actually, this is the most serious problem in the current situation, but I can feel the corps under my command slowly disintegrating.
The culprit who scraped my dominance was quickly found.
―Maknae, did you say that your name was ‘Jiwoo’? So, are you doing well with the ruler adaptation?
—… … I’m fine.
―If you have any questions, feel free to ask this ‘Zarus’.
—… … i get it.
To be honest, I thought I was the only ruler of the race after hearing the words of ‘The Legion’s Will’ that I heard the moment I opened my eyes.
These creatures were hastily created before the Legion’s will died at the end of their lives, and in order of birth, they are named Lydis, Kahn, and Jarus as the third. These bastards were nipping at my still clumsy control.
―Khan, don’t keep touching my dominance.
—… … Redis. Keep in mind that I can crush your brain at any time.
―These, the youngest is watching. Didn’t you agree to be self-respecting for the time being?
These pups were also very fierce in their rice bowl fights. This is what the Hive Minds that rule this planet do.
In order to eat the land with even a little more usable resources, to reduce the power of others even a little bit, the bastards with only brains are doing shit like that.
Anyway, the answer to strengthening control was to simply pull out as many ‘commander-level units’ as possible.
And finally, thirdly, I needed some way to escape this fucking building of a giant brain. So, I was studying hard to see if I could make a humanoid body and work.
Fortunately, the memories inherited from the ‘Will of the Legion’ are quite rich in ‘genetic manipulation’ like the Zerg, so if you do well, you can somehow create a human form.
Out of nowhere, I became the best biotech expert in the universe.
Oh, and first of all, we basically looked at all the units that make up the race. It was quite easy to understand when I thought of this as ‘the game’ and incorporated it into a similar unit.
Like the Zerg, they are a species that controls everything through ‘Hive consciousness’, so the units did not have a separate name.
First of all, this species also has worker bugs.
Worker bugs look like something between a crab and a spider. They play the role of a worker ant that collects organic matter, and at the same time, the process of transforming into a building with the genetic information of the race is similar to that of the Zerg.
The building was just a hatchery that produced eggs with the genetic information of the race very simply. It doesn’t make larvae like the Zerg, but it has the same ability to digest the organic matter collected by the worker bugs to create mucous membranes and supply nutrients to the area.
It can’t be a very simple and ignorant structure without a defense tower or anything like that.
… … Oh, yes. I am also a building. fuck.
There is also a guy who plays the role of an overlord.
These guys are super large jellyfish with a chitinous shell larger than a hot air balloon floating in the sky, and they were similar in that they had the intelligence to receive commands from the hive mind and practically command the unit and carry out the commands.
The difference is that these guys are capable of melee combat and bombardment with their tentacles and paralyzing venom spray.
Since it is impossible to completely create living things yet, I am focusing on researching whether I can transform them and send them to outer space.
The units that roamed the ground were spider creatures that looked exactly like ‘Arachnid’. Their appearance and size are similar to those in the movie.
Spiders in close combat seem to be much stronger than in the movie because they have the ability to bind them with webs and have powerful fangs.
The ranged attackers were the fatter ones, and they filled their bodies with acidic liquids and shot them from afar. But it pulled out the firepower of a self-propelled gun.
There are guys who dig into the ground and come out with their fangs and attack them, but there is a guy similar to this one, so it was easy to understand how to use it.
There is a ‘super large wasp’ in the unit that flies in the air.
These are the guys who fly fast and fire poisonous darts at their targets, mainly those who ambush hunting the native creatures of the planet or ‘other ruler’s units’.
This is a very bloody neighborhood where rulers eat each other and get eaten.
This was all of the normal units, and finally, there is a guy in the Spider Corps who can communicate with me telepathically.
【Queen, come here.】
-Did you call, ruler?
At first glance, it looks very similar to ‘Legion Queen’. This is the upper spider unit that manages battle command and hatchery colonies.
It is a commander-level unit with intelligence like jellyfish, but this one is much smarter, so it can be said that they are used as advisors to the ruler.
I had to coordinate everything with the Legion’s staff, the Queen.
The first strategy to make is to kill those Hive Mind bastards first. There are no demons here, but instead, it is a town where ‘brothers’ can slap me in the back at any time.
【I intend to eliminate Lydis, Khan and Jarus.】
—… … Lord, it’s dangerous.
—Lord, you have been born and the sun has risen only seven times now. Right now, your faction is no match for the old rulers.
I already know that in a war, the side with more pages always has an advantage. I also like strategy games.
There are billions of Legion races living on this planet, but in fact, there are only hundreds of millions of them that I can directly influence.
But people have to use their brains.
If you look at the memories left by the ancient will, this nobleman just produced an overwhelming number of legions and swallowed the planet lightly with just an ‘attack land’.
Of course, if the force is very strong, that is the most effective strategy, but if the unit combination or strategic tactical use is supported, miraculous victory can be obtained.
A strategy that does not exist in a world ruled by rulers here is sufficient.
I showed a very nice video to the queen, who was using the Hive Ritual to dissuade me from attacking her. What was so convenient about this function was that I could easily share the video data that came to my mind to perfectly show my intentions.
【Queen, can you see the video I came up with?】
-That’s right. you are the ruler
―But I have a question. What is this video you just showed me? This is obviously not the information held by the essence of ‘The Legion’.
… … No, look at this little spider. Are you smarter than me?
I have only one queen now, so I’m still not sure if she’s uniquely smart or if this breed is genetically smart. While preparing for the attack, I needed to pull out a few more and check them out.
If there is a guy like this under the opposing rulers, maybe the planetary unification will be quite difficult.
【… … Stop wondering. You don’t need to know the details.]
—… … Okay. you are the ruler
The Queen’s sensitive question was lightly chewed up and passed over. There is no reason for me to tell my subordinates about regression or past lives, and if this guy is captured and passed on to the other rulers, there is a risk that my precious personal information will be leaked.
Anyway, those who have played the game often remember the impressive scenes at the time as ‘videos’ very vividly.
I pulled out one of those videos and listened.
【listen carefully. Genetic modification of jellyfish will end soon.]
【You quickly explore the food and increase the hatchery. When there are more than 60 hatcheries, use all the egg hives to take out as many ‘Spiders’ and ‘Remodeled Jellyfish’ as possible.]
―I see, my lord. I will carry out your instructions.
【I will directly capture Lydis, the closest ruler in my colony.】
The title of the video I showed the Queen was probably this.
‘Accept the bomb drop.’
A planetary conquest operation counts.