A Legion Grows From My Smartphone

Chapter 34: The Legion's Payback (5)

[We've successfully occupied the 35th floor, advancing another step. This is where the real story begins. Welcome to Chapter 3. Look at your screen. I'll explain the new features that have been added.]

I examined the app. Various interfaces now filled what had previously been a blank screen. What's this?" [Tap on it. It's a shop. A system shop accessible to all players.]

I tapped the new icon. As stated, it was a shop selling various items. I noticed [Assassination Right: 500G (2 uses)] in my view. The tutorial reward I could have chosen earlier was 1,000 gold. If I had held out and selected that, I would have two assassination rights by now. Of course, the likelihood of me not holding out and dying was also high.

So I'm broke. How do I earn gold?" [There's only one way to earn gold. Kill enemy units and players.] ...What?"

Simultaneously, my gold balance, which had been zero, began to increase. The rising gold stopped precisely at 100G. [Those rats we defeated last time? The app deemed their worth to be a mere 100G.]

The value of an assassination right was five times what I had. My eyes dimmed as a brutally cold and sharp realization hit me. A species that once nurtured dreams and hopes, that thrived and developed, had been entirely wiped out. Nothing remained.

[Reality. It would have been the same even without the app.] That's also true." I snorted.

[Although it's only 100G, it should be enough to buy some helpful items.]

I examined the items in the shop. The ones it had mentioned would help me in Chapter 3 were probably accurate. There are ones for players and units." [They all create variables in the game.]

I scrutinized the items before me, knowing I had to choose wisely. With my current funds, I could only afford one. To prove my worth to Cha Ji Yeon and earn her companionship, I needed to purchase something that would be immediately beneficial.

How about this one."

The price was exactly 100G. I selected an item that seemed to fit the bill. A transparent liquid sloshed inside the vial. Although its consumable nature irked me, it was an item that promised to deliver everything I desired.

[The choice is yours. The item has been selected. By spending gold, you have obtained 'Moonlight Rage'.] Moonlight Rage.

From the description alone, it was an item that could temporarily bestow the power of a werewolf, with its superior physical abilities, under the moonlight. This isn't what I'm thinking, right?" [That is most likely correct. This Moonlight Rage you have purchased now is certainly a racial trait that exists somewhere, somehow, in some race.] I found myself involuntarily drawing in a breath.

This shop truly sold the most extraordinary things. * Oppa, are you there?" Tell her I am." Hmph."

Upon hearing my words, the ever-prepared Kang Do Yeon let out a sigh. The preparation wasn't extensive. We were above the 35th floor, ascending through the massive hole in the ceiling.

[Of course, the legion sent out scouts first.]

The scouts, gifted with flight and high mobility, ascended into the sky, indifferent to the insignificant creatures below. If more of them were up there, it wouldn't pose a problem.

Switch the screen. What's the situation?" [This is also an interesting result.]

With those cryptic words, the screen flickered to a new image. I could now see what the legion was focused on. [An ordinary cave. But wide.] ...A village? Or a city?"

What I saw resembled some sort of sprawling dwelling. There were areas that looked like plazas and others that resembled fortresses. The scale was immense.

[Kang Do Yeon reached a similar conclusion as you, and the legion accepted that opinion. This place is their nest, where a certain race lived. The architecture, patterns, and letters engraved here and there match the structures of the 35th floor.]

A race that lived underground, huh. Then what exactly are the structures of the 35th floor, the mummies guarding that place, and this hole leading there?" I scratched my head, puzzled. There was still too little information to fully comprehend what this place was and where it led.

[We have discovered the passage to the 36th floor...and the 37th floor here.] Around that time, the scouts discovered a passage leading to the next floor. [However, this place has been sealed by an unknown power.] It can't be helped."

The scouts were stymied, a situation reminiscent of the spider webs that initially blocked our path when we first ventured from the minor to the major floors of the grand passages.

In the end, we just have to smash through it."

But we still need to know what it is to deal with it properly." Right now, there's no method."

Kang Do Yeon nodded coolly. I fell silent, at a loss for words. [The legion shares the same sentiment.]

The legion soldiers began to mobilize. The flying troops took to the sky first, passing through the hole.

[Once again, those vengeful spirits of unknown origin block our path. The legion won't stall for time. The order to advance has been given to all troops.]

When the flying troops first reached the 36th floor, the underground city, previously as silent as a tomb, began to reverberate with roars. The irrational corpses we encountered on the 35th floor leapt out of houses and buildings, their bodies glowing with intricate patterns.

[They are quite a nuisance. We gain little sustenance from consuming them, and the unknown power animating them remains a mystery.] There's...something there."

As I observed the clash with the legion's airborne troops, my brows furrowed in concern. The beings we had encountered on the lower floor were unmistakably armed, physically formidable warriors. However, this encounter was different. While there were warriors mixed in, brandishing weapons, the majority were not warriors at all. They were beings wielding tools that resembled farming implements, beings entirely unarmed. There were elderly individuals with stooped backs and young children.

'What on earth happened here?'

My thoughts grew more convoluted as I watched Kang Do Yeon, who had clawed her way up through the hole, swinging her sword and fists in a desperate battle alongside other legion soldiers.

There's more of them, but they're nothing much."

The sight of one soldier splitting an enemy's body in two with a sword, all while wearing a bright smile, also unsettled me. There's a pattern. There's definitely a pattern."

In the midst of the fierce battlefield, Kang Do Yeon kicked away an opponent she had neutralized with her own sword and murmured.

The enemies battled relentlessly against the ceaseless black tide surging from the abyss. Their actions were devoid of hesitation, akin to programmed machines. But who programmed them?"

A flash of crimson light sparked in Kang Do Yeon's eyes. The legion had previously encountered an unseen mystical force. Through the Wraith and the Guardian leader, they had begun to understand the existence of souls. Therefore, detecting something similar was not entirely impossible.

There. That place. The city's end."

Kang Do Yeon pointed to the opposite end, where a massive structure stood at the cavity's end. Charger-type soldiers, as large as horses or bulls, bared their teeth and charged towards that place. Their tremendous power, derived from mass and muscle, allowed them to trample the resisting wraiths. The one leading the charge had a hard head armor, reminiscent of a salamander and cave boar, with strong jaw muscles. The legion soldier swung its large, sturdy head, striking an enemy.

[A new enemy has appeared.]

However, in that moment, the neck of the large legion soldier was cleanly severed in two. The culprit was a lone man brandishing a sword. Like his adversaries, he bore glowing patterns on his body. He stood sentinel in front of the building, clutching a faintly shimmering blue sword. Behind him, dozens of warriors emanating similar extraordinary auras appeared, guarding the building.

[We were right. There are clues in the place they're protecting.]

The legion's gaze shifted in that direction. Kang Do Yeon, her mouth set in a determined line, stepped forward. The legion had invested a massive amount of energy in her for moments like this.

[With a single strike, he severed the armor of the sturdiest soldier in the legion. This indicated that the defenses of the versatile soldiers could not withstand his attack. Simultaneously, it meant our carapace-reinforced swords would be severed the moment they clashed.]

Then how should we fight?"

Kang Do Yeon offered a faint smile as she used her cells to enhance her senses. She manipulated not only the basic five senses-sight, hearing, touch-but also her internal senses such as balance and reflexes.

Urgh..."

Moreover, sensory organs unique to cave organisms began to emerge on her body. Organs capable of detecting minute vibrations, faint electromagnetic waves, and so forth. As her senses expanded, her body trembled. An overwhelming amount of information flooded her mind from her suddenly heightened senses, causing an overload.

However, the legion's hive mind, with which she shared consciousness, stepped in at that moment.