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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Endless Expansion (2)
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I barely managed to accept it.
That's right. That place is another world—an alien world.
Nothing that happened there should be surprising.
After all, even Earth's ants spray poison and acid.
"Still, how does spitting hydrochloric acid even make sense?!"
Having given up on finding termites, I returned home, bitten all over by mountain mosquitoes.
Since we could already drain blood, mosquitoes—no, damn mosquitoes—were truly useless creatures.
[It is best to remember. That cave is a labyrinth that should never be underestimated.]
"I know that much."
King crab-sized spiders, giant scorpions with six tails, and so on.
I knew it was no ordinary place, a land of monsters that would put Earth's Paleozoic era to shame, where any kind of beast could emerge.
[Today's events will be recorded in the history of our species. As the day our kind first met a worthy opponent.]
"...Can we win?"
[That, no one knows. But one thing is certain: our Legion does not stop. If there is an obstacle, we destroy it. If there is an enemy, we devour it. Those are the only options.]
"You just keep growing and growing... What happens then? When you've devoured the whole world."
[Then we will devour another world.]
I could see the madness in the words.
I didn't say anything about it.
I just looked online for a site that sold termites for breeding.
I thought about what was most important in this game.
And I concluded it was the luck of the draw and the player's wealth... no, ability.
"..."
That was why I was on a train heading to a shop during this precious weekend I'd had since quitting my part-time job.
It was faster for me to go myself than to have them delivered.
[I do not understand. You could just take a picture of them. Did you not say it was a waste of money?]
"That's stealing."
[Even for a single ant?]
"...To be honest, it's a little tempting."
Wouldn't it be fine to just snatch one ant?
If it came down to it, I could just get a recently deceased one.
But by the time I arrived, I had decided not to do anything suspicious.
What if I got caught trying to save a few bucks and was questioned?
As I was now, I had no way of explaining the phenomenon of things vanishing with a flash of my camera.
"We're stockpiling strength in preparation for war."
I took a picture of the entire container of termites I'd bought and sent them to the nest.
The Legion, having broken down the termites to the microbial level, now possessed the ability to digest wood.
I went to the mountain behind my house again.
Actually, stealing wood is also illegal.
I wasn't sure about other things, but this couldn't be helped.
In the mountains, where there were no CCTV cameras, I sneakily took a picture of a log rolling on the ground.
Because of the 20kg limit, not all of it was sent; a portion was cleanly cut off.
"A log should be fine."
[We will combine this newly acquired ability with our existing ones to maximize its efficiency.]
Threads began to extend toward the log that had fallen in the center of the nest.
The supplies had arrived safely ahead of the war.
All that was left was to wage war based on the supplies we had obtained.
[Having received nourishment, the Legion began to prepare for war. The dormant nest reawakened and began to produce soldiers.]
The Legion is intelligent.
The various genes it absorbed were not merely physical.
It imitated and combined the combat methods imprinted on the acquired genes, creating a unified strategy.
It had already acquired group tactics from the genes of bees and ants.
[The Legion dispatched a scouting party. The plan was to engage the enemy in continuous skirmishes to draw out all their secrets. Winged soldiers were deployed. The enemy once again placed its saliva-spitting troops at the front.]
Compared to Earth's ants, they were incredibly strong.
But our side was also well-prepared.
And though it was a war between legions, we had another weapon.
[The Legion is not caught by the same trick twice.]
The scouts evaded the anti-air barrage spat out by the enemy with precise movements.
If forces of a similar scale clashed, could we possibly lose?
We are one. We move as a single body.
There is no fear, no inefficiency.
The scouts dove, seizing enemies with their powerful jaws and claws.
Then, they curled their tails and plunged their venomous stingers in.
It was the beginning of the war in earnest.
[The Legion has made its judgment. We can win.]
When I changed the screen, the main force that had been on standby was moving out in unison.
Large heads, powerful jaws, hard carapaces, and so on.
They were soldiers modified to be optimally suited for an enemy that lived in tunnels dug into the ground.
[The enemy, focused on the scouts in the sky, noticed our main force. But it was too late. We accepted the damage from their powerful acid attacks and pushed forward.]
I held my breath and watched the scene unfold.
In terms of organization, they were no match for us.
In this war, our objective was the enemy's annihilation, while their objective was survival.
It was common sense, proven even in human history, that those who prioritized survival would fall back against an attack that defied death.
The otherworld ants, struggling to survive, could not stop the Legion's soldiers, who moved only to kill.
The entire, rather spacious cavern became a battlefield.
Other creatures that had wandered in were suddenly swept up in the chaos and devoured by us.
[We were victorious in the open field. The enemy began to frantically block the entrance to their tunnels with their bodies.]
We had won the war waged across the entire cavern.
And the enemy had retreated to their fortress.
But we had already anticipated this.
Our secret weapon appeared.
A snake, with a thick carapace covering its head.
It wasn't a large snake, but it was at least big enough to break through their tunnels.
Even if they spat acid, it had enough time to push through with its thick carapace.
The rest of the troops began to enter the newly opened tunnel one by one.
It's just one ant nest, so why am I so nervous?
But in truth, the tide of battle had already turned.
The enemy, who had engaged us in a direct power struggle from the start, was already crushed. Their resistance now futile, their defense had failed, and all that remained was slaughter.
[It will be important for you to think on a grander scale.]
"...In preparation for when this small war grows larger?"
I couldn't deny it.
The Legion would never be content to stay here.
It would grow stronger and fight bigger enemies.
[We dismember the enemy queen and take the larvae and eggs as food. We have won the Legion's war. This event will be recorded in history.]
I glanced at the clock.
Only four hours.
In just four hours, the White Cave Termite colony that had dominated the fourth level had fallen to us.
But that wasn't all.
The vanquished enemy left us a legacy.
Their weapon could now become our weapon.
A weapon that could take down the beings on the upper levels.
"You guys really don't rest, do you?"
[Because even in moments of rest, our nutrients are consumed.]
The Legion does not stop.
*
"..."
A peaceful, wide cavern in the cave.
This particularly spacious area, centered around a lake, had quite developed vegetation.
That meant it was rich in nutrients.
Indeed, the fungi that grew there formed colonies of giant, child-sized mushrooms.
A toad living here flicked out its tongue and ate something crawling on the ground.
The toad, about the size of a small dog, savored the popping texture in its mouth.
Unlike on the lower level, where they were the dominant super-colony, the acid-armed White Cave Termites were one of the lowest forms of life here, barely surviving in small groups.
The toad opened its mouth wide, yawned, and moved to another spot.
It was the outskirts of the cavern.
The toad, idly twitching its sensory organs, suddenly looked down at its feet.
[Now is the time to devour more advanced life forms and expand our Legion.]
Countless ants—no, monsters that could hardly be called ants—swarmed and began to cling to the toad's body.
The toad leaped and tried to shake them off.
But other monsters, buzzing in the air, rushed the toad.
[A new poison, combined with potent acid. A powerful toxin that melts the target's nerves and blood vessels.]
The venom injected by their stingers was no longer ordinary bee venom.
Even its thick, acid-immune hide could not withstand acid being directly injected inside.
Struggling against the relentless attack, the toad's massive body slowly collapsed.
[The predator of predators is also our prey.]
Something that spotted the toad's corpse shot through the air and dove.
It was a large bat, flapping two pairs of leathery wings.
But the moment it grasped the toad with its talons...
...the Legion covering the toad's body swarmed the bat as well.
The startled bat took flight.
The bat's body was covered in fur, but its skin was much thinner than the toad's hide.
The Legion's soldiers tenaciously crawled over the bat's body and began to tear viciously at the thin membranes of its flapping wings.
[...This is just the beginning.]
The bat, its wings torn to shreds, finally staggered and plummeted to the ground.
It was the moment the black tide, crawling up from the desolate lowest level of the labyrinth, began to truly overturn the ecosystem.