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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Strange App (2)
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[Energy. The most important thing is energy.]
"...Then how do I give you that energy?"
[We have just acquired the genetic information of the fungus living in the cave, and the Earth ant you collected. This means we can copy their methods of nutrient absorption.]
"Ah."
I unconsciously glanced at the bag of snacks next to me.
It was a brand-new, unopened bag. But could they really eat this?
There was no need to worry about that.
If an ant could eat it, they could eat it.
[Then take a picture.]
I picked up my camera just like that.
Being ordered around felt strangely unpleasant, but what could I do?
[The snacks you photographed have been sent to them.]
As soon as I tore open the bag, spread out the snacks, and took the picture, they vanished into the phone.
With a rustling sound, the snacks rained down into the dim cave.
I watched the cells' reaction.
At first, they were wary.
But soon, they began to create something and extend it.
[It is a mix of the fungus's method and the ant's method.]
The cells clumped together, and then something like very thin threads began to stretch out in countless directions.
The fumbling threads started to cover the snacks.
It was as if they were trying to digest the snacks, like plant roots absorbing nutrients.
Zooming in further, I saw cells equipped with the mandibles that had bitten the fungus to death, now clinging to the snacks and gnawing away at them.
[We are still primitive. Digestion will take a long time.]
"...Looks like it."
It meant there was nothing much to do while they were digesting.
Still, I kept watching the phone.
This was quite fun.
Watching those little guys squirming around, watching them gradually grow.
There was a certain joy in raising them. It was better than most simulation games.
"Hmm..."
I put down my phone and sat in front of my computer.
Fun was fun, but I typed "smartphone hacking" into the search bar.
I was trying to see if anyone else was experiencing the same symptoms.
But the results were clean.
Just in case, I tried searching in English, but there wasn't a single case with similar symptoms.
I opened my messenger app, then closed it again.
Honestly, I didn't think anyone would believe me unless I showed them in person, and the guy's threat was also weighing on my mind.
It sounded like nonsense, but what if it was true?
I had just seen the things I photographed disappear right before my eyes.
This meant it wasn't something that could be dismissed as a simple hack.
[A wise choice.]
"Whoa!"
At that moment, the screen went black, and white text began to appear again.
This crazy bastard is now after my computer too!
[Furthermore, it would be best not to draw attention to this.]
"Wh-why should I do that?"
[Setting aside the matter of protecting your phone's records... this is also related to your life, so all the more reason.]
It was just text, but I felt a chill.
I had no choice but to admit it. They clearly had the upper hand.
Come to think of it, it did say this was a game.
There was no guarantee this game was single-player.
"Why me of all people? There are plenty of other exceptional people. I'm just an ordinary college student."
[Did I not say? You downloaded it yourself. I merely activated the system and found its master, Kang Shin-woo.]
"..."
I was speechless.
It was just bad luck, and there was nothing more I could argue about.
In the end, I turned off the computer and flopped back onto my bed.
I needed to study, but there was no way I could focus in this situation.
"...Huh?"
I had fallen asleep just like that. I hadn't thought I'd be able to sleep in that situation, but the toll of pulling an all-nighter to study was quite severe.
Next to my ear, my phone was blaring an alarm.
"What is it?"
[An attack. The sweet snacks that suddenly fell into the dim cave. These are the ones who caught their scent.]
The source of the alarm was this unidentified game.
I hurriedly launched the app.
"You said enemies. Where are they?"
[Zoom in.]
I zoomed in on the screen as it said.
The intruders were very small creatures.
Do large animals not live in this cave in the first place?
[It might be for the best. We cannot handle large enemies at our current level.]
My question was quickly answered.
In any case, the creatures crawling here now were tiny, about the size of fleas.
[We have an abundance of stored energy. We can face them.]
To deal with the approaching creatures, our side began to respond.
Tendrils extended toward the creatures swarming the digesting snacks.
[The fungus's growth method has been combined with the ant's genes.]
The tips of the roots swelled like tumors, and something quickly began to take shape and form.
I was very surprised to see it.
The newly created things, though small, clearly had the form of ants.
The ants, now disconnected from the tendrils, began to swarm toward the enemies targeting their food supply.
[We are many and one. There was not a shred of inefficiency in our movements. We, who were even larger and stronger, easily bit the enemies to death. And the enemies we killed became our assets once more.]
[Cave Bloodsucking Flea: 1B1557]
The battle ended anticlimactically.
With our victory.
On top of that, there were the stats of the enemy we had absorbed.
[We can now also use the blood of other lifeforms as a source of nutrients.]
"...Amazing."
I was genuinely impressed.
Putting aside how suspicious it all was, my interest was growing stronger and stronger.
"Oppa, what are you doing?"
"It's nothing."
That evening. My sister, who had just come back from school and her academy, frowned upon seeing me with my nose to the floor in the living room.
My sister, Kang Do-yeon, six years my junior and now a high school student.
"...Is there a bug?"
"I caught it, so don't worry about it."
She flinched.
She had a particular hatred for bugs.
In any case, I had caught one, so I waved her off into her room.
[Fruit flies and cellar spiders. All have become our assets.]
New specimens I found by searching the house.
I photographed those small insects and sent them to the cave.
Hundreds of them managed to hunt the fruit flies mid-air by 'jumping' at them.
They had incorporated the powerful leg strength taken from the flea's genes.
The cellar spider, too, was caught and devoured by the ants.
[In just one day, we have grown this much.]
It was just as it had said.
I started in the morning, and now it's 9 PM.
The cluster of cells, which had been no more than a small puddle, had already spread its roots over a fairly wide area, growing in the form of mushrooms and becoming capable of producing a significant number of soldiers.
"What do I need to do to make you grow bigger?"
[More energy. More specimens.]
Now I was also genuinely curious to see just how big these things could get.
"What the. My bread! Did you eat it, Oppa?!"
"...I'll buy you more later."
After changing her clothes, the first thing she looked for was the bread she bought yesterday.
It felt a bit unfair, but I had to compensate her.
However, I wasn't the one who ate all that bread.
Torn from its packaging, it was now rolling on the floor of some unknown cave.
Becoming nutrients for the propagation of a species.
"...You're growing incredibly fast."
[If there are enough nutrients, it's possible to increase the speed.]
Waking up early in the morning, the first thing I did was check my phone.
And I was stunned.
In just eight hours, these things had achieved growth far beyond the bread they had consumed.
[By combining the growth of a spider's web and the fungus, the primordial 'Nest' has been created.]
"It's... huge."
I panned the screen around and marveled at it.
The cells that started in a puddle the size of a human footprint now covered more than half of this underground cavern with their roots and bodies.
Of course, it was still only ankle-deep, but this was the growth of just one day.
What would it be like after two, three, or four days?
[Nutrients. More nutrients are needed.]
"Alright."
I took the bread my sister had bought last night and fed it to them too.
She'd throw a fit if she found out her favorite bread was completely gone again, but I'd just buy her more.
"For now, I can cover it with bread like this. But in the long run, I don't think I can spend all my food money on you."
[That is correct. Therefore, you must guide us well. Skills for self-sufficient hunting and scouting, digestive power, energy efficiency, and so on.]
It started spouting difficult words again.
Anyway, I finished getting ready and was the last of my family to leave the house.
I only had one afternoon class today.
"I get what you mean by designing and guiding, but I need to know something first."
I boarded the subway and began my journey toward the city where my university was.
To others, I probably looked like a madman talking to himself, but thankfully, these days, there are plenty of people talking on their wireless earbuds.
[Correct. As it is your second day, I will unlock one more function for you.]
This tutorial never ends, and it doesn't even give rewards.
As soon as it finished speaking, another icon appeared.
I knew what this was at a glance. It was a map.
[However, to reveal the map, scouting is required.]
"...I knew you were going to say that."
Scouting. It sounded daunting, but not anymore.
Dozens of scouts departed from the nest.
All of them were equipped with the wings of fruit flies.
What's the big deal about scouting? I just had to send out the recon units.
[Our greatest advantage is using a single mind to process all the information seen through dozens of eyes, which accumulates rapidly. The map updates at an explosive rate. It is something most others cannot imitate.]
The scouts scattered to every corner, beginning to investigate all parts of the cave.
They discovered that this was the lowest level of the cave, and that it was difficult to gauge just how deep it was.
A hive mind. I was starting to understand just how broken this 'single connection' ability was.
No matter how far away a scout was, any information it acquired was immediately known by the whole.
"What was that just now?"
[A predator. One that we cannot challenge at our current state.]
At that very moment.
A report came in that one of the scouts at the very front, which had been slowly ascending the levels, had been abruptly cut off by something.