"Why the long face? Couldn’t sleep?”

"No, it’s not that.”

A close friend of mine commented as soon as he saw my face. It’s not that I couldn’t sleep, but there was something bothering me. "Speaking of which, it’s quite unfair.”

While others were busy studying for exams, I pulled out my phone and lamented. “I’m being threatened into playing this strange game. But what’s in it for me?” It was supposed to help me, but it seemed otherwise. It was costing me money and time, which was even more valuable. [Your creatures are still too immature.]

"So, they’ll be helpful once they grow a bit?” [That could be possible.]

The response was surprisingly reasonable. Of course, setting aside what I could do with these creatures. "I’m curious. You said there are others like me, right?” [Yes.]

"Do they all start like this... or do their abilities differ?”

From what I’ve gathered so far, there are definitely other ^players’ like me. But what’s the purpose? A competition among us? There was too little information to conclude that. [You will find out soon. Let me tell you one thing, the races assigned to people like you vary.]

"So, it’s not originally a game about growing cells...”

"Good morning, everyone.”

My words were cut off by the professor who entered the room. The classroom quieted down, and the students who were outside quickly entered as the lecture began. [Scouting in the designated area has failed 192 times.]

In the middle of the lecture, a message popped up on my phone. I discreetly opened it. This exam was a lost cause. To others, it would seem like I failed because of a mobile game. [We can’t break through with our current system. We need to grow.]

I nodded in agreement with its words. The creature blocking our path was nothing significant. It was a giant spider the size of a king crab, and its web was quite formidable. It was an insane web that exerted a pulling force on any target passing through.

[First, we should eliminate all the small organisms on the lower floor.]

I also thought that strengthening ourselves was the priority. For example, increasing our size or acquiring a unique weapon. "Hey, are you going straight home today... where are you going?” "It’s midterm season, it’s a bit warm, isn’t it? Have you ever been stung by a bee at school?”

After the lecture ended, I asked a friend who came to find me. My friend blinked in surprise at my sudden interest in bees.

[Our soldiers have modified themselves into the strongest form. Ant’s jaws, flea’s legs, etc... We’re looking for the most efficient and strongest model.] "Alright, alright. You’ll do fine.”

Even though the only class was over, I didn’t go home. Instead, I rummaged through the bushes near the building. Collecting insects at this age. But thanks to that, I was able to capture various insects like dung beetles and butterflies on camera.

[The strong jaws of our soldiers tore and disassembled the butterfly and dung beetle. The meat became energy, and their genetic information became our assets.]

The feedback was immediate. The soldiers, now slightly larger than ordinary ants, were pouring out of the rapidly growing nest like crazy. The bodies of fallen or discarded comrades were nothing more than excellent nourishment.

[The soldiers began to act. The priority was gathering food and hunting prey. Our first target was the nearby fungus colony.]According to the map, there was a place where mushrooms grew near the hole where our nest was located. We were no longer fighting with the cells of mushrooms. Now, we were targeting the Vertebrates’ living in the mushroom colony.

[That small salamander is the king of this mushroom colony. We will hunt it.]

"...From my perspective, it’s just a massacre...” [Our proud army began to march.]

To me, it didn’t seem so impressive that thousands of ants, or rather, monsters that could no longer be called ants, were swarming to catch a tiny salamander. [It was the moment we hunted our first vertebrate. This will be recorded in our history...] "Yeah, yeah.”

I put down my phone and headed deeper into the campus. If I couldn’t find it here, I was planning to just go home. [What are you trying to catch?] "A bee.”

I simply answered. I thought about it. How to guide these creatures. It seemed right to maximize their hive consciousness. So, I just... thought about it. The most social insects in my knowledge were ants and bees. Especially for bees, they had a stinger and wings.

"Poisonous ants are not very common in our country... It’s a bit lacking for an ant hill.”

The problem was that the formidable creatures I saw didn’t seem to be around. I was about to give up and go home when I heard a buzzing sound. "...Who’s flying a drone here?”

It was then that I heard a sound completely different from the annoying buzzing of mosquitoes. I got goosebumps. There was no way someone would fly a drone here. [Take a picture.] "Ah!”

I picked up my phone. At that moment, something huge whizzed past me. A giant mass buzzing. It seemed to have targeted me.

"Oh, please!”

Ever since I was stung as a child, I was particularly afraid of bees, even though I could touch other bugs with my bare hands. I frantically pressed the shutter. Then, as if heaven had helped, the buzzing sound stopped at some point.

[Admittedly, this external enemy was a formidable one. But we couldn’t let that hornet go.]

The capture squad, which had developed its strength, rushed towards the transmitted hornet. After hundreds of attempts, only a few managed to cling to it and successfully dragged it in. However, some of them fell dead instantly due to the hornet’s stinger.

[It’s strong. But now, no ordinary invertebrate can stand against us.]

The strongest soldier stepped forward. It was a creature similar to a salamander, covered in a hard shell. It was strong, but the stinger couldn’t penetrate the shell. No matter how much of a hornet it was, it couldn’t fend off the creatures attacking from all sides.

[Disassemble and evolve.]

The hornet was disassembled on the spot. The acquired genetic information was stored in the entire colony and transmitted to the nest, the production factory. The fungus forming the nest rapidly developed and produced new soldiers.

[Soldiers with a spine, bee’s wings, and a stinger are created.] "...Gross.”

I couldn’t exactly say it was good. And the biggest problem was that we were out of energy again.

[All cave creatures have their own ways of acquiring energy, but this cave is extremely energy deficient.] "Ah...”I had to feed them again. No matter how hard I tried to find a way, the environment itself was too harsh.

"So, in the end, you can’t stop predation. The more you develop and grow.”

Now, soldiers the size of three fingers were coming out, and it was impossible to solve the problem with a loaf of bread. I tried to feed them food waste in a hurry, but this time it opposed.

Its logic was outrageous.

[It takes energy to digest food. What’s the point if you use more energy in digestion than you absorb?]

In the end, it was a matter of efficiency. The only thing I could find was the corpse of a pigeon lying on the street.

"...This should be fine, right? But what’s the difference between this and food waste?” [Yes.]

Fortunately, it didn’t reject the corpse. Getting the pigeon’s genes was a bonus, but right now, producing such a large size was inefficient.

"Hey, I won’t give you bread...”

[The lowest floor is now completely our territory.]

Whether it was listening or not. Anyway, the expansion rate was steep. Now, the entire underground basement, although not very large, had become our territory. In just one day, just two days...

However, growth came with side effects.

Despite having consumed everything that lived and moved in that place, including microbes and mushrooms, self-sufficiency was still impossible. “Is expansion the only answer?”

If they didn’t eat even a little bit of prey, they would starve to death.

And the already ignited growth could not be stopped.

The only remaining answer was to go all the way.

[Our growth does not stop. And to grow, we had to continue the war.] The legion gathered.

Swarms seen in documentaries would seem cute in comparison.

In the air were versatile soldiers, clad in shells, flapping their wings, and armed with venomous stingers on their tails. On the ground were crawling soldiers who had maximized their strength.

There were at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of them.

[The situation improves even if we just go up one floor in the cave. Our target is now the creatures on the upper floors. According to our reconnaissance, the strongest among those living on the upper floors seemed to be snakes.]

“Honestly, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to lose, does it?”

If it were the unreachable upper floors where king crab-sized spiders lived and our reconnaissance was blocked, then maybe. But now, we were an intimidating legion at first glance.

It was obvious that we couldn’t be stopped even if the small creatures caused a bit of a ruckus.