Became the Queen of the Legion

“Where on earth is this place…”

Thinking I shouldn’t have to walk on my own legs, I called a worker and mounted it, finally leaving the nest.

Our nest is located in the middle of a forest filled with the demon realm’s characteristic gloomy rocks and soil, and bizarrely overgrown trees and plants.

Naturally, I had no idea where this place was.

The view in the game was different from the start, and above all, thanks to the existence of the minimap, I had rarely paid close attention to the map itself.

There was nothing in the knowledge of the Black Death Worms that I gained through possession either.

To begin with, mere beasts that live their entire lives in this vicinity after being born from eggs wouldn’t know how vast this world is.

[A method to acquire additional food is needed]

“Of course it’s not enough if we do it like we’ve been doing until now.”

As the system message said, we needed more food now.

Whether to gain trait points and evolve, to create something as I want, or ultimately to survive here.

I didn’t know much about the ecology of the Black Death Worms that appeared as mobs in the game, but now I do.

They were securing food mainly by cleaning up corpses, gathering edible plants, and attempting to hunt prey they could catch.

And it was the same for us.

‘What should I do?’

But we can’t do that from now on. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we can’t change.

Now that I’ve come to this world directly as their queen as a player, I have no choice but to change this entire colony, for my own sake as well.

“First, go out further to explore. We need to know something to think of a method.”

I ordered the workers to go out and explore further than our territory from now on.

I was convinced that we couldn’t improve no matter what we did in this cramped world of our own.

Scouting activities to observe and find out what’s on the map and what other forces are doing was one of the actions considered important in the game as well.

Indeed, acquiring information was the top priority to turn the situation around.

[Workers are going out to scout]

Then, a few workers who received my order began to spread out in all directions, crawling on the ground.

Considering that their eyes were my eyes, this was the first moment I was moving towards the outside world since coming to this world.

“It’s really ruthless.”

[5 workers went out to scout, 3 of them died]

It hadn’t been that long.

But three out of five workers sent for scouting died. One was pierced by the beak of a giant monstrous bird that dive-bombed from the sky and died on the spot.

One died from an attack by a scorpion-like arthropod demonic beast that had grown to the size of a tiger, waiting after digging a hole.

The last one was eaten by a demonic beast that looked like a giant toad. So only two scouts survived.

‘They’re too weak…!’

I didn’t know that being at the bottom of the ecosystem would be this harsh.

The demonic beasts I had only looked down on became terrible natural enemies, and our life in this barren demon realm was losing our lives or being eaten in a moment of carelessness.

“We have no choice but to hurry.”

Having lost three precious workers, I gritted my teeth and hit the wall with my fist.

We can’t be picky about means or methods. The wall of the world we need to climb is that high.

[One scout has discovered a new area]

Still, in exchange for that sacrifice, we were able to see our world one step wider.

One scout that went out to explore beyond the radius we had been active in crossed the forest safely without any threats and entered a new area.

The scenery itself was similar to where our nest is, but still, this was an unknown space.

[Achievement, A Step Towards the World (1) completed. 1 trait point awarded as a reward]

Moreover, the system recognized it as an achievement.

It’s difficult because I don’t even know what counts as an achievement, but it seemed that finding achievements wouldn’t be too hard at this early stage for now.

“What’s that?”

And that’s when the scout discovered something.

A black-shelled insect crawling on the ground, appearing from the bushes on the other side.

[Achievement, Encounter (1) completed. 1 trait point awarded as a reward]

Its identity was a Black Death Worm worker under the control of another queen.

* * *

“…Is it threatening?”

The enemy worker entered a defensive stance, making hissing sounds and waving its front legs while watching my scout.

Even though they’re the same species, Black Death Worms are territorial animals. They were ones who reject and guard against others entering their territory.

“Retreat for now.”

As more enemy workers started to gather, I made the scout’s body retreat for now.

Fortunately, they seemed satisfied with that and didn’t chase any further, going off to do their own tasks.

But I still couldn’t take my eyes off that place, looking through the scout’s body.

‘If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll have to live as corpse cleaners at the bottom for the rest of our lives. We can’t get stronger.’

There was one reason for hesitation.

It was because of the concern about what we should do to become stronger, overcoming the limits of our species.

I already got a clue. From the moment ‘I’ came here as the queen.

We could keep evolving. That was the only answer we had.

The problem is where and how to fill the nutrients, the experience needed for that evolution. It’s absolutely impossible if we just keep rummaging through corpses like we’ve been doing so far.

So we had to break out of our limits. We had to walk a completely different path from other kin.

「1. Maintain the status quo and calmly increase the number of individuals」

「2. Choose cannibalism」

The system kindly wrote out in letters what had already come up in my mind once.

And it was clear what I should choose.

“Attack the nest of our kin.”

My eyes glinted as I made the decision.

Black Death Worms didn’t fight among themselves unnecessarily. They’re all similar, so fighting each other would only result in losses.

I was going to break that unwritten rule.

As long as there’s a clear basis that we can win, there’s no easier way for us, who are so weak now, to grow than by cannibalizing our kin.

[Your forces will follow you]

“Really?”

When I turned my head after seeing the system message, all my workers around were looking at me.

Their loyalty is well felt even without seeing the message.

I was very satisfied because of it. Come to think of it, rebellions or internal affairs events that occurred occasionally were impossible for us.

The subordinates born with my genes will exist and live only for me, only for our colony.

[Trait page opened]

I decided to give them a gift.

Before the war with our kin, I was planning to use as much of the 3 trait points I had secured so far as possible to strengthen ourselves as much as we could.

「Consciousness Enhancement 1-1」

I invested 1 point in consciousness enhancement.

Not much has changed. Probably before reaching level 2, it will stop at just slightly faster judgment and information exchange speed.

「Physical Enhancement 1-3」

But the physical enhancement, where I invested two points, had a bit more dramatic change.

Our bodies, which shed dead cells by molting all at once, clearly became stronger than before.

“They seem to have gotten bigger too.”

First, the workers’ size increased a bit. It was noticeable even to the naked eye.

Fully grown adults seemed to have grown about 1.5 times larger than the kin of other forces I saw earlier.

“Is physical enhancement connected to my passive as well?”

[The more you invest in physical enhancement, the stronger your authority, omnipotent cells, becomes]

On top of that, I became stronger too.

I smirked at the power of the enhanced omnipotent cells as I freely moved the cells constituting my body and transformed one arm to create a blade like the sharp jaws the workers have.

Now all preparations are complete with this.

Without any more hesitation, I immediately deployed all troops.

There’s no use in delaying; we’ll only run short on food. Only the minimum forces needed to protect the eggs and larvae remained in the nest.

[If you go out yourself and are defeated, the entire force will be annihilated]

“If we lose anyway, we’re finished.”

I too rode on the back of the largest male and joined them.

The system message warned that everything would end if I, the player, died, but I snorted.

Anyway, if I lose these main forces, I’m finished. We have no backup.

With consciousness enhancement still lacking now, I had to go myself to command our forces as nimbly as possible and watch the war.

“—…”

About 50 Black Death Worms move all at once.

Small predators that would have pounced on our workers without hesitation normally saw this procession and retreated on their own, watching the situation.

‘If we become more numerous and stronger, no one would dare target us.’

My heart pounded at the sight.

I, who enjoyed this game of nurturing forces and conquering the world, knew well how strong the power of a group, that is, a collective, can be.

In such a world, our abilities are clearly specialized in forming a collective and maximizing those abilities.

I thought that if things go really well, we might be able to create a monster collective that even I have never seen before.

If we can do that, we might be able to aim for something beyond mere survival.