Became the Queen of the Legion

The life of Black Death Worms, one of the demon realm insects, is always the same.

For the prosperity of the nest, workers work hard, males mate diligently, and the queen, while being cared for, sits in a corner of the nest and lays eggs tirelessly.

This is their instinct and behavior pattern that has remained unchanged for a long time.

Until now, no colony has ever gone against this law.

They were the same.

They say they’re quite strong when united, but that only applies in places where food is abundant enough for the colony to grow huge.

At least the Black Death Worm colonies living here were like cleaners, befitting the bottom of the ecosystem, just collecting discarded resources or dead corpses for food.

“…?”

However, at this moment, that ‘law’ began to shake.

The first to witness it was a worker. A worker who left the nest to find food as usual was diligently tapping its antennae to track food.

That’s when they came into view.

Dozens of kin from another nest, marching forward majestically in a group.

The queen, who saw this through the worker’s eyes, couldn’t understand their behavior.

Moving in such large groups is very disadvantageous for food collection. Moreover, they’re blatantly invading their territory.

“—!”

The queen sent a worker to protest against the approaching group. It raised and waved its front legs, signaling that this was its territory.

“…”

But they didn’t retreat at all even when the queen warned them. They simply ignored the warning and kept advancing forward silently.

The queen finally noticed that something was strange.

Those approaching kin, something was off about them. First, they were too big. They were easily 1.5 times larger than her workers, and their exoskeletons were darker in color.

“—?”

The queen saw a being riding on the back of a particularly large individual that looked like a male.

That being, which looked completely different from the others who looked like kin despite their large size, was covered in black exoskeleton and leather on its bare body, with flowing silver hair.

“Kill.”

And then the impossible happened.

The moment that being on the male’s back flashed its red eyes and pointed, the workers at the front leaped out and tore apart the queen’s warning worker in an instant.

“???”

The queen, whose connection with the worker was cut off, was greatly confused sitting in her nest.

It was a declaration of war from kin that she had never experienced in her life.

“—!”

An emergency alert fell on the Black Death Worm nest that was peacefully collecting food and spending leisurely time. Intruders were approaching the nest.

However, these intruders were not their common natural predators.

‘Is attacking kin such a surprising thing? These bugs are more gentle than I thought.’

She, who was of human origin and could kill each other cruelly whenever necessary, rather couldn’t understand the behavior of Black Death Worms who avoided battles among kin as much as possible.

Even Earth’s ants, which were the motif for Black Death Worms, fight among themselves when bored.

There are even some that live solely on wars with ants of different species, and ants that enslave other ants.

“Sweep them all away.”

She resolutely ordered and moved her troops to attack the kin’s nest gathered for defense.

The goal is to annihilate the nest. To kill every single surviving individual and use them as food.

Although they are kin, Black Death Worms cannot serve two queens at the same time. Their loyalty to the queen is imprinted at the genetic level from the moment of birth.

So there was no need to make prisoners. No need for slaves.

Rather than putting effort into that, it’s more beneficial to kill them, chop them up, and turn them into nutrients.

“—!”

The Black Death Worm swarms collided with each other. However, from the moment of collision, the battle result was one-sided.

As she believed, her subordinates, who had already grown larger and stronger through multiple molts, could mercilessly overpower their kin with force and crush their exoskeletons with their strong jaws in an instant.

Black Death Worms undergo complete metamorphosis.

Once they become adults, they don’t grow. Originally, they don’t even have the concept of molting, but she had twisted even that.

“You guys block their retreat. Hey! The back is open!”

Moreover, she, standing on the male’s back, looked down at the battlefield and commanded her subordinates in real-time.

No matter how intelligent an individual was, the current Black Death Worms couldn’t beat her in intelligence and self-awareness.

Although it’s a chaotic melee with no formation to speak of, with just a little direction from her, her subordinates could pressure their kin more efficiently and without gaps.

‘It’s breached.’

And at that moment, finally, the desperately guarded nest entrance was breached.

Her subordinates wedged into that gap and began pouring into the nest interior in an instant.

“—…”

Once the resistance crumbled, all that remained was cruel massacre. Workers, males, eggs, and larvae.

All were trampled and torn apart by her subordinates.

The Black Death Worm queen, unable to even move from her spot let alone escape due to her belly full of eggs, could only watch helplessly as it happened. Feeling her subordinates connected to her mind disappear one by one.

“—!”

Finally, even the last worker guarding the queen’s chamber was cruelly dismembered.

The queen looked at these vicious kin who barged straight into her chamber.

If she had the intelligence and ability to speak, she might have cried out desperately asking why they were doing this.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no choice.”

But she, who had descended from the male’s body and slowly walked up to the queen, could read the queen’s emotions to some extent.

Although a mutant herself, she too was now a member of the same Black Death Worms, and the same queen.

Therefore, her face now was closer to complicated feelings rather than the joy of victory.

“I’m… I’m a victim too. I didn’t want this game either.”

However, she gritted her teeth and transformed her arm into a sharp spike.

When she raised her lowered head again, her red gleaming eyes baring her teeth were flickering with anger.

“This world is competition. You have to do anything to survive.”

And she rushed in at once, thrusting that spike directly towards the queen’s heart.

The queen’s tender heart area without exoskeleton was instantly pierced and burst by that spike.

Only then did the queen realize and shudder that this small being lunging at her was a Black Death Worm queen like herself.

She looks completely different and acts completely differently. But it made sense.

A queen capable of leading an army and massacring her kin must indeed be able to transcend common sense and laws.

A queen personally going out to hunt and kill another queen was absolutely impossible for a normal queen who has it imprinted in her genes as her duty to lay eggs, reproduce, and maintain and grow the colony.

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

[Achievement, Queen’s Dignity (1) completed. 1 trait point awarded as a reward]

[Achievement, Kin Slaughter (2) completed. 2 trait points awarded as a reward]

“Quite a lot. But even me personally going out and killing is recognized as an achievement?”

At that moment when I killed the queen. Notifications of achieving achievements arrived one after another.

Victory plus rewards. I should naturally be happy, but my heart was calmer than expected.

It was like that even considering this was my first real combat experience.

Perhaps it was because I had completely determined my path by just annihilating one nest of ‘kin’ Black Death Worms.

‘War cannot be stopped.’

Even in the game, there were several endings that could be seen while growing and developing forces.

War victory by conquering and subjugating all forces of civilization, technology victory dominating the world with the most advanced technology, or economic victory dominating the world with the most wealthy economy, and so on.

[War victory route is recommended]

As the system message was telling me now, it seemed there was only one ending that could be seen while leading a Black Death Worm swarm.

“There’s no need to worry about that so soon. Quickly move the spoils.”

Shaking my head to shake off talk of things too far off, I instructed my subordinates to gather the spoils.

Everything scattered around was spoils. From the corpses of our kin, to eggs and larvae, and the food they had diligently stored in their storage.

After returning to our nest carrying all of that, I instructed them to throw it all into the artificial digestive system I had already created.

‘This is all resources.’

The nutrients digested in the artificial digestive system were supplied to my body through tentacles.

I could feel the nutrients abundant throughout my body.

A feeling as if every cell in my body was excited, which I couldn’t feel when I was human.

It’s probably not my imagination.

「Trait Page」

And now that we’ve gained rewards, it’s time to evolve us another step with it.

Opening the trait page, I seriously pondered what trait to enhance next.