I Became The Tyrant Of A Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 580

‘The first “me” was a mutated fly.’

The old fly, sitting cross-legged, began its story haphazardly.

‘A female fly whose body had grown abnormally large, as big as a pig.’

‘…….’

Baekya listened to what the other was saying without moving. The fly continued.

‘The humans on the farm who discovered me right after I was born tried to kill me. Well, of course. To them, flies were pests that deserved to be killed, and I was unusually huge.’

‘…….’

‘After being beaten, my two wings were torn off, my antennae were lost, and even my legs were crushed. Now I was a mutated, crippled fly.’

The fly chuckled.

‘On the verge of death, I crawled aimlessly on the ground. At that time, my mind was filled only with resentment, anger, and hunger.’

‘…….’

‘Then, I encountered a human. He stopped while walking and stared down at me, dying. I thought he would kill me, but.’

The fly rubbed its front legs in front of its chest.

‘That human saved me.’

It looked like the fly’s unique leg-rubbing motion, but it also looked like someone rolling prayer beads.

‘He was an old priest. A skinny old man who shared the food he received from begging with the poor and the sick, saying that the poor should be pitied.’

The fly sneered.

‘It seems he saw me as one of the poor. Or perhaps I was a sentient being he had to save. Anyway, the priest applied medicine to me and shared his food.’

‘…….’

‘And so, I survived. I ended up living in the yard of the dilapidated temple where the priest stayed.’

Baekya let the fly’s story flow past her ears as she keenly surveyed her surroundings.

She was contemplating how to devour that being.

‘Time passed. I grew bigger and bigger, while he, on the contrary, became emaciated. It was only natural. I was taking all of his share of the food.’

‘…….’

‘But he never showed any displeasure. Instead, he would sit next to me as I devoured the food he had begged for, as if possessed, and recite the scriptures of his religion. I didn’t understand a single word he said, but he didn’t care and continued to recite the scriptures.’

The fly’s voice, which had been recounting an old story, suddenly became wistful.

‘According to him, all souls undergo something called reincarnation. In the next life, you could become a cow, a rhododendron, or even a fly like me. It was determined by the karma you had accumulated.’

‘…….’

‘He told me that I was born as a fly because of the deep sins I had committed in my past life, but if I repaid those sins in this life, I could eventually become a human at the end of rebirth and reincarnation.’

The fly shook its head.

‘Not long after, the priest died.’

‘…….’

‘A child from the village threw a stone into the temple as a prank. The temple where a dirty fly and an old priest lived together was a good place for children to act out their mischief. It was a stone thrown at me, but it hit the priest who was meditating next to me. The priest suffered a severe head injury and never got up again after collapsing once.’

‘…….’

‘The many beggars, the sick, the vagrants, and the poor to whom he had recited scriptures and shared food he had begged for all his life. Those humans who had been circling around him like flies to get a single grain of rice did not even show their faces while he was dying. They had torn apart and devoured his life and then pretended not to know him. He died in vain, injured and starving.’

The fly exhaled a long breath.

‘Before he died, he told me to eat him when he died. Not to feel sorry. To eat his corpse as a fly should, according to the natural order.’

‘…….’

‘What do you think I did?’

Baekya didn’t answer, but the fly continued its story as if it didn’t care.

‘I didn’t eat him.’

‘…….’

‘Next to the priest’s corpse, I, for some reason, imitated him. I tried to recite the scriptures I didn’t understand and tried to imitate his meditation posture.’

The fly’s red eyes flashed.

‘And the moment I saw other flies swarming around his decaying corpse and newly born maggots crawling around… right then, I realized.’

Recalling the moment of sudden enlightenment when he realized his own truth.

‘Ah- the birth of flies from the death of humans, this is reincarnation!’

The fly laughed wildly.

‘Life flows into death, and from that death, life is born again. Creation to destruction, and destruction back to creation!’

The fly slowly traced a trajectory with the tip of its leg.

It was shaped like an 8 tilted sideways.

Infinity (∞).

‘Life and death are just a paper-thin difference. Then, there is no difference between flies and humans, is there?’

‘…….’

‘Flies feed on the death of other beings, but humans feed on the lives of other beings. You and us are the same. No….’

The fly’s compound eyes stared directly at Baekya.

‘At least we flies didn’t have the intention to harm you indiscriminately without reason. But you humans… no, you are harming everything in the world, even yourselves.’

‘…….’

‘Even that old priest who only begged and gave was hit by a stone and died innocently because of your human malice.’

Anger welled up in the fly’s voice like paint spreading.

‘From our perspective, you who consume and harm everything regardless of survival… you are the pests that are destroying the world.’

Immediately after, the fly slowly spread its legs to both sides. As if trying to give a benevolent hug.

‘We will save you pests.’

‘…….’

‘We will kill everything in this world, rot it, and lay eggs on it… and make you be born as flies. Eventually, everyone in this world will become flies.’

The fly’s voice was as if it were dreaming.

‘If you experience the life of a fly, you will finally understand. The joy of letting go of everything and living together at the bottom.’

‘…….’

‘The happiness of being able to live gratefully even with rotten food and muddy water. I will share it with everyone in the world.’

Baekya let out a soft sigh.

‘…Is your dogmatic philosophy lecture over, you crazy fly? Then, shall we finish this up?’

‘If I could change your mind, I could talk for another Nayuta of time [a very large number, often used in Buddhist cosmology].’

The fly looked down at Baekya as if she were pitiful.

‘Poor one. I pity you.’

‘……!’

‘Do not try to solve it by taking away hunger. I will gladly share my storehouse with you.’

Whoosh!

Baekya, engulfed in dazzling light, shouted.

‘Shut your trap and just hand over the whole storehouse, you disgusting fly bastard…!’

‘Your sins are deep, sentient being.’

The fly chuckled.

‘When you are reborn, you will surely be reincarnated as a fly.’

The next moment, Baekya, who had rushed in like lightning, placed both hands on the fly’s head.

It was talking as if it knew everything, but the fly in front of her was just a collective consciousness of all flies. No matter how many hundreds of millions of flies gathered, they could not match Baekya’s own processing power.

She would take away the control in an instant….

‘Huh?’

But the next moment she regained her senses, Baekya’s entire body had melted away and disappeared.

Only her head remained, rolling on the floor, and Baekya’s eyes widened.

‘Do you still not understand?’

The fly looked down at Baekya and muttered as if she were pathetic.

‘From the moment you opened your eyes here, you were already “digested” by us.’

***

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Mutated fly entities poured out, tearing through the ceiling.

“Damn it!”

I gritted my teeth and raised a high magic wall. I had already confirmed that the power of those mutated monsters was not ordinary.

First, solidify the defense and prepare the ranks…!

Shhh!

A gray wall rose up, forming a fortress, and my captured monsters and 15 heroes took up battle positions.

And then – impact.

Boom! Ku-gu-gung!

The wall was crushed in an instant by the body slams of the mutated fly entities, and the captured monsters were knocked away in droves.

Each of these mutated flies was an elite-level monster.

They were elite monsters, unlike the flies that had been attacking in swarms. They were indeed powerful.

Of course, we weren’t just taking hits.

Grooooooo!

The Kraken roared and swung its huge tentacles like a fly swatter, and the flies that had not yet taken a defensive stance were hit directly and flattened.

Kwa-gwa-gwang-!

Herkules also pierced and killed several flies at once with his long horn.

Quilan, Verdandi, Burnout, and Bodybag, among other heroes, were also elites among elites. If they could land an attack, they could steadily take down the flies.

The problem was the barrier the flies were using.

Once they raised a barrier, it was impossible to even scratch it with our attacks. I was furious.

‘Did they imitate our technology…?’

How is that even possible?

I had heard that they were monsters that evolved in real-time, but was it possible for them to steal our technology…?

Anyway, while our defense line was holding, the two dwarf warriors I had brought with my party used the dungeon escape teleport scrolls with the casualties.

Flash! Flash!

The dead and wounded successfully escaped first. I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

“Huh?”

However, there were some who remained behind even though I had ordered them to retreat together.

Junior, Kellybay, and Kellyson. The three of them looked exhausted, but they were standing behind me, holding their ground.

When I gestured with my chin, meaning why weren’t they leaving, Junior asked back.

“What about Your Highness?”

“I told you, I’m going to advance as far as I can.”

“But those mutated entities are strong…! If you fight recklessly here, you will suffer unnecessary damage.”

“We’ve only come this far, I need to get more information.”

I stared at the magic barrier the mutated entities were using.

If those guys keep coming out, we need to establish a strategy here.

Junior, Kellyson, and Kellybay, who followed my gaze, offered a piece of advice each.

“I was going to tell you in detail later, but yes. It seems like it’s our barrier technology.”

“But they are just big flies at best. The level of magic core they possess is low. And that technology is a magic-consuming hippo [meaning it uses a lot of magic].”

“In other words, they won’t be able to keep it on for a long time.”

So, if we go for a war of attrition, it will eventually turn off.

Indeed, as the battle dragged on, the mutated flies could no longer maintain their barriers and retreated.

However, the barriers reappeared on the bodies of the flies that retreated, took a short rest, and then jumped back into the front lines.

“This is a headache… Junior, you could use [Elemental Disassembly] to remove that barrier, right?”

“Yes. But as you know, it’s not a magic that I can use recklessly….”

Junior looked at me cautiously. I groaned.

Kellybay added.

“We need something like Junior’s magic that completely breaks down the magic elements, or an artifact with enough power to forcefully break through the barrier, like [Steadfast Belief] installed on Geronimo.”

At that moment, an idea suddenly came to mind.

I sighed and pressed my temples.

“…It’s not like we don’t have a way either.”

I don’t really want to, but what can I do?

Let’s at least test it out.

I reached into my inventory, and then pulled out the item I wanted.

A long sword with an evil aura surging in all directions appeared. Immediately after, the sword screamed into my head.

‘Feed meeeeeeeeeee!’

At the same time, it spewed out evil energy in all directions.

The horrified heroes around me jumped back. Junior, with wide eyes, stammered and asked.

“Y-Your Highness? That sword is…?!”

“A sword that eats anything.”