I Am The Swarm

According to the information Luo Wen initially received through the Brood Nest, this talent should have been innate from his hatching.

However, this mysterious planet lacked a specific type of energy required for Luo Wen’s abilities to manifest, leaving them dormant since his birth here.

Later, through the connection to the Brood Nest and the self-sacrifice of countless bugs,

a unique energy—derived from life and soul—replaced the original required energy, successfully activating Luo Wen’s talent.

Yet, due to the environmental and energy differences, this talent underwent unknown changes.

It became unique, completely different from that of any other Iphieash.

At present, Luo Wen only knew that there was now a peculiar energy in his mind. While intangible, he could clearly sense its presence—a phenomenon that defied all logic.

This revelation was a blow to Luo Wen, who had been raised with a firm belief in science and materialism.

But then he thought about how he had been transformed into an insect by a green-haired old pervert. Compared to that, a strange energy in his brain seemed almost mundane.

Still, the one-of-a-kind nature of this energy meant that discovering how to use it required constant trial and error.

For now, what Luo Wen needed most was sleep.

His consciousness gradually sank into darkness as a layer of cocoon enveloped him.

When he woke up, Luo Wen let out a relieved sigh. This place wasn’t completely safe, but luckily, no mishaps had occurred.

His claws had regrown, and their once-soft exoskeleton quickly hardened as he emerged from the cocoon.

Luo Wen tested them briefly—they were as agile as before and fully functional.

He was no stranger to regrowing claws. During his experiments with the hyperbolic system, losing claws had been a regular occurrence. However, losing both at once was a first.

Glancing at his carapace, Luo Wen carefully sensed it. After a moment, he concluded that this cocooning hadn’t granted him wings.

He had anticipated this. The energy supply before cocooning had been insufficient. While he appeared full, most of it had been nutrient-poor water. Growing back both claws had already exceeded expectations.

The hunger pangs and overall weakness he felt reminded him that this extraordinary regeneration came at a cost. While his exoskeleton concealed it, removing the armor would reveal severely atrophied and emaciated muscles.

His top priority was finding food—preferably a hearty, all-meat feast. Meat-based energy conversion far outstripped that of tree sap.

Carefully sensing his surroundings, Luo Wen detected nothing unusual. Even the vibrations from afar had ceased.

Cautiously crawling out of his leaf-covered burrow, he used his legs to clean off the grime sticking to his body. Such dirt could create imperfections in his optical camouflage system.

His legs moved rapidly. Luo Wen’s legs, with their numerous joints and reverse-joint capabilities, were highly versatile—a talent he used frequently, particularly for cleaning.

Activating his optical camouflage had become second nature to him in a short time.

Previously, surrounded by other bugs, pheromones were the primary means of identifying friend from foe. Luo Wen had rarely needed to act personally by the time he gained this talent. Yet now, it proved to be far more useful than he had ever imagined.

It reminded him of how, during the pheromone era, bugs were easily countered by Spy Bugs. This realization served as a warning—he needed to develop multiple detection methods to avoid being too easily countered.

Moving cautiously among the towering trees, Luo Wen proceeded carefully. Previously, he only needed to watch for enemies from the ground or underground, which his leg-hair sensory system could detect from a distance.

In the past, few enemies could sneak up on him thanks to these skills.

Now, however, he also had to guard against attacks from the sky, elevating his enemy detection to three-dimensional levels. While his nearly omnidirectional vision was an advantage, it was similar to how untrained humans often overlooked peripheral stimuli.

It would take him some time to fully adapt to information from above.

Fortunately, this adjustment wouldn’t take long.

Since awakening, Luo Wen’s ability to process information had increased significantly. It felt like upgrading a computer’s CPU—handling additional visual data barely taxed his mental capacity.

Luo Wen walked lightly and slowly, carefully placing each step. He even kept his swimming legs raised, using only six ordinary legs to minimize noise.

His camouflage only fooled visual senses; it didn’t mask sound. To avoid alerting enemies or prey, he strove to remain silent.

Occasionally, small bugs flitting through the forest vanished as if transported elsewhere, never to reappear.

Strange calls echoed intermittently around him, most of which Luo Wen couldn’t identify. Only one was familiar—it belonged to the small birds that had gathered in his stomach the previous day.

Aside from these birds, Luo Wen noticed numerous other avian species perched on branches, preening their feathers. These birds, small in size and insectivorous, thrived in the dense forest.

There were no pterosaurs here. Their larger size and superior flight capabilities allowed them to soar higher and farther.

The dense forest canopy obstructed their vision, and the complex terrain of the undergrowth was unsuitable for their wings, which were prone to injury in such an environment and difficult to heal.

Birds, on the other hand, didn’t face these issues. Losing a few feathers didn’t impair their flight, and feathers regenerated quickly. This forest was their domain.

Here, only a select few creatures posed a threat to them—and Luo Wen was one of them.

Although he couldn’t yet fly, climbing trees was a trivial task for Luo Wen, who could move effortlessly even on cliff faces.

A few singing, brightly feathered birds suddenly disappeared one by one, leaving behind only a handful of feathers to mark their fate.

For Luo Wen, these small birds and insects were mere snacks. The energy gained from eating them was only marginally better than tree sap.

Tree sap provided low energy but was a consistent source. Small birds and insects, though meat, were sparse and, when factoring in time spent hunting, barely outperformed tree sap in energy efficiency.

Suddenly, Luo Wen’s eyes narrowed. In the distance, a green “stream” flowed down from the canopy of a massive tree, trickling along the trunk before disappearing into the ground and beyond his sight.

This familiar sight filled Luo Wen with both excitement and renewed confusion.

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