I Am The Swarm

Currently, the Brood Queen’s eggs have produced five specimens. These will require a lengthy development period before they can fulfill their designated roles.

The primary reason for this prolonged development traces back to Luo Wen himself.

Whether it was the previous Queen Ants or the current Brood Queens, they all originated from the Brood Nest, the sole source capable of producing these specialized units with hatching capabilities.

Although the Brood Nest was separate from Luo Wen, it maintained a connection with him. This link meant that the Brood Nest’s growth was limited by Luo Wen’s sixty-centimeter frame. Once the Brood Nest reached just under seventy centimeters, it hit its growth ceiling.

As a result, the newly formed Brood Queen eggs were only about ten centimeters in size. Growing such small eggs into massive organisms over ten meters long would naturally take significant time.

Luo Wen found this situation frustrating. Was he supposed to abandon his highly refined “assassin” combat style? If he were to “start over,” it would certainly involve selecting a larger biological template. However, the pool of large creatures the Swarm had encountered so far was limited, and Luo Wen couldn’t just settle for something aesthetically unappealing.

The Diplodocus, with its disproportionate head-to-tail ratio and sluggish movements, was certainly out of the question. The Tyrannosaurus Rex, while majestic and imposing at first glance, was hindered by its comically tiny forearms, a poor selling point.

The black-ringed red dragon that had once battled the T. Rex was a more viable option, but it was strictly a terrestrial unit. Luo Wen’s current body, refined through multiple adaptations, could operate in air, land, water, and underground—a true “quadri-terrain” combatant with unparalleled versatility and survival capabilities.

Sacrificing most of his combat capabilities just to enlarge the Brood Nest felt far too costly.

Even the pterosaurs were tempting, as soaring through the skies had always been one of Luo Wen’s dreams. However, the same issue arose: pterosaurs were strictly aerial units. While they could survive on the ground, at best, they were a “one-and-a-half-terrain” species with far less survivability than Luo Wen’s current body.

Besides, once the Swarm acquired the genetic material of the pterosaur, Luo Wen could simply create one, switch his perspective to control it, and achieve his dream of flight without having to inhabit a pterosaur body himself.

Faced with no ideal solutions, Luo Wen briefly considered simply enlarging his current form. Although it would require continuous molting, he could mitigate the risks by cocooning himself during the molting process. However, this would be incredibly inconvenient.

Thankfully, enlarging the Brood Nest wasn’t an immediate necessity. Aside from the Brood Queen as a production unit, all other Swarm species could still be produced by the existing Queen Ants or the future Brood Queens.

The smaller initial size of the Brood Queen eggs only extended their development period. The Swarm had plenty of time to address this; they just needed to pause expansion for about a hundred days, wait for the Brood Queens to mature, and then resume their advance.

Thus, Luo Wen shelved the problem after a mere two days, redirecting his focus back to experimenting with plant seeds.

The Swarm slowed its expansion to consolidate its current territory.

In the meantime, Luo Wen took the opportunity to improve the worker ants. Their exoskeletons were replaced with keratin armor, and their bodies were enlarged to about ten centimeters. Although they lost some strength due to the lack of exoskeletal support, their doubled size significantly enhanced their working capacity and efficiency.

To distinguish them from the older version, the new worker ants were renamed “worker drones.” The old worker ants were still produced but were assigned more delicate tasks.

Through Luo Wen’s continuous research and experimentation, the Swarm’s crops had undergone several upgrades. The new crops not only had higher yields but also incorporated the genes of parasitic vines, enabling them to extract nutrients directly from other plants.

This innovation transformed the Swarm’s previously weed-infested environment, covering much of the territory with a purple-red spore plant. However, Luo Wen carefully controlled their growth to prevent damage to surrounding trees. Any vines attempting to invade the trees were promptly removed by worker drones and worker ants and transported back to the base as food reserves.

Recently, Luo Wen discovered new avenues of research. While he himself was a hybrid of various biological genes, he also possessed mysterious primordial genes. These genes, containing the core secrets of the Iphieash species, were impossible to decode.

However, they could still be used for experimentation. Luo Wen found that certain primordial gene fragments acted as bridges, creating connections between plant and animal genes, allowing for potential fusion.

This groundbreaking discovery further engrossed Luo Wen in his research.

Time passed swiftly, and the Swarm’s production system completed its overhaul. The new Brood Queens took over the production of large-scale combat and operational units. The Queen Ant III types, aside from a few left to produce worker ants, were reassigned to establish tree-based sub-nests for aerial unit production.

As a result, the number of tree-based sub-nests in the Swarm’s base grew to twenty-one, and the number of flying bugs surpassed one million. These large flying bugs, ranging from ten to fifteen centimeters in length, were mostly equipped with ranged weaponry. In the past, wild flying bugs with just five thousand close-combat units had dominated the forest.

Now, the Swarm’s flying forces alone could annihilate most of the forest’s wildlife.

During this period of stable development, the forest’s giant pythons suffered greatly. These creatures were numerous and came in various species, ranging from ten to thirty meters in length. ꞦàΝỗΒĚṥ

Occupying a niche between apex forces and apex individuals, they usually coiled in treetops, living solitary lives with no natural predators. During mating season, they would gather on the ground, but even then, not even a T. Rex would dare provoke them.

However, once the Swarm killed a thirty-meter-long python and validated the effectiveness of its anti-python self-destruct bugs in combat, the giant pythons lost their deterrent value and were added to the Swarm’s menu.

Whenever food reserves reached a critical level, the Blades would select an appropriately sized, well-nourished python for a targeted hunt. Despite their ability to hide in the high canopies, they were no match for the Swarm’s flying scouts equipped with echolocation systems.

Each python provided ten to twenty tons of meat, significantly bolstering the Swarm’s food supplies. The low-intelligence python species had no awareness of the impending crisis and were blissfully unaware they had become livestock raised by the Swarm.

After a period of steady development, the Swarm once again bared its fangs. Before long, the Swarm’s combat units invaded the territory of a nearby Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Type I flying scouts spread out like blossoms in the sky, utilizing echolocation systems to quickly map the terrain and upload the data to the Swarm Network.

Hidden within the T. Rex’s territory, all manner of creatures were revealed to Luo Wen.

The combat units ignored these smaller creatures; they were merely backup food stocks living under the T. Rex’s rule. Once the territory’s ruler was eliminated, these creatures would automatically switch roles, becoming part of the Swarm’s provisions.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!