I Am The Swarm

Among the faces hidden beneath the helmets of the raiding party, a few were strikingly familiar. Were they members of the patrol team that had been rescued long ago?

Indeed, if someone were to carry out such a mission on Riken’s homeworld, who could be more suitable than expeditionary soldiers—recently returned from deep space, with no records for decades, and well-versed in combat?

“Overlord, the fungal carpet seeds we planted on Riken’s homeworld have been activated,” Sarah Kerrigan reported.

Luo Wen nodded. Although the seeds were activated by a Celestial Monitor under his direct authorization, he had known about it the instant it happened.

“Overlord, we need to find a way to deploy a Brood Queen to Riken’s homeworld. Only then can we proceed with the next phase of the plan.”

“What ideas do you have?”

“We currently have no feasible solutions. According to the intelligent entities on their side, the Riken have fortified their star system into an impenetrable fortress. Although it isn’t yet fully completed, it would be exceedingly difficult for us to penetrate without deploying a large-scale force.”

“I see. I’ll handle this,” Luo Wen replied after some thought.

From the intelligence provided by Lieutenant Colonel Cross, it was clear that the closer one got to the Riken homeworld, the tighter their defenses became. Rumor had it that their technology had advanced further—they even planned to hollow out their satellites and turn them into planetary fortresses.

It was impossible for the Swarm to rely on its old strategy of disguising a few Swarm Meteors as cover to crash into a planet. The very reason for the Riken’s previous expedition had been the destruction of a Riken administrative district by a ‘Swarm’ Meteor.

This revelation made Luo Wen realize that he had been saddled with an undeserved infamy. If he ever discovered who was responsible for that act, he would turn them into feed for his larvae.

Nonetheless, this event had left the Riken hypervigilant against anything resembling meteors. No meteor, no matter how small, could approach their homeworld without arousing suspicion.

Twenty years ago, this would have been a nearly insurmountable problem. The Swarm would have had no choice but to rely on brute force to conquer the Riken homeworld—an approach that ran counter to Luo Wen’s objectives.

But now, this problem had become exceedingly simple to solve.

The reason? Luo Wen’s Swarm Network had undergone another evolution.

Since the first intelligent entity crafted from a Riken’s spiritual essence was born, Luo Wen had sensed subtle changes in the Swarm Network. However, the transformations had been so faint, and the network so vast, that he couldn’t pinpoint what had shifted.

Over time, as more intelligent entities of various types were created, the changes became increasingly pronounced.

Yet, attributing the changes solely to the new intelligent entities would be inaccurate. The process of creating these entities involved absorbing the energy of mature spiritual essences and using it to construct the intelligent entities.

The key point was that this energy was first absorbed by the Swarm Network before forming the entities.

In essence, this energy didn’t disappear—it simply changed form. The seemingly independent intelligent entities were still fundamentally part of the Swarm Network.

Over the years, the Swarm had accumulated millions of intelligent entities. Absorbing so much energy had inevitably altered the Swarm Network, leading to both quantitative and qualitative transformations, culminating in an evolution.

The most direct result of this evolution was that many long-standing challenges Luo Wen had faced were now effortlessly resolved—and the network’s functionalities were strengthened to an unimaginable degree.

For example, in the past, all production units—whether early-stage Queen Ants or modern Brood Queens—required a Brood Nest to produce other units. Now, any Brood Queen could be authorized to produce such units, including other Brood Queens.

This capability dramatically accelerated the Swarm’s expansion into new star systems. Colonizing a system no longer required launching the primary body and Brood Nest as it had when exploring the Neighboring Star System.

Similarly, absorbing the genetic material of certain lifeforms used to necessitate the direct involvement of Luo Wen’s primary body or a Brood Nest. Now, any production unit could absorb genetic material and upload it to the Swarm Network.

For instance, if the Swarm encountered another creature like Godzilla, Luo Wen wouldn’t need to personally consume it. Any nearby Brood Queen could do so, and Luo Wen could still acquire the genetic data via the network.

In the past, updating the genetic library of production units required Luo Wen to personally interact with each one—a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Even with the modular components of fungal carpet-based units, which allowed for retrofitting, delays in genetic updates were still a hindrance.

These updates were especially critical when dealing with major acquisitions like Godzilla’s genes, which required comprehensive updates across the board. Each such occasion demanded a large-scale operation.

Additionally, frequent appearances of his primary body in the field were far from ideal for Luo Wen at the time.

Fortunately, these problems were now resolved. Genetic libraries of all production units could now be remotely updated via the Swarm Network. What once required painstaking data sharing had become as simple as copy-pasting.

Previously, the primary body and Brood Nest were intrinsically linked: only the primary body could spawn a Brood Nest, and only a Brood Nest could hatch a primary body.

Now, Luo Wen could authorize the hatching of a primary body through any production unit. With a primary body in place, a Brood Nest could naturally follow.

This shift was revolutionary. The abilities of the Iphieash had been fully integrated into the Swarm Network, transforming from physical entities into virtual capabilities.

The Swarm’s genetic absorption ability would no longer be lost if the primary body or Brood Nest were destroyed. Their once-exclusive functions had been entirely subsumed by the network, diminishing their strategic importance.

Luo Wen even contemplated obliterating them entirely, producing new ones only when necessary to further safeguard the Iphieash’s genetic secrets.

This evolution vastly enhanced Luo Wen’s survival prospects.

While the primary body and Brood Nests were limited to five each, the Swarm now had over a million Brood Queens across two star systems and in the cosmic void. As long as any one of them survived, the Swarm could regenerate within a short time.

These changes marked Luo Wen’s gradual transformation from a physical organism into a spiritual one. Whether this was good or bad remained unclear to him, but the newfound capabilities gave him unprecedented confidence in facing future crises.

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