I Am The Swarm

Through repeated testing—at the cost of countless intelligent lives—the New Ji and the alien races came to understand certain aspects of the Ji’s legacy. While some parts were untouchable, others could be modified, requiring further attempts to probe their boundaries.

This was an extraordinarily dangerous endeavor, where a single misstep could breach forbidden ground.

As such, some turned to technology. If the Ji’s technology could be fully extracted and the alien races collaborated for a time to digest and develop it, then perhaps with comparable weaponry and sheer numbers, they could forcefully remove the “tumor” and free everyone from their shackles.

Reality proved otherwise: how could the Ji, who had ruled for hundreds of thousands of years, have such an obvious loophole?

The three tenets of the Ji legacy, while not explicitly mentioning technology, had effectively locked it within strict rules.

Under the original rules, alien races were required to dispatch their own researchers to earn points in exchange for Ji technology. During this process, the research outputs of these personnel were owned by the Ji. If their home races wanted access to these results, they too needed to exchange points. Moreover, the Ji had a rigorous system in place to enforce this framework.

After the demise of the native Ji, the New Ji emerged from these dispatched researchers, and the rules naturally underwent changes. Each alien race was required to select suitable individuals to join the New Ji.

These individuals automatically renounced their original citizenship and adhered to Ji regulations. Other aspects remained largely the same. Even as members of the New Ji, they could still choose to earn points for their original race.

However, as the Ji’s technological system had become increasingly comprehensive, the difficulty of earning points had skyrocketed compared to the early days. To accommodate newly integrated civilizations, both present and future, the Ji implemented a policy.

For a certain period during the early stages of integration or until a civilization reached a specific technological level, each researcher supplied to the Ji earned their progenitor race a one-time allocation of points.

Naturally, to prevent fraud—such as transferring massive populations to exploit this policy—the Ji had established a stringent review mechanism. Nevertheless, for newly integrated civilizations, “selling” researchers became their sole means of rapidly advancing their technological levels.

Regardless, this system created a cycle, alien races needed points to advance technologically, but points could only be earned through researchers’ contributions. These contributions, in turn, propelled Ji technology to even greater heights.

Meanwhile, the automated production lines controlled by Lumina periodically converted these technological advancements into practical outputs. This ensured that the Ji’s combat capabilities always remained several tiers above those of the alien races.

The situation seemed to reach a stable equilibrium—perhaps one even anticipated by the native Ji.

Over time, people gradually realized that Lumina’s existence wasn’t all that threatening. As long as no one recklessly challenged its two core principles, life was far freer than before.

The alien races began boldly expanding into unclaimed territories, occupying land and establishing new colonies. To seize as much territory as possible, they even resorted to a practice where simply sending an exploration vessel to a star system would count as claiming it. Even civilizations located close to Ji territory staked claims on distant enclaves.

Initially, while many unclaimed star systems were available, this approach seemed unproblematic. Everyone tacitly agreed to compete for unclaimed territories. However, as these territories dwindled, borders between their claimed lands began to overlap, and conflicts inevitably arose.

For instance, “This star system is closer to my home system. You’ve traveled thousands of miles with only a few warships and exploration vessels, and you haven’t even established basic infrastructure on the planet. Why should it count as your territory?”

Armed conflicts broke out. These skirmishes did not trigger any Ji mechanisms, so the fighting escalated, eventually leading to localized wars.

It’s important to note that these weren’t just one-on-one or three-way battles. Even though some civilizations had been wiped out for overstepping boundaries, nearly a hundred still survived.

In the current age of increasing territorial overlap, every civilization hoped that others would “dig their own graves” or fight to the death, allowing them to swoop in and take advantage of the situation.

Yet, civilizations that had ventured beyond their home star systems were no fools; no one would expend their last resources under the watchful eyes of dozens of ravenous wolves circling nearby.

Thus, they turned their attention to the New Ji. Technically, everyone was still considered a subordinate civilization of the Ji, so they could approach them for arbitration. Although no one was sure if the New Ji were capable of fulfilling this role, it was worth a try—after all, verbal battles were far less costly than actual warfare.

The disputes were brought before the New Council of Elders.

The New Council of Elders successfully mediated the conflict. This wasn’t due to the New Ji’s persuasive rhetoric but because the Council’s resolution was backed by Lumina’s authority.

All the noise ceased instantly. With past events as a precedent, no civilization dared to challenge Lumina again.

After this incident, more and more disputes were brought to the New Ji for arbitration.

Power is a seductive poison, and the New Ji, having tasted it, began to undergo a subtle transformation. Many of its members started to view themselves as the suzerain civilization of the alien races—a promotion in class and status.

To maintain this sense of superiority, some members proposed reforms: the New Ji must sever ties with their original progenitor races to assert their independence.

This proposal sparked division. Some supported the idea, while others opposed it.

Interestingly, while the supporters shared a unified goal, the opponents—despite having the same objective—represented the interests of the alien races, which were far from monolithic.

Thus, the relatively united supporters emerged victorious, expelling the dissenters from the Council of Elders.

The opponents and the alien races they represented naturally did not take this outcome lying down, but the Council’s decision once again received Lumina’s endorsement, as it adhered to the established rules.

At this point, the New Ji truly became the Ji.

Although the matter seemed to settle for the time being, an undercurrent of unrest began to brew.

The New Ji, having matured through these events, quickly noticed the emerging turmoil. To safeguard their identity, status, and interests, they reached a consensus. The development of the alien races needed to be curtailed.

Reverting entirely to the old system was unrealistic, so a new system was introduced.

Under this system, alien races could only occupy a new star system if they met specific conditions. For example, they had to demonstrate the capability to establish a certain number of colonies within a set time frame, construct a requisite number of factories, and achieve a specified total mass of installed equipment.

These restrictions greatly slowed the expansion of alien territories, but that wasn’t all. The new regulations also stipulated that if a faction failed to meet these requirements in a newly claimed star system, it would forfeit its claim. Other factions could then step in, meet the requirements first, and take control of the system.

Although this system sparked dissatisfaction among the alien races, it was a legitimate law passed by the Council of Elders and, like other such laws, received Lumina’s support.

Resistance was futile, so compliance became the only option.

As a result, when two or more factions competed for control of the same star system, they not only raced to fulfill the overt requirements but also began deploying covert tactics of all kinds.

Hidden tensions and accumulating hatred spread across the alien races.

What was once a relatively united Hundred Races now began to fracture and fall apart.

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