I Am The Swarm

Knowing the exact timing of the wormhole’s next activation, the Swarm chose not to take any provocative actions to draw attention. Two days before the event, all Swarm activity ceased completely.

Luo Wen was concerned that the opposing force’s technological capabilities might allow them to observe this side through the wormhole. While such surveillance had gone unnoticed before, he hoped this precautionary step would rectify any oversight.

Whether due to the Swarm’s actions or other unidentified factors, the fourth activation of the wormhole brought an unprecedented change. Before the wormhole closed, it ejected two monsters instead of one.

This marked a dramatic escalation—doubling the opposing side’s deployment. The sudden shift left not only Luo Wen but also the Botians stunned.

Fortunately, the Botians had always approached each wormhole crisis with maximum preparedness. Their Mecha Warriors, organized into five two-man teams, were always ready for deployment.

The limited space around the monsters made it impractical for too many Mecha Warriors to engage simultaneously. Overcrowding would diminish effectiveness and risk interference between units. Thus, no more than two teams engaged directly with the monsters at any given time, while the remaining teams provided support from the periphery.

This strategy proved invaluable during this encounter. The unexpected addition of a second monster could have spelled disaster had the Botians been less cautious. After nearly three hours of fierce combat, both monsters attempted to flee—a behavior never seen before. Despite their efforts, the outcome remained the same, their bodies were dragged away for disposal.

After the wormhole closed, the Swarm remained dormant for another two days, ensuring that no abnormalities were detected through any channels before resuming operations.

But only a few days later, something extraordinary occurred.

From Luo Wen’s earliest days as a tiny, clawed insect, tunneling had been a foundational skill of the Swarm. It was an ability ingrained in nearly every unit, from Worker Drones to Space Octopuses. Only specialized units like Observer Bugs lacked this capability. Throughout the Swarm’s history, most of its bases and territories had been concealed underground.

The Swarm’s tunneling prowess was unmatched. If the tally included planets and satellites, the Swarm had dug through nearly two thousand worlds. Whether it was rocky, diamond-laden, golden, or icy crusts, the Swarm had encountered virtually every type of geological composition. The only exception was stars themselves.

But never had they encountered anything like this.

Under Luo Wen’s directive to halt expansion on the Botian homeworld, the Swarm focused instead on fortifying and concealing its existing bases by digging deeper underground.

Initially, everything proceeded as expected. However, as one of the oceanic bases dug over ten kilometers beneath the seabed, it breached the asthenosphere, a thin layer of magma beneath the crust. Pressing onward into the mantle, the excavation advanced an additional five kilometers—only to reveal something astonishing.

The Swarm unearthed a smooth metallic shell composed of an unknown material.

This structure was unnaturally even, bearing faint signs of corrosion. It was immediately apparent that it wasn’t a natural formation. The sight evoked the same unsettling strangeness as the small, controlled wormhole.

This shell seemed to have gone undiscovered until now. Given the Botians’ technological limitations, they had never penetrated the asthenosphere, let alone reached this depth.

The discovery raised a host of unsettling questions. What was this shell? Who—or what—had created it? And most importantly, what lay beneath?

Luo Wen realized the metal shell could be a colossal treasure trove, but for now, it was impenetrable. The shell’s defensive properties were extraordinary, and the Swarm’s physical methods proved entirely ineffective against it. Concerned about energy leakage, Luo Wen refrained from using thermal weapons and instead opted to test toxins—taking advantage of the new toxin production methods he had recently acquired.

Simultaneously, the Swarm began expanding its excavation laterally along the shell, attempting to determine its boundaries.

The results were both astonishing and unsettling. It wasn’t long before other oceanic Swarm bases, spread across distant locations, began encountering the same metal shell. The distances between these bases often spanned hundreds of kilometers, yet they all uncovered the same structure. In total, more than ten Swarm bases had unearthed the shell, suggesting it spanned at least a thousand kilometers.

This was no small number. Accomplishing such a feat beneath the surface of a planet would require an almost unimaginable amount of effort. Even for the Swarm, renowned for its tunneling capabilities, this would have been an immense undertaking. Moreover, the metal shell exhibited corrosion marks but no visible seams or assembly lines—its fabrication far surpassed the Swarm’s current technological capabilities.

As more and more bases encountered the shell, Luo Wen’s expression grew serious. He seemed to be waiting for confirmation of a suspicion.

Eventually, the first land-based Swarm base reached the metal shell. Because land-based bases required deeper excavations compared to their oceanic counterparts, they had lagged in progress. Soon, however, additional land bases also began uncovering the shell.

In the end, every Swarm base on the Botian homeworld, except for the few atop the high peaks that were not tasked with excavation, uncovered the metal shell.

Standing before the three-dimensional map displaying the distribution of the Swarm bases and the planet’s interior, Luo Wen pieced together the obvious truth: the entire Botian homeworld was encased within this metal shell. Whatever lay inside this shell held a secret of monumental significance.

This revelation reframed Luo Wen’s understanding of the opposing force on the other side of the wormhole. Perhaps their true objective wasn’t the Botians, nor some experimental rivalry. Instead, they could be targeting whatever lay within this metal shell. Was this why the wormhole was placed in the ocean, the closest point to the shell?

But how had they discovered and pinpointed this location in the first place?

A bold idea struck Luo Wen.

If his speculation was correct, then the Swarm needed to risk everything for a chance to seize the prize. After all, no one invests in losing ventures, but high-risk, high-reward opportunities often attract the boldest of players. When the potential rewards grow vast enough, the risks cease to matter.

Swarm activity on the Botian homeworld resumed. Bases began producing combat units en masse, and Fungal Carpet expansion into the mantle layer accelerated. Luo Wen prepared for multiple contingencies. While refining his toxins, he hoped the Fungal Carpet might yield results.

Unfortunately, the lichen solution that had proven so effective in the past struggled against the metal shell. At first glance, the shell appeared ordinary, but its molecular structure was astoundingly dense and precisely aligned, teaching the Swarm a humbling lesson in material science.

The corrosion marks on the shell were likely the result of billions of years of natural forces at work, rather than anything intentional or immediate.

Luo Wen’s progress with toxins was similarly unsatisfactory. No matter how he combined his reserves, the results failed to surpass those achieved by the Fungal Carpet’s lichen solution.

A thought struck Luo Wen as he pondered the unknown force beyond the wormhole. From their actions, it was clear they had some familiarity with the metal shell. Surely, they possessed a method to breach it. However, the only tools they had sent through the wormhole were the monsters.

That could only mean one thing: the monsters themselves were the key.

Was there something unique about them? Of course there was.

Luo Wen smirked to himself. Negative energy?

It all fit.

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