I Am The Swarm

The speaker was a humanoid figure barely one meter tall, with milky white skin and a slightly pointed head. His large, black eyes, which occupied nearly half of his face, gleamed like flawless gemstones.

However, amidst a group of towering individuals over two meters tall and weighing more than 300 pounds, this frail figure resembled nothing more than a “child.”

“Hmph, shut up, Hyman. With your perspective, all you can see are thick legs. Wait until you see the outside world before you start talking again,” sneered Kant, the so-called New Ji Race, whose sharp tongue made him appear to be the group’s provocateur.

Though mocked, the diminutive Hyman remained calm. “What difference does it make? Since nothing can be changed, why waste words?”

“Hmph! The Swarm knows we’re coming, yet they didn’t bother to prepare. Isn’t that disrespectful? And as for you, arguing with me is just wasting your own breath. Do you think you can change my mind?” Kant shot back.

“…” Hyman fell silent, refusing to engage further with Kant.

“Enough! Stop arguing. Don’t let the outsiders laugh at us,” said another humanoid figure, approximately 1.7 meters tall, with golden skin that shimmered like polished gold.

“Hmph!” Kant reluctantly obeyed, silenced by the golden figure’s commanding presence. Clearly, this golden-skinned individual was the leader of the Ji delegation.

“Why don’t they look like professional diplomats?” Luo Wen muttered, observing the scene through a concealed Observer Bug.

The bickering among the Ji delegation hardly resembled the conduct of a serious diplomatic team. What exactly had the Ji sent here? And what was with the arrogance radiating from their every word and action? Was this the Ji?

From his prior research, Luo Wen had regarded the Ji as a great race. Yet their successors, the New Ji Race, appeared to be… this?

The negotiations that followed were even stranger. Perhaps Bular’s earlier visit had given the impression that the Swarm was too agreeable, leading this batch of diplomats to a grave misunderstanding.

“Hmph! The Swarm must surrender all its biological technology, or they can forget about joining the Confederation!” Kant barked.

The Troi delegation, though more professional, was similarly unyielding. Many of the agreements preliminarily settled with Bular were overturned and renegotiated, with the new terms being far harsher.

Luo Wen couldn’t help but smirk as he listened. The arrogance on display made it seem as though the Swarm was desperate to join the Interstellar Technological Confederation.

Perhaps other native civilizations had indeed acted this way in the past, eagerly seeking membership after being coerced into concessions in order to gain the protection of the Confederation’s rules.

But the Swarm was a completely different case. Did these people even think? If Bular’s team had been reasonable, this new delegation felt like a farce—numerous and noisy but lacking substance, as if playing at diplomacy.

For Luo Wen, this was perfect. If negotiations stalled, they could simply drag on indefinitely. And the longer they dragged on, the better.

As an immortal being, Luo Wen had no fear of prolonged discussions. He would be more than happy to spend thousands or even tens of thousands of years negotiating. By then, perhaps the Swarm would be strong enough to crush the Confederation outright.

Of course, such an ideal scenario was unlikely in reality.

Still, Luo Wen’s goal was simple: delay as much as possible.

This round of negotiations featured the highest-ranking representatives of the Troi Civilization, including a member of their royal family who also held the rank of Admiral. As the second-in-command of the expedition fleet, this individual was a major figure within the Troi hierarchy. RἈŊȎᛒĘꞩ

Aside from a few words exchanged during the initial meeting, the Troi royal representative—an admiral and supposedly one of the most influential figures in their civilization—remained silent throughout the negotiations. He acted more like a ceremonial figurehead, observing everything coldly without uttering a single word.

On the Ji side, the delegation consisted of five members, led by the golden-skinned humanoid named Seguen. While not outright rude, Seguen’s demeanor was unmistakably arrogant.

He frequently referred to the Swarm and even the Troi delegation as “outsiders,” a term that seemed to rub the Troi representatives the wrong way. However, Seguen himself appeared oblivious, as if accustomed to such reactions, continuing to act as he pleased.

It seemed the New Ji Race delegation shared a like-minded arrogance. Though the other Ji representatives were not as overbearing as Seguen, their attitudes weren’t far behind. They displayed an almost obsessive pride in their identity as New Ji, taking extraordinary care never to mention their progenitor Ji race or original civilizations.

Given the elevated status and stakes of this negotiation, Danton was relegated to a secondary role, while the Swarm’s lead negotiator became Marlene, the one who had overseen the Rikens’ surrender in person.

Each party in the negotiations harbored their own ulterior motives. The Ji representatives continued making unrealistic demands, the Troi delegation sought to inflate their own leverage, and the Swarm neither agreed nor outright refused. Instead, they simply convened daily sessions, wasting time with meaningless discussions.

Months passed without any tangible progress. The three sides continued their verbal sparring, each seemingly unbothered by the lack of resolution.

The negotiations were hosted at Planet A11, where the planet’s surface was populated by drifting larval bodies. The largest of these measured no more than seven or eight meters, while the smallest were barely over a meter in size. These larval bodies remained stationary, curled into tight balls. Apart from clearing space when the Troi fleet first arrived, they had not shifted position or changed posture since.

Also present were the Worker Drones, tirelessly performing repetitive tasks like unfeeling machines. They paid no attention to their surroundings, ignoring even the diplomatic delegates when touched.

Perhaps it was the seemingly harmless and unassuming nature of these creatures that gradually lowered the vigilance of the delegates. Some members of the delegation even began to mistake the larval bodies for lifeless ornaments, as their behavior aligned more with decorations than living entities.

In this relaxed environment, much information was inadvertently disclosed. These fragments of data were carefully intercepted by the seemingly insignificant bugs scattered around, acting as the Swarm’s covert surveillance network.

The intercepted data was largely fragmented and disjointed—idle chatter rather than structured intelligence. Yet, when pieced together, the Swarm was able to glean several valuable insights.

For instance, during casual conversation among the Troi diplomats, it was revealed that the sharp-tongued, blue-skinned Kant hailed from a civilization called Kanbo. Another Ji delegate, with dark green skin and named Boikos, was from a civilization known as Kibu.

The Kibu civilization was located approximately 800 light-years from the Swarm, while the location of the Kanbo civilization remained unknown. However, intelligence suggested that these Ji representatives were several generations removed from their original homeworlds.

As such, their actions and attitudes likely had little connection to their original civilizations.

“So, the Ji representatives sent here are what they call Descendants—those who have fully embraced their identity as the New Ji Race?” Luo Wen mused, furrowing his brows in thought.

If this were true, their behavior began to make more sense. These individuals, who saw themselves as rulers of this galaxy, likely regarded their very presence in this remote region as a magnanimous gift to the Swarm.

A measure of arrogance and disrespect would seem, in their eyes, entirely justified.

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