I Am The Swarm

To seek answers to his questions, the Swarm accelerated its pace of expansion. The bases of the Swarm began to extend toward the coastal landmasses.

Simultaneously, the Swarm started establishing a presence on various islands. Brood Queen eggs were escorted to remote and uninhabited islands, where the Swarm even discovered several flying species. After a series of operations, their genetic samples were obtained.

With the addition of an “air force,” the Swarm’s reconnaissance capabilities evolved from 2D to 3D. The planet’s true nature began to gradually unfold before the Swarm.

Skipping the traditional step of landing and advancing from the seas to the land, the Swarm initiated aerial reconnaissance of the native intelligent species’ civilization. Coastal ports, military bases, cities, various buildings, infrastructure, and vehicles—all appeared antiquated and primitive. There was no trace of a higher civilization to be found.

When Luo Wen looked up at the sky, the planet’s day-night cycle appeared unusual. A massive blue-gray planet dominated half the sky, while a distant sun hung high above the horizon.

However, there were no signs of large-scale artificial structures in the planet’s orbit. There were no starports or spacecraft traveling between planets.

Seeing seabirds appear in the inland areas seemed somewhat incongruous, but with the Swarm now boasting a fully integrated air-and-ground reconnaissance system, capturing a few birds was a trivial task.

Thus, the Swarm continued its steady expansion inland, seamlessly switching to organisms adapted to the local ecosystem. Brood Queen eggs were also airlifted into these regions.

Time passed, and it seemed the wormhole had been disrupted by the previous intrusion of the flesh pod. The scheduled reopening, originally set for fifteen months later, showed no activity.

This repeated failure became the final straw for Dr. Benba. Luo Wen would never know that his actions had led to the downfall of a native visionary, but even if he had known, would he have cared?

Having amassed extensive experience, the research into converting the native species into intelligent entities was finally completed after more than a year. Luo Wen had been eagerly awaiting this day, as he desperately needed more intelligence.

Certain individuals with reclusive personalities or occupations that made them less visible to society began to mysteriously disappear for a few days, though it rarely aroused much suspicion. When they reappeared, they were no longer the same—internally, they had become an entirely different species.

The planet’s history, the evolution of its species, and the development of its civilization—all these pieces of information were presented before Luo Wen.

Glancing through the first two categories, Luo Wen was uninterested. He focused instead on the third.

Unexpected yet unsurprising, this was a young civilization. Its recorded history spanned less than ten thousand years. The natives referred to themselves as the Botians. Their current stage of development placed them at the threshold of stepping off their homeworld and beginning to explore the vastness of space.

Without the presence of the wormhole, the Botian civilization would have been utterly ordinary—just like 90% of the civilizations in the Interstellar Technological Confederation, following a typical trajectory.

As Luo Wen delved deeper into their records, he uncovered another curious detail, the Botians’ homeworld was not a planet but rather the moon of the fifth planet in their star system.

As a result, their homeworld was smaller and less massive than a typical life-bearing planet. Luo Wen calculated that the moon’s size was only one-fifth that of the Genesis Planet.

Furthermore, the Botians had only just stepped off their homeworld and lacked colonies on other planets. This meant their civilization’s population was extremely small, numbering only a little over one billion.

Such a limited population resulted in a correspondingly low number of researchers, which had already become a bottleneck stalling their civilization’s progress. Coupled with the wormhole’s presence, their technological development had veered off course.

Without external intervention, they might exhaust their planetary resources before fully leaving their homeworld, ultimately dooming themselves to extinction.

Yet, on this planet, belonging to such a fragile civilization, Luo Wen had encountered phenomena that defied his understanding.

According to the Botians’ records, the wormhole first appeared twenty years ago, and every time it opened, it released a monster. Luo Wen studied this information thoughtfully.

Another six months passed. After nearly two years of calm, the wormhole began to emit energy fluctuations, signaling its imminent activation. Both the Botians and Luo Wen focused their attention on it.

When the wormhole opened, a massive monster over sixty meters long emerged. It was larger and stronger than the previous monsters. However, against the ever-increasing number of Mecha Warriors stationed nearby, the creature found no opportunity to dominate. The wormhole’s fixed location meant it was immediately intercepted upon exiting.

Luo Wen paid little attention to the brutal hand-to-hand combat between the monster and the Mecha Warriors. Instead, his gaze was locked on the wormhole itself.

Over the past two years, the Swarm had deployed an array of Observer Bugs of various types around the wormhole, far surpassing the technological capabilities of the Botians. The natives were completely unaware of their covert “neighbors.”

Much like how the Ji’s monitors had once observed the Swarm and Rikens, this was an overwhelming advantage born from a technological gap.

Once the wormhole fully opened, it formed an energy portal only thirty meters in diameter. As the monster exited, the Observer Bugs detected a massive surge of negative energy substances. Shortly after, the wormhole appeared to falter and abruptly closed.

The entire process didn’t last long, but Luo Wen had already gathered significant information. Now, he had the time to shift his attention back to the melee.

The monster was now surrounded by ten Mecha Warriors. Despite the overwhelming numbers, the creature displayed formidable combat abilities, managing to rip the arm off one mech and tear the head off another. Fortunately, the cockpits were positioned above the chests, so no personnel casualties occurred.

However, the monster hadn’t escaped unscathed. To prevent its body fluids from leaking and causing pollution, the Mecha Warriors exclusively used blunt weapons. While the creature’s exterior showed no visible wounds, its internal organs had suffered severe damage, as evidenced by its increasingly sluggish attacks and unsteady movements.

To Luo Wen, the battle unfolding before him was hardly impressive. The Mecha Warriors’ movements were clunky and slow, resembling a group of elderly people practicing Tai Chi underwater. Meanwhile, the monster’s bloated body was akin to a smaller, downgraded version of Godzilla. If not for its poison-spewing ability, it would’ve been nothing more than a target dummy.

“Although I don’t fully understand the wormhole, it’s obvious that this one is not a natural phenomenon,” Luo Wen mused. “That means there must be an entity on the other side opening it. But on the Botian side, with their short history and weak technological capabilities, they clearly don’t fit the profile of the initiators. So what about the other side?”

Luo Wen turned his gaze back to the evenly matched and lackluster battle between the Mecha Warriors and the monster, feeling a mix of bewilderment and amusement.

“If the entity opening the wormhole is on the other side, then what’s the point of periodically sending a monster through? Is this their idea of a game?”

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