I Am The Swarm

Time passed, and the wormhole opened twice more. However, Luo Wen no longer had the interest to watch the monster versus Mecha Warrior battles. His attention was fully consumed by the metal shell.

Through continuous experimentation, his understanding of toxin production had advanced rapidly. The latest toxins he developed corroded at three times the speed of his initial attempts. Over three years, he had managed to erode more than fifty meters of the metal shell. However, it was still a far cry from fully penetrating it.

Using various methods, Luo Wen measured the thickness of the metal shell and was astonished to find it exceeded 500 kilometers. At his current rate, it would take more than 30,000 years to breach.

Such a timeline was clearly unacceptable.

Thus, Luo Wen began exploring alternative methods. Unfortunately, calculations and tests revealed that the material of the metal shell had excellent resistance to both kinetic impacts and energy weapons.

Additionally, underground conditions made these weapons less effective—particularly electromagnetic railguns, whose destructive power was reduced by at least 50% within a planetary interior.

Left with no choice, Luo Wen turned his attention to developing more powerful or specialized weapons. The most promising avenue lay in negative energy, a field he had only recently begun to explore.

In the universe, all visible matter falls under the category of positive energy. These materials are diverse and varied in nature. Similarly, negative energy is a general term encompassing certain types of substances, which also have different classifications.

After deciphering the genetic blueprint for the negative energy production organ, Luo Wen assembled a team of intelligent entities to conduct research.

Though the Swarm’s venture into the realm of negative energy was still in its infancy, the foundation it had established—much like its earlier foray into gravitational studies—provided a solid starting point. Despite the limited time, the Swarm had already made some progress.

Through research, Luo Wen discovered that the negative energy produced by the monster’s genes was an extremely inert type. It only reacted when exposed to high-energy impacts. This specific negative energy appeared to have been deliberately engineered by an unknown civilization, optimized for traversing the violent energies within the wormhole.

Luo Wen recalled his earlier defensive tests on the monster’s negative energy membrane. It had shown no reaction to kinetic or energy-based attacks, which he now realized was because those attacks lacked the necessary energy levels to activate it.

With this understanding, the Swarm’s next step was to identify a more active type of negative energy and develop a way to produce it. This would enable the creation of negative energy weapons.

While this goal seemed straightforward in theory, its execution was incredibly challenging. Although the Swarm had developed the capability to collect negative energy from space, these samples were a mixed assortment. Identifying the more active components was akin to discovering gunpowder in the material world—it required not only extensive screening but also a stroke of luck.

Luo Wen had no idea how his luck would fare, so he increased manpower, hoping sheer numbers could accelerate the process.

Days turned into weeks, and the wormhole on Botian began to open and close at irregular intervals. The spectacle of monsters battling Mecha Warriors replayed itself repeatedly. During this time, the Swarm resumed its infiltration of Botian society in earnest.

A large number of intelligent entities embedded themselves into various levels of Botian civilization, even among the Mecha Warrior pilots, who now included some of the Swarm’s own operatives.

The good news was that the force on the other side of the wormhole showed no reaction to the Swarm’s actions. Perhaps they dismissed the Swarm as inconsequential, or perhaps they were so weak they were unaware of the Swarm’s activities on this side.

Another unexpected development was that the force on the other side seemed to have stopped its “extreme deployments.” The monsters sent through the wormhole no longer followed a consistent pattern, which disrupted Dr. Benba’s predictive formula. The wormhole’s activations became chaotic and impossible to predict.

However, apart from increasing the workload for the Botians, the unpredictable wormhole activations had little impact on Luo Wen. For him, this status quo was ideal. He only needed to wait patiently for the results from the Swarm’s intelligent entities.

Time flew by, and twenty years passed in the blink of an eye. During these calm years, nothing significant occurred, and everything remained tranquil.

In this peace, Luo Wen was able to allocate even more intelligent entities to focus on negative energy research. The number of entities working on this field reached an astounding thirty million, with over 80% of them having more than a century of research experience. Ŕа𐌽ƟꞖЕş

Under this sheer manpower, the Swarm had made significant strides in the realm of negative energy. The intelligent entities had identified several types of active negative energy and were now conducting tests to determine their offensive potential.

If the tests proved successful, the next step would be to create biological organs capable of producing these energies. This would require Luo Wen’s direct involvement.

While Luo Wen was meticulously studying the genetic structure of the monster’s negative energy generation mechanism, events in the Interstellar Technological Confederation began to take a troubling turn.

Since the Swarm had retreated from the Riken System and returned the territory to the Rikens years ago, the many factions that had initially criticized the Swarm eventually fell silent when they realized there would be no response. With the lack of an immediate target for conflict, their agitation gradually subsided.

However, the Koya Alliance began stirring up trouble again.

Luo Wen had long anticipated that the Koya Alliance, or rather the shadowy manipulators behind it, would make further moves. Decades ago, he had already discerned their goals—or at least the objectives of some factions among them.

Thus, when they resumed their actions, Luo Wen wasn’t surprised. The 20-year period of silence had far exceeded his expectations. Perhaps the Swarm had concealed its strength so effectively that the manipulators only now believed the Swarm had reached the level required for the next stage of their plans.

This time, their strategy remained the same: fabricate an excuse to attack the Swarm, fuel public opinion, and isolate the Swarm while quietly creating additional enemies for it.

Their current target for propaganda was the Rat Folk. The plight of the Rat Folk was even more dire than what the Rikens had faced years ago. On the surface, the Rat Folk controlled only their homeworld and two moons. Their technological advancement had been stunted by the Swarm, leaving them in a state of stagnation for centuries.

Under normal circumstances, the Rat Folk’s level of technology would never meet the requirements for joining the Interstellar Technological Confederation. Their current condition was a direct result of their dependence on the Swarm’s “nurturing,” which was a violation of the Confederation’s rules.

However, the relationship between the Swarm and the Rat Folk predated the Swarm’s admission into the Interstellar Technological Confederation.

Unlike the Rikens, the Rat Folk’s rapid development meant that the Ji civilization hadn’t had time to mark them with “treasure starships” before their alliance with the Swarm was solidified.

Furthermore, the origins and growth of the Rat Folk civilization were clearly linked to the Swarm. Their relationship was far more intertwined than that of the Swarm and the Rikens.

But for those determined to create trouble, none of these nuances mattered.

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