I Am The Swarm

The matter of crop improvement wasn’t a high priority and could be left for later when there was more free time to study it leisurely.

With the swarm steadily expanding in size, it was about to step into the limelight and face various challenges.

Luo Wen’s urgent task now was to determine the primary combat species for the upcoming period.

But the question remained—what kind of biological template should be chosen?

Continuing to use the ant template wasn’t impossible. Adding an advanced detection system, equipping it with a powerful heart, overhauling its nutrient supply system, and enhancing its mobility were all feasible modifications. However, there was one critical, unsolvable problem:

The exoskeleton armor.

The exoskeleton not only made ants into powerhouses but also improved their defensive capabilities.

Yet, the exoskeleton was both a blessing and a curse.

Despite its numerous advantages, the exoskeleton inherently restricted the size of the ants. If they wanted to grow larger, they had to go through repeated molting.

Take their colossal variant, the Ultra Giant Soldier Ant, for example. To reach its full size, it had to molt twice—this for a body size of merely twenty to thirty centimeters. Luo Wen himself couldn’t even recall how many pupations and molts he had undergone to grow to a body length of sixty centimeters.

Molting was an energy-intensive and risky process.

The solution was straightforward: extend their larval phase. By directly modifying their genes to allow the larvae to grow to the desired size before a single final molding, the need for repeated molting could be eliminated.

However, growing a larva to over half a meter in length would consume an enormous amount of time and resources. Larvae had no productive capabilities, poor combat ability, and even required worker ants to assist in feeding them.

Maybe the swarm could afford such larvae in the future, but with its current scale, it couldn’t support even a few.

And the swarm thrived on numbers. What use were just a handful of large soldier ants?

Other templates, such as small dinosaur-like creatures, Tail Lard Rats, or Long-Faced Beasts, didn’t face the exoskeleton’s size limitation, but their combat effectiveness didn’t justify their resource consumption.

The leopard template? That was feasible, but the swarm didn’t have the resources to rear more than a few.

What Luo Wen needed was a combat species that was both powerful and cost-effective.

After much deliberation, he thought of the Transport Bug. These creatures, modeled after cliff spiders, were initially created as auxiliary units due to their speed and impressive load-carrying capabilities.

However, they also boasted considerable combat power, having earned accolades in numerous battles. Their piercing attacks were like reapers for smaller combat units.

Their multi-jointed legs allowed them to traverse obstacles effortlessly, with remarkable gripping ability that enabled them to scale sheer, glass-like rock faces with ease. This made them well-suited to most harsh battlefield environments.

Although they also had exoskeletons and required one molt during their growth, Luo Wen could genetically modify them to remove the exoskeleton on their main body, retaining it only on their legs.

This wouldn’t leave their bodies defenseless, as Luo Wen planned to incorporate genes for tough skin and steel-like fur to bolster their protection.

Moreover, they rarely fought alone. During hunts, numerous companions would provide mutual support, so the slight loss in defense shouldn’t pose a significant issue. ṟåƝộBĚᶊ

This modification freed their bodies from the limitations of the exoskeleton. With the weight reduction from the absent main body armor, they would become even more agile.

As their body size increased, only the leg exoskeletons would need periodic replacements, significantly reducing energy consumption and associated risks.

Luo Wen also planned to add a small venom gland at the tip of each leg, hiding a stinger for enhanced attack power. This upgrade would not diminish their combat capabilities—instead, it would greatly improve them.

Additionally, he would incorporate an echolocation system into them. This would allow these new spider combat bugs to locate enemies more swiftly and accurately in jungle environments, better showcasing their potential.

He also intended to modify their dietary systems, shifting them from carnivorous to omnivorous. This had been an idea Luo Wen had entertained for a long time, but he hadn’t had the ability to implement it until now.

Furthermore, they would be equipped with hibernation and Tail Lard genes.

In Luo Wen’s vision, these new spider combat bugs would be about thirty centimeters in size. A small portion would remain active, subsisting on an omnivorous diet to meet daily needs and maintain the swarm’s vigilance. The majority, however, would either feed on dirt or enter hibernation until war broke out. Only during high-intensity conflicts would they be supplemented with meat for energy consumption.

The Tail Lard gene would allow them to carry additional supplies under certain circumstances, fulfilling special wartime needs.

Initially, Luo Wen had considered adding an optical stealth system to them, but upon further investigation, he found the cost to be exorbitantly high. The system essentially added a special nano-structure to the surface of the organism, effectively transforming their entire bodies. The energy consumption was staggering.

After some thought, Luo Wen decided that since the spider combat bugs would be the primary combat species for the foreseeable future and would mainly engage in group battles, stealth wasn’t particularly necessary.

In the end, Luo Wen drafted a template for Spider Combat Bug (Modified), which included the optical stealth system for limited production as a special operations unit.

With the primary combat species established, he turned to the auxiliary species. The Ultra Giant Soldier Ants, based on the ant template, would still need to be produced. Their size could even be increased to a range of half a meter to a full meter.

Given the Spider Combat Bugs’ defensive limitations, they would need “heavily armored infantry” to hold the line in direct confrontations.

With the ground forces mostly sorted, the next focus was the air force.

This was a completely new venture for the swarm, one with no prior experience. Fortunately, Luo Wen had gained ample insight recently, giving him a rough idea of what to do.

Currently, there were three candidate templates for the air force: Flying Insect genes, Flying Beetle genes, and Bird genes.

First, Flying Beetle genes were eliminated. Their body structure made them extremely inefficient at flying. Luo Wen suspected that their evolution of flight wasn’t for combat but simply a workaround for their clumsy terrestrial movement.

However, their flight mechanism was highly advanced, and Luo Wen believed they would have their moment to shine—just not now.

Next, bird genes were dismissed. It all boiled down to cost-effectiveness. While a single thirty-centimeter bird could easily take down a flying insect of similar size, the resources needed to produce one bird could create ten or even dozens of ten-centimeter flying insects.

One bird was no match for ten flying insects. It might fight to the death and kill most of them, but if it were ten birds versus a hundred flying insects, the birds likely wouldn’t even have the chance to fight to the death.

Although birds had superior flight capabilities and endurance, those weren’t currently needed. Besides, Luo Wen had better alternatives in mind for such roles in the future.

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