I Am The Swarm

The outcome of the game left Sarah Kerrigan doubting her life choices. Once a top-tier player, she was utterly crushed by Luo Wen in over a dozen matches.

Under Sarah’s incredulous and admiring gaze, Luo Wen smugly hummed in triumph.

The truth, however, was that Luo Wen had fabricated a Ratfolk body to play the game but secretly equipped it with a pair of absurdly high-refresh-rate eyes.

Coupled with his formidable mental power and reaction speed, it was as if Sarah, a normal person, was competing against someone perpetually in bullet time. It was no surprise she was thoroughly defeated.

Naturally, Luo Wen kept these details to himself.

These days, Luo Wen spent little time gaming. First, the loneliness of being unmatched made it dull. Second, he was now engrossed in various research pursuits, which he found far more captivating than games.

As the Swarm’s Intelligent Entities grew in number, innovations in technology and theoretical knowledge emerged continuously, and Luo Wen eagerly absorbed them all.

If manipulating genes was like piecing together a puzzle, then genes were the individual pieces, and the technologies and knowledge were the blueprint. Without a blueprint, he could only assemble simple patterns. With one, he could create intricate and complex designs.

While immersed in this intellectual endeavor, Luo Wen was suddenly interrupted by an urgent message: one of the Swarm Meteors had inexplicably lost contact.

Luo Wen immediately summoned the Blades responsible for overseeing the matter into a group session to investigate.

The lost Swarm Meteor was among the earliest batch launched randomly beyond the Genesis Star System over a decade ago.

Based on its trajectory, the meteor had traveled approximately one light-year away, far beyond the Genesis Star System, and was drifting in the void.

If it had been within the star system, it might have collided with one of the countless asteroids or meteors. However, in the interstellar void between star systems, where almost nothing existed, any anomaly was likely artificial.

Could aliens have attacked the Swarm Meteor?

Luo Wen quickly retrieved the observational records maintained by the Blades.

A dedicated monitoring team had been assigned to oversee these meteors, and the Blades operated in shifts, ensuring uninterrupted 24-hour surveillance with zero errors.

Their records indicated that the meteor’s shared visual link had suddenly ceased, and contact was lost. Before the disruption, there were no anomalies, and no obstacles were detected along its flight path.

This ruled out the possibility of a collision.

While Swarm Meteors generated no propulsion energy, making them almost undetectable, and their dormant eggs were nearly imperceptible as life forms, the Spore Capsules they housed retained biological activity and could potentially be exposed.

Given the absence of any observed anomalies, Luo Wen concluded that either the Swarm Meteor had encountered an unforeseen accident, or its adversary’s technological capabilities far surpassed the Swarm’s observational techniques.

Neither scenario boded well for Luo Wen or the Swarm.

Faced with this enigma, Luo Wen was momentarily stumped. However, he was no longer alone in his efforts.

Searching the Swarm Network, Luo Wen quickly assembled a virtual meeting.

Within moments, Morgan and other Intelligent Entities had their consciousnesses remotely summoned. Luo Wen briefed them on the situation, sparking an intense debate. ℞₳𐌽ȫ𐌱ЕṤ

As the saying goes, “Two heads are better than one,” and Luo Wen’s group now comprised over a hundred members. Ideas clashed and hypotheses abounded, producing a few promising sparks of insight.

Unfortunately, each theory was ultimately disproven.

The situation grew increasingly dire. The unknown was always the most terrifying, and whatever entity disrupted the Swarm Meteor seemed far from friendly.

As a precaution, Luo Wen ordered all Swarm bases on colonized planets to retreat underground, ceasing all surface activity.

Even the launch platforms on the Red and Yellow Moons were dismantled and absorbed into the Fungal Carpet, leaving no trace.

Days turned into weeks, but the discussions yielded no substantial breakthroughs.

Then, without warning, another Swarm Meteor vanished.

Curiously, the second missing meteor was not near the first; the two were almost in opposite directions, separated by several light-years.

This was peculiar. While it was conceivable for a civilization to traverse such distances in days, the missing meteors were surrounded by hundreds of other Swarm Meteors, particularly those heading toward the nearest star system.

Why were these two specific meteors singled out?

Yet, the loss of a second meteor presented an opportunity for analysis. By comparing the two incidents, Luo Wen and his team hoped to uncover useful patterns.

Indeed, the Intelligent Entities soon proposed a plausible theory—one that left Luo Wen speechless.

Their calculations revealed that both missing meteors had been in relatively isolated positions, with no other Swarm nodes within 1.052156 light-years of their vicinity.

From this, the Intelligent Entities hypothesized that the meteors were not attacked but had instead exceeded the Swarm Network’s coverage range and effectively “disconnected.”

Further evidence supporting this theory lay in the other meteors launched toward the neighboring star system. Over the past decade, hundreds of Swarm Meteors had been sent out.

The farthest among them had traveled over 1.1 light-years, while the nearest were still within the Genesis Star System. The meteor at 1.1 light-years remained within network coverage, suggesting that while the Swarm Network had a finite range, node units could extend it.

Testing this theory was straightforward: the Intelligent Entities identified a meteor expected to reach the network’s coverage limit in one month. It, too, would have no nearby nodes within 1.052156 light-years.

The waiting game began, with anticipation mounting as the days crept by.

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