I Am The Swarm

The first Daqi to be transformed wasn’t anyone of importance, but after a successful case and a few rounds of verification to ensure reliability, the transformation process for high-ranking Daqi military officers was added to the schedule.

A few days later, the Swarm obtained more precise intelligence.

The Interstellar Technological Confederation was indeed real, and its described capabilities weren’t far from the truth. The confederation’s initiator was a civilization called Ji—a remarkably ancient civilization with a history spanning at least several hundred thousand years. What existed in this star region before the Ji civilization is no longer traceable.

According to the historical accounts made public by the Interstellar Technological Confederation, the Ji were the earliest civilization to emerge in this star region. In their primitive era, they gave birth to a “Sage.”

The Sage’s name has been lost to the river of history, but their contributions were recorded. During that age of primitive tribes, when the Ji survived by crafting stone tools, hunting, and warring to subsist, the Sage realized that the starry skies above were the future of their species.

The Sage quickly presented their vision to their tribal chief and gained support. Following this, they traveled across their homeworld, persuading all tribal leaders.

In that era—before even the most basic beasts of burden had been domesticated—how the Sage managed to traverse mountains and rivers and unite the entire planet is unrecorded. However, it is understandable. After all, every early civilization has its share of myths and primitive beliefs.

Regardless of what truly transpired, the Ji soon ended their tribal wars. Nearby tribes formed councils of elders, which quickly led to a formal unification process, and the Council of Elders became the highest governing body.

With internal strife eliminated, the Ji rapidly experienced a technological explosion, maintaining their progress. Within roughly a thousand years, they shed their primitive state and ventured beyond their home planet.

Although this storyline felt oddly familiar to Luo Wen, it was undoubtedly an impressive feat. Advancing from the Stone Age to the early stages of an interstellar era in a mere thousand years was a record unmatched in the Interstellar Technological Confederation to this day.

As technology advanced, the Ji soon conquered their homeworld’s satellites and established colonies, following a typical trajectory of interstellar civilization development.

During this time, the Ji’s evolving ideology led them to gradually abandon many obsolete traditions. Strangely enough, the original Council of Elders endured and continued to function.

Without external enemies to curb them, the Ji swiftly gained control of their home star system and began exploring surrounding star systems. Gradually, the neighboring systems also came under their rule.

As time passed, the Ji’s technological advancements reached a bottleneck. The limitations of spacecraft speed hindered their further expansion. Initially, the Ji were confident they would soon overcome this barrier, as they had with countless others before.

However, this bottleneck proved unexpectedly stubborn, halting their progress for tens of thousands of years.

During this stagnation, while technological advancement was limited, the Ji forcibly expanded using sub-light-speed travel. But such forced expansion stretched their reach, rendering the Council of Elders’ decision-making inefficient.

Civilizations composed of intelligent entities, no matter how united, will inevitably give rise to ambition in the absence of necessary constraints. As the Council of Elders’ control weakened, the Ji’s outer colonies gradually slipped from their grasp.

This kind of fracturing, unseen since the Ji’s primitive days, enraged the Council of Elders. Thus, war became inevitable—as expected.

Due to the vast distances involved, a single mobilization of troops could take centuries, and the transmission of an order might require years or even decades.

Under such conditions, the war dragged on interminably.

According to the Interstellar Technological Confederation’s historical records, this period, known as the Dark Age, lasted more than twenty thousand years—a duration surpassing the entirety of the Ji’s prior history.

The conflict, originally between the Council of Elders and the outer colonies, devolved into a multi-sided war. At its most chaotic, more than a hundred factions splintered across a dozen star systems.

The prolonged warfare led to the loss of countless things to history and even temporarily caused technological regression and the near-collapse of Ji civilization. ɽＡΝоʙÈṢ

Yet from destruction often springs rebirth. The existential pressure of life and death quietly broke the technological bottleneck that had restrained the Ji for millennia.

The invention of faster-than-light propulsion engines and instantaneous communication technology rendered distance irrelevant.

Reunited, the Ji once again entered a period of rapid development.

During this growth, the Ji reflected on their past experiences. They recognized that technological bottlenecks were inevitable. If such a bottleneck could not be overcome, history might repeat itself.

This was a future no Ji, having endured the long wars, wished to witness again.

Through their analysis, the Ji realized that their inability to break through previous technological barriers stemmed from a stagnation of thought caused by prolonged homogenized learning.

In such circumstances, there were only two paths forward: the first was to endure and wait, hoping for a flash of inspiration from some individual to shatter the barriers; the second was to seek external stimuli.

The Ji’s previous breakthrough had clearly relied on the second method. However, they were unwilling to undergo such external turmoil again.

The first method, on the other hand, was rare and unpredictable—an elusive stroke of genius that might never come, potentially leading to the civilization’s eventual demise.

Thus, the Ji sought an alternative.

During their earlier expansion, the Ji had discovered several habitable planets, some of which already harbored life. At the time, the Ji often used violent means to terraform these planets to suit their own needs, followed by colonization.

This environmental transformation typically obliterated almost all native life on such planets. Even the rare survivors were reduced to simplified forms, devoid of any potential to evolve into new species.

But now, the Ji changed their approach. If civil wars within their own race were unacceptable, then why not cultivate an enemy to provide the so-called external stimulus?

With their new propulsion technology, the Ji’s exploration radius expanded significantly. Before long, they identified a newly discovered habitable planet.

After thorough preparation, a large-scale experiment began.

Although the Ji meticulously nurtured and guided the planet’s lifeforms, the process of evolution is inherently slow. In the vast timeline of evolution, the history of the Ji civilization was but a fleeting moment.

The Ji quickly recognized this. Relying solely on natural evolution was far too unreliable. Therefore, through certain “necessary” interventions, the primitive organisms on the planet underwent accelerated development.

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