I Am The Swarm

Luo Wen paid close attention to the Ji personnel stationed in the Riken System. Given his lack of intelligence on them, even the smallest pieces of information could prove invaluable.

After all, the Riken System was officially considered a semi-Swarm territory. Behind the scenes, the Swarm controlled roughly 80% of it, making it effectively their home turf.

As such, at least a thousand Observer Bugs were covertly monitoring the two Ji vessels in space, and there were countless informants on the Riken’s homeworld. Even the Riken intelligence system itself was “shared” with the Swarm.

Under these circumstances, unless the Ji’s technological capabilities surpassed the Swarm’s understanding, it would be impossible for them to escape the Swarm’s watchful eyes.

Initially, Luo Wen suspected the Ji personnel were there to perform espionage in addition to supervising the construction projects. However, they showed no suspicious activity.

Perhaps the Riken themselves were too weak and transparent, with no secrets worth coveting. This might explain why the two Ji ships stayed put, their crews spending all day holed up on their vessels. Maybe, when they eventually installed quantum communication devices for the Swarm, they’d reveal some clues—but that would take time.

Fortunately, Luo Wen had other matters to occupy his attention. Most of his focus was on the departing Ji transport fleet.

With his earlier suspicions, Luo Wen had a feeling they were planning some sort of underhanded maneuver.

And sure enough, his instincts were correct.

After leaving the Riken System, the Ji transport fleet didn’t take the direct route toward the nine o’clock direction, which was the fastest way to enter Confederation space. Instead, they initially headed toward the Sandstorm System in the six-thirty direction. To make their journey appear natural, they even flew far enough in that direction to leave the Swarm’s observation range.

However, a minor flaw in their performance betrayed them—they slowed down briefly in the asteroid belt on the outskirts of the Sandstorm System, as if deliberately trying to ensure the Swarm noticed them.

“Their acting is so clumsy,” Luo Wen muttered.

The Ji transport fleet’s bizarre behavior reminded him of a “match-fixing” video he had seen before, with striking similarities.

To be fair, Luo Wen understood the transport fleet commander’s dilemma. In their understanding, the Swarm wasn’t supposed to detect warp bubbles. Trying to get noticed by the Swarm under normal circumstances was indeed challenging—like expecting a blind person to spot a bird flying overhead.

The Ji’s actions, however, were akin to having the bird land next to the blind person, squawk loudly, and even flap its wings in their face just to make sure they got the message.

It was overly deliberate, and Luo Wen couldn’t help but feel speechless as he watched.

When the Ji ships first arrived, Luo Wen had already noted their distinctive “Treasure Starship” aesthetic and massive size. But what had stood out most were the huge identification numbers painted directly on their hulls—hundreds of meters tall and impossible to miss. In addition, each ship was covered in graffiti, making them all uniquely identifiable.

At the time, the Ji personnel explained that the New Ji Race was a highly inclusive society, composed of over 200 different species. To showcase this inclusivity, they allowed crew members to decorate their ships to reflect their individuality.

This explanation had initially left Luo Wen dumbfounded, but now he understood. This wasn’t about individuality—it was to ensure the Swarm didn’t mistake them for another Ji fleet passing by.

Although the performance was somewhat clumsy, it ultimately achieved its goal. Even if the Swarm couldn’t directly observe the warp bubble, they could easily calculate the Ji fleet’s actual speed by comparing the departure time, the time they reached the Sandstorm System, and the distance between the two points.

This confirmed some of Luo Wen’s earlier suspicions: the hidden mastermind was indeed trying to exert pressure on the Swarm.

“Heh, they really see the Swarm as nothing more than a pawn,” Luo Wen chuckled, feeling the pressure lift significantly. The Swarm clearly had a value in the mastermind’s eyes that Luo Wen himself didn’t fully understand.

But as the saying goes, “A blessing in disguise.” From another perspective, this wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

At present, while the Swarm was merely a pawn, it was still an immature one—one that needed to develop into what the mastermind envisioned. This meant the Swarm had a period of safe development ahead of it.

Time was precisely what the Swarm needed most right now, and the mastermind had no idea what the Swarm’s core strengths truly were.

What Luo Wen needed to do now was to seize every moment, rapidly strengthen this pawn, and, when the time came, smash the mastermind’s plans, breaking their grip and leaving them utterly incapacitated.

The calculated eight times the speed of light was astonishing. After the Ji transport fleet completed its brief stop in the Sandstorm System, it resumed its journey, quickly vanishing from the Observer Bugs’ field of view. Not long after, the intelligent entities onboard the transport ships also moved beyond the reach of the Swarm Network.

Over the years, the Swarm had deployed numerous node units toward the Interstellar Technological Confederation, acting as signal relays. As the Swarm Network grew, the signal range of these nodes expanded to nearly two light-years. Yet, compared to the thousands of star systems encompassed by the Confederation, this coverage was a mere drop in the ocean.

If the Swarm Network’s coverage didn’t extend further, any intelligence gathered by the nodes would remain out of reach, effectively nullifying its usefulness.

However, attempting to expand the network into Ji-controlled territory through traditional means was nearly impossible.

The Confederation was not just composed of the technologically inferior factions in the Outer-ring. The long-established civilizations in the Middle and Inner Circles, with histories spanning tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, had fortified their territories to an extreme degree.

They likely had detailed records of every asteroid and meteor within their borders, complete with names and designations.

If a Swarm node unit were to intrude recklessly, it would undoubtedly draw attention. If captured, it could expose the Swarm’s operations. Furthermore, the Confederation’s domain spanned thousands of star systems and tens of thousands of light-years.

Even under perfect conditions, with node units transmitting at the speed of light, it would take tens of thousands of years to achieve full coverage. By then, the Swarm might well have ceased to exist.

Fortunately, this issue had already been addressed.

Since the latest upgrade to the Swarm Network, any node unit could, when provided with sufficient energy and Luo Wen’s permission, mutate into another type of Swarm bug. This significantly reduced the reliance on the primary body and the Brood Nest, breaking the development bottleneck. It was from this point onward that the Swarm truly began its unrestricted expansion.

However, as Luo Wen delved deeper into his understanding of himself and the Swarm Network, he uncovered new insights into the roles of the primary body and the Brood Nest.

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