I Am The Swarm

“How’s it going?”

“Relax, it’s a piece of cake,” Warwick replied smugly. Thanks to the technological disparity and their advanced tools, the Rat Folk’s intranet defenses were practically non-existent to him.

“Warwick, set up access permissions for us as well. Everyone, follow the division of labor we just discussed and start combing through your respective categories,” Blanca instructed.

Though the Captain had delegated command to Warwick, Blanca had effectively taken the reins.

Thus began an intense period of activity. The team had already studied the Rat Folk’s language and writing system beforehand, so navigating their intranet posed no difficulty.

A few hours later:

“This is really strange…” Amina murmured, deep in thought. She had been tasked with investigating the Rat Folk’s history.

“What’s wrong? Did you find something unusual?” Blanca asked.

“The Rat Folk’s history is astonishingly short. According to their own historical records, nearly a thousand years ago, a fireball fell from the sky, wiping out the apex predators of the food chain at the time. This allowed a lower-tier species called Tail Lard Rats to rise and eventually evolve into the present-day Rat Folk.”

Everyone had been vaguely aware of the unusual nature of the Rat Folk’s history, but Amina’s findings confirmed their suspicions. The Ji’s monitoring mechanism for star systems was meticulous.

Uninhabited systems were surveyed every 5,000 years, while systems with life were checked every 1,000 years. Once intelligent life emerged, surveillance equipment was installed for regular monitoring. Depending on the circumstances, Treasure Starships might also be deployed.

The intervals might seem long, but given the timeframes involved in the evolution of life—billions of years to develop life, hundreds of millions for intelligence, and further eons for civilizations—this system was exceptionally efficient and practical.

“So, that fireball was a large meteorite?” someone asked.

“Exactly. I just obtained authorization to access our database and cross-checked the records. Coincidentally, when the meteorite struck Planet Genesis, it happened during one of our routine millennial inspections. The inspectors noticed the meteorite but chose not to intervene, adhering to the principle of minimal interference. According to the records, Planet Genesis was dominated by reptiles at the time. The meteorite impact drastically altered the ecosystem, leading to a mass extinction of reptiles. However, the inspectors didn’t stay to observe the aftermath and simply recorded the event before leaving,” Amina explained, reading from the documents.

“So our records align with the Rat Folk’s history?”

“Precisely. Less than a millennium later, the remains of those reptiles were still well-preserved, and the terrain altered by the meteorite impact was largely unchanged. Although the Rat Folk’s technological level is rudimentary, they’ve been able to piece together the cause-and-effect from these clues.”

“So, are you saying your main concern is that their history is too short?” Amina asked. “It’s true that a normal species takes at least tens of thousands of years to evolve from ignorance to civilization. But the Rat Folk rose from prey species to their current state in less than a thousand years. That’s definitely not the result of natural evolution.”

Amina shook her head. As someone responsible for researching historical records and a specialist in biological evolution, she had long pondered these glaring issues. It wasn’t something she’d bring up now.

“What I find puzzling is that the Rat Folk record that meteorite impact as ‘divine punishment.’ And this description appears consistently, whether on unofficial forums or their official websites.”

Hearing this, everyone furrowed their brows, considering the implications.

Wright scratched his head, frustrated by the cryptic nature of the discussion. “What’s so strange about that?”

“I get it now!” interjected Art, another team member. “In the early stages of ignorance, a species often develops primitive worship. However, as they progress, they eventually understand that such beliefs are just illusions. Some civilizations discard those beliefs entirely, turning to science and recognizing that the mysteries of the universe can eventually be explained scientifically. If they don’t understand yet, it’s just because their technology isn’t advanced enough.

“But other civilizations elevate these primitive beliefs during their development, transforming them into spiritual totems that serve as a source of guidance and discipline.”

“So which category do the Rat Folk fall into?” Wright couldn’t help but ask.

Art raised a hand, signaling for Wright to be patient. As a historian and religious expert, he explained the answer in his own way.

“Logically, the Rat Folk should fall into the first category. Their evolution happened so rapidly that they likely didn’t even have time to develop primitive worship before emerging from ignorance. But the reality is quite the opposite. Their descriptions—especially the authoritative information from official sources—shouldn’t contain misleading language. According to the Rat Folk, they genuinely believe in the existence of a god.”

“That’s impossible!” Wright exclaimed.

“Now do you see what’s strange?” Art replied.

Warwick scratched his head and said, “The Rat Folk are abnormal to begin with. Maybe we shouldn’t use conventional reasoning to analyze them.”

“True, but Art’s analysis is still valuable. Consider this: if the Rat Folk’s ignorant phase was incredibly short, but both the public and the official narrative affirm the existence of a god, perhaps the god they recorded truly existed,” Amina suggested. ℝＡ𐌽Ỗ𐌱Еᶊ

“The Rat Folk have great reverence for their god. I noticed this in their interactions,” said a female team member who specialized in social relations. Her insight hinted that she had uncovered something during her research on the Rat Folk’s intranet.

“Could this so-called god actually be the Swarm?” Wright suggested. “For a biological civilization like the Swarm, achieving something like this shouldn’t be difficult. The reason the Rat Folk civilians don’t know about the Swarm could be because of different terminology. We call them the Swarm, but they refer to them as their god.”

“Hmm, that’s a plausible idea, Wright. I’m impressed,” Amina said with exaggerated admiration, earning her a disdainful gesture from Wright.

She continued, “But where did the Swarm come from? I’ve reviewed the inspection records from a thousand years ago and even the previous fifty thousand years. There’s absolutely no mention of the Swarm.”

The discussion circled back to the starting point, and everyone fell into deep thought.

The Swarm’s appearance dates back to roughly the same thousand-year period when the Rat Folk emerged. Wright’s theory was highly plausible. However, if the Swarm created the Rat Folk, then where did the Swarm come from?

At this moment, the social relations expert spoke again. “I’ve carefully studied the Rat Folk’s vocabulary. When it comes to descriptive terms, they have incredibly precise and detailed distinctions. In their understanding, their god is described as an individual, not a collective or a group. This is a concept that’s very hard to misinterpret.”

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