I Am The Swarm

Time passed unnoticed, and Luo Wen had long since stopped bothering to calculate its passage.

The prolonged peace in the swarm’s territory meant that many Worker Ants had never set foot on a battlefield since hatching. This peaceful existence even allowed them the rare opportunity to die of old age.

As batches of Worker Ants perished, new ones were seamlessly added, ensuring the swarm’s operations were unaffected.

The northern army had been advancing along a river, undergoing various course changes but generally maintaining its direction.

Recently, a message came from the Queen Ant accompanying the army: the forces had encountered an exceptionally wide river that blocked their path. While the aquatic units accompanying the army explored the river, they suffered heavy losses. Yet, it seemed they hadn’t encountered any enemies. The report was contradictory and unclear, prompting Luo Wen to investigate personally.

As he traveled farther north, the temperature dropped noticeably.

However, due to the planet’s significant day-night temperature differences, even desert cliffs could freeze at night. The local plants and insects had developed strong cold resistance, and the swarm’s genetic adaptations made it impervious to such conditions.

The flora gradually shifted from broad-leafed plants to conifers as the temperature continued to decline.

Along the way, Luo Wen even experienced a sudden snowstorm. Though it lasted only half an hour before clearing, the ground accumulated nearly 20 centimeters of snow in that short time.

For Luo Wen, with his long legs, the snow posed no obstacle. However, for smaller insects, even those with cold resistance, being trapped in snow and ice could be deadly.

After several days of arduous travel, Luo Wen finally reached the so-called “riverbank.”

This is a riverbank?

Looking out at the vast expanse of water, with occasional drifting ice and a distinctly salty taste, Luo Wen couldn’t help but scoff. While the Queen Ant’s lack of worldly experience was forgivable, Luo Wen—who had been bombarded with information in his past life and had even seen the real thing—recognized this as a sea.

Had the swarm’s forces already reached the seashore?

This was Luo Wen’s first question. Having spent his days in a cycle of eating and sleeping, he had lost track of how much time had passed.

Did this planet also have oceans?

This was Luo Wen’s second question. After all, this was an unfamiliar world to him.

Excitement soon bubbled up within him. The ocean undoubtedly concealed countless species, and there might be excellent genes waiting to be harvested.

Not long after, he found the northern army.

The key to quickly locating them after traveling thousands of kilometers lay in Luo Wen following the river originating near the Brood Nest. After winding through various tributaries, it merged with a larger river and eventually flowed into the ocean.

The northern army was stationed near this point, leaving pheromone trails along the riverbank to guide Luo Wen to their camp.

When Luo Wen arrived at the site, he found a massive underground base had been excavated, complete with mushroom farms. Despite the freezing temperatures, the mushrooms radiated heat, making the interior of the burrow as warm as spring.

Unfortunately, the ants seemed to have forgotten to construct a passage large enough for Luo Wen, leaving him to endure the cold outside.

This base was home to only a small detachment of five or six million ants.

The main northern army had long since moved on. After all, it took months for messages to travel back and forth. Given the army’s size, it couldn’t stay in one place for long, as it needed to continuously advance to secure food supplies.

The detachment remained behind to await Luo Wen and assist with his operations and experiments.

The moment Luo Wen saw the ocean, he understood why the Queen Ant’s report had been contradictory.

The Raft Bugs and Submersible Bugs hadn’t encountered any enemies. Instead, they had perished because their physiology was designed for freshwater and lacked components to filter salt. When they entered the seawater, they were likely overwhelmed by the salinity and died.

With no enemies present, exploration became the next priority.

During Luo Wen’s journey, the detachment had made some progress. They hunted several crustaceans resembling crabs, hermit crabs, and shrimp along the coast.

These species were precisely what Luo Wen needed before beginning his oceanic explorations.

After consuming samples from each, Luo Wen dug himself a burrow. He then had the Burrower Ants dig a heat-dissipating channel from the plantation in the base to his room, providing a “heater.”

Once comfortably settled, he rested.

When he awoke, Luo Wen noticed the absence of a molted shell in his burrow, which puzzled him.

Inspecting his body carefully, he found no discernible changes—no crab-like book gills or other peculiar features.

Scratching his head awkwardly, he muttered, “Strange? Why haven’t I grown new respiratory organs?”

He speculated that his existing organs might have mutated, a theory requiring practical testing to confirm.

Fortunately, the ocean wasn’t far. Luo Wen quickly made his way to the shoreline with his long legs.

On second thought, he hesitated—it wasn’t entirely safe to use himself as a test subject. What if he couldn’t tolerate the salinity?

The safest approach would be to return to the Brood Nest to analyze his genes, but the round trip would take too long, and Luo Wen was too impatient to wait.

Thus, he crawled toward the estuary where the river met the ocean, creating a transitional zone between freshwater and seawater—a safer place to experiment.

Starting in the freshwater, Luo Wen slowly entered the water. Thanks to his acquired diving ability, he wasn’t nervous.

As the river water engulfed him, he immediately noticed a difference.

This time, breathing felt much easier than before. Evidently, a change had occurred.

He tried sealing the ventilation pores linking the air sacs between his carapace and abdomen. In the past, doing so would have caused instant suffocation. Yet this time, he felt no such discomfort.

He could now breathe underwater naturally.

This was true underwater respiration, extracting oxygen directly from the water, unlike his previous pseudo-underwater breathing, which relied on carrying an “oxygen tank.”

Carefully sensing his body, Luo Wen identified the changes.

There were two.

First, his carapace could filter water, extracting dissolved oxygen to sustain his body.

Second, thin membranous structures had grown at the bases of his legs, protruding from the body wall and filled with capillaries. These membranes could also filter water and salt while extracting oxygen.

The membranes’ location was so hidden—and in Luo Wen’s blind spot—that he hadn’t noticed them before. The carapace changes were even more subtle, with no outward signs.

These subtle modifications explained why Luo Wen hadn’t initially realized his new abilities.

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