I Am The Swarm

“According to the records, the Swarm launched from another planet in the LKDW399 star system and defeated the Riken Race. The combat units the Swarm used at that time were almost identical to what they use now. Could it be that the Riken Race attributed the Swarm’s characteristics to the unknown creature?” Elder Humes proposed another speculation.

“But why would they do that?” Every action has a reason. While individuals might do things without clear motives, a civilization acting in such a way would likely not have developed to the level of the Riken Race.

“Perhaps it was to make the origin of the life-extension plant more legendary. After all, the Riken Race initially promoted the life-extension serum to their entire population,” Elder Humes suggested tentatively.

“No!” Before Elder Cecil could respond, Elder Humes himself dismissed the idea.

“Why not? I think this speculation is the most plausible among all the possibilities. In a society with low public awareness, embellishing the origin of a widely promoted product often yields good results.”

“I spent some time among the Riken Race. Their internal network couldn’t withstand our intrusion. The life-extension serum was indeed promoted to the entire population, but their internal network never mentioned its origin. I also sent people to investigate in person, and the Riken people had no idea about the serum’s ingredients, let alone its origin. The Riken Race didn’t need to worry about promotion because the name of the serum alone was enough to attract attention.”

Elder Cecil nodded. “Indeed, the name ‘life-extension serum’ is enough to make people flock to it. And I just remembered that the images and video footage in those records showed no signs of tampering. At least, with my skills, I couldn’t detect any, and I doubt the Riken Race could hide such modifications from me.”

The discussion hit another deadlock. After debating for a while, most of their speculations were dismissed one by one, and they still couldn’t resolve the contradiction between the two issues.

“Actually, there’s one more possibility,” Elder Cecil said suddenly, her eyes lighting up. Her youthful, beautiful face seemed to glow for a moment before turning serious again.

“In my opinion, the likelihood of the Riken Race being at fault is extremely low. They neither had the capability nor the motive to take such inexplicable actions against us in advance.”

Elder Humes nodded in agreement. Not everyone enjoys overthinking and fighting imaginary battles.

“And our monitoring system hasn’t malfunctioned.”

Elder Humes nodded again. This was the crux of the contradiction. The current evidence suggested that both couldn’t be true simultaneously; one of them had to be wrong.

Elder Cecil continued, “Indeed, both are correct.”

Elder Humes waited for the next part of the speculation, as this issue had been troubling him as well. However, Elder Cecil paused, as if carefully choosing her words. Despite his growing impatience, Elder Humes maintained his composure and waited silently on the other end of the communication link.

Finally, Elder Cecil seemed to have organized her thoughts. She looked up and said, “Both are indeed correct! But there might be an issue with the process in between.”

“What process?” Elder Humes asked at the right moment.

“Lumina,” Elder Cecil said gravely, emphasizing the name.

“Lumina?” Elder Humes repeated, suddenly understanding Elder Cecil’s implication. The Riken Race wasn’t at fault, and the monitoring equipment wasn’t malfunctioning, but the entity handling the monitoring data… “Elder Cecil, are you suggesting…?”

“Exactly! The problem might lie with Lumina. As I went over the issue again, I noticed a flaw.”

“What flaw?”

“The records for this region are too clean.”

“Clean is a flaw?”

“Indeed. Other star regions always have some events, like planetary crust movements, that cause energy fluctuations and are recorded. Even if rare, there are always a few entries. But this star region has nothing.”

“Are you saying that this star region also had such events, but all anomalies were concealed by Lumina?”

“Exactly! Remember the Riken Race’s records mentioned that they discovered thermonuclear reactions in LKDW399 before building ships to investigate. Isn’t it reasonable for a fledgling civilization to build ships and investigate immediately upon discovering the possibility of another civilization nearby?”

Seeing Elder Humes nod, Elder Cecil continued, “Even if there was only one thermonuclear reaction in LKDW399 before, the battle between the Riken Race and the unknown creature would have caused at least two thermonuclear reactions, right?”

“Correct.”

“The two events were nearly a hundred years apart, but the records don’t mention them at all.”

“True.”

“When the Riken Race went to LKDW399 the second time, they had already excavated our ships. At that moment, their priority level would have increased, right?”

“Right,” Elder Humes nodded repeatedly.

“But while the battles with the Swarm and the thermonuclear reactions were recorded, the battle with the unknown creature wasn’t, even though they happened around the same time.”

“Lumina selectively deleted some records!” Elder Humes widened his eyes, voicing Elder Cecil’s speculation.

“Exactly!” Elder Cecil’s expression grew even more serious.

Lumina was a creation left behind by the original Ji Race, the cornerstone of the New Ji Race. Although it was a rigid program, it possessed extremely high authority, even surpassing that of the New Ji Race’s Council of Elders.

However, as long as Lumina’s core principles, set by the original Ji Race, weren’t violated, it remained a loyal guardian, never acting out of line.

But now, it had. What did this mean? Had Lumina developed self-awareness, or was this also part of the original Ji Race’s legacy?

Both of them felt a chill. In the Interstellar Technological Confederation, no one was indispensable—except Lumina. Even the New Ji and foreign races, who were wary of Lumina, had to admit this.

But this was only true if Lumina remained controllable and within their grasp. The two nervously touched their necks. Such an important matter had been blurted out during a communication call. If Lumina truly had consciousness and malicious intent, highly intelligent mechanical guards might burst in at any moment to silence them.

The Ji Race had a vast number of mechanical constructs under Lumina’s control, serving as tools to suppress foreign races. This was why foreign races were wary of the Ji Race and avoided excessive development of mechanical automation. What the foreign races didn’t know was that many within the New Ji Race also feared this.