I Am The Swarm

Although only a small portion of the host’s genetic fragments had been parsed due to the early stages of fusion, Luo Wen was already certain that these fragments did not belong to the Black Tower Race.

This strongly suggested that, aside from Sade, the castle’s owner, there were other living beings in the castle. Most likely, they had been in hibernation there for some time.

As the parsing progressed, the genetic fragments became more complete, and the new information looked increasingly familiar to Luo Wen.

“Potling?” Luo Wen frowned slightly and muttered to himself.

When the biological armor was first produced, its compatibility was designed to be extremely broad to allow all foreign races the opportunity to experience the powerful technology of the Swarm. This meant that the biological armor had no strict requirements for intelligence or other traits—any living being could activate it.

This wasn’t a problem. Sometimes, the difference between a sapient species and a beast on the same planet was far smaller than the difference between sapient species from different planets. Therefore, there were no barriers to a beast activating the biological armor.

Luo Wen’s greatest concern had been that Sade might truly be engaging in a battle of wits with thin air or suffering from some other psychological barrier, leading him to fuse the biological armor with a beast or some other non-sapient creature.

Fortunately, the biological armor was extremely valuable, and once bound, it could not be transferred to another host. Even the Ji Race wouldn’t waste it on a beast.

Luo Wen had been preoccupied with Cecil’s situation, and it was only because of her that he had invested so much effort into monitoring this planet.

Thus, even with only a small portion of the genetic fragments parsed, Luo Wen could determine that they did not belong to the Black Tower Race. He then noticed that the parsed fragments bore a striking resemblance to the genetic sequence of the Potlings.

As the parsing continued, Luo Wen gradually confirmed that these were indeed the genetic sequences of the Potlings. Given the sensitive timing, location, and the interconnected nature of the issues, Luo Wen’s first thought was of Cecil.

Shortly after Cecil’s lengthy conversation with Elder Humes, she had gone off the grid in the Swarm’s intelligence network. Later, through the biological armor’s audio records, it was discovered that she had attended an auction.

This shattered Luo Wen’s earlier assumption that she had entered hibernation. Elder Humes had sent several messages to Cecil, and if she hadn’t been in hibernation, she should have responded out of courtesy or due to their shared interests, assuming there was no conflict between them. Otherwise, if Elder Humes discovered her neglect, it could turn him into a potential enemy of equal standing.

Offending a senior Ji Race elder over a trivial matter was not a good trade. Moreover, Cecil was also a high-ranking Ji Race elder. Someone who had climbed to such a position wouldn’t make such a foolish mistake.

Yet Cecil had done exactly that, and in a public setting no less. Luo Wen couldn’t fathom her reasoning. The trail of clues had led to Sade’s castle, where Cecil’s trail once again went cold.

Now, it seemed the trail had resurfaced.

Luo Wen had initially worried that he might be overcomplicating things. Perhaps Sade had simply purchased the biological armor for his own use.

The repeated observations might have been due to Sade’s affiliation with the Inheritor’s Faction. A leader who had long championed mechanical intelligence suddenly using biological armor was indeed something worth pondering repeatedly.

However, the unfolding events reassured Luo Wen. Sade and his team were indeed up to something, which instantly reinvigorated Luo Wen.

The fusion continued, but Luo Wen frowned in confusion.

Under normal circumstances, by this stage of fusion, the biological armor should have been able to secretly intercept and replicate the host’s visual neural signals, parsing them into images and seeing what the host saw.

But the current situation was strange. Since the biological armor had been providing one-sided feedback and lacked many sensory organs, Luo Wen couldn’t easily determine the exact situation on the other side.

However, some anomalies were within his expectations. After all, in Luo Wen’s speculation, this fusion wasn’t an ordinary one but an attempt to peek into the Swarm’s technology. Therefore, Sade and his team must have prepared something.

Luo Wen didn’t know what Sade and his team had prepared, so when he noticed that the fusion had reached a stage where certain functions should have appeared but hadn’t, he instructed the biological armor to proceed with the fusion as normal. Initially, he had planned for the biological armor to use the energy absorbed from the host during fusion to evolve some sensory organs.

But now, with the situation changed, all previous plans were put on hold. The Ji Race truly lived up to their reputation. They had somehow found a way to block the host’s visual neural signals.

Luo Wen was very familiar with the genetic sequences of the Potlings. While they were far more complex than those of ordinary insects or birds, they paled in comparison to the Swarm’s pinnacle creation—the fungal carpet.

This was why Luo Wen found it strange. Blocking visual neural signals in the presence of biological armor wasn’t as simple as covering the eyes or gouging them out.

Nor was it as straightforward as tampering with the visual nerves. Unless they had completely removed the visual nerves or replaced them with something else.

If it was the former, given the Ji Race’s technological prowess, even if they primarily followed a mechanical path, completely removing the visual nerves shouldn’t be difficult.

But if it was the latter… had Sade and his team replaced the host’s visual nervous system with something else? For example, had they replaced the Potling’s nervous system with that of the Black Tower Race? In practical terms, this wasn’t impossible. Even Luo Wen, in his early, weaker days, had been able to splice genetic fragments and manifest the changes physically.

But Luo Wen had relied on his own abilities and talents. If others, even the Ji Race, attempted such a feat, it wouldn’t be so simple.

Moreover, what would be the point of such a replacement? Were they guarding against the Swarm? And with such precise targeting? Luo Wen found this hard to believe.

They hadn’t even opened the door, so how could they know what lay beyond?

Furthermore, this defense could only hold for so long. The biological armor had now fused with the host and had an energy source. Luo Wen could simply summon a few Hive Queens to interface with it and slowly compare the genetic sequences one by one.

Eventually, he would be able to identify which parts were original to the Potlings and which had been modified.