I Am The Swarm

The foreign races who had acquired and fused with the biological armor were mostly prominent figures within the Confederation. No matter how curious Luo Wen was, he couldn’t jeopardize the bigger picture for the sake of satisfying his curiosity. He couldn’t risk exposing the sleeper agents embedded among these individuals.

For now, he could only hope that Sade and his team retained some semblance of empathy and didn’t completely disregard the test subject’s well-being in the pursuit of their experiments.

As time continued to pass, the biological armor’s fusion progress had reached nearly 50%. With the expansion of the fusion tendrils, the number of nanobots the armor could interact with had increased exponentially compared to the previous count. Even the variety of biomimetic walls had grown significantly.

In theory, the Potlings were vertebrates. Even if Sade’s team had chosen the sole of the host’s foot as the fusion site, by the time the fusion progress reached 50%, the tendrils should have reached the host’s spinal column.

However, the images fed back by the periscope structures on the fusion tendrils showed nothing but nanobots. This made Luo Wen increasingly uneasy.

The current situation was abnormal. The fusion tendrils, surrounded by nanobots, had only been able to touch a tiny amount of flesh and blood.

The biological armor’s fusion process was supposed to involve the tendrils traveling through the host’s body, collecting information before retracting into the main body. The transformation into a node unit was supposed to happen subtly, without drawing attention, especially under the watchful eyes of so many nanobots.

But now, even the areas the fusion tendrils had passed through were largely occupied by nanobots. If this ratio continued, the test subject’s life might not be in immediate danger, but there was clearly something seriously wrong with their body.

As mentioned earlier, within the Confederation, there was a group of fervent supporters of mechanical immortality. They were particularly fond of replacing certain organs and body parts with mechanical substitutes, believing this brought them closer to their ideal of eternal life.

Among these, nanotechnology played a crucial role. With advancements in technology, nanobots had become capable of consuming and replacing original organs or tissues.

Unfortunately, the realm of the soul and consciousness remained a forbidden zone, even for the Ji Race. This meant they couldn’t truly control the nanobots within their bodies as effortlessly as an artificial intelligence could. They had to rely on auxiliary AI chips to indirectly command the nanobots.

Even so, this made them significantly stronger in certain aspects. Some had even replaced entire limbs with bionic nanobots.

These mechanical limbs were not only more durable and powerful but could also disassemble and reassemble themselves. Aside from the added weight, they had almost no drawbacks.

In fact, nanobots had advanced to the point where they could partially replace nerves, receiving neural signals directly from the host. This allowed the host to issue commands to their mechanical body parts without needing to go through the AI chip.

While this didn’t grant them immortality, it was seen as a step closer to that ideal.

Luo Wen hadn’t paid much attention to these developments, but based on his current observations of the Potling host, it was possible that this host was one of those heavily modified cyborgs.

The host’s body might already contain a large number of nanobots, which had replaced many of his limbs and organs. This would explain why the biological armor couldn’t capture his visual signals.

His optic nerves might have been removed and replaced with nanobots. His eyes could have been upgraded to mechanical ones with multiple functions and modes, capable of seeing a broader spectrum of light, far surpassing their original capabilities.

Moreover, the host’s life wasn’t in immediate danger, as Luo Wen had initially feared. The nanobots had likely been inside his body for a long time.

Their biomimetic walls weren’t just meant to deceive the biological armor but also to trick the host’s body into not reacting negatively to these foreign objects.

What a revelation! Luo Wen had initially thought Sade’s team was using nanobots to observe the biological armor’s fusion process. Instead, they had gone a step further by using a cyborg as the host. This was a brilliant idea.

The collision of mechanical and biological technologies within a single body was bound to produce fascinating results.

At the very least, Luo Wen had already thought of one implication. The Swarm had claimed that the biological armor was entirely under the host’s control.

But now, nanobots that could deceive the host’s consciousness couldn’t fool the biological armor. This indicated that the armor had its own recognition system and wasn’t entirely reliant on the host’s consciousness. If it were truly under the host’s control, the biological armor would have accepted the nanobots, and the experiment would have ended long ago.

Having figured out the host’s condition, Luo Wen felt more at ease. Some of his earlier questions had been answered. For example, why hadn’t the biological armor received any audio signals?

In such experiments, the test subject’s cooperation and timely feedback on their sensations could significantly expedite the process. Luo Wen had previously wondered why Sade’s team would mistreat the test subject in such a crucial experiment. Weren’t they afraid the subject might retaliate by providing false information?

Now it seemed that the lack of audio signals wasn’t because the test subject was in a sealed, vacuum-like environment. Instead, some of his organs had likely been replaced, allowing him to emit electrical signals directly—like typing with his mind instead of speaking. In such a scenario, the biological armor’s audio receiver would naturally pick up nothing.

The experiment’s extended duration didn’t require the test subject to rely on special life-support equipment. Enhancing survival adaptability was one of the goals of body modification. Nanobots could break down external substances and feed them back to the host.

As for the collision between the nanobots and the biological armor within the host’s body, the test subject didn’t need to worry. Even if there were adverse reactions, he could block the transmission of unpleasant sensations by severing certain neural signals, such as turning off pain perception.

In a way, their functions were remarkably similar to those of the biological armor.