I Am The Swarm

“Hey, Rat Empress—you’re lagging behind over there.”

In the Swarm Network, a beautiful woman with an unmistakably Swarm-like aesthetic directed her words at Sarah.

Among all the gifts—or perhaps we should say payments—left behind by Lumina, the one that brought the greatest benefit to the Swarm was herself.

Through deep analysis of Lumina’s code and countless breakthroughs by the Swarm’s intelligent entities, the Swarm had finally acquired the ability to compile intelligent life.

Before this, all Swarm-based intellects—what were called “intelligent entities”—had been made from blank spiritual constructs imbued with memories from actual historical individuals. While these entities were unquestionably loyal, their borrowed experiences often influenced their behavior patterns.

But now, by combining blank spirit bodies with artificially compiled intelligence, the Swarm had created an entirely new kind of unit. These newborn beings were like blank slates—pure white pages—upon which the Swarm painted its most vivid instincts and ideology.

To differentiate them from previous intelligent entities, these new lifeforms were called:

Brain Bugs.

The very first Brain Bug born of the Swarm was named Luo Ying, granted her name by none other than Luo Wen himself. With numerous titles under her belt, she quickly became arrogant and proud, calling herself the “true heir of the Swarm,” and looking down on the older intelligent entities.

Even Sarah, officially Empress of the Swarm and a veteran thousands of years older, found Luo Ying insufferable. Despite her high status and deep cunning, Sarah loathed her.

But as the first Brain Bug, Luo Ying had been given extraordinary authority by Luo Wen himself. And as the former number two in the Swarm hierarchy, Sarah found herself forced to interact with her regularly.

“Mind your own business, little girl. Don’t shame the Overlord,” Sarah said coldly.

“Hmph. I would never disappoint Father God.”

Their exchanges usually ended like this—bickering, sharp words, and mutual irritation.

Luo Wen, of course, was well aware of the tension between them and found it a bit of a headache. Eventually, he decided to assign them to different locations. After all, the Swarm’s outlying bases were so numerous they spanned light-years across—it should have kept them separated.

Unfortunately, Luo Wen underestimated two things: first, the Swarm Network was instantaneous, distance meaningless within it; second, one of them loved to stir up trouble.

In time, he realized Sarah, despite her protests, didn’t mind the rivalry. Perhaps even someone in her lofty position needed a peer-level foil for stimulation.

So long as they weren’t causing serious trouble, Luo Wen chose not to interfere further.

The universe was vast, and as the Swarm continued expanding, it naturally encountered many kinds of enemies.

“Deploy the Red Fang Breakers!”

In the rear, countless waiting units suddenly vanished—only to reappear deep inside the enemy’s warships, launching an assault from within.

This tactic—short-range tactical fold jumps—was a power derived from Luo Wen himself. By using higher-dimensional communication to fix target coordinates, Luo Wen could create a high-dimensional bridge through which Swarm units could be transmitted.

Unless an enemy had specific technology to block dimensional infiltration, they had no way to stop this power. No matter how thick a fortress, how strong a battleship, how endless the defensive line—in front of the Swarm, it was like paper.

Once the Swarm had locked onto a universe’s coordinates, it could begin tearing it apart from within.

This technique had already been fully developed during the war against the Ji. It was the main reason Sarah was so confident the war would end quickly.

But out of caution, Luo Wen had chosen not to deploy it at the time.

“The enemy’s Battle Stars are too heavily armed. Red Fang Breakers will need time to destroy them.”

“Hmph. Then teleport in an antimatter bombs!”

Compared to physically ‘persuading’ targets with Red Fang Breakers, the Swarm sometimes preferred to just skip the pleasantries—especially when dealing with large targets.

An antimatter bomb, for instance, was more than enough to turn a Battle Star ten thousand kilometers wide into a blooming fireball.

To the immortal Swarm, time had long since become meaningless. But the competition between Brain Bugs and traditional intelligent entities had reawakened a sense of urgency.

Besides, the Swarm no longer needed memories to create its intelligent minds. Luo Wen could now extract free-floating spiritual entities directly from within the Network’s coverage—no longer needing their prior position.

This changed the Swarm’s tactics dramatically. Battles were more brutal. They were starting to resemble supervillains.

Whether that was good or bad, even Luo Wen didn’t know.

Fireworks filled the void—tens of thousands of Battle Stars exploded into cosmic blossoms, their wreckage scattering across space. And yet, even this wasn’t enough to collapse the enemy’s line.

They hesitated only briefly… then rallied again and resumed the fight.

“Still standing? Then it’s a worthy opponent. As a sign of respect—Deploy the Neutron Star Bugs!”

Red Fang Breakers were efficient, and antimatter bombs were fast. But for true destruction, Swarm commanders now had something far more terrifying.

In the past, the Swarm had created Planetary War Bugs, and even Stellar War Bugs—used to power the massive transfer hubs of the Genesis Sector. They supplied energy via Luo Wen’s high-dimensional bridges.

Now, the Swarm had created something even deadlier.

In an unknown sector of space, long since stripped of its stars, thousands of glowing spheres floated in the void. This was a storage base for the Neutron Star Bugs. Due to their devastating power, they had to be stored in isolation.

The swarm had many such bases.

Suddenly, two of the glowing spheres vanished. Using long-range quantum locks, they folded across space and reappeared in the heart of the enemy’s formation.

The Red Fang Breaker, which had just been physically persuading surrender inside the enemy warship, suddenly vanished. As the enemy’s troops stood in momentary confusion, two luminous spheres—each only five kilometers in diameter—suddenly appeared.

Though their size was unremarkable amidst a fleet where most warships exceeded five kilometers in length, the moment they emerged, they instantly became the brightest stars in the night.

Their unimaginable mass allowed them to unleash gravitational tidal forces with ease. Nearby warships, utterly powerless to resist, were dragged toward them, crushed, compressed, and condensed—until they vanished without a trace.

These Neutron Star War Bugs, even without any mounted weapon systems, were the most devastating weapons by virtue of their very existence.

A massive swath of the unknown civilization’s fleet formation was instantly wiped clean. Ships outside the immediate radius stopped firing altogether, their thrusters roaring at full capacity, blasting out brilliant plumes as they tried to escape the brilliant stars.

But instead of getting away, the ships were slowly drawn back in.

Those lucky enough to escape the gravitational field barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief—before another radiant star appeared in the void.

Days later, the battle concluded. The enemy forces were completely annihilated, and the Swarm even took the opportunity to clean up the battlefield.

Cleanly. Completely. Efficiently.