I Am The Swarm-Chapter 623: Location

The “flaw” in the biological armor wasn’t a significant issue because Sade and his team were fundamentally heading in the wrong direction. The Swarm’s gene lock wasn’t truly based on biological technology, so even if they observed it for ten thousand years, they wouldn’t discover anything meaningful.

For Luo Wen, Sade’s actions weren’t entirely bad either. They gave him ample time to observe in return and provided cover for the biological armor to siphon some energy.

The fusion tendrils continued to extend along the narrow gap, ignoring the nanobots on either side. Luo Wen wasn’t sure if Sade and his team had conducted similar experiments before, but given the nanobots’ targeted attempts to mimic the host’s biological membrane, it was likely they had.

If the biological armor were offline, it wouldn’t fall for such crude tactics, but it would only follow its pre-programmed instructions. This meant Sade’s team must have gathered some data from previous attempts.

Given the uncertainty of the situation, Luo Wen couldn’t deviate too much from the expected behavior this time. Originally, Luo Wen had intended for the fusion tendrils to head straight for the host’s neck and head, but now he had to proceed step by step, slowly covering the host’s body.

Although this would take more time, it was the safer approach.

As the tendrils advanced, the surrounding nanobots underwent subtle changes. These changes were mainly reflected in the biological walls covering them, which mimicked the host’s genetic information.

The information on these biological walls continuously shifted, manifesting as small external changes. They cycled through various genetic profiles of the host’s tissues, hoping to deceive the biological armor’s recognition system and be absorbed by the extending tendrils.

This confirmed Luo Wen’s suspicion that Sade’s team was indeed conducting some kind of experiment. However, the biological armor still hadn’t sent back any audio signals.

With no external feedback, Luo Wen’s only option was to search within the host’s body.

As time passed, the genetic information of the nanobots surrounding the tendrils had changed hundreds of times, and the fusion process had reached over 30% completion.

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Luo Wen now regretted not paying more attention to the biological armor’s post-sale performance. If he had made some upgrades and modifications earlier, he wouldn’t be in such an awkward position now.

Originally, the biological armor was designed to attach to any part of the host’s body and activate. Once activated, it would fuse with that area, forming a slightly raised, soft, scale-like patch.

This patch was designed with user experience in mind. It could generate patterns based on the host’s preferences and even change colors.

If the host had a talent for design, this soft scale could become a stunning piece of art, featuring gradients, contrasting colors, natural themes, or minimalist designs, presenting a relief-like effect.

Of course, if the host lacked design skills, they could always hire a designer. Given that those who acquired biological armor were usually wealthy or influential individuals, finding a designer wasn’t difficult.

Therefore, most hosts chose prominent locations to fuse the biological armor, such as the shoulders, upper arms, or neck. These areas were often visible even when clothed, allowing the hosts to showcase their “artwork” and subtly flaunt their status.

These locations were also close to the neck and head. Even if some hosts preferred a more discreet approach, they would typically fuse the armor on their chest or back, which were still relatively close to the neck and head.

As a result, Luo Wen hadn’t paid much attention to this aspect and hadn’t anticipated the current situation. He hadn’t considered imposing any restrictions.

But now Luo Wen regretted this oversight. He didn’t know what results Sade’s team had achieved in their previous experiments or what conclusions they had drawn. Perhaps they were simply experimenting with different locations.

This time, they had chosen the host’s sole as the fusion site. This location not only made it impossible to display the soft scale artwork but also risked creating an imbalance in the host’s legs. Even if the host wanted to increase their height, this wasn’t the way to do it.

This meant Luo Wen would have to wait until the fusion process was nearly complete before the tendrils could reach the host’s brainstem, further prolonging the waiting time.

Of course, given that the biological armor hadn’t received any audio signals, it was clear that the test subject had no say in the matter. Even if they did speak, without a medium to transmit the sound, no one would hear them.

Moreover, Luo Wen was almost certain that while the host was a Potling, it wasn’t Cecil. The experimental method they were using would stretch the process to its limit, and during this time, the host had to remain conscious. They couldn’t reduce their bodily activity to enter hibernation and had to rely on special means to sustain their life.

This was an extremely cruel process, and it was unlikely that Cecil, a respected Ji Race elder, would subject herself to such treatment.

As time passed, the variety of biomimetic walls surrounding the biological armor had reached nearly a thousand types. Each type numbered at least a million, with some exceeding ten million.

This made Luo Wen frown slightly. Even though nanobots were tiny, their sheer numbers were staggering. If each type had at least a million units, the total number had already surpassed the billion mark.

Although the combined mass of these nanobots was still negligible compared to the host’s body, this was only the number surrounding the biological armor. How many more nanobots were present elsewhere remained unknown.

If the number of nanobots exceeded a certain threshold, the host’s bodily functions could be affected, potentially endangering their life.

This wasn’t good news for Luo Wen. While he didn’t care about the test subject’s life, if the host died prematurely, the biological armor, which was bound to the host’s life, would also perish.

If Luo Wen didn’t want to reveal certain secrets, the exploration would end there, and the trail of intelligence would be cut off once again.

But exposing the Swarm’s secrets for this purpose would be too costly. If the Confederation discovered that the biological armor had a backdoor, allowing the seller to remotely control it, all the foreign races who had acquired and fused with the armor would be affected.

These individuals were essentially “allies,” and if they came under scrutiny because of this, the losses would far outweigh the gains.