I Am The Swarm-Chapter 796: Mutation

The Inner-circle Alliance was in the same situation, though they were fortunate to have suffered the least losses. Otherwise, they would’ve already withdrawn from the battlefield.

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On the Swarm’s side, their countless Brood Queens laid astronomical numbers of eggs daily. After a few days, those eggs would hatch into the most basic larval bodies.

These larval bodies would then be dragged by Primordial bodies into stellar orbit to bask in solar radiation. A few years later, they would mature into Primordial bodies or Puffer Cannonfish and head to the front lines.

As long as the Swarm was given time to complete a single reproductive cycle, their forces would pour forth endlessly. The longer the war lasted, the greater their advantage in rapid troop production became.

And within the past century, the number of Star Gates in Swarm territory had already exceeded five hundred, with the number of occupied Star Systems nearing two thousand. This ensured the Swarm’s forces could continuously flow into the battlefield.

“Judging by the current situation, it seems the Ji Race can’t outlast the Swarm.”

“The Ji Race is far stronger than we imagined, and the Swarm’s war potential is also far more terrifying than we thought. We’re just the clowns in all this.”

“Heh, yeah. The original idea was to let the two sides fight it out and then swoop in to reap the benefits. But now it’s clear—they’re both absurdly powerful. Even if they both end up heavily wounded, neither of them is someone we could hope to shake.”

“I disagree. The Swarm’s war potential is greater. If they win, we may never rise again. While the Ji Race’s war potential is also strong, it takes time to manifest. If they weaken, I believe we have the ability to conquer them.”

“That’s true. Looks like we should adjust our strategy—let the Swarm bleed more. In some situations, we can even drag them down a little.”

“But how do we contain the Swarm’s territory? They’re expanding too fast. If they can’t be reined in, even if the Ji Race is drained more heavily, it won’t make a difference.”

“That is indeed a problem. And I can’t think of a solution.”

“Seems like we’ll just have to play it by ear.”

In the battles that followed, the Inner-circle Alliance began to gradually lower their presence, ceding the main combat role to the Swarm. In truth, this was only what they believed. In the eyes of the other two forces, they had long since been relegated to support.

Over the years, the Inner-circle Alliance had already been infiltrated like a sieve by the Swarm, so Luo Wen saw through their internal calculations clearly. But Luo Wen expressed no reaction to these little schemes, because he knew from the beginning that the Inner-circle Alliance was just a pawn. No matter what they did, they had no chance of victory.

Just as the watching Confederation races believed this war would drag on for centuries or even millennia until one side was completely mined dry, the battlefield underwent a sudden upheaval.

The Inner-circle Alliance warships, previously aligned with the Swarm, suddenly turned their cannons and launched an assault on the Swarm. At the same moment, the Ji Race, as if telepathically synchronized, also launched a ferocious offensive. The Swarm units, caught in a sudden pincer attack, were completely unprepared and suffered catastrophic losses.

The abrupt change left all the Confederation races stunned. But on closer thought, it also made sense. Had things continued, victory for the anti-Ji alliance was within reach. At that point, the Inner-circle Alliance would simply become subordinates once again.

After all the bloodshed, all they’d done was trade one master for another. No one would feel good about that. So, seeking a new position in this war had become, in their eyes, the only viable option. As for ethnic barriers—at this point, they were no longer an issue.

But only Luo Wen knew that things were far from as simple as they appeared on the surface.

In this world, within this Galaxy, there was only one other being besides Luo Wen that possessed a special infiltration and occupation method: Lumina. Though their techniques differed, the results were nearly identical.

And Luo Wen knew that, over a recent period, the high-level members of the Inner-circle Alliance had already been systematically occupied by Lumina. At present, they were all trapped in a virtual dreamscape created by Lumina, while their physical bodies had been replaced with Lumina’s subprograms.

He knew this because among those Inner-circle Alliance executives were “insiders” from the Swarm. When faced with the intrusion of nanomachines, Luo Wen, after careful thought, ordered them not to resist.

This entailed some risk, because Luo Wen didn’t know exactly what Lumina was truly capable of. But to obtain certain types of intelligence, one always had to pay a price.

Fortunately, the outcome wasn’t too bad. While the bodies had been taken over and the Intelligent Entities drawn into the virtual illusion, Luo Wen could still interfere with those intelligent entities and forcibly pull them back into the Swarm Network.

At the same time, through careful observation, Luo Wen discovered that Lumina hadn’t recognized the difference between the Intelligent Entities and ordinary races. This indicated the opponent had yet to breach into spiritual or higher-dimensional research.

This realization gave Luo Wen a measure of relief. The strongest enemy of the current stage—this hidden manipulator behind the scenes—didn’t seem to be as terrifying as he’d imagined.

Still, there were things Luo Wen couldn’t yet figure out. He would likely need more time and observation before he could reach any conclusions.