I Am The Swarm

Elder Humes slowly recounted his discovery: “Although the actions of the opposition to destroy the laboratories didn’t evoke any negative emotions in them, many of the experimental materials were unique. Once destroyed, recreating them would require additional time. In their rational thinking, this was unacceptable.”

“To avoid such situations, one option was to kill all the opposition. However, they couldn’t identify all the opponents in a short time, which would drastically increase the time cost. Moreover, even if they found and eliminated all the opposition, most of them were researchers. Killing them would affect many other projects.”

“Therefore, after careful consideration, the original Ji Race members in charge of the project decided to relocate the laboratory to another location and conceal its coordinates. This way, even if the opposition wanted to protest, they wouldn’t know where to go.”

Hearing this, Elder Cecil began to understand what Elder Humes was getting at. She interjected, “Are you suggesting that the Swarm was created by the original Ji Race?”

Elder Humes nodded and continued, “That’s a possibility. The new laboratory’s coordinates were highly secretive. After discovering this clue, I went through a lot of records and even used Lumina’s authority, but I couldn’t find them. However, during this process, I found some other records, which is why I linked the Swarm to the original Ji Race’s biological experiments.”

After Elder Humes finished speaking, several images and video files were transmitted to Elder Cecil’s communication terminal. She opened and reviewed them, and the two fell into a brief silence.

Through Elder Humes’ perspective, Sarah also saw those images and materials. Although she couldn’t actively open the video files, the images looked somewhat familiar to her.

The images showed a monster photographed from multiple angles. Based on the surrounding references, the monster wasn’t very large, definitely not exceeding five meters in height. It had a bulky body, thick legs, small forelimbs, a long neck, a small head, and some rounded protrusions on its back.

Wasn’t this just a chibi version of Godzilla? Sarah was surprised. She remembered the Overlord once complaining about how such a creature could evolve naturally. Could Godzilla really be a product of the Ji Race, an unnatural creation?

The shapes of its scales and limbs also had noticeable differences. If the external features were so distinct, the internal differences would likely be significant as well. At the very least, a five-meter-tall monster like the one in the pictures couldn’t possibly house an atomic furnace.

“Is this a creation of the original Ji Race’s research?” Elder Cecil asked after reviewing the materials.

“Correct! This was a new attempt by the original Ji Race to incorporate capabilities typically achieved by mechanical devices into their own biological framework. If the experiment succeeded, every individual could potentially become a superhuman.”

“It seems they failed…”

Elder Humes shook his head. “I don’t know if they succeeded. These are all records from before the laboratory was relocated. After the move, they almost completely severed ties with headquarters. Alternatively, headquarters may have classified their information, making it accessible only to the original Ji Race.”

“Alright, but what does this have to do with the Swarm? I’ve seen some of the Swarm’s data, and they don’t seem to resemble the creature in these images,” Elder Cecil asked, still puzzled.

“Ah, my oversight. Take a look at this material,” Elder Humes chuckled and transmitted another set of files. Sarah saw that the images now featured Godzilla.

From the perspective of the shots, it seemed to be during a battle. Some of the images captured Godzilla releasing its atomic breath, with the intense beam of light shooting toward distant gunboats.

Sarah quickly pinpointed the timeline of these images. Godzilla had only made a few appearances, so this wasn’t difficult. Although the enemies in the images were mostly obscured by the blinding atomic breath, the glimpses revealed that they were Riken gunboats.

“Forgive me for saying so, Elder Humes, but while this creature bears some resemblance to the one in the previous images, their sizes alone suggest they’re not the same,” Elder Cecil commented as she reviewed the materials.

“The original Ji Race’s biological laboratory was relocated thousands of years before the original Ji Race’s extinction. Who knows how far they advanced this creature during that time?”

“That makes some sense. The original Ji Race was a formidable presence, and with the assistance of foreign researchers, it’s possible they created this thing.”

“Indeed. Now, guess where this creature was discovered?”

“Is this an open-book test? I’ll guess it was found in Swarm territory,” Elder Cecil said with a laugh. After all, Elder Humes had spent so much time linking this creature to the Swarm; how could she not guess where it was found?

“Correct. It was discovered in the star system marked LKDW399, which is the Swarm’s royal court.”

“Really?” Elder Cecil looked back at the images and murmured, “Then who are these guys? They actually managed to attack the Swarm’s royal court?”

“That’s the Riken Race, the small group that developed the life-extension serum.”

“Wait, I’m confused. Didn’t you say the Riken Race was being besieged by the Swarm at their doorstep? How did they have the capability to attack the Swarm’s territory?”

“That’s indeed a strange point. Due to the lack of monitoring in the early stages, the history of the past hundred years could only be pieced together from the accounts of those involved. The Swarm certainly wouldn’t share their records, so I looked through the Riken Race’s historical accounts. According to their records, they organized an expedition to investigate LKDW399 after detecting thermonuclear reactions there.”

Elder Humes thought for a moment and continued, “At that time, the Riken Race’s technology was still very primitive. It took them decades just to cross a single star system. However, shortly after their expedition arrived at LKDW399, they lost contact. Before losing contact, the expedition sent back some data, but due to their backward communication methods and interference, the data was severely corrupted by the time it reached the Riken Race. They could only roughly determine that LKDW399 might be hiding an intelligent race. By then, the Riken Race had already unearthed the treasures we left for them. Believing that they couldn’t tolerate a potential threat so close to home, they confidently assembled an expeditionary force to seek revenge on LKDW399.”