In the early days, due to limitations in his power, Luo Wen lost sight of many node units. However, as his strength continued to grow, the increase in sub-hives also deepened his connection to this universe, making it easier for him to locate new regions.
Originally, it took over ten thousand node units gathered in one place to light up a new area on the Swarm’s map. But as of now, that number has dropped to less than a thousand.
This reduced requirent has allowed many previously lost regions to be relit, and their numbers have increased significantly. Once these areas were reintegrated into the Swarm Network, Luo Wen issued new orders.
In fact, gathering a thousand node units in one area is relatively easy. Thanks to the continuously upgrading Swarm Network, Luo Wen can remotely command node units to undergo mutation.
With sufficient energy, any node unit can mutate into a Fungal Carpet, which can then spawn a Brood Queen. With a Brood Queen, it doesn’t take long for a new Swarm base to erge, and producing a thousand node units from there is a simple task.
However, all of this relies on Luo Wen being able to connect to and command them. Without Luo Wen’s authorization and permission, node units cannot perform these operations on their own.
The uncertainty of node units going offline also ans Luo Wen cannot grant them permissions in advance. This isn’t due to concerns about betrayal—even if they lose contact, node units would never develop disloyal thoughts toward Luo Wen.
What Luo Wen worries about is that, without proper intelligence support, node units might make rash decisions if they go offline, potentially leading to exposure and causing problems.
However, as longevity serums continue to be distributed and the number of node units required to light up a region decreases, the natural movent of people often ets the threshold, lighting up new areas.
At this stage, because these gatherings are temporary, the lighting up of these regions is unstable, and they could easily go offline again. But during the brief period of connection, Luo Wen can issue commands to authorize a node unit to mutate, leaving a Swarm base in that region and permanently lighting it up.
As more and more regions are lit up in this way, the territory of the Confederation in the Swarm Network begins to resemble a patchy, tattered cloth, with spots of light scattered across the void, gradually connecting into threads and strands. If this trend continues, in a few hundred years, this tattered cloth might stretch and rge into a flawless, pristine piece of silk.
Even in its current patchy state, this network is incredibly valuable to Luo Wen, and occasionally, it brings surprises…
For example, the real reason for Luo Wen’s current dilemma: in one of the newly lit regions, he discovered Cecil, whom he hadn’t seen in a long ti.
This was a Ji Race enclave far from Swarm territory. Based on rough estimates, the straight-line distance was likely over two thousand light-years. Relying on the movent of people to gather enough node units at such a distance was impossible at this stage, and the process of lighting up this region was rather dramatic.
When the Riken Race and the Swarm first joined the Confederation, a group of researchers who had been exchanged for points collectively departed. Although many node units were among them, as they were dispersed, most eventually went offline.
However, one group remained connected to Luo Wen no matter how much their numbers dwindled. The reason was that one mber of the group carried a specin of a golden-armored beetle.
This golden-armored beetle, which had slipped past Ji Race inspections and was classified as personal luggage, was an anchor unit—a rare and precious resource both then and now.
Thanks to this golden-armored beetle, even when the group’s node units were reduced to just a few dozen, Luo Wen was always able to track their movents.
This group also contributed greatly to the Swarm’s cause. Wherever they stopped, a Fungal Carpet seed was planted. Whenever the group was split, the golden-armored beetle would be transferred to a node unit that continued to move. In this way, they mapped out a path as they traveled.
By the ti they reached Cecil’s location, the number of node units had dwindled to less than ten. These ten researchers were all from the biological research branch, suggesting that they could no longer be split up and that this would be their permanent workplace.
Two thousand light-years was a distance that even Elder Hus’ personal spacecraft, traveling nonstop, would take over two hundred years to cover. For ordinary researchers from newly joined outer-ring civilizations, their ships were far slower than a Ji Race elder’s vessel.
If they relied solely on warp drives, it might take them over three hundred years to reach their destination—a tifra that would likely outlast the war against the Swarm.
Long ago, Luo Wen had speculated that the Ji Race possessed a faster thod of travel. Given the vast territory they controlled, relying solely on warp drives would make it nearly impossible to maintain such an empire, even with nurous overseas enclaves.
Therefore, they must have had a rapid deploynt thod of transportation. It wasn’t until Elder Hus defected that this was confird.
The Ji Race possessed a device known as the “Star Gate,” a large-scale controllable wormhole. Built near the close stellar orbit of a star and powered by the imnse energy supply of a Dyson sphere, it could be activated.
However, this Star Gate was different from Luo Wen’s Fold Crossing skill. Instead, it was similar to the small controllable wormhole technology found on Planet Botian. Although a Star Gate could be activated independently, the Confederation had no records of anyone surviving a one-way trip through it. Brave explorers were either instantly crushed by the violent energy or vanished into the Star Gate, swept away by spatial turbulence to who-knows-where.
Therefore, to safely use a Star Gate, another Star Gate had to be built at the destination. Constructing a Star Gate was an extrely resource and ti-intensive process, making it a semi-permanent facility that served the Confederation.
At key transportation hubs, the Ji Race built these Star Gates to provide services for both the Ji Race and other civilizations. However, because each activation of a Star Gate consud a massive amount of energy, they were typically opened once a month or once every three months, depending on traffic volu.
Cecil’s location, though far from the Swarm, was not remote within the Confederation. Therefore, the Ji Race spacecraft carrying the anchor unit only had to wait less than twenty days for the Star Gate to open.
Against the backdrop of the vast starry sky, the massive fireball of the star was partially obscured by a layer of special energy-absorbing material. This sh structure, though full of gaps, significantly reduced the brightness of the star system, casting the area in a dim light.
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