I Am The Swarm-Chapter 609: The Castle

After several methods failed in succession, Luo Wen felt a bit disheartened. After all, these tactics had always been foolproof in the past, allowing him to infiltrate even the most obscure corners.

But since Cecil was playing dirty, Luo Wen had no choice but to pull out his trump card. The Ji Race’s instruments could scan and detect those insects, marking them as targets for elimination, but surely they wouldn’t treat their own people the same way.

Although Luo Wen didn’t want to create unnecessary Intelligent Entities, adding one or two occasionally wouldn’t hurt. He could always format them afterward. Luo Wen and the Intelligent Entities were essentially one, so eliminating redundant parts of himself wasn’t a big deal, as long as he could get past the psychological barrier.

However, a few days later, Luo Wen found himself speechless again. To convert someone into an ‘insider’, he needed a prototype. But after days of observation, he noticed something unusual about the castle.

He hadn’t paid attention before, but now he realized that the castle had no gardeners or guards—or rather, no living gardeners or guards. These roles weren’t vacant; they had been replaced by intelligent machines.

While this might make some sense in a highly automated advanced civilization, the fact that no intelligent beings—or even any living creatures—had entered or exited the castle in days was truly abnormal.

Not long ago, the castle’s surroundings had been surrounded by Swarm versions of insects. Whether in the sky, on the ground, or underground, no valuable information could escape their surveillance.

Yet, for days, no intelligent being had approached the castle through any of these avenues. This was indeed unusual, especially since this was the residence of a Ji Race elder. The sheer volume of work involved should have made it impossible for the place to be so quiet.

Unless the owner was unavailable or simply not present, but even if they weren’t receiving guests, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t arrange for guards. From the current signs, the latter possibility seemed more likely.

After finally tracking down Cecil’s trail, only to discover that this place might just be a storage facility, Luo Wen felt both disappointed and unwilling to give up.

Since there were no clues to be found here, Luo Wen turned his attention to the nearby city. Surely, it couldn’t be entirely populated by intelligent machines.

The nearest city to the castle was about a hundred kilometers away. While it was more tightly secured than other cities, it couldn’t stop the infiltration of insects. And, as Luo Wen had expected, it was home to many living beings.

The Swarm’s scouts quickly filled every observation point, helping Luo Wen get a clear picture of the situation in a short time. By eavesdropping on the conversations of some long-term residents, he learned that they were indeed aware of the nearby residence and knew it belonged to a Ji Race elder. They also knew the elder’s name, but it wasn’t Cecil.

According to them, the residence belonged to a Ji Race elder named Sade, whose maternal race was the Black Tower Race. Luo Wen had some recollection of this race. According to previously obtained data, they were a long-established civilization deep within the inner ring of the galaxy.

They made up a significant portion of the Ji Race population. Among the first Ji Race members to make contact with the Swarm, there had been members from the Black Tower Race.

This race was known for being tall and muscular, with both men and women having bodies that looked like they were cast from metal. They preferred dark, mineral-rich environments and enjoyed collecting rare and beautiful metals.

This information answered some of Luo Wen’s questions. No wonder no Ji Race members had questioned the Potling-style castle—its owner was from the Black Tower Race, which aligned with the reverse preferences that fit the Ji Race’s values.

However, this also raised a new question for Luo Wen: why was the biological armor Cecil had purchased stored in another Ji Race elder’s residence?

According to the intelligence, this Black Tower Race elder had been assigned here three hundred years ago to oversee diplomatic affairs and experimental research in the nearby star systems.

But over a decade ago, for reasons unknown, this elder had left and hadn’t returned since. However, it was certain that he was still alive. Although his current whereabouts were unknown, he still managed this region, periodically convening relevant personnel to handle official business remotely.

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Luo Wen wasn’t particularly concerned about where he had gone, but the elder’s residence had been closed off to avoid unnecessary incidents, with everything inside managed by intelligent machines.

This move dashed Luo Wen’s plan to infiltrate the castle. Even if he converted someone else, there would be no reason for them to visit the residence. As for the intelligent machines, unfortunately, Luo Wen didn’t have the ability to convert them.

This brought the situation to another standstill. For the first time, Luo Wen realized the limitations of the Swarm in certain areas. However, these limitations couldn’t be overcome in the short term. The Ji Race was the pinnacle of mechanical civilization in this galaxy, and with the Swarm’s rudimentary hacking skills, attempting to access the internal code of those intelligent machines would likely trigger alarms and even attract the attention of “Lumina.”

Luo Wen was deeply wary of “Lumina,” an ancient relic from a bygone era. Unless absolutely necessary, it was best not to provoke it.

As days passed, Luo Wen continued to search for an opportunity to infiltrate the castle. But after running through all the gentler methods in his mind, he realized none of them would work.

Luo Wen felt that his earlier guidance through Elder Humes had been very successful, but the situation hadn’t evolved as he had expected. He was still very concerned about the reasons behind this.

Cecil was the key figure in this mystery. Finding out what had gone wrong and converting Cecil into an Intelligent Entity would be the fastest way to uncover the truth.

Originally, Cecil had been missing for a long time, and Luo Wen had no leads, so even if he wanted to formulate a plan, he had no starting point. Now that he finally had a clue about Cecil, the records in the biological armor wouldn’t lie to him.

Moreover, he had just checked through Elder Humes and confirmed that while the name Cecil was common among the Potlings, there was only one Ji Race elder named Cecil. The audio recordings in the biological armor had repeatedly mentioned Cecil and the title of Ji Race elder, especially during the auction, where the auctioneer had clearly stated, “Congratulations to Ji Race Elder Cecil for winning the biological armor.”

This meant that the Cecil who had acquired the biological armor was the one Luo Wen was looking for. And now, that biological armor was stored in this Potling-style castle, likely hiding more clues.