Even seven dayster, Lieutenant Colonel Cross asionally recalled the scene in the underground chamber. The feeling of toying with prey was intoxicating.


    After Cleo lost consciousness, she was immediately dragged underground. Twenty kilometers beneath the vi, another hidden Riken sub-hive existed.


    Thisboratory sub-hive was established after it reached a certain level of development. A flying bug, carrying a fungal carpet seed, found Cross and set up a new base beneath the vi.


    If the Swarm Network had not evolved, Luo Wen would never have been so aggressive. But now, he had his confidence.


    After Cleo was sent to the underground base, her new body was temporarily controlled by the Hive Queen’s consciousness. Meanwhile, Cross kept putting on a sisterly act in the vi above.


    However, the Cross in the underground base was not using her own body. Traveling twenty kilometers through underground tunnels risked bumps and scrapes, and being away from the vi too long could raise suspicion among the servants.


    Instead, the Cross who met Cleo used a temporary body, created specifically for this purpose. Once used, it was recycled. With Luo Wen’s authorization, transferring an intelligent consciousness between multiple bodies was routine.


    As Cross was lost in thought, she noticed her “sister’s” body tremble slightly. Sensing that the Hive Queen’s consciousness had departed and a new consciousness had descended, she greeted Cleo with a radiant smile and a warm hug.


    “Wee back, sister. How does it feel?” Cross asked, her expression blossoming with joy.Cleo rolled her eyes but did not resist her sister’s embrace. “Not bad,” she replied.


    After a moment’s thought, she added, “It would have been even better without all your dramatics!”


    Examining the information provided by Cleo, Luo Wen fell into contemtion.


    Cleo was a crucial figure—a brilliant researcher with direct ess to the ancient spaceship and a wealth of firsthand data.@@novelbin@@


    After transforming Cross, and learning of her connections, the n to target Cleo was immediately set in motion. Thus, as soon as the Swarm’s Riken sub-hive was established, the n was executed without a hitch.


    Thanks to Cross’s cooperation, the operation proceeded wlessly, yielding Luo Wen a trove of ssified information.


    The technology aboard the ancient spaceship far surpassed the Riken race’s capabilities. Withoutprehensive theoretical frameworks and prerequisite technologies, the Riken’s attempts at decryption had been less than ideal.


    Over the years, their analysis team had mostly been reverse-engineering fundamental theories from existing products.


    Thus far, only a handful of breakthroughs had been made.


    Yet even these few advancements had catapulted the Riken race’s technological prowess forward.


    For instance, their warships could now exceed a kilometer in length, thanks to their materials research team.


    Another example was their sublight engines, reverse-engineered from the fighter engines aboard the ancient spaceship. The Riken spected that the spaceship’s primary engine system was a warp drive capable of faster-than-light travel. However, due to gaps in their prerequisite technologies, they remained clueless about its workings.


    Luo Wen allocated a team of 200,000 intelligent entities to specialize in processing and studying the experimental data transmitted by Cleo.


    By now, the Swarm’s pool of intelligent entities had grown to millions, most of whom were spiritual remnants of deceased Ratfolk scientists.


    Over the years, these entities had yed a pivotal role in the Swarm’s progress, despite their low visibility.


    Since venturing into space, Luo Wen could no longer rely solely on harvesting biological genes to elevate the Swarm’s limits, as he had done during the ant empire era.


    Although spaceborne organisms held tremendous potential for gic enhancement, such organisms were exceedingly rare. To date, the Swarm had encountered only one and a half types.


    The first was an atmospheric organism found on a gaseous’s moon in the Genesis Star System, which unlocked the Swarm’s bio-electromaic technology.


    The “half” was Godzi, unable to traverse space but harboring controble fusion technology that significantly bolstered the Swarm’s strength.


    Even now, Godzi’s body contained untapped ck technology.


    However, such organisms were scarce, their appearances unpredictable. Relying solely on them to enhancebat capabilities and civilization levels would result in uneptably slow development.


    For the Swarm to grow rapidly, it needed its own research teams and technological systems—something the intelligent entities had been tirelessly building for years.


    The current Swarm technologies, from upgraded electromaic and fusion technologies to optical and sma engines, railguns, and innovations in observation, radar,munications, andputation, were primarily products of these intelligent entities’ research.


    Freed from concerns like sustenance, health, or interpersonal strife, and devoid of desires for recognition, the intelligent entities coborated seamlessly. This unity enabled the collective efforts of millions of entities to surpass the output of many civilizations’ tens of millions of researchers.


    Their umted knowledge now represented the Swarm’s most valuable asset and its foundation for future conquests across the stars.


    Six months passed slowly.


    Surrounding Cross were numerous Eagle-Eye Bugs stationed kilometers or even tens of kilometers away, using pure optical observation to monitor everything.


    No anomalies were detected.


    Luo Wen’s hypothesis proved correct: even if the Watcher civilization existed, they would not scrutinize every detail. Their focus likelyy at the level of civilization-wide developments.


    With this confirmation, the Swarm’s next phase could proceed.


    “Sarah, the stage is yours,” Luo Wen said.


    “We will not disappoint you, Overlord,” Sarah Kerrigan replied.


    Since the Riken expedition fleet fled the Neighboring Star System, the Swarm no longer hid its presence, revealing itself openly. On the system stars orbit, countless space octopuses waited, feeding on the abundant radiation to elerate their growth.


    Meanwhile, two colossal electromaic megastructures were nearingpletion.


    The Swarm’s first electromaic megastructure had taken decades of painstaking effort to grow. Since then, the Swarm had constructed numerous smaller megastructures, amassing significant experience.


    Now, with new technologies and algorithms, the two new megastructures, each over 2,000 kilometers in size, had grown in less than a decade.


    Next, the megastructures beganunching Primordial-ss space octopuses toward the Riken Star System. Propelled by their ejection speed and their engines, the space octopuses formed two linear formations, advancing at over one-sixth the speed of light toward their target.