The sess of his experiment filled Luo Wen with excitement. He continued to practice relentlessly, increasing the teleportation range from ten meters to a hundred, and eventually a thousand meters.
The objects he teleported also grewrger, starting from small beetles, progressing torge beetles, worker drones, and ultimately even teleporting Sarah Kerrigan’s insect body.
However, Luo Wen discovered a limitation: he could only teleport node units. The inherent nature of node units made them bridges capable of connecting reality and the virtual.
Fortunately, this restriction didn’t trouble him much.
As his proficiency grew, so too did his ability—or rather, he approached the upper limit of his current capabilities. The ceiling itself was fixed, but through practice, Luo Wen got ever closer to it.
That ceiling, however, still constrained him. This limitation was also something that could be ovee. As Luo Wen continued to evolve, so too would his upper limit increase.
The path he had taken seemed to diverge from his original intent. The “wormholes” he now used bore little resemnce to the wormholes he had studied earlier. Yet, this new method was uniquely suited to him and the Swarm, a wormhole concept entirely their own.
Tomemorate this breakthrough, Luo Wen named his new skill Fold Crossing.
Despite this achievement, Luo Wen’s current abilities still fell short of his goal to send the “seed” beyond the New Ji Race’s territory. Achieving that was akin to chasing an impossible dream; he needed to further refine and enhance this skill.Through continuous experimentation, he discovered that he could temporarily amplify his abilities by drawing energy through the node units. It was akin to taking a low-level character at level 10 and injecting it with enough power to temporarily experience the capabilities of a level 20 ount. Although the enhancement was short-lived, the abilities during this period were undiminished.
Because of this discovery, the previously abandoned Megastructure Self-Destruction n was revisited.
On that day, the energy generated by a 2,000-kilometer-long Megastructure,bined with the power it siphoned from a star, allowed Luo Wen to experience the capabilities of a level 60 “high-level ount” for a fleeting moment.
However, the massive power gap and the brief usage period, despite Luo Wen’s prior preparation, still caught him off guard. A small mishap urred, causing the n to fail.
Fortunately, he had another chance.
Over the course of several hours, Luo Wen reyed the sensation of the enhanced power in his mind, analyzing and internalizing every detail. Only when he felt fully prepared did his consciousness return to the present.
The second Megastructure had already reached its designated position and was siphoning energy from the star. Luo Wen waited patiently, with Sarah silently standing guard behind him.
Suddenly, Luo Wen closed his eyes. At the same time, the Megastructure in the distant Riken Star System exploded, unleashing a brief yet dazzling burst of light.
At the center of the explosion, a flesh pod was ejected.
Drawing on his earlier experience, Luo Wen executed his operation with unparalleled precision this time. The flesh pod didn’t need to search for the ck spot; instead, the ck spot “actively” appeared along the pod’s trajectory.
The ck spot flickered briefly and disappeared, taking the flesh pod with it.
Luo Wen didn’t immediately open his eyes. Instead, his expression grew even more solemn.
Currently, every illuminated point within the Swarm Network resided within the territory of the Interster Technological Confederation, firmly under the influence of the New Ji Race. Transporting the seed to these areas would be meaningless. What Luo Wen truly needed was a new gxy, a region beyond the New Ji Race’s reach.
When the “wormhole” was opened earlier, a massive influx of energy entered at the same time as the flesh pod.
As previously mentioned, higher dimensionsck the concept of distance. Luo Wen, existing partially outside dimensions, randomly sought a location within this universe. By guiding the energy through the Swarm Network as a bridge, he attempted to pierce the dimensional wall at that point.@@novelbin@@
However, this subsequent step was untested. Luo Wen encountered a new challenge.
Perhaps there was insufficient energy intake, or perhaps too much energy was consumed in constructing the bridge, or maybe the dimensional wall was simply too sturdy. Whatever the reason, Luo Wen found himself unable to breach the wall and release the seed.
The situation was dire. If the energy depleted entirely, the seed suspended between “reality” and “virtual” would inevitably be annihted. With both opportunities exhausted, attempting something simr again within a reasonable time frame would be virtually impossible.
Fortunately, at this critical moment, Luo Wen suddenly sensed a weaker region within the dimensional wall. He mustered all his strength to punch through it.
Within the energy-charged passage flickering with lightning, the ck spot reappeared briefly, ejecting the flesh pod.
The foreign intrusion caused the already vtile energy to surge even more violently, threatening to obliterate the intruder.
It turned out this was another wormhole.
As the spatial field’s energy surged to devour the flesh pod, something unexpected urred. After enduring the chaotic storm of energy, the flesh pod emergedpletely unharmed.
While Luo Wen’s Fold Crossing bore a surface resemnce to wormholes in terms of effect, its formation and operational principles were fundamentally different—at least for short-distance crossings.
Being different, Fold Crossing required no “negative energy” as a stabilizing medium. However, for long-distance Fold Crossings, Luo Wen was uncertain whether the same principles would hold.
Being cautious by nature, he had added a special storagepartment to the flesh pod to hold a small amount of negative energy as a safeguard.
Negative energy wasn’t particrly rare in the universe, but even for the technologically advanced New Ji Race, collecting it was extremely difficult. For the less-advanced Swarm, it was even more so. Fortunately, the Swarm only needed enough for a single flesh pod, a manageable requirement.
Although the addition of a storagepartment slightly increased the flesh pod’s size, it was like purchasing an insurance policy—better safe than sorry.
Aside from the exponentially greater energy demands, long-distance Fold Crossing worked fundamentally the same as its short-distance counterpart. It effectively manifested part of Luo Wen’s essence, allowing him to pierce through dimensional barriers and traverse them. Thus, negative energy wasn’t strictly necessary.
However, the unexpected happened. Due to insufficient energy, the flesh pod exited directly into an actual wormhole. If not for Luo Wen’s caution in including a failsafe, this attempt would have ended in failure.
Inside the wormhole, time held no meaning. In the blink of an eye, the flesh pod was expelled.
Returning to “reality,” the flesh pod unraveled, revealing a small, golden beetle inside—a rare Anchor Unit. This unit allowed Luo Wen to pinpoint its location.
Yet withoutparative reference data, Luo Wen had no way of knowing where it hadnded or how far it was from the current Swarm territory. However, given the extent of Luo Wen’s level-60 enhancement, it was certain to be well beyond the original gxy.
The specifics of its location would require a Swarm base to develop in the area and map the star charts for confirmation.
Still, the Swarm now had a genuine escape route. With this backdoor secured, Luo Wen could face the crises ahead with far greaterposure.
Luo Wen finally opened his eyes, a smile spreading across his face. Sarah, who had moved closer, saw the expression on her revered Overlord’s face and understood that the n had seeded. She, too, broke into a smile.
However, Luo Wen paid no attention to Sarah. Instead, he rubbed the corners of his eyes and closed them again. The situation on the other side remained unknown, and he needed to monitor it closely.