I Am The Swarm

Chapter 177: Vanished

The outcome of the game left Sarah Kerrigan doubting her life choices. Once a top-tier player, she was utterly crushed by Luo Wen in over a dozen matches.

Under Sarah’s incredulous and admiring gaze, Luo Wen smugly hummed in triumph.

The truth, however, was that Luo Wen had fabricated a Ratfolk body to play the game but secretly equipped it with a pair of absurdly high-refresh-rate eyes.

Coupled with his formidable mental power and reaction speed, it was as if Sarah, a normal person, was competing against someone perpetually in bullet time. It was no surprise she was thoroughly defeated.

Naturally, Luo Wen kept these details to himself.

These days, Luo Wen spent little time gaming. First, the loneliness of being unmatched made it dull. Second, he was now engrossed in various re

Even the launch platforms on the Red and Yellow Moons were dismantled and absorbed into the Fungal Carpet, leaving no trace.

Days turned into weeks, but the discussions yielded no substantial breakthroughs.

Then, without warning, another Swarm Meteor vanished.

Curiously, the second missing meteor was not near the first; the two were almost in opposite directions, separated by several light-years.

This was peculiar. While it was conceivable for a civilization to traverse such distances in days, the missing meteors were surrounded by hundreds of other Swarm Meteors, particularly those heading toward the nearest star system.

Why were these two specific meteors singled out?

Yet, the loss of a second meteor presented an opportunity for analysis. By comparing the two incidents, Luo Wen and his team hoped to uncover useful patterns.

Indeed, the Intelligent Entities soon proposed a plausible theory—one that left Luo Wen speechless.

Their calculations revealed that both missing meteors had been in relatively isolated positions, with no other Swarm nodes within 1.052156 light-years of their vicinity.

From this, the Intelligent Entities hypothesized that the meteors were not attacked but had instead exceeded the Swarm Network’s coverage range and effectively “disconnected.”

Further evidence supporting this theory lay in the other meteors launched toward the neighboring star system. Over the past decade, hundreds of Swarm Meteors had been sent out.

The farthest among them had traveled over 1.1 light-years, while the nearest were still within the Genesis Star System. The meteor at 1.1 light-years remained within network coverage, suggesting that while the Swarm Network had a finite range, node units could extend it.

Testing this theory was straightforward: the Intelligent Entities identified a meteor expected to reach the network’s coverage limit in one month. It, too, would have no nearby nodes within 1.052156 light-years.

The waiting game began, with anticipation mounting as the days crept by.