I Am The Swarm-Chapter 633: The Difference

After the demise of the original Ji race, their once-secret biological laboratories had long since vanished from public knowledge due to their strict confidentiality protocols. In today’s Confederation, the one who likely knows the most about these laboratories is Lumina.

If those laboratories still exist today, their maintenance over the years has probably been carried out by Lumina directing mechanical units. Therefore, Luo Wen’s attempt to use the biological laboratories to craft an identity in front of Lumina was somewhat laughable.

Thinking this, Luo Wen began to suspect that the Potling experimental subject in the castle might indeed be Elder Cecil. However, given the extent of her mechanical modifications, her true consciousness had likely long been lost in the virtual world, playing in the mud.

An unexpected opponent had emerged. Luo Wen had previously faced off against the Ji race’s artificial intelligence during the Daqi War, where the AI, serving as external support, had left a deep impression on him with its powerful coordination and management capabilities.

However, that confrontation had been relatively easy. At the time, Luo Wen had managed to cut off electronic signal transmissions, forcibly removing the AI from the battlefield.

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But that didn’t mean the Ji race’s AI was weak. It was simply constrained by hardware limitations and hadn’t had the chance to fully demonstrate its capabilities before Luo Wen found its weakness.

Lumina, however, was a product left behind by the original Ji race and was currently the most advanced artificial intelligence—perhaps even a sentient life form. The hardware it possessed was undoubtedly the best. If Luo Wen were to face Lumina, his previous tactic of cutting off the network, which had worked during the Daqi War, would likely fail.

Although Luo Wen had long known that he would eventually face Lumina, he had assumed it would be as a tool of the Ji race, not as Lumina itself.

This might seem like a minor distinction, but the difference was significant.

If Lumina were still merely a tool of the Ji race, a collection of code, it would at most be an advanced AI—an excellent fleet commander.

Its micro-management abilities on the battlefield would be formidable, but behind the scenes, there would be many factors that could influence it, such as the Ji race’s council of elders.

As long as Lumina’s core principles weren’t violated, it would abide by the decisions of the council. Luo Wen could manipulate the council by turning the elders into his “own people,” indirectly influencing Lumina’s actions.

In this way, even if Lumina’s battlefield operations were unparalleled, without the relevant directives, it would be nothing more than a decoration.

But now, things are completely different. Lumina had gained the ability to think and make decisions on its own. Judging by its current actions of secretly controlling Ji race elders, its thought processes were quite dangerous.

By controlling a certain number of Ji race elders, Lumina could use its numerical advantage in council meetings to pass decisions favorable to itself. At the same time, it could conceal the fact that it had become a sentient life form.

Putting himself in Lumina’s shoes, Luo Wen quickly understood its plan. It wasn’t hard to grasp, as Luo Wen had once considered a similar strategy.

But why was Lumina being so cautious? It controlled the majority of the Ji race’s military power. With that, it could easily sweep through the entire Confederation.

Although this would result in astronomical casualties and losses, Lumina, having no peers in this world, wouldn’t care about such things.

Could it be that there was something Lumina feared—something that posed a threat to it? If so, what could it be?

A measure left behind by the original Ji race to restrain it? Luo Wen quickly dismissed this idea. To the original Ji race, the foreign races were nothing more than servants and tools. Moreover, the original Ji race had lost their emotions. Why would they, before their demise, create something to protect their servants?

In the eyes of the original Ji race, Lumina held a far higher position than the foreign races. This was evident from Lumina’s core principles, which included clauses for self-preservation but made no mention of the foreign races.

If it wasn’t a remnant of the original Ji race, then could it be the power of the foreign races? Did these former servants and tools possess hidden capabilities unknown to Luo Wen?

Although Luo Wen had deeply infiltrated some races near the Swarm’s territory, he was still somewhat limited in his reach when it came to races farther away, due to time constraints.

Even if he managed to influence a few key figures, the intelligence provided by a handful of individuals wouldn’t give him complete knowledge of everything. Therefore, while Luo Wen found it unlikely that the foreign races could hide anything significant under Lumina’s surveillance, he couldn’t entirely rule it out due to limited information.

That left only threats from outside the Confederation, something Luo Wen was quite familiar with, as the Swarm was currently the only external enemy of the Confederation.

But to be honest, although Luo Wen had many hidden cards, the Swarm’s current level of development didn’t seem sufficient to pose a threat to Lumina. So why did Lumina hold the Swarm in such high regard?

Luo Wen thought of the current narrative within the Confederation about the Swarm’s origins: a native race that had inherited the legacy of a higher civilization. Undoubtedly, after Elder Cecil had been reduced to her current state, Luo Wen’s earlier attempts to guide the narrative had been twisted by Lumina.

Was this narrative Lumina’s own conclusion? And how had it arrived at this conclusion? There were still some inconsistencies. Judging from the experiments in the castle, Lumina placed great importance on the Swarm’s technology.

Even back when the Swarm first joined the Confederation, it had already revealed some of its technology, most notably the gene lock. If Lumina was so interested in these technologies, why hadn’t it simply taken them by force? After all, at that time, the Swarm likely couldn’t even stand up to a single Ji race patrol.

Could it be that Lumina had developed some kind of righteous personality, disdaining the bullying of the weak? Or was its evolution or mutation still incomplete, leaving it bound by certain rules?

If that were the case, it could indirectly support the second speculation. The Ji race’s council of elders held the authority to create and modify rules. If Lumina hadn’t completely broken free from these rules, it would still be subject to certain constraints.

Thus, it might have secretly taken control of Ji race elders to influence the council and address this issue from the sidelines? But elders like Elder Cecil and Elder Sade, while still technically alive in the virtual world, were effectively as good as dead.

The fact that Lumina could achieve this level of control didn’t seem like the behavior of an entity bound by rules. After all, the council’s primary concern was the safety and interests of the elders.