Deliberations, Part One

Rowan was speechless after understanding the whole story. Before this spiritual entity, he had encountered many "intrusions." But those Rat-folk must not have had strong enough mental power; they could only find the "door" but could not explain why, making Rowan nervously vigilant for so long.

For example, someone knocks on the door, and the homeowner asks, "Who is it?", but the person doesn't answer and just keeps knocking. Of course, the homeowner won't open the door easily. But this time, the person replies, "It's me." Although there isn't much information, there's a possibility of communication, and the homeowner, after considering all factors, might choose to open the door.

Well, that's roughly the idea... right?

After the psychic entity merged into the Swarm Network and acquired the identity of a "node," it became indistinguishable from other Swarm units. Because of its absolute loyalty to Rowan could easily probe into it with his mind and view its past life.

After examining the object, Rowan learned that this spiritual entity was the teacher of the Queen of the Kerrigan Kingdom, the former director of the Kingdom's Research Institute, and named Morgan...

After confirming that the energy posed no further threat, Rowan released him from his restraints and granted him basic network access.

However, it seems that his actions just now had taken a heavy toll on him, and he has not yet regained consciousness.

But he couldn't just stay in the Swarm Network forever, could he? Looking at the psychic entity before him—a rare experimental subject— Rowan's scientific spirit began to ignite...

After Morgan fell down the escalator, darkness gradually enveloped him. He knew he was going to die. Although there were still many people and things he couldn't let go of, everyone must die eventually. For Rat-folk, he was already considered old, and he had long since accepted this.

It's just a pity that in the end he didn't know if "God" really existed, which is truly unfortunate.

But just then, he seemed to sense something, an unseen guidance leading him, and then he knew nothing more...

When he regained consciousness, he found that everything had changed; he had turned into an insect!

It took him a while to accept this reality and become familiar with his new body, recalling his last vague memories before death. Could this be the realm of gods?

Rowan was unaware of the Rat-folk's complex inner thoughts, and although he could forcibly pry into them, he didn't want to. He hadn't communicated with intelligent beings in a long time; his interactions with the Rat-folk and Dinosaur-folk had mostly been charades and didn't really count as communication.

This Rat-folk might be his first subordinate with whom he could communicate normally. For the sake of future cooperation, and also out of respect for an intelligent being, he should refrain from probing the Rat-folk's thoughts.

However, while the Rat-folk was unconscious, he secretly conducted some experiments, hoping the Rat-folk would like the body he had given him.

Morgan had not been influenced by online novels and his mind was not yet liberated. He simply thought he had arrived in the realm of gods, since many historical records depicted "gods" as various insects.

After getting used to it for a while, he crawled along the passage past an exit and saw an insect that looked almost exactly like him, quietly watching him.

In an instant, he felt a sense of awe; his body and soul told him the identity of the insect opposite him. As if instinctively, he connected with it and received its consent.

Old Morgan exclaimed excitedly, "Are you God?"

Rowan was very satisfied with Morgan's attitude. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Now it seemed that the transformation of the Swarm Network was indeed a good idea.

Just as he was still putting on airs and figuring out how to start the conversation, old Morgan continued, "No, you are Her Majesty the Queen? I never imagined that I, who served the Queen in life, would be able to serve another Queen in death."

If Rowan hadn't possessed this insect and his face wasn't covered by an exoskeleton, one could definitely see the muscles on his face forming many question marks.

He could no longer maintain his air of mystery. Old Morgan was the first intelligent life form to be converted, and the process was still experimental. Something must have gone wrong; otherwise, why would he be spouting nonsense? So he asked, "What queen?"

"My body and soul are telling me that you are the Origin of our people, therefore you are..."

"Shut up!" Rowan roared, interrupting old Morgan, then cleared his throat and introduced himself, "I am the Overlord of the Swarm, codename F2A. From now on, I don't want to hear any other title."

"But..."

"If you want to be retrained, then continue."

Old Morgan, Rat-folk had spent many years navigating the court and the workplace, naturally wouldn't cause trouble for no reason. He readily replied, "Yes, Overlord Majesty, I understand."

Rowan breathed a sigh of relief, no longer dwelling on the issue of address. After listening to Morgan's self-introduction, he secretly compared it with what he knew. He found nothing wrong; Morgan hadn't hidden anything and answered every question without hesitation. It seemed the Swarm Network was reliable after all, and this conversion had been very successful.

He originally only intended to secretly cultivate a civilization to help him develop some technology, but he didn't expect such an unexpected surprise. As a result, many of his plans need to be changed.

Rowan began transmitting some information about the Swarm and future plans to Morgan. After all, the old man had been considered a wise man in the past, and it was always good to have another person's ideas to refer to.

Morgan took some time to process the information, then pondered for a moment before saying, "My Overlord, given the current situation, I believe a unified Rat-folk Empire would be more beneficial for our future development."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Rowan asked.

"While the technological rivalry between the two kingdoms can accelerate the development of science and technology, the repetitive research also results in a significant waste of human and material resources. If we could integrate all the resources from both sides, it would greatly accelerate the progress of the Overlord's plans."

Rowan pondered for a moment and asked, "So, if there's no longer a conflict between the two countries, no external threat, how can we ensure that the newly formed empire will continue to invest in relevant scientific research? Will the Swarm take on that threat themselves? They might indeed strengthen their technological research, but that would be in the weapons field. I've gone to so much trouble hoping they'll develop space exploration, not weapons to fight the Swarm. Besides, while the Swarm is powerful, they're still trapped on this planet; exposing them rashly would be too risky."

Old Morgan twitched his tentacles and said, "Overlord Majesty, your concerns are valid. But if the rulers of the new empire are our people, then all your worries will cease to be problems."