The Disappearance

The result of the match almost made Sarah question her life. She was a top player back then, but Rowan was easily defeated by Rowan in more than ten rounds.

Under Sarah's incredulous and adoring gaze, Rowan hummed smugly twice.

The truth is, while Rowan created a Rat-folk body for the game, he secretly added an extremely high refresh rate to this Rat-folk body.

Add to that his already powerful mental strength and reaction speed, and it's like Sarah, a normal person, is playing a game against someone who's constantly using Bullet Time. It would be strange if she didn't get completely crushed.

Of course, Rowan wouldn't say any of this.

However, he doesn't play games much these days. Firstly, skilled players are lonely and find it boring. Secondly, he's currently engrossed in various research projects, which are more appealing to him than games.

As the number of Intellect within the Swarm increased, various technologies and theoretical knowledge emerged one after another, which Rowan diligently absorbed.

If manipulating various genes is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, then genes are the pieces, and various technologies and knowledge are the blueprints. Without blueprints, he can only piece together some simple patterns. But with blueprints, he can follow them to assemble many complex patterns.

Just as he was absorbing this knowledge, he suddenly received a message that interrupted his learning process.

A Swarm Meteor has mysteriously lost contact.

Rowan Wen immediately added the person in charge, Blade, to the group to find out what was going on.

This Swarm Meteor was among the earliest meteorites randomly dropped outside its Origin star system, more than a decade ago.

Based on its speed, it has now traveled approximately one light-year, long since leaving its Origin star system, and should still be drifting in the void.

If it were within a star system, there would be countless asteroids and meteorites. Swarm Meteor travel at extremely high speeds and might not be able to avoid a collision.

However, if the location is in the void between two star systems, there will basically be nothing there; if there is, it is very likely to be man-made.

Could it be that aliens attacked the Swarm Meteor?

Rowan quickly retrieved Blade's previous observation records.

Rowan had initially assigned a special team to monitor the launched Swarm Meteor. Blade, acting like artificial intelligence, worked in two shifts, monitoring 24/7, ensuring there would be absolutely no errors.

Their observation records show that the Swarm Meteor suddenly lost its shared field of vision and communication. However, before it lost contact, there were no unusual occurrences in the surrounding area, and no obstacles were found ahead of its path.

This refutes the speculation that it was crashed.

As Swarm Meteor travel, they do not generate their own power, so there is almost no energy fluctuation. The Insect Egg inside are also in a dormant state, and their life forms are almost unobservable.

However, the Spore Sac themselves are biologically active and there is a possibility of exposure.

Given that no anomalies were detected before it lost contact, this situation could mean either that the other party's technology far surpasses that of the Swarm, making it impossible for the swarm to detect it, or that the Swarm Meteor encountered an unforeseen accident.

Neither of these possibilities is good news for Rowan and the Swarm.

Rowan was at a loss for what to do in this situation, but he was no longer fighting alone.

Search for the Swarm Network and lock onto the target.

A moment later, Morgan and some other Intellect had their consciousnesses pulled over by Rowan remotely.

Rowan briefly explained the situation to them, and the group then engaged in a heated discussion.

It is said that one person's plan is short-sighted, two people's plan is long-sighted, and three people can easily discuss things. At this moment, Rowan had gathered more than a hundred people in the group. Their ideas were clashing fiercely, and various speculations and guesses kept emerging, which actually sparked some interesting ideas.

Unfortunately, all of these speculations were ultimately refuted.

The situation is somewhat grim; the unknown is always the most terrifying. And regardless of what the other party is, judging from its attack on the Swarm Meteor, it did not act with goodwill.

To guard against potential enemies, Rowan ordered all Swarm bases on the Colony Star to be buried underground and all activities on the planets' surfaces to be suspended.

Even the launch pads on the Red Moon and Yellow Moon were recovered by the Creep, eliminating any trace of them.

As time went by, the discussions still yielded no fruitful results.

Suddenly, another Swarm Meteor lost contact.

However, what's strange is that the second lost Swarm Meteor was not near the first lost Swarm Meteor.

On the contrary, they are in almost completely opposite directions, with a distance of several light-years between them.

This is rather strange. The universe is so vast that it might indeed take several days to traverse a civilization several light-years away. However, between these two vanished Swarm Meteor, there are still a large number of Swarm Meteor scattered. Especially towards the nearest star system, there are hundreds of meteorites in total.

What is so special about these two lost-contact Swarm Meteor that attracted each other's attention?

However, the presence of the second lost-contact Swarm Meteor was actually a good thing for Rowan and his team. With this comparison, they could gain more useful information by comparing their similarities and differences.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for the Intellect to come up with a very plausible guess. However, this guess left Rowan speechless.

Through calculations, the Intellect discovered that the meteorites that lost contact were all flying in relatively remote locations, with no other Swarm Node Unit within a radius of approximately 1.052156 light-years.

Therefore, the Intellect deduced that the lost contact with the Swarm Meteor was not attacked, but rather went offline because it exceeded the network coverage area.

Another piece of evidence that supports this hypothesis is that the hundreds of Swarm Meteor flying toward nearby galaxies are the result of continuous launches over more than a decade.

The farthest of them has flown more than 1.1 light-years away, while the closest has not yet left its Origin star system. The farthest Swarm Meteor, 1.1 light-years away, is still within the coverage area of Swarm Network.

This shows that although the Swarm Network has a coverage area, Node Unit can act as relay bridges to extend this area.

The method of proof is also very simple. The Intellect counted the thousands of Swarm Meteor launched over the years and found that one of them would reach the critical point of this coverage area in a month.

Furthermore, there are no other Swarm units within a 1.052156 light-year radius of it.

Time passed slowly in anxious waiting.