Upgrade

Among the attackers, hidden beneath their helmets, were several familiar faces—perhaps the patrol soldiers who had been rescued earlier?

Yes, on the Mother Planet Rickon, who would be more suitable for doing something like this than an expeditionary soldier who just returned from outer space, has no record of whereabouts for decades, and has combat experience?

--

"My Overlord, the Creep Seed on our Mother Planet Rickon have been activated," Sarah reported.

Rowan nodded. Although the Creep Seed was activated by the Sky Eye, which he authorized to monitor in real time, he knew about it the moment it was activated.

"My Overlord, we should find a way to send an Insect Empress to the Mother Planet Riken so that the next step of our plan can proceed."

So, what are your thoughts?

"There isn't a good solution yet. According to the information provided by the Intellect there, the Riken Race has built the Riken Star System into an impregnable fortress. Although it's not very complete, it will be difficult for us to pass through without a large-scale military invasion."

"I understand, I'll handle this!" Rowan thought for a moment and replied.

According to Chloe's information, the closer one gets to their Mother Planet in the entire Riken Star System, the tighter the defenses become. It is said that their technology has made some progress, and they even plan to hollow out their Mother Planet's moons and turn them into Planetary Fortress.

The Swarm's idea of using a few Swarm Meteor as cover to crash onto a planet, as they did before, is absolutely impossible. The reason the Riken Race went to war back then was because the Swarm dropped a meteorite that destroyed an administrative region on their Mother Planet, Riken.

This made Rowan realize that he had been unjustly blamed for something he didn't do. If he found out who did it, he would definitely turn them into feed for the insect larvae.

However, it was precisely because of this incident that the Riken Race became Sig, ensuring that even the smallest meteorite could not get close to their Mother Planet.

Therefore, if this had happened more than twenty years ago, this problem would have been extremely difficult to solve. It's possible that the Swarm would have ultimately had to rely on sheer force to conquer the Riken Mother Planet, but that would have been somewhat contrary to Rowan's original intentions.

But nowadays, this problem has become extremely easy to solve.

The reason is that Rowan's Swarm Network capabilities have been enhanced once again.

Since the birth of the first Intellect created from the spirit of the Riken Race, Rowan had vaguely sensed some changes in the Swarm Network. However, because the changes were not obvious and the Swarm Network was too vast, he could not find where they occurred.

Then, as more and more new types of Intellect emerged, this change became increasingly apparent.

It's not entirely accurate to say that the changes in Swarm Network were solely caused by new Intellect.

The transformation of Intellect involves absorbing the energy of a mature spiritual body and then using that energy to create Intellect.

The key point is that this energy was first absorbed by the Swarm Network before the Intellect emerged.

To put it simply, this energy hasn't disappeared; it has only changed its mode of presentation. What appears to be Intellect with independent consciousness is actually still part of the Swarm Network.

Over the years, the Swarm has accumulated millions of Intellect and absorbed the energy of so many. It would be impossible to say that the Swarm Network has remained completely unchanged.

However, these changes are simply enhancements to the original functions, such as an increased coverage area and a total of 5 main bodies and Mother Nest.

However, this time it may have been affected by the impact of the Seed of a new civilization, which brought an opportunity to the Swarm Network, causing the energy it had absorbed over the years to change from quantitative to qualitative, and even resulting in an evolution.

The most direct change brought about by the evolved Swarm Network is that many of the problems that had been troubling Rowan have been resolved.

Furthermore, these features have been enhanced beyond imagination.

For example, previously all production units of the Swarm, such as the early Ant Queen and the current Insect Empress, required the Mother Nest to produce. But now, any Insect Empress can be authorized to produce these units.

In other words, the Insect Empress can Insect Empress. This means that if the Swarm wants to set foot in a new star system, it no longer needs to send its main body and the Mother Nest over, as it did when exploring Proxima Star System.

This can significantly accelerate the speed at which the Swarm conquers new star systems.

For example, previously, to absorb the genes of a certain organism, only Rowan's main body or the Mother Nest could do so. But now, all production units have the ability to absorb these genes and can also upload them to the Swarm Network.

In other words, if Rowan were to encounter a creature similar to Godzilla again, he wouldn't need to personally feed on it. Any nearby Rowan Insect Empress would be enough to consume it, and Rowan could harvest its genes through the Swarm Network.

For example, in the past, the gene pool could not be updated after the Ant Queen was produced. In Insect Empress, the gene pool could be updated, but the Rowan maker himself had to contact them and share the data, which was very time-consuming and laborious.

Even with Rowan Wen's constant travel, the work became increasingly difficult due to limitations in speed, coupled with the expansion of the Swarm's territory and the rapid updating of genetic data.

Fortunately, many units in the Swarm were later modeled after Creep, and many components could be added later. Even if the Insect Empress's gene pool wasn't updated for a while, the impact was much smaller.

However, a smaller impact doesn't mean no impact at all. For example, the genetic information extracted from Godzilla will definitely need to be completely updated, and every time this happens, it's a major operation.

Furthermore, the fact that the main body was frequently active outside was not something Rowan could easily accept at the time.

Fortunately, the problem has now been solved. All production units' gene banks can now be remotely authorized for updates via the Swarm Network. This has made data sharing, which previously required one-by-one updates, as easy as copying and pasting once.

For example, in the past, only the main body could grow Mother Nest, and only the Mother Nest could hatch the main body.

However, now Rowan can incubate the main body through network authorization via any production unit, and with the main body, there is naturally Mother Nest.

What does that mean?

This means that the original body and the Mother Nest will no longer limit the potential of the Swarm. Efiash's abilities have been fully integrated into the Swarm Network, transforming from a physical entity into an illusory power.

The ability to absorb genes is not lost due to the destruction of the host or the Mother Nest.

The unique abilities of the original entity and the Mother Nest have been integrated into the Swarm Network, further diminishing their significance.

They, which originally needed to be hidden and heavily protected, became less important. Rowan even planned to annihilate them all and only produce them when needed.

This will further ensure that Efiash's genes and abilities are not leaked.

At the same time, this greatly enhanced Rowan's survival ability.

The main body and the Mother Nest together have a maximum of 5, but how many Insect Empress are there?

The latest data shows that, along with the Insect Empress Egg drifting in the void of space, the total number of Insect Empress exceeds one million in two galaxies.

As long as any one of them survives, the Swarm can reproduce again in a short period of time.

These changes in abilities gradually transformed Rowan from a physical being into a spiritual being. Whether this change was good or bad, Rowan could not yet judge, but these changes gave him more confidence when facing potential future crises.