Acting

Rowan paid some attention to the Epoch Clan members in the Riken Race. After all, he had very little intelligence, and any increase in information would be helpful to him. The Riken Star System was ostensibly half of the Swarm territory, but secretly it probably accounted for about 80%, making it arguably the Swarm's home turf.

Therefore, there are at least a thousand Overseer secretly watching the two Epoch Clan ships in space, and there are countless spies on the Riken Mother Planet. Even the Riken Race's intelligence system is "shared" with the Swarm.

In this situation, unless the technology of the Epoch Clan reaches a level that the Swarm can no longer understand, it is absolutely impossible for them to escape the Swarm's field of vision.

Rowan had initially guessed that the Epoch Clan members, besides overseeing the project's construction, probably also had a spy-like function. But at this moment, they hadn't made any suspicious moves.

Perhaps the Riken Race itself is too weak, and its origins are innocent, plus there's nothing worth coveting, which is why the two ships of the Epoch Clan have remained inactive, staying cooped up in their spaceships all day. Perhaps when they install quantum communication devices on the Swarm, they might reveal some clues, but that will have to wait a while.

Fortunately, Rowan had other things to do to pass the time. In fact, Rowan's main focus was on the Epoch Clan Transport Team that had left.

Based on previous speculations, Rowan felt they were about to pull off some shady tactics.

That's indeed the case.

After the Epoch Clan Transport Team left the Riken Star System, they did not choose the nine o'clock direction, the fastest route into the Alliance territory. Instead, they flew towards the Sandstorm Star System at six-thirty. To make their journey appear more natural, they even flew in this direction out of the Swarm's field of vision.

However, there was a slight flaw: when they passed through the Sandstorm Star System, they slowed down and rested for a moment in the meteorite belt outside the star system, as if they were afraid that the Swarm would not be able to find them.

"This acting is so stiff." The Epoch Clan Transport Team's baffling actions reminded Rowan of a match-fixing video he had once seen, which seemed to have a similar effect.

However, it was indeed quite a challenge for the commander of that Transport Team. In their understanding, the Swarm shouldn't be able to detect Warp Bubble. And getting the Swarm to detect them, following normal procedures, was not easy at all. It was like asking a blind person to spot a bird flying in the sky—extremely difficult.

The Epoch Clan's actions were like having a bird land next to a blind man, calling out loudly a few times, and then, as if afraid the blind man's hearing was also impaired, even flapping the blind man's wings a few times.

It was too deliberate; Rowan was speechless as he looked at the scene.

When the Epoch Clan's spaceship arrived, besides its very obvious "Treasure Ship" style and enormous size, there was another thing that left a very deep impression on Rowan.

That is, they actually sprayed the ship numbers directly onto the hull, the huge characters hundreds of meters long were quite eye-catching, in addition to a lot of graffiti, making each spaceship look so unique.

According to the explanation given by the Epoch Clan members at the time, the New Epoch Clan was an inclusive nation composed of more than two hundred races. In order to highlight its inclusivity, the crew members were allowed to decorate their vehicles with patterns to express their individuality.

At the time, this reason completely baffled Rowan, but now he realized that it wasn't about showing individuality at all; it was clearly a way to prevent the Swarm from mistaking them for another passing Epoch Clan formation...

Although the trick was a bit clumsy, it actually achieved its purpose. Even if the Swarm couldn't observe the Warp Bubble, it could easily determine the true speed of Swarm Epoch Clan's spaceship by taking into account the departure time and arrival time of the Epoch Clan Transport Team in the Sandstorm Star System, plus the distance between the two locations.

This confirms some of Rowan's previous speculations: the mastermind behind it all did indeed want to put pressure on the Swarm.

"Heh, so they really are using the Swarm as a pawn." Rowan chuckled, the pressure easing considerably. The Swarm held a value in the eyes of the mastermind that he was unaware of. But every cloud has a silver lining; from another perspective, this might not be such a bad thing.

While the Swarm is currently a pawn, it's not yet fully mature and still needs to evolve into the form desired by the mastermind. This means the Swarm has a period of safe development ahead of it. What the Swarm lacks most right now is time, while the mastermind is completely unaware of the Swarm's core competitive advantage.

What Rowan needs to do now is to seize the time to make himself a bigger and stronger pawn, so that he can break the hands and feet of the mastermind behind the scenes and smash his brother's head open.

Eight times the speed of light was indeed beyond imagination. After a brief rest in the Sandstorm Star System, the Epoch Clan transport fleet set sail again and quickly disappeared from the Overseer's sight. Not long after, according to their senses, the Intellect on the transport ships also flew out of the Swarm Network coverage area.

Over the years, although the Swarm has deployed a large number of Node Unit towards the Star Sea Alliance to act as signal connectors, and the signal radiation range of these Node Unit has grown to nearly two light-years as the Swarm Network has grown, the area it covers is still only a drop in the ocean compared to the territory of the Star Sea Alliance's thousands of star systems.

If the coverage of the Swarm Network is not extended there, even if the Intellect obtain some information, it will be useless if they cannot transmit it back.

However, relying on the original expansion methods, it is almost impossible to extend network signal coverage to the Epoch Clan's territory.

The Star Sea Alliance isn't just comprised of the less technologically advanced outer ring forces, even though the Swarm's Node Unit are incredibly well-hidden. The older civilizations in the middle and inner rings of the Star Sea Alliance have histories spanning hundreds of thousands of years. Over such a long period, they've forged their territories into impenetrable fortresses, likely labeling and naming every meteorite and asteroid within their domains.

If Node Unit rashly enter, they will definitely attract attention, and if captured, the risk of exposure will increase. Not to mention that the Star Sea Alliance occupies thousands of star systems, with an influence spanning tens of thousands of light-years. Even without any interference, and with Node Unit traveling at the speed of light, it would still take tens of thousands of years to cover the entire area. By then, the Swarm would probably be doomed.

Fortunately, this matter had been resolved beforehand.

Since the Swarm Network was upgraded again, any Node Unit that mutates into Insect Empress when it has sufficient energy and Rowan allows it has had Mother Nest role reduced to a minimum. They are no longer a constraint on Swarm development, and it was from that time that the Swarm truly began to expand without limits.

But as Rowan gained a deeper understanding of himself and the Swarm Network, he also developed a new understanding of himself and discovered another layer of function of the original self and the Mother Nest.