The Appearance
In search of the answers they sought, the Swarm accelerated its expansion. Swarm base began to spread towards the coastal landmass.
Meanwhile, the Swarm began landing on some islands, and some Insect Empress Egg were escorted to remote islands. Here, the Swarm even discovered some flying creatures. After some maneuvering, they obtained their genetic samples.
With the addition of the "air force," the Swarm's reconnaissance system evolved from 2D to 3D, and more realistic information about the planet gradually unfolded before the Swarm.
The Swarm bypassed the process of landing on land from the ocean and began scouting the civilization of the indigenous intelligent beings from the air. The coastal ports, bases, and cities, all kinds of buildings, infrastructure, and means of transportation, were so retro and old-fashioned. There was no trace of advanced civilization.
Looking up at the sky, the alternation of day and night on the planet was somewhat eerie. A huge blue-gray planet covered half of the sky, while in the distance, a sun hung high in the sky.
However, no large man-made structures were visible in the planet's orbit, there were no Star Port, and no spacecraft were traveling between planets.
The appearance of seabirds inland seems somewhat inappropriate, but for Swarm that has already completed its three-dimensional air-ground system, capturing a few birds is as simple as it gets.
In this way, the Swarm switched to species that suited the local ecology as it spread inland, and the Insect Empress Egg were also transported over from the air.
Time passed, and the wormhole, seemingly hampered by the previous intrusion of the Flesh Sac, showed no sign of opening as scheduled in fifteen months. This latest mistake became the straw that broke Dr. Benba's back. Rowan was unaware that his actions had led to the downfall of a native star, but even if he did know, would he care?
Having accumulated rich experience, and after more than a year, the research on the transformation of the indigenous race's Intellect was finally completed. Rowan had been waiting for this day for a long time; he desperately needed more intelligence.
Some people with eccentric personalities or those who work in special fields may mysteriously disappear for a few days without attracting much attention. When they reappear in society, they have become completely different people inside.
The history of the planet, the migration of species, the evolution of indigenous civilizations—all sorts of information were presented to Rowan.
Rowan skimmed over the first two points, not paying much attention to them; he focused on the third.
Unexpected, yet also expected, this is a young civilization with a recorded history of less than ten thousand years. They call themselves the Bodi People. To date, they have only just reached the point of venturing beyond their Mother Planet and beginning to explore the vast universe.
Without wormholes, the Bodi Civilization would be nothing special, the kind of civilization that 90% of the civilizations in the Star Sea Alliance have gone through the same process.
As Rowan continued to peruse the materials, he discovered another rather peculiar detail: their Mother Planet. According to the Bodi People's own scientific records, the planet was not a planet at all, but rather a satellite of the fifth planet in their star system.
Therefore, its size and mass are smaller than normal life-bearing planets. Rowan calculated that this planet is only one-fifth the size of the Origin Star.
Since the Bodi People had just left their Mother Planet and did not yet have colonies on other planets, the Bodi Civilization had a very small population, probably only a little over a billion.
This small population size results in a relatively small number of researchers, which has become a bottleneck hindering the continued progress of their civilization. In addition, the emergence of wormholes has caused their technology to go astray. Without external intervention, they may not be able to fully leave their Mother Planet before its resources are exhausted, thus becoming trapped there and ultimately leading to the extinction of their civilization.
Yet, on this planet inhabited by such a weak civilization, things appeared that Rowan could not comprehend.
According to the Bodi People's records, wormholes began to appear twenty years ago, and each appearance releases a monster... Looking at this information, Rowan pondered seriously...
Half a year passed slowly, and the wormhole, which had been calm for nearly two years, began to show energy fluctuations again, indicating that it was about to open. Both the Bodi People and Rowan focused their attention on it.
The wormhole opened, and a gigantic monster over sixty meters tall emerged. It was larger and stronger than the previous monsters. However, it couldn't gain any advantage against the ever-increasing number of Mecha Warrior. In addition, the wormhole's fixed location meant that it was immediately surrounded by the Mecha Warrior as soon as it emerged.
Rowan didn't focus on the visceral battle between monsters and Mecha Warrior; instead, he concentrated on the wormhole itself. Over the past two years, the Swarm had deployed numerous eye-like Overseer around the wormhole, far exceeding the technological level of the Bodi People, making it impossible for the Bodi People to detect these "neighbors."
Just like how the Epoch Clan's surveillance cameras watched the Swarm and the Riken Race back then, this is an overwhelming technological gap.
After the wormhole fully opened, it formed an energy portal with a diameter of only thirty meters. The moment the monster escaped, the Overseer detected a large amount of Negative Energy. Shortly afterward, the wormhole seemed unable to sustain itself and closed instantly.
The entire process didn't last long, but Rowan had already gathered a considerable amount of information. Now, he finally had time to turn his attention back to the hand-to-hand combat on the other side.
At this point, the number of Mecha Warrior surrounding the monster had reached ten. Faced with such a siege, the monster displayed formidable combat power, having already severed the arm of one mech and the head of another. Fortunately, their cockpits were located above their chests, so no personnel were injured.
While achieving their objectives, the monsters also suffered losses. To prevent the monsters' bodily fluids from leaking out and causing contamination, the Mecha Warrior used only blunt weapons.
So although there were no visible wounds on the surface, the monster's internal organs were severely damaged, as could be seen from its increasingly slow attacks and staggering movements.
In Rowan's eyes, this level of combat was insignificant. The Mecha Warrior were already not very fluid in their movements and were slow, and in the water they were like old people practicing Tai Chi. As for the monster's bloated body, it was like a smaller, downgraded version of Godzilla. If it weren't for its deadly poison weapon, it would have been nothing more than a target.
"Although I don't know much about wormholes, the one we just saw was clearly not a natural formation. Therefore, there must be a side on either side that opened it. But the Bodi People' short history and weak technological level clearly don't fit the characteristics of the one who opened it. So what about the other side?"
Rowan watched the evenly matched battle, both sides evenly matched, and was somewhat speechless. If the initiators were on the other side, what was the point of them releasing a monster every so often, given their technological capabilities?