Fusion

The Biological Armor was activated and began to merge with the host, but there was still no audio feedback. Everything on the other side was proceeding silently, or perhaps there was communication, but this information was being blocked from the Biological Armor.

Given the technological level of the Epoch Clan, achieving this would not be difficult. Sound requires a medium to propagate, and if the Biological Armor is isolated in a vacuum-like environment, it will be unable to receive signals.

However, since the fusion has begun, it must have already come into contact with the host's body, and even in a vacuum environment, the body itself is a medium for transmission. The fact that the Biological Armor has not yet returned any audio information indicates that the host it is fusing with has not made any sound.

Because the Biological Armor lacks an optical receiving system, Rowan currently doesn't know who the host is, but in that Castle, the only living being Rowan knows of is Saide.

Rowan thought about it carefully, and even quickly reviewed the surveillance footage of the Castle from various angles during this period. Indeed, apart from the mechanical servants, no other living creatures were found to have entered the Castle.

Biological Armor cannot be integrated with mechanical units. If there is only Saide living being in the Castle, then he must be the host.

If that's the case, he's probably communicating remotely with others through a video Interaction System. Because he certainly couldn't analyze the Biological Armor alone; he would need a professional team.

Even if the host is Saide, doesn't he need to communicate with others via video? Are they communicating with gestures?

Why does Saide take out the Biological Armor every day? Just to see if it has an optical receiving system. Rowan scratched his head. It might actually have one. Unlike the hearing system, which can be hidden inside the body, the visual system is very obvious and must be exposed. It is indeed possible to judge by external observation.

Or perhaps Saide wasn't the only living being in the Castle; did he prepare other test subjects? Were they disguised as mechanical servants to infiltrate?

Rowan quickly dismissed the idea. First of all, the mechanical servants were very distinctive. To differentiate them from living beings, many parts of them were covered in transparent material, deliberately revealing their mechanical features. For example, their heads. Rowan couldn't think of any alien race in the Starsea collaboration whose heads could be that small.

Moreover, the Swarm is only unable to infiltrate the Castle using primitive methods; they have many more methods available outside. For example, the Tree Eye possesses the ability to switch to far-infrared and adjust various spectra, and the way machines and living organisms perceive certain colors is absolutely different.

The insects on the ground will also match the wheel tracks and footprints of the mechanical servants with the marks left on the same section of the road in the past. Even a slight difference in weight will result in a different mark.

Under such comprehensive surveillance, it would be too hasty to say that it's absolutely impossible for a living being to infiltrate right under the noses of the Swarm, but it's certainly infinitely close to zero.

Moreover, there was no need for Saide to do this. The Star Sea Alliance couldn't even figure out the Swarm's Gene Lock, let alone know the characteristics and differences between Anchor Creature and Node Creature. In a place two thousand light-years away from the Swarm territory, the situation here was completely under their control, and there was no need to do things so secretly.

Was Saide outsmarting thin air? Rowan perked up at the mention of this. If it weren't for their differing stances, he wouldn't have shown himself so easily. He would definitely have exchanged experiences with Saide in this regard.

However, considering Saide's burly appearance, he couldn't possibly understand the fun of outsmarting thin air. Therefore, if there really is a living being other than Saide inside the Castle, there's only one possibility.

That means there were other living beings in the Castle all along. This is very likely, because the widespread use of hibernation technology allows a living being to sleep in a certain place for years, decades, or even hundreds of years.

This planet had only recently been incorporated into the Swarm Network; who controlled Saide before that, and what had he been doing in the Castle?

But don't worry, Rowan will soon get the answer he wants. The Biological Armor that merges with its host can do a lot of things in secret, and it will definitely help Rowan figure out a lot of things.

Suddenly, Rowan frowned slightly. Sure enough, the host was not Saide.

Although Saide is an elder of the Epoch Clan, the genes of the Black Tower Race are engraved in his body, which is unchangeable. Back then, before the war started, Rowan collected a lot of racial gene samples from the Riken Race.

With the Epoch Clan Humins presiding over the city, and boasting numerous pharmaceutical research laboratories and its flagship product, the Life-Extending Serum, the Riken Trade City enjoyed a period of great prosperity.

The trading caravans that came to trade represented every race imaginable. Over the decades, Rowan had collected genes from almost every foreign race in this small city.

The ones that weren't collected, aside from a few very closed-off and closed races, were mostly Outer-Ring Civilizations on the other side of the Star Sea Alliance territory.

They were separated from the Swarm by the entire Star Sea Alliance, a distance of tens of thousands of light-years. Coupled with their low level of technology, small territory, and small population, most of those who could venture out were researchers who had been exchanged into the Ji Epoch Clan. Almost none of them traveled on their own, and even the few who did would find it difficult to cross such a vast distance to reach the Swarm.

However, their strength is negligible in the war between the Star Sea Alliance and the Swarm. Even without their genetic samples, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

As the dominant force, the powerful Black Tower Race has a vast territory and an even larger population, spread throughout the entire Star Sea Alliance territory.

Naturally, drawn by the Life-Extending Serum, Black Tower Race merchants were also present in the Riken Trade City. And their genes, of course, fell into Rowan's hands.

Although there are some genetic variations and differences within each race, these variations and differences are almost negligible when compared between races.

As the Biological Armor gradually merged with its host, Rowan was able to analyze some of the host's genetic fragments. Rowan could now be considered a biological master; even with just a small fragment of genetic material, he could glean quite a bit.

For example, the gene fragments obtained by the Biological Armor fusion host, although less than one percent have been analyzed because the fusion has just begun, Rowan can already determine with absolute certainty that these are definitely not gene fragments of the Black Tower Race.

Although it wasn't a fragment of the Black Tower Race's genes, the fragment looked very familiar.