Prewar Testing Revealed Numerous Problems

The victory in the Battle of Kao Star greatly boosted the Galactic Alliance's morale.

The Dias Empire in particular had been the direct victim of the mutated swarm's ravages. Dozens of administrative planets under its jurisdiction had already fallen one after another.

What enraged the Dias Empire most was the fall of its capital planet.

Thus, at the Galactic Alliance conference, the Dias Empire's ambassador repeatedly and firmly declared that the Alliance forces should seize the occupied regions taken by the mutated swarm as early, as quickly, and as swiftly as possible.

At the same time, they vigorously promoted the mutated swarm's "mutability."

Put simply, whenever the Babel Swarm encountered any problem, all it needed was a simple genetic mutation and everything would be resolved—and the process was extremely short.

This kind of "mutation" did not require any special understanding of objective factors, any deliberate genetic design, or even adherence to causality. Before encountering a problem, it could mutate in advance into a form capable of solving it.

Lu Shang did not know what others thought, but when he learned of this through the living intelligence network, he was completely dumbfounded.

If the Babel Swarm could violate even basic causality, how could it possibly have been crushed by the Galactic Alliance's colossi?

How could it possibly have become a servant of the Void God?

Yet the Galactic Alliance actually believed this rhetoric that so blatantly ignored objective facts.

Who knew where the Dias Empire delegation had found such a huge pile of material to support arguments that could only be described as "absurd"? The entire decision-making conference passed it unanimously in just four days.

"Those bastards want to kill people, yet they have to beat around the bush and cover everything up to make their actions look so reasonable and lawful. Isn't living like that exhausting?" Lu Shang mocked the Galactic Alliance parliament.

Earth had plenty of similar incidents too, like that brand of "weapons of mass destruction" laundry detergent.

"But this is good too. I'm the one most short on time, and the more time these aliens waste, the more it benefits me."

Muttering to himself, Lu Shang turned and issued an order to the planetary organisms within a star system.

"Begin pre-combat testing."

In an empty expanse between stars, nine planets with enormous eyes existed.

The nine planetary organisms had gathered here on Lu Shang's orders. They needed to conduct the final test for the swarm's new expanded sensory mode.

The planetary organisms split into two groups. One planet, more than a hundred million kilometers away from the other eight, played the swarm's space force on the battlefield, while the other eight planetary organisms played the role of the Galactic Alliance fleet and launched attacks.

The test began at Lu Shang's command.

The first change occurred to the planetary organism representing the swarm. A layer of mist gradually spread around it.

As time passed, the mist completely covered the hundred million kilometers within the range of Level Ten psionic power.

If someone were to pilot a spacecraft into the mist, collect a sample, and examine it under a microscope in a laboratory, they would discover that it was not interstellar dust at all, but microorganisms the size of tardigrades.

These microorganisms had extremely simple structures: a photosynthetic organelle, several cilia of sensitive nerves, a vacuole that served as a chemical bioenergy store, and a nucleus connected to the psionic network.

By entering dormancy, they reduced their energy consumption to a minimum. They could survive directly exposed to the environment of space, enduring its low temperatures, oxygen deprivation, weightlessness, and vacuum.

Lu Shang called these newly designed swarm organisms "scouts," because their function was like that of battlefield scouts in ancient Earth times: they could relay battlefield intelligence to their side more quickly.

The hives on the planetary organism playing the swarm's side were continuously breeding these microorganisms, which the planetary organism then scattered into space with psionic power.

If someone had been standing on the planetary organism's surface at that moment, they would have clearly seen how the heavens above, eternally enveloped by the stars of the night, were gradually obscured by "smog."

Once the swarm's planetary organism had completed its scout deployment and covered the hundred million kilometers within its psionic range in a nebula formed by scouts, the other eight planetary organisms joined forces and concentrated all their psionic power at one point.

They targeted the swarm's planetary organism and gave the interstellar atoms bound by psionic power extremely high kinetic energy, simulating the Galactic Alliance fleet's black-hole-induced particle weapon.

The microscopic black holes that should have formed upon striking the celestial body instead formed a hundred million kilometers away from the swarm's planetary organism because of the Scout Nebula's coverage.

Then, because those scouts died, the planetary organism instantly learned the microscopic black holes' locations through the psionic network at faster-than-light speed. In the next moment, it used psionic power to throw the incoming microscopic black holes away.

However, that was not the end. To perfectly simulate the Galactic Alliance fleet's black-hole-induced attacks, the planetary organism playing the swarm's side had to face an unending barrage of them.

Large quantities of interstellar atoms were accelerated to terrifying speeds by the eight planetary organisms' psionic power, continuously bombarding the living nebula formed by the scouts. This directly caused the Scout Nebula to gradually thin out, and many interstellar atoms did not trigger microscopic black holes until they had penetrated deep into the middle of the Scout Nebula.

Although the swarm's planetary organism was also constantly producing scouts to replenish the Scout Nebula, it could never keep pace with their rate of consumption. After all, deploying the scouts through diffusion also took time.

To avoid being struck by the microscopic black holes, the planetary organism could only keep retreating bit by bit, leaving large numbers of scouts behind to fill the gap between itself and the black-hole-induced attacks.

Lu Shang stroked his chin in thought before issuing another order. "Begin counterattack testing."

After receiving the command, the swarm's planetary organism allocated part of its psionic power to lifting rocks from its surface into space. It accelerated the rocks with psionic power as usual, but this time it could no longer use near-light-speed throws as it had before.

The high-speed rocks were rapidly ground away within the Scout Nebula in merely the time it took to breathe.

"Stop! Terminate the test!"

The eight planetary organisms immediately stopped their assault of accelerated interstellar atoms. The planetary organism playing the swarm's side also came to a halt after throwing away the remaining microscopic black holes.

"Good thing we ran this test. Otherwise, we wouldn't have noticed so many problems." Lu Shang scratched his head in frustration.

Although the Scout Nebula enveloping the entire planetary organism allowed the planetary organism's sensory speed to exceed light speed through psionic power, its reaction speed was still below light speed.

This meant that while the planetary organism's brain was reacting to a microscopic black hole, the black hole that had already formed would inevitably devour many scouts, thinning the Scout Nebula and weakening its ability to block microscopic black holes.

That was not too serious. The more fatal problem was that the planetary organism, wrapped in the Scout Nebula, could no longer use its only means of attacking targets outside its psionic range: near-light-speed throws.

As those rocks moved faster and faster, they would rub against the Scout Nebula and be worn away at an extremely rapid rate. At the same time, vast numbers of scouts would die, further thinning the Scout Nebula.

"What the hell am I supposed to do? A defense maintained too long is bound to fail. If we can't fight back, then we're doomed to never defeat the Galactic Alliance fleet," Lu Shang said bitterly.

At that moment, the planetary organism that had played the swarm's side asked strangely, "Main Brain, why do I have to throw rocks? I can simply throw the incoming microscopic black holes back to counterattack."

Lu Shang rolled his eyes. "What are you thinking? The enemy isn't stupid. If they know you can throw microscopic black holes back, they can simply refrain from using black-hole-induced attacks right away."

"If they discover what the scouts do, they can first use lasers to burn the Scout Nebula thin, then launch black-hole-induced attacks."

Though he had never encountered it, Lu Shang figured that the Galactic Alliance probably did not lack battlefield analysts or military advisers. With wreckage scattered everywhere across the battlefield, the scouts' function probably would not remain hidden for long.

The planetary organism asked again, "If there are no microscopic black holes to throw, why can't I throw scouts out to launch black-hole-induced attacks? Those attacks are clearly stronger than near-light-speed kinetic attacks."

Lu Shang froze, thoroughly surprised. "Did you just say... throw scouts?"

"Yes. Throwing particles can trigger the formation of microscopic black holes, so throwing scouts can trigger the formation of microscopic black holes as well."

That was right! Since their previous near-light-speed kinetic attacks could no longer be used, the swarm could simply use the more concealed black-hole-induced attacks instead!

As long as they threw out the scouts at the edge of their psionic range, they would not need to worry about friction at all!