Looks Steady, Actually Panicking

The first chief commander to react immediately seized the authority of command and gave the order. "Pursue them! Pursue them! Pursue them! Don't let them escape!"

"The Planet-Crushing Colossus has completed its charging phase. Forcibly shutting it down will cause irreversible damage!" the operator of the Planet-Crushing Colossus reported anxiously.

"Dammit!" The chief commander cursed furiously, then ordered the communications officer, "Contact the other fleets immediately. They must intercept that escaping Nestworld!"

"Listen carefully: they must! We have to wipe them out in the Bogu Nebula!"

The chief commander's furious voice echoed through the flagship's bridge.

He had originally planned to wait for that seemingly deranged swarm creature to finish speaking, then mercifully grant the Nestworld a Planetary Devastation and reduce it to ashes.

What a perfect script!

And yet the entire Nestworld had fucking run away?!

A Nestworld could actually run away!!!

Having narrowly escaped death, Lu Shang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. But this was not the time to celebrate surviving the disaster, because there was still something extremely important he had to deal with.

He left the cave he had not stepped out of since waking up and followed the newly excavated passageway dug by the worker bees into a vast cavern they had only recently carved out.

The Nestworld was a massive hive transformed by the Babel Swarm. The planet's environment was easy enough to imagine: acid rivers ran everywhere, while toxic spores, poisonous gases, and other hazards filled the air.

If the swarm's brain cores had not temporarily dug out a dry cave filled with breathable air for Lu Shang in order to study his human genes and physiological traits, he would have died before he ever woke up.

He did not know whether he should thank that brain core's ravenous hunger for biological genes or thank heaven for this stroke of luck.

The cavern walls were covered in fluorescent fungi, their faint glow illuminating the space within. Lu Shang could vaguely make out a dense mass of grotesque creatures gathered ahead.

Besides the worker bees, other types of swarm creatures had also assembled here.

Once Lu Shang arrived in the cavern, the creatures tacitly parted to make way for him. He walked straight to the granite platform at the center of the enormous cavern.

Needless to say, the granite platform, like the vast cavern itself, had been built at Lu Shang's instruction by the worker bees.

Standing on the platform, Lu Shang took a deep breath of the slightly sour, rotten-smelling air and addressed the swarm creatures below.

"Everyone, I fulfilled my promise."

"For now, we're safe. Although the Galactic Alliance also possesses faster-than-light technology, they don't know where we're headed. Whether they want to blockade us or search for us, both will take time. During that time, we won't suffer any attacks from the Galactic Alliance."

"However... that doesn't mean the Galactic Alliance won't wipe us out in the future."

"I need your strength. I need you to acknowledge me as the swarm's brain core. This is both for my survival and for the continuation of your swarm."

Many people in the Galactic Alliance were always misled by the Babel Swarm's fearlessness in the face of death. They simply assumed that, apart from the swarm's brain cores and overlords, every other swarm unit was a machine-like expendable controlled by them.

In truth, the Babel Swarm's other creatures also possessed the ability to think. Their thinking and logic were simply far weaker than those of brain cores and overlords because their brain structures had been simplified.

Moreover, the brain cores' rule over the swarm creatures was actually the complete opposite of the Galactic Alliance's control theory. It was not the brain cores forcibly controlling the swarm creatures; rather, the swarm creatures granted the brain cores and overlords absolute authority over themselves.

As for why it worked this way, it was naturally because that was the nature of their society. Like human society from ancient times to the present, it followed a pyramid structure. It was simply taken for granted.

Even if every brain core and overlord in the swarm were killed, new overlords and brain cores capable of commanding the swarm creatures would still emerge from among them.

Lu Shang stared wide-eyed at the swarm creatures gathered below the platform. A message transmitted directly through the psionic swarm network entered his mind.

[Weren't you already a brain core?]

The swarm creatures looked at Lu Shang strangely. From the moment he had commanded the swarm creatures on the Nestworld and shown them how to use faster-than-light travel to escape the Galactic Alliance's firepower, the swarm creatures on the Nestworld had already tacitly regarded him as their commanding brain core.

Of course, Lu Shang knew that, but he had another reason for making such a request.

"This is only temporary. You collectively granted me command because circumstances forced your hand. But if, after some time, we reunite with other fleeing Babel Swarms, will you obey that brain core's orders or mine?"

"I need a clear answer from you."

These swarm creatures had originally been ruled by the Nestworld's previous brain core. If Lu Shang was serving properly as a brain core and encountered that former brain core, would these swarm creatures obey him or the other brain core?

That was a problem, and one directly tied to Lu Shang's life and death. He was currently on a swarm creature's hive planet. Even the microorganisms drifting through the air were controlled individuals carrying swarm genes.

Not long after Lu Shang asked his question, he received a collective inquiry from the swarm individuals through the network.

[Can you lead the swarm to victory in this interstellar war?]

"I can't be certain of that, because I don't know enough about the Galactic Alliance yet. But I can guarantee that I'll do better than all your previous brain cores."

Lu Shang was not boasting. After absorbing more of the swarm memories in his mind and learning about the swarm's past space battles, his opinion of the swarm's brain cores had plummeted again and again.

Honestly, Lu Shang felt that any human with normal intelligence could have done better than those swarm brain cores.

After a moment of silence, the swarm individuals in the network sent another collective inquiry.

[Can you guarantee that the swarm won't be exterminated by the Galactic Alliance?]

"I can guarantee that with my life. Survival doesn't have only one option, unlike defeating a powerful enemy. What your previous brain cores couldn't do, I can."

Lu Shang's answer this time was firm, because even if he could not do it, he had to find a way. Otherwise, he would not survive.

Right now, Lu Shang and the swarm were tied to the same rope. They would share glory and ruin alike.

As for surrendering to the Galactic Alliance?

Who would guarantee his human rights?

How could he ensure that, after surrendering, he would not be locked in a zoo as some rare animal? Or that he would not be sent to a laboratory and dissected as an experiment?

Without human rights, if he died, then he died. No one in the Galactic Alliance would care.

If they truly needed a few living, breathing humans for some reason, the Galactic Alliance could simply clone some humans using the genes extracted from his body.

Even the lower limits of humanity could not be guaranteed. Lu Shang had not the slightest confidence in the lower limits of aliens.

So while it seemed like he had a choice, in reality, he had none. If the swarm perished, his own fate would be no better!

The swarm was the same in this regard. Survival and continuation were their foremost needs. No person, no lifeform, no substance could stop the swarm's desire to survive and continue.

If any lifeform or object had to stand in their way, the swarm would devote everything to destroying it, until the very last swarm cell perished!

Lu Shang wanted an answer, and tens of thousands of swarm creatures gave him one—we will unconditionally obey your orders, Brain Core Lu Shang.

"You made a wise choice."

A smile appeared on Lu Shang's tense face, and the fists he had clenched from nervousness slowly relaxed.

After all, he was not a creature born in the hive. To be honest, Lu Shang had very little confidence that he could gain the swarm's complete trust.