Terrifying Technological Iteration

If two points were drawn on a sheet of paper, what distance between them would be the shortest?

The line segment between the two points?

No, no, no. A line segment was indeed the shortest distance between two points, but that was only under the condition that the paper itself remained absolutely unchanged.

Once the paper was folded so that the two points overlapped, the shortest path would no longer be the line segment between them.

Wormholes in the universe operated on the same principle.

In theory, a wormhole could instantly transfer an object from one end of the universe to the other, or even from one universe to another.

So what if the physical property of wormholes, which transferred matter through space, were applied to methods of attack?

For instance... in combination with a Black-Hole-Induced Strike.

Great Wilderness Constellation, Fourth Star.

It was a red dwarf, but it could not be called a stellar system.

It had no planets, not even a Kuiper Belt. It was a lone star with no celestial companions at all.

It had not been born that way. Red dwarfs had the lowest mass among stellar bodies, so they did not require much mass to form. This meant that, after taking shape, red dwarfs were far more likely than other stars to give rise to meteorites and planets.

The planets and meteorites in this red dwarf system had been completely mined out by artificial means.

After extracting every last bit of material from the system, the miners began constructing artificial objects in an orbit roughly fifty million kilometers from the red dwarf.

Numerous immense gray planets gradually dropped out of faster-than-light travel and gathered within the stellar system, breaking apart to form pieces of the colossal artificial structure.

The slowly rotating red dwarf cast its light over these constructs, reflecting the distinctive sheen of metal. Occasionally, an electric arc flashed and vanished in an instant. Those were arcs formed, under exceptionally rare circumstances, when countless high-energy particles released by the red dwarf struck the metal surfaces at sufficient density.

Countless spacecraft flew through space, dragging long pulsing exhaust trails behind them. Compared to the massive structures, the tiny ships were like ants beside elephants.

As time passed, spacecraft shuttled throughout the red dwarf system, and more and more artificial objects were built within it.

These constructs gradually connected into a whole, and the framework of a star-sized structure could already vaguely be seen.

"The construction period is even shorter than expected."

That was the assessment given by the Alliance envoy inspecting the project. The engineering director accompanying him replied, "That is all thanks to the fortress ships built by nanotechnology. Without their continuous supply of industrial nanomachines to the Spear Project, progress could never have been this fast."

"Once construction is complete, we'll be able to use wormholes to bypass the swarm creatures' dark-screen defenses!"

As he spoke, the project director paused before adding, "Still, the construction period is far too long. I'm afraid we won't be able to provide the front lines with help anytime soon."

Even with nanotechnology, a structure of this scale would be difficult to complete in less than several decades.

Whenever the engineering director thought of the Alliance fleet still fighting with weapons inferior to the enemy's, an intense sense of guilt rose in his heart.

The Alliance envoy's six eyes caught the guilt on the engineering director's face, and he comforted him. "Don't be nervous. The situation has not developed in the worst possible direction."

The engineering director was greatly surprised. "The swarm creatures haven't launched a frenzied offensive?"

The Alliance envoy had been about to answer, but when he thought of the Babel Swarm, he did not know how to explain it.

After gathering his thoughts for a while, the envoy finally said with mixed emotions, "The swarm creatures' offensive has not been intense. Their main focus now is persuading the Alliance Council to surrender."

"According to the Council's speculation, forcing five Alliance members to surrender unconditionally and accept infection en masse was also meant to serve as leverage for later surrender negotiations."

At first, the engineering director had no reaction.

But once the meaning sank in, his fur stood on end in shock.

"Persuading us to surrender?"

Suspecting that he had misheard, the engineering director immediately asked, "You're not joking, are you?! Those are bloodthirsty, brutal swarm creatures!"

Everyone knew that the Babel Swarm was cruel and murderous. Under the Void God's command, it sought to destroy every civilization it encountered.

Only a very small number were parasitized and absorbed into the swarm.

Having expected this reaction, the Alliance envoy showed no surprise. He answered helplessly, "That is the truth. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it either."

"I have to admit, this approach by the swarm creatures has been quite effective. Quite a few Alliance members in the Council have wavered and are considering accepting infection."

Whenever the Alliance envoy thought of certain representatives in the Alliance Council proposing surrender and universal infection, his head began to ache.

The engineering director was too stunned to speak for a long time. Only after recovering did he mutter, "They've all gone insane."

Both the Babel Swarm and the Galactic Alliance's Council had become abnormal...

And the culprit behind all that abnormality was currently inspecting the results, just like the Alliance envoy.

Lu Shang connected his senses to a Behemoth in space and shared its vision, fixing his gaze on a cloud of dust enveloping a star.

These were no ordinary dust clouds. If someone collected this dust and observed it beneath a laboratory microscope, they would discover that every speck was actually a living organism.

These lifeforms were improved second-generation Scouts. Compared to the first generation, they possessed much tougher vitality.

This was mainly because they incorporated the biological structure of the Crystal Entities. The Scouts no longer needed chemical energy to sustain their life functions; instead, they consumed electrons. Their original biological structure of cytoplasm, cell membrane, and nucleus had also been fundamentally transformed, greatly increasing their resistance in every respect.

Granted, because of temperature constraints, the basic units of the Crystal Entities could not be forcibly grafted onto the swarm creatures' genes. The two were fundamentally incompatible.

But that did not mean there was no way to absorb the other side's biological advantages.

By understanding the other side's biological principles, the swarm could directly copy its biological structures and then express them using the swarm's own genetic language.

That way, genetic incompatibility was not a problem at all. The swarm was merely copying the Crystal Entities' biological structures and expressing them with its own genes, not forcibly grafting the Crystal Entities' genetic material onto itself.

Thus, these second-generation Scouts came into being.

These second-generation Scouts would carry out Lu Shang's next strategic step. They would be scattered throughout the galaxy, then continuously expand and multiply.

They would establish a galaxy-wide intelligence network serving the swarm!