Hive Creatures Had Everything Under Control

Second-generation scouts had undergone earth-shaking changes in their biological structure compared to the first generation.

They were granular overall, with a structure modeled after Crystal Entities and diamonds, giving them tremendous impact resistance.

Since their structure was based on the basic units of Crystal Entities, they too consisted of a central core wrapped in non-Newtonian fluid. They remained soft when not under force, but once subjected to external force, their structure shifted closer to that of diamond.

However, since the second-generation scouts operated in space, where heat dissipated, and had no internal heat source, they remained in a hard state similar to when under force even while drifting far from stars.

Fortunately, like the basic units of Crystal Entities, second-generation scouts survived by consuming electricity. They could survive even at low temperatures.

Crystal Entities generally generated electricity by consuming radioactive materials, utilizing chemical energy, or through photosynthesis, allowing all their basic units to remain active.

The second-generation scouts were the same size as the first generation. Structures so microscopic could not generate electricity through radioactive materials or chemical energy, so they could only rely on photosynthesis to sustain their life activity.

Because second-generation scouts were sufficiently microscopic, and electromagnetic waves filled the universe while photons permeated every corner of space, they did not actually lack food in the universe.

Absorbing cosmic microwave background radiation and using the photoelectric effect to efficiently convert it into the minute amount of electricity needed to sustain their activity was an easily solved problem.

At the same time, since second-generation scouts fed by receiving photon impacts, they also received the information carried by those photons.

A single second-generation scout lacked visual capabilities, but once multiple scouts were connected through the psionic network, the light information they received became meaningful.

The light information received by each scout creature was like a piece of a puzzle. When the "puzzle pieces" received by multiple scout creatures were gathered together, they formed a picture.

When those pictures were overlaid, they became constantly changing dynamic vision.

Lu Shang only needed to connect to the hive network to see the entire area covered by scout creatures at a glance.

Observing the environment through the scout creatures' perspectives was incredibly wondrous. At times, Lu Shang felt as though he were God. He could see both the front and back of an object at the same time, observe it from every angle in a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and maintain a macroscopic perspective while examining a particular object from a microscopic one.

Thinking of how the second-generation scout creatures would be spread across every corner of the galaxy as the hive's intelligence network, gathering vast amounts of information for the hive...

Lu Shang did not even dare imagine what it would feel like to observe the entire galaxy through such a godlike perspective.

After withdrawing from that marvelous visual state, the hives that had researched and developed the second-generation scouts eagerly asked Lu Shang,

"How did it feel?"

Lu Shang raised an eyebrow. After thinking it over, he replied, "It's very good, but I have a question."

"What question?"

Lu Shang said, "How do we solve the gravity problem? How do we ensure the new scouts won't fall into stars?"

The hives explained, "With light sails."

"Other than black holes, all celestial bodies at the stellar level and above release heat and light outward. Though the resulting thrust is tiny, it is enough to keep scout creatures from falling into stars."

Only after the hives pointed it out did Lu Shang notice that these second-generation scout creatures each had a pair of small wings, roughly one-twentieth the size of a human fingernail.

Those wings could be folded and their direction adjusted. Although their surface area was small and thus the thrust they provided was limited, second-generation scouts were tiny and had little mass. For them, that amount of thrust was already sufficient.

After several rounds of testing, the second-generation scout creatures were taken away by the Behemoths under Lu Shang's orders...

Not long after the testing of the second-generation scout creatures ended, Lu Shang received protests from the other main brains.

"Lu Shang, why must we engage in political negotiations with the Galactic Alliance? The hive has no need to do this." Main brain Kalogo had just finished a round of political negotiations with the Galactic Alliance.

Lu Shang had assigned the negotiation task to it, having Kalogo represent the hive and attempt to persuade the other civilizations of the Galactic Alliance to surrender.

The result went without saying. Kalogo had nearly been driven mad by the Galactic Alliance.

It wished it could immediately dispatch planetary creatures and slaughter every civilization in the Galactic Alliance from top to bottom.

In the current situation, the Babel Swarm held an overwhelming advantage. The enemy had no means of piercing the darkness curtain of the planetary creatures and could only endure the attacks passively.

Kalogo could not understand why the hive still needed to negotiate with the Galactic Alliance.

Lu Shang did not react strongly to Kalogo's protest. He merely asked calmly, "Then what do you think the hive should do?"

"Defeat the Galactic Alliance, of course," Kalogo answered indignantly.

"And then?" Lu Shang asked.

Kalogo froze, asking in confusion, "And then?"

Lu Shang repeated his question. "I'm asking you, what should we do after defeating the Galactic Alliance?"

Now that it had calmed down, Kalogo considered it carefully before replying as though it were obvious, "Destroy them, of course. They are a huge threat to the hive."

Lu Shang nodded, then asked, "If you can think of that, the Galactic Alliance can certainly think of it too. Since they can foresee it, they'll definitely flee once they're defeated, right? How do you plan to stop them?"

"Uh..."

Kalogo was momentarily speechless.

Lu Shang said dissatisfiedly, "What do you mean, 'uh'? I'm asking you, how do you plan to stop every civilization in the Galactic Alliance from fleeing once they collapse?"

After racking its brain, Kalogo answered, "As long as we have enough planetary creatures, this problem can be solved."

Lu Shang rolled his eyes. "Isn't that the same as saying nothing? Don't I know that if we have enough planetary creatures, we can stop every fleeing civilization in the Galactic Alliance?"

"But how many planetary creatures count as enough? Enough to line them up around the entire galaxy once? Or seventy or eighty times?"

"Let me ask you again, how large is the hive right now?"

Kalogo: "..."

Ignoring Kalogo, who had been left speechless by the questions, Lu Shang explained his own plan. "If we fail to eradicate them completely, the war will drag on without end."

"The most suitable course right now is to stabilize the Galactic Alliance first. We can't push them too hard. We have to wait until everything is ready before making a move."

Kalogo asked worriedly, "But how long must the hive wait? What if the Galactic Alliance grows stronger again during that time?"

Kalogo still could not forget how, during the era of the old Overlord, the Galactic Alliance had gone from being unable to achieve faster-than-light travel to entering faster-than-light travel and fighting interstellar wars with the hive, then eventually beating the hive senseless in a one-sided war.

It did not want to wait. It desperately wanted to destroy this terrifying enemy completely while they still held the advantage.

"What are you panicking for? We won't need to wait long," Lu Shang said.

As long as the second-generation scout creatures spread completely throughout the galaxy, the Galactic Alliance would never again have a chance to escape...