Chapter 1 Hao Ren Discovers Something Unexpected

Hao Ren realized he didn't really understand the drone swarm he had built himself. He usually only collected information from the swarm's data link and used them as convenient detector networks, but he didn't expect the swarm to have its own "life," and that its "life" would be so mind-boggling. Just imagine, a drone AI, busily expanding and growing itself in the universe, and then, when it has nothing to do, watching those "documentary artworks" of drone rebellions made by humans, calmly manufacturing new AI workers while watching various AI going berserk. Hao Ren felt that the scene was so bizarre, reality was indeed more bizarre than fiction, because at least novels had some logic…

And he was even more interested in the "forum" that the drone swarm mentioned.

"That's the communication platform for the drone swarms," the giant blue holographic face showed a strange smile again, "Very interesting."

"A communication... platform for drone swarms?" Hao Ren felt something was wrong. He pointed to the small drones flying around, "You and them? You should be a kind of swarm consciousness, how could you need something like a forum..."

"No, it's between swarms," the blue face interrupted Hao Ren's wild guesses, "The Empire has hundreds of millions of drone swarms, built by the inspectors, deployed by the Empire, and sub-work groups separated from large swarms. Although we each perform our own tasks in faraway places, we are connected through the data network, we have a very special 'sense of distance' from each other, so... on a huge information platform, drone swarms live in a very lively community."

As the blue face spoke, more pictures appeared on the walls of the mechanical chamber, messages from other drone swarms. These swarms may be performing pioneering missions millions of worlds away, or they may be service teams in a certain celestial factory. Each of them was of an astonishing scale; Hao Ren's drone swarm was just a child compared to these ancient races. This information flowed on the data network, constantly refreshing at a speed exceeding any mortal civilization's internet. Hao Ren could only see less than one ten-thousandth of the information flow, but these fragments were enough to dazzle him.

"I have never seen these things..." Hao Ren was a little dumbfounded, "This is a... brand new network structure? You yourselves are a kind of swarm consciousness, a massive number of individuals forming a unified intelligence, and then so many swarm consciousnesses gather together to form a network, then this network..."

"Yes, it also has intelligence," the blue face said lightly, "But it is vast and chaotic, indescribable, a super-experiential mode of intelligence. Judging by the very limited definitions of many ordinary races, you may not even think it is thinking, but it is really a super intelligence. It operates deep in the data network of the drone swarms, responsible for providing extra computing power and deduction support for the Empire's data network."

Hao Ren couldn't understand what kind of existence a super AI formed by dual swarm consciousness was, but he could imagine how powerful an individual it was—especially since it controlled hundreds of millions of drone swarms, and each drone swarm had tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions of lower-level individuals. Lily couldn't help sticking out her tongue after thinking about it a little: "Thank goodness this isn't a disaster movie."

"Looks like we're going to be waiting here for a day or two," Hao Ren turned to look at his companions behind him, "I'm going to stay in the hive, does anyone want to come with me?"

Lily shook her ears: "Forget it, I'd better go back to the ship. My imagination is too developed for creative work, it's easy to have nightmares looking at this place."

"Gun" came over and rubbed Hao Ren's arm with its head: "I'll go with you, you have dried small fish."

Hao Ren pointed to Doudou, who was hanging on his arm. Gun immediately drooped its ears: "Forget it meow, I can't eat fish when she's here, I'll go to the ship."

This cat had been oppressed by Doudou for a long time, and recently it was getting more and more on the ball.

After asking around, no one was willing to stay in this place with Hao Ren, even Vivian, who usually liked dark places, didn't seem to like this weird, hive-like base. Only Doudou, who didn't understand anything, hugged Hao Ren's arm from beginning to end: the little fellow obviously had no values. She thought that her father's elbow was the safest place in the world, and the drone hive had zero impact on her.

After the others continued to wander around with the Voyager probe for a while, they satisfied their curiosity and went back to the ship to rest, while Hao Ren, led by the probe, entered the depths of the hive, where there was a room specially built (or rather, generated) for him.

This was a rigid, gray-white steel room, but the drones decorated the place as much as possible according to human aesthetics, so it was still a good place to rest. Hao Ren walked into the room and found that everything he was used to using had been prepared, and a huge window had been opened on one side of the room's wall. He came to the window and saw a huge cave illuminated by pale blue lights. The cave was full of production facilities and various mechanical devices whose names he couldn't recognize. Above the cave was a narrow opening, and newborn drones came in and out of those openings, bringing up streaks of flowing light.

And nearly half of those drones were strangely shaped: they did not carry huge antennas or multi-functional mechanical arms, but instead had a series of tubular objects or parallel crystal rail structures installed on both sides of their bodies.

"This is the production center of this outpost," Hao Ren muttered to himself, "Are you building more armed drones?"

"Yes, according to the special order you issued 235 hours ago, the production quota for armed drones has been increased. Currently, the production volume of armed drones is 40 percent, the production volume of Pathfinder probes is 30 percent, and the total production volume of Nest Weavers and various industrial models is 30 percent. At the same time, sentry guns have begun to be set up at every node within the swarm's activity range and on the main transportation routes. It is estimated that all transformation and expansion can be completed within three months of the capital's standard time. Subsequent new nodes and cruise paths will be implemented according to the new standards you specified."

Hao Ren nodded: "Well, that's much safer."

"But the swarm must also report one thing:" the blue face was floating behind Hao Ren, it had shrunk in size to fit Hao Ren's room, "After implementing the new standard, the expansion speed will decrease by 20 percent. The drone swarm was originally equipped with basic self-defense firepower, and the swarm's important nodes also had sentry guns. You ordered to double these armaments, is this necessary?"

"You are a civilian model," Hao Ren looked back at the cluster consciousness interaction interface, but unfortunately, the other party's expression was still not lively enough, and it didn't seem to make much sense for him to exchange expressions with the other party, "So it's not surprising that you have this way of thinking. But don't forget the test we did."

"The fire conflict simulation with the 'Patian' warship and the battle simulation with the guardian warship showed that ordinary drones were at a disadvantage," the swarm consciousness replied lightly.

"That's right, because most drones don't have decent armaments at all, or even armaments—only mining guns and welding torches. You are only a civilian model, and the things I can use are also civilian models, and the 'safest' kind. The inspector's weapons are used for peacekeeping, not for intimidation," Hao Ren said, hugging his arms and looking at the busy production factory outside the window, "It works in other universes, but in this universe, peacekeeping alone is far from enough."

"Buddy, what do you think you're going to war with?" The data terminal floated over, passing through the holographic projection of the cluster consciousness and coming to Hao Ren, "You are preparing an army—although according to the standards of the upper echelons, that is considered civilian security, but for most mortal civilizations, you are building an iron torrent, and a very terrifying one. You have never taken such radical and tough actions before."

"The mad eldest son, the guardian who turned into a mind monster, just those two threats are enough to make me raise my guard, and the Sulun Gate even had a living rebel, although it is related to the special space-time state of the Sulun Gate, but this is enough to show that the Creator Goddess's genocide punishment has loopholes, so the hidden dangers we have to worry about are not just one or two," Hao Ren shook his head slightly, "At this stage, I am just letting the drone swarm strengthen its self-protection ability, this is my most important eyes and ears, I don't want someone to destroy this network at a critical moment. But in the future..."

Hao Ren paused, looking at his hand.

Dark red lines spread across his palm, like ugly burns. Although there was no pain, he felt a burning sensation whenever he clenched his fist. This burning sensation was exactly the same as what he felt in the Godslayer Illusion, it was almost like a continuation of that illusion.

After touching the golden disc, the information he got was far more than he imagined.