I Am The Swarm

The shrimp units could match the mantis shrimp in speed, but their attacks were too weak to penetrate its armor, relegating them to reconnaissance roles.

Fortunately, mantis shrimp often hid in the sandy seabed, lying in wait to ambush passing prey. Coincidentally, such areas were also the crabs’ domain.

After several hours of patrolling, hundreds of shrimp scouts finally located a mantis shrimp at a depth of over 200 meters. The crabs soon received the coordinates and moved in.

To avoid alarming the mantis shrimp, only two crabs approached its hiding place.

Perhaps because the crabs were similar in size to the mantis shrimp, it chose to attack rather than flee. It lunged at one crab, which hurriedly raised its claw in defense. Yet, as the mantis shrimp darted past, one of the crab’s claws was severed, floating away.

However, the mantis shrimp underestimated the swarm’s collective combat tactics. The two crabs had deliberately lured it out. When it paused momentarily to prepare for another strike, the second crab seized the opportunity, leaping forward and pinning the mantis shrimp with its claws.

The mantis shrimp, covered in spikes, struggled fiercely. While the crabs’ carapaces provided excellent defense, their abdominal armor was relatively soft, and the mantis shrimp managed to pierce them in several places.

The injured crab, now reduced to a single claw, used it to grip the mantis shrimp’s head and carapace seam. In retaliation, the mantis shrimp unleashed a hammer strike, severing the crab’s remaining claw.

Even so, the detached claw remained lodged in the mantis shrimp’s carapace seam, severely hindering its movements.

At this point, the shrimp scouts, which had been waiting nearby, swarmed in. Though incapable of damaging the mantis shrimp’s armor, they pushed it toward the crab army.

Once surrounded by dozens of crabs, the mantis shrimp’s fate was sealed.

After savoring a fresh mantis shrimp sashimi dish, Luo Wen indulged in a feast of wild crabs and shrimp before hurriedly returning to the Brood Nest.

Uploading the new genetic data left him astounded—no wonder the mantis shrimp was a dominant predator of the sea. It boasted a wealth of genetic “black technology.”

After a deep sleep, Luo Wen molted a layer of his claw’s armor. While his claws didn’t transform into hammers, they gained new structures, and even the armor itself underwent changes.

However, an accident occurred during testing.

A month later, the swarm version of the mantis shrimp was complete. After various tests, Luo Wen gained a deeper understanding of its capabilities.

The first notable feature was its eyes. Equipped with six pupils, the eyes could perceive a broader range of colors. While these eyes weren’t entirely compatible with Luo Wen’s biology, partial integration allowed him to experience a richer and more vivid world.

The second and most remarkable trait was its hammer-like forelimbs.

A 10-centimeter-long mantis shrimp could generate a force exceeding 150 kilograms with its hammer, which explained how it had cracked Luo Wen’s armor.

Its hammer strikes were blisteringly fast, accelerating from 0 to 80 km/h in just 1/300th of a second. This speed created a supercavitation effect, where collapsing bubbles produced a small shockwave and briefly heated the surrounding water to extreme temperatures, emitting a flash of light.

Luo Wen realized the flash he’d seen during the mantis shrimp’s attack came from this phenomenon, visible only with highly sensitive eyes.

Achieving such speeds required more than just physical strength—it necessitated intricate body mechanics. The mantis shrimp’s forelimbs featured a hyperbolic system, which stored energy through contraction and released it explosively to launch the hammer.

Moreover, this extraordinary mechanism relied on a specialized material. The mantis shrimp’s hammer was covered in a three-layered nano-structure that absorbed energy, resisted cracking, and provided exceptional impact resistance.

Despite its impressive resilience, this material had limitations. It could only support the mantis shrimp’s hammer at its current size of roughly one centimeter. Any larger, and catastrophic failure would occur.

Don’t ask how Luo Wen discovered this.

When he first acquired the technology, he was ecstatic. Rushing to test it, he fully activated the hyperbolic ejection system. The result? A loud sonic boom followed by Luo Wen being violently flung through the air.

Worse yet, his claw was forcibly torn from his body and hurled into the distance.

Subsequent examination revealed that while the claw had adopted the new nano-structure, it suffered severe burn damage. Thankfully, being severed from Luo Wen’s body spared him any direct harm.

However, the pain of losing a claw was unbearable, leaving Luo Wen writhing in agony. He began questioning whether retaining a nervous system that could register pain truly counted as an evolutionary advantage.

After extensive experiments using mantis shrimp genetics, Luo Wen determined the limits of the system. The maximum hammer size that could withstand the stresses was roughly two centimeters, and the system only functioned effectively underwater, where the water could rapidly cool the heat generated by the hyperbolic ejection.

Anything larger was a death sentence, as Luo Wen had painfully discovered. Fortunately, he could regenerate his limbs, emerging whole after molting in a cocoon.

Given Luo Wen’s size of over 60 centimeters, with claws whose main structure alone spanned nearly 30 centimeters, it was impossible to wield a two-centimeter hammer.

The thought of such a setup was simply too humiliating for him to consider.

Additionally, the system was only lethal against similarly sized targets. When the mantis shrimp ambushed Luo Wen, it had only managed to create a small crack in his claw.

For Luo Wen, the system was akin to a chicken rib: unsatisfying to use but too valuable to discard. Reluctant to waste such a hard-earned technology, he conducted countless tests and adjustments. After losing countless claws and molting multiple times, Luo Wen finally managed to modify the system.

This “modification” was essentially a severe downgrade. Luo Wen sealed off most of the hyperbolic system’s power, weakening it repeatedly until it was manageable.

Even so, the improved system increased Luo Wen’s claw speed severalfold. Combined with his enhanced dynamic visual tracking, he was confident that if he encountered a mantis shrimp again, he could give it a surprise of his own.

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