I Am The Swarm

With setbacks in rocket propulsion research, some of the rat folk proposed building a space station in planetary orbit as a means of collecting data and conducting further studies. This idea inspired a subset of researchers to pursue related projects.

One article suggested creating a self-sustaining ecosystem chamber aboard the space station. Plants could absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, while rat folk would breathe the oxygen and produce carbon dioxide, establishing a closed-loop system.

Although implementing such a system would be far more complicated than the article implied, the concept gave Luo Wen a new direction for his experiments.

Previously, Luo Wen had focused on directly harnessing cosmic radiation. He had made some progress—certain thermal radiation could provide large amounts of heat energy—but he had yet to find a method to convert that heat into biological energy, leaving him stuck in a dead end.

Now, he had a fresh idea.

Luo Wen already had the ability to integrate plant cells into his body, even incorporating chloroplasts. The ecosystem chamber concept seemed feasible for internal adaptation.

Driven by inspiration, he began working immediately. His body was already sealed into an airtight structure from prior experiments with survival in oxygen-deprived environments, making it a natural closed chamber.

He added numerous chloroplasts to his skin cells but quickly ran into compatibility issues. His optical stealth system and magnetic field generation system were also located in the skin. Adding chloroplasts risked disrupting their functions.

Unable to resolve this, Luo Wen relocated the chloroplasts to a lower part of his body. However, this introduced a new challenge: limited light exposure. He experimented with using the nanocrystals from the optical stealth system to reflect light to the chloroplasts’ new location.