Chapter 351: Playing the Cards
From the moment Luo Wen emerged as a fingernail-sized hatchling, he had systematically and strategically eliminated countless foes that once seemed insurmountably powerful to him. He understood the dangers of relying too heavily on a single weapon.
While the electromagnetic railgun was a formidable force, he had always been wary of its limitations and ensured that the Swarm’s strategies were not overly reliant on it.
In fact, long ago, after the Swarm captured a Cat-Eared vessel, they had reverse-engineered its energy weapon technology. Luo Wen even produced a batch of larval units equipped with energy weapon systems to offset their melee limitations. However, he quickly found these weapons impractical due to their short range and high energy consumption, and the project was shelved.
Later, when the Swarm seized Riken warships and acquired more advanced energy weaponry, it became clear that the Swarm had already surpassed the Rikens in this domain. By that time, Luo Wen had amassed over ten million research-oriented Intelligent Entities. This was a monumental advantage.
To understand the scale, consider that no civilization begins omniscient. Each must learn slowly, advancing along specific technological paths over generations.
Progress demands enormous time investments, and as technology becomes more complex, new members of the civilization require increasingly longer periods to digest prior knowledge before they can contribute meaningfully.
During this process, many individuals give up, leaving only a select few to reach the pinnacle of a particular technological field. These rare experts might further advance their chosen field incrementally during their lifetimes.
The overall progress of a civilization depends on the continuous advancement of countless technological paths. Therefore, the lifespan of its members often determines a civilization’s potential.
Take the Ratfolk civilization, for example. Even without the Swarm restraining them, their potential to become a spacefaring civilization was slim. Despite Luo Wen’s interventions to address their genetic flaws and extend their lifespan, most Ratfolk still lived less than fifty years.