I Am The Swarm-Chapter 758: Pursuit

“The enemy used a special camouflage code to deceive the system’s self-diagnostic device!” Selina’s mechanical voice responded.

The commander was shocked. Could the enemy’s skills really deceive an AI of Selina’s caliber? As for why Selina detected the anomaly without further instructions, the commander had some guesses.

Although the commander held high authority within the Ji race, he wasn’t particularly clear on how AIs handled certain issues. He only knew that all of the Ji race’s AIs could be considered subroutines of Lumina to some extent.

The computational power and algorithms of these subroutines naturally couldn’t compare to Lumina. Sometimes issues undetectable by subroutines would trigger an intervention mechanism, prompting Lumina itself to take action.

The current situation was obviously one such case. Whether this was true or not could be verified by checking Selina’s work logs later, but now was clearly not the time for detailed investigation.

“Damn it! Squadron 0612, execute the planned attack! Stop the target!” the commander shouted angrily.

On the battlefield, the twelve warships of Squadron 0612, already charged and locked on, immediately launched their attack upon receiving the order.

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“We’ve been exposed! They’ve discovered us!”

“It was Lumina’s intervention, damn it! During our simulation experiments, even Lumina couldn’t detect our camouflage program!”

“Enough talk. We don’t have complete data on Lumina—not just us, no one in the Ji race knows how far Lumina has evolved. Now it seems it’s much stronger than we imagined.”

“I heard Lumina has evolved intelligence? Can it be considered a true life form? Truly remarkable.”

“Stop marveling. That’s precisely what makes it so terrifying.”

“Exactly. A life form completely different from us, yet possessing a more advanced form and wielding terrifying military power. Just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.”

“This is why we must overthrow the Ji race. We must let more people know that the Ji race are mere puppets, hiding something far more sinister behind them!”

“Enough chatter. Everything must be done step by step. First, we must rescue the Swarm Empress!”

“They’ll probably attack soon. Protect the target warship!”

Sure enough, not long after the mysterious organization member’s words, the attack from the Ji fleet arrived.

However, the targeted ships were also Ji warships, equipped with identical devices and performance. The Ji fleet had just started charging their weapons, and the slight difference in energy fluctuations between them and the surrounding ships was quickly noticed by the mysterious organization.

Given the extremely close range and their familiarity with the performance parameters of Ji warships, the mysterious organization could even calculate their targeting positions based on the tilt angle of the gun barrels.

Thus, when the attack came, the mysterious organization wasn’t panicked. The previous acts of pretending to collide were merely to justify getting close to the target warship.

By now, the other warships of Squadron 0599 had gathered around the target warship, effectively adding a thick layer of reactive armor.

Since they had been discovered, the pretense was no longer necessary; any maneuvering would delay their escape. Facing the incoming attack, the target warship neither dodged nor avoided, instead powering full throttle toward the star gate.

“Can you guys do anything? Can you infiltrate their friend-or-foe identification system?” one member of the mysterious organization anxiously asked.

“Don’t interrupt us. Lumina has intervened. The difficulty of infiltration now is countless times higher than during our simulations.”

“Damn it! So Lumina has truly evolved intelligence. Otherwise, even if it detected our intrusion, it wouldn’t have actively intervened to defend another area!”

“Do you have any confidence?”

“Shut up!”

A group of mysterious individuals frantically manipulated the machines before them, heightening the tension in the atmosphere.

“Bad news! Lumina is searching for our location—I can’t hold it off!”

“Cut the network, disconnect the power!” a mysterious individual shouted. He was also one of those who had waved his arms earlier. As a top figure in the technical department, he clearly understood the implication of the team member’s earlier shout. Thus, he decisively gave the order.

This person commanded great authority. As soon as his voice fell, the network and power were physically disconnected. Looking at the now-shut-down instruments, the group of technicians exchanged glances.

“What’s going on?” the officer in charge of this place harshly demanded. The frontline teams were still fighting desperately, yet the technical support team had unexpectedly thrown in the towel first.

“Lumina discovered our intrusion path and is reverse-tracking us. We must leave here immediately!” the technician who had ordered the power disconnection explained.

“What about our comrades on the frontline?” the commander questioned. In reality, there weren’t many moles in Squadron 0599. Their control over the ships was entirely due to the technical team forcibly enabling autopilot and seizing control. Of course, those moles played some role in it.

But now that the rear support team had backed out, the fate of those moles might not be good. More importantly, the commander feared this could implicate more allies. As a senior member of the mysterious organization, he had vaguely heard of Lumina’s powerful interrogation and assimilation methods.

Even if those moles only knew two or three people at the same level, the ripple effect could lead to a significant number of people being exposed, potentially collapsing their underground intelligence network.

The technical team was well aware of this, but they had no choice. If they continued, they might end up implicating themselves. Then, the frontline moles would lose technical support and face the same consequences.

“Before we cut the power, we set some parameters in the ships’ autopilot systems. If luck is on our side, they should still be able to complete the mission and escape…” Of course, the technician didn’t elaborate on what might happen if luck wasn’t on their side, but others could guess. “Forget about them for now. Let’s focus on ourselves. We need to get out of here quickly!”

The mysterious organization’s commander snapped back to attention. The technical expert had mentioned leaving immediately once before, which he hadn’t paid attention to, but now he repeated it. “What’s wrong? Haven’t we already disconnected the network and power? Could the enemy still track us?”

“It’s hard to say. We can’t predict Lumina’s methods. For safety’s sake, let’s retreat first!”

“Alright.” After some thought, the commander found this reasonable. Concerning their own safety, he didn’t hesitate and promptly agreed with the technical expert’s suggestion, reporting the situation here upward.