Legend of the Cyber Heroes-Chapter 49 - The Long Road of Jianghu
49: Chapter 49 The Long Road of Jianghu
49 -49 The Long Road of Jianghu
When Xiang Shan picked up Yuki, he realized his disciple’s breathing was growing fainter.
He glanced at the bemused village chief, then at Dr.
Schultz, and finally sighed in his heart.
He simply couldn’t bring himself to leave his disciple behind with any peace of mind.
This child’s mother had already passed away, and the only person who promised to take care of him without compensation was no more.
There didn’t seem to be any welfare institutions here, and even if there were, Xiang Shan had little trust in them.
Moreover, having attacked the Civilization Protectors in front of these townsfolk who were always in awe of the authority of Yawgmoth, and given Yuki’s close relationship with him, he truly did not dare to bet on the townspeople’s attitude towards Yuki.
The man sighed and said, “Alright, kid, you were right, I was wrong.
You indeed should have become a Hero.”
Carrying Yuki and hoisting the Welfare Officer’s body, he walked towards the Ground Effect Vehicle the Welfare Officer had driven here.
He inserted several of the Welfare Officer’s drive chips into his Prosthetic Hand and channeled his Inner Strength.
To his surprise…
—Oh no, a completely unfamiliar language…
Xiang Shan nodded.
This was more in line with his understanding of technology.
In Xiang Shan’s familiar era, the update of languages by the Industrial World lagged behind the academic world by quite a margin.
In this age, perhaps this gap had become infinitely wider.
Dr.
Schultz’s civilian products still used a variant of the C language that had been around for hundreds of years, while the Martial Artist’s drives were written in newer languages that Xiang Shan still recognized.
But these drives from the Civilization Protectors were written in languages unfamiliar to Xiang Shan.
However, the “strength” of a language only mattered in direct confrontation between masters of Inner Strength.
For a simple Turing Machine based entirely on Boolean operations, a master of Internal arts could make modifications from a much deeper level.
Soon, he had completely hacked into the Welfare Officer’s chips, and then connected to the flying vehicle, proceeding with privilege escalation.
But seconds later, he felt interference from the outside.
“There must be an Internal Strength Master attacking through a satellite…
judging by this delay, they should be on Earth,” Xiang Shan thought to himself.
As the cyberization of humans reduced their needs for survival materials, the cyberization of humanity was also accompanied by a rampant expansion in space endeavors.
Now there should also be people on the Moon.
Hence, he could not completely rule out the possibility of “an Internal Strength Master launching an attack from the Moon via the network.”
Of course, Mars or Venus would be too far away, the delays too long, which would be a significant disadvantage in battles of Inner Strength.
“Since the delay is within one second, this Internal Strength Master should be one of the nearby Lord’s subordinates.” Xiang Shan started the flying vehicle, then quietly calculated something.
As all the townspeople looked on in shock, Xiang Shan activated the Ground Effect Vehicle and flew away at low altitude from the area.
Minutes later, several missiles arrived from the direction of the large city.
And then, a faint glimmer of light came from the horizon.
……………………………………………
About four hours later, a huge Austrian black and tan hound nudged the head in front of it with its nose and said playfully, “Oh no, so you’re telling me you literally had your head ripped off…”
“It’s because…
sss…
Iron Dust…
sss…
countered the military martial…” the Welfare Officer retorted angrily.
But his speech was impaired due to brain damage suffered when Xiang Shan removed his head.
“Pfft, if Iron Dust could counter all battle formations, then military martial will be left with nothing but heavy tanks and battleships,” Granddoug said disdainfully.
“This is your own problem, sir.”
The dog’s tone also lacked much respect.
Then, the dog turned to the kneeling village chief and Dr.
Schultz: “And then?
After that you just saw a flash of light flying through the sky?”
The village chief kept nodding.
The Welfare Officer exclaimed, “That…
sss…
Hero…
must…
sssss…
have died…
sss…”
“You’d better say less, sir.
The more you speak, the more embarrassing it gets,” Ulster Granddog laughed.
“A Hero who can crack the boxing art imparted by me using just a Biological Brain, without relying on algorithms, must be a Famed Hero; he can’t be simply killed by that kind of missile.”
Saying so, the dog casually kicked, sending the Welfare Officer’s head into the village chief’s arms.
“Look after this head well; it may indeed bring you some reward if other Protectors come along later.”
Granddoug didn’t really care what happened to the Welfare Officer, but he had to keep up appearances.
As a formal member of the Protectors, the Welfare Officer enjoyed protection and was permitted to exercise executive power in exceptional states.
Even with most of his martial arts gone and his brain damaged, the respected Welfare Officer could be sent to a retirement home outside Earth to live out his days in comfort.
Ulster Granddog was different, though.
He renounced protection and only allied himself with a personal Lord as a Martial Artist.
Even though he had significant authority due to the Lord’s favor, Ulster Granddog’s status was still unlike that of a Welfare Officer.
“What are you going to…
sssss…
do…
sss…?”
“Of course, I’m going to find that kid and then kill him,” Ulster Granddog said with a sneer.
His prosthetic eye was no worse than the eyes of those who followed the Firearms Path, and within his nasal cavity was the latest chemical detection system, which could gather information through odor molecules in the air—simply put, it had an olfactory system more sensitive than a dog’s.
Anticipating the need for “tracking,” he had specifically implanted a new set of sensing reagents before leaving home—the trace chemical reagents inside could react with the chemical molecules collected by his nasal cavity.
This reaction could be monitored by machinery.
Together with components like a gas chromatograph, Ulster Granddog’s nose possessed an olfactory sensitivity a hundred times greater than that of dogs.
He quickly found Gleayard’s remains.
The main chip and storage device had already been excavated, but they could still accept certain commands.
Xiang Shan had used pre-set commands to order the corpse to throw the “Iron Dust.”
There, Ulster collected an organism’s scent.
—I will never allow anyone to crack my martial arts…
Thinking this, Ulster Granddog ran towards the direction the missile had been launched, as recorded.
……………………………………………
Yuki dreamt of his mother, though only vaguely.
It must have been a very long time ago.
Back then, his mother wasn’t a truck.
Yuki wasn’t supposed to remember that time, but the chip had helped him retain the memory.
He was just a little boy then, not even as tall as his mother’s knees.
It seemed there was also a brother in the house…
Yuki couldn’t remember how he got along with his brother either.
According to the chip’s records, he did cry often at that time.
And back then, Yulia would hold him, gently humming an unknown tune to him, telling him that all dangers were fake, that humans protected by the “Yawgmoth” would not suffer from fantasy attacks.
Perhaps Yulia herself didn’t understand what it meant.
It seemed to be some sort of magic spell that offered humans a sense of security, handed down from generation to generation since ancient times.
In the dream, it seemed only the area beneath his mother’s knees was bright and peaceful.
But…
Those hands…
those legs…
that warm scent…
“Mom…
Mom…” Yuki murmured.
“Hey, Disciple, you’re awake,” a voice said.
Yuki struggled to move his eyeballs, making out a silvery figure.
It took him several seconds to remember who it was.
“Master…”
“Alright, save some strength.
You’re badly injured, so speak less,” the figure advised.
Only then did Yuki notice a cable extending from Xiang Shan’s neck, plugging into his chest.
“Your lungs are damaged,” Xiang Shan shook his head.
“The compatible organ for the built-in battery is damaged, so my battery has to sustain you.
Hang in there until the new battery arrives.”
Tears streamed down Yuki’s face.
“Hey, kid, I’ve already told you you’re weak right now, don’t waste water resources…
hey,” Xiang Shan scratched his head.
He just realized that he had never learned child psychology.
He had a slight understanding of educational psychology, but that was supposed to be for teaching students over twenty.
He truly didn’t know how to comfort a child in this situation.
“Well, if crying makes you feel better, go ahead and cry,” Xiang Shan sighed.
“We still have some water and inorganic salts for tears.”
When leaving the village, he had taken Copper Candy, drinking water, inorganic salts, and amino acids.
However, all these and the spare battery were kept on the automatic walking robot “Donkey.”
Before the fight started, Xiang Shan had ordered “Donkey” to follow a set route.
After bringing Yuki aboard the ground effect vehicle, he piloted it swiftly for a few minutes before immediately jumping off.
After Xiang Shan left, the vehicle continued to fly on its own for less than a minute before a missile exploded it in mid-air.
There, Xiang Shan began giving Yuki emergency treatment and waited for the drone and “Donkey” to arrive.
But Yuki’s condition was indeed quite serious.
His heart was fine, powered by Xiang Shan’s battery, but his lungs were a major issue.
Only one lobe was still functioning.
Blood loss was another big problem.
Xiang Shan did not have lungs himself.
His sole surviving biological brain, modified by a magic spell, could substitute electric field energy for some of the energy produced by ATP hydrolysis, requiring little oxygen; the biological membrane within his skull sufficed.
The intake of nutrients like sugar and protein was only partly consumed, the rest replenishing his brain’s damage.
That was one of the benefits of being fully cyberized.
Without a circulatory system and hardly a drop of blood, he couldn’t “link their circulations together” to keep Yuki alive.
Even if he were willing to transfer his own components, his fully converted prosthetic body lacked the organs needed by the partially cyberized.
Due to oxygen deprivation, Yuki’s thoughts couldn’t continue; after crying for a while, he once again fell asleep.
The resilience against hypoxic damage was greater in humans after metal-based conversion than in Homo sapiens.
That was something to be grateful for.
Meanwhile, Xiang Shan began to contemplate the items he had taken from the Welfare Officer.
