Legend of the Cyber Heroes-Chapter 80 - Summary at the End of Volume 1

80: Summary at the End of Volume 1

80: Summary at the End of Volume 1

Xiang Shan:

The Ancestor of Martial Arts who lost his memory seemed to have once been the developer who spurred the technological revolution.

A few months ago, his head was unearthed in a landfill.

At the time, he couldn’t even remember his name, only that he had an enemy named “Yawgmoth.” Now, a small fragment of his memories has been found.

Prosthetic Head: Half of the skull, crafted from an alloy of unknown high strength, along with a cranium recently made from ordinary alloy, houses a martial arts chip and storage device.

It includes a built-in high-precision prosthetic eye.

Prosthetic Torso: Self-made prosthetic body.

The spine, left by a talentful Martial Artist, includes a miniature hydraulic system, enabling autonomous movement.

Dozens of Armor plates, each capable of independent deflection, are equipped with wireless signal transmitters and several batteries.

Prosthetic Hand: Each finger and the palm are equipped with high-frequency vibration generators, capable of rapidly deteriorating alloys.

Ultrasonic and infrasonic waves pose a certain threat to the biological brain.

Prosthetic Leg: Artificial muscle fiber prosthetic legs, with extremely high burst strength in specific directions, but seem to lack durability.

Weapons: Several ordinary firearms.

Sonicon Blade [Currently unusable due to weight and energy limitations] [Illustration]

…

Companions:

Yuki: A young boy taken as a disciple by Xiang Shan

Little Girl: An orphan.

Her genetic father unknown from Green Forest, her mother a victim.

The first word she learned in life was “don’t be afraid”

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Now for openly available settings:

“Benchmark Man”/Homo vexillues is a species biologically distinct from Homo sapiens.

Gene therapy that transforms Homo sapiens into Benchmark Man precedes the prosthetic transformation.

Vexillues, a variant of the Latin vexillum meaning standard/benchmark.

Benchmark Man requires a higher intake of metal elements, have greater body density than Homo sapiens, can autonomously produce metal cluster protein layers, and are immune to all known native pathogens from the early 21st century; their cells possess strong anti-mechanical damage capabilities, anti-hypoxic abilities, and anti-aging abilities, making the lifespan of Benchmark Man much longer than that of Homo sapiens.

Most importantly, Benchmark Man can rely on electric field energy to replace some ATP hydrolysis to energize cells.

This technology initially seemed to be developed to solve the human eating problem, eliminating world hunger and liberating more labor.

…

The current society is in a loose state.

The government/”Civilization Protectors” control resources, yet they follow anarchism, taking the “Dyson Principle” as the sole standard, providing only basic protection.

They exist solely to maintain the “Human Gene Bank.” The true nature of the Human Gene Bank remains to be explored.

The Martial World is hostile to the government.

Furthermore, within the Martial World, there are two opposing factions—one is Jianghu, and the other is Green Forest.

Green Forest maintains its organization through a shared memory that is extremely evil and cruel.

Their means of expanding their ranks involves using this shared memory to brainwash others, rewriting their personalities.

[This technology seems to have been created to solve the problem of human education]

The ecology of Jianghu is unknown, but it seemingly adheres to the tradition of “knowledge sharing.” Currently, it is known that Jianghu spreads the path to initiation through blockchain, while knowledge within the Sect is shared via magnetic chains.

…

Article Zero: All individuals who have not explicitly refused to comply with the Dyson Principle or have not explicitly violated the principles are by default considered compliant with the Dyson Principle, accepting civilization protection.

The Dyson Principle is the sole universal principle of human civilization.

Any conduct that does not violate the Dyson Principle should be permitted

Explanation: Citizens possess rights to privacy and various freedoms.

However, human civilization does not provide extra protection for these freedoms.

Actions violating these freedoms are not encouraged but will not lead to the loss of civilization protection for citizens.

However, residents can kill the violators in defense of their freedoms without losing protection—self-defense rights are unlimited.

Article One: Every human has an obligation to maintain human genetic diversity.

Refusal of this obligation will automatically result in loss of civilization protection.

Article Two: Damage to another person’s biological brain is prohibited

Article Three: Manufacturing, using, or selling addictive potions is prohibited

Article Four: Private property exists and is protected

Article Five: Organizations can only be formed by one individual pledging allegiance to another.

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About References and Homages:

The preface of this volume quotes from the preface of Dr.

Karl Marx’s doctoral dissertation.

This volume contains several references to the work of the French leftist economist Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

[To avoid system sensitivity, the Chinese book title is not included here]

The main homages in this volume include “Fist of the North Star,” “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” “Persona 5,” “Ip Man,” “The Grandmaster,” and other works.

About “Xiang Shan being carved out in the form of a head”—this is a triple homage at the core of this work.

The first layer is a homage to the beginning of Yukito Kishiro’s “Battle Angel Alita.” The first chapter, “Rusty Homo Sapiens,” is a homage to the first chapter of “Battle Angel Alita,” “Rusty Angel.”

The second layer is a homage to the background story of the great battle in “Magic: The Gathering,” where the protagonist, who is only a head, confronts a great enemy named Yawgmoth.

The third layer, Xiang Shan in his early years, proclaimed himself “must be a Lich King” to fight against “decaying history” and other reactionary forces.

Recently in the plot, the Lich King Bolvar was broken by Sylvanas.

These three images are intertwined and underpin this work.

——————————————————

Finally, let’s talk about feelings.

First, thank you to all the readers for your continued support.

I am grateful for your votes and rewards, and even more for reading this story.

Additionally, thank you to all the professionals for their technical support.

Special thanks to my martial arts enthusiast friend in Beijing for helping during the preparation phase of this book.

Honestly, I feel somewhat undeserving of your support.

I have clearly recognized that I really have no talent in writing, nor any remarkable ideas.

Coupled with my peculiar aesthetics and niche interests, what I write may come across as somewhat dull to you all.

In fact, at the beginning of the year, I had managed to get a job at a tutoring class with the writer’s card I had obtained, but then the unexpected pandemic and lockdown occurred, and it seems it might last until the weather warms and flowers bloom.

It’s as if fate is forcing me to stick with this profession.

So, I had no choice but to continue writing.

But, what to write?

Among my favorite sci-fi genres, apart from “New Space Opera” exemplified by Vernor Vinge’s Abyss of Heaven series and Dan Simmons’s Hyperion series, it would have to be “Cyberpunk.” And as a Chinese, I naturally harbor a romantic fascination with the stories where “heroes use martial arts to break the law.”

So, a little voice in my head shouted, “What are you comparing?

Mix Cyberpunk with martial arts, you fool.”

So this book came to be.

I think the spirit of “martial arts” naturally fits the setting of “Cyberpunk.” What is a “hero”?

Using martial prowess to defy bans, to defeat the strong and support the weak, to interpret and reshape “human dignity” through action.

And Cyberpunk is exactly about the alienation of humans by technology, the absolute control of the strong over the weak.

From a futurist perspective, perhaps the answer to solving “technological alienation” has already been hidden within martial arts stories.

“Martial arts” is undoubtedly a “technology.” Yet when a martial artist is immersed in martial arts, people do not see him or her as a worshiper of technology, but rather as an artist.

This is not just a fictitious story in novels, but also a reality.

Think about Bruce Lee, a promoter of kung fu culture in the last century—what is his image in people’s minds, an artist or a technology worshiper?

Technology may lead to alienation and distortion of humans, but technology is not inherently doomed to cause such outcomes.

As far as I know, no two elements are more naturally compatible than Cyberpunk and martial arts, but they are rarely brought together by people.

At least that’s what I believe.

This might be the little bit of insight I have about life.

I dare not say how interesting this story can be, but it truly is a work of my dedication.

I hope you can continue to support it.

Lately, I’ve been keeping irregular hours and my health hasn’t been great, so I’ll sort out my thoughts a bit.

Tomorrow, I will continue to update Volume II of “Cyberhero Saga,” “True Names.”