Legend of the Cyber Heroes

"What the heck?" Yuki huffed after leaving the recycling bin for old parts at the eastern end of the town, "That old man!"

The recycling bin for old parts was, in fact, more of a... community facility. If anyone had spare parts they didn't need, they could pile them up here, and then if someone was short on cash, they could come and take a few parts for free.

The town also entrusted some people who had lost their ability to work to maintain the parts here. These people either lost the prosthetic bodies they used for labor and didn't even have the credit to borrow money to buy them, or their biological brains were so severely damaged that it affected their mobility.

They were responsible for preserving those "barely usable" scraps of iron with rust inhibitor and silicone.

However, just as Yuki's mother would keep a pair of prosthetic hands for several years, here, a part wouldn't be brought in until it was near the extreme limit of metal fatigue.

But Xiang Shan didn't need parts that were too good anyway.

These parts weren't for his own use. He had other uses for them.

Yet, they encountered an unexpected entanglement.

An old man in charge of maintenance kept telling Xiang Shan, "You're rich," incessantly tugging at him and not letting go. This made it difficult for Xiang Shan to select parts properly. In the end, Xiang Shan had no choice but to give a few brand-new parts, which he had just bought, to the maintenance staff.

Those maintainers joyfully walked away with screws and diodes in hand.

"You don't normally need to spend money for emergencies here!"

"It's all right, Yuki. That was just some unplanned redundancy, intended for backup," Xiang Shan stopped Yuki. He wasn't very angry. In his view, this was like "giving away wedding candy" – when something good happens to you [at least everyone thinks it's good], letting everyone share a bit of the joy wasn't excessive.

It was just that the subjects had changed from little kids to old men about to regress to infancy.

The phrase "You're rich" even made him chuckle for a moment.

"It seems that, even in this era, people are still people..."

"What?" Yuki was perplexed.

"Humans are really complicated beings, capable of both good and evil, right and wrong—they are all facets of the same person. Sometimes I truly worry that I've slept too long; that the people now are unrecognizable to me... Never mind, why am I discussing this with you?" Xiang Shan shook his head.

Even now, humans still displayed both kindness and malice. And that was fine.

Of course, a trace of "malice" also existed. Thinking it over, Dr. Schultz's attitude when asking him to go online... was it possibly a test? In this era, did refusing to go online represent something?

But that wasn't a big problem.

—Of course, this did not mean he would forgive "true malice."

"Just now, recalling my own affair, the shock was really too much." Xiang Shan brought up another matter: "Yuki, you remember, don't you? I hadn't planned on stepping forward at first, but someone pushed me out. Did you see who that person was? Who was standing behind me at that time?"

Even though he had originally intended to step forward, and even though the affair ultimately had a positive outcome, this did not mean he would forgive the person who pushed him. The nature of that action was different.

The person who had given him that push had done so with the intention of killing him and had acted on it.

Yuki slapped his face. The shock of Xiang Shan defeating the Martial Artist was so great that everyone had forgotten about it.

"I didn't see it," Yuki admitted, feeling a bit guilty but also tense, "Xiang Shan, what are you planning to do... What does a Hero typically do at a time like this?"

"I'll explain this matter to you in detail when the opportunity arises," Xiang Shan patted Yuki's back, "Now, good kid, go home."

"Go home?" Yuki was astonished, "What about you, Xiang Shan?"

"I naturally have my own affairs to attend to," Xiang Shan said, "The next matter is not suitable for good kids. You go home and sleep, and I'll tell you the outcome tomorrow."

"No!" Yuki knew that Xiang Shan was sure to do what a Hero would do, and at this moment, he was unwilling to leave.

Xiang Shan tried several times to send Yuki home, but he was reluctant to go. Xiang Shan finally sighed, "Alright, since I did intend to teach you some stuff... I'll take you with me. But you'll have to speak less and watch more later, understand?"

Yuki nodded excitedly, then curiously asked, "Aren't you going to continue fixing up your prosthetic body, Xiang Shan?"

"No need," Xiang Shan shook his head, "I do indeed want to make a prosthetic body for myself quickly, but there are more important things to do. And this matter can only be done on the outskirts of town—if you're coming, pick up the parts."

The two of them quickly arrived at a secluded spot, a path they usually took to the garbage mountain, where no one would come at night.

That night, the moonlight was exceptionally bright. Xiang Shan adjusted the lenses of his eyes and suddenly discovered something astonishing.

He saw a visible line on the moon, much like a scratch on a pancake. At the same time, within the halo of the moonlight, a faint thread appeared that was hard to discern with the naked eye.

It was a very small star ring.

Something must have happened on the moon that caused the terrain to change drastically, even pulling a bit of material off the lunar surface to form a faintly present star ring.

"Today I finally have the leisure to see the moon, and I didn't expect to actually discover something significant..." Xiang Shan's voice synthesizer failed again to comprehend the complexity of his emotions, "I'm starting to wonder whether I've just awoken after sleeping for many years or have directly crossed over to a parallel universe..."

Yuki sat down with a thud, the pile of parts he was carrying clattering behind him, "Xiang Shan, whatever you're planning to do, there was no need to come this far... I'm very tired..."

Xiang Shan stopped and took a look around.

This spot was far from anything that looked like a signal tower and away from any potential hiding spots for cameras.

Very well.

Xiang Shan silently took those old parts from Yuki's hands, "Yuki, remember what you are about to see, remember it with your biological brain, and do not forget it, even in death!"

Xiang Shan fitted the gears onto the transmission shafts, then placed several shafts on the discarded supports of some mechanical tool, forming the basis of a mechanical structure. Then, the gears meshed with one another, and the transmission shafts crisscrossed.

Yuki's eyes widened, "Xiang Shan, Xiang Shan, what is this? It looks so formidable…"

"Of course, it's formidable." Xiang Shan kept his gaze fixed on the device he was assembling as memories surged in his mind.

He was familiar with this structure.

"What exactly is this great expert? Can it defeat villains?"

"Haven't I told you to watch carefully?" Xiang Shan reprimanded, "If you want to learn my skills, you must memorize this."

Yuki pouted, "I don't even know what this is…"

Xiang Shan's work paused for a few seconds.

The man spoke seriously, "Then, remember well. This structure is called a 'Turing Machine'."

Yuki watched Xiang Shan's labor.

Xiang Shan pieced those old parts into an extremely ugly and simple machine. It had no energy component; it was gear-driven, with friction transferring kinetic energy from one gear to another... It even had a handle as a power source.

Yuki scratched his head, "Is this... what you wanted me to remember?"

The thing was rather ugly and rudimentary, not to mention that in order to allow the gears to make this final turn, Xiang Shan had used up all the lubricant the old Custodian had given him. This made the device look greasy and particularly disgusting.

Xiang Shan nodded and then turned the handle with his hand.

The kinetic energy emanating from the hand, changed direction and branched through the gears, transmitting to the entire machine.

The sound of metals meshing and colliding...

Xiang Shan murmured, "This is it."

"Xiang Shan..." Yuki pointed out sheepishly, "It looks a lot like scrap metal."

Xiang Shan looked up at Yuki and said loudly, "The materials it's made of may be scrap metal, but its structure is not. Remember its name — Turing Machine!"

The man's gaze fell back on the machine, his tone becoming gentler, "It is the computer from the dawn of creation, the greatest product of humanity's exploration of mathematics, and the origin of all Inner Strength."

"'Inner Strength'?"

"All the Martial Arts you have heard of, including those you have seen at the Paralympics, as well as those that dog and I have used, are just External Martial Arts." Xiang Shan spoke with his eyes closed, "Of course, there are also 'Internal Martial Arts'."

"External Martial Arts originate from the art of war, a specialized tactical evolution. Internal Martial Arts, on the other hand, are products of the mutual enhancement of intelligence and artificial intelligence."

"'Inner Strength' in ancient times, was also known as 'Hacker Techniques.' But those primitive hackers couldn't manipulate code and computing resources directly with their biological brains like modern Heroes can. They had to deal with an output device called a 'screen' and use an input device called a 'keyboard' to interfere with that world — that was merely mortal level. A Hero's 'Inner Strength' is a hundred times more miraculous than that. Nevertheless, at its core, Inner Strength is indeed the evolutionary product of Hacker Techniques."

The relationship between Hacker Techniques and a Hero's Inner Strength is akin to the first single-cell organism in the primordial ocean and the later advanced organisms. Although the latter may be mysterious and impressive, they always developed from the former.

"All Inner Strength is based on the power of computing machines, and all computers originate from this great engineering structure..."

Fervor crept into Xiang Shan's tone.

Turing Machine.

In 1920, the world's greatest mathematician, the leader of the Göttingen School, the famous proponent of the "twenty-three problems," David Hilbert, charged at the origin of "mathematics." He proposed the concept of "Metamathematics" — that is, "the mathematics of studying mathematics."

By mastering Metamathematics, one essentially masters all mathematics.

At the core of Metamathematics were three propositions — concerning completeness, consistency, and computability.

Completeness: every mathematical problem can be proven or disproven.

Consistency: every mathematical assertion is either true or false, with no proof of contradiction that is both true and false.

Computability: every mathematical proof can be reached through a viable process and a finite number of operations.

If these three issues were solved, humanity could decipher all mathematical problems with machines — the "ultimate answer" to mathematics would fall into human hands.

All mathematicians in the entire world were obsessed with these three problems.

And the Turing Machine was the Divine Artifact that could break these three difficult questions.

It was a structure filled with "wisdom."

Yuki clapped. Within the applause was a mix of obligation and sincerity, "But Xiang Shan, what does this have to do with the 'Inner Strength' we've been talking about...?"