Legend of the Cyber Heroes

Xiang Shan was a mysterious man.

In Yuki's eyes, this man named Xiang Shan was the most magical person in the world. He knew many things that Yuki, his mother, and even the Town Mayor and Doctor Schultz didn't know. On the other hand, he often inexplicably believed in some bizarre theories.

For example, he insisted that Yuki call him "Master."

It was said that this title involved a "contract" between heroes.

For instance, he truly believed "we might be living in a vast Illusory Realm." Not just that, he had even invented a ritual to test this theory.

And the core component of that machine was a greasy, dirty machine.

But Xiang Shan was very serious. After the demonstration, he made Yuki disassemble the machine and reassemble it. After repeating this five times, ensuring Yuki could remember the structure of the machine even without the aid of a chip, he finally stopped.

The next morning, Xiang Shan finally took Yuki back to town.

But by then, there was an unexpected visitor at Yuki's hut.

It was the Town Mayor.

"Mr. Town Mayor," Xiang Shan said, surprised, "What brings you here?"

"Yog... no, I should call you 'Shan'," the Town Mayor, his face partly biological, managed an almost normal smile. "I came to see how you are doing here."

His gaze fixed on Will's residual prosthetic body.

Xiang Shan sent Yuki away and then asked curiously, "How did you know..."

"The doctor is my nephew. I heard that you bought some parts from him, so I figured you were assembling a prosthetic body," the Town Mayor chuckled. "Couldn't help being curious! How is the prosthetic body coming along?"

Xiang Shan shook his head, "It's too difficult, I've barely started."

Seeing that Xiang Shan hadn't put his own brain into the canine prosthetic body, the Town Mayor couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

He knew that these prosthetic bodies of the Martial Artists had their own design concepts, and many parts and structures were mutually compatible. Modifying them recklessly was actually not good.

In his opinion, the best outcome was for Xiang Shan to just hot-swap his brain into the canine prosthetic body.

However, considering that Xiang Shan might be a "Hero," the Town Mayor thought he might not be in the best position to interfere.

He shook his head, asking, "Are you facing any difficulties with this?"

—Was this... an offer of goodwill? Or simply a business inquiry?

Xiang Shan pondered for a moment, then tried asking, "Right now, I don't have a suitable shell..."

The shell of the canine prosthetic body naturally couldn't be directly used on Xiang Shan. Xiang Shan felt that he should also know Bionic Fist, but Bionic Fist was not for combat, and he wasn't accustomed to using it.

But Xiang Shan indeed needed a shell, at least to avoid dust. A shell could also help evade others' observations. At least Xiang Shan felt that having a shell could prevent his battery from being knocked out by the enemy's first move.

Moreover... surviving from the hands of Will Grand Duke was already a matter of luck.

He indeed needed a skull cap that matched the fractured outlet on his forehead.

No matter how sturdy the Brain-Machine Barrier was, it couldn't meet the standards of Alloy Armor. Having his brain exposed during combat was also too risky.

However, Xiang Shan's skull seemed to be made of a certain rare alloy, so repairing it to its original state was still too difficult.

The Town Mayor pondered for a moment. "That's not too difficult. There's a 3D furnace in town. If you could provide the specific parameters, I could make a simple one—of course, there's nothing very good among the remnants from the Sublimation War, and we can't melt warship materials."

Xiang Shan was somewhat evasive, "Then the charges..."

"Don't be like that, Shan," the Town Mayor patted Xiang Shan's wiry shoulder. "You did save all of us. This fee, I can afford it."

—Really?

Xiang Shan was skeptical about this. When he went to buy parts, he sensed the probing nature of Doctor Schultz. Doctor Schultz was the Town Mayor's nephew. This town's interest group didn't seem to completely see him as their "savior."

Was the Town Mayor really that kind?

"I haven't asked you yet, Shan. How are you settling into Recycling Station Town? Since Yuki dug you up..."

Xiang Shan raised his hand, cutting off the Town Mayor, "Mr. Town Mayor, I am really grateful for this town. You were present when Yuki woke me. I know it was you folks who saved me. I remember that. You are also my life saver, so please say whatever you have in mind. If there's anything I can do, I'll try to do it."

The Town Mayor stared at Xiang Shan, seeming to ponder something. But Xiang Shan had no idea how to read expressions through a lens. In the end, the Town Mayor seemed to recall something, and nodded, "I understand, then I'll just speak plainly. The Welfare Officer will be coming in half a month..."

Xiang Shan was startled, "That good? There's actually social welfare?"

"When has there not been social welfare? Once taxes are collected, social welfare must be provided. It's a natural principle!" the Town Mayor was also surprised, "How do you not know this?"

Xiang Shan had not expected this at all. The organizational structure seemed to have completely regressed to the feudal era, yet there was still the concept of "social welfare." He scratched his head, "Strange… How could I have forgotten this… Is it important?"

The Town Mayor shook his head like a worried elder, "You've forgotten so much, what are we going to do with you..."

Xiang Shan asked, "What does a Welfare Officer do?"

"What else could they do? The Tax Officer collects the Gene Tax, and then after half a month, the Lord totals up the taxes from all areas. Following that, the Welfare Officer announces the welfare based on the tax revenue..."

With the Town Mayor's explanation, Xiang Shan realized that the so-called "welfare" was actually quite different from what he had imagined.

Here, the so-called "welfare," like "taxes," also consisted of babies.

However, these babies were not collected; instead, they flowed out from the Human Gene Bank.

There wasn't much to say about the "quality" of these babies. What was most important was that they could effectively prevent the problem of genetic homogeneity in various settlements.

Generally, the amount of welfare was one hundred twenty percent of the taxes.

If ten babies were collected, twelve would be returned.

Then, these babies would be given to those willing to raise them.

However, the carers could not bestow their own surnames on male babies or change the "middle name" of female babies.

Surnames were markers of the Y chromosome, and middle names were markers of mitochondria. It was due to this requirement that "families" could be established.

The first principle of the Dyson Principle stated, "All humans have an obligation to maintain human genetic diversity." Those who refuse this obligation automatically lose the protection of civilization. Moreover, a significant portion of a "name" is a "genetic diversity" label. The extensions of the Dyson Principle prohibit people from recklessly changing their names.

But...

Xiang Shan was somewhat astonished, "With such strict conditions, are there still people willing to adopt children?"

Humans want to raise children because biology imparts the instinct to "pass on genetic information." In some human cultures, "adopting children" can serve as a cultural continuation for the adoptive parents, inheriting honors like "family names" and such—Xiang Shan remembered it should be like this.

But now, it was neither their own bloodline nor were they allowed to pass on their own names?

The Town Mayor was somewhat puzzled, "Why would they not be willing? Helping each other within a family is also considered a welfare, isn't it?"

"Welfare... Oh... I think I understand now."

Perhaps for parents of this era, raising children really is just "welfare"? This era's parents need not worry about "education," because during the first brain modification, "knowledge" is implanted into the brain. And Cybermen are indeed easier to sustain in various senses than Natural Persons...

Yulia seemed to only look at Yuki from outside the window at night.

But having understood this, Xiang Shan felt even more at odds with this era. In his view, Yulia's love for Yuki should be consistent with the love that existed in past eras, but...

The Town Mayor was somewhat puzzled, "Is this very strange? Shan, where did you come from before? Is that place very different from here?"

Xiang Shan shook his head, his speaker generating a rueful laugh, "I don't remember."

The Town Mayor sighed, "In any case, half a month from now, the Welfare Officer will come to our town. But this year, the Tax Officer Lord did not collect all the taxes... What happens next will depend on luck. It's possible that nothing will happen, or we might temporarily lose our 'protection.'"

Having been awake for so long, Xiang Shan had come to roughly understand what this so-called "protection" was.

If explained using Old Era terminology, "civilization protection" included what was previously called "right to life," "right to health," "right to property," and other "personal and personality rights" along with "economic, cultural, and social rights."

Even now, Xiang Shan still wasn't sure exactly what was ruling the world, but it seemed that many other political rights did not exist for everyone here. Therefore, it couldn't be said that "civilization protection" equates to "complete human rights."

Those who lost civilization protection had no rights protected.

Anyone could treat those who had lost civilization protection in any way they chose.

And if those who lost protection continued to harm those with protection, they would become "Thugs," and then it was the Lords' duty to eliminate those thugs.

However, the Dyson Principle never specified "to what extent one must be eliminated." In this respect, the Lord's discretion was very broad.

Xiang Shan once felt that the so-called "Dyson Principle" might just be an idiotic notion formulated by pushing the belief that "less governance is good governance" to its extreme.

"If the Lord is in a good mood, a thug might get away with anything. But could they also be killed by the Lord right after losing protection?"