Legend of the Cyber Heroes

"You must remember that the Innate Body is the most contemptible," said a huge Austrian black and tan hunting dog reproachfully. "Martial Arts is easy to practice, but also difficult to practice. It's considered easy because you can entrust everything to machines, but it's considered difficult because to practice it well, you must surpass Innate limitations and achieve great freedom!"

Such images surfaced in his mind.

——How familiar these arguments are...

The man thought this to himself. "He"… In Xiang Shan's past, there must have been someone who said something similar, right?

Indeed, there was a faint surge of bioelectricity in the brain. It seemed as though memories were being reawakened.

But the memories that surfaced in his consciousness now did not belong to Xiang Shan.

These memories belonged to Will Grand Duke. These were scenes of his father teaching him and his siblings.

That huge hunting dog did not teach Will specific moves. These were all implanted into Will's prosthetic body along with the Martial Arts Algorithm.

They just kept sparring, strengthening the application of the Bionic Fist Technique in actual combat, and integrating the biological brain, Martial Arts Algorithm, and prosthetic body.

Convolution computation was already a very mature concept. The prosthetic body could also optimize itself based on long-term records.

In the biological brain too, neural pathways had to be formed that matched the Martial Arts Algorithm.

And the Martial Arts Algorithm had to be continuously rewritten with new strategic combinations because of the biological brain and prosthetic body.

This is the Martial Arts cultivation of Cybermen.

It is meaningless for a person to repeatedly practice a set of punches. The "procedural memory" stored in the brain, what is commonly referred to as "muscle memory," has negligible influence on the body. Cybermen neither need nor can they enhance their physique through exercise. The "practice" of Martial Arts is utterly pointless.

Cyber Martial Arts has only "style."

The path of Martial Arts for Cybermen consists only of actual combat.

This is hardly a pleasant memory. Just reading about it made Xiang Shan feel somewhat nauseated.

But there was no helping it, Xiang Shan needed to absorb the memories of the canine Martial Artist.

As for such matters, he did not remember them clearly anymore. Not to mention that he was no expert in the field of neural science—who could further be divided into countless subfields—even if he were, he could not comprehend the state of this era.

How far had this era's information technology progressed? Had the principle of "emotions" been elucidated? Was it possible to create the code for "emotions"?

He didn't know.

But even in the era in his memory, suddenly accessing someone else's memory storage device was very dangerous.

A person's thinking is ultimately influenced by "experience." From this perspective, the personality trait referred to as "character" is likely nothing but the convolution computation result of "experience."

Accessing someone else's memory storage device could influence one's own consciousness to a certain extent. Such effects are often unpredictable.

If someone's own experiences are abundant and of high quality, and their past life is sufficiently brilliant and far stronger than the memories being read, then the impact of those memories might not be too significant.

But if it's the other way around, it would spell disaster.

Xiang Shan, however, was in a state of complete memory loss.

This was not good.

But Xiang Shan had no room for hesitation. In the end, he simply followed the method in his memory, actively engaging in specific thoughts to activate particular areas of his brain to counteract this influence.

This was a scientific Contemplation technique, designed by constantly observing "how the brain fires when thinking of a certain object," after implanting electrodes in the biological brain. It shared the same origin as the seed of Inner Strength, but its effects were limited to "contemplation."

If the memories faced were immense, even with a proficient Contemplation technique, one couldn't escape the disaster of personality overwrite.

Yet it was necessary for Xiang Shan to absorb this chunk of memory. He knew too little about this strange era.

He could trust Yuki. But Yuki was just an ordinary kid. He did not know many secrets.

Xiang Shan had to understand this bizarre era.

Only...

The memories of this dog were simply too revolting.

At ten years old, under his father's arrangements to "give up protection," this creature had been living in a "non-human" way ever since.

——Why... Although Cybernetic Limbs were developed to free humanity from disease and pain, and to conquer extreme environments, why would such technology be used to create a person clad in dog skin?

Again, that nameless fury.

Xiang Shan was almost forced out of his meditative state by this emotion.

Then, he was startled by distant gunfire.

It was a burst of rapid firing followed by a faint thud.

The gunfire ceased.

It wasn't noise that the Town Mayor's automatic rifle could produce. Xiang Shan quickly deduced that something must have happened in the town.

Through the walls, he could faintly hear the outside commotion.

"That kid... I hope he can come back in time," Xiang Shan sighed and, resisting the surge of "Will's memories" in his mind, began to attach his legs.

He had taken in Yuki, in part, because he truly needed a trustworthy assistant. But this didn't mean he couldn't manage without one.

The leg attachment was at its final step, originally just short of installation and practical testing.

——I hope the live test doesn't turn into actual combat...

Xiang Shan thought this to himself. Although the legs had been calibrated when connected to a medical terminal, Xiang Shan had yet to link them with his own nervous system.

UnTyped languages could increase the difficulty of hacking to some extent, but this was the price to pay—where an UnTyped language might bug out and what kind of bug might occur were unpredictable things.

Let alone him, even that godlike hacker... that godlike programmer... who was it... would not dare claim their work was absolutely bug-free.

This was determined by the mathematical level of human civilization.

But if a bug really occurred in prosthetic body drivers, especially in the midst of battle, it would be fatal.

Xiang Shan quickly inserted his legs into the slots at his thighs that had been prepared earlier, securing the circuits, installing components, tightening screws...

Not a single step could be skipped. Sometimes, whether a screw was tightened could determine the life or death of a Hero.

——Faster... faster...

——The Bionic Fist Technique is one of the oldest forms of boxing, said to even date back to the era of the Martial Ancestor...

——Don't panic, this screw...

——Lords are proven strongmen, they are... an extension of will...

——Almost there...

Memories from Will became a mental hindrance. Outside, the noise of commotion mingled with the clanging of metal. Xiang Shan could hardly tell which sounds were intrusive thoughts and which were real.

Then, another loud boom.

A building nearby collapsed.

Followed by the roar of an object tearing through the sound barrier.

A rumbling sound.

——Faster...

Then, the outside noise vanished.

Xiang Shan keenly sensed that something was approaching.

——Have we been discovered?

——The essence of the Bionic Fist Technique lies in...

——Heading towards me?

Then, a voice came from outside the door, "Hey, the unnamed Martial Artist, you're still in there, right? Now, fellow inhabitants of Jianghu have come to test their skills against you! Please come out?"

Xiang Shan tried his best to lower the power supply of his source to reduce the heat he was generating.

He suddenly realized that this kind of integrated External Armor was far too cumbersome. Without a vacuum layer, without a reflective lining, he couldn't hide his heat signature...

——Ah, that's not right... if you have this kind of armor, you must match it with a better cooling system...

——The best cooling system could even serve as a kind of "weapon"... at the right moment, boiling coolant could be sprayed from the meridians, misleading heat-seeking tracking devices...

He needed to buy time. There was a fixation ring in the joint section that still needed to be tightened.

Such a thought flashed through Xiang Shan's mind.

But the next sentence came from outside.

"Yo, not coming out, huh? Well, it's hard to say what might happen to this benefactor of yours then?"

Then came Yuki's voice. The boy managed to say only half a sentence hysterically before Xiang Shan could make it out. Immediately after came a muffled grunt.

——What happened?

Xiang Shan's Prosthetic Eye seemed to read his intent. Subsequently, Xiang Shan's vision began to expand. A broader spectrum of light was brought into his visual range.

The reason humans think something is not transparent is because light cannot pass through it.

However, in reality, the penetrating power of different electromagnetic waves varies. If some aliens cannot see human visible light but can see X-rays, then wood would appear as crystal clear to them as glass does to humans.

Xiang Shan's vision penetrated the housing.

He saw the taunting giant.

Xiang Shan would have liked to say he "felt suffocated," but he genuinely did not need lungs to breathe right now.

——Such a massive Prosthetic Body... such power...

But this thought was obscured by the next one.

——No, that's not right... Martial Arts themselves can overturn the disparity in combat power brought about by mere accumulations of numbers... that's the purpose for which Martial Arts were designed...

"Hey! Coming out or not?"

The giant seemed to be urging him. ——Faster...

Xiang Shan's Prosthetic Hand rotated at its fastest speed, tightening the screw.

Sparks nearly flew between the screw and the fixture.

"What's the trick?" In Xiang Shan's gaze, the giant prodded the door with a long stick.

Dust was stirred up, spraying directly into Xiang Shan's eyes.

——Almost there...

"Tsk, Martial Artist, are you trying to tell us, 'This child has nothing to do with me, do as you please with him'?" Lev shook his head, clicking his tongue, "Tsk tsk tsk, such tricks are of no use against us braves of the Green Forest Path?"

He threw Yuki high into the air, then positioned himself in a golf-like stance.

"Zzt!"

A brief sound.

The handle of the screwdriver cracked.

Electricity surged from the battery, streaming into the legs.

At the same time, he covered his fragile eyes with both hands.

Then, everything brightened around him.

By the time his conscious mind caught up with his movements, he had already burst out of the house.

The huge iron rod was right in front of him. Xiang Shan reached out with both hands to hook the iron rod, and with a point on the ground with his legs amid the rising dust, he himself spiraled up along the steel pipe into the air!