Legend of the Cyber Heroes

"I only ask you, in this era, is recruiting always accompanied by murderous intent?"

Upon hearing this sentence, Lev Scheer couldn't help but sigh, "It looks like our negotiation fell through!"

Xiang Shan's words were a common phrase used by the heroes of the Jianghu. And once these words were spoken, it meant that Xiang Shan would not be going back with them.

Lev still had the staff resting on his shoulder. However, he now held the staff vertically on one shoulder, gripping the end with both hands, stepping forward nonchalantly with an apparently relaxed and casual bearing.

But this was the classic starting stance of the "Great Sword Technique." For such experts, even a "long staff" was sufficient to achieve a "cutting" effect. Underestimating Lev's seemingly casual actions would only lead to being split in two by a swing of the steel staff.

The SSC amalgamatation of three weapons into one staff included three different types of weapon transformations. Lev's long staff had also been modified, infused with solid-state metal fluid composed of nanoscopic particles. This fluid could change positions in response to the electromagnetic field created by Lev, simulating different weapon balances.

Almost instantaneously, Xiang Shan calculated the potential attack strategies that Lev might use, as well as the trajectories of each strategy. He kept a close eye on Lev, gauging the safe distance, while retreating slowly using hands and feet.

He was undoubtedly at a disadvantage in terms of prosthetic body exertion...

With the current shock absorption devices of his prosthetic body, a hit from the staff would turn his brain into mush...

At that moment, Lev's eyes narrowed.

A faint red light shimmered. On the infrared spectrum, massive data was converted into electromagnetic waves that struck Xiang Shan's prosthetic eye. The fierce Internal Strength of Vigorous Kui attached itself to these waves, waiting for the eye to decode them and then rush in, destroying the enemy's driving chip.

— I've won!

In that moment, both Lev and Vigorous Kui had this thought flash across their minds.

Then, Vigorous Kui was taken aback.

No sensation.

A martial artist's Inner Strength is not just code. To control Inner Strength within a split second, heroes map tangible sensations to these codes. Every Internal Strength Master can describe the flow of Inner Strength with specific sensations.

Not "struck something, was blocked and returned" — that was the feeling of striking a general firewall. But this guy was completely different.

He didn't even feel the presence of a firewall... He didn't feel anything that could be tackled later on.

If the uploaded data recorded in the chip could not lie, he would have even thought that he might not have attacked at all.

But the guy opposite him clearly had a prosthetic eye too... Even if he also knew Inner Strength, had a firewall, and could circulate the Small Circulation, it was impossible to feel absolutely nothing...

— Could top-grade Inner Strength really be hidden so cleanly?

In that moment of thought, Vigorous Kui suddenly perceived a connection. In an instant, additional data followed the link between Lev and him, entering his body... In just a brief moment, the downloaded data surged by several megabytes.

Meanwhile, Xiang Shan felt utterly oblivious, overcome by an indescribable sensation. There was a piece of foreign code that had bypassed his compilation. Somehow, almost as if possessed, he reconstructed this segment of code just downloaded by his prosthetic eye, encapsulated it, and then sent it back.

It was as if this move had become an instinct...

Something he wouldn't forget, even if he forgot who he was.

With it, more memories started to surface, like the dirt that clings to a pulled-up radish.

— Hey, brother, should I teach you three moves?

— Ah... wait, these three moves?

— Think they're weak? Let me tell you, Xiang Shan, if you master these three moves, unless your enemy's hacking skills are half as good as mine, you won't be at a disadvantage against anyone.

— My point is, where do I find an enemy who is half as good as you? With these three moves in my hand, I can't unleash their true power, right?

— Heh, you'll not need to unleash the true power of these three moves in your lifetime! They're called the Dragon Slaying Technique... so, let's just name them the "Three Dragon-Slaying Moves" shall we?

"Three Dragon-Slaying Moves" include the move for fast searching for anomalies within one's own software, called "Uncleaned House," a move which does not run foreign code but directly muddles, encapsulates, and sends back suspicious data called "With His Own Way," and a move for erasing one's own intrusion traces called "Path of Myriad Tracks."

These three moves were neither law nor doctrine. To that god-like programmer, they were but minor tricks. Even if one practiced these moves diligently, they could never glimpse the slightest essence of the way of programming. No matter how skilled one became, there was a ceiling to these moves, while the way of programming was something finite that aspired to infinity.

Yet within these three techniques, there was wisdom that transcended technique and approached the way.

Xiang Shan had simply memorized these three moves through repeated defenses against Inner Strength—they were so ingrained that even after dying once, he still remembered this sensation.

He didn't recall how many times he had done something similar. He only knew that after he re-encapsulated the code, it became invisible, untouchable, and unmanageable to its creator.

Unless the opponent's Inner Strength was still superior to his own.

Lev felt something amiss. In that instant earlier, he had noticed something off about his field of vision.

He lost several frames of vision.

Nobody saw it, but in the instant of the attack and defense, Xiang Shan's pupils dilated, casting several completely different QR codes onto the surface of Lev's prosthetic eye using the infrared frequency band. These QR codes not only caused Lev to lose the image, but also activated several ancient backdoors hidden within common knowledge of the contemporary people, existing for over two hundred years.

The protection designed against ordinary "witnessing" was no match for this higher rank.

The malicious code sent by Vigorous Kui, after meeting a weakened defense, got stuffed back into its source.

Then, this inner strength circulated within Lev's chip, once again transforming and injecting itself into Vigorous Kui's body.

This was an indication of Vigorous Kui's emotional disturbance. But Lev did not know why Vigorous Kui was thrown off balance.

Lev: "Vigorous Kui? What the hell are you doing?"

It took Vigorous Kui several seconds to reply. Actually, after noticing that his computing resources were being consumed continuously, Vigorous Kui realized what the other party had done.

Vigorous Kui: "The opponent is a master, end the fight as quickly as possible."

Lev, puzzled: "Why? (#Confused)"

Vigorous Kui exploded in anger: "This is my command! He has injected my command into our prosthetic bodies, do you understand? We will end up like that Blade Guest earlier! Understand? Idiot!"

Lev: "Your command? Make it stop now!"

"The other is a master! A master! I can't solve it! Can't solve it!" Vigorous Kui raged: "I can only use inner strength to protect our two most important martial arts processes, ensuring to the best of our ability that computing resources aren't wasted! But even so, you only have fifteen minutes! After fifteen minutes, the drive chip will start to degrade due to high temperatures. Three minutes later, the drive chip will be burned out! We will come to a halt! The only way out for the two of us is to scatter this bastard within the next quarter hour and then use the last bit of time to escape to a place where these townspeople can't find us, waiting for the boss to rescue us!"

"I'm fucking convinced you're the real master here!" Lev roared, gripping the steel rod with both hands, switching from the Great Sword Technique to the start of the Long Spear technique, squatting with his left leg fully bent and his right leg straight to press his body low, the steel rod, powered by the prosthetic's downward force, suddenly smashed towards Xiang Shan.

Like the blade of a guillotine falling.

By the time Xiang Shan broke free from his memories, his legs had already taken him flashing past Lev's waist.

Xiang Shan had been too focused on recalling the past and thus lost the initiative. He hadn't remembered the real Inner Strength. If he had been in his complete state, he should have already planted multiple "Gu" into Lev and Vigorous Kui during their conversation.

Before Xiang Shan landed, he adjusted his center of gravity, pressed his palms to the ground, kicked the air with his left leg, twisted his direction in mid-air, and landed on all fours facing Lev.

Lev's upper body flipped, his left hand rotated inward, his right outward, and a Back Skill thrust came at Xiang Shan as a shadow. His target was Xiang Shan's head.

Even humans of the old era could break another's ribs barehanded, let alone with a spearhead. Even though the steel rod had no spearhead, the kinetic energy of this thrust was very real. If struck by this blow, the fragile biological brain would be directly shattered.

Xiang Shan had no sense of touch but still felt the fierce wave of air hitting his metal skull. He slapped the ground hard, pushing himself backward. Lev flicked his wrist, and the steel rod, whirling violently, whistled forth in a second assault.

Xiang Shan sprang from the ground, retreating a second time. At this point, the momentum of the Long Spear had been exhausted. Xiang Shan stretched out his hands to press against the steel rod, ready to follow the weapon to attack his opponent.

Then, the world turned upside down,

Lev hoisted Xiang Shan with the rod, grinding his feet against the ground, legs exerting force. An intense power surged from the rod.

——Darn...

Xiang Shan realized he had made some experiential mistakes. He rarely challenged Heavy Prosthesis with a Lightweight Prosthetic; more often, it was an equal match. The output of a Heavy Prosthesis was far greater than that of a Lightweight Prosthetic, and the mass of a Lightweight Prosthetic was too small. No matter how strong the martial studies, the mass of the prosthetic wouldn't increase out of nowhere.

For prosthetics of the same rank, "stepping on the opponent's weapon" could indeed achieve control. But it was impossible for a Lightweight Prosthetic to control a Heavy Prosthesis.

The complete him wouldn't have made such a mistake. But he had forgotten this point.

Xiang Shan couldn't let go in mid-air either. Forces worked reciprocally. Without relying on a Vector Injector, he couldn't borrow force in mid-air. Suspended in mid-air, a Martial Artist would find it difficult to control their center of gravity, to build their stance.

For Cyber Martial Artists, gravity was too slow. Before Xiang Shan hit the ground, his enemy even had the leisure to pummel him with a set of Hundred Rending Fists, a solid hundred hits. And Xiang Shan could merely fail to organize an effective defense because his stance was compromised.

Lev used all his might, smashing down the Long Spear along with Xiang Shan.

A loud "boom" erupted, with dust billowing. Cracks spread on the ground like an explosion.

There was no cliché of "dust without damage." Lev had already swung the Long Spear, using the wind pressure to clear away the dust.

Xiang Shan lay on a roof, still hunkering low, but propping himself up with only his left hand, his right hand held behind his back. In the impact just now, Xiang Shan's right arm had suffered a shock and seemed to have malfunctioned.

Cybermen don't fear being crippled, but Xiang Shan was afraid of his arm suddenly failing during the heat of battle, causing him to lose grasp of his center of gravity; therefore, he simply chose to not use that arm.

Lev lifted the Long Spear above his head, crazed, and chopped down. The air shrieked trying to escape from the steel rod's path, but its velocity had already surpassed what the air could achieve in a fluid state. The air molecules from behind collided with those ahead. In succession, the resulting fierce wave was almost blade-like.

Before the rod hit, the fierce wave had already left marks on the construction materials!