Legend of the Cyber Heroes

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

The Town Mayor nodded, "The Lord might announce a temporary withdrawal of civilization's protection over our town. Our 'group' could be declared illegal."

Xiang Shan was startled, "So, how would this… turn out…"

Yuki seemed to have mentioned that in the Wilderness, there were thugs…

"The bandit gangs in the Wilderness," the Town Mayor heaved a heavy sigh, "Normally, bandit gangs wouldn't dare attack towns under protection. But occasionally, a town might have its protection revoked. At that time, the townspeople heading to other settlements could retain their 'individual protection,' but while they are still in this settlement, they are considered 'unprotected.' Thugs could loot at will…"

Xiang Shan gradually understood that the so-called "protection of civilization" actually consisted of two parts: one is "group protection," or the "safe zone," and the other is "individual protection," or being a "Good Citizen."

Only when "Good Citizens" are within the "safe zone" does protection become absolutely effective. Otherwise, whether protection is effective or not still depends on the mood of the "Protector."

In this era, all who had not transgressed the "Dyson Principle" were by default "Good Citizens." And even those who had lost protection could enter the "safe zone" — as long as they weren't afraid of being beaten to death.

Xiang Shan was quite startled, "Then why not go to other settlements?"

"Firstly, other settlements have limited crop yields and cannot sustain everyone. If the residents of other towns refuse to let us stay there… they can expel us under the pretext of 'defending their own property.'

"And on the road to other settlements, we might also be attacked by thugs," the Town Mayor shook his head, "There are surveillance lines in the village, and under normal circumstances, bandits dare not damage them. That would be tarnishing the Lord's reputation, losing face for the Lord. But if we deviate from the main road to other settlements… using an EMP, they could make us all vanish without a trace."

Xiang Shan felt cold. Even though he no longer had the neurons to sense temperature.

From the Town Mayor's words, he understood two things.

First, this era was truly chaotic.

Second, anyone's Perception Prosthesis could potentially become the eyes of the higher-ups.

Otherwise, there was no need to deliberately mention "using EMP."

What a terribly awful era…

The Town Mayor sighed, "If we could resist, we would try to resist a bit. Xiang Shan, when the thugs attack, you'll help us, won't you?"

Looking at the Town Mayor's expression, Xiang Shan once again felt a certain sense of urgency.

Unlike the oppression he felt when recalling "Yawgmoth," this was an imminent sense of crisis.

"There's not much time," Xiang Shan said to himself, "I must catch up."

It was not until after the Town Mayor left that Xiang Shan called Yuki back.

The next thing to do was something in which Yuki was interested.

Xiang Shan planned to turn that canine Prosthetic Body into parts for his new Prosthetic Body.

When he had removed the spine previously, Xiang Shan had already started dissecting the canine Prosthetic Body from a wound in its chest. That wound was right behind that human face that had disgusted Xiang Shan, penetrating through the Biological Brain embedded in the chest.

This Biological Brain was within a Metal-based protein structure formed into a Brain-Machine Barrier, with several nutrient tubes, and a separate oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange pump directly connected to it. Just above the brain was a heavily modified cerebellum that was almost "hanging" on the spine.

Using the doctor's tools, he quickly stripped off the layer of skin and fur from the dog.

"Wow…" Yuki exclaimed in surprise.

Beneath the skin and fur was not the metal body one might have imagined, but some kind of pale blue translucent muscle.

Indeed, it was muscle. Countless translucent fibers were stacked together. Numerous spark gaps were embedded within the muscles, with each fiber connected at both ends to a spark gap. It appeared to be a high-polymer shape-memory material that would quickly curl up when charged, much like real muscle.

It was truly beautiful.

However, Xiang Shan's attention was focused on the skin and fur in his hands.

This was obviously not real animal fur. Even if Xiang Shan adjusted his eyes to the level of an optical microscope, he couldn't see structures like sweat glands or hair follicles. This layer of skin seems to be composed mainly of a silicone-like polymer material, somewhat resilient, such that Xiang Shan couldn't tear it apart with sheer strength alone.

But even if the material itself was breathable, after creating a layer of "fleece" on the surface, it would immediately lose any "heat dissipation" property.

Xiang Shan could only be baffled by the idea of trading "performance" for aesthetics.

If Will Grand Duke hadn't had that layer of fur, he might not have needed to open such a large air intake, and naturally, he wouldn't have given Xiang Shan the opportunity.

"Xiang Shan…" Yuki tugged at Xiang Shan's arm.

Xiang Shan shook his head, "When there are outsiders, you can call me anything. But when it's just the two of us, remember to call me 'Master.' That's the rule for Jianghu Heroes."

"Oh, Master…" Yuki pouted, "How will you be able to transfer these… such parts onto yourself?"

He glanced at Xiang Shan's legs. They were still made of solid iron rods.

Completely out of sync with the industrial artwork-like muscles.

"If I'm not mistaken, each fiber of this electronic muscle can be separately disassembled. This way, if there is any damage, it can be quickly replaced..." Xiang Shan poked the discharger several times with a magnetic screwdriver and quickly opened up the prosthetic limb, then tinkered with it some more. The discharger and the surrounding fibers naturally fell away,

Xiang Shan first set the discharger aside, "Hmm, it looks like that... I'm quite lucky."

Apart from a patch of muscle in the chest that was pierced by a stun baton—its fibers already beyond use—all the other muscle fibers were intact.

Xiang Shan's gaze returned to the chest's penetrating injury. When he had removed the spine, the brain and cerebellum had already completely necrotized. He planned to set this aside for now.

However, Yuki pointed out that according to the rules, such organic components must be taken to the fields in the town for organic recycling.

Xiang Shan was not very accustomed to this idea of "using the human brain as a resource." But if viewed from the standpoint of "the greatest benefit to society," the ethics that Yuki was familiar with were not wrong either. He nodded, indicating to Yuki that he could dispose of the brain according to the local rules.

Yuki, who was watching her master dismantle the prosthetic body, was intrigued and reluctant to leave. So the brain was temporarily left on the table.

Along with the brain, there were three chips and several storage devices.

Among the three chips, two were for driving the prosthetic body. One of them was to prevent the other from malfunctioning or having BUGs. The other was specifically for transforming brain-machine signals to enhance the biological brain's control over the prosthetic body.

As for the storage disks, they might contain things like Martial Arts Algorithms and Experience Accumulation.

That's right, Martial Arts Algorithms.

The transmission speed of human neural signals varies from one meter per second to one hundred meters per second, depending on the specific nerve fibers—different nerve fibers have different specific values. Moreover, while the bioelectric signals within a neuron are one thing, the chemical signals between neurons could only be described as "snail-paced."

Often, how fast one responds completely depends on how many times a signal needs to circulate between neurons.

But no matter what, compared to the near speed of light electrical signals in metal wires, neural signals might as well be deemed "almost immobile."

Human consciousness is not possibly going to keep up with the movements of a prosthetic body. Only by breaking down the prosthetic's signals into the shortest data and turning them into the simplest stimuli transmitted into the human brain, where the brain provides low-level instinctive responses—only then can one keep up with the intensity of modern prosthetic bodies.

However, there are things that a Turing Machine absolutely cannot do, which is why the biological brain continues to exist within a Martial Artist.

Or rather, "Martial Arts" were designed with this in mind from the beginning.

Writing an "instinct program" within the biological brain to "adapt" to Martial Arts Algorithms is something a Martial Artist must do—in fact, to a certain extent, this determines the heights a Martial Artist can reach.

Following the brain was a high-capacity battery. This was far superior to the junk Xiang Shan had used before—its energy storage was at least fifty times that of that piece of trash, indeed capable of supporting a period of intense combat.

Then, within the abdomen of this canine, there was even an... internal combustion engine?

Xiang Shan found a piece of wire, dipped it into the residue on the internal combustion engine. Since he now lacked a sense of smell and taste, he first placed the wire under a small piece of iron, then managed to produce a small electric spark.

A pale blue flame flashed and vanished. Xiang Shan's prosthetic eye adjusted its lens and also spotted a few almost imperceptible droplets of water on the iron.

Ethanol.

This fellow was actually running on ethanol fuel.

"This is..." Xiang Shan pondered for a moment and then observed the mechanical structure inside the canine prosthetic body closely.

"It's connected to the mouth? When the battery output is insufficient, the internal combustion engine supplements the exertion..."

Although the energy conversion rate of a thermal engine is quite low compared to a stable battery output, its burst power is exceptionally strong.

This is for supplementing burst power under the premise of the battery's maximum power being constant.

After taking stock of his spoils of war, Xiang Shan picked up the small repair terminal he had borrowed from the doctor.

Next was the main event.

About the chip processing.

The "Small Repair Terminal," also called "Small Medical Terminal," is a specialized smart terminal. Its front looks quite like a twenty-first-century smartphone, just much thicker. Its back is a special structure made up of 1024*1024 metal sticks. Gently pressing down, an interface that conforms to the pressed object appears on it.

This device can read most of the modern common chips and storage systems. It can even read ancient disks.

Xiang Shan had already taken apart this terminal in advance. He had temporarily removed its network card and then attached a magnet in an area that would not interfere with the terminal's own operation, ensuring to the greatest extent that he would not be spied on.

Then, he took down a drive chip and pressed it against the back of the terminal. The plane of metal sticks immediately indented, and the chip's interface naturally made contact with the tips of the metal sticks, as if there had originally been a slot there.

Soon, the data was read out.

"Hmm?"

If Xiang Shan still had eyebrows, he would probably be furrowing them.

"What's wrong, Master?" Yuki asked curiously, "You can't understand it, can you?"

"If I couldn't understand it, that wouldn't be too terrible..." Xiang Shan murmured, "But I feel... that it shouldn't be like this, right?"

—I can actually... understand it all.