Legend of the Cyber Heroes

The man fell into deep thought. He was now pondering a very important question.

Who really controls the issuance of currency in this world?

Yulia's dearest wish was to save up money to get Yuki an adult prosthetic body, which shows that the concept of currency still existed in this era.

But when he learned about the "Gene Tax," he only felt it was bizarre.

Gene Tax was a tax the lords levied on residents. Every year they would take away a certain number of people from a settlement to replenish the Human Gene Bank, ensuring the diversity of human genes. Yuki's brother had been taken away like this.

Beyond that, residents were not liable for any further taxes.

In other words, the "government," regardless of its form of governance, did not need currency to conduct public social construction or meet the needs of the community.

So who was issuing currency in this era? What role did currency actually play?

And what rationale was there for the existence of this "Gene Bank"? Why did the lords establish such a thing?

However, these doubts had never been answered. Yulia worked all day and only stopped in front of Yuki's hut for a short while late at night. Last time she came back because she heard that Yuki had picked up someone. The man felt it would be impolite to disturb the hard-working woman's rest. Most others simply laughed off his questions with an inexplicable "hahaha."

Now, the only time he could discuss this issue was while out with Yuki, collecting trash.

"It's so hard, Yog," the little boy leaned back in an armchair overgrown with lead-green mold. He had just dragged it from a heap of garbage. During the Sublimation War, it might have belonged to a high-ranking staff officer: "Is there anything above a lord... It seems like nobody has ever asked such questions... "

"There must be ranks above the lords. Otherwise, they wouldn't need to comply with something called 'Dyson Principle.' " The man pondered, "What exactly is the 'Dyson Principle'? Who proposed it? A person named Dyson?"

—What relation does this person have with the rightful owner of the name "Yog"?

Yuki shrugged: "I really don't know, it seems like the Dyson Principle just forbids us from killing... that's all?"

"Primitive." The man without lungs simulated a "sigh" with his voice synthesizer. In his recollection, the name "Dyson" was more often associated with an engineering concept called "Dyson Sphere." If not that, then at least it was connected to physics.

"Better to talk about the Paralympics." Yuki shook his head, "Yog, have you remembered? You were an athlete, right?"

The Paralympics was the highest event in this world. As the man understood, it was supposed to be called the "Paralympic Games," and then there was another corresponding event called the "Olympic Games." However, in the man's memory, the level of the Paralympics was far higher than the Olympics. The rules of the Olympics were very rigid, to say the least, they didn't even allow the use of genetic engineering to breed super horses for equestrian events, nor doping for horses. In summary, the level of competition was average.

After the advent of prosthetic body technology, the Paralympics became akin to a battle of immortals. It could even be said that the Paralympics was the stage for nations and companies to showcase their technological prowess at the time.

An Olympic athlete competing against a Paralympic athlete was like athletes from other countries playing table tennis against athletes from a certain table tennis empire.

And the day when Paralympics records surpassed Olympic records was also considered a turning point in human history.

For some reason, the man felt a faint sense of pride when he recalled all this.

—Could it be that I am... the first disabled athlete in the world to surpass the records of able-bodied people?

Yuki emphatically said he had never heard of any Olympics; there was only the Paralympics – only the Paralympic Games. It was the largest tournament in the world, where scores of Martial Artists from different schools would compete.

And, as the name literally suggests, all participants who lost would temporarily lose some function. [Paralympic, a word formed from combining paralyze and Olympic.]

This topic came up when the man asked Yuki about "Martial Studies." According to Yuki, nowadays, all Martial Artists and athletes made their names and became esteemed figures through the Paralympics.

This news at least brought some comfort to the man—it seemed he was more of a "rebirth and reset character" than a "transmigrated one," it was indeed the "future" of his own world, not a "parallel universe."

Yuki really hoped that the man was an athlete. But the man always felt that he was not that kind of person. A voice in his head was shouting "this is not right"—this was definitely not the true way of Martial Arts.

According to Yuki's description, what was displayed at the Paralympics were only "External Martial Arts." External Style Fist could indeed be trained to be unmatched, but...

—"To practice Martial Arts without cultivating Inner Strength is to end up with nothing at all."

This phrase inexplicably wandered through the man's consciousness.

When the man thought of this phrase, he oddly felt like laughing. Part of his consciousness told him that "Inner Strength" was a concept fictionalized in fantasy novels. But another part of his consciousness told him that someone had indeed created "Inner Strength," different from what was depicted in literary works, but... but...

The man often feels that there might be a bug in his artificial eyes whenever he thinks about it.

Inexplicably so.

However, this feeling also makes the man doubt something.

Could the so-called "creator of inner strength" be related to him?

—Who exactly was I in the past?

The man could only sigh at the thought. Could he possibly be the descendant of some great personage?

But according to Yuki's words, in this world, apart from athletes, there is another kind of people who possess "martial arts."

They are called "heroes," and they are thugs who wield martial power. They worship an evil god named "Mozi" and take an ancient thug named "Aaron Swartz" as their spiritual mentor, disturbing the peace and destroying order, they are the enemies of human civilization.

"This is not good," the man thought to himself, "Following the usual amnesia plot, it seems… that I could very well be one of such dangerous individuals?"

"Alright, you've rested enough." Yuki drank most of the last bottle of Copper Candy, then picked up the man's head, found a small hole in his upper jaw, and poured the remaining small amount of Copper Candy into it. Yuki's body was only less than 50% mechanized, mainly concentrated in his limbs, and he could still absorb and transport metal sugar through biological tissue. But now that's the only way for the man to eat.

"Let's continue searching for parts so we can make you a foot this month!" Yuki called out cheerfully. His feelings for the man were quite complicated. At first, he indeed wanted a father, but for some reason, during their time together, he started to feel a bit of a "pet" affection for the man.

The man nodded and followed. He secretly resolved that he must make a pair of feet as soon as possible and then get away from Yulia and her son.

It wasn't out of ingratitude, nor was it due to fear of the simple-minded Enoch. He just suddenly realized that his mysterious background could potentially bring danger to Yuki and his mother.

He might very well be a "hero," and since "heroes" are called "enemies of human civilization," his reputation with the authorities was probably not very good.

.................................

However, gathering parts, no matter how urgent, cannot be rushed and still depends on luck.

Over a dozen days, the man and Yuki managed to scrape together only a mainboard control component and two large mechanical transmission bearings [these could be used to create the "thighbones" of the legs].

Fortunately, having a skill meant survival anywhere. Soon, many townsfolk witnessed the man replacing parts for himself. As word spread, occasionally some people asked the man to do some simple repairs.

For some reason, the man's repair skills were really quite good. Apart from the rare instances where control chips were damaged, or the current precision of his old prosthetic hands couldn't meet the equipment repair requirements, so far, there was basically nothing he couldn't fix.

This also earned him some rewards.

After a month, he finally managed to save a little money.

Yulia once had the idea of "saving it." According to her urge, this money should all go toward preparing a coming-of-age prosthetic body for Yuki. The man was someone Yuki had found in a trash heap, so it was only right that the money he earned belonged to Yuki. Yuki didn't have this plan. He had already been paid for his scavenging, so the money earned should be the man's. He almost argued with his mother over this.

Arguing with large construction machinery usually ends disastrously— the horn volume is really loud, and it consumes a lot of electricity. The man stopped the quarrel between the two and promised Yulia that after he had fixed his body, he would definitely earn more money to repay the debt of saving his life.

So, after a few days, the man was finally able to stand up.

Regarding this body, Yuki had only one comment — "It's ugly."

The man now had a head, below which was a short section of the cervical spine, supported by a metal framework. Below this silver framework was a horizontal beam, straight, with two prosthetic hands at both ends of the beam, featuring elegant streamlined shells. Below the beam was a vertical steel column, and beneath the steel column were two spherical joints. Underneath the spherical joints were thighs cut from the transmission shafts.

Simply put, the man's head was in a comical style, the hands were in an elegant sketch style, and the whole framework of the body was in stick figure style—topped with a photorealistic battery.

The Town Mayor's evaluation was "impractical." In his view, the man's choice of using solid steel columns as the raw material for the thighs was a great waste. It would consume a lot of energy when moving. The ankle area also had a seemingly meaningless support structure installed, intended as "weight-bearing" architecture, which was really not up to standard.

The man simply smiled in response or, to be precise, simulated a polite laughter.

The Town Mayor didn't understand such "etiquette" and just felt it was strange. He patted the man's shoulder and said, "But hey, having hands and feet is good. The Grand Master who collects the Gene Tax is coming soon, and if you were without hands and feet, looking all weird, it might attract unnecessary interest from them, which wouldn't be good."

For the townspeople, the "Grand Master" was someone who held power over life and death.