Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 142 - 142 62 He Assassinated

142: Chapter 62 He Assassinated 142: Chapter 62 He Assassinated The Martial Artist in the black cloak stood at the street corner, holding a piece of spine in his hand, while various limbs were scattered on the ground.

Yet he did not look at the destruction he had caused; instead, he tilted his head to gaze at the sky.

A dense metal aerosol had already blocked out the daylight.

“To actually damage one’s own arm to discard the command system…

Even the government would do such a thing, huh?

Heh, their intention against me is quite clear.

It’s to defend against ‘this side’.”

“The previous remote hijacking of the prosthetic body’s control rights must have been discovered.

This time, those who have come either have a biological brain built-in or are machines that retain only a hardware input interface, act according to preset parameters, and don’t accept any external signals.”

This is the terrifying aspect of an Internal Strength Master.

An Internal Strength Master lurking like a ghost can force the government to give up what they’re best at.

This is a feat that mere external strength could never achieve.

Of course, while the upper limit of inner strength is high, its lower limit is low as well.

If one is purely an Internal Strength Master without cultivating external strength, then in situations covered by Iron Dust or with harsh electromagnetic environments causing full-spectrum interference, their skill would be reduced by ninety-nine percent.

To stay high above and maneuver around large forces, to maintain situations where you advance as the enemy approaches, harass when they stay, strike when they’re tired, and pursue when they retreat, you still need a foundation in external strength.

“It seems that my recent activities have indeed drawn attention.

It is necessary to remain quiet for a while; otherwise, it could be very dangerous.”

The Hero in the black cloak quickly made his decision.

He turned and ran in the direction away from the battlefield.

If it was the Hero from earlier, those young people most likely wouldn’t need any support.

…………………………………

“I just saw this kid scrape the corner wall with his hand.

He’s leaving a secret signal, isn’t he?”

The Martial Artist from the gang pointed at Cui Hai with underlying hostility in his tone, “This guy wasn’t the agreed party in the first place, and then he left a mark at the street corner.

I suspect he’s up to something.”

“You’re probably not as sneaky as us,” Cui Hai responded bluntly: “We have other companions who haven’t come yet.

This is just a signal for him.”

The man retorted, “Hmph, you’d better assume that your friend is already dead.

Entering the underground system of this city rashly would almost certainly lead to getting lost.

However, if I catch you trying to leave a secret signal on the inner walls of the pipelines, don’t blame me for turning ruthless and leading you to your deaths!”

This sewer was part of the city’s drainage system, built by the gang.

While private residents could also construct them, the vast majority couldn’t bear the cost and risk.

And of course, separately from the normal drainage system, the gangs would secretly maintain passages advantageous to themselves.

After all, the Dyson principles didn’t prohibit digging secret tunnels.

Even if the tunnel was discovered, as long as one didn’t resist the act of surveillance by the Protectors, the digger could still go unpunished.

This could be considered the biggest hideout for filth in the city.

“You don’t need to trouble yourself over this,” Cui Hai said.

The man skillfully lifted a manhole cover and slid in.

Red Hand A entered first, followed by Cui Hai.

Gofrey threw Yuan Wenren down and then followed himself.

Oko stayed behind to cover their exit and sealed the manhole.

Minutes later, Xiang Shan arrived.

To avoid being pursued by the Houndhawks, Cui Hai didn’t leave too many traces.

But he had made certain modifications to the cameras before the Iron Dust spread.

After identifying Cui Hai and his group, the cameras’ transmission parts would continuously emit vibrations at a specific frequency.

This at least pointed Xiang Shan in a direction.

Xiang Shan followed the trail after killing the Military Officer.

Killing the officer wasn’t difficult.

The man was at most at Old Hammer’s level and, with intention against the unaware, Xiang Shan disarmed him with his first move, then quickly disabled his movement capabilities, shattering any chance of a counterattack.

Compared to that, escaping the encirclement of soldiers was more difficult.

Fortunately, the government soldiers’ cordon seemed to have a gap.

Someone had torn open a hole, but they were unable to communicate effectively due to the Iron Dust.

With the assistance of the cameras, Xiang Shan moved forward as if he had “full map vision” in a game with a “War Fog” mechanism.

He searched the wall for a while and found the last traces left by Cui Hai.

The five marks appeared random but were actually periodic function curves.

Interpreted according to a pre-agreed method, these images could convey additional information.

“So that’s it, heading underground, about a hundred meters ahead,” Xiang Shan murmured.

He walked briskly forward and after searching the ground for a few minutes, found a manhole cover that closely resembled the material of the ground.

This was the city’s largest den of filth in more ways than one.

Xiang Shan did not possess a sense of smell and was not easily infected, so he wasn’t particularly fearful of places like this.

Physiological disgust was merely a lingering instinct.

He descended quickly, sealing the manhole cover as he went, then cocked his ear to listen.

His auditory organs might not be as high-end as his Prosthetic Eye, but they weren’t shabby.

Due to the Protector’s encirclement operations, no one was using this restroom at the moment, and only sporadic water sounds could be heard.

He filtered through the steady flow of sounds… filtered through the dripping sounds…

Filtered through the footsteps above… filtered through the sounds of combat…

Soon, he locked onto a direction.

………………………………………

Before long, Cui Hai and his group were led by a gang member down a dry passageway.

The entrance to this passage was in a fork of the sewer system.

The gang member took them around two bends and onto a branch path.

After a stretch of uphill travel, they moved downward continuously.

Along the way, Cui Hai heard various strange noises.

Digging noises, the operation of some machinery.

But these sounds were gradually overwhelmed by a rolling water noise.

An underground river.

This river had no name.

It was originally just a normal underground water system.

However, during wars that altered the topography, the Old Era’s man-made underground passages and sewers accidentally connected into a continuous river, which expanded over the years.

In early years, Heroes had dredged it, and gangsters along with Green Forest were its natural maintainers and expanders.

This was geography left behind by humanity.

This place could be described as a hub of thoroughfares; several gangs, as well as some Martial Arts Schools and now-extinct civilian groups, all had roots here, rendering the location as complex as a labyrinth.

If a small force really did enter, this gang Martial Artist could easily escape.

He felt much safer here.

The gang Martial Artist sighed, “Great Heroes, as you can see, this city is truly unsafe for you.

How about it?

Have you considered our terms?

Although it’s simple for you to kill me, if you want to operate in this city, you still need our help.”

Yuan Wenren sneered, “Don’t be too aggressive, brother.

You know, if we wanted to, we could extract the information from your head.”

The Martial Artist smiled confidently, “No, you won’t.

Because you also know that I definitely don’t store all the information I know in recording devices.

A large part of it exists only in my Biological Brain and doesn’t pass through my Prosthetic Body.

Even if your Martial Arts are unparalleled in the world, how could you dig out accurate information from a Biological Brain?”

Yuan Wenren said, “Maybe that’s enough for us?”

“No, it’s not nearly enough,” the Martial Artist said.

“At most, you could get the map of the city’s underground paths, but you will never know the distribution of forces that exist underground, our secret codes, and the like.

If we wish, we can turn the normally passable routes into ‘dead ends’ in a very short time—really, you understand.

Although that would cause some loss to us, we are truly capable of doing it.”

Indeed, it was a very simple matter.

Just report to the government that a certain underground passage might be used by Heroes, and there would be no problem.

Even though the gang might lose the chance to use that road, the Heroes would definitely get targeted by the government.

This was also the reason why these people had not turned against the Capacitor Gang.

They needed a stable retreat route.

But even if they extracted this “passage” from the gang’s heads, the Capacitor Gang could quickly make it unsafe.

Oko finally sighed, “Alright, alright, I can agree to some of your requests.

I can provide you with some of the Inner Strength techniques with useful annotations…”

The Martial Artist was overjoyed.

Contacting these Heroes was a risk taken by the Capacitor Gang just for this.

There was no other reason.

That was something the Gang Leader and others had their eyes on!

Whoever got it would earn a great merit and share in some benefits.

And now, that merit was about to fall into his own pocket!

The Martial Artist couldn’t help but fantasize about his future dominance in the Martial World.

At that moment, a hand reached out silently from the darkness behind him and grabbed the man’s neck.

“This deal sounds really good, ah, friend, you’ve made a great contribution to the gang.

Congratulations to you,” Xiang Shan said, voicing his congratulations as his hand mercilessly broke through the Martial Artist’s neck armor and then twisted his neck off.

The Martial Artist screamed.

His thoughts were still in the last second, and he had not realized what had happened.

And at that moment, Xiang Shan’s and the Martial Artist’s eyes met.

Not even a distress signal managed to get out.

Seconds later, Xiang Shan, holding the man’s head, said, “By the way, do any of you have a moral compulsion to finish the deal and give them the agreed items while he’s still alive?

Why not show him the Cultivation Technique now?”