Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 147 - 147 67 Challenging the Underground River with Fists Entering Pine Eagle with Sword

147: Chapter 67: Challenging the Underground River with Fists, Entering Pine Eagle with Sword 147: Chapter 67: Challenging the Underground River with Fists, Entering Pine Eagle with Sword Xiang Shan had a stock of EMP weapons on him, all collected from the wilderness.

After the healing of his spine, he had learned to use these as a standard tactic.

Although “Iron Dust” could maintain a blockade for a long time and counteract electromagnetic wave weapons like lasers, it still needed time to spread.

Before “Iron Dust” completely covered an area, the enemy still had a chance to send out a signal.

But EMP was different; it propagated at the speed of light and could instantaneously cover the surrounding electronic signals.

If lucky, it could also paralyze a few people with poorly functioning electromagnetic defenses.

Of course, there were also drawbacks.

The noise from the electromagnetic pulse was just too loud.

Although invisible to the human eye, that was only for “human eyes.” Not to mention prosthetic eyes, in an era where everyone had electronic devices, the electromagnetic pulse was too easy to detect, whether near or far.

Iron Dust, on the other hand, would only startle those “able to see it.”

However, since this was an underground space, this flaw was also obscured.

So Xiang Shan simply threw them around indiscriminately.

Additionally, he carefully erased the surveillance records of each area.

Among the witnesses, those who had their memories read and had blood on their hands had been submerged into the sewer by Xiang Shan on the spot.

And those whose crimes were not worthy of death also had their storage devices removed, ensuring they could only describe with words and not transmit visual records out.

This greatly increased the difficulty for the gangs to track them down.

Of course, if the gang truly intended to, then by spending a few days checking the city’s Jianghu people, there was still a slim chance of finding Xiang Shan, the real culprit.

But Xiang Shan was confident that a few days later, these gangs would no longer care to pursue the matter.

He was certain of this as he inserted the new spoils into the interface on his wrist.

During Xiang Shan’s meditation, Yuan Wenren, terrified, asked, “Old senior…are you sure this is alright?”

Even though Cui Hai knew that the old senior was excessively fierce, this was the first time he had seen his unusual side, and said, “It should…be alright, I guess?”

Reading memories also needed to be differentiated.

For instance, the “educational chips” provided by the Scientific Knight Order.

By bringing a child around three years old to their local headquarters, one could apply for surgery to receive a chip.

This chip contained necessary knowledge from preschool education to specialized university undergraduate courses, devoid of any extraneous mixture or biased content.

This was the curriculum that had taken the Scientific Knight Order decades to develop, truly removing any non-descriptive impurities bit by bit, retaining only memories that could be precisely converted into language and a vast amount of visual memory, devoid of subjective emotions.

What’s left were just “grasping” and “applying.”

The only problem might be…without guidance, it was very difficult for a person to consciously absorb this content.

Not everyone found this chip significant.

Among Yuki’s peers in Recycling Station Town, some had never installed this chip.

And even among those who had, most didn’t consciously use it.

Yuki, having been bullied since childhood and finding solace only in dismantling components in the wilderness, thereby passively absorbing knowledge, was actually in the minority in this era.

However, the majority of “memories” weren’t so “objective.”

Although “emotional memories” were hard to precisely digitize, the memories recorded by a person when angry, documented by electronic devices, and then read by someone, would make the reader feel angry, although not to the extent of knowing “how angry” the original owner was and “why they were angry.”

After feeling and generating the emotion for the first time, the reader would know “this is a memory that made the original owner angry,” and might also wonder “why he was angry about this.”

But another problem remained—human emotions were actually not within their own control.

If you repeatedly experience similar memories and generate “anger,” over time, your brain would default to “needing to be angry in these situations.”

A one-time injection of homogeneous memories could result in “brainwashing.”

This was also the origin of Green Forest.

Their method was a bit more technical but fundamentally the same.

If one reads others’ memories continuously in a short period, their formed concepts could be impacted, even leading to a change in personality.

Which hero, before reading such acquired memories, didn’t carefully purify their mind and briefly indulge in personal interests afterward?

Some heroes would even solve a set of psychological tests to determine if their cognition had shifted.

Moreover, old seniors specifically developed medical programs named “Distinction Viewing Contemplation” and “Breath Counting Contemplation” to ensure their cognition did not deviate.

Like the old senior here, who grabbed memories to insert, read and understood them, and used them right away, was truly unparalleled.

No one had ever seen such a stance before.

Once or twice was fine, but after the third or fourth time…

these people felt completely different.

In the beginning, they were still in the mindset of “following the old senior on an adventure.”

But after these few times, it had turned into “Holy shit, will this old man suddenly turn around and chop us down?”

A few seconds later, Xiang Shan said, “Hmm, I see, this area is Meng Hand Gang’s territory…

matching it with above…

oh, got it.”

As Xiang Shan spoke, he opened the cabinets around him.

Inside were a series of specialized prosthetic bodies including iron shovels and spades.

This place was one of Meng Hand Gang’s underground strongholds, typically used as a supply base for sewer maintenance workers.

Of course, there were also a small number of weapons and spare parts.

“Hmm, why don’t you temporarily wear this…” As Xiang Shan spoke, he tore off a large piece of waterproof cloth with a specific QR code from the corner of the wall, “then throw this on, pretend you’re sewer maintenance workers.

After going up, find a secluded place and you can ditch these.”

While speaking, he handed over a map: “This is a safe route I just found.

According to regular contact, Meng Hand Gang’s people will take another seven minutes to realize something is amiss.

After that time point, this route might not be safe anymore.

We have to be quick.”

“Also, move the parts, ammunition, and medicine, and don’t leave any resources behind.

These supplies might come in handy later.”

Cui Hai nodded and then carefully asked, “Senior, what about you?”

“Me?

Of course, I’ll continue,” Xiang Shan said, “Currently in this city, among the three major gangs, we’ve only hit a few strongholds, which is far from enough to scare them; naturally, I have to continue.”

Stirring up the waters was not so simple.

Fearing to upset the potentially unstable old senior, Cui Hai carefully asked, “But, well…

senior, can you still hold on?”

“What?” Xiang Shan was displeased: “Which of your eyes saw me get hurt?

Those rotten fish and shrimp didn’t hit me once.”

“No, I wasn’t referring to that…”

“Alright, alright, I, your old senior, have a prosthetic body running smoothly, fresh external armor, ample energy, and can sustain by battling.

Just take these Jianghu friends and meet up with your junior sister and my disciple at Pine Eagle Building.”

Eventually, Cui Hai could only nod and led his companions away.

Meanwhile, Xiang Shan hummed a tune and continued down the complex underground passages.

Unfortunately, he soon encountered scattered resistance.

After hitting three more strongholds, he even faced organized resistance.

Among them were gang members who were fully cyberized and skilled in martial arts—most of them had studied at martial arts schools.

Although the Martial Artist didn’t manage to make Xiang Shan waste much effort, it was a dangerous signal nonetheless.

“Well…” Xiang Shan muttered, “They’re indeed getting a good idea of my movements.

They should know that I’m hitting from the south to the north, and all those strongholds could be attacked.”

Although Xiang Shan had preemptively thrown electromagnetic pulse weapons to ensure that those strongholds he ambushed wouldn’t be able to send out distress signals, a completely silent stronghold, not responding to any external calls, would still raise suspicions.

Moreover, unless Xiang Shan was willing to stay for a long time in a stronghold, disguising as a gang member to respond, it would be hard to hide such incidents.

But that would be a loss greater than the gain.

Xiang Shan decided to temporarily stop attacking those small strongholds.

Although ordinary Martial Artists wouldn’t pose a threat to him, what those gang members could prepare for him wasn’t just those low-level fighters.

What truly countered martial arts was always “quantity.” As long as there were enough firearms, kicking up a Metal Storm in the narrow tunnels, no matter how high his martial arts cultivation was, he couldn’t rely on his current prosthetic body to overcome the enemy.

Unless his prosthetic body was like a siege hammer.

Xiang Shan decided to abandon the attacks but didn’t head back.

Instead, he circumvented the remaining strongholds, large and small, and kept going until he reached the city’s edge, where he jumped out of a slum sewage outlet, shook his body, and flung off the dirt and debris.

Carrying a bunch of large batteries plundered from the gang strongholds, he walked out of the city to the “Mule,” then dug around until he could open the car door before jumping down.

In the “Mule’s” 3D printer, a mostly completed scabbard lay quietly.

During Xiang Shan’s three days in the city, this printer continuously worked following the settings he had pre-programmed.

However, since the scabbard was particularly large and the “Mule’s” power not sufficient for a one-time print, coupled with Xiang Shan having covered most of the solar panels to hide the car, the scope of work it could perform was even more limited.

Xiang Shan connected the stolen batteries to the Mule’s equipment.

Several hours later, Xiang Shan walked back into the city with a sword in hand.