Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 163 - 163 83 Countdown and Exposure

163: Chapter 83: Countdown and Exposure 163: Chapter 83: Countdown and Exposure Half an hour before the explosion.

Xiang Shan remained unhurried in someone else’s room, meticulously checking the room owner’s spare parts to create his own disguise for departure.

He didn’t seek a disguise that was very convincing, merely one that would prevent him from being immediately targeted in the chaos.

This black hooded cloak was still a bit too conspicuous.

Inside the Scientific Knight Order, everyone wore white clothing.

In work areas, white lab coats were mandatory.

In non-working areas, various forms of clothing were allowed, but they had to be white.

The style that had been popular for the past seventy years was a simple, solid white fabric.

The draping method of the Himation inspired by Ancient Greece, or the robe style from Ancient India, were both popular—generally exposing the left shoulder.

Then, on the left shoulder, an extra accent could be added with an alloy plate bearing a knight’s badge.

Of course, a small number of the Order also adopted the wrap-around style from Ancient Babylon, which also involved wearing a solid piece of fabric.

However, the Himation and robe styles were currently the mainstream.

Xiang Shan could wear this, but his prosthetic body was far too conspicuous.

Many designs on it were purely for combat, which starkly contrasted with the more ceremonial prosthetic bodies of the Scientific Knight Order.

If he really exposed half of his body, he would probably be shot immediately.

Then there was the prosthetic head.

The official knights of the Scientific Knight Order usually had their biological brains within their chest cavities.

[Apprentices might not necessarily enjoy this treatment.

Some knight instructors might think that this was presumptive, verging on “overstepping.” However, there were no explicit regulations, mostly depending on the individual instructor’s will.]Their faces were typically serene bionic faces.

Among the scientific apprentices, many used electronic screen faces, and it wasn’t uncommon for many to have prosthetic eyes not on their faces.

But Xiang Shan’s face, clearly integrated with various powerful sensory prosthetics, was obviously not one to blend in.

However, there were solutions to this issue.

Xiang Shan could forcibly attach a spare face over his own and then apply silicone on other parts for disguise.

But it was still very risky.

Xiang Shan frantically searched through the copied memory files of Carolina, looking for the style of dress of the scientific knights, and from Deborah’s memories, he analyzed “what part of a prosthetic body a scientific knight first notices when assessing strangers” to tailor his disguise.

Of course, the most important thing was to analyze the crystal structures of these spare parts.

Xiang Shan picked up one piece, touched it lightly with his vibrating fingertips, put it down, and then picked up another piece.

After continuously testing twenty pieces, he randomly sampled ten more.

“It seems like their external armor is all made of a uniform material,” Xiang Shan nodded thoughtfully, formulating a plan.

People of Jianghu liked to make their own alloy armor.

They used 3D printing technology, with each fabrication changing in metal compositions, temperatures, and magnetic fields, which influenced the crystal formation.

These fine adjustments could change the crystal structure and patterns.

At least it could add a bit of difficulty to the use of weapons like high oscillation blades and sonicon blades.

On the other hand, the Protectors only used a few types of mass-produced standard alloys, ensuring lower cost.

Considering the cost of a sonicon blade, heroes like Xiang Shan rarely had the opportunity to use such weapons.

Like Zhang Xianchong, most tended to use blunt weapons instead.

Just by mixing troops with several types of alloy armor, it was enough to limit the heroes’ options.

…………………………………

Fifteen minutes before the explosion.

An envoy from the Six Dragons Sect had already climbed to the upper floors along the elevator shaft.

A few tentacles like those of cephalopods, but purely mechanical with several suckers, extended under his black robe, supporting his movement on the smooth walls.

He was only a few floors away from the top floor.

Any higher would be unattainable without using other stairs.

But these stairs were heavily guarded, with an independent command system.

It was difficult to hack into them momentarily.

However, this place was sufficient.

The envoy from the Six Dragons Sect took out a mechanical object the size of an arm from under his black robe.

This was an EMP bomb.

The envoy from the Six Dragons Sect focused his mind, carefully retracting his tentacles.

These prosthetics operated on an independent biological neural network, capable of making intelligent responses directly without command from consciousness.

However, he needed to be careful with this device set to “countdown,” as it couldn’t be recklessly controlled by these prosthetics commanded by a distributed neural network.

They could genuinely follow “instinctive thoughts” to set the timer.

He gave himself half an hour.

This amount of EMP could paralyze all electronics in dozens of floors nearby.

The top part of the building was the main antenna, which could connect to signals beyond Earth.

Its greatest function was to call for remote assistance from powerful practicers of Internal Strength beyond Earth, when the building was seized by an internal strength master.

The speed of transmitting internal strength depended on the speed of the signal transmission.

The maximum was at the speed of light.

If two masters were not widely different in rank, then a delay of a fraction of a light second was enough to determine the winner.

However, internal strength differed from external strength, where high privilege absolutely dominated low privilege.

If the stronger was sufficiently skilled, the weaker wouldn’t even achieve “ants overwhelming an elephant.”

Thus, an internal strength master above the Mathematical Realm could suppress any dissent within several light seconds.

Furthermore, when an emergency occurred, the government could also mobilize all powerful internal strength masters within a light second through well-established infrastructure.

In both quantity and quality, the government held a greater advantage,

However, the “Internet” was fundamentally designed with a “sharing” mentality, leaving top masters from the old era and their disciples and sect members always amidst Jianghu.

The massive antenna above was the bridge connecting the Pine Eagle Building with orbital satellites and masters from off Earth.

Once it was destroyed, their side would suddenly gain time to act freely.

“King Aqini, known as the ‘human firewall,’ indeed,” mumbled the envoy from the Six Dragons Sect, “That’s why I’m not fond of coming to Earth…”

To create trouble within the control range of such a top expert, they needed to find every possible way to block internal strength from being transmitted over long distances.

Metal aerosol, EMP…

Otherwise, they could only rely on external strength and military forces for a direct confrontation.

Although, as noble as King Aqini was, it was impossible for him to perform detailed internal strength defenses everywhere, but it was still possible that he might intervene in critical places like the Scientific Knight Order.

Even if King Aqini didn’t make a move, there would definitely be other masters who would fight remotely.

One could not be too careful.

“Then, it’s time to head down.”

“That Ya Pining Zhao, I remember, is about three hundred floors further down.”

The envoy from the Six Dragons Sect slowly moved downward.

He kept as close to the wall as possible, continually maneuvering around the elevators moving up and down.

After a few minutes, he suddenly stopped.

“What’s going on?”

Something felt eerie.

“No… no…”

He sensed that the touches he had made in the system had been triggered.

But he hadn’t captured the characteristics of the opponent’s internal strength in that instant.

“No… This realm… This realm…”

“Is actually a great master whose internal strength cultivation has reached the Transformation Realm?

Why would such a high-level master be watching over such a fringe Order of Knights for such a long time?”

The envoy from the Six Dragons Sect suddenly felt a strange sensation.

……………………………………

Five minutes before the explosion.

The cleaning robot slowly approached the server room.

Xiang Shan was wrapped in white cloth, the hem dragging on the floor, following the classic Himation style from Ancient Greece.

However, he also wore an additional white cloth over his body to maximumly conceal his shape.

The Sonicon Blade was completely hidden inside this garment—fortunately, it was almost as tall as him, so if he stood straight and minimized his steps, nobody could tell.

Of course, Xiang Shan had adhered a facial plate armor commonly used by Scientific Knights on his head.

No, to be precise, it was adhered to the back of his head.

His real face was thickly coated with silicone and then sprayed with a preservation layer, giving it a metallic luster.

Xiang Shan had reversed all the joints in his limbs.

Right on the spot where his shoulder blades were located, he had two prosthetic eyes.

If this side were to be considered the front, it would also conform to the consistent style of the Scientific Knights.

He walked out of the dormitory area and then proceeded up the stairs.

In a thousand-story giant building, no amount of elevators seemed sufficient.

Occasionally, people really did use the stairs.

Additionally, some higher-ups, unwilling to wait for elevators, simply used unpowered hang gliders to leave from the external platforms.

This action also didn’t cause any suspicion.

Xiang Shan maintained his backwards posture and walked upwards unhurriedly.

According to Deborah’s memory, at this time, Ya Pining Zhao would probably run to seek refuge at the Scientific Knight Order and concurrently conduct experiments.

The experimental area where he was located was significant, supposedly above the seven hundredth floor.

Xiang Shan planned to walk up this way.

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker on the floor that Xiang Shan was passing.

“What’s going on?

Is the Scientific Knight Order so strapped for funds that they begrudge changing a bulb?”

However, as he passed that floor, the light instantly returned to normal.

And as soon as he stepped onto the next floor up, the stairwell lights began to flicker.

Xiang Shan was startled and paused for a few seconds.

The lights kept flickering incessantly.

Then Xiang Shan quickened his pace upwards.

But it was still the same.

The floor he was on had flickering lights.

This was no coincidence.

These lighting fixtures were being controlled by some Internal Strength Master!

After pondering for a moment, the prosthetic eyes on Xiang Shan’s back blinked, asking in the most common code:

[Which fellow Taoist is playing this joke on me?]