Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 176 - 176 96 Mistakenly Boarding the Wrong Vehicle

176: Chapter 96 Mistakenly Boarding the Wrong Vehicle 176: Chapter 96 Mistakenly Boarding the Wrong Vehicle Because when Xiang Shan delivered his final strike, Daijiu Tai’a had already plunged deep into contemplation, even unable to restrain his emotions, so he did not notice anything wrong with the way Xiang Shan used his sword.

If he had remained calm, then the loud crash produced by the collision between the Sonicon Blade and Appennine’s Prosthetic Body would have made him feel “ruinous.”

The Sonicon Blade did not need to be used in this way.

A gentle tap could disrupt the crystal structure and slice through the armor.

When Xiang Shan cut down like this, it meant that after breaking through the armor, he continued to slice through a whole bunch of “non-crystalline” materials including wires, silicone, and biological tissues.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t cut through them.

After all, the blade of the Sonicon Blade was also a “sharpened hard crystal.”

However, this itself would cause wear and tear on the blade of the Sonicon Blade, greatly reducing the weapon’s lifespan.

At this moment, Xiang Shan still did not want to expose the true identity of this weapon.

To cover this up, he made a forceful cut with his sword.

Rather than worrying about the blade, he was more concerned about whether he could escape now.

After slicing through the prosthetic body connected to flesh, Xiang Shan casually shook off the debris clinging to the blade, sheathed his sword, and prepared to break through.

During this process, Xiang Shan habitually glanced once more at the prosthetic body he had just sliced open.

To Cybermen, being “split in half” still did not mean death.

As long as the wiring was good and the mapping was done well, even if the brain wasn’t in the center of the prosthetic body, there wouldn’t be anything notably wrong.

Some prosthetic bodies were deliberately designed with brains in more offset positions.

In the earlier years, some heroes had suffered due to their inability to break free from the cognitive constraints of natural persons, losing in advantageous situations and being counter-killed.

But Xiang Shan was stunned.

That prosthetic body…

was very strange.

Its lower half was almost entirely composed of biological tissue parts, and it had an unusually developed digestive system.

The digestive tract occupied almost eighty percent of the body cavity, and there was no diaphragm separating the thorax and abdomen.

Its viscera was a cluster of respiratory semi-permeable membranes connected to a pump.

And the heart was simply a bunch of artificial muscle fibers woven into blood vessels.

This was not a human body, but a humanoid bioreactor.

Purely for digesting food.

The partially digested chyme flowing on the ground even made Xiang Shan feel nauseous after a long absence.

Yet Xiang Shan did not see a brain.

The creature’s head had only a cell-cultivated tongue.

Besides that, the entire skull was packed full of various electronic components.

There was simply no space to accommodate a brain.

“Was this…

a trap?”

Xiang Shan’s thoughts raced, immediately recalling past era events.

It might have been when the concept of heroism first emerged.

To avoid assassination by heroes, those tyrants and their minions would prepare complete body doubles.

These doubles were either directly connected to their brains or entirely controlled by independent AIs, disguised as the assassination targets themselves.

Xiang Shan had seen some bizarre methods.

One tycoon had installed his biological brain under the seat of his bomb-proof vehicle, controlling a prosthetic body for social interactions.

However, remote-controlled prosthetic bodies could be exposed with one EMP, while AI-controlled bodies could easily have their “flaws” detected by heroes proficient in Internal Strength.

—Was this some kind of technological advancement?

Had the current AIs advanced enough to control prosthetic bodies, performing acts so deceptive that even I couldn’t see through them?

—Or was it that this guy was connected to the network earlier because the brain was nearby and needed to control it?

Such thoughts flashed through Xiang Shan’s mind.

But none of this mattered to him anymore.

A miss in one strike, a thousand miles of escape, that was the rule of the hero.

Since there had already been a mistake in the operation, the most important thing now was to escape from the enemy’s headquarters and find a place to regroup.

Thinking this, Xiang Shan tore off several bombs hanging on his body and turned to run toward the main entrance.

In the glare of the fire, he quickly approached the exit of this floor.

At this moment, the city’s army had already noticed the Meiyimei Building.

If he dared to leave from the outer wall, then he should be prepared to face anti-aircraft missiles.

But in that instant, a wall near the main entrance suddenly shattered.

Then, a long whip flew out from inside, coiling towards Xiang Shan like an Anaconda.

Xiang Shan crouched down, then kicked at the middle section of the whip.

The “whip,” the weapon whose lethality was all at the tip, only needed to be controlled—

But the next second, Xiang Shan paid the price for his not yet fully updated knowledge.

The whip, like a living creature, folded in the air, its protruding segment precisely tipping at Xiang Shan’s toes.

Xiang Shan was lifted by this overwhelming force, his stance completely disrupted, forced to roll on the ground.

What lay before him appeared to be a whip, but in actuality, it was a specially designed “prosthetic limb.” Inside was entirely composed of electric fibers interwoven together, the whole whip functioning like electronic muscle, filled with power.

In extreme exertion tests, this whip could even easily snap a steel bar of the same cross-sectional area.

Its outer layer was wrapped in the cutting-edge carbon crystal material, possessing a hardness close to that of diamond and relatively strong humanoid form.

These fine scales, resembling files, could cause effective damage to external armor.

Additionally, if necessary, it could also become an electrified weapon.

One, two, three…

Two pairs, a total of four whips, were swung out from amidst the dust.

In the era familiar to Xiang Shan, electric fibers had not been so developed; thus, he had truly never seen such flexible whip weapons.

Unlike the whips of the Natural Person era, used more for torment than killing, every inch of this whip could suddenly burst forth with power, becoming a lethal weapon.

A net of lethal intent woven by four whips enveloped him.

Xiang Shan desperately rolled and dodged.

Although he avoided nearly all the attacks, it must be said, the Sonicon Blade was just too long.

The middle of the scabbard was inevitably scraped, flying to one side.

This sight almost made Daijiu Tai’a curse out loud.

He actually did not care much about who ultimately obtained the treasured blade.

After all, it was something already given away, and the Six Dragons Sect could just consider it a “failed investment.” His concern stemmed from not wanting anyone, through that blade, to trace back to him and thereby implicate the existence of the Six Dragons Sect.

And that forceful strike Xiang Shan had just launched at Ya Pining indicated his reluctance to reveal that the weapon was a Sonicon Blade.

If these heroes managed to escape from here and then moved around elsewhere for a while, probably no one would suspect the origins of the treasured blade anymore.

After all, some famed heroes in Jianghu could even produce better treasured blades.

But if he were to fall here, then the origins of this blade could likely be traced.

So, in that moment, he swiftly focused on all the martial artists.

If anyone harbored the thought of “disarming that hero” and went to pick up the blade on the ground, then he would have no choice but to take action.

—Especially as this fellow was very likely…

On the other side, just as Xiang Shan had escaped the range of the whips and hadn’t yet managed to reclaim his weapon, he heard a shrill scream from within the smoke, “It hurts…

It hurts so much!

You killed me!

You chopped me!

It hurts so much!”

The sound was like a roar yet also a wail, but the voice print distinctly belonged to Ya Pining Zhao.

“Was that a decoy just now?

Is the main body over here?

No, wait, why would this be…”

“You came here to steal the papers, how can you still ask such a basic question, Hero?”

Another resentful voice came from behind Xiang Shan.

Bengel stood up, leaning his hands on the railing, “If you had come a day earlier, then that strike just now would have truly killed that young master.

Too bad, it’s feasible.

The prosthetic body controlled just now was merely a pseudo-personality mask.”

—That term again…

Pseudo-personality Mask…

—What exactly is a Personality Mask?

What are “true” and “false” distinctions?

“It’s just that, this ‘Gluttony’ pseudo-personality mask, still in the final tuning stage, so we haven’t yet cut off his Biological Brain from this prosthetic body.

He doesn’t even realize his brain has already been transferred to another place.”

“So, your strike just now, through the perception of the prosthetic body, transformed into an electrical signal, striking this young master’s psyche.

A considerable part of his personality mask network felt that wave of impact.”

At this point, Bengel expressed a heartfelt anger, “Do you know?

You bastard…

I painstakingly designed these experiments to remove uncontrollable variables, to control all parameters in the process of personality mask creation.

Why I painstakingly make him cultivate different desires, why I demand he blocks social interactions, why I keep resetting his memory…”

“It’s all to control variables!”

“With that spiritual impact from ‘your strike,’ how can I work with this set of data now?”

Unable to come, Xiang Shan felt a surge of anger.

—You are so angry now, merely because…

because of data?

—Those controls that sound brutally enough have become routine for you?

At that moment, a pop-up appeared in Xiang Shan’s vision.

It was that mysterious Internal Strength Master, who had finally reached out to Xiang Shan again.

[Your action has failed.

You mistook a pseudo-personality mask for a target carrying a biological brain.

The real biological brain is in the room behind Bengel, right next to the router on this floor.]

[But I must remind you, you have at most a quarter of an hour left.

After a quarter of an hour, more of the Defense Army will flood into the Meiyimei Building.

By then, even with my help, you are doomed.]

[Please prepare to evacuate immediately.]