Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 196 - 196 166 Suspicions

196: Chapter 166 Suspicions 196: Chapter 166 Suspicions Despite various indications suggesting that there were aspects of Xiang Shan that differed from both the True Personality Mask and the Pseudo-personality Mask,

it was still not enough to conclude that he was “Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan.”

For example, when Yuki dug him out from a pile of trash, his cranial cavity was open, and all the electronic devices inside were damaged.

However, it was still possible that deep within his brain there could be electronic devices.

His brain could possibly encompass several smaller lobes wrapped around a computer core.

After all, he hadn’t taken his brain out for an X-ray, so it couldn’t be confirmed whether it was a biological brain or a computer that just happened to look like a brain with several lobes as plugins.

Back when he was in the Meiyimei Building, “Little Brother” had roughly introduced him to the functional principles of those personality mask prosthetic bodies employed by the young master of the Zhao Family.

So, such technology was not unimaginable.

Additionally, this brain could also be a cloned blank brain, into which the memories of “Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan” had been uploaded.

The brain is like a tiny hard drive.

If an operating system is already installed, fitting another operating system becomes extremely difficult.

However, because this hardware structure lacks “purposeful” design and the “program” is full of evolutionary “muck,” it can’t be simply uninstalled.

But, if there’s no pre-installed system, installing another one becomes much simpler.

In the mid-21st century, following Yawgmoth’s breakthrough with the enzyme system, the application of cloning technology developed rapidly.

However, the technologies of “synthetic organs” and “full-body cybernetic transformation” also developed synchronously, so “singular organ cloning” didn’t receive much resource investment.

But, theoretically, there weren’t many big obstacles left.

Originally, some nature-worshipping tycoons believed that “cloned organs wouldn’t have malignant bugs,” so they invested in this area.

Cloning a brain alone might be a bit complex.

But even so, “cloning an entire person then harvesting the brain” remained a viable method.

The resistance to damage of a Benchmark Man was so strong that even someone as ill-equipped and lacking in facilities as Little Poison Insect could bring an embryo to baby through external cultivation.

From this view, even DNA testing might not confirm Xiang Shan’s identity.

His biological tissue could very well come from Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan.

Of course, there were other explanations as well.

For instance, directly injecting an excessive amount of Restoring Enzyme into a person’s brain could also serve to “uninstall the operating system.”

At that time, all neurons would be reversed to their nascent state, completely blank.

In this way, “this Xiang Shan” could be anyone.

As for the non-declarative memories remaining in the brain, that’s not hard to explain either.

Just like the original Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan, treating storage devices as extensions of the brain, then separating “memories of events,” “knowledge,” and “emotions” for storage would suffice.

Humans naturally store memories in categorized forms too.

Memories of events, knowledge, experiences, and emotions are all stored separately.

These things are divided into countless “files” and only assembled into a coherent whole when “consciousness” operates.

After creating him in this way and then extracting those memories, they could create him as he is now.

What could possibly indicate the specialty of Xiang Shan, however, is his mastery of Martial Arts.

Or rather, it could be the specialization of his brain.

Xiang Shan’s brain was highly adapted to Martial Studies algorithms and Internal Cultivation Methods, reaching quite a height.

Even now, Martial Arts still emphasized “talent.” Restoring Enzymes could reset and regrow the brain, but they couldn’t solve everything.

Even “cloning” might not necessarily recreate the same “Martial Talent.”

Because having “good Martial Talent” is a “phenotype,” a result of gene expression.

“Genotype determines phenotype,” but “genotype is not equal to phenotype.” This final result of gene expression is controlled by many factors.

Biological characteristics are ultimately a complex result of gene-environment interactions and multigene effects.

Even having the same memories, the thought processes might not be exactly the same.

The brain’s growth process could also vary despite identical memories.

“Cloning + memory upload” also might not be able to completely replicate the brain’s most “upper” or “front-end” aspects.

Not to mention specialized neural networks, including those from the Soth Divine Realm.

This stuff, let alone for a clone, even the original person might not be able to replicate their previous successful experiences.

This is also why Hiroshi Matsushima was reluctant to experiment lightly with Restoring Enzymes.

He couldn’t guarantee that after erasing some specialized neural connections, he could again train his external strength to such heights.

And in the legends, many Martial Gods also largely failed to reach the level of Martial Ancestor during his lifetime.

“Well then,” Xiang Shan shook his head, “This brute courage is actually what most resembles Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan.

It really is…”

However, that point is not entirely certain at the moment.

Xiang Shan had not yet fought with a true top-tier expert.

Hiroshi Matsushima, in terms of external strength and reflex speed, was indeed top-notch.

However, the prosthetic body he used could not fully exploit the upper limits of his martial arts skills.

As for inner strength, Xiang Shan had never directly competed against anyone.

And “Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan,” in his prime, was at least able to protect himself in head-to-head combat with King Aqini.

——At that time…

she…

who…

bore the brunt of that Old Dog’s…

Xiang Shan tapped on the top of his head.

King Aqini was not only a master of inner strength but also the strongest in the military martial arts disciplines of military formations and battleships.

Therefore, he was usually stationed on a starship.

Xiang Shan had only faced off against this dogged character a few times.

After thinking, Xiang Shan sat down on the ground in dejection, “The loss of memory is also a huge problem.”

The memories provided by the Six Dragons Sect only included scant fragments from 45 years ago—based on the remaining impressions, that period should be considered the most exalted years of his life.

There were great ideals, a clear path, comrades in arms…

It was the era when he was a pure idealist and technologist.

“This juvenile period is actually quite fitting for rousing passions?” Xiang Shan thought, “Deluding those fellows into fully immersing themselves in the experimental projects proposed by the Demon Sect?

But why must it be my memories?

Wouldn’t the memories of a Scientific Knight be more suitable?

Moreover, these memories have been stripped of the ’emotional’ elements.

They would only know from the memories what I intend to do, then because they identify with these memories, they become impassioned, yet they won’t get emotionally infected just by reading the memories.”

Xiang Shan was indeed very puzzled about this.

His “event memories” and “emotional memories” were indeed stored separately in electronic devices and his biological brain respectively.

That memory disk represented “event memories.” Although it inevitably mixed in some “emotions,” the proportion was not significant.

Whereas the memories stored on the disks of normal people, should be like those of Deborah and others, with “events,” “emotions,” “experiences,” all included.

Even after reading, Xiang Shan could not help but feel a trace of empathy for that lady.

And the consensus memory of Green Forest was then “emotions” far outweighing “memories.”

Pure event memories are somewhat less infectious in comparison.

There definitely were Scientific Knights within the Demon Sect.

The Six Dragons envoy he encountered in the Meiyimei Building, overtly a Scientific Knight, seemed to hold a not insignificant status.

They should have countless reasons to obtain the data on “a fervent obsession with the concept of ‘truth.'”

Yet, they had specifically chosen to use Xiang Shan’s memories.

Xiang Shan pressed his head.

There was too much to think about.

Too many things were incomprehensible.

Whether he was the real Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan who had been asleep for two hundred years, or a personality mask created by someone else, there was a two-hundred-year cognitive disparity with this world.

The lack of information made it very difficult for him to grasp the current situation accurately.

——Now, he needed to start by doing what he could do at the moment…

………………………………………

On the other side, Jader, along with Huang Ouguang and Cui Hai, were exchanging recent intelligence.

It was relatively straightforward for Jader.

He had his prosthetic body mostly destroyed at the time, even his head was injured.

He was merely moving quickly through the shack area, utilizing the terrain.

Since he had already suffered severe injuries and brain damage, those guys didn’t deploy much military force to chase him, just a few squads.

Subsequently, Hiroshi Matsushima suddenly intervened in the battlefield, swiftly killing several people, then snapped off Jader’s head and carried it with him as he charged out.

Since then, he had been recuperating in Hiroshi Matsushima’s basement.

Of course, although Jader was somewhat naive, at least he knew not to trouble Hiroshi Matsushima too much, so he omitted the time and place of this part of his experience, only mentioning it was “an old friend from a martial arts school at the street corner during his early years in Jianghu.”

On the other hand, Huang Ouguang had a much richer experience.

Jader nodded in affirmation at some of the survival strategies Huang Ouguang used in the Wilderness, but when he heard that she chose to sneak into the Great Stockade of Green Forest to snatch medicine, he shook his head.

“How unwise.” Solo Kill King said, “Your internal and external strengths are merely at the beginning level.

We brought you here hoping you could handle some peripheral tasks.

How could you dare to sneak into the Great Stockade of Green Forest alone?”

“Moreover, the Great Stockade of Green Forest, what place is that?

It’s a place where human life is cheap.

How much medicine could one stockade possibly have?

That medicine is surely only meant for a few leading figures.

It must be well-guarded.

How could you steal it?”

Cui Hai said with embarrassment, “If it weren’t for me, my junior sister would not have fallen into such a dangerous situation…”

“Alas.” Solo Kill King shook his head, “Comparing enemy and own strength is a skill that every hero must master.”