Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 206 - 206 126 Smog

206: Chapter 126 Smog 206: Chapter 126 Smog Xiang Shan, after casually finishing off a tail, sent a signal to the people behind him.

Yuan Wenren then emerged from the shadows and said, “Senior, your abilities are truly extraordinary.”

She had been watching Xiang Shan’s movements closely.

Taking advantage of the performance of his Prosthetic Eye and the lackeys’ blurry memories, Xiang Shan had locked onto the trailing spy ahead of time.

He then used the terrain to his advantage to stay in the enemy’s blind spot as he moved.

If it were athletes like Hiroshi Matsushima or Old Hammer, who had participated in the “No Vision Combat Competitions”, they might have been able to filter out the hum of the environment and detect the slightest noise.

But these unorthodox Firearm Warriors didn’t have this refinement.

Firearm Warriors place a higher emphasis on vision.

Xiang Shan deliberately made some noise to mislead the enemy while actually moving silently and using the movements of the convoy to make the enemy’s focus dart back and forth.

His final, lethal strike indeed was a classic maneuver.

Even in the last step, Xiang Shan made sure the lining of his cloak, which could reflect common electromagnetic wave frequencies, was wrapped around the enemy’s body.

So even if the enemy realized what was happening and sounded the alarm, it was unlikely to reach the Great Stockade.

Xiang Shan and Yuan Wenren set off before those riding vehicles to clear any potential spies along the way, while the others were responsible for disguising themselves as lackeys and infiltrating into the Green Forest Stronghold.

Despite both Yuan Wenren and Xiang Shan’s Prosthetic Bodies being technically “lightweight,” they were far removed from a low-modified human.

As a Firearms Path Martial Artist, Yuan Wenren’s lower body would certainly be more stable and have a lower center of gravity compared to the average Close Combat Warrior.

Xiang Shan’s Prosthetic Body, on the other hand, was much taller and bulkier than a regular person.

And the Prosthetic Bodies of the others were more human-like.

Xiang Shan pulled a storage device from a pool of silver liquid and wiped it on the camouflage cloth the person had been wearing, taking some time to read the contents.

Then he extracted another component from the person’s neck, adjusted the wiring slightly, connected a port to his wrist, and hacked in using Inner Strength to send a “all clear” signal.

Xiang Shan walked down from the high slope and asked, “All clear?”

Yuan Wenren nodded.

“Now we just need to wait another three minutes,” Xiang Shan said.

“In ten minutes, we’ll storm in.”

Due to the lack of professional materials, the silicone layer on the faces of those infiltrated into the Stronghold was not very realistic.

From a distance, it wasn’t a problem, but up close, the “faces” appeared noticeably fake.

This situation allowed for minimizing the distance one would need to directly withstand gunfire in the straight corridor outside the great gate.

The young Heroes were far superior in Martial Arts than the Green Forest.

As long as they took advantageous positions, preventing the Green Forest from utilizing their numerical advantage, holding out for a while wouldn’t be a problem.

And that amount of time was enough for Xiang Shan to charge in.

Xiang Shan and Yuan Wenren quickly found an entrance to a tunnel.

A faint muffled sound was coming from inside—attenuated gunfire.

Xiang Shan nodded to Yuan Wenren and started to sprint inside.

What followed was quite straightforward.

Xiang Shan, at his maximum speed, bypassed the defensive line organized by the Green Forest inside the gate.

Then, exploiting the huge advantage of his Inner Strength, he tore through the resistance and seized the Stronghold’s server.

After that, the situation became very simple.

…………………………………

Come nightfall, Balbo spread out his formation across the wilderness.

The hunt for a Hero was no ordinary task.

In ancient times, “weapons” constantly narrowed the gap between individual soldiers’ combat abilities, because the physical rules and logic of the world allowed “offensive weapons” to develop faster than “defensive equipment.” After firearms began dominating the battlefield, Dense Formations were thoroughly abandoned.

But when the Martial Ancestor first designed Cyber Martial Arts, it was akin to using technological means to branch out a new “tech tree” in the traditional military command system.

All historical military concepts were built on the premise that “in most situations, the quality of individual soldiers is not much different.”

Cyber Martial Arts, however, devastated that foundation.

With more enhanced senses, one could detect the enemy first.

With stronger mobility in a Prosthetic Body, one could continuously divide the battlefield.

Employing well-honed strategies, one could widen the skill gap with individual soldiers.

And most importantly, Prosthetic Bodies, with far superior defensive capabilities compared to flesh, could withstand “ricochets” and “grazed by bullets,” thus raising the margin of error in Tactics to a level unimaginable to the old humans.

The “Scattered Troops Line” formation, born to reduce the effectiveness of firearms, was precisely what Cyber Martial Arts were designed to counter.

The enemy having stronger mobility and reflexes, as well as a higher margin for error, meant that bullets had a hard time hitting the target.

If one’s Martial Arts were truly exceptional, a Cyber Martial Artist could easily cut through the Scattered Troops Line.

The most crucial aspect of hunting a Hero was maintaining the density of the formation.

This was especially true given the Protectors’ long-range firepower was asserted to be far greater than the Hero’s, which meant there was no need to worry about being suppressed by enemy fire.

Normally, a team of Soldiers would line up side by side, no more than half a meter apart, with a secondary line of Soldiers slightly staggered behind to allow room for “shooting.”

Under this formation, a small squad maintained a size of about twenty people.

The distance between each squad did not exceed fifty meters, allowing them to quickly provide support to one another.

For every thousand people, a battalion was formed.

Each battalion had several heavy war chariots and Martial Artists accompanying them.

There were also numerous unmanned drones in the sky.

Each battalion operated independently.

They marched at a speed of twenty kilometers an hour.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t move faster.

If one didn’t mind the wear and tear of parts, the speed of the Cybernetically Enhanced People was comparable to the “motorized troops” of the old era.

However, the issue was that they were searching for Cybernetically Enhanced People.

The kind that didn’t need much oxygen.

If the Hero really had the guts, he could just find a place to bury himself and then shut down all prosthetics, setting them to wake up after several days.

This was indeed a risky gamble, but still a viable method.

In the Protector’s own exercises, the Martial Artists playing the “Hero Faction” had indeed escaped several times using this kind of tactic.

A small number of experts who defected from Jianghu also shared similar experiences.

Thus, without the attitude of “digging three feet into the ground” to arrange the search, it was easy to miss clues.

And the troubles didn’t end there.

The search area that Pine Eagle City had to cover had invisibly expanded.

The reason was those Broadcasters they had previously looked down on.

Today, numerous Broadcasters were continuously relaying content from Old Crab.

At the same time, three Broadcasters loudly declared during their broadcasts that they were together with the Hero, challenging the government to come after them, or to just send a tactical missile their way.

Most of these claims were likely bluffs, false.

But the Protectors couldn’t completely ignore them either.

They couldn’t just heed the other side’s words and directly fire a tactical missile over.

The reason Old Crab was easily killed was because the content of his broadcast revealed his visual field, leading him to be locked onto by satellites.

But those Broadcasters had revealed at most their approximate location.

If the Broadcasters could duck at the sight of missiles in the sky, the effectiveness of tactical missiles would be limited.

They ultimately expanded their search area.

Which further diluted the density of their forces.

“It seems we’ve been too lenient with those broadcasting scum these days,” Balbo thought to himself.

He continually received feedback from various units inside the war chariot.

“Reporting to the commander… ssszzz… we have completed… ssszzz… are about to… ssszzz… area E9…”

“Here we go again,” Balbo said, somewhat angrily.

He switched to another frequency, but after finding only the hiss in this channel too, he jumped out of the war chariot and shouted, “Where’s the tech squad?

What the hell is going on with this communications malfunction?

Do we have a cause yet?”

Soon, a cybernetically enhanced person with the appearance of an officer ran over and said, “My lord, there seems to be something wrong with this.”

“Oh?

What’s wrong?”

The person opened his hands, holding up a black clump with dust on it, “Take a look, my lord.”

“This is…” Balbo touched it with his finger, feeling magnetism, “A magnet?

Are you using this thing to collect metal dust from the wilderness for analysis?

Are you a Scientific Knight or what?”

“No, lord, the metal dust on it is all from the air.

And if there were light, you would see that its reflectivity is absolutely not that of natural metal dust,” the person said.

“This is diluted Iron Dust.”

“Iron Dust?” Balbo looked around, “There’s no particularly noticeable smoke nearby…”

“‘Diluted’, my lord,” the technical officer explained.

“In most cases, the majority of the dense metal aerosols we usually encounter settle normally, but a small portion drifts with the wind, forming small aerosol clusters in the air, continuously diluting until they dissipate.”

“Someone’s been massively using metal aerosols?” Balbo first rejected this possibility, “No, then the satellites should be alerted.

Large clusters of metal aerosols on the ground would definitely trigger the Heavenly Punishment System.”

“Perhaps they were released after nightfall?”

“No…” Balbo quickly became alert, “These guys must have modified the release components of the metal aerosols to slowly release them.

Today’s wind speed is rather high.

This ensures that the aerosols don’t form large clusters, and the small aerosol clusters… they have a very low density.

If there’s no light, we would only think it’s a bit of dust.”

“But still, if there’s enough such dust in a wide space, it can still cause serious communication interference.”

He suddenly realized something and ordered, “Now, immediately separate the microwave radar from the fire control system!”