Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 220 - 220 Summary at the End of Volume 2

220: Summary at the End of Volume 2 220: Summary at the End of Volume 2 “`

Character Data Changes:

Xiang Shan:

The Ancestor of Martial Arts who lost his memory, once sparked the technological revolution as a developer, a world-class engineer, the king of paper airplanes, and the proponent of the Chivalrous Spirit.

Long ago, he charged into a space fleet to assassinate the Tyrant but failed.

Months ago, his head was excavated from a garbage dump; at that time, he didn’t even remember his own name, only that he had an enemy named “Yawgmoth.” Now he has found a few fragments of his memory.

Changes to Prosthetic Body and Weapons:

Regarding the prosthetic leg, the artificial muscle fiber prosthetic legs have reached the end of their service life, so some artificial muscle fibers were removed and attached to the hydraulic transmission joints to make new prosthetic legs.

Both the explosive power and speed have been reduced.

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New publicly available settings:

Personality Mask:

A general term for all “simulated, socialized personalities.” It is divided into “True Personality Masks” and “Pseudo-personality Masks.”

Pseudo-personality Masks refer to “computer-simulated personalities.” Their definition is based on the logic of the Turing Test.

If a program can impersonate a specific person and successfully deceive the friends and family of the person being impersonated, then it can be considered a “Pseudo-personality Mask.”

True Personality Masks, on the other hand, are created when a Natural Person’s Biological Brain is in prolonged contact with specific individual’s memory data and consciously takes on the role, leading to the identity cognition of “I am the original owner of the memory.” This can even be seen as the spirit of the original owner of the memory reappearing in the individual with the True Personality Mask.

The most famous group of Personality Masks are the ten “Martial Gods” that were born based on the blueprint of the Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan.

According to known information, the Second and Third Martial Gods are Pseudo-personality Masks, whereas the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Martial Gods are True Personality Masks.

Known Historical Timeline:

May 6, 2003, Yawgmoth Voigt was born.

January 14, 2005, Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan was born.

February 26, 2026, Greenwich Mean Time, at three o’clock in the morning, an unknown alien artifact “Argon” was discovered.

January 2027, humans began to capture Argon.

March 22, 2028, graduate student in hardware Xiang Shan, as an assistant to his mentor, was invited to join the “Rama Project.”

March 23, 2028, researcher Xiang Shan, together with his mentor Liu Zhenghui, behavioral research scholar Li Jiahua, White Wolf Language expert Zhang Qiaoyun, Academy of Social Sciences committee member Jing Hongtu, and other scholars from different fields traveled to the “Rama Project” in Indonesia.

On the same day, former NASA researcher and top engineer David Klein met.

On the same day, Xiang Shan met with Yawgmoth Voigt, associate researcher in genetics at Harvard University Medical School, for the first time.

March 24, 2028, Xiang Shan encountered Ingrid Granat, associate researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway.

March 26, 2028, Xiang Shan met with Kanhara Tsun, a researcher in the world’s minority languages and scripts, and entered Argon together.

2035, Director of the United Nations University Xiang Shan declared, “We are the ones who stole the Heavenly Fire.” In the same year, Xiang Shan began to prepare the “Human Cyberization Project.”

July 2036, Xiang Shan met once again with his senior fellow Hu Zhengyan at the Magwen Brain Science Institute at Beiping University.

At the same time, he met with Chen Feng, the person in charge of the lab.

January 2037, Yawgmoth brought species such as metal-based fruit flies to the Republic.

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References and Tributes:

The title of this volume comes from Vernor Vinge’s novella “True Names.”

The introductory note of this volume quotes two lines from the poem “Hero’s Journey” by Li Bai.

Some of the songs quoted in this volume were once popular among workers during the turbulent times of the 20th century.

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Finally, let’s talk about some reflections.

First of all, I still want to thank the readers for their support all along.

I appreciate your subscriptions and companionship, and I thank you for being willing to read this story.

The title “True Names” encompasses the concept of “the pit of Xiang Shan’s identity,” as well as introduces the concept proposed in Vernor Vinge’s great novella—that a “wizard”/”hacker” must never have their true name known to others, or they’re doomed.

Xiang Shan has always been hiding in the shadows, with most enemies unaware of the existence of such a Hero.

In this state, an assassin is terrifying.

But the story of the Eighth Martial God tells the opposite.

Once Xiang Shan is exposed, he faces a serious Protector Group.

In face of their overwhelming martial power, he is destined to be weaker.

The reason I chose the first two lines of “Hero’s Journey” for the opening quote is simply because I think it reflects the carefree attitude of a hero perfectly.

This volume marks Xiang Shan’s first appearance in this era.

The dark Jianghu scroll is just beginning to unfold before this person who has slumbered for two hundred years.

If I’m honest, the plot of the second volume also isn’t quite ideal.

Chapter 105 “Lighting Up Every Dark Place” is the climax of the entire volume, with too much emphasis placed on this section.

Therefore, the subsequent “escape” and “assassination” seemed somewhat less thrilling.

I feel like I have fallen into a kind of dilemma.

The writing of “assassination” only has two patterns: “He sneaked in—he was not detected—he assassinated” and “He sneaked in—he was discovered—he fought his way through.” Even if I introduce a new front like “propaganda war,” there’s a limit to the tricks I can design.

The second assassination in this volume, namely Chapter 130 “Pine Eagle Strikes the Chariot,” also obviously falls short in emotional build-up compared to the assassination of Bengel.

And in terms of setup, Xiang Shan can’t just assassinate Old Master Zhao right now.

This results in Chapter 105, being this “mid-to-late stage of the plot,” as the emotional peak of the volume, and then there’s a feeling of “is that it” towards the end.

Perhaps I should’ve ended the volume around Chapter 100, and then saved the experience of “Back Skill—Fight Through—Head South to Pine Eagle City” for the next volume.

Additionally, I have to reflect on whether I may have devoted too much attention to the “past chapters.” Although the story always revolves around the “present chapters,” the current Xiang Shan is a bit too “Lone Wolf,” leaving no room for other characters to develop—of course, his current teammates are either disabled or novices like Yuki, who actually can’t do much.

The present story is just “Xiang Shan rampaging again.” In contrast, the story of Xiang Shan’s past acquaintances and friendships in the “past chapters” feels more alive to me.

In this volume, I think the more vivid characters are only Hiroshi Matsushima and Crab.

This is somewhat regrettable.

I hope to make progress in this respect in the next volume.

Please forgive me for only updating a short section today.

After all, I’m just a mediocre author, and this book takes quite a toll on me.

Sometimes, I too need to recharge by reading.

Tomorrow, I will update punctually with the third volume, “Who Mourns for the Lost.”

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