Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 231 - 231 11 Life-Chasing Cavalry

231: Chapter 11 Life-Chasing Cavalry 231: Chapter 11 Life-Chasing Cavalry Using solar panels as the roof of the vehicle was simply a desperate measure.

The solar panels were too dark in color and often glossy, making them very conspicuous at visible light frequencies.

Under the sun, they heated up faster than the typical ground surface.

In short, under satellite surveillance, such vehicles were too conspicuous.

All because Hero needed energy.

Heros had no stable supply lines.

They could only rely on the materials they carried with them and the power of the sun.

Thus, Hero’s vehicles had to adopt this style.

Only Hero would do this.

The government’s military could rely on air-dropped energy supplies and established transport routes.

And within those superstructures, there were private fusion reactors.

They were not short on energy.

All vehicles were built with “maximized combat performance” as the priority.

While Hero had to sacrifice some of their vehicle’s capabilities, including stealth and aerodynamic shape, to continue using such roofs.

“This is nearly buried in sand; who knows how long it’s been stopped.” Jader wiped his goggles.

Although cybernetically enhanced people didn’t have to worry about prosthetic eyes getting damaged by sandstorms, ultimately leading to blindness, high-precision prosthetic eyes were highly valuable, and maintaining their smooth surface was crucial.

Those who cared would protect their prosthetic eyes with protective films.

In this kind of sandy weather, they would also dutifully wear goggles.

Xiang Shan turned around once, then pressed his arm against the vehicle’s side, “It’s very quiet inside, almost no vibration.

The sound insulation might be really good.”

Upon hearing this, Jader rather circled to the rear of the vehicle, clearing away the sand.

He indeed found the door of the vehicle.

Yuan Wenren also got down at this time.

Yuki initially wanted to approach, but the sand scraping against his face caused stabbing pains in his organic skin.

He yelled out and retreated.

Yuan Wenren approached Jader.

Jader, however, signaled him to back away.

Meanwhile, Solo Kill King drew his pistol from his waist, knocked on the hatch door, and called, “Fellow traveler inside, I am the Instant Explosion Solo-Kill King from Arctic Red Stone Gate, also part of Jianghu.

If you need anything, just say the word.”

There was no response.

Although Jader was almost certain that there was no one inside, he still waved his hand behind him, signaling the other two to retreat.

Then, he reached out to pull the lever on the door.

Jader was very cautious, always keeping his biological brain shielded by the hatch door.

One must be careful here.

The vehicle was likely Hero’s, but it couldn’t be ruled out that someone had turned it into a trap, possibly rigged with a “door-opening explosion bomb” inside.

Or, there might be a barely alive Hero inside, confused and not having heard the recent conversation, who might realize that the hatch was being opened and thus use the last of his will to activate weapons in attack.

Such things were possible.

Old Jianghu used to tell his disciples about similar cases in his tales of Jianghu lore.

But, logically and sentimentally, Jader had to open this door.

First, there might be resources inside that they needed.

Secondly, there could still be a life inside.

The door wasn’t locked; it opened with a pull.

Xiang Shan waited a few seconds, and when he detected no movement, he slowly approached from the other side.

Due to the sandstorm, his visibility was greatly hindered; he could barely see the contents inside the vehicle.

Since bullets travel faster than sound, it was also impossible to dodge bullets by listening for them.

This was already a risky move.

Yet Jader suddenly appeared from behind the door, shielding Xiang Shan.

Then, he announced, “There’s indeed no one inside.”

Xiang Shan, Jader, and Yuan Wenren boarded the vehicle and found nobody inside.

Only a few devices were still making operational noises.

Yuan hurriedly closed the hatch against the sandstorm.

Xiang Shan approached a device that looked like a mainframe and connected his data interface to it.

Yuan Wenren said, “Senior, be careful of Gu.”

“No worries.

My Inner Strength is still strong.

Ordinary Gu poison can’t harm me.” Xiang Shan shook his head.

Inside, there was indeed a Gu, but it was not malignant.

Xiang Shan isolated it with a virtual machine and quickly decompiled it, finding that this Gu could only leave behind a hidden backdoor; there was no other substantial harm.

It was also likely considered that “if a civilian or a fellow traveler obtained the resources here,” to minimize the chances of accidental harm.

A backdoor, if not triggered, would not cause substantial harm.

But if a government Houndhawk contracted this Gu, the situation would be different.

Other than this Gu, the computer contained only a map.

Xiang Shan checked quickly and then said, “The battery is 100% full.”

“100% full?” Yuki exclaimed over the communication.

“The ‘donkey’ did have a device for medium and short-range signal transmission, after all.

Although the sandstorm caused serious interference, the donkey was only a few meters away from this vehicle at present.”

Given such a distance, the interference wasn’t much of an issue.

Xiang Shan nodded.

“The battery is fully charged.

Is there a problem?”

“The battery of this vehicle is full, but its owner abandoned it, Master!” Yuki exclaimed.

“It doesn’t make any sense!”

He instantly recalled the wild horror stories the town mayor used to scare children.

For example, the pervasive Green Forest, which could silently kidnap people from within their vehicles and the like.

“Ah?” Xiang Shan patted his forehead.

“Have you encountered Green Forest?

Have I ever taken you to fight them?”

“Yes…”

“Do you think among the Green Forest I’ve slaughtered, anyone could have pulled off that kind of thing?” Xiang Shan shook his head.

It seemed that scare stories were indeed a natural feature of humanity.

“Protector” had vehemently eradicated all religious and superstitious elements from the culture; modern kids had no idea about ghosts.

But surprisingly, “ghost stories” managed to revive in this form.

It looked like this was a pre-installed nature of the human brain…

Yuan Wenren chuckled and said, “Young man, this is actually quite normal.

You have to consider that this vehicle has its own solar panels and has been here for a long time.

Even if its battery was dead when it broke down, it could be fully charged by now.”

Yuki finally came to his senses, saying, “That’s true…”

Xiang Shan continued, “There’s just a plain map here, no other driving records or anything.”

That was very normal.

These days, every cybernetically enhanced person had storage devices embedded within them, completely capable of storing everything in their biological brain’s own memory.

This ensured that “my data absolutely cannot be accessed by others before I die” [unless invaded by Inner Strength].

Naturally, the true secrets are safer installed inside one’s body.

And the transportation logs of a Hero might reveal their bases of operations and assistants among other sensitive intel.

There absolutely wouldn’t be a backup of the driving record inside the vehicle.

Not to mention, Heroes were always ready to abandon their vehicles.

Using vehicles to draw fire was also an optional tactic.

No matter how precious these machines were, they couldn’t compare to one’s own life.

The files left in this system had a high probability of falling into government hands.

A map, used as an aid for auto-routing software, was sufficient.

However…

“Since the battery is full, that means it had already been here for a whole day before the sandstorm,” Yuan Wenren spoke.

“From the outbreak at Sand City, our arrival at Pine Eagle City, and up to here, four days have already passed.

It must have stopped here at least five days ago.”

“Five days, and the Hero hasn’t come back to reclaim this vehicle…”

Yuan Wenren paused briefly here.

But everyone else understood what that implied.

The Hero was still using solar panels, which implied they were unlikely to possess an isotopic battery.

And a regular battery barely supporting five days of activity was already a stretch.

Not to mention, when the Hero had separated from the vehicle, they must have detected the presence of government Houndhawks.

Even if the Hero had escaped, they would have had to fight.

Jader ran his fingers across the surface of a device.

There was a layer of dust.

It had indeed been several days.

“It’s possible they abandoned the vehicle and then joined up with other Heroes.

They might not necessarily be dead,” Jader said.

“Check what usable resources are inside the vehicle.”

The owner of the abandoned vehicle was no longer likely to come back.

Whether they were alive or dead.

Yuan Wenren searched around.

There wasn’t much inside.

Only a small amount of difficult-to-replenish explosives and ammunition worth taking.

Xiang Shan then took the fully charged battery from the vehicle.

He temporarily did not need more vehicles.

The three vehicles he had, along with their equipment, were basically enough to sustain routine part replacements.

His three vehicles, in preparation for this sandstorm, had been equipped with plenty of spare batteries.

At this point, taking this vehicle would require redistributing the spare batteries from the existing three vehicles.

That was highly cost-ineffective.

Xiang Shan, carrying the battery, said, “Cheer up, at least we’re on the right track.

According to the map, we are less than 200 kilometers away from the area where that old Hero originally crashed.”

………………………………………

Kan L sat down in front of a huge piece of metal debris.

This wasn’t for a “rest.” For cybernetically enhanced people, “sitting” and “standing” didn’t make much difference.

He just really needed a place that could offer slight shelter from the wind and sand.

“It wouldn’t be good for sand to get into the joint connections,” Kan L thought.

Kan L was a Ranger from White Horse City, holding the title “Life Chaser.”

“Ranger,” also known as “Assault Team,” was a term that seemed to exist in old times.

However, in modern times, it was a force created by King Aqini to combat people of the Jianghu, aimed at hunting down all threatening figures within the Jianghu.

Rangers often needed to roam the earth for long periods, seeking and assassinating their targets.

Many skilled fighters had fallen at the hands of these Rangers.

He tapped the debris behind him and said, “Alright, keep searching in this direction.

If it fails, just go back and report — tsk, the higher-ups too.

At this time, it’s impossible that there are still Heroes coming from the north.”

Before he finished speaking, his biological brain sifted a bit of “activity” from the background noise of sand and storms.