Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 258 - 258 38 Entanglement

258: Chapter 38: Entanglement 258: Chapter 38: Entanglement Indeed, not only was Bai Man equipped with EMP weapons, but he could also release EMPs in two different forms.

Humanity first realized the destructive power of EMPs on electrical equipment with nuclear weapons.

The gamma rays released by a nuclear reaction would react with molecules in the atmosphere, creating a very strong electromagnetic pulse.

For those mighty beings with mini reactors inside their bodies, releasing a strand of gamma rays through a predetermined path was not so difficult, as long as the design was appropriate.

Bai Man could draw several strands of gamma rays from the Pseudo Star Device.

To him, this was hardly more difficult than “breathing.” However, due to the dense atmosphere at ground level, this EMP attack would only work within several dozen to a hundred meters around him.

But within these meters, prosthetic bodies with slightly inferior electromagnetic protection would be destroyed on the spot.

At the same time, he had two directional electromagnetic pulse emitters on his shoulders, capable of emitting a continuous stream of electromagnetic pulses.

Just as the Iron Dust was beginning to spread, these light-speed propagating entities could effectively paralyze the Protector’s command systems.

And without modern command systems, the sophisticated military formations would not operate smoothly; half of the essence of the Military Martial Path could not be executed!

The Hero let out a long howl.

Instantaneously, all cybernetically enhanced people within a hundred meters stiffened and all drones within three hundred meters in front of him lost control and faltered!

Taking advantage of this pause, Bai Man sprinted wildly again.

And his figure stirred up the storm, causing the aerosol to spread even faster.

At the same time, between the Hero’s position and the Protector Army, the second batch of Metal Aerosol bombs suddenly detonated.

The silvery-gray barrier reappeared.

Because Bai Man had ignited the Metal Aerosol earlier, depleting the oxygen in that area, the Protectors would find it difficult to remove the Metal Aerosol in the same way for a short time!

Bai Man no longer had any reservations.

Once again, he pounced forward, grabbed a tank, and casually threw it.

With Bai Man’s strength, it was indeed possible to grab a tank and use it to make sweeping strikes.

But first, the tank could fire, and maintaining relative stillness with a tank for long was simply too risky.

Second, Bai Man’s prosthetic body itself weighed less than a fully loaded tank, so holding the tank was like a human wielding a 200-pound hammer— even with the strength of a Heavenly God, one might be unavoidably dragged by inertia.

At this moment, Bai Man seemed to enter a land devoid of people.

Even the military martial artists had not advanced.

On the contrary, these martial artists retreated faster than ordinary people.

They all understood that this Hero before them was no longer one of the same plane as other martial artists.

Inner Strength is divided into realms, external strength into ranks, but these alone are not sufficient to measure a martial artist’s combat power fully.

The combat power of a martial artist is composed of many different dimensions.

External strength, Inner Strength, prosthetic body strength, the neural reflex speed of the Biological Brain, energy resources…

Some martial artists achieve greatness in only one dimension.

For example, Hiroshi Matsushima is only supreme in external strength, with no Inner Strength and prosthetic bodies merely for competition, powered by ordinary batteries.

In a life-and-death fight, Hiroshi Matsushima is not that formidable.

Whether it’s a competition of Inner Strength, being crushed by the strength of a prosthetic body, or being outlasted due to energy reserves, any of these scenarios could end the life of this External Arts Grandmaster.

A Hero must have advantages in all these aspects to maintain absolute combat power.

Generally speaking, Inner Strength recognized in the Assembly Realm, external strength qualifying for unrestricted teaching credentials in major dojos or including Paralympic competition, and neural reflex and prosthetic body strength enough to compete at the speed of light—martial artists at this level are “one heavenly layer” apart from ordinary Heroes.

This is just a conventional and vague standard, but generally, characters considered first-class in Jianghu are “one heavenly layer” above ordinary martial artists.

As for Kings and the acme of Jianghu, that is yet another realm.

At this point, there was no need for those martial artists to risk their lives in combat anymore.

The role they could play was indeed too small.

According to regulations, before the Chief Officer’s command is issued, their primary duty is to rebuild a usable fire support position in the distance, suppress the expert, and assist in the retreat of subsequent colleagues.

Drones, automatic forts, or remotely controlled Mechanical Warriors are the main forces of close combat.

But Bai Man was not a fool.

He knew that staying in one area for too long carried the risk of “being entangled by a purely mechanical army.”

While the Protectors would hardly bomb their own people, if the surroundings were filled with non-human machinery, they would not hesitate to pull out tactical missiles.

Bai Man directly rushed towards the areas with more people.

By now, the Iron Dust had also spread far and wide.

The central command of the Protector Army had been completely lost.

At this time, naturally, those with sufficiently strong prosthetic bodies would step forward.

Hamuki leaped out of the War Chariot, shouting, “Come on!

Let me meet you!”

Abandoning the War Chariot, he rushed out wildly.

Now that the Iron Dust had covered the area, it was impossible to lock onto targets visually, but the noise Bai Man made was so loud that one could confirm his trajectory by listening, thereby roughly estimating his route.

After his mad dash, Hamuki threw a punch.

Missing his target, he instantly turned and delivered a palm strike.

This one landed solidly.

Bai Man realized he had been located but did not panic.

The Vector Injectors on his back and sides turned, and he moved diagonally, continuously circling around the officer in front of him, drawing arcs to ensure the soldiers held back from directly bombarding him with heavy firepower due to fear of hitting their own officer.

This movement technique within the Battle Formation prioritized “circumventing” and by relying on these curved positions, constantly switched places with the officer before him, ensuring the soldiers could not directly employ heavy firepower against him.

Hamuki’s palm strike was just a probe for position.

After one unsuccessful strike, his next punch was already on its way.

With each joint—the leg, foot, shoulder, elbow—layered into the punch, the internal force synchronized and unleashed, it was not trifling at all.

Bai Man parried the punch and felt the intricate “Power” in the opponent’s moves through the turbulence of the magnetic field.

But before he could react, a burst from the Armor-Piercing Bullet ejected from the guy’s wrist.

Caught off guard, Bai Man was hit squarely in the chest by the Armor-Piercing Bullet.

The bullet, made of depleted uranium alloy, carried an unbelievable kinetic force, propelling the four-meter-tall Prosthetic Body backward as it flew through the air.

However, Hamuki didn’t have time to pursue and widen his advantage.

He had hidden an Armor-Piercing Bullet inside his arm.

To compensate for the short barrel, he increased the ejection force.

That strike almost depleted all the charge in his body’s capacitors.

And the power source within him was isotopic batteries coupled with storage batteries instead of a Reactor.

But that “repulsion” had given Hamuki a glimpse of the situation.

——This guy isn’t as strong as he appears…

——I see!

According to the intel, the King of Godspeed had destroyed Tao Enhai’s space combat Prosthetic Body, and quite thoroughly at that.

There wouldn’t be many usable parts left on that Prosthetic Body.

The parts Tao Enhai’s group was using were either dismantled from the martial masters of the Protector’s side or were barely salvaged from spacecraft.

The latter were more likely to be of the wrong specifications.

This limited the maximum output of the Hero standing before him.

Simply put, the Hero did indeed possess a Reactor, but the output cap of each module wasn’t very high.

The Prosthetic Body was hindering the performance of the Reactor.

Thinking this, Hamuki’s heart was suddenly more at ease.

His burst potential wasn’t much lower than that of the Hero, it’s just that he couldn’t keep the Vector Injector on at all times like his opponent.

After all, his total power output was still a bit lower.

Of course, if the Hero obtained better parts, his performance could rise to another level.

——Like this set that I have on me.

Hamuki added this in his mind.

But seeing Bai Man standing up as if unhurt, Hamuki also felt a bit shocked.

The Armor-Piercing Bullet just now hit a piece of External Armor from a spacecraft.

Under extreme conditions, this External Armor was meant to withstand micro-meteorites moving at a fraction of the Speed of Light.

The hastily fired depleted uranium Armor-Piercing Bullet was not enough to penetrate this External Armor.

He immediately pressed on to the Hero who just had his body swapped out.

Hamuki used only the Martial Ancestor Fist, and it was unclear which school it came from.

In the hands of Hiroshi Matsushima, the same Martial Arts were about solid force, using the hardest parts to strike the enemy’s weakest points.

However, when used by Hamuki, it was like hiding needles in cotton, a combination of precisely calculated Footwork constantly cutting off Bai Man’s routes, preventing him from making use of the Vector Injector’s advantage.

Bai Man swiftly changed his moves several times, trying to break out of the encirclement, but he couldn’t escape the grip of his foe.

Just at that moment, a series of Concussion Grenades exploded in the distance.

Bai Man interpreted the signal from the intervals and the approximate direction.

“The operation is completed, we can withdraw now.”

This was a message from his comrades.

——But at this moment, how could the enemy let me walk away so easily…

This thought flashed through Bai Man’s mind.

He and Hamuki rapidly darted and weaved through the Iron Dust, and so nearly ten minutes passed.

He was still unable to shake off this officer’s entanglement!

…………………………………

As the series of Concussion Grenades went off, Fraser was in the sky.

His Prosthetic Body was equipped with Flying Wings memory.

This flight memory had its own fuel, allowing it to fly a certain distance autonomously.

When combined with him, it could draw power from his body’s Reactor, using plasma-fied air as propellant.

He was less than five hundred meters away from the battlefield in a straight line.

Looking down at the ceaseless swirl of Metal Aerosol below, he had already locked onto the Hero’s position.

At the same time, a series of gunfire was heard from the south direction.

In this moment, Fraser faced a choice.

“Is it there, or is it here?”

After circling in mid-air three times, Fraser had his answer.

Tao Enhai was probably dead by now.

Even if not, he would likely be in a state where his brain was hollowed out after surgery.

In such a condition, he was not much of a threat.

In comparison, this Hero who got hold of the fusion Reactor could potentially slaughter his way through the Military Formation and forcefully break out.

[Command, disengage.]