Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 275 - 275 55 Memories Gradually

275: Chapter 55 Memories Gradually…

275: Chapter 55 Memories Gradually…

“So, who am I really…”

After answering Yuan Wenren’s question, Xiang Shan sent the two out of the “Mule”.

Yuki incidentally took the little guy along as well.

Xiang Shan then pressed his hand to his forehead, beginning to ponder this question.

He realized a serious issue, one that all Martial Gods faced.

As is known, the memory of a Martial God comes from the “memories of Xiang Shan himself” uploaded by Yawgmoth, along with “memories of time spent together with Xiang Shan” contributed by Xiang Shan’s friends.

In other words, the memories that Martial Gods possess aren’t necessarily “Xiang Shan’s own memories” but “Xiang Shan as seen through the eyes of others”.

Martial Gods were acting out “Xiang Shan as seen through the eyes of others”, they were “Xiang Shan as a member of society”.

But, was that the true “Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan”?

Xiang Shan suddenly became aware of this issue.

He felt there was a slight deviation in the memories.

Although Xiang Shan detested various forms of feudal residues, he was by no means intent on simply destroying all culture.

That was not his wish.

He preferred to selectively integrate the positive aspects of the old culture into the new one—the so-called “discarding and elevating” legacy.

“What’s this?

Bias?

Inga is determined to protect traditional culture, believing it to be the spiritual home of humanity.

I want to tear down the old house of our hometown and build high-rises.

Does she see me as wanting to destroy our hometown…”

“Ingrid’s view of Xiang Shan” might be several times more radical than “Xiang Shan’s view of himself”…

“No, that segment of memory is Tao Enhai’s; it’s ‘Ingrid’s assessment of Xiang Shan in Tao Enhai’s memory’, the previous memory was Tao Enhai’s constructed impression of Xiang Shan…”

Ingrid’s perception of Xiang Shan was definitely not limited to the trait of being “overly radical in cultural matters”; otherwise, Ingrid would certainly not be willing to be friends with Xiang Shan.

At least during the historical period of “Superman Enterprise”, everyone maintained a state of “gentlemen’s agreement without conformity”.

And there’s another very important point.

Xiang Shan always had great respect for things like “professional integrity”.

He believed that professional matters should best be handled by the professionals.

Conducting cultural activities should be left to those in the cultural field.

He might despise certain cultures, but he would never personally take drastic measures to destroy a culture.

This was a very important point.

A person can hate another person in their heart; they might even wish them dead.

This is a normal occurrence.

As long as they don’t physically take action to kill that person, they can think whatever they want in their hearts.

Xiang Shan admitted to himself that he was not an expert in studying human culture and found it difficult to transcend the times and assess the value of a culture from a historical perspective, so he would not take direct action.

Instead, from the technologist’s perspective, backward cultures didn’t need to be deliberately destroyed; they could be left to fade away naturally.

Undoubtedly, the portrayal coming from Ingrid in Tao Enhai’s memory was far more radical than Xiang Shan himself.

Perhaps this was because in Tao Enhai’s mind, “the boss” was just such a flamboyant and uncompromising fellow.

It was precisely this clear-cut stance that enabled him to gather a group of people who “agreed to disagree”.

In Tao Enhai’s eyes, this trait of Xiang Shan was greatly amplified.

Which then raised another question.

What about the other “Martial Gods”?

All Martial Gods, aside from Xiang Shan’s own memories, were also more or less affected by “memories others had of Xiang Shan”.

“Would those people upload ‘all their memories of me’ to the blockchain?

Would they meticulously upload every detail of their memories related to me?”

Xiang Shan couldn’t help pondering this question.

“If each person only uploaded what they considered ‘the most prominent portrayal’…”

“Then what are those ‘Martial Gods’ who inherited these memories?”

“Will they agree with me most of the time, but on certain issues, will their stance be more extreme than mine?

Is there a connection between this point and the continuous failures of ‘Martial Gods’?”

—No, before all that…

—”Who am I?”

Previously, Xiang Shan thought the question “Who am I?” was not important, that the only thing that mattered was “What do I want to do?”—as long as he still resisted tyranny, everything would be fine.

But now, he realized that if he couldn’t sort out “who I am”, “what do I want to do” seemed fraught with difficulties.

Without a point of origin for support, the direction forward wasn’t solid enough.

At the very least, it was necessary to clarify “who are my friends, and who are my enemies”.

“Every person’s perception of ‘Xiang Shan’ might have a bias.

They are indeed seeing the same person, but their thoughts abstract a ‘persona’ from the specific actions of Xiang Shan…”

People, even when faced with an objectively neutral entity with no suggestive meaning, often try to extract some special significance from it.

But there aren’t that many things in the world with special significance.

For example, people tend to easily see many “faces” in the Illusory Realm.

By extension, many of the “feelings” people have about this world are highly abstracted.

When you see a person, you’re not seeing their intangible, elusive soul or personality, but rather a fixed pattern of behavior, their series of actions.

Just as many objects in reality are, in fact, a cluster of discontinuous atoms.

Others’ impressions of Xiang Shan are “illusions” abstracted from their past experiences with him.

“The Martial God is not only inheriting the memories of the Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan but is also influenced by these impressions.

There will be certain deviations from the source of information…”

Xiang Shan held his head.

—So what about me?

This indeed is a conundrum.

Xiang Shan also couldn’t guarantee that his current “impressions” truly came from the original “Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan.”

Perhaps in some people’s eyes, “Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan” wasn’t that radical, and those memories created the person he was now.

Of course, there was another possibility.

During the prolonged battle, Xiang Shan had revised his ideology more than once.

There were subtle differences in the behavior of Xiang Shan at age 28, 35, 39, and 44.

What were his impressions?

Where did his interpretation of “chivalry” come from?

Speaking of which…

—Why did he choose to rebel in such an anachronistic way as “chivalry” in the first place…

Then, there was an intense headache.

Memories surged forth.

They might be from Tao Enhai…

They should be Tao Enhai’s memories, but they were mixed with a part of Xiang Shan’s own emotions.

In his grogginess, he saw…

A man in the shadows watching a family of three in the distance.

His high-performance Prosthetic Eye passed over the crowd, locking onto the trio.

What he saw was…

Tao Enhai’s face.

“Tao Enhai” was strolling with his son and grandson.

But then, a terrifying voice came to his ears.

“Do you see, Doctor Tao?

The method you mentioned before is useless.

The ‘Tao Enhai’ who survived the car accident is over there.

Quite an advanced disguise, they might even have used your somatic cells to culture the biological tissue on him.

Even those who could verify it might be theirs.”

The owner of the memory closed his eyes.

“Is that so…

So, are you really my old friend?

So the Xiang Shan who was killed in front of everyone…”

The mysterious and resolute voice did not answer, continuing to persuade.

“There’s still time.

This power has emerged suddenly.

He has stolen the world of humans.

But everything can still be rectified.

If we can just behead him, the modern society’s operations will not be greatly affected…”

“Can’t you tell them?”

“Did you trust me before?”

The owner of the memories hunched his shoulders.

“I understand.

Please…

kill ‘Tao Enhai.'”

“Once you take this step, you can’t turn back until victory, Doctor Tao.” The person spoke indifferently, “Welcome to the world of fugitives…

ah, my mistake, said it wrong.

They call it ‘Hero’ since the day before yesterday.”

The man strode toward Tao Enhai.

Perhaps his target was too obvious, so the plainclothes bodyguards hidden in the shadows became restless, rushing out in succession.

But the gap in combat ability seemed to be a bit too wide.

With a light twist, the man broke the arms of two bodyguards.

The non-lethal bullets from the Natural Person era seemed to have no effect on him.

He even had the leisure to tap lightly on the neck of Tao Enhai’s grandson, using the boy’s stress response to make him faint.

Then, he killed that “Tao Enhai.”

When Xiang Shan came to his senses, he was already standing, his hands unconsciously in a boxing stance.

His synthesizer simulated the sound of panting, and then he punched the ground.

“Because it’s ‘Steal the Country’, there’s no legitimate legality?

If the beheading is successful, the crisis can be disintegrated without anyone being the wiser?”

Xiang Shan tapped his head.

……………………………

It was a world composed of zeros and ones, a vast ocean formed by countless data streams.

Heavenly Machine Star knew that this was just an illusion.

Those things that enveloped him like warm water were merely the Underlying Protocol mapping the information flow onto his “sense of touch.” He could use “touch” to deal with those messy, less important things.

Everything here was essentially formless and shapeless; it was his brain that gave them specific images.

Including the flames in the sky that resembled a galaxy.

Including the person in front of him.

Those people were like standing in a thick fog, no details visible.

This was their unique way of connecting.

They entered a temporary, immaterial virtual cloud server through a self-built port based on socket programming.

The Green Forest had to be this cautious.