Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 293 - 293 73 Chasing the murderer

293: Chapter 73 Chasing the murderer 293: Chapter 73 Chasing the murderer Xiang Shan placed his twin guns on the ground and cupped his hands in a salute, “I appreciate the concession.”

“It’s me who lost.

Only today did I realize that there truly are extraordinary people in this world,” Robert said, standing up from the ground and bowing his head.

Each of Xiang Shan’s bullets struck Robert’s bullets mid-air.

Every single bullet did.

Nearly all the bullets fell at a midpoint between the two men.

This could not be explained by merely “quick reactions.” These four antique-style handguns were of simple mechanical design; the speed at which the cartridges pushed bullets into the chamber was limited.

This further compressed the reaction time.

The distance between the two was less than a hundred meters.

At such a distance, it would be somewhat difficult for an ordinary martial artist to even dodge the opponent’s bullets.

This martial artist “anticipated” everything.

He seized every moment Robert might fire, traced the trajectory of Robert’s moving muzzle.

His gun always targeted Robert’s muzzle—to do this required a profound understanding of Robert’s spear skill, even more than Robert understood himself.

On that basis, he was able to determine the exact moment of firing by observing the movements of the fingers.

Robert reflected that not even he could achieve this, even if he were facing his own mirror image.

Even if that man from the Green Forest was fast, he would need to use firearms with a higher rate of fire, shooting more bullets, to accomplish a similar feat.

Not to mention inner strength, prosthetic bodies…

The Hero’s firearm external strength was enough to make one look up to the towering mountains in admiration.

It wasn’t until this moment that Robert vaguely realized that, in the battle for life and death, this man of the jianghu might be much stronger than the one from the Green Forest.

Xiang Shan reached out to help Robert straighten up, patting his shoulder, “Desperate times call for desperate measures, my apologies.

However, please tell me in detail about the various matters that have happened in the city these days, such as the news on the black market…”

Robert blurted out almost instinctively, “Alright, but please use a chunk of your firearm experience accumulation…”

He stopped speaking halfway.

The “intelligence” was the wager agreed upon with this “nameless” individual.

His face was not yet so thick as to raise the stakes within the prize of the duel.

“Fine,” Xiang Shan said nonchalantly.

His experience accumulation in seizing the timing of shots was merely downloading the public information of the martial arts school from Robert’s kung fu, then using his own martial studies knowledge to analyze and dissect it.

All martial arts in the world were designed following a certain logic, the technical details might vary widely, but with an overall understanding, one could take a high-level view.

“I can give you what you want, but please hurry up and give me the intelligence I’m asking for,” he said.

With that, he gestured to Yuki and then walked into the darkness.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Robert bowed slightly in the direction Xiang Shan had left in.

……………………………..

Borshu knew he was being targeted.

He was draped in a black cloak, his tail wrapped around his body, as he moved through the bustling market.

The woman he had picked up was by his side.

But he knew he was being watched.

The first attack came thirty-three hours earlier, a bullet dropped from the sky, nearly piercing through his prosthetic body.

At the last moment, he swung the tail made of synthetic muscle fibers, shattering the bullet in mid-air.

Yet, this extreme strike also caused extensive rupture of the muscle fibers, reducing the tail’s output by a whole 7%.

Don’t underestimate this mere 7%.

That was a bullet, a cheaply made bullet.

The artificial muscle fibers could only be snatched from the government’s hands, making stable supplies hard to come by.

Borshu’s tail was composed of an untold number of synthetic muscle fibers.

And with a single bullet, nearly 7% of those fibers were rendered useless.

If the opposition fired another dozen or so shots, the tail would be as good as gone.

But Borshu was not afraid.

That single bullet had merely caught him off-guard.

He wasn’t afraid at all.

Borshu pushed the woman away with a backhand and waited in place.

He was waiting for the second bullet.

As a person close to the First Layer Heavenly Land, Borshu would have sufficient neural reflex speed to handle the bullets once he was on guard.

And the trajectory of a bullet could also reveal the sniper’s position.

Borshu was a speed-type martial artist.

He could sprint toward the sniper while being shot at, ultimately killing the sniper.

Borshu wasn’t worried about the woman getting caught in the crossfire, as he guessed that his assailant was a Hero.

Those Heroes would not harm the innocent.

—Unlike what I am now.

At that moment, Borshu was distracted by these thoughts.

This was originally a flaw.

However, the second bullet did not come at this time.

Borshu waited there for two hours without any result.

To wait any longer could possibly attract unnecessary attention and alert the Protector, so Borshu started moving again.

About another hour later, the second bullet did indeed appear.

This bullet was slightly off target, embedding itself in the ground near Borshu’s feet.

The noise certainly startled the nearby pedestrians, but because gang fights often broke out with firearms, no one paid too much attention.

They just hurriedly retreated.

From the bullet hole, Borshu deduced the direction the bullet came from.

Eight thousand meters away, on or above the fiftieth floor of a superstructure.

It was an extremely challenging sniping.

Borshu rushed over there.

But the “continuous attack” he imagined did not occur.

After firing the first shot, it seemed as if the gunner simply vanished.

When Borshu arrived at the location, he found only some traces that a sniper point had been set up.

Additionally, there was a QR code on the wall.

This QR code linked to a website that displayed an image.

Borshu took a look and recognized it as the scene from a few days prior in Domingo City where he had killed someone.

Moreover, along with the QR code was some textual information which, when deciphered, read “Evidence?” with the singular word followed by a question mark.

Borshu was silent.

When he had killed those seven people from two households, he actually did not have any “evidence.” Among those from the two households, only one had acted.

Even if that person truly deserved death, he should have only killed that one.

But he couldn’t control himself.

Nevertheless, Borshu did not offer any defense.

He didn’t even plan to bring forth the record of the girl being robbed.

It was meaningless.

In the eyes of most Heroes, this was not necessarily a sin that had to be “repaid with death.” Moreover, the Hero that came to assassinate him had quite a moral obsession, believing that the person had brought death upon himself; there was no point.

Out of the seven people from the two households, at least one child was innocent.

Heroes had a resolute attitude toward killing the Green Forest.

In their eyes, the Green Forest were irredeemable madmen.

Borshu was very clear about this; he himself had been a Hero in the past.

The extermination of those two households this time, both of which lacked the protection of civilization and the government would not intervene, but if a Hero witnessed it, it would be relentless.

The seven lives were merely the fuse, the spark that completely exploded the conflict between him and the Heroes.

Borshu quickly composed himself.

He thought that perhaps it would be good to just die, but he was driven by some emotion, beyond his control.

— I will give it my all and see if you can kill me.

Borshu made up his mind.

The third bullet came four hours after the second one.

The fourth arrived after another six hours.

Each shot was from an extremely long distance.

By the time Borshu noticed the bullets and looked in their direction, the sniper had already concealed himself.

Borshu faintly realized that the assassin’s Martial Arts were actually far inferior to his own, with Neural Reflex and Prosthetic Body strength lagging far behind.

That was why the assassin did not engage in direct confrontation with firearms or even compete for the “Gold Hundred Meters” of gun against combat—the gap in Martial Arts between the two was simply too great.

Within the “Gold Hundred Meters,” the assassin wouldn’t be able to hit the prepared Borshu.

Hence he was using strategy to compensate for the gap in Martial Arts.

“Martial Arts” is the technique of the weak, all techniques, ideas, and wisdom that can overturn the balance of power are parts of Martial Studies.

The only thing the assassin had over Borshu was likely a pair of sharp eyes.

Therefore, he kept firing from beyond Borshu’s line of sight.

He did not expect to succeed with a single shot.

He intended to keep Borshu in a constantly tense state, to gradually wear him down.

Besides, this would also cause the parts of Borshu’s body to deteriorate due to avoidance and blocking.

Borshu had considered using buildings for cover.

But as soon as he entered a building, he felt the presence of Infrasound.

Snipers who attack from beyond visible range would generally control drones.

Without a drone to monitor the wind, it could destroy the accuracy of long-distance Sniping.

At least one drone operated by the assassin had installed infrasound radar.

This was definitely not a good sign.

The homes in Domingo City were mostly not made of proper building materials.

These walls were like paper against the power of modern Firearms and provided no real protection.

On the contrary, after having his line of sight blocked by walls, Borshu wouldn’t be able to detect the bullets anymore.

The “reaction time” to counter the bullets would be reduced to just the brief moment from “bullet piercing the wall” to “bullet nearing him.”

Thus, Borshu simply broke through the wall to exit.

While doing so, Borshu also searched the vicinity.

Unfortunately, there were indeed many drones around.

People with a bit of wealth among the civilians, gang members, Martial Arts School masters all made use of them.

Some who earned money through news and such even treated these as their tools of trade.

When he came out, there were at least five drones around, and he could not distinguish which one it was.

Another tactic was to tunnel underground.

But the complex underground networks of Pine Eagle City, which benefited from a natural underground river, were not present in every city.

Some cities’ sewers were filled with organic toxins.

His fully cybernetic body didn’t mind, but the annoying woman he was with couldn’t stand it.

This path was not an option either.

And now, Borshu was about to pass another intersection.

The terrain was lacking in cover, making it a good sniping spot.