Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 380 - 24 Babbitt

Chapter 380: Chapter 24 Babbitt

Broadcasting Client Babbitt was repairing his small box van. The design of the vehicle wasn’t particularly sensible. It was about four meters in length, but both the width and height were two meters each, resembling some sort of bloated delivery van.

In fact, it wasn’t a mistake. This van was Mr. Babbitt’s "workroom," his "broadcasting studio." The outermost layer of the vehicle was made of thick steel plating—though to be honest, in this day and age, even cold weapons had to consider how to cut through alloy panels, so this steel was more of a psychological comfort, at best protecting against stray or ricocheting bullets. If it came down to a serious attack, death would still be inevitable.

Inside the steel was a layer of soundproofing. Babbitt had gone to a place called Recycling Station Town and, with some difficulty, scavenged a bit of material—it was uncertain whether it was soundproofing material from a warship or seats from the old days, but he eventually fitted this component to his van.

Then, there were professional audio equipment and a powerful antenna.

In the circle of broadcasting clients, this was a badass professional tool, the epitome of cool.

Babbitt’s favorite thing was his van.

It was daytime, and walkers in the wilderness typically stopped at this hour to sun their vehicles and charge their batteries. As someone who opposed the government, Babbitt conscientiously draped a camouflage net made of carbon fiber over his own vehicle.

He was dismantling two motorcycles to replace parts in his van that had worn out.

A few days earlier, Babbitt had encountered a group of Green Forest bandits in the wilderness. Over three years, Green Forest bandits had been migrating to this area. It was also a migratory group. The leader of the squad even had achieved proficiency in Inner Strength, a level far beyond that of mere beginners in Inner and Outer Strength, such as Babbitt, a common Martial Artist.

At the time, Babbitt thought he was surely dead. But those Green Forest bandits seemed to have the bad habit of toying with their prey. They let Babbitt escape. Babbitt also thought he was definitely doomed as he fled to the highway, hoping that the government would have some deterrent effect.

But clearly, the shelter of human civilization hadn’t extended here—at least it wasn’t a mechanism that could guarantee timely assistance.

Fortunately, Babbitt actually encountered a Hero on the highway.

This Hero claimed to be Noname. He defeated those Green Forest bandits in no time.

The battle yielded five motorcycles and a small cache of ammunition. Hero Noname generously gave all those items to Babbitt. After some exchanges, Babbitt found out that they were heading in the same direction. The two traveled together for two days.

Last night, Hero Noname rode off on a motorcycle.

Babbitt was actually quite dejected.

He knew that Hero Noname was a true Hero, and he hoped to learn more from this man of Jianghu—Outer Strength, Inner Strength, other skills of being a Hero, even personal experiences, historical anecdotes, anything. But Heroes come and go like the wind. He felt that this time, Hero Noname had likely said his goodbyes.

Just then, Babbitt heard the sound of tires.

The broadcasting client cautiously moved behind a rock.

But another voice came almost simultaneously, "Bro, you’re not hiding very professionally..."

The broadcasting client jumped up at the sound of the voice, "Hero Noname!"

"Hero Noname"—or rather, Xiang Shan who had once again used the name "Noname"—was dragging an unpowered trailer and said, "Do me a favor, hitch this thing to your van, and tow it for a while."

"Sure, sure..." Babbitt took the trailer and was immediately surprised.

The trailer that Hero Noname had brought back was small but frighteningly heavy. Logically speaking, not even a solid block of iron should be this heavy.

Of course, it would be heavy. This thing contained the most refined part of a Mobile Cavalry troop.

Excluding those that were damaged in the battle, the remaining dozen or so isotopic batteries from the Mobile Cavalry were all here.

Additionally, there were more than ten Sonicon Blade slices, some mini close-range missiles, and a small number of parts that were hard to obtain on the ground.

Xiang Shan didn’t have much time, so he grabbed what he could and made his escape.

A little over ten minutes later, a large force arrived at that location.

But Xiang Shan had already shaken off the pursuit.

Babbitt hitched the trailer to the back of his van, complaining, "My car is a civilian model, I’ve never towed something this heavy before..."

"Do me a favor," said Xiang Shan.

Babbitt asked, "Hero, what about your motorcycle?"

"Rode it till it exploded."

Babbitt fell silent for a moment, "What?"

"Rode it till it exploded." Xiang Shan’s tone was calm as if he were stating a fact.

"What kind of riding could possibly make a motorcycle explode?" Babbitt pressed his hand to his forehead, "That motorcycle had an ultra-capacity metal battery inside! In the city, that’s treasure. With one of those, even if you run into a long spell of cloudy days, you don’t have to worry about dying from power failure... You could even make a living off it!"

He had been a Broadcasting Client for five or six years, and never before had he come across such a good quality metal battery.

Xiang Shan scratched his head, "But if it’s exploded, it’s exploded. It served its purpose."

He had to take out that squadron of Mobile Cavalry in the shortest time possible. If they lost contact, within a maximum of twenty minutes, the nearest city would dispatch reinforcements via aircraft. These "reinforcements" were likely to be an army of more than three hundred soldiers.

The logic of Cyber Martial Arts combat strength slightly defied intuition. If those thirty Mobile Cavalry formed a formation, they could overwhelmingly suppress those three hundred Remodeler Soldiers. Yet, a powerful Martial Artist capable of killing all thirty Mobile Cavalry at once might actually be overwhelmed to death by those three hundred.

Xiang Shan’s Martial Arts were exceptional. To him, the thirty Mobile Cavalry could either be "thirty instances of one-on-one" or "a single mass attack of Inner Strength." However, it would be quite difficult for him to face a three-hundred-strong unit on the vast plains where he had no room to maneuver.

An excessive number of opponents would severely limit his mobility and even his fighting stance. And if the fight dragged on for too long, it would attract even more soldiers.

With King Aqini, that Old Dog, personally paying attention, Xiang Shan might not be able to hack into a group of soldiers in an instant either.

Thinking about the spoils of war he hadn’t finished collecting, Xiang Shan felt somewhat pained.

But luckily, he had already secured the most important part.

These batteries, whether gifted or kept for his own drones or spare Prosthetic Bodies, were excellent.

This time, Xiang Shan didn’t Stay his hand.

Previously, he had spared some Mobile Cavalry in the underground canyon because the Burrow Dragon community of the Black Valley Lineage was nearby. According to the memories left by the Eighth Martial God, they were a reliable group. Xiang Shan believed that these Burrow Dragons could carry out fair trials, and if any of the Mobile Cavalry wanted to undergo remodeling, they too would have a chance in that community.

But that option was not available here.

Xiang Shan gave each Mobile Cavalry an extra slash, then hacked into their large missiles, explosives, and the like, setting a countdown timer.

After delivering a slash to the back of each Mobile Cavalry’s head, Xiang Shan then calmly retreated to avoid the robust survival ability of the Benchmark Man, which might allow some lucky individual to survive.

Babbitt was still chattering away, saying that the Great Hero shouldn’t waste resources, that one must know how to live frugally. Xiang Shan waved his hand and said he could help to modify his car a bit.

The guy was immediately over the moon and even asked if he could record it with his Prosthetic Eye.

Soon, Xiang Shan had improved the power section of this broadcasting vehicle for the fellow.

In the evening, Babbitt started his broadcast.

Except for a few industries that have specific requirements for lighting and visibility, most Cybermen nowadays start work at night. The majority have Prosthetic Eyes that can see in the dark, and those with subpar functionality could compensate with a small light source.

Daytime is still more important. During the day, finding a good spot to unfold solar battery panels can satisfy most of one’s needs.

Moving around during the day might interfere with charging.

Babbitt liked to broadcast at this time. He ran a personal segment called "Babbitt’s Story Channel." He enjoyed choosing this time period when everyone starts to become active. Maybe he would attract more listeners this way.

"Babbitt’s Story Channel" mainly featured a variety of stories, fiction, historical anecdotes, and Jianghu tales.

In the Central America region, "Babbitt’s Story Channel" was a moderately famous broadcast.

Babbitt also managed some websites. However, his coding skills weren’t strong. His website for accepting listener donations had been taken down by the government several times; after each takedown, he simply changed domains and started over.

As a Broadcasting Client with no fixed abode, Babbitt rarely told over-long stories, focusing mainly on short stories. He was particularly fond of O. Henry and Maupassant. But since most people in this time had no knowledge of the cultural background of O. Henry and Maupassant’s era, Babbitt would slightly rewrite and set the stories in this epoch.

Xiang Shan also had some impression of Babbitt.

He had actually listened to the guy’s broadcast before. It was just over three years ago.

Three years ago, a Broadcasting Client named Crab, inspired by the "Meiyimei Building Assassination" event, rushed to the vicinity of Pine Eagle City to broadcast the movements of the Protector Army for the escaping Heroes. After that, Crab, the Broadcasting Client, was blown to bits by a medium-range Tactical Missile and died a hero.

Afterward, the nearby Broadcasting Clients began to appear in agreement, repeating the content Crab had broadcasted before his death.

This Mr. Babbitt was one of the first batch of Broadcasting Clients to respond.

According to what Xiang Shan later saw online, the relay transmission by those Broadcasting Clients spread the message across most of North America.

During Tao Enhai’s breakout battle, this intelligence also played a role.

Xiang Shan was journeying with this good man partly because the Green Forest was operating nearby.

But on the other hand, it was also because Xiang Shan was quite curious about the "Broadcasting Client" community’s ecology.

Conveniently, this Broadcasting Client said he was heading to Pine Eagle City, so the two simply decided to travel together.