Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 406 - 50 Rest

Chapter 406: Chapter 50 Rest

"So this is how the early Heroes conducted their business?" After listening to Xiang Shan’s story, Hiroshi Matsushima nodded.

"Oh, then what was the outcome of the assassination this time?" TX-0 asked, concerned with what interested him most.

Xiang Shan scratched his head. "I just happened to remember that story thanks to the topic we were talking about. It wasn’t a particularly important operation, just an everyday assassination. It wasn’t as perilous as the few previous ones, nor was it during the time when we struggled alone without a full team, nor was it an assassination of a primary target. So, I don’t remember the outcome very clearly... Most likely it was a success, but I can’t recall whether the final target was real or a decoy."

"Ah... what a pity," said TX-0.

"Zero, you can’t tell me about Xinyu’s current condition, but what about David? Surely you can talk about David, right?"

"The information I have on these matters is limited to ’content that can be obtained from the public network’. I wouldn’t casually download Hero intelligence into this Personality Mask. Especially those from the Old Era. You know as well as I do, if they’ve survived until now, their skills are certainly exceptional, and their identities even more so."

Xiang Shan nodded. "That’s true, haha."

"If Senior David is indeed still alive... still alive..." Zero pondered for a moment, "I always feel something isn’t quite right."

"Enough relaxation," Xiang Shan stood up and said. "Hiroshi, you’ve also adapted to the novelties by now. Let’s continue."

For the next few days, Xiang Shan trained diligently.

On the third day, Hiroshi Matsushima had already formed a general assessment of Xiang Shan’s Martial Studies.

Hiroshi Matsushima believed that Xiang Shan’s skills had indeed regressed slightly from three years ago.

But only slightly.

Compared to the progress Xiang Shan had made in Inner Strength over those three years, it was insignificant.

Three years ago, Xiang Shan’s Inner Strength was far inferior to TX-0’s, relying only on the Three Dragon-Slaying Moves to barely protect himself.

Now, Xiang Shan’s Inner Strength had even surpassed his own prime from two hundred years ago.

In comparison, the slight loss of External Strength was negligible.

Yet Xiang Shan still insisted on refining his External Strength further.

"I’ve always only lamented that my Martial Arts weren’t high enough," Xiang Shan said.

After about seven days of practice here, he told Hiroshi Matsushima that he needed to leave for a while to change his mood.

After focusing on an activity for a long duration, finding it monotonous and losing passion for it isn’t laziness, nor something that can be overcome by training.

Because it’s human nature.

Humans are Innate Hunter-Gatherers. Hunting and gathering means directly extracting resources from nature instead of consciously altering the world. It’s a life of low stability. If a Hunter-Gatherer takes the same route every day to gather resources, soon there will be nothing left to harvest on that path.

Human nature demands the avoidance of such behavior.

Psychologically, the human brain is not designed to adapt to a lifestyle of ’steady work followed by periodic compensation’.

Creative workers are more likely to maintain enthusiasm than those doing repetitive tasks. Daily payments align more with innate human tendencies than monthly salaries.

So, even Xiang Shan, who had a strong focus, was influenced by this law.

And Xiang Shan was always an advocate for "efficiency".

He needed some time to "switch his brain".

After leaving the Martial Arts School, Xiang Shan returned to Hiroshi Matsushima’s basement, putting on the Prosthetic Body with a reactor he had worn upon arrival. He walked out of the school district and onto another street naturally.

This street had been the territory of a certain gang three years ago, housing a server. The turmoil three years back didn’t reach this place. After all, the fire started among the high-ranking members of those gangs. The server manager was an Internal Strength Practitioner at the realm of command, along with some outer members.

But these members were shortly taken away by the Protector’s crackdown on the gang’s activities.

Afterward, the server became ownerless.

Those with fast reactions immediately thought to loot the parts atop the device. A round of fighting quickly ensued.

But there are always the bold ones.

Soon, some Martial Arts School Disciples declared ownership of the server.

At that time, the server had been dismantled only slightly. The civilians lacked effective means and could only dismantle some antennas and outer panels, unable to delve deeper. These Disciples repaired these parts and promised to provide free service at fixed times daily to persuade the surrounding population to give up the fight.

These Disciples later introduced a management AI.

Well, it’s worth mentioning that this is one of the few methods of increasing organizational efficiency that Protectors can still accept at present:

"A group of people willingly submitting to the management of an open-source AI."

AIs aren’t ephemeral figments of collective imagination but are constructed from tangible codes. AIs are also unlike entities such as Deities or companies that treat humans as "means to an end". AIs have no tendencies or purposes of their own and can embody the objective of "purely serving humanity".

Of course, there’s another reason, Protectors themselves use AIs for management assistance or production.

The biggest flaw of AI is its vulnerability to rewriting or confusion by Internal experts, at least it won’t become a mainstream combat force in this era. But it’s still meaningful from a civilian standpoint.

Xiang Shan found a corner nearby, then pulled out a solar panel that resembled a conical hat and wore it on his head.

As a man with a fission reactor, Xiang Shan didn’t really need such a thing.

But living in this city, one had to disguise themselves a little.

In this era, the efficiency of solar panels had nearly reached its limit. If it were only to satisfy the energy consumption necessary for brain life support, then a few square decimeters of panel would suffice. [Of course, this applies to Earth. For Mars, the Asteroid Belt, you would need a larger one]

Moreover, the network signal here was not bad.

Xiang Shan immersed himself in the network. Having seen the internet of the Old Era, he was somewhat disdainful of these local networks based on cities of this era. Furthermore, due to a subconscious mistrust of the network, and an instinct to avoid fully diving into it without Zhu Xinyu present, Xiang Shan hadn’t properly explored the network of this era three years ago.

But now, having digested and absorbed the achievements of the Eighth Martial God, making remarkable progress in Inner Strength practice, he could now freely traverse the network on his own.

"First, I need to think of a way to scam those Lords..." Xiang Shan thought to himself.

Just then, Babbitt also came over. Seeing Xiang Shan, he said, "Noname Sir, you showed up on time as expected!"