Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 463 - 107 Isn’t this a coincidence?

Chapter 463: Chapter 107 Isn’t this a coincidence?

The master known as Black Hand Master did not originally call himself Black Hand.

On the day he abandoned his old name and became a Hero, the master took the name "Bright Flame" for himself, and adopted his mother’s surname, thus he was called ND Bright Flame. In addition, when he was young, he tried to give himself resounding titles such as "Heavenly Punishment Gun" and "Heavenly Punishment Spear," but they didn’t catch on.

As for the nickname "Black Hand," it was a jest from his friends later on. Black Hand Master’s specialty was traveling alone for thousands of miles, snatching the chestnut from the fire in the midst of the chaotic battles between government forces and the Green Forest, government forces and Heroes, assassinating government Martial Artists and the Great Heroes of the Green Forest, often hitting the target with a single shot, and sometimes even killing two birds with one stone. His friends would say he had a "cruel heart and a black hand," and the more charitable ones would say he had a "kind heart and a black hand" — in any case, they couldn’t let go of the "black hand" part.

Many years ago, when someone actually called him "Brother Black Hand" to his face, he reluctantly admitted that his nickname was "Black Hand."

And so the name spread.

Many years ago, the Black Hand Master could hunt down Mobile Cavalry and acquire radioactive isotope batteries. Of course, in the decades since, the Black Hand Master had captured only a dozen or so. Some of them he had used himself, and the rest were distributed to other Heroes who needed them.

Others owed Black Hand Master some favors.

If his current isotope battery were to run out of life and he hadn’t found a Mobile Cavalry to kill, then naturally there would be other Heroes who would capture a battery for his continued use.

This was everyone’s respect for the Black Hand Master.

The Black Hand Master became a Hero in the years following the tragedy of the Eighth Martial God. The failure of the Seventh Martial God caused the base of the Far Sun Planet to quiet down for a while. Within the terrestrial planet region of the Solar System, more people felt bewildered about chivalry.

But the news that "Turing acknowledged someone as a Martial God" was like a thunderbolt that reminded humankind, the light of chivalry never extinguishes.

However, over the years, the Black Hand Master also realized that his reactions were starting to slow and the speed of his Martial Arts advancement was also slowing.

This was "aging."

The gene modification surgery of Yawgmoth’s Benchmark Man, although granting humans a longer overall lifespan, was designed with the neural network structure and other rhythms of humans in mind, based on the requirement that "average lifespan should not exceed fifty years." Yawgmoth restructured this segment of genetic information, but it did not greatly alter the overall structure of humans.

Compared to Homo sapiens, Benchmark Men have an extended prime and a prolonged period of aging.

For those who are completely Cybernetically Enhanced People with only their nervous systems left, the Restoring Enzyme could have a "life cycle reversing" effect, but to some extent the risk was too great, the cost too high.

For instance, let’s say you have a skill that took you three or four years to perfect. Then after the Restoring Enzyme resets part of your nervous system, you lose a couple of years’ worth of proficiency in that skill, but only gain a few months of life in return—of course, this is just an analogy, as actual applications wouldn’t produce such precise numbers.

At this point, gene therapy or epigenetic therapy needs to be used to adjust the state of one’s life.

Standardized anti-aging therapy arrived only twenty to thirty years after the birth of the Benchmark Man.

But for modern people, there are other issues.

The first generation of Benchmark Men all changed through standardized surgery, everyone in the past was Homo sapiens, and everyone changed through identical surgeries, making parts of the genetic information highly similar.

But so much has changed over the years.

Natural mutations, sequelae from nuclear radiation, leaked viral weapons, chemical substances, and unregulated gene modification surgeries in the Black Market have led to slight changes in everyone’s genes.

These changes are small, so much so that humans still have a unified blood type today.

But when it comes to the "overall lifecycle adjustment," a careful design of personalized plan is required.

Otherwise, there’s a possibility of triggering a "backdoor" in the genetic information.

Black Hand Master had gone to the Arctic for rest and recuperation a few years ago. There, he organized his experiences from the battles over the years, reflected on what he had learned, taught his disciples, and waited for the perfect gene therapy plan.

But now, having heard that the "Nameless Hero" might need a formidable Gunner, he came on his own initiative.

Black Hand Master always traveled alone. He had an isotope battery, so he brought a small unmanned vehicle for spare parts and pills, and he wore two small multifunctional engineering robots on his person, breaking through the Protector’s northern defense line all the way to the Coast Mountains.

In the Wilderness, he decided to take a short rest.

Having been on the move for several days in a row, he couldn’t help feeling mentally exhausted.

Black Hand Master dug a hole in the ground, not very deep, and then lay down in it, allowing those engineering robots to bury him properly and camouflage the area as much as possible.

In this era, there were no conspicuous plants on the ground, nor were there any roots in the dirt. If you didn’t look carefully, you really wouldn’t be able to tell if a patch of ground had been recently disturbed.

Then, those multifunctional engineering robots left like spiders, finding their own hiding spots.

Black Hand Master originally planned to sleep for more than ten hours.

But after ten hours, he was awakened by a huge noise.

The automatic alarm went off almost simultaneously. Systems detected human voices in the vicinity.

Black Hand Master was very confused. The location he had chosen deliberately avoided the corridors of human habitation and was far from all the wilderness settlements, so there was no concern of people passing by. The government wouldn’t come digging around for no reason either. It should have been a safe spot.

——The government? Doesn’t seem like it...

Black Hand Master wasn’t at ease.

Then his Prosthetic Ear picked up vibrations.

Through the earth, he heard a conversation.

"...Why don’t we use a wireless signal to connect directly?"

——It seems they are discussing secrets, but why aren’t they using a wireless signal to connect directly?

Black Hand Master wanted to ask that question too.

"Would you really be willing to connect directly with me? Sword Envoy."

"I don’t see why not," replied the other, whose tone was somewhat mechanical, but still conveyed his reluctance.

"Forget it, my madness really is contagious. And the place you’ve chosen isn’t bad, really, far from settlements, even if residents spotted your flying vehicle, they wouldn’t have time to come over and check it out. Plus, you can tell your superiors, ’Saw a Green Forest member and cut him down,’ something like that. Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. What’s the situation now? Is that Fire God still hot-headed, not easy to talk to?"

"The Holy Maiden brought a batch of genetic data over from Mars. Because that ’Indra’ is still wreaking havoc, there is no safe channel, so she had to bring the storage device herself. But I’ve received word, there’s a group of Heroes active in the area. Some suspect it’s a leak."