Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 495: Be Careful in - 139

Chapter 495: Be Careful in Chapter 139

"Find Niyaguti... find her..." Xiang Shan whispered, "She is a biologist on the same level as Yawgmoth... no wonder that is the case. Doctor Tao told me to find Nia first..."

There are so many things that cannot be understood merely by thinking.

Xiang Shan temporarily set aside that matter and picked up the second head.

It was the head from Earthly Assembly Star.

Earthly Assembly Star and Heavenly Ingenious Star were the only two original heroes from the Green Forest forcibly included in the camp by the Ultimate Way Consensus Therapy.

Xiang Shan followed the process he used with Heavenly Ingenious Star and asked that question again.

This was a standard Xiang Shan had formulated.

If a person was forced to undergo the Ultimate Way Consensus Therapy, not of their own free will, then they were essentially deprived of the ability to control themselves—they could be considered "insane."

Mental illness is not something people willingly suffer from, nor something they can fight against. Therefore, on this basis, the compulsion of the Green Forest individuals should be blamed on those who forced the treatment upon them.

Thus, in an ideal situation, all Green Forest individuals forcibly subjected to the treatment should be rescued.

But that was the ideal state.

Xiang Shan did not think the heroes of the current era were in a position to undertake such actions.

But Xiang Shan also did not want to give up completely. Deep inside, he harbored thoughts—if three years ago he had embraced such thoughts to help Borshu, perhaps the outcome would have been vastly different.

Among the Green Forest individuals who were forced to undergo the treatment, there must be others like Borshu still struggling. If he could save even one such hero, Borshu’s struggles would have meant something.

Now, Xiang Shan needed to figure out a method to distinguish the "saveable" from the "unsavables."

The distinguishing question Xiang Shan currently thought of was this.

"If among your Green Forest companions sharing collective memory, there appears a person adhering to the Path of Chivalry, how would you regard them?"

The Ultimate Way Consensus Therapy connects collectives solely through emotions. Its major side effect is the immense amplification of hostility of the group’s individuals towards those outside the group. "Collective memory" interrupts the empathy the individuals within the group could feel for those outside.

Thus, asking a Green Forest individual whether they could feel sympathy for non-Green Forest individuals is not very meaningful. Because this is precisely where the Ultimate Way Consensus Therapy is most severely distorted.

If one is to accept that "the Green Forest individuals forced to undergo the treatment are equivalent to psychiatric patients," then one must also accept that "lack of empathy is one of the symptoms." Otherwise, the purpose of setting up such a distinguishing mechanism becomes irrelevant.

Xiang Shan changed his approach.

He brought up the story of Borshu and, through a direct connection of consciousness, struck directly at these Green Forest individuals.

"If a ’person who should empathize with you’ adheres to the Path of Chivalry, how would you regard this person?"

For Green Forest individuals from the same camp sharing collective memory, everyone in the camp is family.

Not necessarily liked much, but all are family—closer than blood relatives.

—If ’outsiders’ would stir your hostility regardless of whether they are right...

—Then what about your own people?

Xiang Shan anticipated the answer to this question.

The Green Forest individuals are not idiots incapable of thought. It’s just that the premise under which they think has been replaced. They instinctively think from the perspective of "the camp."

But what if there exists someone adhering to the Path of Chivalry within the camp?

Since a technique demands that you submit to a group and prioritize a sense of belonging to this group above everything else, then when a bit of goodwill emerges within this group, as a Green Forest individual, would you feel positive emotions towards this kind-hearted fellow?

The deep thoughts of Suzuki Swift were "Although it makes me seem weak, I still aspire towards it."

Whereas Earthly Assembly Star thought "traitor" and "killing intent."

This indeed made for an interesting difference.

However, the only concern was that this method might only be customary among "Sky Fierce and his direct Green Forest."

Because, Green Forest individuals might not necessarily have empathy for each other.

For a Green Forest individual, the "Green Forest from the neighboring camp" might not be considered human either.

But fortunately, among the Green Forest individuals currently captured, the situation of "heroes being forced to undergo the treatment" mainly appeared within the Sky Fierce faction.

Moreover, according to their memories, there was activity on Heavenly Machine Star initiated by something called "Heavenly King Plan." Thus, all the Green Forest individuals in these mountains exchanged a part of their collective memories.

As of now, this method seems to be sufficient.

Xiang Shan decided to first try this approach as a pilot this time.

Because of this, Xiang Shan did not immediately kill Earthly Assembly Star.

He still awaited the answer from Sky Fierce Star.

If Sky Fierce Star’s response was even worse, then Earthly Assembly Star could possibly become "the standard for this phase."

If the malice in Sky Fierce Star’s response was less severe than that of Earthly Assembly Star, then Sky Fierce would become that standard.

Including Sky Fierce, any Green Forest individuals more malevolent than Sky Fierce would not need saving.

Unless chivalry prevails.

Thinking this, Xiang Shan was now at the final step.

He slowly ran his hand over his face, giving himself a suggestion.

The Personality Mask had been replaced.

Xiang Shan immediately changed his perspective.

He began to scrutinize a patch common among these Green Forest individuals.

For Xiang Shan, "reading others’ memories" was also a taxing task. The essence of human perception of the outside world is the neural network extracting corresponding concepts layer by layer. To absorb a large amount of "information understood by others" in a short period requires the involvement of the entire brain’s resources from the Soth Divine Realm.

Now, he was about to do something else.

"This patch is of a very high level, definitely not written by these Green Forest individuals themselves. If it’s written by Heavenly Machine himself, then his level is quite terrifying... of course, it could also be that his theoretical level is very high?"

"Programming ability" is an important part of Inner Strength, but they are not equivalent.

An Internal master is necessarily a formidable programmer.

But a person with high programming skills is not necessarily an Internal master.

Inner Strength is "the level of operating machinery," emphasizing immediate offense and defense.

Of course, in this era, there are really few people who have become god-level programmers purely based on theoretical level. Not to mention, the mental enhancement brought by Inner Strength training builds the Soth Divine Realm, which greatly enhances programming levels.

Due to King Aqini being present, Heavenly Machine might indeed possess very high programming skills but is afraid to use network meditation to enhance his Inner Strength.

—In this light, one must be extra cautious with Heavenly Machine.

All of his components had also mostly healed; the minor deformations and accumul(...)