Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 617 - 261 Lu’s Ambition

Chapter 617: Chapter 261 Lu’s Ambition

In the following days, Lu Xuanyu gradually became busy.

For neural science research, a person with a brain surface covered in soft electrodes and easily capturable neural signals was of great help.

At this stage, only the Benchmark Man could do such a thing, and there were barely more than fifty volunteers among the Benchmark Man.

Not every one of these early volunteers would directly enter the phase of "cyberization."

Even among volunteers who chose to undergo cyberization, some temporarily did not accept profound cyberization, so only the most basic soft electrodes were installed in their brains.

Individuals like Lu Xuanyu who would undergo profound modifications were still few at this point.

Many projects required his cooperation.

Of course, none of this was very difficult for Lu Xuanyu.

Most of the time, all he had to do was wear a thick pair of headphones, staring at the screen in front of him in a dimly lit room.

The headphones had excellent sound insulation, blocking out almost all ambient noise and also played very faint white noise. The volume of this white noise was so low that one wouldn’t notice it without paying close attention.

Only signals from specific microphones would be transmitted to these headphones.

The experimenters would use this to issue commands to him.

At first, all he had in front of him were simple shapes or full screens of color blocks, which gradually became more complex, including various photos and abstract patterns.

Sometimes, he needed to describe with words what he saw.

Other times, he needed to make a judgment and then press a button. (For example, to decide whether the image in front of him conformed to a certain definition, and if it did, press the button).

There were times when they would present odd images of animals and plants, then inform him of trivia about these organisms, asking him to remember it.

Sometimes, it was about viewing problems like "3+3=" and quickly providing the answer. (Moreover, there were two ways to answer: orally or in writing).

Occasionally, he also had to play ancient games like Tetris, Sokoban, or puzzles.

Of course, there were also times when "vision" wasn’t involved.

For instance, "cover your eyes and then repeat what you’ve heard" or "cover your eyes and describe the sounds you hear."

There were even some inexplicably peculiar series of tests.

Like "cover your eyes and then perform movements with your hands according to commands," "under the spotlight, watch your own hands and perform movements according to commands," "look at yourself in the mirror and perform movements according to commands," and so on.

It seemed as though every trivial thing he did was something the scientists were eager to record the reactions of his brain to.

And the scientists could always think of some strange things to torment him with.

However, judging by Chen Feng’s performance, it seemed that these data were indeed very useful.

During breaks in the experiments, he also discussed martial arts with Chen Feng.

Chen Feng’s ideas, as insights from other fields, were rapidly changing his thoughts.

During this time, Lu Xuanyu began pondering just how far he needed to go with "promoting martial arts culture."

Lu Xuanyu had previously devoted himself wholeheartedly to martial arts. His love for "martial arts" was heartfelt. Initially, he pursued the training of personal memory, but after the accident, "promoting martial arts culture" became his only remaining connection to martial arts.

Now, Lu Xuanyu was about to stand up again. But this did not mean he intended to give up on the idea of "promoting martial arts culture."

It’s just that Chen Feng’s concept of "organizational form" also genuinely made him puzzled.

—In such an era, what kind of organizational form would both fit the image of "martial arts" he had in mind and adapt to the trends of the times?

He sometimes asked Chen Feng this question.

"You’ve got me there," Chen Feng scratched his head: "After all, I’m just a scientist. It’s true that as a hobby, I can sort through ’historical data about past community relationships.’ But if you really want me to maintain a collective... frankly speaking, in this regard, I’m just a keyboard warrior."

Lu Xuanyu leaned back in his wheelchair, "What exactly do I want? A community that can inherit ’my Jeet Kune Do’? But how can it exist in this era? Or is it a martial arts training institution? A company? But in that case, those with managerial talent would control the core of the organization, which is too different from what I want. A standardized commercial competition with clear rules? But is that martial arts?"

There is no "combat fighting technique" known as free combat in the world, but there can be "Wing Chun under free combat rules," "Thai boxing under free combat rules."

In the same way, there could actually be "Tai Chi Quan under boxing rules" and such. While these martial arts, handed down from ancient times and originally meant for street fighting, might be optimized according to the rules, they would find it difficult to gain the upper hand over "techniques specialized for those rules."

Karate, Taekwondo, and the like have their own unique "competition rules."

Take the popular Karate for example, under this martial art, there are even several different competition rules. Karate’s competition rules do not stipulate that "participants must be Karate practitioners." If practitioners of other martial arts are so inclined, they can participate in Karate competitions and even exhibit techniques from other martial arts under this set of rules.

But such things are hardly meaningful.

"Competition rules" are not strictly equivalent to the "martial arts" Lu Xuanyu envisions. If a competition has rules, practitioners’ techniques will be specialized according to the rules. This is the part that Lu Xuanyu does not like much—and precisely because of that, he never became a professional competitor in any sport.

Contests are meant to confirm each other’s skills. Rules are set to determine winners and losers more clearly. But if techniques are specialized based on the rules... what then is the purpose of setting rules?

"True. Exams are meant to assess students’ progress, but when students start to drill into ’techniques specifically for exams,’ does the ’exam’ still hold its original meaning?" Chen Feng nodded, "I get it. But Lu, this philosophical problem of ’why do we practice martial arts’ is virtually unsolvable, isn’t it? Some practice martial arts for interest, some for money, some for fame. We really can’t say that practicing ’for interest’ is more noble than ’for money.’ People like me who practice ’for interest’ may not even come close to contributing a fraction of the effort compared to those who do it ’for money.’

""You guys said it, if I go to compete, even if I lose, there is a payment. And as the first cybernetically enhanced Martial Artist or whatever... I can’t help but think, what I could achieve.""