Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 672 - 316: The Storm is Brewing

Chapter 672: Chapter 316: The Storm is Brewing

Yuki gazed from afar at a ruined house.

Its structure was similar to the cheap apartments of the old era, having no particular safety features, but still ensuring that all residents could allocate enough square footage for laying out solar panels. Additionally, its walls were sturdy enough to fend off sand dust and stray bullets.

For the common people, this was a very good dwelling indeed.

And now, the place was covered by a huge object. The main body of that semi-transparent covering was some kind of light alloy, with a thin layer of plastic on the exterior. This ensured that no small drones could penetrate and spy inside.

Through that semi-transparent film, Yuki could vaguely make out something. There was a large hole in one side of the house, as if a chunk of ice cream had been sucked away with a straw.

The enemy must have blasted a path directly with firearms and then swarmed in, taking control of the people inside.

No, based on Yuki’s past experiences, people with a low rate of cybernetic enhancements were prone to getting injured in such explosions.

Not to mention...

"That guy’s previous injuries still haven’t healed..."

Flesh is different from prosthetic bodies. When a part of a Prosthetic Body malfunctions, it can be quickly replaced, since the interfaces between prosthetic parts are standardized and normalized. But if flesh is damaged, one can only wait for it to heal slowly.

The efficiency difference between the two is just too great.

After Yuki and Liu Ri entered the temporary safety house led by Ai Tielang, they had replaced all the problematic prosthetic parts.

It was precisely because of the "functionality" superiority of prosthetics that humans tirelessly pursued cyberization technology in earlier years. Being supported by industrial foundations, cybernetically enhanced people were more adaptable to the extremely harsh external environment than natural people were.

When those Houndhawks rushed into the house, Han Zhun’s injuries from Recycling Station Town hadn’t yet healed.

—It was to save others... to help the weak by weeding out the strong...

That’s what Yuki thought.

He really... really...

Ai Tielang reached out his hand without a change of expression and firmly grasped Yuki’s shoulder.

It took Yuki a moment before he said, "Let’s go."

His voice trembled slightly.

The two Heroes circled the streets a few times. When passing through some surveillance blind spots, they would turn their clothing inside out, or simply swap clothes with each other, and quickly attach some decorative accessories to their bodies. All these measures were to prevent AI from identifying them in surveillance footage and then linking all their movements together to deduce their behavior patterns and stronghold.

Only after confirming there was no one tracking them from behind did the two re-enter the underground tunnel.

They stealthily passed through an area where a group of impoverished people were gathered. These individuals had a low rate of cybernetic enhancements. They didn’t have much need for sunlight but had a great thirst for water. For these people, the spacious and water-accumulating underground passages were also a decent place to live.

After passing through a shanty area, the two finally arrived at the next temporary base.

Liu Ri was kneeling in the water, lost in thought. Upon seeing Yuki arrive, he asked, "How did it go?"

Yuki shook his head silently.

Liu Ri angrily slapped the puddled water. A black spray of mud splashed out from underneath.

"Damn it... Damn it all! Ahhhh! Curse it! It was my fault he suffered!"

"What are you talking about?" Ai Tielang spoke with a heavy tone, "It was the government that harmed that young brother, not you. You must engrave this into your memory! If you can’t even discern this much, how can you consider yourself a hero?"

"But if I hadn’t let him go back alone... If I had forcefully taken him with me..."

"Then we would have found it odd instead. It’s always prudent to develop Chivalrous Power with caution," another hero from Redstone Gate said, "Unless you’re a prophet and had foreseen this event, otherwise, if you’d brought back an enthusiastic yet untested youth, we would have certainly found it strange."

This Redstone Gate hero was also here to improve his external strength. He was still young, only thirty years older than Yuki and his group. He wasn’t yet old enough to join the operation to "storm into Paradox City," so he came to Hiroshi Matsushima’s Martial Arts School for cultivation.

"That’s still better than someone losing their life!" Liu Ri said loudly, his tone laced with a sob, "I was the one who promised to take him to Recycling Station Town... It was my idea to attack Green Forest with him... It’s all my fault..."

Ai Tielang countered, "Which part of this did you mess up, huh?"

Liu Ri didn’t respond.

"Listen well, we also didn’t expect that the government would suddenly take an interest in checking up on that young brother at this time. The brother from Redstone Gate is right. Unless you had the gift of foresight, you made the right call," Ai Tielang said.

As for "why did the government suddenly take an interest"... no one knew why they did. The government has always been unpredictable.

Only in times like these did the government operate with high efficiency. Dyson’s principle destroyed the organizational capabilities accumulated since the Stone Age, but technology melded these people together in another form.

In fact, the government always believed they were extremely efficient—because when the top officials wanted to do something, no internal force would obstruct them, no internal power would weigh whether their actions conformed to regulations. The people giving orders had very little "responsibility" to consider. The god-detested "bureaucracy" found no fertile ground here.

In the face of "unexpected events" or "emergencies," the government could indeed ensure that the leaders’ will was executed efficiently, with no power to restrain it.

Well, let’s put it this way, when a Lord needed to fabricate a charge, the government could certainly guarantee extraordinary efficiency.

Ai Tielang understood that this was probably just another Lord acting on a whim, casually selecting someone to investigate.

Only this time, the Lord hit the jackpot.

Liu Ri trembled all over, "Now... we... we must rescue him!"

Yuki nodded as well.

At this moment, he even considered the option of "seeking help from his master."

But what the heroes didn’t know was that all this was merely the "precursor" to the storm.

It was just a beginning.

At the start of this legendary tale, this "overture" to the legendary story, Gelangdola Zhao, who had just won the jackpot, had just parked his personal aircraft outside the Iron Block Style Dojo.

Not far away, a group of soldiers was assembling and approaching at a brisk pace.

Gelangdola didn’t need to bring people out of the Pine Eagle Building. Under the pretext of "dealing with the affair of the Martial Ancestor’s followers," he could summon any armed force in the city. He directly called a bunch of soldiers from the nearby blocks.

Passersby on the street of the Martial Arts School scattered in an instant, with only a few daring onlookers peeking from a distance. They watched Gelangdola enter the Iron Block Style dojo and wondered if this dojo was in for good luck or bad luck.