Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 716 - 360 Yawgmoth【Part One】

Chapter 716: Chapter 360 Yawgmoth【Part One】

"What..."

The Ninth Martial God stared at the model of Yawgmoth in front of him.

Yawgmoth raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Then, Xiang Shan felt a jolt in his prosthetic body.

To be precise, it was a jolt in his head.

The large part of his hindbrain had actually detached from his prosthetic body.

"This is a new thing called the ’Neuronal Biological Mainboard’," Yawgmoth said calmly, "It has biological traits, um, essentially it’s just a random number generator, which, in terms of performance, cannot compare with computers, let alone the human brain."

"That’s the fact. You never had a biological brain, those drug addicts who voluntarily donated their brains to the Scientific Knight Order have never had a physical connection with you. Hartman went through a detailed architecture. If someone were to intrude into your system through normal means, what they would first perceive is the ’shell’ made up of this layer of neuronal mainboard. Unless Ingrid used physical means to probe into the tissue that appears to be the biological brain, she would be able to touch the essence of your AI. But we all know that Inga would not do such a thing."

"And the Neuronal Mainboard, after all, is naturally generated from my cloned cells and reoriented for training. It does indeed react instinctively quite like a human brain."

"Then, I found a good excuse—virtual neural circuits. The Martial God acknowledged by Zhu Xinyu, who appeared in Wang Yi Emery’s Order of Knights, must have stolen Wang Yi Emery’s data. Theoretically speaking, this technology could indeed be used in this way. No matter through which channel you search for data, you would come to such a conclusion, since most of the evidence for this inference exists in reality."

Xiang Shan, holding the back of his head, stared dumbly at the thing that had popped out and was flying upwards. Although the mainboard was only a small part compared to his giant prosthetic body, judging from the size of the item flying out, his cranial cavity was now mostly empty.

Under the strong radiation of the sun, the small thing that had flown out was burning and getting smaller and smaller.

But at this moment, the thinking of the Ninth Martial God was not affected in any way.

"Actually, there have always been two inexplicable things," Yawgmoth chuckled, "From the beginning, you could only use your Inner Strength when you were connected to the network. And the programs you wrote ’in a flash of inspiration’ were also completed when connected to the network. Guess why?"

Xiang Shan immediately thought of it: "So that’s it... It was remote support all along..."

"Hmm. Hartman has been off the Moon quite a lot these years. Your firewalls are actually written by Hartman. Over the years, he has been consciously practicing ’a second personal style,’" said Yawgmoth, with his hands behind his back, walking sideways on the solar panels, "And this also ensured that you would not be casually defeated by the Internal Martial Artists among the Protectors, allowing this play to go on."

"You have never successfully written complex code on your own in an offline underground space."

Yawgmoth raised a finger again: "Then, the second point. The real Xiang Shan is not a person with much taste in music. Aside from second-dimensional spit-take songs, most of the content in his playlist is recommended by others. And what he listens to most often is not music, but white noise."

"And you, have you ever found white noise pleasing to the ear even once?"

The Ninth Martial God was taken aback again.

"Do you still remember how long Xiang Shan and David discussed ’which type of white noise is more suitable for use in a library’?" Yawgmoth laughed, "And then, do you remember who had a penchant for music in their spare time back then?"

"I... I am... I am..." The Ninth Martial God looked at Yawgmoth, his hands trembling above his head.

"Compared to Xiang Shan, you are clearly closer to me, ’Ninth Martial God.’" Yawgmoth lowered his head and cackled wildly, "If I had lost all my memories and then, based on the lingering impressions in my mind, played the role of Xiang Shan as I understood him, that would probably look something like you, wouldn’t it? Hahahaha."

He seemed genuinely happy, yet also truly unhappy.

The Ninth Martial God stepped back twice, "Why would you do such a thing... What benefit is it to you?"

"Indeed, what benefit is there. The answer is, none," Yawgmoth sighed, "But it must be done. Humanity must be liberated, the Undead must be completely eradicated. Whether on the genetic or the memetic level, the shackles of our ancestors must be broken."

"But then there’s Xiang Shan, that guy, he’s always like this. The last time he said he wanted to create history in a whole new way, and then he built the unprecedented Leviathan. The next time, he said he wanted to correct the past, including previous mistakes, through decentralization. But he failed again; he himself became the greatest of the Undead."

Yawgmoth looked down at the Ninth Martial God: "I’ve studied Xiang Shan’s memories. Mr. Jing once told him that a failed modernization process often brings a powerful backlash. Feudal forces, religions, and clans will reclaim the moral high ground after modernization recedes. Once the progressive forces collapse, even the moderate conservatives won’t get their Pastoral Idyll. Because the regression that even conservatives can’t accept will emerge."

"From a holistic perspective, history is indeed progressing. But is this merely an illusion caused by the shortness of human history? Or is history spiraling upward, and it just so happens that our generation was born during a regressive phase?"

"The so-called ’ideology’ is not something immutable, indestructible, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither sullied nor pure. It can be born, it can die, it can be tainted. Its spiritual power is not infinitely increasing; it is consumable."

Yawgmoth sighed, "Simply put, when ’progress’ brings strikes, protests, struggles, Labor Day, and unions, people will remember, ’progress is always good’—for the progressive forces, this public approval is the foundation for the existence of this ideology."

"The approval rating beneath each title is generally calculated independently. But just as online IDs can be stolen, so too can banners be usurped. If an old flag becomes stigmatized, then a new flag must be raised. Throughout history, those who have split from the original group have been motivated by ambition or ideal."

"Xiang Shan replaced the old and antiquated banner of progress with the ’Superhuman trend’ represented by Superman Enterprise, but this trend was usurped. He had no choice but to raise a new banner named after chivalry. But this time it was different, the enemy he faced had abandoned all banners, all symbols. At the spiritual level, there was no other force contesting him."

"If this were ancient times, an ideology with such a status would have certainly triumphed. Yet, the power of technology has rewritten humanity. He remains indestructible on a spiritual level, but the power of technology prevents him from achieving material victory."

Yawgmoth looked at the Ninth Martial God: "At that time, I noticed something. It had been decades since the birth of a new Martial God after the Seventh Martial God."