Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 741 - 385: Transforming Fierce Fire [Part Four]

Chapter 741: Chapter 385: Transforming Fierce Fire [Part Four]

The Ninth Martial God shattered four blades he held in his four hands as he smashed through a row of weapons on the city wall. These weapons had already been drenched in enemy blood and had blocked numerous slashes from Sonicon Blades during the breakout, leaving them scarred and damaged.

In fact, the Ninth Martial God had changed his weapons many times before.

This round of slashing ultimately shattered all four weapons he held.

The Ninth Martial God discarded the broken weapons in his hands, and his two shoulders, along with the pair of folded arms on his back, simultaneously reached for the weapon rack mounted behind him—this was also one of the equipment sent over by Xiang Shan’s puppets, a foldable metal frame that could be affixed to the back of a prosthetic body.

The Ninth Martial God drew his weapons and shouted, "Let’s move."

However, Xiang Shan walked up to him, switched from the specialized Inner Strength of "Sin of Beta" to "Phay’s Frenzy," and then stood directly in front of the Ninth Martial God facing toward the city and yelled loudly, "This way..."

He paused, then turned to the heroes and said, "Remember those sets of very loud speakers we got when we stormed Pine Eagle City? If you haven’t discarded them, bring them along."

After leaving Pine Eagle City, Xiang Shan’s small team split up, some going to lead different groups of refugees teaching the city folk how to survive in the wilderness, while also setting up deceptive strategies.

And everything else, including the people and supplies, was here.

Including that set of speakers used for broadcasting.

Originally, this equipment had a limited range of effect and was extremely cumbersome. Therefore, the heroes had plans to dismantle and recycle the components.

But from Pine Eagle City to Paradox City, not a single hero had the time to attend to it.

And this device produced an unexpectedly effective result.

The Ninth Martial God’s prosthetic body was specialized for coronal environments. He held onto the thought of "using the remaining prosthetic bodies for concerts after victory," hence installing speakers on many prosthetics which enabled him to talk. However, even at maximum volume, these sounds were not particularly loud.

Now, these speakers compensated for this shortcoming once more.

Xiang Shan hooked up the system, then bellowed, "This way! Anyone still inside the city! This direction! Listen carefully, estimate through algorithms, then mark the general location, and follow the system’s path to come over here! This direction!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than there was clamor at the city gates. A few minutes later, a number of ordinary civilians emerged, supporting each other as they walked out from the city.

A group of unarmed mortals broke the rule of Paradox City that "all may enter, none may leave."

"Wow! There really are people!" Jader exclaimed.

Hiroshi Matsushima then said, "We should help..."

"Back, back, back!" the Ninth Martial God shook his head, "You guys, not knowing the terrain inside or the number of people. This Iron Dust also limits your performance. You lack heavy firepower. What’s the point staying?"

Xiang Shan also nodded, then walked over to Hiroshi Matsushima to take the "Gungnir Strike Gun" series equipment. With a wave of his hand, he threw the weapon into the metal aerosol.

A vague shadow appeared within the metal aerosol—as if a giant hand emerged from the mist and grabbed the equipment.

This was a massive close-combat weapon that did not exist in the city. Placed on the three-meter prosthetic bodies of Hiroshi and Xiang Shan, this weapon looked like an oversized cavalry lance. But for the five-meter class prosthetic bodies of the Ninth Martial God and Twelve Zodiacs, it was more like a "short spear."

But the interface standards were universally compatible.

Jader once again burst into cries and shouts.

Xiang Shan wiped his forehead once more.

[Omega Chrome]

Omega, Ω, the twenty-fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, commonly signifies resistance, Chaitin’s constant [in computer science, the probability that a "random program will stop"], and also includes angular velocity, angular frequency, and electrical angles of alternating current in science and technology.

But for "Native" Xiang Shan—the personality inherent to his brain that did not rely on any external program to formulate—he chose its most original meaning: "the last letter."

He did not care whether he was the initial Martial God, the Martial Ancestor himself, but hoped to be "the last Martial God."

Chrome, meaning either "chromium element" or "chrome alloy," and in industrial design, decorative pieces are often chrome-plated. In an era where the Internal Arts Path had not been created and the world of data had just been defined, human engineers would consider "frames, toolbars, and browser window surrounding menus" and all user interface elements of application windows outside web content as the user-facing entity, the frame.

And the meaning of this codename was "the final frame," the expectation that Xiang Shan, who did not inherit memories upon awakening, set for himself.

"So..." Xiang Shan waved his hand, "smooth sailing."

Then, he turned around, had Hiroshi Matsushima hold onto the still intact First Heavenly Layer prosthetic body, and said to the heroes: "Let’s go!"

At that moment, within the metal aerosol, the sound of gunfire from close quarters began to weaken. The soldiers that Xiang Shan had forcibly controlled earlier had been exhausted. After several explosions, there was a commotion of soldiers surging out.

The Ninth Martial God spread his four arms with four swords like a protector deity.

At that moment, from the speakers behind him came a melodious and gentle song.

"A plan is a work of art

A house built to fall apart"

Like a pack of wolves, the Protector Army surged out from the city. The Ninth Martial God vigorously swung his sword again and again and again.

This song provided a correct escape route for the citizens inside the city who couldn’t see their way clearly and also aimed to gather the elite of Paradox City to break them.

This song is dedicated to a version of myself that has long departed, while also mourning a half-century-sealed version of myself here.

Keane’s "Phases".

"You’re digging for the answers [You are striving hard to find the answers]

Crawl across the world to find [Traversing the entire world to find them]

There are just more questions [Yet at the end of the road]

Waiting on the other side [There are merely more questions]

But you’re still here [But you’ve made it here]

You’re bleeding but you’re still here [Though covered in wounds, you’ve made it here]"

At this moment, a scarred Hero emerged from the depths. He spoke to the Ninth Martial God, "Martial God... we are ready! The Heroes... a small disciple of mine has organized a mutual aid society among the people. We... we can utilize that..."

Due to not having spoken in a long time, Hero Novihan was somewhat incoherent. The Ninth Martial God inserted a solo performance before the chorus, while slaughtering a group of soldiers, he asked, "Haven’t the Heroes in the city given up..."

"Never..." Novihan said excitedly, "Never completely given up!"

"Good..." the Ninth Martial God sighed, "It’s my incompetence, causing everyone such trouble."

"Why... How could..." Novihan exclaimed, "If you’re incompetent, then those of us trapped here are all incompetent!"

"Ah... Hahahahaha!" the Ninth Martial God laughed heartily, "Then let’s all become a bit more competent together this time!"

He waved at Novihan and then continued singing:

"Phases, the motion of our lives [Different phases, they are the motions of our lives]

Ages, the rote of changes [And age is just the routine record of changes]

Erases the ink before it dries on pages [Erase it before the ink dries on the pages]

It’s all just phases [This is just a phase of life]"

Civilians were escaping from Paradox City through this passage intermittently. Due to the constant depletion of the city’s oxygen content by explosions and burning of Metal Aerosol, many civilians with lower modification rates appeared somewhat staggering.

But they were fleeing for their lives.

Perhaps because they cherished life, perhaps because of the command of their revered "god", or perhaps they were compelled.

But they were escaping from this quagmire.

[Record what I am doing now, and spread it out.]

This was the request conveyed by the Ninth Martial God.

Before charging into the wilderness, everyone looked back at the Ninth Martial God as if by agreement.

The Ninth Martial God continued to sing unabated.

As they moved away, they watched this scene.

...................................

Xiang Shan did not board a vehicle but was rapidly moving while dragging the team’s slowest vehicle.

He knew one thing; the "Ninth Martial God" left behind had no chance of survival. If it came to ground stations, his Prosthetic Body’s performance could not be fully utilized and would simply be replaced by more cost-effective but more planet surface-adapted specialized Prosthetic Bodies.

And also in space, there was no escape.

In the space environment, the gravitational fields of celestial bodies and external resistance are so weak they can be ignored. Objects only need to overcome the inertia caused by their own mass to keep moving, to keep accelerating. Although the Lightweight Prosthetic had the upper hand in "velocity change," giant warships could gain faster speed under prolonged acceleration.

This is also why "Space Aircraft Carriers" are not popular. At high-speed mobility stations, small warplanes, limited by their fuel capacity, could even be left behind by giant warships or motherships.

The Ninth Martial God even struggled to obtain rocket fuel efficient enough.

The Ninth Martial God was under close surveillance. The astronomical observatory on the face of the Moon had surely already locked onto this region. Xiang Shan had not truly broken through Hartman’s fundamental position. Once the Ninth Martial God broke through the clouds, he would be locked in. Even if he escaped momentarily, he would eventually be caught by Hartman’s fleet.

And a fully integrated fleet has more fierce firepower than Yawgmoth’s Throne. The laser of the Throne is just a byproduct used for transmitting energy. The essence of the Throne is a "collection device" rather than a "combat weapon." You can say an excavator can be used as a weapon, but comparing an excavator with a tank isn’t quite realistic.

Although Xiang Shan had long understood this,

But...

When he felt that electromagnetic pulse, which even a sandstorm couldn’t block, he still thought,

—I died again.