Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 745 - 389: Unreturned Memory Vol.9

Chapter 745: Chapter 389: Unreturned Memory Vol.9

The billowing sandstorm reduced visibility to around thirty meters. Within thirty meters, there was nothing but broken walls and ruins, and beyond three meters, a muddled haze of dust.

Amid this chaotic darkness, Novihan, who had lost an arm, stood up. His arm had been blown off by a micro missile, and his external armor absorbed the damage by shattering, so his main body wasn’t seriously harmed.

It was just that his energy was almost depleted.

Novihan didn’t know what the situation was now, he yelled, "I am...Hero! I am Hero Novihan! Come! Come!"

But all that remained in the entire city was the sound of the wind.

Stumbling along, Novihan soon found some plastic sheets to wrap around his external armor to prevent further infiltration of the sandstorm. Some Martial Artists had been neatly killed; he planned to look for more batteries.

Footsteps sounded from beside Novihan, who was searching for batteries. He rose from the debris and found that it was the Ninth Martial God.

Novihan’s synthesizer clogged up again: "Ah... ah ah... Martial God..."

"Oh, it’s you," the Ninth Martial God nodded, "Stop calling me Martial God. Remember, I only approve of the resistance that Martial Gods display as Heroes; the rebirth of Martial Gods shouldn’t have happened and shouldn’t continue to happen."

Novihan nodded and sat down on the ground.

The Ninth Martial God extended his foot and gave him a nudge: "Hey, get up. Your body is prosthetic, not muscle; where does this ’completely powerless when relaxed’ problem come from? Get up, there’s still work to do."

Only then did Novihan notice a group of people following the Ninth Martial God.

All of them had low levels of cyberization.

"Some of these people were too scared to run out earlier, and some passed out mid-way due to lack of oxygen..." Xiang Shan pointed at them.

"Lack of oxygen" was a very real issue. Just before, the city was filled with metal aerosol, followed by heavy firepower exchanges; metal particles had combusted countless times, consuming a large amount of oxygen. The end result was a widespread lack of oxygen in Paradox City.

For completely cyberized Martial Artists, this didn’t affect combat at all. Benchmark Men have two systems to acquire energy, one through respiration, the other purely from electricity; the two are incompatible. Those fully cyberized can live well on pure electricity; if you ask them to operate on respiration, they wouldn’t be able to adapt.

But these low-modified cybernetically enhanced people couldn’t do that. Humans have a circulatory system to transport oxygen but not one for electricity.

Forcing them to cross an oxygen-deprived area naturally led to fainting.

However, Benchmark Men are inherently resilient to damage; two hundred years ago, Yawgmoth had even researched the causes of damage from lack of oxygen. A temporary oxygen-deprivation shock was not fatal to them. Once the sandstorm had dispersed the metal aerosol, they came to.

Xiang Shan dug out a nuclear battery from the ground and tossed it to Novihan: "Put this on, then get them out of here. Quickly. You don’t have much time left."

Novihan urgently said, "I am willing... to die here..."

"Nonsense. Do I need you to accompany me in death? Look at these people again..." Xiang Shan gestured towards the group behind him, "Look at the one holding a child. They need a Great Hero to help them. I can’t escape. How about you?"

Novihan stared at the Benchmark Men, his gaze lingering on the children for a long time.

He then bowed slightly to the Ninth Martial God.

"That’s more like it," Xiang Shan sighed.

The sound of roaring resonated through the sky, like thunderous salutes.

Then came a tremendous light. The shockwave even momentarily cleared a swath of the sandstorm.

```

Apart from the "Shooter," the remaining members of the Twelve Zodiacs gradually converged.

The "Shooter" had already fled with the disassembled materials. Given the amount of fuel left, his remaining combat time wouldn’t exceed thirty minutes. Thus, any module not needed to "sustain combat for thirty minutes" was stripped by him.

Escape was impossible. The fuel was too scarce, resulting in slow acceleration. This meant he could easily be caught by warships in space. And with coating that maximized reflectivity, hiding himself was also unlikely. Sixty years ago, his assault on the Throne had also been aided by a meteorite.

Heading to the Asteroid Belt was, in itself, a luxury.

The only camouflage equipment the main body could spare was enough for one. Therefore, only the "Shooter" could withdraw. Among the Twelve Zodiacs, the "Shooter" was the best at hiding.

Then... he still wanted to do something for the Earth Heroes.

The Ninth Martial God took a running start, charging forward.

The ground collapsed beneath his feet, the air collided, compressed, and glowed in front of him. He easily broke the sound barrier. Like a light lance piercing the air, Xiang Shan accelerated to over ten times the speed of sound.

Then, with all his might, he leaped!

The takeoff left a crater-like mark in the atmosphere similar to that of a cannonball.

In the blink of an eye, the remaining five had already crossed the sandstorm, passed through the clouds.

The sky was a deep blue, almost black.

And in the direction of the Moon, there was a flash of metallic luster.

That was his final destination.

—Ah, this was the last stretch.

This Xiang Shan could no longer be considered purely the "Ninth Martial God." He was fully aware of the memories from the awakening in Recycling Station Town, the assassination in Pine Eagle City, and those of the Eighth Martial God in Delacruz City.

In his final moments, Xiang Shan couldn’t help but contemplate this curious thought.

"The code of this current self of mine is almost identical to the code loaded on the me with a Biological Brain. Yet these mere minutes of experience are uniquely mine..."

"How do we define the ’self’ and ’other’ of an AI? After introducing the concept of ’human-like AI,’ how can the ’sum of all social relations’ exist in any given form?"

"The Xiang Shan rushing towards the Hartman Fleet Formation, the AI Xiang Shan that naturally perished alongside the main computer beneath Black Valley, the Eighth Martial God in his last minutes before being killed by Hartman—oh, he had a Biological Brain. But what difference is there between us?"

"This attitude of not treating one’s life as something precious... Is it something Xiang Shan endowed the AI with, or is it that AI inherently lacks the desire to survive?"

In the final moments of life, this AI designed to mimic humans was actually contemplating the relationship between humans and AI from the perspective of the human Xiang Shan.

The feeling of a head-on assault against the Military Path fleet formation was not much different from clashing with the Dyson Cloud. However, the Military Path fleet formation was specifically designed for combat, so there were more types of attacks and fewer blind spots. Waves of attacks arrived one after another, seemingly endless.

It was still a gamble, even more desperate than the assault on the Throne.

The tactic of maximizing reflectivity allowed the numerous bodies of the Ninth Martial God to withstand laser fire for brief moments. However, the fleet’s offensive included high-energy particle streams and solid projectiles—attacks that were difficult to deflect and left even less room for error.

One of them was destroyed before it even engaged in battle.

Xiang Shan felt as if time had slowed down. In the midst of his unpredictable charge, he dodged while thinking,

—The AI inside "Capricorn" is identical to this me. The code is almost the same.

```

——The self-awareness beneath the personality mask...

"I’m rather curious how many papers the Scientific Knights have published on this topic," Xiang Shan muttered as he cut through a squad of guard drones.

This was already outside the Earth’s atmosphere; air resistance had vanished, and the planet’s gravitational pull was no longer dominant.

The space-specialized prosthetic body could now demonstrate its advantages.

As he broke through the defensive line formed by the small guard machines, Xiang Shan continued to ponder.

——Will AI and humans have a harmonious relationship in the future...

As he used the sonicon blade to pierce through the battleship’s outer armor, he was still musing over this question.

As he used his remaining ammunition to clear out the soldiers in the assault carriers and blew up their escape routes, he still contemplated this issue.

Right up until the moment the Ninth Martial God was encircled and attacked with Mech-Breaking Martial Arts, Xiang Shan was still pondering the future between humans and AI.

To use oneself as a subject of study, what a fascinating topic indeed.

It’s just a pity that there isn’t enough time to properly research it.

In his final moments, the Ninth Martial God did not look at any of his enemies but gazed into the distance.

He became a blaze of light with a certain longing.

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

"That’s the whole story," Xiang Shan said to his companions after the EMP from the nuclear explosion had passed.

He had completely narrated the story, divulging everything about the Ninth Martial God without any reservations.

This was done to destroy the idol of the Ninth Martial God, but also to establish the banner of the Ninth Martial God.

Jader couldn’t accept it: "How... how could this be? How did it come to this? How could it come to this?"

"There’s nothing that can’t be this way," Xiang Shan waved his hand, "things have already turned out this way."

The Underground Pixiu spoke softly from the side, "I really don’t understand... Could it be that all the heroes who have come forth these past decades did so for a false AI..."

"They didn’t die for Xiang Shan, they died for righteousness," said Xiang Shan, "The Ninth Martial God was indeed an AI, but he was undoubtedly also a Xiang Shan—there’s no difference between him and me in that regard. It’s just that, similar to the Fourth Martial God, he misjudged the viciousness of the enemy and made a grave mistake in his final moment of life. It’s not a big deal, who is truly invincible?"

Xiang Shan paused, then continued, "You can tell this story to everyone now. Tell them that the passion and love this AI possessed were greater than those of some people who lacked any empathy for humanity."

Yuan Wenren asked, "And what about you?"

"I am a Hero," Xiang Shan folded his arms, "Well... I can’t guarantee that the ultimate victory will definitely be mine. But I will do my utmost—becoming the final Martial God."

Hiroshi Matsushima suddenly asked, "What comes next?"

"Thanks to the Ninth Martial God, we’ve come out in one piece, the government’s surveillance system and space-based weapon system have collapsed. However, on the new continent, the fact remains that the government holds an absolute advantage," Xiang Shan sighed, "Let’s proceed according to contingency plan C. Scatter and break through the blockade, enter the ocean. Those heading to the Arctic should go to the Arctic; those going to the old continent should go to the old continent."

Saying this, Xiang Shan turned his head and advanced step by step through the wind and sand.

[Phi Fever]

The personality mask of the Ninth Martial God overlaid on Xiang Shan’s psyche.

The Ninth Martial God was ready to deliver the final song for his farewell concert.

Xiang Shan clenched his right fist and raised it level with his head.

Amidst the wind and sand, he began to sing:

"Don’t sigh for the passing of youth/Don’t cry alone in a foreign land/Remember mom’s embrace when leaving home/Remember the path in your bag that you must follow..."

Even the wind and sand couldn’t swallow up his voice.

Hiroshi Matsushima, Jader, and others from the same era immediately focused their attention on the song.

This was a song that the Ninth Martial God had sung during a Solar System-wide live broadcast.

"Life is a battle/You need determination and not fear sacrifice/The moon over the foreign land always keeps its eyes open/We, like wild grass, are born stubborn..."

Hiroshi Matsushima looked up. It was also singing this song that had burst his chains and allowed him to break free from adversity.

So he sang out loudly along with it: "Hard is the way of the world! Now I start fresh from the beginning!"

"Together we are a bonfire! Dispersed, we are stars in the sky!"

Xiang Shan spread his arms wide: "Life is an unceasing battle/Using a lifetime to burn bright and light the way/If the hill is covered with wildflowers/That is my most brilliant smile..."

So, people followed in Xiang Shan’s footsteps.

They walked and sang together.

"Life is a battle/

You need determination and not fear sacrifice/

The moon over the foreign land always keeps its eyes open/

We, like wild grass, are born stubborn/

Hard is the way of the world/

Now I start fresh from the beginning/

Together we are a bonfire/

Dispersed, we are stars in the sky/

Life is an unceasing battle/

Using a lifetime to burn bright and light the way/

If the hill is covered with wildflowers/

That is my most brilliant smile!"