Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 781 - 25: Market Clash [Part 1]

Chapter 781: Chapter 25: Market Clash [Part 1]

The explosive internal force detonated under Jeanne’s feet, propelling her to accelerate. Meanwhile, the magnetism at her shoulders, knees, and soles forcefully adhered her to the iron wall. The fusion of these two forces transformed the Martial Artist into an arrow released from its string.

Against the flow of the crowd, she charged downwards.

The Mobile Cavalry had clearly been prepared for this situation. They seemed to have already assumed Jeanne to be an ally of the chamber of commerce below and immediately dispatched three of their number to intercept her.

Behind her, two of the five rangers immediately dropped their disguises, knocking over several bystanders as they charged forward.

To the Mobile Cavalry, everyone there at that moment had forsaken civilization’s protection and was living outside the civilized world—a "non-person."

Those who came from Mars or Jupiter to this place had voluntarily abandoned "civilization’s protection," thus were deemed "killable."

Those who came from Saturn, following the rebels who committed the unforgivable sin against civilization, were seen as terrorists and also deemed "killable."

The local residents who grew up here, without a shred of desire for the civilized world and instead indulging in the construction of "city-states," a fictitious entity, were deemed "killable."

Aside from infants, at this moment, everyone present was fair game!

They would not pay particular attention to the lives of passersby!

Bullets, like a magnificent rainbow, fell towards Jeanne, then burst into a brilliant flamed flower of sparks behind her. The fiery flower and the ricochets stubbornly followed close behind Jeanne. Twisting and turning like lightning, she then leapt up.

This move took the Mobile Cavalry somewhat by surprise.

Midair, Jeanne hooked onto a steel cable, momentarily spinning around it like a turbine. The cable, designed for everyday pedestrian use, had no idea it would need to withstand such a force. One end of it broke away, whipping through the air like a Meteor Hammer.

In that brief moment of rotation, she fired a barrage of bullets towards the Mobile Cavalry behind her. The bullets divided into two groups, each targeting one of the two rangers. One ranger activated a magnetic field in time and lay flat on the ground, while the other, slowed down by habits developed within the gravitational field of a planet, was a half-beat too late. Bullets deflected him backward, shattering his armor.

Gripping the steel cable for leverage, Jeanne swung through the air as if in controlled flight before landing atop the cliff formed by the Battleship Outer Armor.

The moment she landed, Jeanne used the magnetism in her body to roll down the sheer cliff and, at the same time, shot at her pursuers—towards the "top," or rather, the edge of the opposing cliff.

Both sides exchanged a round of fire, but due to the suppression from the other party’s firepower, neither managed to aim properly, causing no effective damage.

However, in dodging, Jeanne brought herself even closer to the "below" where the chamber of commerce’s forces were located.

At this moment, Jeanne could already see the Martial Artists on the opposing side.

Most members on the chamber of commerce’s side were relying on the defense provided by the Alloy Stand as they fired their guns. Although the stand was designed for trade shows, most of the metal in this city originated from "Warship Wreckage Recycling." The stand appeared to be the gate of a hangar from a small aircraft carrier warship—it wouldn’t hold up against a warship’s Main Gun, but it would definitely stop bullets from lesser weapons.

Among the Martial Artists inside was an expert at Sniping, whose ghost-like sniping skills would always seem to handcuff the Mobile Cavalry’s efforts to mount an offense.

Another four Martial Artists were battling outside.

The four martial artists were likely security personnel hired by the chamber of commerce. Among them, two showed an affinity for martial studies that specialized in coordinated attacks, but their skills were not quite there yet. Even working together, they could only play a supporting role, taking some pressure off but not enough to turn the tide of battle.

Among the other two, one was skilled with a long staff and was also proficient in both internal and external strength. It seemed that he had subdued his opponent with internal martial arts, forcing the enemy to divert their gaze and restrict their field of vision. And he handled a drone skillfully; nine of them grouped in threes, moved with agile twists and turns, always defusing the formations of the mobile cavalry at critical moments.

The other was equipped with a heavy prosthesis and wielded a massive weapon that resembled a pillar. Logically, such a weapon should be swung around with abandon, relying on its mass to overpower the enemy. However, this guard held the base of the weapon with both hands, treating it as if it was a two-handed sword.

With just one glance, Jeanne recognized the weapon.

While the weapon seemed unsophisticated and bulky, made to harm through sheer mass, its interior was actually filled with pressure sensors that could deduce the structure of an opponent’s external armor based on the feedback from strikes.

The enemy wielding the heavy prosthesis might have seemed brutish and clumsy, but their internal cultivation was surely high, and they must have been adept at processing perception and data. Beyond the regular full-field vision, she was also capable of constantly maneuvering some ultra-high precision Doppler sensors on her body.

She could quickly estimate the opponent’s martial arts and the armored alloy based on the intensity of her own strikes and the opponent’s unloading force movements.

The seemingly clumsy weapon concealed several sonicon blades within.

These miniature blades could pop out in the blink of an eye during an attack or retraction, slicing through the enemy’s external armor.

This was a very rare type of weapon, paired with highly specialized combat techniques and unorthodox internal strength maneuvers.

The essence of internal strength was to develop the brain’s information processing capabilities, expanding the dimensions of hacking skills, and using "mathematics" to surpass the ordinary techniques of regular programmers.

First, it was about "developing the brain," and then "hacking techniques."

Of course, there were also skills purely for developing the brain. Early heroes had those who exclusively chose this path. Compared to external strength that depended on sheer training and accumulation, this path allowed for an even faster increase in combat ability.

However, technological advancements quickly made this technique obsolete. The orthodox internal "law" that elevated hacking techniques offered greater adaptability and a higher ceiling. As for pure external strength, technology has shifted more and more of its aspects onto chips. The brain only needed to adapt to the chips, coordinate with the algorithms, and provide "imagination" to instruct the algorithms towards "targets."

A normal hero with the time to cultivate such a skill would certainly choose the path with a broader range of applications—the orthodox law.

This particular technique, specialized for close combat, was later absorbed into the military martial path—organized troops, of course, required specialized talents more than guerrilla teams did.

Within the mobile cavalry, a few elite would choose to cultivate such kung fu.

In that instant, a flood of memories from the past surfaced in Jeanne’s mind. She had a friend...

And in that moment, she suddenly took a step forward with her foot.

As if by instinct—like someone startled by a mouse suddenly darting out from underfoot.

But the step that "startled" Jeanne precisely kicked away an approaching chain blade with the tip of her foot.

[Young lady, there’s really something wrong with you psychologically. You should see a shrink to talk about it.]