Legend of the Cyber Heroes-Chapter 41 - Master of Firearms

41: Chapter 41: Master of Firearms

41 -41: Master of Firearms

A venomous voice suddenly intruded into the conversation.

“That’s impossible, Yulia.

He will die on the journey,” the voice said, “and you shouldn’t be blessing him…

We are alike.

Why have you never blessed me?”

With the engine igniting, a heavy machine burst into everyone’s sights.

Xiang Shan smiled: “Enoch?

It’s been some days since I saw you, and you really have changed a lot…”

At this moment, Enoch had already removed his cumbersome vehicle bed, and spikes had been installed on the tires.

When Enoch escaped, it wasn’t aimless running away as everyone had speculated.

In fact, in the last moments of his life, “Silver Transmission Shaft” Lev did not simply await death peacefully but sent Enoch a data packet.

This packet contained a series of parameters and some concise descriptions about Xiang Shan.

Moreover, it included a location.

The location pointed to the stronghold of the “Z organization.”

Lev also added a final message.

“Now this guy saves the town, and you are also out of options.

Now, you have one last chance to get your dream girl, do you understand?”

If it were spoken, that piece of text might have taken several seconds.

Lev, however, used data to transmit the message.

Reading each word and scanning the pages of a book, then reading its contents in one’s mind, there’s a world of difference in efficiency.

Lev couldn’t rely on the official networks to transmit his death signal.

His internal strength cultivation was too low; there was a fifty-fifty chance that the signal would be intercepted, and another fifty-fifty chance it would be traced.

Vigorous Kui might have managed it, but by that time, Vigorous Kui had already become a fireball.

Lev could only choose Enoch.

So, Enoch took advantage of the chaos and fled.

He had quite an adventure in the wilderness, and was even almost killed by people from the Z organization just before reaching the destination.

If he hadn’t bellowed, “I bring a message from Mr.

Lev,” causing the other party to hold back, he might already have become a part in the Z organization’s warehouse.

“Yulia…

Yulia…

I am also a Martial Artist now.

Gleayard, the boss, promised me, in light of my merits for delivering the message for Mr.

Lev, he would teach me a Military Martial Path,” Enoch said foolishly to Yulia: “I will be a big shot in the future.

Become mine, I…”

“Hey.” Xiang Shan spread his hands: “Are you blind?

Who gave you the courage to show your face in front of me again?”

“You…

The Hero of Jianghu!” Enoch glared at Xiang Shan but didn’t pick up his words: “They did not lie, the Heroes of Jianghu, they are disaster magnets.

If it weren’t for you, the Tax Officer wouldn’t have been angered, our town wouldn’t have a prosthetic body that attracts the heroes of Green Forest…

Mr.

Lev wouldn’t have died.

And…

and…

right, there’s also Willy.

Our lives have been disrupted because that little bastard dug you up…”

The voice pack, worth half of Yulia’s annual income, certainly stood out, perfectly capturing Enoch’s emotions at that moment.

The voice from the speaker moaned like an evil ghost.

Xiang Shan almost laughed: “A logical house, not bad…

Haha, indeed, even in this age, there’s a market for that kind of logic.”

He even clapped his hands insincerely.

“I just want to ask you, are you mentally prepared to appear before me?”

“Your time to die has come, Hero,” Enoch declared as if stating an objective fact.

“Suit yourself,” Xiang Shan rubbed his hands, the high-frequency oscillating generator in his palm primed and ready.

These hands were originally those of the Blade Guest Ronconi.

External armor greatly restricts blades.

The materials used to forge blades and create external armor were both from the same era, so there wouldn’t be a huge difference in strength between the two.

And geometry dictates that with the same material, armor can withstand force better than blades can.

This wasn’t just a modern issue.

In ancient times, heavy armor was the counter to blades.

But Cybermen had the strength to carry heavy armor and move through earth and sky.

To cut through armor, blades needed the help of high-frequency swords.

In this age, a blade user or swordsman’s prosthesis without a high-frequency wave generator couldn’t compete,

Ronconi’s device for triggering high-frequency vibrations wasn’t on the sword but in his hands; he could generate high-frequency vibrations in his palms.

His blade, specially treated, could transmit these vibrations, after modulating the frequency, to the blade’s edge.

This technology could be used with a blade or empty-handed, perfectly capable of overcoming the “heavy tank and warship stream” within “Military Martial.”

“Military Martial Path,” he seemed to recall…

was a kind of heretic martial art.

The design philosophy of martial arts was “to oppose tyranny with the body of an individual,” hence the strong emphasis on “achieving the utmost battle results with limited prosthetic bodies,” and it did not depend on the performance of the prosthetic body itself.

With a powerful prosthetic, one could certainly bring out more of the essence of martial studies, but a garbage prosthetic could still embody a bit of the essence of martial studies.

Constantly seizing prosthetics from enemies allowed for endless combat.

Military Martial Path, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.

It was highly specialized, emphasizing the use of giant weapons that ordinary people couldn’t access—like super tanks, aircraft carriers, or even space warships—and each type of vehicle, and each specification, corresponded to a completely different Military Martial.

Whether it’s “heavy tanks and warships” or “large military formations,” it’s not something a hero could use under normal conditions.

That was one of the reasons why Military Martial was considered a separate category from “Internal Strength” and “External Sect.”

It wasn’t that Military Martial Path couldn’t be used to oppose tyranny.

In fact, Xiang Shan felt that if he captured those large vehicles, he too could wield Military Martial Path—he had a little understanding of it.

But from this design perspective, Military Martial Path was better suited for “suppressing rebellion” rather than “starting a rebellion.”

The Military Martial Path had specialized methods for dealing with close combat against light Martial Artists.

Since the armor of gigantic vehicles was much stronger than that of a regular Martial Artist’s prosthesis, the vehicle had to find a way to thrust its hardest armor at the trickiest angle or take the enemy’s attacks with its less vital parts when a Martial Artist got close.

—Since he mentioned Military Martial Path, using shockwaves to shatter metal plate armor…

If there were enemies in the vicinity, he was confident of capturing all of Enoch’s accomplices in one fell swoop.

He had already acquired some of Lev’s memories and had a general understanding of the so-called Z organization.

Mayor Schultz clutched Xiang Shan with a look of terror, “Wait a second, Shan, are you going to kill him now?

No, you can’t, this will…”

“Strip him of protection?” Xiang Shan shook his head, “Not to mention that I hardly care about the so-called civil protection…

He has now admitted to colluding with thugs himself, so killing him wouldn’t violate the Dyson Principles, right?”

“No, there’s no factual evidence, doing this here is extremely dangerous, what if…”

At that moment, Xiang Shan suddenly felt a “palpitation”—even though he clearly no longer had a heart.

Yet this “flash of insight” almost triggered the combustion engine in his chest.

The functions of the Prosthetic Eye rapidly expanded.

At the edge of his vision, he spotted a hue surpassing the recognition capabilities of the naked eye…

——Electromagnetic waves…

Xiang Shan lifted his head.

A drone was hovering quietly overhead.

The drone was electric, its set of multi-blade propellers was completely enclosed by individual streamlined covers, with the noise minimized.

Xiang Shan instinctively leapt, swinging a palm at the drone.

………………………………

“Oh oh, I’ve been spotted,” murmured the man lying sprawled atop a garbage heap seven kilometers away.

Sniping has its limits.

Let alone those orbital space-based sniping missions, human endeavor in “sniping” on the ground also has its limitations.

After cybernetization, humans overcame physiological limitations; their eyes would not fail to aim due to “visual range,” nor would their bodies tremble to cause even a thousandth of a degree of deviation in the gun muzzle.

At this time, air, gravity, and geometry became the greatest obstacles to sniping.

Gravity wasn’t too tough to manage.

Computer-assisted plugins could take it into consideration.

Atmospheric flows weren’t insurmountable either.

If drones equipped with detectors were released in advance, arranged in a specific formation within a certain area, one could master the atmospheric flow along the bullet path.

But geometry was harder to overcome, unless the first four axioms of Euclidean geometry could be overturned.

The “horizon” in human vision is actually the tangential point of one’s line of sight with the “Earth.” Starting from one’s eyes, a tangential line drawing across an Earth section circle.

Connecting the tangential point, the eyes, and the Earth’s core into a right triangle, one could determine the distance between the observer and the horizon using Pythagorean theorem and trigonometric functions.

If the observer’s perspective is a little over one meter above sea level, then their visual range would be around five kilometers.

Flat and open terrain is the most suitable battlefield for sniping.

But in this area, the sniper’s vision is only five kilometers.

But even if one could rely on drones to overcome this barrier, geometry still played its tricks.

Because the line connecting the “gun muzzle” and the “target” would also be blocked by the Earth’s curve.

Of course, one could overcome this obstacle by making the bullet describe a parabolic trajectory—just like a mortar shell.

But bullets ultimately rely on kinetic energy to inflict damage.

Setting aside parabolas with a low peak, slight undulation, and near-straight lines, an arc similar to a mortar shell’s means the bullet’s muzzle kinetic energy has been nearly exhausted.

Unless one found a higher vantage point in advance.

This garbage mountain was an ideal sniping location.

It was supposed to be a part of some warship’s cabin.

From here all the way to the village where Xiang Shan stayed, there was only one road and the town had recycled most of the resources along the way, leaving only some low piles of garbage, with nothing that could serve as cover.

Gleayard had sent Enoch to search for Xiang Shan and dispatched a drone to follow him.

Enoch initially wanted to go find Yulia, but with the Gu left by Vigorous Kui on his body, Gleayard could easily discipline him.

While Enoch searched the town, he also sought a suitable point to launch an attack here.

This was the combat of a Firearms Path martial artist.

Until Xiang Shan noticed his drone.

——It seems there is at least one Prosthetic Eye with an extensive video range, or a very sensitive Prosthetic Ear?

Gleayard thought.

But regardless, at this distance, a Firearms Path martial artist is “invincible.”

In legend, the Progenitor of Martial Arts didn’t favor the Military Martial Path or the Firearms Path.

Why is that?

The history Gleayard knew did not elaborate.

But he guessed it might be because the Martial Ancestor feared that if the Firearms Path flourished, it would exterminate other schools of thought, right?

Did he solely favor close-quarters combat?

Was he a fight fanatic?

The initial martial artists even intended to remove the Firearms Path from the fundamental design of martial arts.

The Firearms Path is a Martial Path without blessings, unappreciated by traditional heroes.

But precisely because of this, Gleayard harbored a pride unique to the Firearms Path.

Even if the land doesn’t permit, even if this planet doesn’t permit, even if the Martial Ancestor doesn’t permit…

I will persist!

——At this distance, even the Martial Ancestor would struggle!

In the image transmitted from the front, the moment the man’s gaze touched the lens, Gleayard nearly lost control over the drone.

Something was attacking the drone.

Yet, from the beginning, the drone was designed with consideration of a confrontation with an Internal Strength Master, limiting the speed of information upload and even reducing the image quality for this purpose.

The formidable Internal Strength vanished like mud sinking into the sea.

He saw that man leap.

So…

——I win.