Legend of the Cyber Heroes-Chapter 72 - The Treasured Blade

72: Chapter 72: The Treasured Blade

72 -72: The Treasured Blade

The sound of the collapsing table startled the little girl.

She furrowed her brow and tears rolled down her cheeks.

But Yuki couldn’t attend to the little girl at the moment.

He exclaimed, “Master, how did you do it?”

“It wasn’t me who did it, it was the sword that did.” Xiang Shan shook his head, bent over, and observed the cut.

At the very beginning of the cut—near the point where it made contact with the sword edge—the cut was as smooth as a mirror, as if it were directly cast that way.

However, the further the slash trace extended, the rougher it became.

At the end of the trace, it resembled more a torn wound.

It was just the result of a gentle tap.

Xiang Shan knew there was more to this sword than that.

The direction that the slash trace extended was consistent with the direction the sword edge pointed.

However, when he had gently tapped the sword against the table, he intentionally made the force vector slightly offset from the direction of the sword edge.

If he had struck with full force, that would have caused the sword edge to curl.

The direction the sword trace extended was not the direction he exerted force,

It was simply the direction of the sword edge.

In other words, this mark had nothing to do with him; it was purely the effect of the sword itself.

“Sonicon blade.” Xiang Shan nodded.

Sonicons, the quantum of sound waves.

Extending from the “wave-particle duality” of light, a “wave” can exhibit particle characteristics under certain conditions.

A “sonicon” is a form in which sound or mechanical waves are quantized under certain conditions.

Sonicons are the collective excitations of atom (or molecule) vibrations in condensed matter, often used to describe the vibrations of a crystal lattice as a quasi-particle.

They only exist within crystals.

Moreover, sonicons are not conserved; they decay spontaneously, hence they are called “quasi-particles.”

Simply put, sonicons can be seen as the quantum manifestation of the collective motion of extremely interactive atoms within a crystal.

A Sonicon blade, then, uses a sword-shaped generator to converge vibrations to the extreme, creating sonicons.

Wherever sonicons pass, their powerful energy disintegrates the lattice structure of the alloy.

This is essentially an upgraded version of “high-frequency wave disintegration of metals,” only the vibration frequency and intensity of the Sonicon blade are incomparable to the high-frequency oscillating generator in Ronconi’s prosthetic hand.

Due to this vibration frequency being exceedingly high, it is very difficult to find a suitable material to connect the sword-shaped sonicon generator with the hilt.

That’s why “magnetic levitation” is used to secure the sword blade.

Yuki gasped in awe, “That’s incredible…

So, you mean a light tap can cut through armor?”

Xiang Shan shook his head, “It’s not that easy.

The Sonicon blade has its limitations.

First, you need to know the crystal structure of the alloy used in the opponent’s armor.

The reason I could easily cut through this table is simply because I understand this kind of civilian alloy material.

If you don’t know the structure of the crystal, you can’t set the corresponding parameters.

Then, the Sonicon blade is just a slightly stronger high-frequency blade.”

Initially, Xiang Shan had already moved to Gleayard’s rear blind spot, so why did he allow Gleayard to babble for a while?

It was because he needed to tap and determine the structure of the opponent’s external armor, looking for the most suitable mechanical wave frequency to destroy the enemy’s external armor.

The Sonicon blade has even higher requirements for this.

And if it’s used against non-crystal substances like glass or asphalt, then the Sonicon blade is even less effective than ordinary blades.

“And then, there’s another drawback to this thing…” Xiang Shan looked at the huge shield with a somewhat gloomy expression: “It’s really expensive…”

The immediate effect of the Sonicon blade, with its blade’s microscopic excellently structured level, is inseparable.

It could even be said to be constructed atom by atom.

It is this rigid structure that ensures the energy accumulated in the sword body by the magnetic levitation device can be converted into sonicons in the shortest time, to destroy the metal’s lattice structure at the moment of contact with the blade.

Such a sword blade still has a very limited number of uses.

It could be said that every activation equates to a degradation of the sword body.

Moreover, if the sword body is struck from the side, it will also be damaged.

Similarly, the requirements for “blade tendon” in this device are incredibly high.

The so-called “blade tendon” or “blade muscle” refers to the alignment of the “direction of the blade edge” with the “direction of arm force.” An improper “blade tendon” would either easily curl or fail to cleave the target.

The Sonicon blade’s requirement for “blade tendon” essentially exceeds the precision limits of a Natural Person’s physical body.

Furthermore, if the “high-frequency vibration mode” is activated and the target isn’t hit within 200 seconds, the energy accumulated within the blade body will accelerate the degradation of the blade body.

All these things considered, simply put…

This prohibitively expensive blade is essentially a consumable.

“The reason we made the sword body with magnetic levitation fixation, aside from the difficulty of finding suitable materials for fixation, is more importantly ‘for ease of replacement.'” Xiang Shan looked at the shield and said, “Why do you think this shield is so big…

because it contains replacement blades inside.”

Yuki was completely stunned, “Doesn’t this mean that this thing is very…

useless?”

“If the intelligence work is well done, this thing can even tear through the external armor of a warship.” Xiang Shan shook his head, “Compared to its power, these flaws can be overlooked.”

However…

——It was certain that this was a weapon used by the government’s Houndhawks.

The design philosophy was just that.

——A weapon used by Hero wouldn’t involve such costly interchangeable sword bodies.

——If the government’s practices remained as before, where personal resources were allotted based on rank…

The cost of this sword would even surpass the prosthetic bodies of many of the Welfare Officer’s personal soldiers.

——Being able to obtain such materials from the government to reward criminals like Gleayard, what exactly was this Water earthworm up to?

Yuki felt it was quite a pity, “Since even you, Master, can’t use it, isn’t it a big waste?”

Xiang Shan shook his head, “Not necessarily.

If I can get prosthetic legs of a higher power output and add weights to shift the center of gravity of the prosthetic body downwards, then I might actually be able to use this shield.

Although it adds weight, the shield can also slightly improve the aerodynamic shape.

With tactical coordination, a decisive effect could be achieved.”

Yuki nodded, “But it still can’t be used right now…”

“‘Donkey’ indeed has no space to put this thing, but we could make a trailer to attach it behind.”

Xiang Shan thought for a moment, moved this thing out, and then rebuilt a low trailer, placing the shield on it.

This trailer was even more rudimentary than Donkey, equipped only with a mileage counter and automatic steering function.

Xiang Shan now only wanted it to make its way to ‘Donkey’, not expecting it to autonomously avoid enemies like ‘Donkey’, but simply to get there first.

After sending away that treasured blade, Xiang Shan again perused those Demon Sect secret manuals.

In the meantime, he supplemented Yuki with some basics in mathematics and engineering.

A few hours later, Xiang Shan roughly understood the Demon Sect’s approach.

It was pretty much as he had guessed.

Since the human brain still possesses structural advantages that computers cannot match, the Demon Sect focused on exploring how these mathematical advantages are formed and generated, and how to further enhance these advantages through brain modification.

Gleayard represented one direction.

As is well known, humans and other mammals generally rely on the neocortex for thinking.

The Squamata-Aves class lacks the neocortex, but the corpus striatum of birds, which has evolved continuously since the age of dinosaurs, also possesses functions similar to the neocortex.

Highly intelligent birds like crows are even comparable to primates in intellect.

Simultaneously, the ganglia of the Cephalopods, particularly the Octopoda, also hold potential.

Octopuses, for example, are exceptionally smart.

The branch of the Demon Sect that Gleayard came into contact with, “the envoys under the command of Water earthworm,” was responsible for the “Cephalopod Ganglia” project.

That is, by creating a structure similar to the corpus callosum, integrating a network of independently thinking cephalopod ganglia into the human brain, making it a part of the human “whole brain.”

Of course, exactly how that cephalopod body, which could connect to the human brain without causing any immune reaction, was cultivated was beyond what Gleayard and his people knew.

What they got were the ‘organ discs’ of cephalopod limbs – a structure similar to the ‘imago discs’ inside the bodies of holometabolous insect larvae, which can be seen as the ‘seeds’, ’embryos’ of ‘organs’.

Gleayard had only received the transformation surgery.

According to Water earthworm’s plan, Gleayard would still need to undergo extensive cognitive training, operate certain Inner Strength used to test the performance of biological brains, and so forth…

If they hadn’t met Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan sighed in relief.

There indeed existed various techniques for brain surgery, and the standards were not just “good enough.”

The Demon Sect was indeed seriously exploring the limits of human brain power.

“There might be a cure for the girl’s illness now.” Xiang Shan breathed a sigh of relief.

It was just uncertain whether there was enough time.

He could only stay there for two more days at most.

Two days might not be sufficient for him to absorb this knowledge and design a viable surgical plan.

Xiang Shan shifted his attention to the last item sent by the Demon Sect.

It was said to be the so-called “Reopen Heaven and Earth, to form an entity of its own” memory.

Little Poison Insect did not load these memories into his own hard drive, so Xiang Shan did not know what was recorded inside.

But, Little Poison Insect was very fervent about this memory.

It seemed there really was something inside that could impact memory.

After comparing the memories of Gleayard and Little Poison Insect, he noticed that Little Poison Insect changed completely after getting the stuff in this hard drive, increasingly immersing himself in researching Demon Sect techniques.

Xiang Shan couldn’t help but be cautious.

However, he still needed to look at it.