Chapter 6: The Martial Arts of the Cyborg

The man felt the vibration in his calf. He knew a dog had grabbed his leg, but he was not worried at all.

When he had struck with his elbow a moment ago, he remembered something else, something very important.

— All External Martial Arts Techniques follow the principles of Newtonian mechanics.

Human technology had not yet reached the stage where humanoid prosthetic bodies could move at sub-light speed, nor did it possess subatomic machines, so there was no need to consider what Einstein or Bohr had said.

An object remains at rest or moves at constant velocity unless acted upon by a net external force.

When an object is subjected to a net external force, it accelerates; the acceleration is in the same direction as the net external force and is directly proportional to the magnitude of the force and inversely proportional to the object's inertial mass.

Forces occur in pairs; the action and reaction forces between two objects are equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and lie along the same line.

In battle with the dog, the man also gradually recalled the commonly used strategies of the Bionic Fist Technique. He knew that the dog's top priority would be to roll over and bite the opponent's legs, which is why he took another step forward.

He used a solid metal stick for his shinbone and, lacking natural human pain nerves, he was not afraid of being bitten, nor would he experience muscle contraction due to pain that could hinder exerting force.

During the elbow strike to the dog, the man had already used his Prosthetic Eye to calculate the dog's speed and then simply calculated the dog's mass based on the formula F=ma. He also calculated the dog's center of mass based on the body's response to the hit.

Even several possible structures of the dog's prosthetic body had appeared in his mind.

The mass of the dog was very light, and his body weight was much greater than the dog's. Considering density, it was not possible that the dog's body contained a heavy element fission reactor powering it.

Since the dog's body weight and power were limited, it was doomed not to be able to disrupt the man's balance in a short time.

Thus, the man let the dog bite down.

The dog sensed something was wrong and tried to let go, but the prepared man quickly closed his legs—two steel pillars clamped the dog's mouth and chest. The man raised his right hand and hammered down with his fist.

The dog's prosthetic skin showed a mocking expression, and its claw precisely pressed on the man's wrist. With a "crack," the man's wrist was severely deformed.

— To actually add extra weight to the ends of its claws to increase the lethality of the strike?

The man was both shocked and furious. This was straying from the original intention of the Bionic Fist Technique.

To use a weak prosthetic body, even if it meant arming oneself weakly and facing a powerful enemy in a vulnerable stance—such a Brave's fist… such a Brave's fist! It was not meant to be used this way!

The dog attempted an attack on the hydraulic system in the legs. The man released his pinch on the dog. The dog immediately flipped and leapt toward the man's chest.

— Stop! Stop!

— By using it this way… you are merely insulting the spirits of the Righteous Warriors!

The man felt his brain boil. The cheap chips were about to burn up, and his soul was also about to burn up.

He could not suppress the memories that surged forth.

When he came to his senses, he had already thrown the dog with a punch.

But the dog was still unharmed, and it even had his "skull," which didn't fit its brain, in its mouth.

The man's completely empty cranium was exposed.

Yaningping narrowed his eyes and quietly asked the Secretary Officer, "Is this man a Hero?"

The brief series of attack and defense by that man had already caught his attention.

"But his movements can't be categorized under any Boxing Technique, just like an outsider," analyzed the Secretary Officer. "Moreover, there's only a drive chip in his skull—he can't practice any Internal Martial Arts. A Hero wouldn't let himself come to a state where he loses his Inner Strength. The moment they lose their Inner Strength, they would choose to die."

"But his modification rate is really very high. Except for his brain, everything else is a prosthetic—although the prosthetics are quite shoddy."

"Perhaps he is simply a Martial Artist who only practices External Sect, without any access to Internal Cultivation Techniques," speculated the Secretary Officer. "Maybe he was defeated in battle, losing all his Martial Arts Algorithms, Experience Accumulation. But his talent is truly terrifying; he seems to be predicting purely with his biological brain… How is that done?"

Yaningping nodded. An understandable matter. The Dyson principle prohibited directly killing humans; anyone who did such a thing was deemed to have lost "Protection." But conversely, as long as the biological brain was not destroyed, anything was permissible.

The man had clearly lost his original storage, but his Brain-Machine Barrier was still intact.

"A dispute among martial artists," Yaningping thought, and he was not interested in delving further.

Martial Artists were such lowly beings. They couldn't access Internal paths; even if they practiced External Sect Techniques well, they were nothing but half a Puppet.

Now, he became more interested in the man still fighting.

Now, the battle between the man and the dog had reached a critical moment. Once again, the man threw off the dog. It adjusted its posture in mid-air, spread its four legs on landing, then tensed its limbs and lowered its body.

"This stance…"

A bolt of lightning flashed through the man's mind. He recalled more information, the underlying design of the Bionic Fist's Imitation Beast Path, and the development process of this technique…

Before his consciousness began to process, algorithms had already captured the stirring judgments within his nerves.

The man went backward as if his waist had snapped.

— Again like this…

The dog angrily bared its teeth. For some reason, since a while ago, it had felt that this man using a junk prosthetic body could predict its attacks, planning his own actions a second in advance. This guy was obviously slower than him, but...

And before the thought was fully formed, a black shadow had already appeared.

It was the man's right leg.

The man had leaned backward in advance, his body and leg forming a kind of marvelous mechanical balance.

In the twinkling of an eye, a structure resembling an industrial fixture sprang from the man's left calf, supporting itself on the ground.

——All force obeys Newtonian mechanics... A force can be decomposed into countless component forces... These component forces could be transferred through the structure, offloaded onto the earth...

The fixture provided stable support. The spherical joint at the man's hip twisted, and the fully charged hydraulic actuator released instantly.

With a "boom"!

For the first time, the dog felt what it was like to be hit by an industrial prosthesis.

The fixture scraped across the ground, emitting a shrill explosive noise. As the man's kick sent the dog flying, he had only turned halfway. The kick's final destination landed on a stun baton. The man kicked the stun baton up into his hand.

As the man retracted his leg, the fixture snapped off with a "crack", but the man didn't mind. It had already served its purpose.

The townspeople let out disappointed sighs.

The dust settled. The dog had landed on the edge of the circle.

Just a bit more, and the man would have won.

So far, only a minute had passed.

"Hehe... hahahaha!" An annoyed laughter emanated from inside the dog. This laughter contained no relief; it only served to inform others that the owner of the laughter was angry. The dog's mouth opened to one hundred eighty degrees... no, following the arc of the mouth, the dog's entire skull had opened up.

Behind this dog's face, there was actually another human face hidden.

Nausea.

If the man still had a digestive tract, he would definitely vomit.

This was no longer just a matter of "desecrating the soul of a righteous warrior." It was even stepping on the dignity of humans as a species, trampling it brutally underfoot.

The man was certain, the Bionic Fist agents of his time would not commit such despicable acts. They merely placed their brains inside the abdominal cavity of animal prosthetic bodies, using the sensory organs that the animal bodies naturally had.

Why keep this face? Was it to remind others that this dog was once a human, now forsaken dignity, hence more valuable than ordinary dogs?

The face inside the dog's mouth, annoyed, looked at the ragged prosthetic body in front of it, "Country bumpkin, you've got some skills. State your name!"

——Name... name...

Between firing neurons, a spark erupted. Yes, name. The name he had used when fighting side by side with righteous warriors and heroes...

How could he forget? How could he wear the name of his enemies...

"'Mountain'." The man uttered the name he had just recalled, his real name.

"Xiang Shan's" mountain.

"Xiang Shan, insurmountably high" of Xiang Shan.

"'Mountain', is it? Feel honored. I, Will Grand Douge, will remember the humiliation you gave me and will treat you as a Martial Artist. My next move will start by destroying your battery, then I will tear off your left hand, followed by your right hand. After that, the spherical joints in your legs..."

As the dog recounted, the skin on the back of his body slowly swelled and opened, revealing two symmetrical intake and exhaust ports on either side of his body.

The proximity of his biological brain to the power mechanism, and the denaturation of proteins at high temperatures, were also fatal to him. To unleash the true power of the prosthetic body, he had to shed his disguise and activate the cooling system.

As the dog described, an image of a Master of Bionic Fist demonstrating surfaced in Xiang Shan's mind. He grasped the stun baton with his intact prosthetic hand, adopting a stance from swordsmanship to confront the enemy.

——The reflexes of a biological brain are difficult to keep up with the actions of a modern prosthetic body. So at this moment, trust in one's judgment, trust the memories in one's mind, trust the "Martial Soul" that remains from one's past...

"Hoo—"

The black shadow had already arrived in front of him instantaneously. Xiang Shan raised the stun baton. However, unexpectedly, he did not choose to block in front of the battery. His prosthetic body, after all, was made of scrap and couldn't directly compete with a Martial Artist's specialized prosthetic body.

The paw broke through Xiang Shan's stance, striking the battery.

A small explosion.

In that moment, Xiang Shan felt the energy in his body's circuits rapidly depleting... depleting...

Uncontrollable memories flowed out once more. And this time, memory and reality seemed to merge.

A hand... a massive hand, with a magnetic field constrained plasma, tore open "his" chest, extracting the Pseudo Star Device...

At that time...

Xiang Shan thrust the stun baton upward.

Will's mouth bit into the arm of "Mountain's" left hand.

Then, the stun baton was thrust along the intake port.

In an instant, electrical light enveloped both of them.