Chapter 31 Overwhelming

When the houses collapsed with a thunderous crash, the townsfolk watched in awe. Had they not already entrusted their vital functions to programs, most of them would likely have forgotten to breathe at this moment.

Such is the power of Martial Arts.

These impoverished people had no means to contend with thugs. Highly specialized, cumbersome Industrial Prostheses were no threat to real Martial Artists.

Thus, they truly felt it—in the eyes of a Martial Artist, they were no more than ants.

The so-called "self-defense," the so-called "preparations," now seemed somewhat laughable.

As everyone watched Lev slice a house in two with a single blow from his staff, all thoughts ceased. Even the homeowner had no time to lament his property.

Despair was the only thing they felt.

But the next moment, the long staff howled through the air again.

The battle had not ceased.

As the Fierce Wave cut through a house, Xiang Shan had already rolled to one side.

The Bionic Fist Technique · Imitation Beast Path specializes in ground combat, with a very low center of gravity and stable movement. However, Xiang Shan was using a humanoid prosthetic, which wasn't suitable for beast-like movements, so he couldn't fully utilize the speed advantage.

But that couldn't be helped.

The Bionic Fist Technique he had extracted from that dog's brain was the only Martial Arts Algorithm in Xiang Shan's possession. He might remember many Martial Arts Algorithms, but the only one he could utilize was this Martial Art.

His Prosthetic Body's output was far below the enemy's, his speed was only comparable, and his defensive capability was even less worth mentioning. If that steel rod hit him directly, Xiang Shan would undoubtedly die.

But unexpectedly, Xiang Shan no longer carried the fervor of a man resigned to death. Even the impulse of righteous indignation gradually faded away.

The dead are to be respected, there's no need to be angry at someone who's about to die.

Xiang Shan was certain that the scales of victory were tipping in his favor.

Lev twisted his wrists, redirecting the counterforce from his steel rod to his advantage. With the rod tracing a large circle above his head, it suddenly transformed into a sword-like strike, and descended fiercely upon Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan's response was to plant his feet and, with no intention of retreating, instead charged toward Lev.

A longer weapon had the advantage, but conversely, a long weapon also needed sufficient space to wield.

A few feet from Lev was outside of the three-meter-long staff's attack range!

Lev shuffled his feet and with a strong pull on the staff, his hands slid down its length, instantly repositioning them from the end to the middle of the staff.

Unexpectedly, Xiang Shan did not launch an attack. He simply rolled on the spot, stabilized himself with one hand, and flashed behind Lev.

He was observing.

Xiang Shan knew that ordinary attacks were meaningless.

"Certain information" within his consciousness flowed out, rapidly twisting the convoluted experience of the original owner of the Martial Arts Algorithm.

The attack-focused Bionic Fist Technique already diverged significantly from its original codes and design philosophy, to the point of deviation from "Martial Arts" itself and was edging toward the "left path."

The core design concept of Cyber Martial Arts has always been "Assassination Tactics."

For Natural Persons, every strike in hand-to-hand combat might have significance. A broken rib could make it difficult for the opponent to breathe. A heavy blow to any nerve cluster in the face could affect the enemy's thinking. Sensitive nerves in the lower body, if hit, could cause shock. Moreover, bleeding from wounds could cause a significant loss of physical strength.

Even a bruise on the muscles could hinder the enemy's ability to exert force.

Therefore, in Natural Person hand-to-hand combat, "offense" is a high-value strategy.

But Cybermen are different. For them, as long as the external Armor has not reached metal fatigue, accumulating minor damage is essentially meaningless. And those vulnerabilities akin to design flaws would not exist in a Cybermen.

Killing a Cyberman is not that simple.

The enemies supposed by the design of Martial Arts were initially the "Tyrants." Such individuals would possess abundant resources. They could repair themselves with the finest medicine and prosthetics, protect themselves with the most powerful weapons and mercenaries. Heroes often only had one opportunity to strike.

Cyber Martial Arts are "Assassination Techniques." All techniques, all strategy sets ultimately aim to "execute a set of effective attacks in the shortest possible time."

Xiang Shan had not remembered this. Stepping on his opponent's weapon was "reckless."

So he paid the price with an arm.

But now he remembered.

So he felt confident he would not lose.

For Assassination Techniques, the most important "fatal attack" had already been launched. Xiang Shan was absolutely sure that the information he returned with "With His Own Way" from the Three Dragon-Slaying Moves was nothing good.

Although he didn't know what Command the other party used, what effect it had, or the parameters of the enemy's drive chip, and when the error would occur, Xiang Shan was certain that the moment would not be too far off.

And until that moment arrived, all he had to do was to trip up this giant...

The long staff whooshed past. Xiang Shan dodged by stepping aside.

To trip up this giant, to simply prevent him from harming others.

—This person's Martial Arts were inferior to his own.

Xiang Shan made such an assessment.

When the performance of the prosthetic was overwhelmingly superior, the importance of offense over defense was unquestioned. That was alright. But this giant's Martial Arts were not so impressive.

Xiang Shan shifted, sprung up with his legs, and as Lev clasped and twisted his hands, the spear came out like a dragon, its cold glint like shattered stars hurtling toward him.

Xiang Shan, however, twisted his body to the side, barely dodging the three thrusts aimed at his chest, while the prosthetic hand attached to his back was ripped off.

Like a cannonball, the steel arm demolished a house and then pierced through a wall behind it.

But the damaged prosthetic hand was no longer capable of moving flexibly. That was just as well.

His center of gravity was slightly off, but it was merely a matter of adjusting the parameters of the calculation.

For a true Martial Artist, such a task could be accomplished with a mere thought.

—That's right, he's not as good as me.

Xiang Shan thought to himself.

Utilizing the force transmitted from his severed arm, Xiang Shan changed his footwork, spinning a few times, and quickly found himself on Lev's side.

After the momentum of Lev's spear technique had dissipated, he switched moves, sweeping his stick horizontally along the ground to create a fan-shaped area.

This move was lower than usual, aiming at Xiang Shan who was down on the ground. Gravitational acceleration wasn't much of an advantage for cyber soldiers. If Xiang Shan were to jump and jumped just a bit too high, he would be met with a flurry of attacks before he could even land.

However, Lev's prosthetic body stood three meters tall. Even though the power components that Cybermen used to generate force were much more flexible than muscles, they were still confined by physical limits. This was not the optimal way to exert force. Thus, the power of this stick strike was not that terrifying. Xiang Shan merely needed to leap half a foot before the long stick reached him.

Lev suddenly stood upright, and once again, his long stick shifted into a spear technique, flicking upwards as if to set the heavens ablaze.

But Xiang Shan simply kicked sideways at the stick with one leg, shifted his body horizontally, and wasn't sent flying.

His other leg stored power in the air and as he landed, he hit the ground and rolled, dodging an immediate piercing attack.

He had never seen SSC's Three-in-One Combat Stick before. It must have been a Martial Art that developed during the time he was dormant.

But Xiang Shan understood the underlying code and design principles of swordsmanship, spear skill, and stick technique—he grasped all of it.

To Xiang Shan, this battle was even less dangerous than his fight with that dog.

At least when he was fighting Will Grand Duke, he was using a truly scrap prosthetic body. If Will's canine prosthetic body could score 100 points, then Lev's body could roughly score around 300 points.

And his prosthetic at that time... To say it was worth zero points might be an understatement, but even one and a half points would be overestimating it. At most, it was about one point.

Back then, his prosthetic's performance was nearly one hundred times inferior to Will's, whereas now the gap between him and Lev was only a few times.

Cyber Martial Arts were designed to overturn the strength of equipment.

Or rather, they were created to disrupt the strength of equipment with "data" and "algorithms."

Tyrants always possess the most powerful equipment—all Martial Arts are designed with this foundation in mind. Preparing to raise a flag of rebellion against tyranny implies readiness for such a challenge.

Not only that, a tyrant is sure to command a much larger army.

Technology has completely altered the face of the world. The communication among the people is limited by technology which supervises them, reducing the public's power to almost none, hidden in the shadows. The modern tyrants are better at dealing with the people than any past oppressors.

Therefore, the technology of "Martial Arts" had to be designed.

Storing and erasing information requires minimal energy, making it almost no-cost.

It can only be countered with such things.

It must be countered with such things.

Only the Martial Arts that can completely overturn the advantages of prosthetic bodies and the disparity in numbers qualifies as "Martial Arts."

If Lev's Martial Arts could be rated at one hundred points, what about Xiang Shan himself... one thousand? three thousand? ten thousand points?

Unclear. The only certainty was that he was superior to the enemy before him.

On this front, Xiang Shan's strength was beyond doubt.

He could even predict the enemy's movement a tenth of a second beforehand.

The weight of Inner Strength far exceeded that of external strength, and the different styles of External Martial Arts also had compatibility differences. For example, if Lev were an expert in the Firearms Path and the distance between them was over a kilometer, then Lev's Martial Arts, even if subpar, could cause Xiang Shan significant peril.

But ironically, he was part of the Combat Fighting Style, walking the path of "momentum and power."

If that were all, well and good.

If their roles were reversed, with Xiang Shan controlling Lev's prosthetic body and Lev controlling Xiang Shan's, then Xiang Shan would discard the varied moves from Lev's arsenal of great swords and long spears. He would grip the middle section of the long stick with both hands, continuously switching grips, and using both ends of the stick to attack, restricting all maneuvers to an extremely small area, never allowing the prosthetic legs a chance to exert themselves.

No, without the loss in the battle of Inner Strength, a Heavy Prosthetic body could simply outlast a Lightweight Prosthetic by utilizing more energy resources.

But by now, the fatal command had already been issued.

—This is bad...

If Xiang Shan's abundant mental activity was born from confidence in his victory, then Lev had only one thought left.

The enemy was more difficult to deal with than he had imagined. The computational resources expended in the Martial Arts struggle were higher than expected. The chip's temperature was rising far beyond projections.

But if he did not maintain this consumption...

[Why][haven't you killed][him yet]

A broken sentence intermittently came through from Vigorous Kui.

[Kill my ass! Prepare to run...]

At that moment, a set of heavy footsteps caught Lev's attention.