Chapter 8 The Seas Change Into Mulberry Fields, The Enemy Remains

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Yuki sat in a restrained manner in front of Xiang Shan. For some reason, he felt that the "Yog" in front of him seemed different.

Humans are born with the ability to convey their emotions in ways other than declarative language. It's like a natural compiler. People can translate their emotions into a cryptic code of gestures, expressions, demeanour, and tone, and the method to decode this cryptic code is also embedded in the human brain.

And it was from these various details that Yuki read such information—that "Yog" had changed.

Yuki himself was unaware of this decoding process. He just felt uneasy. His room was in disarray, as if a storm had swept through it. All kinds of parts had been rudely dug out. The dog was lying on the only table, with its chest and the back of its head open.

"Sorry about that, kid," Yiang Shan scratched his head, "I got a bit out of control just now... I've made quite a mess here."

He currently had a kettle lid on his head. Cybermen don't need additional structures like breathing or esophagus on their heads, so the location of the biological brain is lower than that of Natural Person, leaving cranial space for electronic components. But Xiang Shan had lost all his electronic devices, and with nothing but the biological brain inside, his skull was empty, with the brain-machine interface directly exposed.

He was quite afraid of static electricity causing dust to get in.

Looking at the head with a kettle lid on it, Yuki couldn't manage to keep a serious face.

"Do you remember anything, Yog?" Yuki asked.

Xiang Shan nodded.

He hesitated for a moment. Yuki was a Cyberman, which meant that his memory might not belong only to him—Xiang Shan didn't know what the current era's enhancement surgeries were like, whether they would leave a backdoor for monitoring in the brain.

He also didn't know what status his enemies held in this world or whether revealing his own name would bring danger.

After a long time, he finally spoke, "Yuki, I'm going to tell you some things. You must not tell anyone this. Otherwise, it could very well put you and your mother in danger, do you understand? Of course, you can also choose not to listen, I won't force you…"

An anxious look appeared on Yuki's face. But soon, excitement overcame his anxiety: "You remember, don't you? You were somebody important before, right? You have powerful enemies…"

Xiang Shan sighed and pressed down on Yuki's head. After a few months together, he realized that the boy had always been overly curious. His face serious, he said, "If you really want to listen, then you have to swear not to tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you. Can you do that?"

"I can!" Yuki nodded excitedly.

Xiang Shan sighed. Now, he had no one else to trust. If he wanted to gather information, he had to start with this young lad.

Xiang Shan began, "Yuki, have you heard the name 'Xiang Shan' before?"

"'Xiang Shan'... So, your name is 'Shan'?" The boy was thrilled: "'Xiang Shan,' it sounds very impressive!"

Xiang Shan was somewhat baffled. His grandfather had chosen the name, and it didn't have any special significance. But in his era, this name should have been recognized by everyone...

—My name, has it been forgotten?

—Has such a major historical event already vanished from human consciousness? The event that changed the entire course of Earth's evolutionary history...

—Just how long have I been asleep?

Xiang Shan gripped Yuki's shoulders: "Do you really not remember anything? About this name? Even something with a similar pronunciation would do—do you know anything about this name? Titles like 'Xiang Shan the Insurmountable,' 'Unshakeable Mountain,' anything like that?"

Yuki shook his head.

Xiang Shan collapsed onto Yuki's bed. For some reason, Yuki felt that Xiang Shan had suddenly become very dejected.

"Xiang Shan, were you very famous before?" Yuki asked curiously: "I've never heard of you, is it such a blow to you?"

Xiang Shan nodded: "I used to be very famous... Perhaps everyone in the world knew my name?"

"Ha, you're bluffing. The 'whole world'?" Yuki laughed unkindly: "You're not the Paralympics champion! Why don't you say what great things you did before?"

Xiang Shan held his head: "Still can't remember."

Though he had recalled his name and some other things, he still couldn't remember the events he had been through.

Xiang Shan probably knew the reason. In pursuit of the pinnacle of martial arts... In pursuit of the limit of biological brain performance, he had transferred all declarative memories that could be losslessly converted into machine language to an external information storage device. In his brain, only non-declarative memories, which couldn't be precisely converted, and pure knowledge remained.

He had lost too much.

Even if the memories in the biological brain could still be awakened, the physically lost information storage device couldn't be found anymore.

Now, all he could remember was his name, his enemy's name, and all other technical data.

Xiang Shan was somewhat lost: "Hey, Yuki, if you guys no longer remember 'Xiang Shan'... then what about the name 'Yawgmoth Voigt'?"

Yuki vigorously searched his memory drives for the word, but still came up empty. He shook his head and looked at Xiang Shan with some concern.

"It's strange, if they've forgotten my name, surely they couldn't have forgotten him as the 'victor,' right?" Xiang Shan had a puzzled look on his face: "Could it be that I haven't just been asleep for decades, but millennia?"

Yuki laughed heartily: "Xiang Shan, have you gone mad? Even a fully enhanced brain's cells can't hibernate for decades without nutrients. You must have been thrown in there five or six years ago at most!"

At this, the boy stopped laughing: "In that case, your relatives and friends might still be alive! Now that you've regained your memory, maybe you can…"

"I can't even remember what they look like…" Xiang Shan shook his head, his expression lost: "Who they are, I don't remember at all."

He fell into confusion once again.

"Hey, Yuki, what year is it?"

"What year... you mean that..." Yuki thought for a moment: "209?"

"The year 209 AD?" Xiang Shan was stunned: "AD?"

"What's AD?" Yuki shook his head: "You say such strange things."

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"Yuki, do you know if any significant historical events happened during this year— or to say, during 001?"

The young man shook his head, "I only remember there was a historical event called the Sublimation War in 03..."

"Sublimation... War..."

He had no impression of these words at all.

Humans had completely forgotten the Anno Domini system and adopted a brand new way of dating. Had he slept for 209 years? No, that seemed a bit too far-fetched. His brain cells definitely could not survive 209 years without ingesting any substance.

Or was it that this "New Era" started at his time, but later people redefined the era using a historical event he knew about?

For example, modern people are used to calling "World War II" the "Sublimation War"...

——Haha... Impossible...

Xiang Shan laughed at his own thoughts.

That feeling of a buggy prosthetic eye surfaced again.

Truly, judging by the junkyard upon which Recycling Station Town relied for survival, the Sublimation War must have taken place in the information age.

Xiang Shan's slumber lasted longer than he had imagined.

Why had he come back to life?

His rebirth seemed to have no purpose. His own name had been buried by the sands of history, and it seemed his enemies had met the same fate. No one remembered either of them anymore. Yet in such circumstances, he was still recalling the name of his enemy, awakening from a pile of scrap.

Why?

——No, that's not right.

Xiang Shan said to himself.

"Yog and I were from the same batch... the same batch of what... damn, I can't remember. Our biological parts used the same technology. If I could still be alive, then there's even less reason for him to be dead."

"Moreover, this twisted world... Earth becoming like this now, it absolutely has a huge connection with the so-called 'history-altering event' in my memory!"

Xiang Shan clenched his fist unconsciously.

"Even if only my head remains... I have to know, who exactly I am, what exactly happened while I was asleep. I must... I must..."

"Xiang Shan..." Yuki shook Xiang Shan's hand.

"Oh? What? Sorry, I was lost in thought."

"I'm sorry..." Yuki said with his head lowered, "I'm too ignorant. If I knew about your past, you wouldn't be so sad, right?"

"No, it's my fault," Xiang Shan shook his head and smiled, "Who made me not famous enough?"

"Were you just thinking about your family and friends from the past?"

"No..." Xiang Shan shook his head. After pondering, he said, "I'm about to tell you a secret, a really big secret. If you find it too frightening, I will leave this place right away..."

Yuki became anxious again, "What is it?"

"I just remembered something, apart from my name, I also remembered my identity." Xiang Shan looked at the dog lying on the table, "Unfortunately, kid, I'm not the athlete you admire. I am a hero—a very formidable hero."

"So you are... what?" Yuki's face froze, "A hero?"

He stared at Xiang Shan, "A hero?"

Xiang Shan nodded, his tone serious, "And a very formidable one at that."

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As the festive atmosphere gradually dissipated—or to put it another way, when the noise of street brawls began to fade away—the doorbell at the home of Dresden Schultz, the Town Mayor's nephew, rang.

Mr. Schultz was a heavily modified person. His entire face had been replaced by metal, with flat eyes, an abstract earnest expression, permanently affixed as decoration on his head—rumored to be the visage of some ancient mechanical hero.

When Xiang Shan saw someone with the face of Iron Man coming to open the door, he was utterly confused.

Luckily, Yuki had no idea about the "Iron Man" stuff. He jumped up and called out, "Doctor, doctor, Xiang... I mean 'Shan' needs some parts. He heard you had them, so here he is. He now wants to build himself a..."

"Hold on, kid, you're too excited," Xiang Shan placed his hand on Yuki's shoulder, "Doctor Schultz, right? I might need to make a more convenient prosthetic body for myself, but I am indeed lacking quite a few parts. I've heard that your parts are the most comprehensive in town."

Doctor Schultz nodded, "I understand. Please come inside."

He unlocked the door chain, allowing Xiang Shan and Yuki into his house. Yuki darted in, took a few steps, and even turned his head to give the doctor a look full of both 'showing off' and 'the desire to show off but unable to' emotions.

Doctor Schultz scratched his head, "This is the first time I've seen the kid so excited..."

"Maybe he's overly excited," Xiang Shan explained, "I just remembered some... things from the past. I told him as a way of thanking him for saving my life, if he could help me out in the future, I would be willing to teach him some skills."

Doctor Schultz grew wary, "Repairs?"

He knew this man had some knowledge of repairs.

The town only needed one doctor. The Schultz family already had three children and was planning for another one. If the next child didn't get into the Human Gene Bank, the doctor hoped to raise all four children as elites. There was only a need for one doctor in a town. His children wouldn't be enough to go around, so how could he let others encroach?

"It could be some simple repairs, or it could be other skills," Xiang Shan patted the doctor's shoulder, "Of course, my skills are no match for yours!"