By now, Feng Xue had no time to think. His entire body spun like a top—arms, shoulders, knees... sword edges flickered in and out from every part of him, like an out-of-control meat grinder, weaving a curtain of deathly blades through the cramped server room!
“Clang-clang-clang-clang—!”
Sparks dense as a torrential downpour exploded madly through the air! Though he could not understand why any cybernetic body would be fitted with a weapon that sprang out from the back of the neck, as a member of Umbrella Corporation’s rapid response unit, his combat training still allowed him to withstand that storm of blows.
Naturally, he had not come alone. As a rapid response squad chiefly responsible for all kinds of emergencies, their four-man team had arrived on-site within ten minutes of receiving the alarm. It was just that the other party had already penetrated deep into the server room; if they fought directly, it would likely cause the company considerable losses.
In truth, this sort of situation should have been handled by a hacker. Unfortunately, the person inside had not only no wireless transmission capability, he had not even installed the most basic brain-computer interface. That was why he had been forced to attempt an assassination himself.
But the fact that the other party had detected his stealth was enough to show that this was no savage too poor to afford even a brain-computer interface, but a thoroughly powerful enemy! No—strictly speaking, the fact that he had been able to kill his way through the security robots and reach the server room within ten minutes had already proven he was no ordinary opponent!
Amid the continuous storm of blades, the assassin could no longer maintain that slow stealth. As his movements intensified, his transparent, distorted outline inevitably became more prominent.
Yet the assassin showed not the slightest worry. The invisibility effect of his [Illusionist] was only the tip of the iceberg of its true power. The ability to switch between real and false, combined with his own martial techniques—that was the true terror of this cybernetic body...
“Archive!”
“What?” A meaningless phrase in the Great Yan tongue suddenly rang beside the Illusionist’s ear. Immediately after came an intense burning pain that covered his entire body in an instant.
That sensation, as though every inch of skin had been stripped from his body, was so similar to the postoperative recovery period after he had installed [Illusionist] back then—yet it was at least fifty times more painful than it had been then!
However, the problem he faced was far from as simple as pain. From his combat style to his auxiliary implants and even the plugins in his brain, everything about him had been built around the quasi-five-star cybernetic body [Illusionist]. The instant [Illusionist] collapsed, nearly every implant in his body reported errors at the same time. Before he could issue any new command, that head, dangling with pale synthetic muscle and scraps of flesh, had already been cut off with a single sword stroke.
“So it was skin. That contact surface is way too large!”
A chilling smile hung on Feng Xue’s face, but his eyes were fixed firmly on the doorway. There, two figures had already charged in!
Or rather, they had charged in as early as the moment Feng Xue saw through the assassin’s stealth. Unfortunately, the assassin had died far too quickly, so when that head rolled to the floor, they had only just rushed into the server room!
Of the two, one was covered head to toe in armor, with two pairs of enormous mantis blades gleaming coldly from his arms. The other, however, was tucked behind him, wearing a tactical trench coat and showing no obvious signs of cybernetic modification, appearing utterly harmless.
The results of Feng Xue’s multi-opponent sparring with the iron-man dummy showed themselves at this moment. The instant he realized there were more enemies, just as he had countless times kicked up the metal rods scattered from the iron-man dummy, he kicked the assassin’s skinless, headless corpse into the air.
Only now had the assault trooper closed the distance to just over five meters. Seeing this, he immediately let out a low growl. The mantis blades on both arms turned into a bright silver net of blades, shredding the corpse apart as, within that rain of blood, they completely enveloped Feng Xue!
Fast! Heavy! Dense!
That clear ringing of the blades was proof of their high-frequency vibration!
A longsword stabbed out from his palm. Before it had fully left his body, Feng Xue was already swinging it.
“Clang! Clang! Clang—!”
Every collision burst out with great showers of sparks. Even with the strength of Dam alloy, facing high-frequency vibrating weapons, it could only be cut into fragments.
Fortunately, the Sword of Hell was not unable to fight without a sword. Sword intent surged, and streams of sword qi shot out. Though the consumption was several times greater, he ultimately still managed to knock those mantis blades aside.
“Swish!”
All of a sudden, the assassin, now reduced to nothing but a dead head, erupted with a burst of intense light from both eyes. The assault trooper, however, seemed to have predicted this long ago, using that instant to close in once more!
The rapid response unit was basically equipped with full sets of four-star systems paired with quasi-five-star units. Their base stats were far beyond what this body of the Demon Sword could compare to. This “quasi-five-star” was not some “half-step five-star” realm-tax implant, but referred to cybernetic bodies independently developed by the company, still in the experimental stage and not yet publicly registered. The only thing separating them from five-star was a bit of usage data, that was all (Note ①)!
Facing such an almost unavoidable charge, Feng Xue suddenly spoke—
“Nigerundayo!”
Before the sound of his words had even spread, Feng Xue’s movements changed. The mantis blade sweeping up toward him from the front became slow and clear in his eyes. He could even see the layered afterimages of the trembling blade edge!
What Nigerundayo enhanced was not merely speed. While his brainpower rapidly swelled, he made a clear judgment about his current situation. All manner of thoughts in his mind were instantly integrated, and the strategic objective he needed to achieve next became clear.
Without the slightest hesitation, as he avoided the blade edge, the skill that had just finished its cooldown lit up again!
[Spinosaurus Form]
Activate!
Feng Xue’s body completed the transformation with almost no process at all. His spine lengthened, his arms bent forward, his waist and back hunched over, and his vertebrae jutted like bony spines. On top of the noble independent multiplier bracket of “Nigerundayo,” his dynamic vision and neural reflexes soared madly once more!
The ultimate multiplicative agility!
The assault trooper only saw a “monster” trailing afterimages circle around to his flank with speed and agility that defied common sense. That absurd speed even caused his biological brain to freeze for an instant. Fortunately, his electronic brain smoothly took over the work. As his body twisted, he forcibly used his subdermal armor to block that fatal surprise attack.
When Feng Xue’s strike failed to land, he immediately began to circle. The sword qi around him was like the claws and fangs of a spinosaurus, aiming at every vital point on the enemy’s body.
Nigerundayo still had twenty-eight seconds left, and Spinosaurus Form only lasted three minutes. His spine suddenly curled, then shot out violently like a compressed spring. At this moment, when he held the advantage in speed, he decisively gave up on this assault trooper, who was both ridiculously tanky and dealt high damage, and set his target on the fellow who had seemed to be watching the show ever since entering the room!
However, the small man he had chosen as his target was actually smiling!
Yes, the reason he had stood here and deliberately exposed an opening was precisely to lure Feng Xue over!
“No wireless interface, huh? Flesh source energy, huh? Then try my mental virus!”
As early as the moment he discovered that there was no way to implant a virus through conventional means, the hacker had already formulated a plan. Though his access deck was only four-star, with the help of mental source energy, it was enough to convert a virus that could only infect electronic devices into a mental plague transmissible through the receptive organ known as the eye!
Direct influence from source energy would provoke resistance—but source-energy derivatives would not!
“Die for me! Synaptic Burnout!”
Note ①: Though that is what’s being said, that “little bit” of difference is still enough to create a whole tier of disparity. Don’t underestimate usage data. Cybernetic bodies can be understood like computers: good hardware alone isn’t enough; the software has to keep up too. It’s like Old Jiang’s theory of sovereign, minister, assistant, and envoy. Without suitable software, it’s like a Gundam without an OS—it simply can’t bring out its combat power.
For example, when you swing a blade, how much assistance should the implant provide so that it saves you effort instead of becoming hard to control? At what range should joint mobility be capped so that it doesn’t tear blood vessels or damage nerves? If you crouch and raise your hand at the same time, will there be some kind of linked-action bug? All of these have to be considered.
You can think of one of the worst pistols in the world, the Nambu Type 14. It was clearly copied from the Luger, a good gun, but because of a few tiny details, it became trash that would drop its magazine when used to shoot someone and jam when used for suicide. That is what happens when something is mass-produced without collecting usage data first. As for why they didn’t change it later... once it’s already in mass production, the cost of changing the production line is enough to make one think twice.
So high-grade cybernetic bodies like these, which are most likely designed for an elite route and cannot be tested on a large scale like low-level implants, definitely have to undergo internal testing. Even if the test version has hardware completely identical to the finished product, its actual power will still differ greatly. So-called quasi-five-star can be understood as having five-star hardware, but not the corresponding software.
PS1: In addition, this chapter also contains a small hint, enough to explain a piece of foreshadowing that many people have been wondering about all along. But if you still can’t see it, then there’s nothing I can do, since I can’t spoil it.
PS2: Source-energy derivatives not being subject to source-energy resistance is pretty easy to understand. For example, if flesh source energy turns a prosthetic limb into flesh and it is transplanted to another source-energy user, that is feasible.