Chapter 66: Devil Sword – Visage of the Nukekubi
The hacker unleashed a virus attack he had used who knew how many times. Massive amounts of data were translated into mental encoding, and through that instant of eye contact, poured into Devil Sword’s brain.
And then…
“*Splurt!*”
Scalding blood mixed with steaming brain matter forced its way out, gushing from the hacker’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Yet his electronic secondary brain still conveyed the last thought his brain ever produced, spitting it out through vocal cords that had yet to lose function—
“He has Mental Source Energy! He’s a hacker!”
“*Thud!*”
That sound almost overlapped with the corpse hitting the ground. The assault specialist had finally arrived at this moment. Not mourning the hacker’s death for even a second, a pair of sharp mantis arm blades were already nearly pressed against Devil Sword’s lower back.
Except that in his 【Spinosaurus Form】, Devil Sword’s agility had reached an inconceivable level. In that brief interval between his skin sensing pressure and actually taking damage, he forcibly twisted his body.
A line of blood burst forth. A strike that should have cut through most of his body barely carved open a gash at Devil Sword’s waist and abdomen.
For a natural human, such damage would have been fatal within seconds. But the quality of Feng Xue’s Flesh Source Energy was so high that even if only his head remained, he could persist for a while!
Source energy surged. The sliced kidneys and abdominal area rapidly healed—no, rather than healing, it was more like a direct refresh!
Flesh Source Energy was just that kind of thing. Creation from nothing was impossible, but replacing “damaged internal organs” with “intact internal organs” was no harder than turning “mechanical internal organs” into flesh. In fact, because it did not involve material transformation, the consumption was even lower (Note 1).
Seeing that the situation had turned favorable once more, Feng Xue was about to turn around and deal the assault specialist a heavy blow when his vision abruptly went black. Only afterward did he hear an earth-shaking gunshot.
“Took you long enough?”
The assault specialist panted heavily, complaining all the while, yet his right arm swept across Devil Sword’s neck without pause, severing the head from the body—which now bore a gaping hole—before he finally let out a breath of relief.
Although the hacker had said before dying that he possessed Mental Source Energy, those flesh-converted robots and his previously displayed regenerative ability all indicated that the intensity of his Flesh Source Energy was extremely high. Facing a creature infamous for sheer tenacity, only completely destroying the brain could kill him for good.
However, this fellow’s abilities were truly bizarre; he didn’t seem like an ordinary thief. The brain had to be brought back, so as to compensate for the losses of this battle. Though once the head was removed, even if he weren’t dead…
“You guys have been fighting right in front of the mainframe the whole time. How was I supposed to shoot?”
The sniper also relaxed at this point. Walking into the server room while complaining, he grumbled that even if he hadn’t fired a single shot, it would merely be punishment. But if a single shot had destroyed the mainframe and caused the factory to stop production, he wouldn’t be able to afford the losses for several lifetimes, alright?
Fortunately, although the hacker had been arrogant, he had ultimately proven useful. Now they could only hope that this person’s brain contained a bit more…
At the very instant the two relaxed, the assault specialist suddenly felt a chill at his neck, followed by an inexplicably sinking field of vision, and that belated voice heard before losing consciousness—
“【Hell Forehead Sword!】”
“Damn it!”
The sniper was startled by the sight of sword light erupting from that forehead. The gun in his hand was already raised, but forget the speed of his draw—Devil Sword’s head, at this very moment when 【Nigerundayo】 and 【Spinosaurus Form】 had yet to end, was moving even faster than the most exaggeratedly overcharged bullet!
Impacting at close to ten times the speed of sound, even if Feng Xue had not used Hell Forehead Sword, it would have been enough to kill. The sniper practically exploded on the spot. But Feng Xue clearly had no time to waste.
The Rocket Headbutt’s displacement lasted only three seconds!
He had to make use of this final window of action!
It was also thanks to the massive agility boost from Spinosaurus Form that he could react and change direction while flying at nearly ten times the speed of sound. Relying on the Hell Sword, he shredded the corpses in the room mid-flight. Destroying the brains was secondary; the most important thing was, as expected, exposing all the prosthetics!
Changing direction once more through facial muscles, Devil Sword’s head grazed every prosthetic like a bowling ball. Whether fragments or remains, whether or not he heard an “Archive Ready” prompt, he simply madly repeated two words at a terrifying speech speed boosted by his enhancements—
“Archive!”
“Archive!”
“Archive!”
“*Smack!*”
Once the three seconds passed, 【Devil Sword: Visage of the Nukekubi】 fell to the ground with a splat. The effect of his Combat Continuation, which had yet to end, left him with a trace of consciousness. Gazing at the remains on the ground—which he couldn’t tell whether had been archived or simply shattered from failing to withstand the tenfold sonic impact—he channeled his remaining sword intent and delivered a final strike against his own head—
【Hell Brain-Crushing Sword!】
…
【Character death. Desynchronized.】
【Side Quest Complete: Destroy 20 Security Robots (117/20). Reward: Mechanical Sentinel.】
【Evacuation failed. Supplies lost.】
【Your reward, Mechanical Sentinel, has been issued. This package will be retained for 72 hours. Please claim it before the time limit expires.】
【You have unlocked the achievement: Discarding the Root for the Branches.】
“Phew…”
Feng Xue, who had transferred the vast majority of his consciousness onto Devil Sword in order to obtain the agility bonus, finally let out a sigh of relief. He began to settle the wave of exhaustion that followed high-intensity mental exertion. Although he knew he had gained quite a lot this time, he showed no intention of checking at the moment. Squeezing a tube of nutrient paste into his mouth, he threw himself onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
…
And right as Feng Xue was sleeping soundly, in the Ge Alliance, Ruiku City, Tower District, at the Ruiku City Branch of Parasol Company, inside the Grand Conference Hall, before a circular conference table, screens lit up one after another. Faces that could trigger massive waves with a single casual remark were all wearing somber expressions. As the final executive took their position, the screen representing the Ruiku Branch’s general manager displayed an unexpectedly young face that emitted a steady voice:
“Parimifa, explain the specific situation.”
“Very well.” As the only person physically present in the conference room, Parimifa, manager of the Ruiku Branch Security Department, sent the detailed reports to each executive while summarizing:
“Seventh Assembly Plant security robot losses: thirty-seven percent. Clear traces of Flesh Source Energy can be seen. Damage is concentrated in the middle-rear of the plant; the infiltrator likely exposed himself after sneaking in for a distance.
“The rapid-response unit, ‘Razor’ squad, was completely wiped out. The three quasi-five-star prosthetics 【Illusionist】, 【Blade Warrior】, and 【Hecate】 were all destroyed. In addition, there were seventeen four-star combat prosthetics, including one interface pod. The prosthetic remains were thoroughly destroyed, practically worthless for recovery. After technical department assessment, they determined data extraction was impossible.”
He paused, waiting for the directors to absorb the information, before continuing: “The ‘good news’ is that the factory production line was not affected in any way. The main server room was not damaged. Data is intact with no traces of tampering or downloading. The data is complete, and there are no foreign port access records. After infiltrating, the attacker did not appear to attempt destruction or large-scale duplication. His final ‘cleanup’ actions also deliberately avoided the mainframe array. Forgive my bluntness, but the company’s substantive property losses from this attack… are not significant.”
Note 1: You can understand Flesh Source Energy as “overwriting with a file of the same name”—first, you need a file with the same name to initiate it.
Simply put, say you have a game and accidentally delete a few files. You find the compressed archive, extract the missing files, put them back in the corresponding folders, and the game can continue running.
But if you don’t know the names of those files at all, or don’t know where the original folders are, then this operation won’t work. And directly extracting everything to copy-paste over it is not only costly, but since you’ve played this game many times, you don’t know which files have been modified. That easily causes bugs—for example, copy-pasting the brain and causing amnesia or something.
Current civilization lacks the ability to look up file names, nor can they uninstall and verify file integrity. They can only use same-name file copy-pasting.
Therefore, as long as there is something that can be recognized as a heart, even if it’s just a water pump, Source Energy can assimilate it. But conversely, if there is something missing—even if it’s just a patch of skin—Source Energy cannot regenerate it—
That is to say, if a kidney is pulverized but stays inside the abdomen and doesn’t fall all over the ground, a Source Energy refresh will fix it.
But if you just got a patch of skin shaved off your foot, unless you find something that can be recognized as skin to paste on, Source Energy is powerless.
Ridiculous, right? That’s internet illiteracy for you. There are plenty of people who only know to double-click to extract but have no idea how to rename or change file extensions.
Don’t believe it? Then go look up the absolute morons who reported those camgirls sharing free photo packs just because they didn’t know how to extract compressed files.