Chapter 35: Further Reinforcement

"Colluding with bandits" or "consorting with thieves"—in the feudal era, these might have been considered grave crimes. Even in modern society, "harboring and shielding" is a criminal offense, and the "right to conceal" is not an unlimited privilege.

However, in this era, all actions that do not contradict the Dyson Principles are permitted. No force can prevent an ordinary person from befriending or even doing business with a thug who has lost the protection of civilization.

Ah, of course, if one provides information about an individual or a group to such thugs, effectively aiding their atrocities, then such behavior is still viewed as an indirect violation of individual life and private property. The victims are free to retaliate against the traitor. But this power is limited strictly to the victims and their commissioned agents. Outsiders cannot interfere, and a lord has neither the necessity nor the right to intervene in such matters.

Simply put, a "traitor" does not lose the protection of civilization. Enoch betrayed the town, but only the town’s residents have the right to retaliate against him. As for outsiders, they are merely associates of the traitor; they will not face any punishment.

Although Xiang Shan felt this logic was a bit awkward, he agreed that one should be responsible for one's own actions. Even if the person involved was his enemy, the consequences should not be overly broad. Those cronies of Enoch… even if the townspeople believed they were complicit in the betrayal, it didn't have much to do with him, right?

"No, that happened earlier." Dr. Schultz carefully weighed his words. "Before, when the tax collector arrived, you were pushed onto the dueling arena… I know about that. According to them, that incident was also plotted by Enoch, and the person who did it was named Vili, a worker… However, Vili is already dead."

"Dead?" Xiang Shan became interested. "Didn't he run away?"

"Half a month ago, Vili and Enoch went into the city. Then, Enoch returned alone, claiming that Vili had been killed by thugs." Dr. Schultz explained, "I’m afraid Enoch didn't just betray us; he also betrayed his own…"

"I understand." Xiang Shan nodded. "Enoch… I’ll remember that guy."

He did not say what he intended to do with Enoch, and Schultz did not dare to ask.

Xiang Shan found this quite strange. In his mind, a part of him seemed to warn him that judging others by personal morality required caution. Yet, another part of him was speaking, telling him that the existence of "chivalry" had special legal support. Long ago, he… and other friends… seemed to have debated this specifically several times.

—Who on earth are you all?

Whenever this feeling arose, Xiang Shan would think this. Why was it that martial arts, which should have been illusions, were turned into reality through technology? Who exactly were he and his friends?

Forget it. If he couldn't think of it now, he would put it aside for the moment.

Xiang Shan had recovered part of his internal energy cultivation, especially the "Three Dragon-Slaying Strikes." In a world filled with surveillance, tracking someone down was not difficult—after all, Enoch used industrial prosthetics and understood no martial arts, making it impossible for him to survive in the wilderness. He could only flee within a limited range.

Once things settled down here, he would put an end to this matter.

There were still more than ten days until the Scrapyard Town’s protection was restored. During these ten days, Xiang Shan planned to operate around the town.

***

Dr. Schultz bowed to Xiang Shan and prepared to leave. Xiang Shan called him back. "Doctor, one question. How is the boy, Youji, doing?"

"Heart, liver, and kidneys have been replaced; the aorta has been mostly swapped for artificial materials. His ribs are sturdy, only slightly damaged—he’ll recover after a period of rest. The medical fees were sufficient; you’ve already paid, Hero."

In this battle, Xiang Shan had harvested three metal-based spines. Considering his build, he kept the one belonging to Paulus, but sold the ones from Leif and Ronconi to Dr. Schultz to cover the medical costs and the purchase of parts. As a master, spending this much on a disciple was not difficult.

Xiang Shan nodded. "That's good."

He had intended to visit his disciple personally, but Youji’s mother was currently guarding his side. When Xiang Shan approached, Yulia had sounded an alarm. Xiang Shan certainly wasn't afraid of Yulia, but he lost the desire to visit Youji.

Xiang Shan had taken Youji as a disciple partly because he felt that in this era, possessing martial arts would be more conducive to survival—it was a way of "repaying a kindness." On the other hand, he also needed a trusted assistant to help him perform certain operations on his brain chips. But now, he had several chips attached to his brain-machine interface, multiple backups, and the precision of his prosthetic hands had greatly improved. The need for an "assistant" was no longer as great.

Ultimately, Yulia was Youji’s guardian and family. In her eyes, Xiang Shan was likely just someone who had brought danger to her son. Aside from Yulia, the other townspeople viewed Xiang Shan with a mix of fear. Ever since he destroyed Ronconi’s biological brain, this feeling had only intensified.

Xiang Shan couldn't even find a suitable base. He ended up moving everything to the scrap metal recycling yard. Those elderly and disabled individuals whose biological brains had deteriorated to the point of confusion were, surprisingly, the only ones in town who still maintained a consistent attitude toward him. After Xiang Shan gave them some parts, they welcomed him with joy.

Xiang Shan rested there, and Dr. Schultz came over to assist him. However, Xiang Shan only allowed Schultz to help with the maintenance of his prosthetic hands. A powerful master of internal energy could plant countless traps and viruses in your prosthetics while performing maintenance. For a martial artist, the choice of a mechanic was a matter of extreme caution. To face the enemies of a world as a mere individual, one had to be this careful.

After attaching the new prosthetic hands, Xiang Shan first used the "Sweeping One’s Own House" internal energy technique to monitor the electronic equipment within the hands, confirming whether there were any backdoors he was aware of… Ah, no, he should say, "confirming exactly how many backdoors there were."

Except for his own eyes, Xiang Shan hadn't seen a single prosthetic since waking up that didn't come with backdoors or vulnerabilities. It was almost a standard feature of this era.

However…

—Come to think of it, the prosthetic drive vulnerabilities I know of have actually been left in place until today… Have I only been asleep for a dozen years or so?

***

It wasn't that Xiang Shan hadn't thought about using Leif’s prosthetics directly. Leif’s prosthetic was highly sophisticated; it had everything from vector thrusters and energy systems to drive systems and other equipment—one could say it possessed most of the qualities required for external martial arts.

The awkward part was that Xiang Shan lacked the appropriate drivers. Leif’s own driver chip had been fried, and the driver chips obtained from Paulus and Ronconi were incompatible with that high-performance heavy-duty prosthetic. This was very strange. The protocols used in the chips of Paulus and Ronconi were vastly different, with zero possibility of compatibility. And this was at the hardware level.

In the era Xiang Shan was familiar with, this was almost unimaginable. If "data" were compared to vocabulary, then "protocol" would be grammar. Only words arranged through grammar formed meaningful "sentences" that a machine could correctly understand.

A CPU and hard drive removed from one computer could usually be used in another. Back then, the protocols used worldwide were roughly the same. Smart devices all sought to be "compatible with a wider variety of hardware." This ensured that when users updated software or hardware, developers didn't have to write applications from scratch for new devices or platforms; old programs remained effective in new environments, and programs on low-end smart devices could also run on more advanced ones.

But people in this era didn't seem to care about this at all.

"Incomprehensible." Xiang Shan shook his head at this. In his view, technological development should have moved in the direction of "convenience" and "unification." This fragmentation caused by the technical level would only increase the operating costs of the entire society.

No, in this era, there might not be much of a "society" left to speak of.

Dr. Schultz eventually fled the scrap yard as if escaping. Xiang Shan walked out and found the disabled individuals with their new parts dancing joyfully at the entrance. They would occasionally fall—their brains, deteriorated to the extreme, often issued commands that conflicted with their balance systems; the system couldn't process it, and the result was prioritizing the user's erratic will.

Four prosthetics were piled at the entrance. One looked like a tractor burned into scrap metal—that was from the nameless enemy. Leif’s prosthetic was piled on top, and those of Paulus and Ronconi leaned to the side.

Dr. Schultz had just detached Ronconi’s prosthetic hands. Xiang Shan walked over and hoisted Ronconi’s prosthetic body as well. This headless, handless frame should still contain many useful parts.

The time to maintain himself was now. Xiang Shan had a vague premonition that he would face more enemies and more battles in the future. This fight confirmed it: he had definitely been fighting his way through the past. Only through battle could he reclaim what he had lost.

Although he didn't know what he had lost or why he had fallen into such a state, Xiang Shan felt that since fate had luckily spared him from death and allowed him to wake up in this era, there must be something in this era that he was meant to do.

Xiang Shan placed the silver prosthetic on the operating table.

He had even found a suspected target.

—The Father of All Machines.

Legend had it that he was the one who pioneered a brand-new era, leading humanity away from the shackles of primitive evolution toward a new age. He was not an emperor, nor a god, but someone who held a completely different status.

Without a doubt, he was Xiang Shan’s enemy.