Chapter 50: Falling into Despair

The chips and storage devices belonging to the welfare officer bore a completely different style from those of Leif and Guliad.

Take memory storage devices, for instance.

The storage medium inside Leif was a magnetic disk. Its working principle relied on the arrangement of magnetic domains to store information. Although the magnetic domain spacing of the disk extracted from Leif's brain still had some distance to go before reaching the "theoretical limit," it nevertheless surpassed the "industrial standards" in Xiang Shan's memories.

Yet, based on the principle that "smaller magnetic domains are more susceptible to interference," this disk was astonishingly fragile. It relied entirely on shock-absorbing structures to resist interference, and Xiang Shan even detected a specialized "error-correction algorithm" designed to fix potentially corrupted data within the disk.

In contrast, what the welfare officer used was a solid-state drive utilizing semiconductors to record information via electrons, which was much closer to Xiang Shan's own memories. Semiconductor-based solid-state drives do not lose data easily from external forces and offer faster read and write speeds. The only drawback was that the number of write cycles was limited.

"Strictly speaking, due to the convolution of martial arts experiences, a martial artist's storage device does indeed require real-time writing and erasing. However, this is hardly a reason to choose magnetic domains—after all, those domains haven't even broken through to the subatomic scale," Xiang Shan pondered. "Initially, I assumed it was due to lost technology. But judging from these Protectors, that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Even if disks held an advantage in write endurance, stuffing a solid-state drive into the body should still be practical, right?"

"Or could it be that the wilderness outlaws lack resources to such a severe degree that they cannot afford a solid-state drive inside their bodies..."

"Even so, it shouldn't be this extreme. This era isn't lacking in semiconductors. Silicon dioxide alone accounts for twelve percent of the Earth's crust. And since internal energy techniques have been passed down, the manufacturing methods for basic hardware like disks should naturally be preserved alongside chivalry."

—No, before that, there was another question...

"Surely someone must be using quantum optical storage devices..."

Although the outlaws' disks and the Protectors' solid-state drives slightly exceeded the "industrial standards" in Xiang Shan's memory, they were still "backward technology"—even by the standards of his own era.

Xiang Shan remembered that in his time, quantum optical storage devices had already entered production; had it not been for the war, they likely would have been popularized. Spare no expense, and laboratory conditions could produce capacities of unimaginable proportions.

At least before his memories were stolen, he had possessed more than one quantum storage device dedicated to storing martial arts.

If the outlaws were forced to use magnetic disks due to limited conditions, then the so-called aristocratic "Civilization Protectors" should surely not lack resources.

How bizarre.

Xiang Shan thought for a moment, but could not reach a conclusion. In the end, he had to comfort himself with the thought that he still possessed too little information to make a proper judgment about this world.

He would find out eventually.

Putting this matter aside for the moment, Xiang Shan tried to study the programming logic within the welfare officer's chip.

Come to think of it, this was yet another bizarre point.

Will Granddog and the welfare officer ought to have belonged to the same faction. Yet Mr. Will's software was the kind of backward, low-efficiency garbage that could infuriate any programmer—even a programmer from the late twentieth century would have thought poorly of it. Meanwhile, the welfare officer's software was vastly more sophisticated; at least the logic and techniques were completely unfamiliar to Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan thus immersed himself in deciphering the code. Several hours later, he finally heard a buzzing sound akin to a mosquito.

It was the sound of drones.

Xiang Shan breathed a sigh of relief.

He poked his head out of the "tent." The "indoor" space where he and Youji currently resided was actually just a black felt tarp set up alongside some garbage, meant simply to ward off the wind and sand. This black cloth was the very same massive tapestry he had torn from the interior of the ground-effect vehicle.

He wondered if it had been handmade. The thought flashed unbidden through Xiang Shan's mind.

Still, he doubted anyone in this era would bother boasting that "handmade surpasses machinery"—because the two were essentially indistinguishable now.

Dozens of drones hovered outside the tent, continuing their movement westward. Four of them carried components stripped from Guliad, as well as Xiang Shan's fingers.

Xiang Shan issued a command via his prosthetic eye, instructing the drones to halt.

The drones landed on the ground, revealing the black solar panels on their backs.

Xiang Shan retrieved his delivery.

The wireless signal transmitter retrieved from Guliad was arguably the best among all similar components he had encountered so far. The power output of the transmitter on the welfare officer was far smaller than this one.

This was perhaps the highest-grade component on Guliad's entire body...

—No, that wasn't quite right either.

Xiang Shan shook his head.

It would be equally absurd to claim that all the equipment on Guliad was backward.

That tentacle, directly linked to the brain and possessing a cephalopod ganglion system, intertwined as it was with thick neural cords, was definitely a technology born only recently.

That made it even stranger. The storage device Guliad used was something "rather backward" in Xiang Shan's memory, yet his signal transmitter was quite impressive. Meanwhile, the cybernetic modification enabling direct neural connection to the brain was cutting-edge technology that even Xiang Shan had no recollection of.

Technologies from vastly different eras were thus concentrated in a single individual.

"What a bizarre era," Xiang Shan muttered to himself.

Now all that remained was to wait for the "Donkey" to arrive.

With these thoughts, Xiang Shan unbuckled the outer armor on his abdomen. Having survived the battle with Guliad, the armor was currently in a rather pitiful state. He pulled out an electromagnetic screwdriver and detached the ethanol tank and engine from his midsection.

During the fight with Guliad, the fuel ethanol had also been nearly exhausted. Leaving the village behind, there was no ethanol fuel available for replenishment, and keeping this dead weight inside his body served no purpose. Xiang Shan removed the engine and then attempted to install the wireless signal transmitter in its place.

To be honest, this was no easy task. Normally, a signal transmitter and a power component would certainly not occupy the same space. If conditions permitted, he would have liked to completely redesign the layout of his prosthetic body.

The problem was that he currently lacked access to a proper workstation, and his only assistant was still unconscious.

The only saving grace was that Xiang Shan seemed to have anticipated the need to "temporarily replace components after battle," having preemptively left behind sufficient extra wiring and interfaces within his body.

Hours later, the gadget was finally integrated into Xiang Shan's system.

"Not bad at all. With this, my internal energy finally has even greater room to maneuver," Xiang Shan remarked.

Afterward, he resumed studying Guliad's martial arts code.

In the meantime, Youji woke up once more, but merely wept silently before slipping back into unconsciousness.

Several hours later, Xiang Shan lifted Youji's eyelid to check.

"This can't go on. At the very least, I need to find a way to supply some water and nutrients, otherwise, he'll die soon."

Xiang Shan couldn't help glancing outside. The "Donkey" still hadn't arrived.

Thus, the great swordsman was forced to admit a harsh reality—his temporarily compiled pathfinding program was truly subpar.

The "Donkey" had most likely deviated from its preset route.

"Fine, failing to program the electronic sextant module was my fault," Xiang Shan sighed. "My astronomy skills are truly mediocre, aren't they? I never expected I'd one day have to rely on a sextant to find my way. Failing to memorize star charts is my fault, but I shouldn't take the full blame either."

At least in the era he was familiar with, hacking into a few satellites to safely utilize a GPS system was a perfectly viable tactic for swordsmen.

Yet Xiang Shan had to find the "Donkey" no matter what.

If nothing else, without retrieving the backup battery from the "Donkey," he would be forced to maintain a wired connection to Youji indefinitely. Under such conditions, running into any formidable expert would spell instant doom.

The water and nutrients needed to keep Youji alive were also stored there.

Of course, continuing to wait was an option. After all, the "Donkey" might simply have taken a detour and could arrive after a little more time.

However, Xiang Shan dared not gamble.

Both he and Youji were currently sustaining their lives on a single battery. This battery, originally belonging to Paulus, had also helped him defeat Guliad and overturn the welfare officer's battle formation.

Even if Paulus's prosthetic body consumed more energy than the one Xiang Shan was currently using, this battery wouldn't last much longer.

As for the solar panels on those drones... at best, they could only recharge the lightweight reconnaissance drones to extend a single mission's flight time. They were utterly incapable of sustaining the energy consumption of Xiang Shan's prosthetic body.

Besides, the sun was about to set.

"No, I have to move..."

Xiang Shan thought to himself.

If he hesitated any longer and the battery continued to drain, neither of them would stand a chance of making it out of the wilderness.

Yet moving required method.

Xiang Shan first dismantled one of the drones, connecting a portion of its circuitry to the ethanol tank and accelerant container, and paired this circuit with a sensor device. This formed a simple improvised landmine. Next, he buried the drone's main power source and signal transceiver module in a separate location, covering them with a thin layer of soil.

The remaining solar panels were attached to his own body. Every little bit of energy counted.

"Solar panels are shared property back in the town, so people don't appreciate their value. Out here in the wilderness, a single watt of electricity can cost you your life..."

Having finished these preparations, the man used wires stripped from Guliad's body to strap Youji onto his back. Then, he cut the welfare officer's tapestry in half, using one piece to cover the improvised "booby trap," while dragging the other through the sand to dirty it before wrapping it around himself.

This was done to check if there were any pursuers on his tail, providing him with a slight early warning.

"According to the map, the zone where the 'Donkey' is likely to pass... is an elliptical area like this. I'll head back one kilometer first, then turn 135 degrees and sweep a sector-shaped zone..." Xiang Shan muttered to himself. "I have a fair degree of confidence in completing the search in about five hours. With good luck, I might find it the next second. Well, one should always hold hope for life."

That was what the man told himself.