Force

The instant the current passed through the artificial muscle fibers, a string of signals raced along the metal wiring into Xiang Shan's spine, where his cerebellum decoded them before they struck his brain.

Xiang Shan almost thought he had grown legs again.

These artificial muscle fibers could actually simulate touch...

No, that wasn't right. This was hardly new technology. Xiang Shan realized that he had felt this before.

As he smashed through the main gate and rolled across the collapsing iron door, that was what he thought.

This design had existed long ago. By 1960, sensitive resistors had already entered practical use. Sensitive resistors were special resistive materials that reacted to specific physical conditions. Most were especially sensitive to a certain physical condition, and when that condition changed, so did their resistance—for instance, photoresistors had different resistance values under different light intensities, while thermistors displayed different resistance values at different temperatures.

Special resistors such as magnetoresistors were also widely used.

The type most closely associated with martial artists was the "pressure-sensitive resistor." As the name implied, it was a resistive material that exhibited different resistance values under different pressures.

In the era Xiang Shan knew, this technology had already matured. When designing prosthetic bodies for martial artists, people would mix pressure-sensitive resistors into certain components. Whether it was a force of one newton or a pressure of one thousand pascals, components containing pressure-sensitive resistors could faithfully register it.

The price was a certain reduction in component strength and service life. After all, pressure-sensitive resistors could not compare to specialized alloys in durability. But their advantage was that they allowed martial artists to control their prosthetic bodies more effectively, even performing subtle feats impossible for martial artists with flesh-and-blood bodies.

Twenty-first-century ninjas claimed they could borrow "the power of the earth." Even older boxing manuals contained similar descriptions: "Force is born in the feet, takes shape in the legs, is governed by the waist, driven by the spine, and released through the hands." Some fighters even dreamed that if the ankles, knees, joints, waist, spine, shoulders, upper arms, elbows, wrists, and fists exerted force in sequence, a person could launch punches approaching the speed of sound.

But to humans of the old era, that had been nothing more than imagination. Their sluggish nerves made it nearly impossible to grasp the perfect timing. A force of one newton, or a pressure of one thousand pascals, barely produced any noticeable sensation for them. They could not truly put the force described in theory into practice.

There was an upper limit to the speed at which neural signals could travel.

But Cyber Martial Arts practitioners could even sense energy transforming from internal energy to kinetic energy, then from kinetic energy back into internal energy, passing from one component to another... To them, it was like the mystical "inner force" described in novels.

Xiang Shan could command that power.

He had burst through the gate. The iron door offered almost no resistance before tearing free of its frame. Xiang Shan planted both feet heavily on the still-falling door, and the sheet-metal gate slammed into the ground at an unbelievable speed, rapidly deforming before flattening against the floor.

Xiang Shan accelerated a second time in midair.

Good legs...

That was the only thought Xiang Shan had time for.

These were not the strongest legs he had ever used—Xiang Shan was certain of that. In the past, when he had possessed a complete power system, he had used even more powerful leg prosthetics. But the output of those prosthetics... Though he could not remember the exact figures, there was no way batteries like these could have supplied it.

These were the best legs Xiang Shan had ever used at this level of power.

Perhaps because the technology of this era still surpassed that of the era he knew...

At the instant he crossed paths with the steel staff, Xiang Shan hooked both hands around it, then kicked toward the giant man's waist and abdomen, using the force to change direction.

If his opponent had been a natural human, that strike alone would have ended the fight. But cyber martial artists did not have so many fragile internal organs. The armor's shock-absorbing layers could also absorb some of the impact and protect critical structures.

Compared with the legs, these arms were simply too useless.

Xiang Shan had reinforced the arms using scattered parts from the canine prosthetic body, but their foundation had been far too poor. The impact dissipated by his speed alone nearly caused both arms to fall apart.

A streak of silver light spiraled up around the steel staff. Xiang Shan used one hand to secure Youji's still-organic head and neck, while his legs kicked against the tip of the staff again.

The staff's impact and the recoil from his kick stacked together. Leif's staff technique immediately lost balance, while Xiang Shan accelerated out of the staff's range.

"Youji, how are you?" Xiang Shan hurriedly set down his disciple. Youji was barely breathing. His legs had been damaged by the impact of landing, and even his internal organs had suffered a blow. There was definitely bleeding inside his abdominal cavity.

Yet Xiang Shan sighed in relief.

Metal-Based Protein could not only greatly delay cellular death, but also offered considerable resistance to mechanical damage and allowed survival for longer in oxygen-deprived environments. That meant humans of this era had greater resistance to "brain damage" and "suffocation."

And with the medical technology of this era, replacing damaged organs with artificial prosthetics was no difficult task. They could even be made stronger than before.

As long as he was alive, that was enough.

Only then did Xiang Shan look toward Leif.

Will's memories surfaced once more.

"You are... 'Silver Drive Shaft' Leif..."

"Silver Drive Shaft" Leif Sjelett, the fourth-in-command and assault captain of the mid-sized thug organization Z Organization, specialized in staff techniques. The steel staff he wielded had been fashioned from the drive shaft of a Pusqu Snake-class assault ship. Combined with the silver exterior armor of his commonly used prosthetic body, it earned him the nickname "Silver Drive Shaft." His staff style was called the "SSC Three Weapons, One Staff." SSC stood for Sword, Spear, and Cudgel. It was an orthodox martial art with varied styles, flexible tactics, and great skill in strategic contests.

He had once been an exceptionally gifted martial artist in another territory. But after losing to a boxer from a rival dojo in the combat event of the Paralympics qualifiers—where most external martial arts other than firearms could be entered—he considered it a deep humiliation and killed his opponent with his staff technique after the match. His master had intended to expel him from the school to show that the style would not shelter those without protection. Instead, the enraged Leif Sjelett slaughtered everyone in the dojo. Before the bounty hunters could gather, Leif Sjelett fled into the wilderness and later joined a thug organization.

"You're a martial artist too?" Xiang Shan was filled with rage. "As a martial artist, you use strength to bully the weak. Don't you find that shameful?"

But Leif was confused by the question. "Since when have martial artists not used strength to bully the weak?"

"Huh?" Xiang Shan was confused again.

Why did martial artists of this era... think it was only natural for the strong to bully the weak?

Martial arts were created so that the weak as individuals could resist the strength of tyranny...

"Ah, ah, I remember now." Leif suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh, it seems some great figure did say something like that. Who was it? Among the pioneers of the new world... the Martial Ancestor? He did say that the purpose of martial arts as a technology was for the weak to fight the strong—you really are a knight, aren't you? But I heard that even on the Martial World Way, hardly anyone believes that stuff anymore. Just how many years has your head been buried?"

For some reason, Xiang Shan felt as though a piece of himself was missing. It was like phantom limb pain.

"No one believes it anymore?"

"Of course not. The Martial Ancestor said martial arts were a technology designed to resist violent power, allowing weak prosthetic bodies with limited resources to accomplish important tasks and achieve enormous tactical or strategic objectives. But... when two people fight in the martial world now, isn't the stronger side always the winner?" Leif drew an inequality sign on the ground with his steel staff. "Even those knights who keep claiming they fight for the weak are themselves 'the strong,' aren't they? That is true of the Martial World Way, true of the Greenwood Road, and even more true among the Protectors."

"Even if an expert truly defeats a powerful prosthetic body with a weak one, that only proves they crush their opponent in factors other than the prosthetic body itself—such as Martial Arts Algorithms, such as tuning and optimization of the drive system, such as intelligence, or the biological brain's reflexes. After all, a prosthetic body is not the entirety of a person. That is still the strong defeating the weak."

There had never been any true "weak defeating strong" in this world.

Xiang Shan stared at the inequality sign on the ground. "Is there only an inequality sign between people? Does everyone in the world think that way?"

"If you think that way, then there are still people in the world who think that way!" Leif continued joking. "Let's not talk about that, sir. We heard that you defeated a Bionic Fist Technique boxer using a prosthetic body cobbled together from junk. We think you have great potential, so we came to invite you to join us!"

When Xiang Shan heard that, he almost wanted to laugh. "Join you?"

"Join our Z Organization, and join the Greenwood Road while you're at it." Leif hoisted the steel staff back onto his shoulder. "Though you used to run with the Martial World Way, I can tell you did rather poorly there. No matter what, you ended up in this state, yet not a single knight came to save you... Tsk, tsk. Clearly, even knights do not all approve of your ideas! Why not come develop yourself on the Greenwood Road instead? Our Greenwood Road is the freest. We have far fewer rules than the Martial World Way, and what we do is more or less the same..."

But Xiang Shan was bewildered again.

He was certain that he knew nothing about the terms "Martial World Way" and "Greenwood Road." The knowledge remaining in his biological brain indicated that those terms should have existed only in novels.

And no one should have wanted to make them real.

This was not some fantasy made real alongside Cyber Martial Arts... In the era he knew, there had been no "Greenwood Road"! It should all have been fantasy!

In a peaceful age where knights assassinated tyrants and heroes ended chaotic times, martial arts should naturally have declined, lying dormant in the internet and quietly waiting for the next tyrant to rise before baring its fangs again.

Or reminding those in power never to impose tyranny upon the people.

Or naturally fading away in some unknown corner, leaving only a legend for future generations.

That was how it should have been.

Xiang Shan himself knew that was only the ideal scenario. But the underlying design of martial arts as a technology should have included additional thresholds—it should have been designed to be unsuitable for using strength to bully the weak.

Had even that underlying design been twisted?

Suddenly, Xiang Shan laughed.

"Heh... hehehe. Martial World Way? Greenwood Road? Rules of the martial world? Hahaha... Which generation's idiot was childish enough to imitate something like that?" Xiang Shan lowered his back and pressed both hands against the ground. "I never cared about any Martial World Way or Greenwood Road. I only ask you this: in this era, does inviting someone to join always come with the intention to kill?"