Overwhelming

When the house came crashing down, the townspeople watched in awe. If they had not long since entrusted the maintenance of their biological functions to programs, most of them would probably have forgotten to breathe.

This was the power of martial arts.

These poor people had never possessed any means of resisting thugs. Their highly specialized, cumbersome industrial prosthetics posed no threat at all to real martial artists.

So they truly felt it—for martial artists, they were ants.

The so-called "self-defense," the so-called "preparations," all seemed somewhat laughable now.

When they saw Leif split a house apart with a single strike of his staff, everyone forgot how to think. Even the homeowner had no time to mourn his property.

All they felt was despair.

But the long staff whistled through the air once more.

The battle had not ended.

As the shockwave sliced through the house, Xiang Shan had already rolled aside.

The Bionic Fist Technique: Beast Mimic Way was a martial art designed for ground combat. Its center of gravity was kept low, and its movements were stable. But Xiang Shan was using a humanoid prosthetic body, unsuited to animal movements, so he could not fully exploit its speed advantage.

But there was nothing he could do about that.

The Bionic Fist Technique extracted from that dog's brain was the only Martial Arts Algorithm Xiang Shan had at hand. No matter how many Martial Arts Algorithms he remembered how to use, this was the only martial art available to him.

His prosthetic's output was far below his enemy's, and its speed was merely equal to his opponent's. As for defense, there was no need to mention it. If that steel staff struck him head-on, Xiang Shan would certainly die.

Yet unexpectedly, Xiang Shan no longer felt the fervor of marching toward death. Even the urge born of righteous indignation gradually faded away.

The dead deserved respect. There was no need to be angry at someone who was about to die.

Xiang Shan was certain that the scales of victory were tipping in his favor.

Leif twisted both hands, turning the reactive force on the steel staff to his own use. The tip of the staff drew a great circle above his head, then abruptly transformed into a sword-like stance as it hacked viciously down at Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan kicked off hard with both legs. Not only did he not retreat, he instead charged straight at Leif.

An inch longer, an inch stronger. But conversely, long weapons also needed enough room to be used.

Within several feet of Leif was precisely beyond the attack range of that three-meter-long staff!

Leif shifted his feet, then jerked the steel staff back with force. His palms slid along it, and his hands immediately shifted from the tail end to the middle.

But unexpectedly, Xiang Shan did not attack. He merely rolled on the spot, supported his balance with one hand, and slipped behind Leif.

He was observing.

Xiang Shan understood that ordinary attacks were meaningless.

"Certain information" within his consciousness flowed out, rapidly reshaping the convolutional experience of the Martial Arts Algorithm's original owner.

The attack-oriented Bionic Fist Technique had already deviated from the original code in its design philosophy. It had even deviated from "martial arts" itself, entering an unorthodox path.

The core design philosophy of Cyber Martial Arts had always been "assassination tactics."

In combat between natural humans, every strike could matter. If someone's ribs were broken, they would struggle to breathe. A heavy blow to any nerve cluster in the face would affect the enemy's thoughts. The lower body also had vulnerable, nerve-sensitive weak points; striking them could send someone into shock. And if a wound bled, it could cause the enemy to lose a great deal of stamina.

Even leaving a bruise on a muscle could hinder the enemy's ability to exert force.

Thus, in combat between natural humans, "offense" was a highly cost-effective strategy.

But cyborgs were different. For cyborgs, as long as their outer armor had not reached metal fatigue, accumulating minor damage was utterly meaningless. And the many vital weak points that seemed almost like design flaws simply did not exist on cyborg bodies.

Killing a cyborg was not so simple.

When martial arts were designed, their original hypothetical enemies were "the tyrants." Such people would inevitably possess vast resources. They could use the best medical techniques and prosthetics to repair themselves, and the strongest weapons and mercenaries to defend themselves. A knight-errant often had only one chance to strike.

Cyber Martial Arts were "assassination arts." Every technique and every strategy group ultimately aimed at "completing a set of effective attacks in the shortest possible time."

Xiang Shan had not remembered this. Stepping on his opponent's weapon had been "overreaching."

So he had paid for it with one arm.

But now he remembered.

So he believed he would not lose.

For assassination arts, the most important "lethal strike" had actually already been delivered. Xiang Shan was certain that the information he had returned using Returning Their Own Way from the Three Dragon-Slaying Techniques was definitely nothing good.

Although he did not know what command his opponent had used, what it did, what parameters governed the opponent's driver chip, or when it would malfunction, Xiang Shan was certain that moment would not be far off.

And before that moment arrived, all he had to do was keep this giant tied up here...

The long staff whistled past. Xiang Shan twisted aside.

Keep this giant tied up so he would not hurt anyone else.

—This man's martial arts were inferior to his own.

That was Xiang Shan's assessment.

When prosthetic performance held an overwhelming advantage, offense naturally carried more weight than defense. There was nothing wrong with that. But this giant's martial arts were truly mediocre.

As Xiang Shan shifted position, drove with both legs, and rose upright, Leif rubbed and gripped his hands, changing his hold. The staff thrust out like a dragon, cold flashes crashing toward him like scattered stars.

Xiang Shan turned sideways, barely evading the three thrusts aimed at his chest, but the prosthetic arm strapped to his back was swept away.

The steel arm flew like a cannonball, smashing down one house before punching through a wall behind it.

But the damaged prosthetic arm could no longer move nimbly. That was just right.

His center of gravity had shifted slightly, but he merely needed to adjust the calculation parameters.

For a true martial artist, this could be done with a single thought.

—That's right. He is inferior to me.

Xiang Shan thought this.

Borrowing the force transmitted through his severed arm, Xiang Shan shifted his footwork. After several spins, he had already reached Leif's flank.

Once the spear stance was exhausted, Leif changed again, sweeping the staff horizontally and creating a fan-shaped zone across the ground.

This move was pressed lower than usual, intended to attack Xiang Shan crouched near the ground. Gravitational acceleration did not provide much help to cyber martial artists. If Xiang Shan jumped, and jumped even slightly too high, he would suffer a string of attacks before landing.

But Leif's prosthetic body was three meters tall. Though the power components cyborgs used to exert force were far freer than muscles, they were still restricted. This was not the optimal way to exert force. The staff strike was not so terrifying. Xiang Shan merely jumped half a foot before the staff reached him.

Leif abruptly rose, and the long staff became a spear stance again, sweeping upward as if raising a torch to burn the heavens.

But Xiang Shan merely kicked one leg against the side of the staff, shifting his body sideways without being lifted.

His other leg gathered force in midair. The instant he landed, it struck the ground, and he rolled away on the spot, dodging the thrust that followed.

He had indeed never seen the SSC Three Weapons, One Staff. It must have been a martial art developed during the time he slept.

But he understood the underlying code and design philosophy of swordsmanship, spearmanship, and staff techniques.

To Xiang Shan, this battle was not even as dangerous as his fight with that dog.

At least when he fought Will Grand Dog, he had been using a truly garbage prosthetic body. If Will's canine prosthetic body rated a hundred points, then Leif's prosthetic body would probably rate around three hundred.

And Xiang Shan's body back then... giving it zero points might have been a little harsh, but even one and a half points would have been an overestimate. At most, it was worth about one point.

Back then, his prosthetic performance had been a hundred times worse than Will's, while now the gap between him and Leif was only several times.

Cyber Martial Arts had originally been meant to overturn disparities in equipment.

Or rather, they had been designed to use "data" and "algorithms" to overturn disparities in equipment.

The tyrants would inevitably hold the strongest equipment—all martial arts had been designed on that foundation. To raise the banner of rebellion and resist tyranny, one had to be prepared for this.

More than that, the tyrants would inevitably possess far larger armies.

Technology had completely changed the face of the world. The people's communications were restricted by technology, technology spied on them, and the power of the masses could barely gather in secret. Modern tyrants were better at dealing with the people than any tyrant in the past.

That was why a technique like "martial arts" had to be designed.

Storing and erasing information required very little energy. It was something with almost no cost.

Only such things could be used to fight tyranny.

Such things had to be used to fight tyranny.

Only something that overturned all differences in prosthetic quality and numbers deserved to be called "martial arts."

If Leif's martial arts could score a hundred points, then Xiang Shan's own... one thousand? Three thousand? Ten thousand?

He did not know. The only certainty was that it was higher than the enemy before him.

In this regard, Xiang Shan himself was unquestionably "strong."

He could even predict his enemy's movements a tenth of a second in advance.

Inner Power carried far more weight than external techniques, while different styles of Outer-School Martial Arts also had compatibility differences. For instance, if Leif were a master of the Gunfire Way and the distance between them exceeded a thousand meters, then even if Leif's martial arts were somewhat worse, he could still put Xiang Shan in grave danger.

But he happened to belong to the fighting school, following a path of overwhelming force.

If that were all, it would have been one thing.

If their positions were reversed—if Xiang Shan controlled Leif's prosthetic body while Leif controlled Xiang Shan's—then Xiang Shan would abandon the greatsword and long-spear variations in Leif's martial art. He would grip the staff at its middle with both hands, continually changing grips and attacking with both ends, confining all movement and dodging to an extremely small area, never giving those prosthetic legs a chance to perform.

No—if he had not lost the Inner Power battle, then the heavy prosthetic body could likewise rely on its greater energy reserves to wear down the lighter prosthetic body until it died.

But the fatal command had already been issued.

—Damn it...

If Xiang Shan's certainty of victory had given rise to abundant thoughts, then Leif had only this one thought left.

This enemy was harder to deal with than he had imagined. The computational resources consumed by their martial arts contest were greater than expected. The chip was heating up far beyond projections.

But if he did not maintain that level of consumption...

[You][why][haven't killed][him yet]

A fragmented message came from Jingbao Kui's side.

[Kill my ass! Get ready to run...]

At that moment, a heavy set of footsteps caught Leif's attention.