Strengthened Again

"Colluding with bandits," "colluding with thieves"—consorting with brigands would have counted as a serious crime in feudal times.

Even in modern society, "harboring and shielding" criminals was a criminal offense. The "right to conceal" was not an unlimited right either.

But in this era, any action that did not conflict with the Dyson Principles was permitted.

No power could stop an ordinary person from falling in love with, or even doing business with, a thug who had lost Civilization Protection.

Ah, of course, if one revealed the intelligence of an individual or group to thugs and thereby materially aided their atrocities, then that action was still regarded as an indirect infringement upon individual lives and private property. The victims were free to retaliate against the betrayer.

But that right belonged only to the victims and agents personally appointed by them. Outsiders could not interfere, and lords neither needed nor had the right to interfere.

Simply put, "traitors" would not lose Civilization Protection.

Enoch had betrayed the town, but only the townspeople had the right to retaliate against Enoch.

As for outsiders, they were merely on good terms with the traitor. They would not receive any punishment.

Although Xiang Shan found this logic a little awkward, he also believed that everyone should answer for their own actions. Even if the other party was his enemy, the blame should not be spread too broadly.

Those cronies of Enoch's... even if the townspeople decided that they had also participated in the betrayal, it had little to do with him, didn't it?

"No, earlier." Doctor Schultz carefully chose his words. "When the tax officer came, you were pushed into the fighting ring... I know about that. According to them, Enoch had planned that incident too. The one who acted was a worker named Vili... but Vili is already dead."

"Dead?" Xiang Shan grew interested. "He didn't run away?"

"Half a month ago, Vili and Enoch went into the city together. Then Enoch returned alone and said that Vili had been killed by thugs." Doctor Schultz explained, "I'm afraid Enoch not only betrayed us, but also betrayed those of his..."

"I understand." Xiang Shan nodded. "Enoch... I'll remember that name."

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

Xiang Shan found it rather strange. Some part of his mind seemed to be reminding him that judging others based on personal morality required caution. But another part was telling him that Knight-errantry had special legal justification.

Long ago, he... and some other friends... seemed to have engaged in several debates over this very matter...

What exactly were you people?

Whenever that feeling surfaced, Xiang Shan would think this.

Why had martial arts, which should have been an illusion, been turned into reality through technology? What exactly were he and his friends?

Forget it. If he could not figure it out, he would not think about it for now.

Xiang Shan had recovered part of his Inner Power cultivation, especially the Three Dragon-Slaying Techniques. In this world filled with surveillance, hunting down someone was not difficult—after all, Enoch used an industrial prosthetic body and knew no martial arts. He could not survive in the wilderness. He could only flee within a limited area.

Once things here settled down, he would finish this matter.

There were still more than ten days before Scrapheap Town regained protection. During those ten days, Xiang Shan planned to remain active around the town.

Doctor Schultz bowed to Xiang Shan and prepared to leave.

Xiang Shan stopped him. "Doctor, right, I have a question. How is that child Youji doing now?"

"His heart, liver, kidneys, and aorta have basically all been replaced with artificial materials. His ribs were sturdy, only lightly damaged. He'll be fine after resting for a while. The treatment fees are sufficient as well. Hero, you already paid them."

Xiang Shan had obtained three metal-based spines from that battle. Due to size considerations, he kept the one that had belonged to Paulus and sold Leif's and Longkoni's to Doctor Schultz, covering the medical expenses and the costs of buying parts.

As a master, spending this little money on his disciple was not difficult.

Xiang Shan nodded. "That's good."

He had previously intended to personally check on his disciple. But Youji's mother was currently keeping watch beside him. When Xiang Shan approached, Yulia sounded her horn in warning.

Of course, Xiang Shan was not afraid of Yulia. But after that, he no longer wished to visit Youji.

Xiang Shan had accepted Youji as his disciple partly because he felt that possessing martial arts would make survival easier in this era, as repayment for a favor; on the other hand, he needed a trustworthy assistant to help him perform certain operations on his brain chips.

But now, multiple chips were already attached to his brain-computer interface, he had several spares, and the precision of his prosthetic hand had greatly improved. His need for an "assistant" was no longer so great.

In the end, Yulia was Youji's guardian and family.

In Yulia's eyes, Xiang Shan had probably only brought danger to her son.

Aside from Yulia, the other townspeople's attitudes toward Xiang Shan had also become tinged with fear. Ever since Xiang Shan destroyed Longkoni's biological brain, that feeling had only intensified.

Xiang Shan could not even find a suitable base. In the end, he could only move all his belongings to the scrap parts recycling station.

Those elderly and disabled people whose biological brains had deteriorated to the point of incoherence were surprisingly the only ones in town whose attitudes toward Xiang Shan remained unchanged.

After Xiang Shan gave those people some parts, they joyfully welcomed him in.

Xiang Shan rested and repaired himself there. Later, Doctor Schultz also came over to help him.

However, Xiang Shan only allowed Schultz to help repair his prosthetic hand.

A powerful Inner Power expert could bury countless talismans and curses in your prosthetic body while servicing it. Knights were always extremely cautious when choosing a technician.

To oppose the enemies of an entire world with the strength of a mere individual, such caution was essential.

After attaching his new prosthetic hand, Xiang Shan first used the Inner Power secret art Neglecting One's Own House to monitor the electronic devices within the pair of hands, confirming whether they contained any backdoors he knew of...

Ah, no, he should have said, "confirming exactly how many backdoors they contained."

Ever since awakening, aside from his own eyes, Xiang Shan had never seen a prosthetic body without backdoors and vulnerabilities. They were practically standard equipment in this era.

Still...

Come to think of it, the prosthetic driver vulnerabilities I know about have actually remained until today... Did I only sleep for a few decades or something?

It was not as though Xiang Shan had never considered directly using Leif's prosthetic body. Leif's prosthetic body was highly complete. Whether it was the Vector Thruster, energy system, power system, or other equipment, it had everything. It possessed the qualities necessary for most techniques of Outer-School Martial Arts.

But awkwardly, Xiang Shan had no suitable driver. Leif's own driver chip had already been burned out, while the driver chips taken from Paulus and Longkoni were incompatible with that high-performance heavy prosthetic body.

This was extremely strange. The protocols used in Paulus's and Longkoni's chips were vastly different, with no possibility of compatibility at all. And that was only at the hardware level.

In the era Xiang Shan knew, this would have been almost unimaginable.

If "data" were compared to vocabulary, then "protocols" would be grammar. Only vocabulary arranged through grammar could form meaningful "sentences" that machines could correctly understand.

A CPU and hard drive removed from one computer could generally be installed into another and still work. At that time, the protocols used worldwide had been broadly similar. Smart devices all pursued "compatibility with more types of hardware."

This also ensured that when users updated software or hardware, developers did not need to create applications from scratch for new devices or platforms. Old programs remained effective in new environments, and programs from low-end smart devices could run on more advanced ones.

But people in this era seemed not to care about that at all.

"Hard to understand." Xiang Shan shook his head. In his view, technological development should have advanced toward "convenience" and "unity." Fragmentation caused at the technological level would only increase the operating costs of the entire society.

No, perhaps there was not even anything that could be called "society" in this era.

Doctor Schultz finally fled the scrap parts recycling station as though escaping. Xiang Shan walked outside and found the disabled people, clutching their new parts, dancing joyfully at the entrance. They would occasionally fall over—their severely deteriorated brains often issued commands that conflicted with their balance systems. The systems could not process them in time, and ultimately prioritized the users' will.

Four prosthetic bodies were also piled near the entrance. One looked like a tractor burned into scrap metal. It belonged to that nameless enemy. Leif's prosthetic body was stacked on top, while Paulus's and Longkoni's prosthetic bodies leaned nearby.

Doctor Schultz had just removed Longkoni's prosthetic hand.

Xiang Shan walked over and hoisted Longkoni's prosthetic body as well. That headless, handless body should still have many useful parts.

The only time he could service himself was now. Xiang Shan vaguely had a premonition. In the future, he would certainly face more enemies and more battles.

This battle had confirmed it for Xiang Shan. He had indeed fought his way through the past. Only battle could allow him to reclaim it.

He did not know what he had lost in the past or why he had ended up in such a state. But Xiang Shan felt that since fate had luckily spared him from death and awakened him in this era, then this era must contain something that required him to do.

Xiang Shan placed the silver prosthetic body on the workbench.

He had even found a probable target.

The Father of All Machines.

The legendary figure who had opened a new era, led humanity beyond the primitive shackles of evolution, and brought it into a new age. Neither emperor nor god, he possessed an entirely different kind of status.

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