The Brave Prevails

A vast brightness appeared ahead. Xiang Shan even felt a scorching pain in his optic nerve.

But it did not matter. Humans went blind under intense light because the light focused by the lens could burn the retina. But he used artificial eyes; he had neither lenses nor retinas.

—But what came next...

Xiang Shan dug up similar experiences from his memories.

Two shock waves would strike from the left and right.

And he would be driven into a hopeless situation.

Certainly, compared to natural humans, cyborgs had greater resistance to firearms. They did not fear burns from high temperatures, nor did they need to worry about shrapnel that had nearly lost its force. They only needed to watch out for direct hits, not stray rounds. But that still could not spare Xiang Shan from being knocked over.

There was no martial art in this world called the "Thousand-Kilogram Drop" that could increase mass out of thin air or amplify gravity. The former was Void Creation—or, at the very least, the instantaneous conversion of immense energy into mass—while the latter was equivalent to warping space. If humanity possessed such technology, it would have conquered the stars long ago.

The real Thousand-Kilogram Drop merely lowered one's center of gravity, making one harder to topple.

Compared to heavy prosthetics, light prosthetics had less mass and inertia, allowing them to accelerate, decelerate, and change direction more easily. But correspondingly, light prosthetics could carry fewer weapons, dealt weaker blows, and were more easily sent flying.

That was simply how the laws of physics worked.

The instant the explosion's glare dimmed, two shock waves formed on either side. Expanding outward from the blast center, they would soon trace a curved path like the dividing line of a yin-yang symbol.

Given Xiang Shan's speed and his position relative to the tank fighter, he had to pass through the blast zone.

But once he was caught in the shock wave, he would be knocked down or even hurled away, becoming a target for gunfire.

Geliad threw back his head and laughed wildly as he raised the machine gun on his right. In an instant, sixteen bullets burst from the barrel, fired along the route Xiang Shan was bound to take, forming a death trap.

At the same time, the massive fighter maintained his course.

His heavy prosthetic body was limited by inertia and could not accelerate or change speed as easily as a light prosthetic body. But heavy prosthetics had their own advantages. He could take this "shortcut" directly, without worrying that the blast wind would overturn his low chassis or that secondary damage would harm his prosthetic body.

Those sixteen bullets were his farewell gift to the enemy!

Xiang Shan stared at Geliad as he charged forward like a rampaging boar.

—If I take a solid hit, I'll definitely die...

If the bullets swept over him, he would die.

If a shell exploded at close range, he would die.

If he collided with someone wearing that kind of external armor, he would die.

After his right leg struck the ground one final time, Xiang Shan did not immediately push off with his left. His legs folded up three centimeters above the ground.

Voltage surged to the maximum as atomized ethanol and pure oxygen were injected into the pistons.

Within the span of three frames, he faced the ground and inevitably lost his vision.

—Do not fear. Since Geliad's prosthetic head obstructs the rotation of his cannon and gun barrels, the weapons on both sides can only "simultaneously aim at the same target" beyond a certain distance...

Considering the cannon barrel's recoil... at this distance, after firing, he would still need several milliseconds to readjust the barrel before he could fire accurately...

As the shock wave crushed over his body, the man released the kinetic energy he had stored.

Electric sparks unleashed all the solar energy stored in the ethanol!

He charged at the enemy.

Geliad flooded the public channel with a string of manic laughter.

The killing bullets came straight at him! Under these circumstances, he could no longer achieve the precision of an extreme sniper shot. But he could still win with numbers.

Fear.

Those bullets really could kill him. And the distance between them was far too short. A Biological Brain lacked the time to react, while mere algorithms lacked the ability to plan and adapt...

—Don't panic...

Xiang Shan tucked in his legs. His beast-like legs nearly folded together as he ran low, reducing his cross-sectional area from both sides.

—That way, nearly half the bullets will miss...

He raised both hands level with the ground. This was an action that a natural human martial artist could not perform; even if one forced it, one could not exert strength.

His fists struck at the bullets from the side.

—The seven that are bound to target vital points...

If his fists could not keep up, then he would deal with the ones that could pierce the power source first... As for the rest, he could only pray that the armor held...

This was a range where even sound could not arrive in time. Xiang Shan unleashed repeated Inch Force strikes, deflecting one bullet aimed at his legs, one aimed at the neck control center, and two aimed at the power mechanism in his chest...

The reactive force from his fists hitting the bullets barely twisted his body around.

Then it was as though a string of hammers struck him. Xiang Shan's body bounced five centimeters into the air. Those were the bullets he had missed.

Only one bullet came in at too sharp an angle for the armor to stop it. It pierced through the plating and entered his abdominal cavity.

Even a body without tactile sensation felt the violent vibration.

But it was fine. The external armor made in the village was of poor quality, so the bullet would surely pass through both layers. He did not need to worry about it ricocheting inside and damaging components.

As long as the power lines were undamaged, it was no problem at all...

And then the final bullet...

It flew straight at Xiang Shan's brow.

It had to be said that Geliad's grasp of "timing" and "formation" far surpassed Leif's. The positions and timing of those seven bullets forced Xiang Shan to block the other shots first. Moreover, the other six were no less lethal than this one.

Xiang Shan's fists were too slow. He could not use Inch Force to deflect every bullet. At that instant, both his feet were bound to be off the ground.

And the upper three bullets were aimed at his chest. After blocking them, the angle of Xiang Shan's arms might not be enough to support another Inch Force strike.

And if Xiang Shan let fear make him block this bullet first, the other attacks would destroy his prosthetic body—because the "commands" of the human brain held the highest priority over a prosthetic body!

—Trust... Trust the algorithm!

—Trust in the product of human wisdom!

—Human "wisdom" was never meant to operate weapons... It was the operating system of the flesh, and the path by which we advanced toward "truth" in the realm of the spirit.

—So entrust that instant to the algorithm, and let will become the annotation of "martial."

Xiang Shan spread his fingers and held them before the final bullet.

At that instant, Geliad felt certain he had won. Those prosthetic fingers had originally belonged to Rainstorm Blade Longkoni. He had looked up their specifications in the local sports league, and their structure did not possess the strength to block that bullet.

But in the next instant, Geliad's eyes widened.

—Impossible!

The instant the bullet touched his finger, part of its tip deformed and softened, scattering like liquid. The bullet's trajectory shifted drastically, grazing past Xiang Shan's face. That finger, however, was ripped free by the immense kinetic energy and slammed into Xiang Shan's brow.

But that was all. It was merely a finger carrying part of a bullet's kinetic energy, not the bullet itself.

Geliad had never expected this outcome.

In fact, Xiang Shan had considered this use the moment he "caught" the bullet. The instant he pinched it, he vibrated it with mechanical waves of different frequencies, probing for the frequency band capable of breaking apart the bullet's alloy structure.

The high-frequency mechanical waves emitted by the prosthetic fingers of Rainstorm Blade Longkoni were meant to be transmitted through specially made blades to break through an enemy's metal armor.

Xiang Shan was more familiar with this application.

The biological brain had already used "creativity" to construct a nonexistent "future" before it began. The algorithm born of wisdom executed it with meticulous precision.

With his killing blow missing, Geliad's consciousness inevitably lagged for an instant. His gun barrel spat out more bullets.

But Xiang Shan had already entered within two meters—the advantageous range of a melee fighter.

"Evasion speed exceeding gun barrel movement speed" had become possible.

A bullet grazed Xiang Shan's back like an iron hammer.

It merely grazed his back.

For Xia Wu, the ground had already become as slippery as if coated in oil—the friction his feet could provide was severely insufficient at this speed. The instant he lost his balance, he pressed a hand to the ground and twisted his body.

Only in "controlling one's center of gravity" was the Bionic Fist Technique truly first-rate.

He had already entered Geliad's defensive perimeter. Those two pairs of blade-shield-like arms became Xiang Shan's cover. Using the shock wave for one final burst of acceleration, Xiang Shan closed in on Geliad.

His intact prosthetic hand slammed into Geliad's frontal armor for the first time.

The bang of the impact seemed to knock upon Geliad's soul.

—It's over...

The leading edge of the blast wind had only just swept past when Geliad suddenly accelerated.

Military Martial Way focused on highly specialized martial arts for large prosthetic bodies, as well as the control of multiple bodies. Experts with unique insight into armored vehicles and warships could even use instantaneous acceleration and deceleration to unleash Inch Force through large prosthetic bodies.

But large prosthetic bodies also made enormous commotion. The vibrations of Geliad's internal engine were impossible to conceal. In a single instant, Xiang Shan used the pressure sensors in his five fingers to confirm the direction the vibrations traveled, thereby deducing the location of his opponent's internal power system.

Then he recoiled with the momentum.

—Ah...

Geliad desperately adjusted his posture, trying to use his gun barrel to catch up with Xiang Shan's movements, while his two heavily armored arms spun like blade-shields, attempting to slash at Xiang Shan. But Xiang Shan had already moved around him.

At the same time, Xiang Shan focused his artificial eyes on Geliad. Geliad noticed as well and instantly adjusted the precision of his artificial eyes, limiting himself to mosaic-like images within a narrow spectrum.

But Xiang Shan merely used his own artificial eyes to calculate the curvature of Geliad's eye lenses, then extrapolated their field of vision.

The frenzied Geliad swung both pairs of arms desperately. Xiang Shan charged toward him.

The enormous shields blocked Geliad's vision. Once the arms swung past, Xiang Shan's figure vanished as though by magic.

—Where are you...

Geliad let out a mournful howl.

Behind him, Xiang Shan's feet left the ground for the first time, turning somersaults like the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

Honestly, choosing to use the shell at the final instant to restrict Xiang Shan's movements had been somewhat shortsighted. This large prosthetic body already lacked a broad enough field of view, so using drones to compensate was perfectly normal. But the shell's shock wave had cleared out all the drones in the surrounding area.

At that instant, the area Geliad could neither observe nor interfere with was "within five steps, right at hand."

A piece of iron thrown up by the explosion happened to cross paths with Xiang Shan's body.

Xiang Shan released kinetic energy through his legs. He kicked the iron chunk flying, while he himself fell like a cannonball toward Geliad's back.