Trapped in a Predicament

The chip and storage device on the welfare officer were completely different in style from those on Leif and Geliad.

Take the memory storage device, for example.

The storage device on Leif used magnetic disks. Its operating principle was to store information through the arrangement of magnetic domains. The magnetic disk taken from Leif's head was still some distance from the "theoretical limit" in terms of domain spacing, but it had already surpassed the "industrial standards" Xiang Shan remembered.

But by the principle that "the smaller the magnetic domains, the more easily they were disturbed," this disk was unbelievably fragile. It relied entirely on a shock-absorption structure to resist interference, and Xiang Shan had also detected a dedicated "error-correction algorithm" meant to correct information on the disk that "might have gone wrong."

What the welfare officer used, on the other hand, was a hard drive that recorded information by storing electrons in semiconductors. It was much closer to what Xiang Shan remembered. Semiconductor solid-state drives would not easily lose information due to external force, and they read and wrote data faster. Their only problem was the limited number of write cycles.

"If I had to explain it, martial artists' storage devices do need real-time writing and erasing because of the convolution of martial arts experience. But that still isn't a reason to choose magnetic domains—after all, magnetic domains haven't broken through the subatomic scale." Xiang Shan pondered. "At first, I thought it was because the technology had been lost. But judging from these Protectors, that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Even if magnetic disks have an advantage in write cycles, it would still make sense to stuff an SSD inside the body, wouldn't it?"

"Or were the wasteland thugs so starved of resources that they couldn't even put an SSD in their bodies...?"

"That can't be it either. This era shouldn't be short of semiconductors. Silicon dioxide alone accounts for twelve percent of the Earth's crust, and since Inner Power has been passed down, the manufacturing methods for basic hardware like magnetic disks should have spread along with Knight-errantry."

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

"Surely someone uses quantum optical storage devices...?"

Although both the thugs' magnetic disks and the Protectors' semiconductor hard drives were manufactured to standards slightly beyond the "industrial standards" Xiang Shan remembered, they were still "outdated technology"—even in Xiang Shan's era.

Xiang Shan remembered that in his own era, quantum optical storage devices had already entered production. If not for the war, they should have become widespread. Regardless of cost, laboratory conditions could produce devices with unimaginably vast capacities.

At least, before his memories had been taken from him, he had owned more than one quantum storage device for storing martial arts.

If the thugs could only use magnetic disks because of limited conditions, then the nobles known as the "Civilization Protectors" should not have lacked resources.

It was truly strange.

Xiang Shan thought for a while but reached no conclusion. In the end, he could only console himself that he knew too little at present to make a correct judgment about this world.

He would learn eventually.

After temporarily setting that matter aside, Xiang Shan tried to study the programming concepts within the welfare officer's chip.

Come to think of it, that was another strange point.

Will Grand Dog and the welfare officer should both have belonged to the same faction. But Mr. Will's software was the sort of outdated, idiotic thing that could drive programmers to death—even programmers from the end of the twentieth century would have found it unimpressive. The welfare officer's, however, was clearly much more sophisticated. At the very least, its concepts and methods were entirely unfamiliar to Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan continued studying the code. Several hours later, he finally heard a faint buzzing like that of mosquitoes.

It was the sound of drones.

Xiang Shan let out a breath.

Xiang Shan poked his head out of the "tent." The "indoors" where he and Youji currently stayed was actually just a space built from a sheet of black felt and piles of garbage, meant only to keep out the wind and sand. The black cloth was a huge tapestry he had torn from inside the ground-effect aircraft.

He wondered whether it had been handmade. The thought flashed through Xiang Shan's mind for no reason.

Still, no one in this era would probably boast that "handmade was better than machine-made"—because there was essentially no difference between the two anymore.

Dozens of drones hovered outside the tent. They were continuing westward. Four of them carried parts removed from Geliad's body, along with Xiang Shan's finger.

Xiang Shan issued an order through his prosthetic eye, telling the drones to stop.

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

Xiang Shan removed his delivery.

This wireless signal transmitter removed from Geliad's body should have been the best of all the similar components Xiang Shan had encountered. The transmitter on the welfare officer had been much less powerful.

This might have been the most advanced component on Geliad's body...

—No, that wasn't right either.

Xiang Shan shook his head.

If one said that all the equipment on Geliad's body was outdated, that would be absurd as well.

The tentacle directly connected to his brain, with its cephalopod ganglion system, and the electronic equipment tangled with thick nerves were definitely technologies born only recently.

That made it even stranger. The storage device Geliad used was something "relatively outdated" in Xiang Shan's memories, while his signal transmitter was quite good. Yet the biochemical modification that could directly connect with the brain was cutting-edge technology even Xiang Shan had no recollection of.

Technologies from different eras had gathered on one person.

"What a strange era," Xiang Shan sighed.

Now all that remained was to wait for Mule to arrive.

As Xiang Shan thought, he removed the external armor from his abdomen. After his battle with Geliad, the armor was in a miserable state. Xiang Shan took out an electromagnetic screwdriver and detached the ethanol tank and engine from his abdomen.

The fuel ethanol had nearly been exhausted in the battle with Geliad. After leaving the village, there would be no more ethanol fuel to replenish it with, so keeping it in his body would only be a burden. Xiang Shan removed the engine and tried to install the wireless signal transmitter in its place.

Honestly, it was not easy. Under normal circumstances, a signal transmitter and a power component would never be placed in the same location. If conditions allowed, Xiang Shan wanted to redesign the layout of his prosthetic body entirely.

But the problem was that he had no tools to assist himself, and his only helper was still unconscious.

The only fortunate thing was that Xiang Shan seemed to have anticipated "temporarily replacing components after battle," so he had left enough extra wiring and ports inside his body in advance.

Several hours later, the thing was finally connected to Xiang Shan's body.

"Not bad, not bad. This way, Inner Power can finally have more room to work," Xiang Shan said.

Afterward, he continued studying Geliad's martial arts code.

During that time, Youji woke once more, but he merely wept silently before falling unconscious again.

Several hours later, Xiang Shan pulled back Youji's eyelids.

"This can't go on. We have to find a way to replenish some water and nutrients at the very least, or he'll die soon."

Xiang Shan could not help looking outside. Mule still had not arrived.

Thus, this great knight had no choice but to admit a fact—his hastily written pathfinding program really was not very good.

Mule had most likely deviated from its planned route.

"All right, it was my fault for not programming in an electronic sextant." Xiang Shan sighed. "But my astronomy skills are pretty average, okay? I never imagined I'd one day have to rely on a sextant to navigate. It was my fault for not memorizing the star charts, but I can't be entirely responsible either."

At least in the era he knew, hacking a few satellites to safely use a satellite positioning system was still a viable tactic for knights.

But Xiang Shan had to find Mule.

For one thing, if he did not retrieve the backup battery on Mule, he would have to remain connected to Youji by cable the whole time. If they encountered another expert under those circumstances, they would be finished.

The water and nutrients keeping Youji alive were over there too.

Of course, he could continue waiting. After all, Mule might simply have taken a longer route and needed more time to arrive.

But Xiang Shan did not dare gamble on it.

He and Youji were both relying on the same battery to stay alive. This battery, which had originally belonged to Paulus, had also helped him kill Geliad and rout the welfare officer's battle formation.

Even if Paulus's prosthetic body consumed more power than Xiang Shan's current one, this battery would not last much longer.

As for the solar panels on those drones... at most, they could charge those lightweight reconnaissance drones and extend the duration of a mission. They could not support the energy consumption of Xiang Shan's prosthetic body.

Besides, the sun was about to set.

"No. We have to go..."

Xiang Shan thought so.

If he hesitated any longer and the battery continued draining, neither of them would have a chance to leave the wasteland alive.

But leaving did not mean simply walking away.

Xiang Shan first dismantled one drone, connecting part of its circuitry with the ethanol tank and oxidizer tank, then placing that circuitry together with a sensing device. This made a simple land mine. He then buried the drone's main power source and signal transceiver elsewhere, covering them with a thin layer of soil.

He connected the remaining solar panels to himself. Any recharge was better than none.

"Back in town, the solar panels were shared, so they never seemed precious. Out here in the wasteland, even a single kilowatt-hour of electricity could kill someone..."

Only after finishing did the man use wires torn from Geliad's body to bind Youji to his back. Then he split the welfare officer's tapestry in two, using one piece to cover the crude "booby trap," while rolling the other half in the sand to dirty it before wrapping it around himself.

He did this to confirm whether there were pursuers behind him, giving himself at least a little warning.

"According to the map, the area Mule might have passed through... is an elliptical region like this. First, head back one thousand meters, then turn 135 degrees and search a fan-shaped area..." Xiang Shan muttered. "There's a good chance of completing the search in about five hours. If I'm lucky, I might find it the next second. Well, one should always hold on to hope in life."

That was what the man told himself.