101: Chapter 21 Speculation 101: Chapter 21 Speculation The Excavator Group’s corridor was taller and wider than that of the Z Organization, and had even fewer turns.

On this main thoroughfare, there were only a few curves with very large arcs.

After Deborah’s squad entered this main thoroughfare from a branch line, they could see the gates of the Great Stockade of the Excavator Group just by looking up.

From here to the gate was only a few hundred meters.

Zhang Xianchong’s prosthetic eye was particularly sensitive.

He spotted the cover and the firepower points at the gates of the Great Stockade of the Excavator Group at first glance.

These covers were made of steel plates raised from the ground, which weren’t of much use in front of martial arts masters.

There were some firearms placed on the covers, and behind them, a row of people lay dead.

Gazing at the bullet holes in the wall, Carolina murmured, “This guy…

Why does he insist on a frontal assault against the defenses?

Is he an idiot?”

Such a lack of Jianghu experience left Zhang Xianchong speechless.

He said, “That guy had no choice, he had to do it this way.”

“Why…?”

“Because the members of the Excavator Group don’t have a high rate of cybernetic enhancement,” Deborah explained.

“They can pull out the poisoned parts and rely on their biological brains for a while, then replace them with spare components — it’s by using this brutal method that they get rid of the Gu Poison.”

Currently, there is no kind of Gu that can attack both the biological brain and electronic processors at the same time.

At most, it can hijack the interface between the prosthetic body and the biological brain, order the those units to abnormally discharge and thus befuddle and harm the biological brain.

Some people use inherent defects of the biological brain like photosensitive epilepsy to hypnotize the biological brain to a limited extent.

Such methods can often bypass the protection of the prosthetic body, reducing the efficiency of the brain.

But there is no way to make both the electronic processor and the biological brain lose their ability to work at the same time.

“No matter what command that guy used, it would surely have alerted the Green Forest members midway.

Those Green Forest members would quickly replace all of their electronic parts with new ones,” Deborah said.

“Anyway, for most of them, their electronic components aren’t worth much.”

“This ‘Shan’ indeed found a way to release the Gu into the stockade.

But it wouldn’t be long before these people could regain their strength through such means.

And once they are alert, they will only appear in groups.”

And “Dense Formation” has always been the great enemy of all martial arts in the world.

Carolina thought for a moment, “But he could also wait for those guys to leave the stockade, then take them out one by one as they scatter in the open space, couldn’t he?”

Zhang Xianchong shook his head again, “That’s not possible.

If a large group of the Green Forest suddenly appeared in an area, it might trigger the Heavenly Punishment System.

The members of the Excavator Group wouldn’t do that, and ‘Shan’ would not want to do that either.

He must continuously obtain supplies.”

“Hero” is the ultimate in elite soldier tactics, also subject to the limitation of “a narrow victory is like a defeat.” A Hero must win decisively every battle, and after victory, obtain resources to compensate for their consumption.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to carry out the next operation.

The tradition of “Jianghu aid” within the Hero community also exists for this reason.

No one can truly guarantee constant victory.

And a Hero who has been defeated once will lose a significant amount of resources.

He might need a long time to get out of trouble.

At such times, providing him with a set of components, a single armor-piercing bullet, is also a tremendous help, allowing him to return to his peak more quickly.

The tradition of “Jianghu aid” is also an action that individuals in the Jianghu ecosystem take to improve their own tolerance for mistakes.

Hundreds of reconnaissance drones dispersed, scanning the marks on the walls.

Deborah raised her left arm straight and said, “Carlo, give me the detection hand.”

“Right away, miss,” Carolina put down the box on her back, took out a hand from it.

This prosthetic hand was more fibrous, and the fingers were nearly a meter long.

She held the hand with both hands, knelt beside Deborah, then supported the “Knife-Gun Hand” that Deborah was currently using.

Deborah’s forearm clicked, detached from her upper arm, and fell into Carolina’s hands.

Carolina then quickly attached the other hand to Deborah’s arm.

The “detection hand” is a prosthetic body specialized for reconnaissance.

Its fingers have high-frequency sound emitters and the most sensitive pressure-sensitive units—sensitive enough to capture mechanical waves in the air and analyze speech.

Simply put, its “touch” can even be used as “hearing.”

Deborah pressed the “detection hand” against the wall, applying a gentle force.

The wall, which seemed to be reinforced with some sort of “primitive cement”, was somewhat hard.

But to Deborah’s fingers, this material was as crumbly as a cookie—falling into the category of “both crisp and flaky.”

By pressing and confirming the touch, she pinched off a small piece of cement with two fingers.

“Hardness…

strength…

data confirmed…” Deborah whispered.

The scanning work of the drones was completed at this time.

All the bullet holes, footprints above the corridor, appeared in her database.

The woman took two steps forward, arriving at a footprint, touching it with her finger.

The footprint had broken through half a foot thick cement wall, with edges as neat as if cut by a knife.

Many lightning-shaped cracks radiated outward from this footprint, interwoven with the bullet holes.

These traces made the entire wall look shaky.

Deborah took two steps back.

In her field of vision, the bullet holes on the wall began to extend into lines, intersecting in the void in front of her, reconstructing the original trajectory of the bullets for her.

And also reconstructing Xiang Shan’s actions at that time.

Deborah filtered out the environmental noise and became immersed in the “scenery” woven from intelligence.

Virtual bullets kept retreating in the air…

retreating…

retreating…

——He burst out from the main thoroughfare with overwhelming momentum…

The woman thought to herself.

——Judging by the footprint analysis, his running speed at that time was close to the speed of sound.

This speed would have caused a great deal of noise in the corridor, which was inevitable…

——He had no intention of concealing himself…

——Of course, that meant he was also prepared for a head-on clash with the Fire Wire.

Deborah’s gaze moved to the lighting equipment above the corridor.

All the equipment had been damaged.

——That’s right.

If I were in that Hero’s shoes, when facing a Green Forest Organization whose majority isn’t highly modified, I would also choose to destroy the lighting to cut off shooting.

The human eye adjusts the size of the pupil based on surrounding light to determine the number of photons entering the retina.

The eyes need to adapt when they suddenly enter darker or brighter areas.

Prosthetic Eyes are not without this issue.

However, the sensitivity and tolerance limit of Prosthetic Eyes are higher than biological eyes—say, Prosthetic Eyes can look directly at the sun without damage.

In most cases, the optical signals analyzed by Prosthetic Eyes only need slight processing by the program before they can be easily understood by the Biological Brain.

Therefore, abruptly changing the environmental lighting is also a viable tactic for a Prosthetic Body against a physical body, a high modification rate against a low one.

Deborah accelerated instantaneously.

Her figure overlapped with the “predicted Xiang Shan.”

In front of her were bullets streaming in.

Deborah suddenly spun, kicking off the wall.

The impact lifted her up, hitting the top of the corridor.

She twisted her body, slapped back with her hand, plummeting straight down to the ground, and then with that countering force, she accelerated again, charging forward.

This guy was like a weirdly acting ball, constantly accelerating, accelerating, accelerating…

Of course, amidst such dense bullets, the guy couldn’t avoid getting hit.

But his Avoid skills were high, and it seemed that every time, he managed the bullet to strike his External Armor at a steep angle of entry.

After several bounces, Deborah landed behind cover.

Several corpses lay on the ground.

“He didn’t have time to clean up these bodies…

They should be in their original state.”

“Judging by the angle at which these bodies lie, he must have…”

Deborah turned around, her fingers stabbing out swiftly.

“Like this…”

“If he chose this kind of moves…

then the Prosthetic Fingers he used were mostly of the Ronconi type, equipped with the function of a High-Frequency Sound Emitter.”

Deborah flipped the body over and indeed found a wound on the back of the head.

The massive impact had smashed the brain.

“The size is wrong, it does not match with Ronconi’s registered data for Prosthetic Bodies during the sports meeting.”

Carolina said, “Did he switch Prosthetic Bodies?”

Another Martial Artist shook their head, “Should not be to that extent.

The High-Frequency Sound Emitter has too many limitations, it can only be effective in close combat, and one must repeatedly strike the opponent’s External Armor to determine the state of the metal’s crystalline structure.

This gadget only has a significant advantage in arena battles.

The Wilderness Green Forest might not like it.”

Deborah nodded, “Moreover, according to intelligence, Organization Z does not have such a person.

It appears that the Hero has certain engineering skills.”

Zhang Xianchong nodded, “A union of medical and martial, truly a Famed Hero demeanor.”

The previously speaking Martial Artist sneered coldly, “Still a rustic bumpkin at the end of the day, always talking about Famed Heroes and demeanor, I really don’t know whose side you’re on…”

A flash of red flitted across Zhang Xianchong’s eyes, ready to erupt, but Deborah raised her hand to stop Zhang Xianchong, “Uncle Hammer, stop joking.

Xianchong is now our companion, how could he still be considered rustic?

Speaking of which, what do you think about the situation inside?”

“It’s remarkable that ‘Mountain’ has killed off this entire Great Stockade of Green Forest.” Uncle Hammer said softly, “Dissolving ‘one against one hundred’ into a hundred instances of ‘one on one’, with Inner Strength by one’s side, it’s not hard to achieve.

As long as he can instantly kill ‘Big Bulldozer’, it’s not difficult.”

“I think it might not necessarily be the case,” Zhang Xianchong shook his head, “The ‘Big Bulldozer’s’ Military Martial Path is broad and dynamic.

If one doesn’t consider the lives of comrades, the precision required is very low.

Perhaps that Xiang Shan would use this to have ‘Big Bulldozer’ tear apart the Excavator Group’s formation.”

“The Excavator Group isn’t foolish,” Uncle Hammer said, “Even though ‘Big Bulldozer’s’ firepower isn’t as good as the ‘Chain Missile’, it still poses a tricky threat.

That Xiang Shan must have killed Big Bulldozer with a move—there’s no better strategy than that.”