Legend of the Cyber Heroes-Chapter 69 - Surgery
69: Chapter 69 Surgery
69 -69 Surgery
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The 3D printer rapidly sprayed carbon powder onto the already formed metal plate armor, then another robotic arm released an electric arc, causing carbon atoms to instantly oxidize and reduce, bonding and arranging in a set pattern to form complex fiber clumps.
This was the best buffer layer Xiang Shan could find under these conditions.
It was capable of effectively absorbing mechanical waves, reducing the damage of mechanical waves to the metal and cellular parts.
At the same time, the extraordinary conductivity of the carbon fibers could provide a certain level of electromagnetic resistance for parts inside the armor.
Once the lining was complete, the plate armor was cast aside by a magnetic field, falling onto a shelf of a drone.
The drone quickly navigated within the base, transporting this alloy external armor to the Maintenance Instrument.
The Maintenance Instrument removed this piece of alloy external armor and placed it on a torso that was already roughly visible in outline.
The main body part to be viewed was essentially finished.
Only the spine was still empty, waiting for Xiang Shan to complete the spinal exchange before taking residence inside it.
This piece of external armor wasn’t a one-piece “tin can.” Just the back part alone consisted of seventy-eight independently segmented armor plates.
Between every two plates, there were miniature hydraulic power systems as connectors, ensuring considerable mobility.
This made the layout of this external armor appear more like the muscle lines of some non-human creature.
If Xiang Shan wished, he could even walk on the ground using the relative movement of these back armor plates.
The sides of the waist and the front chest followed a similar logic.
Despite this, the strength of these alloy external armors were only higher, not lower, than the previous generation Xiang Shan had used.
Just in terms of alloy material, these alloys that were laser-melted and sonically controlled for crystal growth were far superior to the materials 3D printed after melting from the Recycling Station Town.
In terms of overall structure, these external armors also had a greater ability to deflect attacks and were more resistant.
Watching the armor gradually take shape, Yuki grew envious and thought to himself, “Someday, I want to have such a cool prosthetic body.”
This pure white external armor, which had yet to be sprayed with camouflage paint, was indeed cool.
“That’s enough, stop looking.
This prosthetic body is of an average standard,” Xiang Shan tapped on his head, “Have you finished inventorying the firearms?
Did you, as I advised, go to the firing range to try out the feel for them?”
What Xiang Shan referred to was for Yuki to go to the firing range and try every style of firearm that could be found in the Z organization to find one he preferred.
Although Xiang Shan never liked the Firearms Path, he admitted that it was quite practical in certain scenarios.
For example, in a wilderness environment with no innocent passersby, if you are surrounded by far more enemies than yourself, knowing the Firearms Path would directly increase your chances of survival.
Besides, using the “earth” as cover to snipe beyond the horizon was also very useful.
In Xiang Shan’s view, the External Sect firearms, along with military martial studies, were not encouraged, but one must at least know a move or two.
Yuki nodded his head.
“Which do you prefer?” Xiang Shan asked.
Yuki uploaded an image.
It was a rifle of an unfamiliar model.
“A rifle?
Why?”
Yuki thought for a moment, “It feels…
more operable than a machine gun, and it requires less maintenance than a sniper rifle.
And…
it might save on bullets?”
“Save on bullets…” Xiang Shan was somewhat speechless.
That didn’t sound like a good idea.
In the Firearms Path, there were numerous moves developed from “firepower suppression.” A gunner who is constantly thinking about saving bullets certainly can’t become a skilled Martial Artist of the Firearms Path.
As far as Xiang Shan was concerned, if one could use Metal Storm to execute the Tiger’s Astonishing Spear Technique, why be stuck with an automatic rifle?
“But under our current conditions, bullets might indeed be tight.
This thought isn’t entirely wrong,” Xiang Shan sighed, “After all, most Heroes don’t have the means to use bullets to pile on their enemies.
To start with this and gradually master firearms with higher rates of fire is one approach.
Alright, practice diligently.”
With the advent of the auxiliary line system, Cybermen at close-quarters combat no longer need to ensure that their eyes, gun muzzles, and targets are on the same line, allowing for many more martial arts moves.
But no matter how, being familiar with firearm performance is necessary.
Knowing how to assemble a firearm, knowing the feel of a bullet when it leaves the chamber, knowing whether a shot will hit its mark,
All this requires practice.
People in the Old Era had summed it up, saying “sharpshooters are made with bullets.”
Xiang Shan did not plan to let Yuki kill people while his psyche was still immature, so in the next few years, Yuki wouldn’t have many chances to shoot, at most he might do some auxiliary tasks.
Therefore, the Z organization firing range, a good place that provided moving targets, should be well utilized.
After setting tasks for his disciple, Xiang Shan breathed a sigh of relief.
After encountering that little girl, Yuki seemed to see someone who shared his misfortune—although Xiang Shan knew in his heart that the difficulties he and that little girl encountered were entirely different, Yuki did not.
While taking care of that little girl, the young man seemed to receive great solace.
He appeared to have stepped out of the shadow of his mother’s tragic death.
“This is actually a good thing, it seems that little girl can stay for a few more days,” Xiang Shan muttered to himself.
But before that, we have to be careful with the rough and careless modifications made to that girl’s body.
The skulls of Homo sapiens infants are not fused.
This is because, among land animals, the brain-to-body ratio of Homo sapiens is the largest, causing their enormous heads to easily lead to difficult childbirths—infants have to come out of the womb before their brains are fully developed.
At this time, if genetic expression goes wrong and the infant’s skull fuses prematurely, the child would suffer from “microcephaly,” where the skull restricts brain development, leaving the individual with the intelligence of an infant for the rest of their life.
Of course, Homo sapiens are a species with an excess of intelligence.
Even at an undeveloped level, they are still much smarter than most animals.
The Brain-Machine Barrier presents a similar issue.
It also restricts the growth of the brain, so the metallocluster protein shell layer would not appear before the age of three.
This little girl had flexible electrodes implanted to capture the brain’s bioelectric activity while her Brain-Machine Barrier was still not fully formed.
Flexible electrodes are a very primitive type of “Brain-Machine Interface.” In the 2020s of the 21st century, they were widely used in wearable devices and implantable neural activity monitoring devices.
Those bandits never considered what adverse effects this might have on the little girl.
But now Xiang Shan also didn’t know how to remove this thing.
It would require surgery and a considerable level of medical expertise.
And Xiang Shan…
Although he hasn’t yet encountered anything he doesn’t understand, that’s still a living brain belonging to a living child.
Yuki had been badly injured before, but that didn’t involve the central nervous system.
The damage resistance of a Benchmark Man could ensure the stable progression of the surgery.
But the brain is different.
“If only my memory were still intact,” Xiang Shan eventually could only sigh in this way.
At this moment, the clock’s predefined alert sounded.
It was time for the Reverse Messenger Soaking Agent.
Xiang Shan took out the spinal column and then went to a device that looked like an operating table.
This device is said to be built by the Z organization, using a digital model provided by the Demon Sect, and it is a specialized equipment for biological parts.
Countless needle-like devices extended from above, securing the spinal column, and according to the plan preset by Xiang Shan, drilled micro-holes of micrometer diameter into each section of the spine, then inserted tiny threads into them.
Even finer metal wires aided these conductive threads in establishing connections with the nerves.
The process was quick, taking only an hour.
The final step was to install receptors at the ends of the conductive fibers directly connected to the nerves.
The remaining parts were then transferred to the Maintenance Instrument for completion.
Installing the power device.
After that, electrodes were connected to the uppermost part of the cervical vertebrae, stimulating this large nerve, detecting nerve signals within, and setting up a mapping with the electronic devices that had just been attached.
After all this, Xiang Shan once again switched his Prosthetic Body to remote mode.
Then, he took off his own head and placed it on the operating table.
The mechanical arm once again lifted his head, and then a small circular saw moved close to the broken end of his cervical spine.
Soon, the external bone was stripped away, and with a clatter, it fell off.
After that, several nozzles hanging down began to spray digestive enzymes and saline, quickly stripping away the gray matter.
Many of the necrotic glial cells were also removed.
In that instant, Xiang Shan felt “pain.”
It wasn’t “pain” at “some point.” At that instant, he had an illusion as if his physical body was still there and being tormented by some indescribable means…
His physical body seemed to be experiencing a “morbid sensation” that wasn’t exactly “pain.”
This feeling almost made him issue a command to stop the process.
“Dammit…”
Normally, surgery involving nerves must be carried out under someone else’s supervision.
In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising for someone undergoing the surgery to have any sort of reaction under such direct stimulation.
The next step of the surgery was to reweave the nerves at the broken end of Xiang Shan’s spine, connecting them to that spinal column.
For the next few minutes, Xiang Shan felt as if he had plunged into a fantasy demon realm.
Simple sensations like “pain, sourness, itchiness, numbness, coldness, and heat” were not enough to describe his feelings at the time.
He wasn’t even sure if he groaned out loud.
“Damn it…”
—After this, he would have to accelerate training his disciples, so that next time something like this happens, he could administer an anesthetic to himself first…
