Chapter 351: Chapter 351

351: Chapter 131 Another Me 351: Chapter 131 Another Me C·Shivaji-21 died without ever understanding what had happened.

This was another secret defended by the Eighth Martial God—the vulnerability in the underlying protocol of the Brain-Machine Interface.

The initial underlying protocol of the Brain-Machine Interface was personally forged by the likes of Xiang Shan, the pinnacle of the academic community, followed by Zhu Xinyu joining forces with other powerful hackers for security monitoring.

It was a peak of human intelligence at the time and was almost unhackable by contemporaries.

However, with the advancement of generations, the technology for chip fabrication improved, and the old underlying protocols gradually became inadequate for new hardware.

It was time for an update.

The chip technology research and development and the updates of the underlying protocol in the last century were all completed by government personnel.

And what the Eighth Martial God had mastered was the most fundamental security vulnerability.

His extraordinary perspective in the field of Inner Strength allowed him to see through the vulnerabilities in King Aqini’s latest military products decades ago.

This security vulnerability allowed him to use a “computer” to transmit certain specific stimuli to the “biological brain” through the input and output ports for information.

He could, to some extent, manipulate the activities within someone else’s brain.

In the past, this was strictly prohibited.

Throughout the 21st century, Xiang Shan had been attempting to technically block this kind of “external influence on the biological brain.”

Decades ago, “stealing brain computing resources” essentially meant sending computational requests to the subconscious part of another’s mind.

After prolonged research, the Eighth Martial God knew how to avoid alerting the invaded subject’s conscious awareness to the “theft.”

He just disrupted the opponent’s Inner Strength defensive actions.

These guys didn’t input their Inner Strength correctly into their own devices and weren’t accurately recognized as commands.

Their brains reflexively triggered Inner Strength in defense, but these attacks were then guided elsewhere along the wireless signals.

Of course, Xiang Shan now lacked such a meticulous ability.

And previously, in battle, Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan had captured the chips and protocols now used by King Aqini’s Mobile Cavalry under his direct control.

Xiang Shan discovered that the protocol with the vulnerability hadn’t been discarded but was instead patched up and still in use today.

And Xiang Shan’s severe headache was also because of this.

His brain was still damaged.

But that’s alright, this pepper shaker will hurt all the more.

C·Shivaji-21 likely died in excruciating pain.

He was beaten to death.

Barely powerful hands swung a barely powerful weapon, the vibrations gradually seeping into the biological brain.

Even when Xiang Shan regained consciousness from his headache, he had been dead for a while.

Xiang Shan was groggy.

The intense headache from forcibly using his Inner Strength had almost interrupted his thought process.

He was still in a state of brain damage.

Forcibly awakening the previously damaged neural pathways would cause abnormal electrical discharges in the brain, leading to this agonizing pain.

And this time, the pain seemed to come from “everywhere.”

He felt the full extent of the pain.

Xiang Shan got up, drew his Sonicon Blade, cut open C·Shivaji-21’s Armor, and then extracted the storage device.

But the moment he damaged it, the storage device ignited.

Xiang Shan expressionlessly tossed the hard drive to the ground.

It came with its own incendiary and oxidizers, even specialized heat-generating agents with a scientific ratio.

Even if extracted underwater or in an oxygen-free environment, it would still release thousands of degrees of heat in a short time.

The energy released in such a short period of time was merely a few thousand degrees, not enough to damage the External Armor of an arm.

However, the information inside the storage device—or rather, the crystals and the subatomic particles of the quantum states storing the information—were extremely fragile.

This storage device was now unreadable.

To prevent such destruction, one would probably need to pre-douse it with something like liquid nitrogen to lower the temperature below the ignition point of those incendiaries.

Xiang Shan didn’t bother trying the remaining pepper shaker.

He knew the outcome would be the same.

These fellows had been exposed to the Martial Studies taught by King Aqini and had access to more secrets; their protection measures were also higher.

Even if the maintenance cost was significantly increased, the Protectors didn’t care too much.

Xiang Shan twirled his Long Spear around, pointed it downward.

He looked around for any Mobile Cavalry with brain activity, walked over, kicked one over, and thrust the Long Spear toward the back of the head.

But then he thought better of it and lowered the spear.

Xiang Shan then looked toward Old Hammer Trace, lying off to the side.

The old fellow was lucky.

When those Rangers were pouring bullets into each other, Old Hammer hadn’t been caught in the crossfire.

Xiang Shan walked over to him and said, “Old Hammer Trace…

you look pretty ragged.

Can you fix yourself up?”

Old Hammer was extremely surprised: “I never mentioned my name…

Xiang Shan pressed on his forehead: “My mistake…

I should have thought of it.

I should have made a backup of your memory files.” He paused for a few seconds, “But never mind.

It doesn’t matter, it’s all over.”

“What…” Old Hammer shouted: “What does that mean?

The Eighth Martial God’s Legacy, this…”

Xiang Shan looked toward the blazing cave.

Just like the storage devices of King Aqini’s disciples, the fire there was unlikely to be extinguished anymore.

“There’s no longer any Legacy of the Eighth Martial God.

Xiang Shan turned to the old man, “Can you fix yourself?”

The old man nodded: “Yes…”

“Then take the brains of these people with you.

If they’re willing to admit guilt and undergo reformation, it wouldn’t hurt to give them a chance.”

As he spoke, Xiang Shan turned and walked away.

The fallen rocks had already piled up to form a passage.

The old man shouted, “Who on earth are you?”

The old man froze there.

Only after Xiang Shan left did he place his hand on his head and burst into laughter, “Hahaha…

Xiang Shan walked upward.

There were signs of battle all the way.

Perhaps the Burrow Dragons had also experienced a fierce battle.

Xiang Shan’s fingers lightly brushed over the QR codes left by the Eighth Martial God.

He was silent for a few minutes, then continued forward.

Now, all the Mobile Cavalry had been eliminated.

What remained in the tunnels were various drones and sporadic sounds of fighting.

As Xiang Shan walked forward, when he encountered data cables like snakes, he would reach out and pull, destroying the surface layer and electrically shocking all at once.

He now knew everything about this underground community, even better than some of the younger Burrow Dragons.

Xiang Shan continued walking without saying a word.

Soon, he arrived at the core of the community, that underground factory.

There had also been a fierce battle here.

There were many Burrow Dragons’ corpses on the ground.

Their Biological Brains had been destroyed.

This was a fatal injury.

Xiang Shan stood in front of the corpses of these Burrow Dragons for several seconds, then brought his hands together in prayer before continuing further inside.

He reached the most central location without any obstruction.

The Burrow Dragons had not set any passwords here either.

The Burrow Dragons were a power that lingered in the dark.

If the enemy reached this point, it meant that they no longer had any secrets.

By then, whether there were passwords or not didn’t matter anymore.

He moved aside a broken mechanical arm, swept away a collapsed transport track, and entered.

—Many people had died…

That’s what Xiang Shan thought as he reached the deepest level.

It was a small warehouse, considered a public domain.

Inside, materials the Burrow Dragons had prepared for Hero were stored.

There were various alloys, and even finished Armor and weapons.

But one corner of the warehouse had not been touched for many years.

It was a pile of well-sealed metal parts.

In the very corner, there was also a large Carbon Crystal box.

Xiang Shan opened this preservation box, and inside were some black, regular ceramic-clad materials.

This was precisely the refined fission fuel.

Xiang Shan found several engineering robots in the warehouse and began silently assembling the Reactor.

He just happened to know how to use this thing.

The robots began to assemble according to the preset program.

Meanwhile, Xiang Shan leaned against the wall and sat down.

His head began to hurt.

And then dizziness followed.

Xiang Shan temporarily lost his sense of direction.

He felt as if he were falling.

Eventually, his consciousness cleared again.

The algorithm for controlling posture told him he was still sitting against the wall.

But the surroundings were no longer that dim warehouse.

In the darkness, he saw himself sitting opposite.

“Yo, partner,” that other self was even still in physical form…

No, his current self was too.

leaning more towards the Eighth Martial God’s Xiang Shan nodded, “So that’s it.

I understand now, ‘the other me’.”

This was not a real conversation.

It was just a “hallucination” created by his brain to understand the current situation. Thɪs chapter is updated by novelFirｅ.net

The Biological Brain of this Xiang Shan could be considered an ancient serial computer with only one set of “neural networks for processing personality data.” However, under the distribution of the computer, this neural network could operate like a single-user multi-tasking system, first running personality application A, then personality application B.

The words uttered by personality application A at the intermediate stage of contemplation, or when the allocated “Brain Time” was exhausted, would be temporarily stored in short-term memory.

Then, personality application B would be awakened.

Unlike schizophrenia, the “personality application” here is not even a “complete personality.” It’s closer to an external manifestation of will, a facet.

Or to describe it using ancient terms, a “Personality Mask.”

There’s only one “true nature” beneath the mask.

It’s like a person holding two masks, performing a two-character play.

“It shouldn’t have been this troublesome,” the simulated Eighth Martial God’s Personality Mask said, “Over time, ‘we’ would have gradually integrated.

This current state is only a compromise by the damaged brain due to the vast knowledge.

There aren’t actually two personalities.

We are merely talking to ourselves.”

The Native Xiang Shan shrugged, “I find this form of experience quite novel.”