Yulia quickly regained consciousness.
The principle of a concussion is that external vibrations impact neurons' structures. Created by Yawgmoth, the metal-based proteins construct cells with greater resistance than those of natural humans. Coupled with the industrial machine's shock absorption system being quite adept, even if Yulia tumbled through the air and then the front of the car slammed into the ground, she sustained no substantial harm.
But her rear left wheel was gone. A steel rod had fallen from the sky and pierced through her rear wheel.
This was the cause of her accident.
Time rewound to several minutes earlier.
"So this means the town is without protection now, right!"
At that moment, amidst a cloud of dust, suddenly a voice emerged.
Simultaneously, loud but chaotic footsteps began. Initially, panic had accumulated among the people when the welfare officer announced the withdrawal of protection. Now, this statement ignited their fear.
Yuki's eyes widened. Through the dust, he saw a few vague shadows slowly become clearer. Then, he restarted his lens—he wondered if he was seeing things. In his vision, those shadows emerging from the darkness were three meters tall, with hands seemingly raised at their sides. However, the length of those hands was disproportionately long—absurdly so.
Yuki's eyes widened: "What is that?"
"Quick, follow me!" Yulia put the car in reverse and skillfully hooked onto Yuki's waist with the unloading rack. This maneuver could be lethal for a natural person, but Yuki would just need some parts replaced.
These troublemakers were most likely thugs, but one absolutely could not get involved in their fights.
However, as Yulia was escaping with Yuki, that steel rod fell from the sky.
—Yuki…
Yulia detected a crying sound. Without needing to compare voice prints, she knew it was her son. Yuki was lying on the ground, bawling. His one leg had disconnected from his body in the accident, and he could no longer walk.
"Good boy…" Yulia called out urgently: "Hurry and fix your leg, haven't you learned repairs with Yog? Hurry! You need to hurry…"
"Mom!" Yuki was overjoyed: "You're okay! That's great!"
"I told you to quickly look at your own leg!" Yulia was greatly agitated. She didn't know what had happened, didn't know if the recent attack was an aftershock of battle or something targeted. She only wanted her son to get away from there as quickly as possible.
"Clang, clang, clang." That was the sound of metal colliding. Clapping.
Lev stood to the side, his expression one of sadness: "Truly touching, this parent-child bond."
"You are… a thug…" Yulia was greatly alarmed: "What do you want? My prosthetic body or my brain lobes? You…"
"Relax, relax." Lev pretended to wipe away non-existent tears: "I'm not really interested in a woman's prosthetic body like yours. Severing the brain bridge prematurely and brain lobes that haven't been exercised have no great value."
He took a big step forward.
In an instant, Yulia saw the giant man's intention.
—Yuki…
Yulia's front wheel turned. She wanted to use all of her remaining strength to strike the giant man. But the industrial prosthetic was too cumbersome, and after losing a rear wheel and sustaining power damage, she simply couldn't mobilize quickly.
Lev grabbed Yuki. He could hold the child with just one hand.
"Alright, little one, I heard you dug that man out of the junkyard," Lev said with a smile. "He wouldn't just leave you to die, now would he?"
Yuki's eyes widened, "Your target is... Master..."
"'Master'?" Lev repeated the syllable, "You mean... 'Master'?"
Lev: [Hey Vigorous Kui, did you hear that?]
Due to some distance, the signal was a bit poor.
Vigorous Kui: [Ah, 'Master'. Is this an unexpectedly big catch? Only a famed hero or swordsman would have students use that word.]
Lev: [But, isn't it strange? Would a hero really let themselves fall into such... such a state of losing everything?]
A hero would not lose everything. When they took up arms against the existing civilization, they were already prepared to sacrifice their lives. They would rather die than lose their Inner Strength—they would not want to become slaves to the tyrant again.
Heroes are also the hardest to capture alive.
Without brainwashing them, even if stripped of everything, they would use their own power to find every crack in society and become heroes again.
But if they really lost their Inner Strength, lost the ability to resist, they would choose death.
Even a hero from Green Forest wouldn't be an exception in this respect.
The Lords and other protectors of civilization also understood this. Heroes were seldom taken prisoner. They were either executed on the spot or their brains were disassembled, as another type of resource.
Thus, many speculated that Xiang Shan was a martial artist who had lost the Martial Arts Algorithm, not a hero.
Vigorous Kui: [Forget it… seize the opportunity to first plant a trojan! Even if he really is a famed hero, once he loses the memory storage device, he won't be able to recall his Inner Strength that quickly!]
[Ah, isn't that better?] Lev grinned wickedly. [This just proves that our new brother definitely has talent in Inner Strength! Hurry up and get to the location, lay the ambush, got it?]
He laughed loudly, hoisting Yuki onto the iron rod, lifting him high. Yuki struggled continuously, but Lev just kept adjusting the iron rod, firmly grasping the center of that small body. Yuki's struggles disrupted the dynamic balance with the iron rod, but Lev only needed to wiggle his fingers to reestablish it.
He laughed boisterously as he walked through the town's streets and alleys. Along the way, everyone was avoiding him. The self-defense forces built by the village were meaningless before a martial artist of this level. People just screamed, desperately fleeing from his presence.
[On your left.]
Lev followed Vigorous Kui's directions, constantly turning.
Vigorous Kui had infiltrated the monitoring systems. In the city, he was like someone using a cheat that showed the whole map.
Then, Lev spoke, "Hey, big brother Enoch up ahead, where are you heading?"
The fleeing Enoch instantly dared not move.
"Mr. Lev..." he managed to align his voice as close as possible to being "sycophantic," "It's you..."
Although Lev had changed his prosthetic body, that original face...
"Ah, I haven't appeared before you looking like this yet, have I?" Lev smiled, "Just a matter of hot swapping the brain. You'd understand if you had several prosthetic bodies too!"
"I... of course, I'm nowhere near Mr. Lev... I..."
"I need to trouble you once again, Enoch," Lev said gently, "Can you take poor Mr. Lev to this child's house? I'm here to find that martial artist."
"Enoch!" Yuki exploded, "It was you! You told him! You've doomed mom! It was you! It was you!"
He kicked and thrashed wildly, but Lev simply swayed his weapon, maintaining his stance.
Enoch, however, was startled, "Yulia... What happened to Yulia..."
"Relax, relax, I've heard your love poems, I didn't lay a finger on that industrial machinery," Lev laughed heartily, "Shall we go?"
Upon hearing that Yulia was unharmed, Lev was relieved. He thought of nothing else, unable to defy Lev and had no choice but to lead the way obediently.
Yuki kept yelling incessantly, "That time, it was you who pushed master, right? You bastard! Bastard!"
"Hey, kid," Lev joggled the stick in his hand, "This is hardly the time to worry about that kind of stuff, is it?"
"What?"
"Didn't you ever think why I chose to capture you?" Lev said with a smile.
Yuki's face stiffened.
Lev laughed heartily.
Yuki was just a bargaining chip in their "deal."
Although Lev and Vigorous Kui did not think that someone named "Shan" could match them, they still needed to prevent "Shan" from escaping. Bionic Fist Technique was less aggressive than Lev's stick technique, but the lightweight prosthetic had a substantial advantage in long-distance sprints.
They were holding Yuki just to prevent "Shan" from leaving.
Of course, there were other utilities.
In the best-case scenario, they planned to use Yuki as a hostage, forcing Shan to accept the implantation of a Trojan.
That way, Vigorous Kui could kill "Shan" anytime.
Soon, Enoch spoke, "It's just ahead..."
Yuki's house wasn't far from there. Lev looked at the shabby shack, shaking his head.
Such buildings couldn't provide effective defenses. He wondered what that "Shan" was doing inside.
—Was he really inside?
The infrared vision of his prosthetic eye showed there indeed was a heat source inside, slightly warmer than the surroundings.
He pondered whether he should use the wind pressure driven by his stick to blast the shack away, or should he just kick the door open?
"Alright, back off," Lev waved his hand, letting Enoch roll away on his own. Enoch looked at Yuki as if he had more to say, but Lev scolded, "What's the matter? If a fight breaks out later, I won't be able to look after you."
Enoch was startled, appeasingly said, "How could that be? How could that 'Yog' compare to you?"
Though he said that, he still reversed slowly.
And naturally delayed for a few seconds.
Moments later, a signal of "ready" came from Vigorous Kui.
He had moved within a thirty-meter range. Within this range, the WiFi signal was strong enough. His Inner Strength could be transmitted through the air unimpeded, using Lev's eyes to perform the art of "witnessing."
"Very well..." Lev muttered and shouted toward the door, "Hey, you nameless martial artist, you're in there, right? Now, fellow warriors of Jianghu have come to share their knowledge with you! Please come out?"
There was no sound.
"Oh, not showing your face, huh?" Lev called out, "What might happen to your benefactor here, might not be pretty, right?"
"Master!" Yuki shouted into the air, "Don't be deceived! I believe you are strong! You just haven't remembered yet! You can escape! Avenge me later! Master! You..."
"Shut up!"
A light pause with the steel staff squeezed the air out of his lungs.
Yuki, who hadn't had his organs replaced yet, immediately spurted blood from his mouth and nose.
"Well? Are you coming out or not?" Lev called.
Still no movement. The heat source inside was gradually increasing, though.
"What's the trick?" Lev grabbed Yuki, poking the door with the three-meter-long staff. For a natural person, this staff was akin to a pillar or a city gate bar, but for him, it was just an Eyebrow-Level Staff.
The main structure of the house groaned under the strain.
But the person inside still was not there.
Yulia, who had barely moved over, felt utter despair.
—If at this moment, Shan didn't save the boy...
"Tsk, martial artist, are you trying to tell us, 'This child has nothing to do with me, do whatever you like with him'?" Lev shook his head, clicking his tongue, "Tsk tsk tsk, that kind of tactic is no use to us heroes of the Green Forest Path."
He wasn't sure exactly what the heat source inside was or whether there were traps, so he didn't attack rashly.
Without visibility, he might not be able to control everything. Conversely, the hero inside might not be without means of counterattack.
Even though he could destroy the house with half a move, he would still give the initiative of half a move.
If the one inside truly was a master, half a move's advantage could be enough to decide life and death.
"Since that's the case..." Lev propped his steel staff, tossing Yuki high into the air, "This is what you've brought upon yourself!"
Yuki was midair, flailing helplessly. And Lev had already posed like he was about to play golf.
Of course, it was just a threat. He wasn't planning on killing the boy yet. That way, the bargaining chip would truly be worthless.
Just at that moment, Yuki's house exploded. A silver light burst out like flowing water, then gently wrapped around the steel staff.
—So fast...
That was Lev's first thought.