Book 4 Chapter 51: Human and Machines
Far away on the hillside, Kyle was watching the adventurers in the battle, his eyes burning with passion.
That was the first time that he saw human beings fighting against steel monsters with their flesh and blood, and they were displaying extremely powerful forces.
Although he had previously seen the strength of the adventurers, in that current situation the adventurers raised their bloodlust, showing their murderous intents, and he could truly feel their inhuman the power.
However, that did not mean that the adventurers had any advantage. In fact, mathematics in combat was not as simple as one and one equalling two. Unless the contrast between strengths had reached the gap between elephants and ants, the significance of quantity was often greater than the significance of quality.
In one-on-one fight, a Rank DD Terminator was far from being an equal adversary tof any adventurer, and even a two-on-one fight resulted in defeat. But when the number reached three-on-one, it was basically a balanced fight. When the number reached five or more versus one, it was basically overwhelming.
In addition, Terminators were braver than humans. They were cold-blooded, ruthless, faithful to procedures and commands, fearless of pain or death, and mechanically inflexible but efficient.
They were completely servient to their programs. Although they were somewhat rigid and inflexible in their personal battles, they were even more capable of exerting their strong fighting power in team battles.
Every adventurer on the battlefield was in a bitter fight.
As soon as Jin Gang had thrown a Terminator away with Telekinesis, another Terminator T-750 rushed in and slammed on his arm. Jin Gang slammed a few steps back and kicked the Terminator with his left leg. A T-800 had already jumped off in space and its iron arm attempted to cut to Jin Gang’s shank. Jin Gang spent his HP to use Telekinesis to block that attack, and yet another T-750 rushed at him again…
On the other side, a T-750 threw its huge metal body into Zhou Yiyu’s motorcycle and sent him into the air along with the vehicle. In midair, Zhou Yiyu hit a Terminator with Spiral Dance, but two other Terminators blocked his way.
Hong Lang was the first to rush, and his fist smashed a T-750 Terminator. The Terminator was punched back, and that time the losing side was the steel entities. The right arm of the Terminator was bent, Hong Lang’s fist pushed against the steel bracket and penetrated through the chest of the Terminator. But at the next moment, 4-5 terminators also came at him, pelting a rain of steel fists which was enough to knock off the pillar of the building Hong Lang crashed into. That sent him flying and made him spit blood.
In the air, Hong Lang threw his axe which inserted itself into a T-800; however, another T-800 jumped up and punched him down.
“GRAHH!” Hong Lang issued a raging cry, activated Berserk, and used Strong Impact. Hong Lang’s fist hit that T-800, and then his head bumped into its head. Blood sprayed on the T-800’s forehead, but it went down.
Close combat adventurers had always been wild fierce. They were not fancy; they liked to exchange injuries, and fighting the enemy was about seeing who would fall first. In that instant, Hong Lang had already scrapped two Terminators, but the injuries he suffered were not light.
The scene of the bloody battle had become so intense at that moment that people’s heart-rates were surely raised.
“Boom!” With a loud bang, all the Terminators who were pressed against Jin Gang were sent flying in all directions. Jin Gang rushed to catch a Terminator and did a wild offensive move. When its AP hit zero, another T-800 once again rushed toward Jin Gang. Its iron arm was glowing with cold metal light and thrusted towards Jin Gang’s heart.
Seeing that Jin Gang would not evade it on time, Hong Lang suddenly yelled and shoved the Terminator’s hands to the other side, causing it to miss its strike. He rushed over and punched the T-800. The impact made a loud noise but the T-800 was not sent flying; instead, its artificial skin was just cracked and exposed the cold metal inside.
That T-800 shook its head and suddenly produced a strange electronic sound. “A very powerful human being! But you are still dead meat.”
“Can you speak?” Hong Lang was stunned.
“Of course.” T-800 punched back at Hong Lang’s face, and sent him flying.
At the same time, another T-800 suddenly jumped and stepped on Hong Lang’s chest, causing him to vomit blood. Falling to the ground, the T-800 made a windmill-like kick, and a thunderous voice echoed from its mouth, “The world of the future is ruled by us machines!”
“The world of the future is ruled by us machines!” All Terminators suddenly made this dumb and neat announcement.
The announcement sounded like a thunderstorm, and shook everyone.
“F*ck your mother!” Hong Lang shouted, punched the T-800’s ankle, activated Strong Impact, sent the T-800 flying. He did not notice that a T-750 had touched him.
“Hong Lang, be careful!” Jin Gang yelled.
He was no longer able to control the Terminator.
The Terminator rushed behind Hong Lang and its punch was about to hit the back of his head!
At that moment, a figure suddenly rushed over and clinged to the side of the Terminator and shoved it to the side, saving the Hong Lang just in time.
It was Marcus!
The Terminator which was thrown down by Marcus looked up and bumped his head in Marcus’s face, hitting his nostrils and then punched Marcus with breaking force!
“Marcus!” Kyle screamed.
Marcus only felt his eyes getting dizzy and then he plopped.
Before he fell into what appeared to be a coma, he noticed a blurry a figure flyingin from the distance. A katana crossed the neck of the T-800, and the metal head was thrown high and thrown into the desert.
———————
Marcus’s brain was drowsy and his eyes felt like they were spinning round.
He felt that there were countless voices lingering in his ears.
The shouting sounds kept ringing in his ears, as if someone was saying, “He is still alive!” “Try to save him!” “Can’t let him die!” “You have to wait till Shen Yi get back…”
And then there was that excited shout, “He’s back!”
Then a warm current slowly entered the body; it was like the fountain of life flowing in his body. Marcus felt like he was back in 2003 and had returned to the dark cell.
He saw Dr. Rogan walking towards him.
He spoke to him, “With this promise, you will be given the chance to be redeemed…”
“No… I’m a sinner… I don’t need to be redeemed…”
“Marcus! Wake up…!”
The deep, eager cry rang in his ears.
Marcus struggled to open his eyes.
He saw the blue sky and white clouds, and then saw a familiar smiling face.
It was Shen Yi…
That strange and powerful stranger.
Then he grinned a little.
When Markus awoke, Shen Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He patted Marcus’s face and said, “Don’t worry. You’ve just been hurt, but you won’t die.”
“The fight…”
“It’s over. We’ve won. Thank you, I already know that you saved my partner. God wants us to protect you. The result is that you protected us.” Shen Yi answered quickly.
When Marcus was injured, Wen Rou came just at the right time.
The originally critical situation finally turned around thanks to Wen Rou’s arrival. By the time Shen Yi rushed back, the adventurers had won victory and killed all the Terminators.
Marcus was struggling to sit up and he felt as if his body was not quite obedient. What surprised him was that he could not feel the pain in his body.
“Don’t try to sit up.” Shen Yi held him.
“Why? I want to see how I hurt.”
There was a grotesque expression on Shen Yi’s face. “I honestly don’t recommend that you do that.”
Marcus stunned. “What are you saying?”
Shen Yi slowly stood up and lifted the white cloth covering his wound.
Markus looked down.
At that moment, he saw that his chest had been completely broken, exposing the rows of steel skeletons in his body and the cold glow of the metal…
“NO!”
A crazy squeak tore through sky, scaring away the surrounding birds.
—————
Jin Gang was wearing an eye patch; he was leaning against the car, and next to him was Hong Lang lying in a seat while holding his head to see the sky.
Marcus’s shock, anger, panic and disbelief were unsurprisingly as that of anyone who found out that they were no longer a normal human.
The problem was that the adventurers were also turning into something non-human themselves, but in their case, they had psychologically already accepted it – what was more significant than being strong and living? Even if it was no longer like normal people…
Those Westerners were too persistent about their concern and perception of human beings and non-humans. For the Orientals, that kind of problem was just enough to talk about after a meal. It was meaningless to be too entangled. They were more concerned with their own gains – after cleaning up the third round of Terminators, the Bloody Crest had given each adventurer a reward. Among them, Zhou Yiyu, Xi Xiaofan and Shen Yi each received 2,400 BP, whereas the others received 1,600 BP.
At that moment Shen Yi came to Hong Lang and poked him. “Do you have any smoke?”
Hong Lang flicked a cigarette dto him.
Shen Yi caught it, and used the Spirit Flame Gun to light it. The cigarette lit up. He looked at Jin Gang. “Does the wound still hurt?”
“It hurts like hell.”
Shen Yi took a needle from the Bloody Crest and injected it into Jin Gang’s arm. Jin Gang felt his body become lighter and the pain was gone.
“What is this?” asked Jin Gang.
“Morphine,” Shen Yi answered.
“What the hell! You give me a shot of drugs!” Jin Gang jumped.
Shen Yi looked at Jin Gang with a funny expression on his face. “Don’t worry. It’s not the Earth. You can’t compare yourself to Earth’s standards. We have a healing priest. You won’t become addicted.”
Jin Gang exhaled a deep breath.
He realized it was ridiculous how he had forgotten about that.
He laughed. “I forgot it. With our constitution, the effect of this drug is not very useful.”
“Yes, so I added more dose.”
“You bastard.” Jin Gang shook his head, confused about whether to laugh or to punch Shen Yi.
“Oh that’s right. Wen Rou said you entered into that state. How do you feel?”
“My head is still painful, but it’s much better now. I think this was an extreme use of brainpower. What’s worse is that the sequelae pains are bigger. I just used it for a minute and it gave me a headache for full half an hour…”
“Do you think that kind of status will improve your combat effectiveness?”
Shen Yi thought for a moment and answered, “Greatly! After entering the overlimit state, I get the feeling that everything is in my hands, as if all the things that are about to happen are in my hands… But unfortunately I can’t do it right now. Controlling the state makes it even more difficult to control the duration of the state, but I think there will always be opportunities to try it several times and eventually master it.”
Envy appeared in the eyes of Jin Gang. That overlimit state was not derived from any particular skill, yet it could greatly increase an adventurer’s fighting power and their ability to react, and greatly enhance their strength beyond imagination. It seemed that Shen Yi was learning a unique way of fighting far different from ordinary people.
However, according to Shen Yi, in that state, it was almost impossible to use any active skills because the main embodiment of that state was to be integrated with the surrounding environment. Using active skills was like adding a layer of railroad track on a smooth highway, which would have the effect of destroying the overall balance.
“Although it’s a pity, fortunately I don’t have any attacking skills at the moment, so it doesn’t matter as much for me.” Shen Yi laughed.
Hong Lang jumped from the car. “What do we do now? The guy looks a little less able to accept that he is a machine.”
“Let him vent it. It will be better. People must learn to face reality. Right, Lyle, tel your soldiers to clear the battlefield and see how many Terminators can be recycled.”
“Yes, sir!” Lyle answered with a salute, and was about to leave. Shen Yi suddenly stopped him. He looked at Lyle with a surprised look. “You reached level 5?”
“Yes, sir! I killed five Terminators!” Lyle replied loudly.
Shen Yi quickly examined Lyle’s stat.
“Paratrooper Lyle Charlemagne, Level 5 elite soldier. Strength 12, Agility 15, Vitality 15, MP 28, Will 15. Main attribute is MP. Specialty Capabilities: Detonate. Skill bar: 1 empty slot, learnable skill limited to exploding skills. Summoning requires 150 BP. The soldier can be equipped and can be strengthened.”
Shen Yi nodded with satisfaction: “Good job. Go and do what you should do.”
“Yes, sir!” Lyle ran away.
Looking at Lyle’s departure, Shen Yi suddenly realized that he had been ignoring one thing. Although soldiers of the 2nd Paratrooper Battalion were all ordinary cannon fodder with little fighting power, those elite soldiers had great potential for upgrades. If he could raise them well, he might have a truly powerful force for himself.
Or was that the real use of these soldiers?
However, for now, that goal was still far away.
Opening the PDA, and after thinking for a moment, he entered the following record:
“Special Terminator Marcus, cyborg life form. HP 120, AP 200. Has the human heart and brain, mechanical bones. HP can be recovered by healing skill, Activation is effective on the machine parts. Strengthened product of Skynet.”
When the PDA was gently folded, his indulging eyes squinted and he lightly whispered: “Strengthened product of Skynet… cyborg life form…”
He fell into meditation.
Book 4 Chapter 51: Human and Machines
Far away on the hillside, Kyle was watching the adventurers in the battle, his eyes burning with passion.
That was the first time that he saw human beings fighting against steel monsters with their flesh and blood, and they were displaying extremely powerful forces.
Although he had previously seen the strength of the adventurers, in that current situation the adventurers raised their bloodlust, showing their murderous intents, and he could truly feel their inhuman the power.
However, that did not mean that the adventurers had any advantage. In fact, mathematics in combat was not as simple as one and one equalling two. Unless the contrast between strengths had reached the gap between elephants and ants, the significance of quantity was often greater than the significance of quality.
In one-on-one fight, a Rank DD Terminator was far from being an equal adversary tof any adventurer, and even a two-on-one fight resulted in defeat. But when the number reached three-on-one, it was basically a balanced fight. When the number reached five or more versus one, it was basically overwhelming.
In addition, Terminators were braver than humans. They were cold-blooded, ruthless, faithful to procedures and commands, fearless of pain or death, and mechanically inflexible but efficient.
They were completely servient to their programs. Although they were somewhat rigid and inflexible in their personal battles, they were even more capable of exerting their strong fighting power in team battles.
Every adventurer on the battlefield was in a bitter fight.
As soon as Jin Gang had thrown a Terminator away with Telekinesis, another Terminator T-750 rushed in and slammed on his arm. Jin Gang slammed a few steps back and kicked the Terminator with his left leg. A T-800 had already jumped off in space and its iron arm attempted to cut to Jin Gang’s shank. Jin Gang spent his HP to use Telekinesis to block that attack, and yet another T-750 rushed at him again…
On the other side, a T-750 threw its huge metal body into Zhou Yiyu’s motorcycle and sent him into the air along with the vehicle. In midair, Zhou Yiyu hit a Terminator with Spiral Dance, but two other Terminators blocked his way.
Hong Lang was the first to rush, and his fist smashed a T-750 Terminator. The Terminator was punched back, and that time the losing side was the steel entities. The right arm of the Terminator was bent, Hong Lang’s fist pushed against the steel bracket and penetrated through the chest of the Terminator. But at the next moment, 4-5 terminators also came at him, pelting a rain of steel fists which was enough to knock off the pillar of the building Hong Lang crashed into. That sent him flying and made him spit blood.
In the air, Hong Lang threw his axe which inserted itself into a T-800; however, another T-800 jumped up and punched him down.
“GRAHH!” Hong Lang issued a raging cry, activated Berserk, and used Strong Impact. Hong Lang’s fist hit that T-800, and then his head bumped into its head. Blood sprayed on the T-800’s forehead, but it went down.
Close combat adventurers had always been wild fierce. They were not fancy; they liked to exchange injuries, and fighting the enemy was about seeing who would fall first. In that instant, Hong Lang had already scrapped two Terminators, but the injuries he suffered were not light.
The scene of the bloody battle had become so intense at that moment that people’s heart-rates were surely raised.
“Boom!” With a loud bang, all the Terminators who were pressed against Jin Gang were sent flying in all directions. Jin Gang rushed to catch a Terminator and did a wild offensive move. When its AP hit zero, another T-800 once again rushed toward Jin Gang. Its iron arm was glowing with cold metal light and thrusted towards Jin Gang’s heart.
Seeing that Jin Gang would not evade it on time, Hong Lang suddenly yelled and shoved the Terminator’s hands to the other side, causing it to miss its strike. He rushed over and punched the T-800. The impact made a loud noise but the T-800 was not sent flying; instead, its artificial skin was just cracked and exposed the cold metal inside.
That T-800 shook its head and suddenly produced a strange electronic sound. “A very powerful human being! But you are still dead meat.”
“Can you speak?” Hong Lang was stunned.
“Of course.” T-800 punched back at Hong Lang’s face, and sent him flying.
At the same time, another T-800 suddenly jumped and stepped on Hong Lang’s chest, causing him to vomit blood. Falling to the ground, the T-800 made a windmill-like kick, and a thunderous voice echoed from its mouth, “The world of the future is ruled by us machines!”
“The world of the future is ruled by us machines!” All Terminators suddenly made this dumb and neat announcement.
The announcement sounded like a thunderstorm, and shook everyone.
“F*ck your mother!” Hong Lang shouted, punched the T-800’s ankle, activated Strong Impact, sent the T-800 flying. He did not notice that a T-750 had touched him.
“Hong Lang, be careful!” Jin Gang yelled.
He was no longer able to control the Terminator.
The Terminator rushed behind Hong Lang and its punch was about to hit the back of his head!
At that moment, a figure suddenly rushed over and clinged to the side of the Terminator and shoved it to the side, saving the Hong Lang just in time.
It was Marcus!
The Terminator which was thrown down by Marcus looked up and bumped his head in Marcus’s face, hitting his nostrils and then punched Marcus with breaking force!
“Marcus!” Kyle screamed.
Marcus only felt his eyes getting dizzy and then he plopped.
Before he fell into what appeared to be a coma, he noticed a blurry a figure flyingin from the distance. A katana crossed the neck of the T-800, and the metal head was thrown high and thrown into the desert.
———————
Marcus’s brain was drowsy and his eyes felt like they were spinning round.
He felt that there were countless voices lingering in his ears.
The shouting sounds kept ringing in his ears, as if someone was saying, “He is still alive!” “Try to save him!” “Can’t let him die!” “You have to wait till Shen Yi get back…”
And then there was that excited shout, “He’s back!”
Then a warm current slowly entered the body; it was like the fountain of life flowing in his body. Marcus felt like he was back in 2003 and had returned to the dark cell.
He saw Dr. Rogan walking towards him.
He spoke to him, “With this promise, you will be given the chance to be redeemed…”
“No… I’m a sinner… I don’t need to be redeemed…”
“Marcus! Wake up…!”
The deep, eager cry rang in his ears.
Marcus struggled to open his eyes.
He saw the blue sky and white clouds, and then saw a familiar smiling face.
It was Shen Yi…
That strange and powerful stranger.
Then he grinned a little.
When Markus awoke, Shen Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He patted Marcus’s face and said, “Don’t worry. You’ve just been hurt, but you won’t die.”
“The fight…”
“It’s over. We’ve won. Thank you, I already know that you saved my partner. God wants us to protect you. The result is that you protected us.” Shen Yi answered quickly.
When Marcus was injured, Wen Rou came just at the right time.
The originally critical situation finally turned around thanks to Wen Rou’s arrival. By the time Shen Yi rushed back, the adventurers had won victory and killed all the Terminators.
Marcus was struggling to sit up and he felt as if his body was not quite obedient. What surprised him was that he could not feel the pain in his body.
“Don’t try to sit up.” Shen Yi held him.
“Why? I want to see how I hurt.”
There was a grotesque expression on Shen Yi’s face. “I honestly don’t recommend that you do that.”
Marcus stunned. “What are you saying?”
Shen Yi slowly stood up and lifted the white cloth covering his wound.
Markus looked down.
At that moment, he saw that his chest had been completely broken, exposing the rows of steel skeletons in his body and the cold glow of the metal…
“NO!”
A crazy squeak tore through sky, scaring away the surrounding birds.
—————
Jin Gang was wearing an eye patch; he was leaning against the car, and next to him was Hong Lang lying in a seat while holding his head to see the sky.
Marcus’s shock, anger, panic and disbelief were unsurprisingly as that of anyone who found out that they were no longer a normal human.
The problem was that the adventurers were also turning into something non-human themselves, but in their case, they had psychologically already accepted it – what was more significant than being strong and living? Even if it was no longer like normal people…
Those Westerners were too persistent about their concern and perception of human beings and non-humans. For the Orientals, that kind of problem was just enough to talk about after a meal. It was meaningless to be too entangled. They were more concerned with their own gains – after cleaning up the third round of Terminators, the Bloody Crest had given each adventurer a reward. Among them, Zhou Yiyu, Xi Xiaofan and Shen Yi each received 2,400 BP, whereas the others received 1,600 BP.
At that moment Shen Yi came to Hong Lang and poked him. “Do you have any smoke?”
Hong Lang flicked a cigarette dto him.
Shen Yi caught it, and used the Spirit Flame Gun to light it. The cigarette lit up. He looked at Jin Gang. “Does the wound still hurt?”
“It hurts like hell.”
Shen Yi took a needle from the Bloody Crest and injected it into Jin Gang’s arm. Jin Gang felt his body become lighter and the pain was gone.
“What is this?” asked Jin Gang.
“Morphine,” Shen Yi answered.
“What the hell! You give me a shot of drugs!” Jin Gang jumped.
Shen Yi looked at Jin Gang with a funny expression on his face. “Don’t worry. It’s not the Earth. You can’t compare yourself to Earth’s standards. We have a healing priest. You won’t become addicted.”
Jin Gang exhaled a deep breath.
He realized it was ridiculous how he had forgotten about that.
He laughed. “I forgot it. With our constitution, the effect of this drug is not very useful.”
“Yes, so I added more dose.”
“You bastard.” Jin Gang shook his head, confused about whether to laugh or to punch Shen Yi.
“Oh that’s right. Wen Rou said you entered into that state. How do you feel?”
“My head is still painful, but it’s much better now. I think this was an extreme use of brainpower. What’s worse is that the sequelae pains are bigger. I just used it for a minute and it gave me a headache for full half an hour…”
“Do you think that kind of status will improve your combat effectiveness?”
Shen Yi thought for a moment and answered, “Greatly! After entering the overlimit state, I get the feeling that everything is in my hands, as if all the things that are about to happen are in my hands… But unfortunately I can’t do it right now. Controlling the state makes it even more difficult to control the duration of the state, but I think there will always be opportunities to try it several times and eventually master it.”
Envy appeared in the eyes of Jin Gang. That overlimit state was not derived from any particular skill, yet it could greatly increase an adventurer’s fighting power and their ability to react, and greatly enhance their strength beyond imagination. It seemed that Shen Yi was learning a unique way of fighting far different from ordinary people.
However, according to Shen Yi, in that state, it was almost impossible to use any active skills because the main embodiment of that state was to be integrated with the surrounding environment. Using active skills was like adding a layer of railroad track on a smooth highway, which would have the effect of destroying the overall balance.
“Although it’s a pity, fortunately I don’t have any attacking skills at the moment, so it doesn’t matter as much for me.” Shen Yi laughed.
Hong Lang jumped from the car. “What do we do now? The guy looks a little less able to accept that he is a machine.”
“Let him vent it. It will be better. People must learn to face reality. Right, Lyle, tel your soldiers to clear the battlefield and see how many Terminators can be recycled.”
“Yes, sir!” Lyle answered with a salute, and was about to leave. Shen Yi suddenly stopped him. He looked at Lyle with a surprised look. “You reached level 5?”
“Yes, sir! I killed five Terminators!” Lyle replied loudly.
Shen Yi quickly examined Lyle’s stat.
“Paratrooper Lyle Charlemagne, Level 5 elite soldier. Strength 12, Agility 15, Vitality 15, MP 28, Will 15. Main attribute is MP. Specialty Capabilities: Detonate. Skill bar: 1 empty slot, learnable skill limited to exploding skills. Summoning requires 150 BP. The soldier can be equipped and can be strengthened.”
Shen Yi nodded with satisfaction: “Good job. Go and do what you should do.”
“Yes, sir!” Lyle ran away.
Looking at Lyle’s departure, Shen Yi suddenly realized that he had been ignoring one thing. Although soldiers of the 2nd Paratrooper Battalion were all ordinary cannon fodder with little fighting power, those elite soldiers had great potential for upgrades. If he could raise them well, he might have a truly powerful force for himself.
Or was that the real use of these soldiers?
However, for now, that goal was still far away.
Opening the PDA, and after thinking for a moment, he entered the following record:
“Special Terminator Marcus, cyborg life form. HP 120, AP 200. Has the human heart and brain, mechanical bones. HP can be recovered by healing skill, Activation is effective on the machine parts. Strengthened product of Skynet.”
When the PDA was gently folded, his indulging eyes squinted and he lightly whispered: “Strengthened product of Skynet… cyborg life form…”
He fell into meditation.
