220: Summary at the End of Volu 2 220: Summary at the End of Volu 2 “`
Character Data Changes:
Xiang Shan:
The Ancestor of Martial Arts who lost his mory, once sparked the technological revolution as a developer, a world-class engineer, the king of paper airplanes, and the proponent of the Chivalrous Spirit.
Long ago, he charged into a space fleet to assassinate the Tyrant but failed.
Months ago, his head was excavated from a garbage dump; at that ti, he didn’t even rember his own na, only that he had an enemy nad “Yawgmoth.” Now he has found a few fragnts of his mory.
Changes to Prosthetic Body and Weapons:
Regarding the prosthetic leg, the artificial muscle fiber prosthetic legs have reached the end of their service life, so so artificial muscle fibers were removed and attached to the hydraulic transmission joints to make new prosthetic legs.
Both the explosive power and speed have been reduced.
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New publicly available settings:
Personality Mask:
A general term for all “simulated, socialized personalities.” It is divided into “True Personality Masks” and “Pseudo-personality Masks.”
Pseudo-personality Masks refer to “computer-simulated personalities.” Their definition is based on the logic of the Turing Test.
If a program can impersonate a specific person and successfully deceive the friends and family of the person being impersonated, then it can be considered a “Pseudo-personality Mask.”
True Personality Masks, on the other hand, are created when a Natural Person’s Biological Brain is in prolonged contact with specific individual’s mory data and consciously takes on the role, leading to the identity cognition of “I am the original owner of the mory.” This can even be seen as the spirit of the original owner of the mory reappearing in the individual with the True Personality Mask.
The most famous group of Personality Masks are the ten “Martial Gods” that were born based on the blueprint of the Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan.
According to known information, the Second and Third Martial Gods are Pseudo-personality Masks, whereas the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Martial Gods are True Personality Masks.
Known Historical Tiline:
May 6, 2003, Yawgmoth Voigt was born.
January 14, 2005, Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan was born.
February 26, 2026, Greenwich an Ti, at three o’clock in the morning, an unknown alien artifact “Argon” was discovered.
January 2027, humans began to capture Argon.
March 22, 2028, graduate student in hardware Xiang Shan, as an assistant to his ntor, was invited to join the “Rama Project.”
March 23, 2028, researcher Xiang Shan, together with his ntor Liu Zhenghui, behavioral research scholar Li Jiahua, White Wolf Language expert Zhang Qiaoyun, Academy of Social Sciences committee mber Jing Hongtu, and other scholars from different fields traveled to the “Rama Project” in Indonesia.
On the sa day, forr NASA researcher and top engineer David Klein t.
On the sa day, Xiang Shan t with Yawgmoth Voigt, associate researcher in genetics at Harvard University dical School, for the first ti.
March 24, 2028, Xiang Shan encountered Ingrid Granat, associate researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway.
March 26, 2028, Xiang Shan t with Kanhara Tsun, a researcher in the world’s minority languages and scripts, and entered Argon together.
2035, Director of the United Nations University Xiang Shan declared, “We are the ones who stole the Heavenly Fire.” In the sa year, Xiang Shan began to prepare the “Human Cyberization Project.”
July 2036, Xiang Shan t once again with his senior fellow Hu Zhengyan at the Magwen Brain Science Institute at Beiping University.
At the sa ti, he t with Chen Feng, the person in charge of the lab.
January 2037, Yawgmoth brought species such as tal-based fruit flies to the Republic.
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References and Tributes:
The title of this volu cos from Vernor Vinge’s novella “True Nas.”
The introductory note of this volu quotes two lines from the poem “Hero’s Journey” by Li Bai.
So of the songs quoted in this volu were once popular among workers during the turbulent tis of the 20th century.
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Finally, let’s talk about so reflections.
First of all, I still want to thank the readers for their support all along.
I appreciate your subscriptions and companionship, and I thank you for being willing to read this story.
The title “True Nas” encompasses the concept of “the pit of Xiang Shan’s identity,” as well as introduces the concept proposed in Vernor Vinge’s great novella—that a “wizard”/”hacker” must never have their true na known to others, or they’re dood.
Xiang Shan has always been hiding in the shadows, with most enemies unaware of the existence of such a Hero.
In this state, an assassin is terrifying.
But the story of the Eighth Martial God tells the opposite.
Once Xiang Shan is exposed, he faces a serious Protector Group.
In face of their overwhelming martial power, he is destined to be weaker.
The reason I chose the first two lines of “Hero’s Journey” for the opening quote is simply because I think it reflects the carefree attitude of a hero perfectly.
This volu marks Xiang Shan’s first appearance in this era.
The dark Jianghu scroll is just beginning to unfold before this person who has slumbered for two hundred years.
If I’m honest, the plot of the second volu also isn’t quite ideal.
Chapter 105 “Lighting Up Every Dark Place” is the climax of the entire volu, with too much emphasis placed on this section.
Therefore, the subsequent “escape” and “assassination” seed sowhat less thrilling.
I feel like I have fallen into a kind of dilemma.
The writing of “assassination” only has two patterns: “He sneaked in—he was not detected—he assassinated” and “He sneaked in—he was discovered—he fought his way through.” Even if I introduce a new front like “propaganda war,” there’s a limit to the tricks I can design.
The second assassination in this volu, naly Chapter 130 “Pine Eagle Strikes the Chariot,” also obviously falls short in emotional build-up compared to the assassination of Bengel.
And in terms of setup, Xiang Shan can’t just assassinate Old Master Zhao right now.
This results in Chapter 105, being this “mid-to-late stage of the plot,” as the emotional peak of the volu, and then there’s a feeling of “is that it” towards the end.
Perhaps I should’ve ended the volu around Chapter 100, and then saved the experience of “Back Skill—Fight Through—Head South to Pine Eagle City” for the next volu.
Additionally, I have to reflect on whether I may have devoted too much attention to the “past chapters.” Although the story always revolves around the “present chapters,” the current Xiang Shan is a bit too “Lone Wolf,” leaving no room for other characters to develop—of course, his current teammates are either disabled or novices like Yuki, who actually can’t do much.
The present story is just “Xiang Shan rampaging again.” In contrast, the story of Xiang Shan’s past acquaintances and friendships in the “past chapters” feels more alive to .
In this volu, I think the more vivid characters are only Hiroshi Matsushima and Crab.
This is sowhat regrettable.
I hope to make progress in this respect in the next volu.
Please forgive for only updating a short section today.
After all, I’m just a diocre author, and this book takes quite a toll on .
Sotis, I too need to recharge by reading.
Tomorrow, I will update punctually with the third volu, “Who Mourns for the Lost.”
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