245: Chapter 25: eting 245: Chapter 25: eting Inside a cave, seven or eight Heroes huddled together.
Leading them was a person with a Lightweight Prosthetic.
This Hero’s prosthetic had been specially adapted for a zero-gravity environnt.
Its most noticeable feature was the soles of his prosthetic feet which did not rely serve the “support” function common on Earth, but rather emphasized the “grasping” function — more akin to the feet of other primate species than to human feet.
This was a characteristic tailored for the zero-gravity environnt, enabling a Martial Artist to grasp things on floors or walls when floating in space.
Tao Enhai grasped the young man’s hand.
He said, “Are you ready?”
The young man was sowhat timid, “Yes, Master.”
Tao Enhai knew that this was actually a sign of not being completely ready.
The guy was worried.
For a doctor about to take the operating table, this was not a good on.
He actually wanted to crack a joke to lighten the mood at this mont — sothing like “Doctors these days have it much better than in my youth, at least you won’t be chopped with a knife if you fail to cure soone.” But he was never good at this in the past.
It used to be the job of the Martial Ancestor, the big boss himself.
He patted his assistant’s shoulder, “Relax, relax.
Don’t be too tense.
Life and death are predestined.
Your master here is over two hundred years old.
Compared to the elderly of the Old Era, I’ve been very fortunate.
If sothing really goes wrong, then…
consider that I’m resting.
Indeed, I am quite tired.”
With that, he turned to look at another Hero with a Heavy Prosthesis.
“Mr.
Bai Man, I’ll have to trouble you,” Tao Enhai also shook hands with this Hero.
Hero Bai Man projected his words directly onto Tao Enhai’s Prosthetic Eye with infrared.
[Great Hero Tao, this Young Hero clearly isn’t fully confident.
Why not wait a bit longer?]
[Waiting is pointless,] Tao Enhai thought to himself with a chuckle: [The cells that could produce the inhibitor are all dead.
The culture dium is also exhausted.
With each second we wait, the erosion from the Evolu cells deepens.
Besides, we are surrounded by a large army of Houndhawks, and with every second that passes, the risk of us being exposed increases.]
[There’s no need to wait any longer.]
[What about Brother Tan?
Don’t you at least want to say goodbye to him?]
“Hundred-Tempered Diamond” was a Hero more skilled in stealth and assassination.
Logically, he should have been in the group that scattered and broke through the encirclent.
But Tan was concerned whether there were any Heroes coming to reinforce them later, so he insisted on staying behind, scouting around the periphery.
Tao Enhai gave a bitter smile.
Just a mont ago, a series of explosions had occurred to the north.
According to the prearranged patrol titable, Brother Tan would have been nearby at the ti.
Perhaps the “Hundred-Tempered Diamond” had already shattered.
But no one brought up the subject again.
It was no longer ti for sorrow.
Then, Tao Enhai crouched down and bent over to shake hands with a short-statured Cybernetically Enhanced Person.
Oh, perhaps “short-statured” is not the right way to describe him.
This fellow’s prosthetic was immovable.
He was a round column with arms, which normally retracted into the column.
This was a “Burrow Dragon,” colloquially known as “Underground Pixiu”, who usually collected depleted uranium ore underground.
He ran a secret underground refining operation and had provided many Heroes aspiring to establish schools or to advance to the next level with roughly purified uranium for over a decade.
And now, this was his look after removing the excavation prosthetic.
The Burrow Dragon had dug out the tunnel that crossed the first and second blockade lines, offering many conveniences to the Heroes.
In addition, he had dug out temporary camps for everyone to hide in several tis.
Without this benefactor, they might have died under Space-based Weapon attacks long ago.
“Brother Pixiu, thank you for this ti,” Tao Enhai shook the small original chanical arm.
This limb had weak functionality, ensuring only that the Underground Pixiu could move after detaching from the excavation prosthetic.
“Hey, old Hero, you said it, we’re all decades, if not a hundred years old.
Dying isn’t much,” the Underground Pixiu chuckled: “My little fortune has a disciple to inherit it, I’m unencumbered.
Honestly, I ca this ti wanting to go out in a blaze of glory — hey, usually, all the lilight is taken by those who play the part of flying Heroes.
Us grubbing underground go unnoticed.
I normally wouldn’t mind, I’ve been eating dirt for decades, but this ti I wanted to make a na for myself.”
Tao Enhai really wanted to smile, but his current Prosthetic Body did not support such delicate expressions.
The Protectors would kill the Burrow Dragon on sight, so he had to conceal his identity, moving through the ore zones and rock layers day after day for decades.
They had to stay in the dark.
And for soone who had hidden away for so many years, his greatest desire was to earn fa.
That was truly heroic.
“If I survive, I’ll erect a monunt for you on my personal page,” Tao Enhai said.
“Then you must hold on,” the Underground Pixiu replied joyfully: “Saving ‘Apricot Forest Duke’, that’s a feat I could boast about for a hundred years.”
Tao Enhai bid farewell to the other Heroes one by one.
At that mont, “so sound” ca through.
It was the sound of an irregular object colliding with the air, its speed far below the speed of sound, clear to everyone’s ears.
A Hero rolled over, reached the mouth of the cave, lifted a silenced gun, and shattered the object with one shot.
“It’s a rock,” he said.
Then, three more rocks were thrown over from a distance.
This was a signal that had been agreed upon beforehand.
The shooting Hero picked up a rock and threw it back.
A few minutes later, Tan arrived with two figures in tow.
Tan said, “Both of these individuals are heroes who have co to aid us.
Just monts ago, they silently breached the first blockade line and arrived here.”
Tao Enhai stepped forward to greet them, bowed with his fists cupped, and said, “Friends, your nobility is admirable.
Much appreciated.
We’ll be preparing for a breakout soon.
It’s troubleso to have made you co all this way, so please be ready.
I have here a collection of technical data from several Scientific Knight Orders on Mars.
Regardless of who makes it out, please take the trouble to establish a blockchain or create a magnetic chain to upload and share it.”
It wasn’t that he was being cold.
He simply didn’t have the ti to get acquainted with these two new friends.
Ti was of the essence.
Before the surgery, his attitude had been the sa.
“We’ve generally heard about the situation,” said Solo Kill King as he scratched his head with a chuckle, “Heh, although we arrived a bit late, we’ve made it in ti.
It couldn’t be better to be able to lend a hand.”
But Xiang Shan suddenly spoke, “Doctor Tao, what are you preparing for…”
For so reason, to the others listening, the hero’s voice seed a bit ethereal.
…
When Tan threw the stone, Xiang Shan felt an inexplicable nervousness for so reason.
—Does that guy recognize ?
After exchanging the correct countersign, Tan signaled the other two to follow.
They walked a few ters ahead.
For Xiang Shan, those few ters felt surprisingly long.
Passing through layers of dust, Xiang Shan saw a cybernetically enhanced person approaching.
Although he had never seen this model of prosthetic body before, he felt a hint of familiarity.
Xiang Shan’s gaze shifted past the others and landed on a smaller cave deeper within the cavern.
Connected to the cavity where the heroes were now, this smaller cave was lined with plastic film on its outer walls to block various microscopic foreign substances and equipped with electrostatic generators to clear the air of dust.
During that brief glance, he spotted so commonly used surgical tools and instrunts.
In that instant, certain mories were revived.
This makeshift small surgical room at present, and a cutting-edge laboratory located in Beiping from his mories…
This unfamiliar model of prosthetic body, and soone familiar…
The images overlapped in his mind.
This sensation was like seeing a very familiar friend wearing heavy armor in front of you.
Although the armor concealed all facial features, you can still extract elents that “characterize the personality” from their movents and interpret them.
mbers of the Soth Divine Realm who are masters of Internal Strength are even more sensitive to this.
For a mont, Xiang Shan was struck by an illusion.
He hadn’t passed through dust but through the veils of ti itself.
He was back in “those days.”
Back then, he indeed had seen this…
this…
“Doctor Tao,” Xiang Shan asked as if possessed, “What are you preparing for…”
What was it?
A surgery?
An experint?
Had he asked this person for a favor in the past?
Wait a minute…
—”Doctor Tao”…
who is that?
Xiang Shan was stunned by his own question.
“Eh?” Tan was also taken aback, “You two know each other?
Haha!
This really is…”
He was certain that he hadn’t revealed Tao Enhai’s identity, only referring to him as “Great Hero Tao.” And there have been several historical figures who were great heroes with the surna Tao.
To instantly recognize the identity of “Apricot Forest Duke”…
probably through gestures and deanor…
it seems like the “Naless” Great Hero is quite familiar with Great Hero Tao.
“This…” Tao Enhai was also taken aback, “You know ?
No, that tone…”
He looked at Tan, confused, “Who are these two?”
“Ah, let introduce you,” Tan said pointing to Jader, “This friend here is ‘Instant Explosion Solo-Kill King’ Jader from the North Sea Red Stone Gate.
And this contemplative friend,” he gestured toward Xiang Shan, “well, he only said he was naless and surnaless.”
“‘Naless and surnaless’…
‘naless and surnaless’…” Dusty mories started to resurface.
Was this a line from a martial arts novel?
For Tao Enhai’s generation, it must be from a TV show they watched as kids, probably.
Tao Enhai rembered that back in Beiping, a woman nad Ingrid Granat organized other foreign scholars from a research institution to learn Chinese by watching martial arts works.
For a while, those old jokes flew around in the company group chat.
That deanor…
that tone of voice…
“It’s you…
no, that’s not right.
It shouldn’t be him.” Tao Enhai beca suddenly furious, “What on earth are you?
You should be aware!
You are not him!”
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