Soon, the squads of Heroes originally heading toward Paradox City received the message and turned around.
"The target is Pine Eagle City?" The Black Hand Master, who was meditating with closed eyes, looked at the Solo Kill King sitting in front of him and shook his head, "Why is there suddenly a new target?"
"Hey, don’t even mention it." The Solo Kill King Jader shook his head, "I have a senior brother in Pine Eagle City: a senior from the Martial Arts School, extremely skilled in external strength, the kind even the Nameless Hero praises. My brother also seems to know another master in secret, whom the Nameless Hero knows as well. It’s just my brother is a bit of a fool, messing around with us Heroes while also wanting to run a Martial Arts School and live a peaceful life... really."
"A few days ago, the Nameless Hero made a big killing in Secluded Crane City, and he even tweaked ..." The Solo Kill King pointed towards the Moon in the sky, "...the whiskers of that one up there. The Protectors declared martial law, you know. And then that Martial Arts School I used to stay at got into a bit of a conflict with the Protectors..."
The Black Hand Master scratched his head, "Sounds a bit... if he wanted to live a peaceful life, he shouldn’t have had dealings with Heroes. Not being a government lapdog makes him a good person—wait, how do you know all this?"
"Didn’t we approach a town a few hours ago? I got close to the signal tower, then received some public intelligence grabbed by the crawler," replied Jader, "and I found an extra message in my secret inbox. I’ve only ever shared that address with my senior brother, but judging by the style of the message, I don’t think it’s from him."
"No doubt, let’s go," sighed the Black Hand Master, "The Internal Martial Artists who are able to train up on Earth are all precious combat forces. Speaking of which, how good is your brother?"
"He can definitely help!" Jader thumped his chest with confidence.
"Tsk, we can’t just rescue him and demand that he join us in risking his life in Paradox City!" the Black Hand Master said, "Zeng, let’s go too."
The Black Hand Master’s head injury had just healed, and the effects of the Restoring Enzyme were still active, leading both his Internal and External Skills into a period of rapid improvement, much like an adolescent experiencing a peak in learning efficiency.
Therefore, he sat in regular meditation, rather than wandering alone as before. Another Hero was operating the vehicle, traveling with him.
"Pine Eagle City, huh..." The Hero known as "Zeng", from the Northern Land, looked at the day’s timing, "It’ll be tough to make it there today."
Jader said, "Saving people is like fighting a fire!"
"Our vehicle is small and can travel by day, but those with supplies might encounter difficulty. They’re easily spotted by satellites," Zeng commented, "And without supplies, rescuing people will be tough, right?"
"I think we need to change our approach," another voice chimed in, and it was Xiang Shan.
Xiang Shan ran up to the vehicle and then jumped aboard.
The Black Hand Master nodded in acknowledgement, "Nameless Hero, what’s your thinking?"
"I’ve been to Pine Eagle City," said Xiang Shan, "There aren’t many experts there. The Zhao Family’s Lord is pretentious, loves to show off, and his organizational skills are probably the worst among the high-level military officers of his kind."
Xiang Shan had stolen the memories of the sixth daughter of the Zhao Family’s Lord three years ago and thus had some understanding of Pine Eagle City.
To put it simply, Pine Eagle City was a mess.
The Mona Knight Order stationed in Pine Eagle City was the one the Holy Knight, His Excellency Ashur, had pulled together after dropping off the grid three times in one conversation three years ago. His Excellency Ashur had a piece of the enormous plan known as Yawgmoth’s artifact, personally initiating this large-scale project and starting this Order of Knights.
"Speaking of Ashur, he indeed has capabilities, but the guy surprisingly loves to scheme. Put this kind of character back over 200 years ago, and because of his overly modern ways, Boss Xiang would have labeled him as ’academic old hat,’ and he would’ve had his funding cut and projects axed every single year."
"Even the Mona Knight Order is just a portion of this Holy Knight’s capital."
"Then there’s Amilcare Zhao..."
"Let’s just say this, three years ago, Yuan Wenren led a group of youngsters and slaughtered his confidant."
"With the same setup, if you sent Yuan Wenren and her buddies to charge into Secluded Crane City, they probably wouldn’t even make a splash."
"This protector military officer who fancies feudal culture might as well have regressed his command level back to the Feudal Era."
After listening, the Black Hand Master nodded, "I’ve heard a bit. If it weren’t for the EMP cleanse on the Moon eighty years ago, which resulted in the annihilation of the chivalrous powers in the New World, this guy would’ve been assassinated long ago."
"Right, we’ll go in light." Xiang Shan said, "I know some secret passages in Pine Eagle City that the government doesn’t control, just me, you Black Hand, and old Jia, the three of us sneak in and off that shitty Holy Knight and Zhao Family Lord."
The Black Hand Master was startled, "Hold on, a military officer of Amilcare’s level, they’re above the First Heavenly Layer, even their weakest point is far beyond the common man; he’s not easy to kill."
"But, his strongest point clearly isn’t long enough," replied Xiang Shan, "You, with a powerful enough firearm, have a chance to kill him. Elder brother Jia and that mysterious friend of his, they have a chance too." Official source is noveⅼfire.net
The reason Martial Artists above the First Heavenly Layer can confront armies head-on is that even their weakest attributes are significant, piling up attributes for combat power. Most importantly, they have gathered all the prosthetic body components that allow them to fully utilize their martial arts.
If an ordinary Martial Artist fights against them, the margin for error is just too low."
TX-0’s Inner Strength actually has a sixty to seventy percent chance of killing Amilcare on the spot. But with Zero’s external skills, using Matsushima’s prosthetic body, he simply can’t find an opportunity to hack in; once the fight starts, he would be killed by Amilcare straight away. Even if he could find an opportunity to attack from a distance, if that guy had downloaded some patch developed by King Aqini, and it didn’t kill him immediately, then the previous internal strength attack would’ve just exposed him for nothing.
In a pure technical contest, Hiroshi Matsushima going all out completely overwhelms Amilcare, but Hiroshi Matsushima’s prosthetic body produces too little power, there’s only a hope of making the machinery fail by penetrating internal force to a few very specific parts, thereby impeding Amilcare’s movements—and that means having to constantly dodge by anticipation a person who is much faster than oneself, and any single misplaced move resulting in immediate death.
Several "with shortcomings" experts working together could also kill a Martial Artist above the First Heavenly Layer.
If Hiroshi Matsushima and TX-0 had two bodies and two brains working together, killing that Amilcare wouldn’t be difficult.
But Zero is a Personality Mask from beyond Earth, needing to borrow a brain to exert Inner Strength.
Of course, that’s also why Xiang Shan insisted on getting involved.
The existence of the Personality Mask Zero is connected with Zhu Xinyu’s safety, and he can’t help but be concerned.