Accompanied by a fast, yet utterly ordinary right straight punch from Hiroshi Matsushima, Gelangdola was expelled from his prosthetic part.
Red, blue, white...all sorts of filth splattered on the dojo’s walls.
Then, a mostly empty skull clattered to the ground.
The Secretary Officer watched this scene, his mind completely stalled. He didn’t understand what had happened, nor why the second young master had died.
—Is there a Hero here?
—If not for those anti-human elements, how could he dare... how could he dare...
The Secretary Officer was almost screaming out loud.
But Hiroshi Matsushima stopped him.
Hiroshi Matsushima casually kicked and picked up the large-caliber handgun that Gelangdola had clutched in his hand before he died. As a military officer’s beloved gun, it indeed was well-made: although relatively simple in design, it was made of cutting-edge materials. This allowed the firearm to withstand larger charges of gunpowder.
The gun was already loaded and the safety was off. Perhaps this bullet was intended for the disciples of dojo masters, or perhaps its original owner thought it could be used to withstand an attack from Hiroshi Matsushima.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Hiroshi Matsushima fired a shot at the Secretary, exploding his head, then burst-fired at the soldiers in the distance.
The moment the bullets ran out, the surrounding soldiers finally reacted.
But by then, Hiroshi Matsushima’s figure had disappeared again, leaving only a gun falling slowly to the ground.
Hiroshi Matsushima moved like a ghost, rapidly decapitating several nearby soldiers. He tossed their heads aside and swiftly charged out.
By now, the soldiers outside still hadn’t registered what had happened. The moment Gelangdola died, the Protector’s military management system had alerted them that "the Commander is dead" and "a powerful Hero is nearby." But the next in line to give orders—the Secretary Officer—had been counter-killed by Hiroshi Matsushima. Without orders, they quickly fell into bewilderment and chaos.
Seeing a figure appear through the hole in the dojo wall, they mistook it for one of the ordinary disciples and immediately greeted them with non-lethal weapons. Light-sensitive epileptic flashers and loud concussion grenades were all welcomed.
But Hiroshi Matsushima had anticipated this. Although he didn’t understand Inner Strength and couldn’t write his own plugins, he had already internalized many legal, free plugins into his subconscious. He had already marked down the positions of threats.
Even with all senses shut down, he could still sprint madly without bumping into anything important.
Hiroshi Matsushima broke through in an instant amidst the quaking.
The Dojo Master was dumbfounded. He heard a series of massive noises outside, then several explosions. Dust came rustling down from the ceiling.
The Dojo Master truly didn’t understand how Grand Master Uncle, always calm and extremely obedient towards the government, could do such... such...
Though still confused, the Dojo Master nonetheless stood up and charged at the remaining enemies inside the dojo.
It seemed that the situation outside was very bad. The remaining martial artists in the Martial Arts School wanted to find an opportunity to leave. However, this also gave the remaining martial artists in the school a chance to counterattack.
Each of the remaining martial artists was a pillar of the Martial Arts School, responsible for participating in martial arts competitions everywhere to earn accolades and prove the teaching ability of the teachers at the dojo. Although the performance of the prosthetic bodies they used for training at the dojo was inferior, their skills were undoubtedly higher than those of ordinary soldiers.
The Dojo Master quickly knocked down and broke the necks of three men. A soldier panicked and fled, shooting at the Dojo Master while backing towards a hole in the wall.
But he clearly wasn’t watching where he was going.
Hiroshi Matsushima appeared silently behind him, landing a punch on the back of his head, the internal force permeating and directly damaging the neural network. The soldier collapsed limply.
In his anxiety, the Dojo Master felt an inexplicable surge of excitement. He asked Hiroshi Matsushima, "Grand Master Uncle, what should we do next?"
Hiroshi Matsushima silently entered his Quiet Room. The Dojo Master heard something like a chant being played inside.
After a while, Hiroshi Matsushima carried a box and threw it in front of the Dojo Master.
Hiroshi Matsushima took out a thick and huge steel clamp and a small cylindrical object from the box. The latter half of the clamp had a strange structure. For some reason, the Dojo Master thought the structure looked a bit like...
Hiroshi Matsushima inserted the dark cylindrical object into the gun-like structure at the back half of the steel clamp, then secured the safety and walked up to a bound disciple of the Martial Arts School, pressing the clamp against him.
Then, Hiroshi Matsushima pulled the trigger. Inside the steel clamp, a mechanism pushed out like a bullet, driving the two thick blades of the clamp to snap shut instantly.
Then, the carbon fiber rope of high-tech material was severed.
"Destruction is easier than creation, attack is easier than defense," Hiroshi Matsushima muttered as he threw the device to the Dojo Master, "Spread these around, and each of you rescue the disciples of the Martial Arts School."
The Dojo Master was greatly shocked, "This... Grand Master Uncle, you actually had such a thing ready... truly a brilliant and marvelous idea."
Hiroshi Matsushima sighed again, "You, my dear, really have no interest in the history of Mech Armor Iron Fist. Your master... and your master’s master were probably the same. It’s an ancient and inexpensive method of breaking armor; steel composite blades coated with synthetic diamonds, coupled with an old firearm mechanism, can penetrate armor that costs hundreds of times more to make. In the middle of the Heroic Wars, this gadget was used to dismember early Cybernetically Enhanced People with exact precision."
Similar to the Chainsaw Greatsword, this "Gunpowder Shears" was also an early experiment by cyber martial artists. Natural martial artists didn’t develop this because they struggled to wield such a heavy weapon flexibly—also, the External Armor it targeted was never a match for a martial artist in the age of natural people. Of course, unlike the rather unsuccessful attempt with the Chainsaw Greatsword, this device was relatively successful.
Even today, some use it against Lightweight Prosthetic bodies. Moreover, in complex environments, it can also serve as a tool for clearing paths.
In the Martial Studies, there are still many such inventions that are extremely cheap but exceedingly effective in lower rank combat.
Chasing after high-cost unique weapons, is not the correct path of the martial arts.
The Dojo Master directed the remaining martial artists to rescue their fellow disciples. But Matsushima didn’t join them. He entered the Gelangdola Prosthetic Body and inserted one end of a data cable into his neck and the other end into the waist of the Gelangdola.
Hiroshi Matsushima closed his Prosthetic Eye, "Hey, Zero, help me out one last time."
Zero was silent for a moment, "What do you plan to do?" Google seaʀᴄh N0veI.Fiɾe.net
"Don’t know. Set this prosthetic body to maintenance mode, then bypass the authentication, and after that, you delete yourself. No need to risk your master’s safety."