Cyber Heroes

The man was lost in thought. He is thinking about a very important question now.

The power to issue money in this world...is in whose hands?

What Yulia wants most is to save money to buy Yuki an adult prosthetic body. This shows that the concept of currency still exists in this era.

But when he learned about the "gene tax", he just felt weird.

Genetic tax is a tax levied by lords on residents. They will take a number of people from a settlement every year to fill the human gene pool and ensure human genetic diversity. Yuki had a brother who was taken away in this way.

In addition, residents do not need to bear more taxes.

In other words, the "government" [no matter what political form it exists in] does not need money to carry out social public construction and meet social public needs.

So, who is issuing currency in this era? What role does currency play?

For what reason does this “gene pool” exist? Why did the lord build this thing?

However, no one has ever answered these questions. Yulia worked all day long, and only late at night would stop for a short while in front of Yuki's cabin. Last time she came back to check on him because she heard that Youki picked up someone. The man was embarrassed to disturb this hard-working woman's rest. Most of the others just regarded his question as a joke and said "hahaha" without knowing why.

Now, he only discusses the issue with the little boy when he and Yuki are out picking up trash.

"It's so difficult, Yog..." The little boy leaned on a back chair covered with lead-green mold spots. He just pulled this chair out of the trash. During the Ascension War, it might have belonged to a senior staff officer: "What else is there on the lord... It seems that no one has really asked similar questions..."

"There must be levels above the lords. Otherwise, there is no need for them to abide by something called the 'Dyson Principle'." The man pondered: "What exactly is the 'Dyson Principle'? Who proposed it? A man named Dyson person?"

——What is the relationship between this person and the real owner of the name "Yog"?

Yuki shrugged: "I really don't know, it seems that the Dyson Principle doesn't allow us to kill people... That's it?"

"Primal." The lungless man simulated the sound of a "sigh" using a vocal machine. In his impression, the name "Dyson" is more related to an engineering concept called "Dyson Sphere". No matter how bad it is, it has to be connected with physics.

"It's better to talk about the Paralympics." Yuki shook his head: "'Yog,' do you remember? You are an athlete, right?"

The "Paralympics" are the world's highest events. According to the man's understanding, this should be called the "Olympics for the Disabled", and there is a corresponding event called the "Olympics". However, in men's memories, the level of the "Paralympics" is far higher than that of the "Olympic Games". The rules of the "Olympic Games" are very rigid. Among other things, they do not even allow the use of genetically modified technology to breed super horses in equestrian events, nor do they allow doping of horses. In short, the competitive level is average.

After the rise of artificial prosthetic technology, the Paralympics became a scene like a fight between gods. It can even be said that the Paralympic Games was the stage for countries and enterprises to demonstrate their technical level at that time.

An Olympic athlete competing against a Paralympic athlete is like table tennis players from other countries in the world competing against table tennis players from a certain table tennis empire.

The day when the Paralympic Games record surpassed that of the Olympic Games was also considered a turning point in human history.

I don't know why, but when he recalled all this, the man still felt a faint sense of pride.

——Am I... the first disabled athlete in the world to surpass the world record of ordinary people?

Yuki swore that he had never heard of the Olympic Games. There was only the Paralympic Games in the world - the Paralympic Games. This is the largest competitive event in the world, with dozens or hundreds of warriors from different schools competing on the same stage.

And this competition will literally mean that all the losing participants will temporarily lose some of their functions. [Paralympic is composed of two words: paralyze (disability, disability) and Olympic]

This topic was mentioned when the man asked Youki about "martial arts". According to Yuki, all current martial artists and athletes have become famous and become the best among people through the Paralympic Games.

At least this news gave the man some comfort - it seemed that he was "reborn and washed" instead of "traveled through the flow". At least he was indeed the "future" of his own world, not a "parallel world".

Yuki really wishes the man would be an athlete. But men always feel that they should not be this kind of person. A voice in his head screamed "No" - this was definitely not a real martial art.

According to Yuki's description, the only "outer martial arts" displayed at the Paralympics. It is true that one can practice Waijiaquan to become invincible, but...

——"Practice martial arts without practicing kung fu, and you will end up in vain."

This sentence was wandering in the man's consciousness inexplicably.

When the man thought of this sentence, he didn't know why he wanted to laugh. Part of his consciousness told him that the so-called "internal strength" was a fictional concept in fantasy novels. But another part of his consciousness told him that someone had really created "internal strength", which was different from the "inner strength" in literary and artistic works, but...but...

Every time a man thinks about this, he feels like there is something wrong with his artificial eyeball.

Inexplicable.

However, this feeling also made the man doubt something.

Could the so-called "creator of internal strength" have anything to do with him?

——Who was I in the past?

A man can only sigh like this. Could it be that he is the descendant of some important person?

However, according to Yuki, in this world, in addition to athletes, there is also a kind of person who also masters "martial arts".

They are called "knights", thugs who wield this force. They believe in an evil god called "Mo Di" and use an ancient thug named "Aaron Swartz" as their spiritual mentor. They disrupt peace and order and are the enemy of human civilization.

"That's not good." The man thought this way: "According to some amnesia plot, it seems that... I am very likely to be such a dangerous person?"

"Okay, rest up." Yuki drank a large portion of the last bottle of copper candy, then picked up the man's head, found a small hole in the upper jaw, and poured the remaining small bottle of copper candy into it. The degree of mechanization of Yuki's body is very low, less than 50%, mainly concentrated in his hands and feet, and he can also absorb and transport metal sugars through biological tissues. But that’s all men can eat now.

"Let's go find parts and try to make a foot for you this month!" Yuki shouted happily. His feelings towards men are quite complicated. At the beginning, he really wanted to have a father, but for some reason, during the process of getting along, he developed a little bit of "pet" emotion towards the man.

The man nodded and followed. He secretly made up his mind to make a pair of feet as soon as possible, and then stay away from Yulia and her son.

It's not that he's ungrateful, nor that he's afraid of Enoch's fool. He just suddenly realized that his mysterious background might bring danger to Youki and his son.

He is most likely a "knight", and since "knights" are called "enemies of human civilization", he must not have a very good reputation among the officials.

……………………………………………………

However, no matter how urgent it is to save parts, it still depends on luck.

Ten days have passed, and the man and Youki have only managed to save a component to control the motherboard and two transmission bearings for large machinery [this can be used to make the "leg bones" of the thigh].

Fortunately, there is a skill at hand that will not kill you anywhere. Soon, many people in the town witnessed the man replacing parts for himself. After this incident spread, people occasionally commissioned men to do some simple repairs.

I don’t know why, but the man’s repair skills are really good. Except for a very few devices whose control chips are damaged, or where the precision of the current pair of old prosthetic hands cannot meet the repair requirements, there is basically nothing he can't repair so far.

This also earned him some compensation.

A month later, he finally saved some money.

For this little savings, Yulia once had the idea of ​​​​"saving it." According to her opinion, all the money should be used to prepare a coming-of-age prosthetic body for Yuki. The man was picked up by Youki in the garbage, and the money he earned should belong to Youki. Yuki had no such intention. He has already been paid in the process of scavenging, and all the money earned should belong to the man. He almost had a fight with his mother over this.

The result of an argument with large construction machinery is usually disastrous - the speaker volume is really loud and consumes power. The man stopped the quarrel between the two and assured Yulia that after he took good care of himself, he would definitely make more money to repay the kindness of saving her life.

So, after a few days, the man was finally able to stand up.

Yuki has only one comment about this body - "so ugly".

Men now have a head. Below the head is a small section of cervical vertebrae, which is supported by a metal bracket. Below this silver bracket is a straight beam. At both ends of the beam are two prosthetic hands. The prosthetic hands are beautiful streamlined shells. Under the beam, there is another vertical steel column, and under the steel column are two ball joints. Under the ball joint, there are thighs cut from the drive shaft.

To put it simply, the man's head is now in a funny style, his hands are in a graceful sketch style, and then the whole body's skeleton is in a stickman style - with a realistic-style battery hanging on it.

The mayor’s evaluation of this was “impractical”. In his opinion, it is a huge waste for men to choose to use solid steel pillars as the raw material for thighs. This consumes a lot of energy when moving. An unknown bracket is also installed on the Achilles tendon of the calf. As a structure for "lifting heavy objects", this is really unqualified.

The man just smiled at this, well, to be precise, he simulated a polite laugh.

The mayor doesn't understand this kind of "etiquette", he just thinks it's weird. He patted the man's shoulder and said: "But, it's good to have hands and feet. The big man who collects the genetic tax will be here soon. If you look weird without hands or feet, you might make people unhappy. Necessary interest, that’s not good.”

To the townspeople, the "Big Boss" is a man of life and death.

Aaron Swartz is a computer genius who became famous at a young age, the co-founder of the famous social networking site Reddit, and the designer of web.py. He is also a Robin Hood in the digital age, committed to the openness of network information. However, he was accused of illegally hacking into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and JSTOR (full name: Journal Storage, an online system for storing academic journals). He will be sentenced to up to 35 years in prison and $1 million fine. During the plea phase of the case, Aaron Swartz hanged himself with a belt in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, on January 11, 2013. His body was later discovered by his girlfriend. He was only 26 years old.

Regarding the story of "Aaron Swartz", I recommend everyone to watch the documentary "Son of the Internet".