Industrial Strength Magic - Chapter 197: The ‘D’ Word

Rex was an ordinary salaryman, resigned to a dull life of monotony in a towering megacity. But his world shatters when he’s conscripted by Nexum Dynamics, a ruthless megacorporation, and thrust into a brutal war for a barren, alien world. The planet holds unimaginable riches, but it’s also swarming with the Krhyssari, an insectoid race that dominates the surface with their hive-mind precision and relentless aggression. Amid the carnage, Rex had an extraordinary encounter with Cleo, an ancient AI, a survivor of a long-extinct civilization. Cleo isn’t just an artificial intelligence; she’s a consciousness imbued with memories of her people’s interstellar empire and equipped with advanced bio-nanotechnology. Offering Rex a new purpose and unmatched power, she transforms his fragile human body into a hybrid of living metal and flesh, making him the ultimate weapon. But Cleo is more than a tool of war. As she journeys alongside Rex, her cold, logical algorithms evolve, shaped by his humanity. Together, they form a bond that transcends the boundaries of man and machine, discovering love in the midst of chaos. As Rex and Cleo fight for survival, they uncover a shared ambition, to rise as intergalactic overlords, uniting or conquering the galaxy.

In the near future, a space channel connecting the other world suddenly appeared on Blue Star, and a large number of other world monsters poured into the homeland where human beings depended for survival.

Human civilization has shrunk sharply and had to hide in the base city to survive.

Only warriors can lead human beings to open up living space and regain lost land.

However, martial arts requires talent, and not everyone can become a martial artist.

People with outstanding martial arts talent can not only advance quickly and break through limits, but also optimize their exercises and benefit future generations, and are admired by all mankind.

By chance, Lu Heng discovered that his martial arts talent could continue to evolve…

- Description from novelbuddy

In a world heavily dependent on technology, humanity always strived for more. And when they transferred the human consciousness into a virtual world, everything changed.

People got different systems, some unlocked superpowers while others simply became stronger. There were all kinds of things people obtained, and they all came from an unknown world later named “System Online”.

A virtual world that allowed people to get stronger as they played in the world in a manner that altered their destiny, raised their strength, and gave them a chance to be what they never were.

Follow as the main character enters this world to change his destiny and help out his loved ones. However, never did he know that he would become someone at the center as the whole world faces doom.

Read how this world of System Online becomes the cause of the apocalypse on Earth a hundred years later while a new even more vast universe opens up to humanity while the world of System Online descended on Earth as both worlds merge in some unexpected circumstances.

This all leads opens to Universe where humanity's survival hangs at the stake.

A universe where humanity is at the bottom and countless races eye Earth for its resources and treasures.

A universe where the strong prey on the weak.

What is martial arts?Martial Arts has nothing to do with musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, painting, treasures or secret manuals, nor is there so much talk about being the best in the world. Martial Arts is a technique, a method that gives the weak a chance to draw their blades against the strong.What is chivalry (xiá)?Chivalry is not about romantic affairs, traditional culture, or being gentle, respectful, frugal, and compliant. Chivalry is violence, it's the bayonet forged by those driven to Mount Liang to use against tyrants.Cao Mo pledged with a dagger, (Returning to) Lu to invade. Zhuan Zhu entered with grilled meat, (Pacifying) Wu to usurp the throne. Brother Zhang cried in the market, avenging his lord by defiling a lavatory. Suicide by cutting one's own throat to seek justice, acting while concealing his sleeve. The tyrant of Qin seized souls, the coward gained courage.This is a martial artist's story.In the 1930s, a group of like-minded young people came together, striving to change the world.Then, two hundred years later, in a garbage landfill, Xiang Shan, the Progenitor of Cyber Martial Arts who had once rebooted heaven and earth, woke up reciting the name of his enemy, having lost all his memories.“Perhaps it's because I lost back then that the world has become what it is...”“So this time, I won't be defeated again!”This is the story of a person changing the world once more!