It doesn't seem polite to hang around and gawk over the fact that Da5id's computer crashed. A lot of the younger hackers1 are doing just that, as a way of showing all the other hackers how knowledgeable3 they are. Hiro shrugs4 it off and turns back in the direction of the Rock Star Quadrant. He still wants to see Sushi K's hairdo.
But his path is being blocked by the Nipponese man -- the neo-traditional. The guy with the swords. He's facing off against Hiro, about two sword-lengths apart, and it doesn't look like he intends to move.
Hiro does the polite thing. He bows at the waist, straightens up.
The businessman does the much less polite thing. He looks Hiro rather carefully up and down, then returns the bow. Sort of.
"These -- " the businessman says. "Very nice." "Thank you, sir. Please feel free to converse5 in Nipponese if you prefer."
"This is what your avatar wears. You do not carry such weapons in Reality," the businessman says. In English.
"I'm sorry to be difficult, but in fact, I do carry such weapons in Reality," Hiro says.
"Exactly like these?"
"Exactly."
"These are ancient weapons, then," the businessman says.
"Yes, I believe they are."
"How did you come to be in possession of such important family heirlooms from Nippon?" the businessman says.
Hiro knows the subtext here: What do you use those swords for, boy, slicing watermelon?
"They are now my family heirlooms," Hiro says. "My father won them."
"Single combat. It was a struggle between my father and a Nipponese officer. The story is quite complicated."
"Please excuse me if I have misinterpreted your story," the businessman says, "but I was under the impression that men of your race were not allowed to fight during that war."
"Your impression is correct," Hiro says. "My father was a truck driver."
"Then how did he come to be in hand-to-hand combat with a Nipponese officer?"
"The incident took place outside a prisoner-of-war camp," Hiro says. "My father and another prisoner tried to escape. They were pursued by a number of Nipponese soldiers and the officer who owned these swords."
"Your story is very difficult to believe," the businessman says, "because your father could not have survived such an escape long enough to pass the swords on to his son. Nippon is an island nation. There is nowhere he could have escaped to."
"This happened very late in the war," Hiro says, "and this camp was just outside of Nagasaki."
The businessman chokes, reddens, nearly loses it. His left hand reaches up to grip the scabbard of his sword. Hiro looks around; suddenly they are in the center of an open circle of people some ten yards across.
"Do you think that the manner in which you came to possess these swords was honorable?" the businessman says.
"If I did not, I would long since have returned them," Hiro says.
"Then you will not object to losing them in the same fashion," the businessman says.
"Nor will you object to losing yours," Hiro says.
The businessman reaches across his body with his right hand, grips the handle of his sword just below the guard, draws it out, snaps it forward so it's pointing at Hiro, then places his left hand on the grip just below the right.
Hiro does the same.
Both of them bend their knees, dropping into a low squat7 while keeping the torso bolt upright, then stand up again and shuffle8 their feet into the proper stance -- feet parallel, both pointed9 straight ahead, right foot in front of the left foot.
The businessman turns out to have a lot of zanshin. Translating this concept into English is like translating "fuckface" into Nipponese, but it might translate into "emotional intensity10" in football lingo11. He charges directly at Hiro, hollering at the top of his lungs. The movement actually consists of a very rapid shuffling12 motion of the feet, so that he stays balanced at all times. At the last moment, he draws the sword up over his bead13 and snaps it down toward Hiro. Hiro brings his own sword up, rotating it around sideways so that the handle is up high, above and to the left of his face, and the blade slopes down and to the right, providing a roof above him. The businessman's blow bounces off this roof like rain, and then Hiro sidesteps to let him go by and snaps the sword down toward his unprotected shoulder. But the businessman is moving too fast, and Hiro's timing14 is off. The blade cuts behind and to the side of the businessman.
Both men wheel to face each other, back up, get back into the stance.
"Emotional intensity" doesn't convey the half of it, of course. It is the kind of coarse and disappointing translation that makes the dismembered bodies of samurai warriors15 spin in their graves. The word "zanshin" is larded down with a lot of other folderol that you have to be Nipponese to understand.
And Hiro thinks, frankly16, that most of it is pseudomystical crap, on the same level as his old high school football coach exhorting17 his men to play at 110 percent.
The businessman makes another attack. This one is pretty straightforward18: a quick shuffling approach and then a snapping cut in the direction of Hiro's ribcage. Hiro parries it.
Now Hiro knows something about this businessman, namely, that like most Nipponese sword fighters, all he knows is kendo.
Kendo is to real samurai sword fighting what fencing is to real swashbuckling: an attempt to take a highly disorganized, chaotic19, violent, and brutal20 conflict and turn it into a cute game. As in fencing, you're only supposed to attack certain parts of the body -- the parts that are protected by armor. As in fencing, you're not allowed to kick your opponent in the kneecaps or break a chair over his head. And the judging is totally subjective21. In kendo, you can get a good solid hit on your opponent and still not get credit for it, because the judges feel you didn't possess the right amount of zanshin.
Hiro doesn't have any zanshin at all. He just wants this over with. The next time the businessman sets up his ear-splitting screech22 and shuffles23 toward Hiro, cutting and snapping his blade, Hiro parries the attack, turns around, and cuts both of his legs off just above the knees.
The businessman collapses24 to the floor.
It takes a lot of practice to make your avatar move through the Metaverse like a real person. When your avatar has just lost its legs, all that skill goes out the window.
"Well, land sakes!" Hiro says. "Lookee here!" He whips his blade sideways, cutting off both of the businessman's forearms, causing the sword to clatter25 onto the floor.
"Better fire up the ol' barbecue, Jemima!" Hiro continues, whipping the sword around sideways, cutting the businessman's body in half just above the navel. Then he leans down so he's looking right into the businessman's face. "Didn't anyone tell you," he says, losing the dialect, "that I was a hacker2?"
Then he hacks26 the guy's head off. It falls to the floor, does a half-roll, and comes to rest staring straight up at the ceiling. So Hiro steps back a couple of paces and mumbles27, "Safe."
A largish safe, about a meter on a side, materializes just below the ceiling, plummets28, and lands directly on the businessman's head. The impact drives both the safe and the head straight down through the floor of The Black Sun, leaving a square hole in the floor, exposing the tunnel system underneath29. The rest of the dismembered body is still strewn around the floor.
At this moment, a Nipponese businessman somewhere, in a nice hotel in London or an office in Tokyo or even in the first-class lounge of the LATH, the Los Angeles/Tokyo Hypersonic, is sitting in front of his computer, red-faced and sweating, looking at The Black Sun Hall of Fame. He has been cut off from contact with The Black Sun itself, disconnected as it were from the Metaverse, and is just seeing a two-dimensional display. The top ten swordsmen of all time are shown along with their photographs. Beneath is a scrolling31 list of numbers and names, starting with #11. He can scroll30 down the list if he wants to find his own ranking. The screen helpfully informs him that he is currently ranked number 863 out of 890 people who have ever participated in a sword fight in The Black Sun.
Number One, the name and the photograph on the top of the list, belongs to Hirohito Protagonist32.
收听单词发音 |
1
hackers
|
|
| n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客” | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
hacker
|
|
| n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
knowledgeable
|
|
| adj.知识渊博的；有见识的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
shrugs
|
|
| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
converse
|
|
| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
squat
|
|
| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
shuffle
|
|
| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
intensity
|
|
| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
lingo
|
|
| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
shuffling
|
|
| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
bead
|
|
| n.念珠；(pl.)珠子项链；水珠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
timing
|
|
| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
warriors
|
|
| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
exhorting
|
|
| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
straightforward
|
|
| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
chaotic
|
|
| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
brutal
|
|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
subjective
|
|
| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
screech
|
|
| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
shuffles
|
|
| n.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的名词复数 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的第三人称单数 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
collapses
|
|
| 折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
clatter
|
|
| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
hacks
|
|
| 黑客 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
mumbles
|
|
| 含糊的话或声音，咕哝( mumble的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
plummets
|
|
| v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
underneath
|
|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
scroll
|
|
| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
scrolling
|
|
| n.卷[滚]动法，上下换行v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的现在分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
protagonist
|
|
| n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |