Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 102 Transformation

If you were to ask a salesperson how to sell something at a high price and create demand for the customer...

A typical salesperson might try their best to explain how good their product is and how cost-effective it is.

But Mercer didn't like doing business this way.

If he wants to sell a mobile phone, but the other party refuses, saying that they have a brain-computer interface and a laptop, he will not hesitate to hack the other party's computer and brain-computer interface, and then tell them that buying a mobile phone is safer and that they are not afraid of being hacked.

Yes, Mercer now harbors such intentions towards the Voodoo Cult.

To be honest, thinking back carefully, he hadn't actually taken on any commissions or tasks related to the Voodoo Gang in the past six months.

Ever since these guys suffered a huge loss on the internet in Taiping State, even having their servers burned down, they've become very well-behaved.

The main problem is that they can't beat them—the Mercers are in Dogtown, and they can't fight the Ghost Hounds. They can't beat Mercers and Morning Star online either, so they can only keep a low profile. In fact, in Night City these past few months, even the number of online fraud cases has decreased by half.

but.
If you all behave yourselves, then who will hire me to deal with you? If no one hires me, where will I get the money?

After V and Rebecca excitedly and effortlessly wiped out a Night Wanderer's hideout, Mercer rejected their excited suggestion to 'do it again' and instead chose to lead the team home.

V and Rebecca weren't done yet and planned to go straight back to base for a sparring match.

The others were also eager to join in the fun and see what the advantages and disadvantages of these two types of equipment were—and importantly, Mercer promised to custom-make a similar individual armor set for them in the future.

They definitely need to look into it and think about what kind of armor they should have for their future.

Mercer, however, still had things to do—he needed to find Old Vie to first install the connector on his octopus arm, then test it out, and also have a long-awaited chat with Old Vie.

Although everyone was a little worried about Mercer's safety going out alone, Mercer just waved them off and told them to go about their business. He then had Polaris remotely pilot his Mizutani Jun to pick him up halfway, and then went to Old Vie's clinic alone.

Incidentally, on the way, Mercer instructed Morning Star to begin his 'marketing plan'.

[Mercer: Disguise yourself as the Voodoo Cult and cause some trouble, especially in Dogtown and Pacific State, particularly Hanz and Hansen, but don't ruin my reputation and make people think my skills are lacking, you know what I mean?]

[Morning Star: Understood! The whole purpose is to incite public outrage against the Voodoo Cult, so that you can earn extra income while testing your new equipment.]

Mercer: Clever, that's it.

The Morning Star returned his smiley face, and then Mercer sat comfortably in the driver's seat, listening to music on the radio, and headed to Old Vie's clinic under the skillful and steady driving of the North Star.

Arriving at the familiar building, Mercer parked the car, put on his mask, and walked into Misty's psychic house with a touch of melancholy.

At that moment, she was unusually busy giving fortune readings to her customers, so Mercer simply waved and gestured as he passed by before walking through the alley and entering Old Vie's underground clinic.

Once inside, Old Wei was busy performing surgery, but without even looking up, he said, "It's been a long time. Have a seat. There's some Coke in the fridge, help yourself."

Mercer smiled and walked to the refrigerator. He opened it and saw several neatly arranged cans of small Coke: "Were these specially prepared for me?"

"Hmm, I thought you'd come by whenever you had free time, or at the very least, given how often you get your prosthetics installed, I'd probably see you every month. But I never expected you to stop even doing the maintenance on your prosthetics."

Victor joked, "If V and the others didn't come by occasionally, I'd be worried that something had happened to you."

Mercer laughed and said, "I have a lot of stuff at home now. I can easily get Lucy or Rebecca to do the simple maintenance and checks. As for why I haven't been here, I'm busy. My whole family is counting on me to support them."

"Yes, I've heard about it. Every time V comes, he talks about you, saying that you're busier than when you're working at the company."

Victor said, while Mercer, as if he were home, put the insulated box he was carrying aside, drank his cola, and started watching TV.

The two chatted casually, and soon the guy Victor was working with, who had come to replace a used prosthetic body part, finished his surgery.

As usual, Victor reminded the guests of post-operative precautions, then collected their money and saw them off, closing the door behind him and switching the electronic screen at the clinic entrance to display "Temporarily Closed".

"Come on, let me see what good stuff you've come up with this time, let me see it." Victor walked over to Mercer with great interest, without even taking off his gloves.

Mercer unlocked the insulated box with the combination lock, revealing the folded octopus arms and prosthetic connectors inside.

Victor raised an eyebrow, then frowned deeply: "Alien prosthetics? Why are you getting into this stuff now? Which company makes this?"

"I made it myself." Mercer proudly showed his masterpiece to Victor, explaining the techniques and materials used while letting the old man examine it himself.

Victor picked it up, listened briefly to Mercer's explanation, and then gave a meme-worthy expression: 'Old man, subway, cell phone'.
"Wait a minute, so your final idea is that these octopus arms not only allow you to control them as if they were your own, but also that you can install multiple of them at the same time, and that you add different functional attributes to these octopus arms?"

Mercer replied matter-of-factly, "Of course not, there's no point in putting too much of the same thing in there."

“Hmm,” Victor said with a wistful expression, “To be honest, I don’t know if your idea of ​​using AI and program algorithms to solve the difficulty of operation is good.”

The problem is that even with AI coordination, these prosthetics are ultimately controlled by the human brain. You might be able to control your third arm, but controlling a fourth or fifth arm and making them do different things is a different matter.

Victor chuckled: "You don't think that anyone can do something like multitasking, do you?"

“That’s not entirely true, but I think I’m fine.” Mercer’s expression made him shake his head.

"Fine, I can't understand the thinking of a genius like you. But since you've already brought it, let's give it a try and see if it works."

Victor stopped trying to persuade him. In his eyes, Mercer was a unique monster, and such a monster could not be viewed through a unique lens, just like V.

V has even had her internal organs replaced with synthetic ones, but after all this time, every time she comes to Old Wei, he gives her a free check-up, and the results are shockingly good, both physically and mentally.
Given that she's the type who drives her Sinwiss to save time when she's too busy cooking, an ordinary person would probably have gone crazy by now after six months. But V is eating well and her energy is getting better and better.

Mercer rolled over and sat up, laughing as he said, "I'll send you the surgical documents and information. Just cut a groove in my left shoulder. I also have some ideas for modifying the heat dissipation prosthesis."

Also, I need a synthetic heart and lungs replacement; I'm planning to get a secondary heart.

Victor gave him a wry look: "You really haven't changed at all. Your modifications look like you're about to start a wholesale prosthetics business."

"This is a necessary surgery, especially for the accessory heart, which is very important to me. In my calculations, if the strength of my internal organs, especially the heart and the speed of blood circulation, cannot be improved, the burden on me will be even greater."

The neural load on the octopus arms means I need to dissipate heat more effectively, and this more intense and frequent heat dissipation places a significant burden on my internal organs, especially my blood circulation and metabolism.

Mercer said, and Old Vie simply nodded noncommittally, saying, "We'll try to create a new neural interface for you first, test your octopus arm, and if everything goes well, we'll continue the surgery."

“Okay.” Mercer decisively took off his coat, revealing a black suit underneath, unzipped it, and voluntarily lay down on the operating chair with his upper body bare.

"You can cut off some of my sensory nerves. During the surgery, I can also give you some advice."

His words made Victor laugh: "Okay! If the octopus arm is really as useful as you say, I reckon in a few years you'll be able to perform surgery on yourself."

Mercer didn't dismiss the topic as a joke, but said seriously, "In fact, that's really what I'm thinking, if the octopus arm proves feasible over time."
That means that in the future, I will most likely be able to directly control the external octopus arm to perform surgery on myself through consciousness signals, and I might even consider going further.
For example, directly connecting neural networks to control centers can be used to manipulate external devices.

“Well, if you ask me, why don’t you consider asking those AIs how they usually operate?” Victor said with a laugh. “Learning from them should be more reliable than finding answers from humans.”

Mercer seemed to understand what he was saying, then smiled and said, "What you said makes a lot of sense. Next time, I might try using AI to test it first. If the AI ​​finds it easy to use, then I'm sure I'll be fine with it too."

Victor pushed up his glasses and shook his head speechlessly: "Fine, I won't say anything more. With your reply, I don't even dare to give you any advice."

Mercer laughed and said, "Just kidding. But I do have a talent for multitasking. Working like an AI is something many people dream of."

"Lie down properly, let me look at the information first and figure out how to perform the surgery."

As Victor spoke, he began to look at the information and surgical plan that Mercer had sent him on the tablet.

Mercer discussed and confirmed with him for about ten minutes. Victor then had a plan in mind. After Mercer lay down, he began to make the cut.

Adding slots to the shoulders is not a complicated surgery, but the difficulty lies in the fact that Mercer's shoulders and back are occupied by heat dissipation prosthetics, so if you want to make changes, you have to modify the heat dissipation prosthetics as well.

How can we maintain, or even further enhance, the heat dissipation efficiency while reducing the area of ​​the heat dissipation prosthesis?
Mercer's answer was simple and direct: increase the power. This is also why he wanted to further modify the internal organs.

As the surgery progressed, Old Vie gave some comments that surprised Mercer.

"It seems you need an internal organ transplant. Your heart, lungs, and blood circulation show signs of mild poisoning, and some indicators are not very healthy."

Mercer raised an eyebrow: "Poisoned?"

"Yes, it's highly likely because during the air exchange process, external toxins directly enter your bloodstream along with the air."

I suspect it's related to the environment you usually live in. Night City, after all, the air is full of stench; who knows what's mixed in there.

Victor continued, adding sharply, "When Arasaka designed this cybernetic body, he probably aimed for complete mechanization and didn't consider its impact on human health at all. Don't you feel anything?"

"I'm used to the pumping sensation in my heart and the burning sensation in my lungs. Once the cooling system is turned on, I feel like there's an air exchanger in my chest cavity."

Mercer said nonchalantly, "Then let's change everything. Add a purification component to the blood circulation system. Or how about we try some kind of 'two hearts and three lungs' modification?"

"Ha, why don't you go ask Arasaka what needs to be changed to make it Adam's Hammer?" Victor said casually to him, but soon he had completely ripped open his back.

Mercer lay on the operating chair with his head turned to the side, his prosthetic eye connected to a camera on a tablet, observing the condition of his back.

What he could see now was a few pulsating pieces of flesh and blood exposed to the air, and black mechanical structures gleaming with an eerie light. He looked at his internal organs with great interest and said:

"You know what, this thing is pretty durable. It gets hammered by V every day, and the internal structure is still no different from a new one."

"Hmm, I'll clean the pipes for you later and check the condition of the heat dissipation lines." Victor, however, was focused and carefully adjusting the position of the neural circuitry.

Mercer simply lay there and said, "There's no need. That would take too much time. I plan to wait until the octopus hand test is successful before moving on to researching cybernetic bodies and equipment for hackers."

He envisioned, "When the time comes, I'll install a S.A.W.S., mastering both hacking and practical skills!"

Victor didn't even bother to reply—let him do whatever he wants, he can't control this kid.

"But before that, I need to study Sianwistan and the Berserk System and figure out a way to develop our own neural acceleration system."

The Rampage operating system is still quite different from the Sinwidstein. Rebecca and Jack's physical potential is actually sufficient, but I'm worried about their mental health, which is why I don't dare to put them on the Sinwidstein.

Once I've figured it out, I'll develop a neural-accelerated operating system that falls somewhere in between.

"Stop, stop, stop talking, you're interrupting my mechanics." Victor said helplessly, "I'm just a cyborg doctor, you don't think I can give you any good advice, do you?"

"Old Wei, don't be so modest. It's hard to say about other fields, but in the fields of neuroscience and prosthetics, you are an expert."

Mercer spoke, but stopped talking by lowering his breathing rate. Victor skillfully began to operate, disconnecting, splicing, and combining the neural circuits, removing the heat dissipation prosthesis, and filling it with synthetic human tissue.

The delicate, nanoscale surgery requires even Victor to concentrate fully, because even the slightest tremor of the human body with breathing can affect the operation of the nerves.

It took Victor an hour to finally separate the heat dissipation prosthetic from Mercer's left shoulder.

He simply took a breath and then continued, filling Mercer with synthetic tissue while connecting the artificial nerves to the neural slots he had created.

Once the black slot was installed, Victor took out the octopus arm—this time the installation was much simpler; just align it with the interface, insert it, and confirm that the neural circuit was connected, and it was considered successful.

"Phew," Victor let out a long sigh, wiped his sweat, sat down in the chair, and stretched his shoulders and neck: "Alright, will you do it yourself or should I?"

"Open my neural connections, I'll do the test myself."

As Mercer spoke, Victor nodded, made a few movements on the tablet, and activated his neural connection.

First came the pain—Mercer grimaced and took a moment to recover before carefully moving his right hand to take the tablet.

"How about I give you a painkiller injection first?" Victor suggested.

"No, it will affect my perception and judgment of the nerves," Mercer said, activating the self-test system from the control program on the tablet and checking the data of the robotic arm.

Victor's skills were impeccable, and his technique was top-notch. After confirming that all the data was normal, Mercer immediately activated the neural connection.

[Octopus Arm (V0.2) is now connected.]

A successful connection notification flashed in the prosthetic eye, followed by a string of data scrolling past Mercer's eyes. As the octopus arm officially activated, the built-in AI program was also awakened and began running. Victor sat in his chair, taking a step back about a meter, his arms folded in front of him, his eyes filled with both anticipation and a complex mix of worry.

Mercer, however, only took ten seconds before cautiously beginning to move his octopus arms.

Just like how he controls his own arm—raising his hand, lowering his hand, opening his hand, grasping.
And so, under their watchful eyes, a metallic octopus arm gleaming with silver metallic luster began to move nimbly behind Mercer.

At first, Mercer was a little unaccustomed to it, but soon he was able to control his third arm, which extended from behind his shoulder, with precision, swinging, stopping, and exerting force.

The octopus arms have a certain degree of flexibility, and their actual length can be extended or retracted within the range of 1.6M-2.3M.

Mercer was having a great time controlling how long it could stretch and shrink, and after a while, he simply used it to brace himself against the ground.

Then came the amazing scene that amazed Old Wei—with only one octopus arm supporting him on the ground, Mercer slowly 'floated' off the chair, standing in mid-air with only one octopus arm for support, his body swaying slightly.

This not only symbolizes the strength and resilience of the octopus arms, but more importantly, it signifies an extremely sophisticated calculation of force output.

Just like an ordinary person trying to do a handstand, supporting the entire body with only one hand requires not only arm strength, but more importantly, the ability to maintain balance.

Mercer landed slowly on his feet, and his octopus arms began to retract, coiling around his body like a cold python before finally placing his metal claws on his shoulders.

"Don't you feel uncomfortable?" Victor couldn't help but shiver. For a staunch bodybuilder like him, let alone getting himself a strange third hand, he couldn't even stand having his arm replaced with metal.

Mercer simply flexed his shoulders: "It's a little strange to suddenly have an octopus hand, but as long as you understand that you're controlling a special device connected via neural pathways, it's alright."

“Well, all I can say is that you might be able to tell the difference now, but if one day you try to raise your left hand and end up raising the octopus arm instead, you have to immediately turn off the octopus arm and check yourself, understand?” Victor warned.

Mercer smiled and nodded: "I know."

After a quick familiarization with the operation, Mercer contentedly reached out, grabbed the octopus arm on his left shoulder, moved it around, used the brain-computer interface to unlock the connector, and pulled the octopus arm off.

It even twitched twice after being pulled out before stopping, a scene that looked rather gruesome.

"Hmm," Mercer said thoughtfully, "It seems we still need to improve it; the AI's adaptability needs to be enhanced."

"Put it away quickly, I can't stand to look at this." Victor said with disgust, picked up the cover plate, walked behind Mercer, put it on his shoulder, and patted it, making a metallic clanging sound.

"Hmm, I suddenly feel a bit lightheaded in my left shoulder, and it feels quite empty inside," Mercer said.

Victor said, "It's normal, you'll get used to it."

Mercer put the octopus arm back into the insulated box—if he wanted to wear this thing long-term, Mercer would have to modify his black customer service suit and clothes as well.

Then, he smiled and pointed to his chest: "Let's continue."

“Sigh.” Victor sighed, but then went into the warehouse anyway. “I’ll see if I have any suitable spare hearts in stock. I usually only have ordinary, inexpensive ones. What brand do you want?”

“Anything is fine, biotechnology, I guess,” Mercer said.

After checking his inventory of coolers, Victor said, "I'll place an order for some new ones for you now."

“Okay.” Mercer’s back was still a little sore, but he had already opened Old Wei’s tablet with great interest and started looking at the goods list that his supplier had given him.

"Hmm, in addition to using biotechnology for my heart and lungs, add a trauma team's purification and filtration system to my kidneys."

Mercer swung his legs, and just when Old Wei thought he was about to buy a bunch of things online again, he put down his tablet and said in a nouveau riche manner, "That's all. I don't really like the other things."

Victor chuckled, took the tablet, and sat down on the sofa to chat with him.

They mainly chatted about everyday family matters, but after only a few minutes of casual conversation, Old Wei suddenly brought up a topic that gave Mercer a bit of a headache.

"Are you dating anyone?" Vic, unusually, revealed a hint of gossip. "Or rather, who are you currently flirting with?"

"Uh, I don't have any official partners." Mercer said, but then added somewhat guiltily, "As for ambiguous relationships... I seem to have quite a few."

Victor shrugged, a look of amusement on his face, and gave a meaningful "Oh": "You know what? Last week I had a client who not only got his groin kicked and mangled, but his jaw was also smashed open, and he had a whole magazine of bullet holes in his body."
Guess what happened to him?

Mercer was a little nervous, guessing what he was going to say, but still played along: "What's going on?"

"That guy found a girl named Haywood from the Valentino gang, got her pregnant, and then he was caught cheating on her with other women."

His genitals were kicked to pieces on the spot, and his chin was knocked crooked by a punch. He tried to protect his head, but his arm was also broken by another kick.

The girl was still not satisfied, so she picked up a pistol and riddled him with holes, but she managed to miss a single vital spot.

In other words, "The child still needs to be born; this scumbag has to stay alive so he can earn money to pay child support."

Victor chuckled and looked at Mercer with a smile: "Oh, and I know a hacker girl who also had a scumbag cheat on her. But that girl was even more ruthless. She used a program to mess up his brain, and it was so badly burned that it couldn't be repaired."

"There was also a girl on the street."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Mercer instinctively clenched his legs. "I don't do that kind of thing, I'm an upright man!"

Victor chuckled: "Then good luck."

"Damn, don't talk about me, what about you? After all these years, you still haven't found a reliable partner? Are you really planning to stay single forever?"

Mercer said, but Victor sighed: "Forget it, in this messed-up world, even if a child is born, it may not be happy. As for girls... do you think I'm the type who lacks girls? It's just that I'm old, I'm tired of playing around, it's not interesting anymore."

"Unlike you, I'm lucky enough to meet only good girls. The older you get, the harder it is to open up to someone."

Victor sighed, and then started talking to Mercer about life.

The two chatted for more than half an hour, and then the biotechnology was delivered to their door.

After examining the prosthetic body, Victor instructed Mercer to begin the surgery.

This time, Mercer simply severed his neural perception again, and then watched as Old Vie gave him an accessory heart, replacing his original heart with a synthetic one, his lungs with enhanced lungs, and then his kidneys.
After the surgery, Moser lay on the sofa for a while to recover before taking a few breaths of pain-relieving spray and waving goodbye to Lao Wei.

As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Jack sitting in Misty's room, chatting happily with her.

Upon seeing Mercer, Jack waved casually, but a hint of 'shyness' was visible on his face, something only his own people could discern.

"Oh, what brings you here?" Mercer asked jokingly.

“V said that you’re going to see Lao Wei alone, and you’ll definitely be carrying a lot of random things. He’s worried that you might not be feeling well, so he asked me to come and pick you up.”

Jack winked at Mercer, who in turn grinned and raised an eyebrow at him: "Really? I thought you came here specifically to see Misty."

"Cough," Jack didn't refute, but instead secretly watched Misty's expression.

Seeing that she was still just smiling gently, but looking at him with a slightly shy look in her eyes, he immediately said to Mercer with a smile, "How about we have dinner together tonight?"

Mercer gave him a disdainful look: "Come on, you two go on a date alone, I have no appetite today."

"You should take him home first. He looks weak when he walks. I guess he had internal surgery. V rested for several days after his organ transplant."

Misty looked at Mercer with concern, then turned to Jack and said, "V must have thought of this when he called you here."

"No, no need. My car is all self-driving. I can just close my eyes and sleep when I get in, and when I open them I'll be home. I don't need anyone to take care of me."

Mercer waved his hand with a smile and said to Misty with a smile, "He rarely finds an excuse to come here, so why don't you have a meal with him?"

Ever since he had a few surgeries with Lao Wei, this guy has been asking us whenever he has free time when we need to go back to Lao Wei for checkups.
You understand.

Mercer's words caused the two to exchange a glance. Misty looked away and said, "What about his ex-girlfriend Valentino? I heard they broke up and got back together on and off."

“It’s completely hopeless.” Jack gave a positive answer. He sighed and said, “When I first said I wanted to become a mercenary, she had a dark face and said I was crazy and wanted to break up with me.”

For two consecutive months, no matter how I tried to coax her, it didn't work; she just scolded me for being useless.

As it turns out, she somehow found out I made money, and now she's still hanging out with Mercer and his gang.

Suddenly she changed her attitude again, wanting me to buy her a car and support her, and she kept talking about coming to our base to play. When I told her that outsiders weren't allowed there, she got angry with me and pressured me to get married quickly.

My mom actually likes her quite a bit. She says that although she's a bit vain, what young girl on the street doesn't care about her image?

But I just don't feel right. She keeps telling me to quit once I've made some money, come back to Valentino and act as a figurehead, run some business. But... how should I put it? There are just too many conflicting feelings."

Jack shook his head and said, "In short, it's completely over. Now people are saying that I've become successful and don't care about the past anymore. Ha, let her say what she wants."

Misty nodded slightly, while Mercer punched Jack on the shoulder and said to Misty with a smile, "Alright, you guys go ahead with your business, I'm going back now."

Jack chuckled: "Then you'll have to tell V that you were the one who told me not to answer!"

"Fine, whatever!" Mercer rolled his eyes, grabbed the octopus arm, and walked outside.

Jack probably couldn't hold back any longer—he'd been chatting with Misty online for the past few months, and today he came with the intention of confirming their relationship.

Mercer didn't want to be a third wheel.

Watching the two of them chatting and laughing, Mercer himself felt inexplicably happy. He got back into the car and, in a cheerful mood, had Polaris drive back to the base.

Misty is a good girl for Jack, and hopefully this time, they can make it to the end.

Mercer's smile didn't fade even after he returned to the base. V was sitting in the living room watching TV when he saw Mercer's smiling face and couldn't help but ask him why.

Upon learning that Jack and Misty were likely to confirm their relationship today, she raised an eyebrow, looking quite pleased: "I knew those two would probably get together! Damn, when I called him over, he even pretended to ask if Rebecca should go see you instead."
Hey hey, what did you hear? Did you overhear any interesting conversations?

Mercer looked at her with some surprise: "I thought you were really worried about me, that's why you asked him to go."

V rolled her eyes and said irritably, "Why should I care about you! If you really wanted me to come with you, you would have called me before the surgery. Why would I go looking for you?"

"Then I'll take the initiative to ask you to come with me next time?" he said with a smile, but V waved his hand dismissively: "Go find your Rebecca and Lucy."

Mercer pursed his lips and staggered towards his room.

"Where are you going? It'll be lunchtime soon." V watched his retreating figure.

"I have no appetite today, I'm going to bed." Mercer waved his hand, went into his room, lay down on the bed, watched TV and rested, planning to get a good night's rest and wait for his internal organs to adjust.

But just an hour later, the door was pounded on loudly.

He opened the door speechlessly and saw V drag a plate onto his table, throw it down, and then cross his legs and find a chair to sit down: "Eat!"

"I have no appetite." Mercer hugged the blanket, lazily refusing to get up.

"What did you say to me those days after my surgery? How can I get better if I don't eat? Hurry up, you're not expecting me to feed you, are you? How about I call Rebecca over? She'd be happy to."

V glanced at him sideways.

Mercer could only sigh and sit up: "Fine, I'll eat!"

She even cooked porridge for him. It was quite delicious.

Watching Moser slowly finish a bowl of porridge and eat some light vegetable salad, she packed her things with satisfaction: "You have to eat on time tomorrow too. Don't always wait for someone to urge you. How old are you!"

Mercer watched her leave, and after a long while, he smiled and shook his head.

V, what a wonderful woman.

(End of this chapter)