Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 106 Stepping to the Stage
Baby Adam's Hammer?

At that moment, Rebecca, who was high in the air holding a shotgun, had a flushed face under her helmet.

"Fuck your Adam's Hammer!"

She descended from the sky, even activating a propulsion system to accelerate her landing, her feet striking a car that had just come to a sudden stop, crushing it under the roof as she roared furiously, "Who the hell said Baby Adam's Hammer? Die, you son of a bitch!"

When the Voodoo Gang members saw the bullets hit her and bounce off with only a clanging sound, they didn't even have time to be terrified.

In the sky, a white figure flashed with fire at the shoulder of a cannon, which roared and a car exploded.

Then, the white figure descended from the sky like a ghost, two mantis blades suddenly popping out from its arms, and V-shaped prosthetic eyes flashing with a bloodthirsty and terrifying red light.

"Hahahaha! Baby's hammer! I'll take care of this!"

V laughed loudly, and with a mantis knife, she cleaved through several bullets aimed at her head. Then, leaving several afterimages in the crowd, she rushed straight towards one of the Voodoo Gang experts who was driving a Sianwistan with acceleration.

For V, her task is to prioritize eliminating the enemy's Sianwistan users, as for the ordinary minions?

Others will naturally deal with it.

Two heavy machine guns, arriving late, unleashed a hail of bullets at the convoy. Jack, from a high vantage point, pulled the trigger like he was scooping up fries, while Dorothy, in the distance, went even more berserk, pulling the vehicle-mounted machine gun off the ground, holding it in her hands, and firing from a horse stance.

The barrage of bullets covered the convoy, keeping the group of voodoo gang thugs pinned down. Only the two vehicle-mounted machine guns could still fire from inside the vehicles, but the light machine guns only fired a few shots before Rebecca blasted them to pieces.

Rebecca's face flushed red as she frantically pulled the trigger, shouting, "Who the hell called me Baby Hammer? Who gave me that call?"

At this moment, who had the time to reply to her?

On the ground, several unmanned vehicles, each twice the size of a fist, took advantage of the chaos and moved at high speed toward the convoy.

These drones, which look similar to toy cars, are inexpensive to manufacture and belong to almost the same type of drone as the 'swarm' drones developed by Mercer, with the main focus on large-scale production and ample supply.

Although these unmanned vehicles that travel on wheels cannot fly, they have greater mobility and speed on the ground. Several members of the Voodoo Gang spotted these small cars, and before they could give any warning, the cars rushed toward the convoy at an extremely high speed.

A Voodoo gang member, probably a squad leader, roared and tried to organize his men to fight back, but he had only shouted a few words when his head was smashed like a watermelon by a sniper shot from a distance.

This completely shattered the morale of the Voodoo Gang.

The air was filled with machine gun bullets, and explosions occurred from time to time. The only enemy visible in front of them was a fast-moving white ghost, and a small Adam Hammer that could stand still and fire at them without even swaying.
Should I still hit you?!

Sasha's vision was synchronized with the drone flying in the sky. When she saw Rebecca standing in the middle of the road, her shotgun empty, she picked up the Voodoo Gang's machine gun and started firing wildly. Her body was covered in sparks from the gunfire, and Sasha couldn't help but feel a little worried.

"Was her thruster damaged? It's too dangerous for her to be standing here and firing!"

Mercer, however, saw through the truth at a glance and complained, "She was too angry just now. She even used the thrusters at full speed when she landed. Even if a car acted as an energy absorber to cushion her impact..."
But I reckon her feet are numb too.

Sasha's lips twitched slightly—was she thinking that her legs were numb from the hard landing and that's why she was standing still?

Mercer stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "It seems we need to consider adding some leg-damping mechanical structures to her armor."

With such a heavy weight landing at full speed, the built-in mechanical drive is far from sufficient to absorb all the impact force.

Sasha rolled her eyes. Well, if this guy isn't worried, then she has even less to worry about.

And this is indeed the case.

Rebecca only realized the advantage of her round and chubby mech at this moment—she laughed heartily, feeling as comfortable as if she were swimming in bullets. What was the difference between this feeling of ignoring enemy bullets and firing at will and having an invincible cheat in a game?
After emptying her hand of machine gun ammunition, she began assembling her giant axe right in front of the voodoo gang.

Then, right before the eyes of the Voodoo Gang members who were screaming in terror, they excitedly brandished axes and began to engage in retro-style melee combat.

At this moment, those Voodoo gang members who could run away were already using all their strength to escape, while those who couldn't could only hide under the car, trembling with fear.

Even when someone equipped with a wrist grenade launcher fired grenades at Rebecca, she only needed to protect her head with her hands and take the hits. What's the point of fighting her?
As for V
In three seconds, she caught the enemy who was trying to fight to the death by activating the Sianweistein in the crowd. Then, in just one second, she used the Mantis Blade to pierce through both of his chests at the same time. With a forceful pull of both hands, she almost split him in two.

Such violence and ferocity in combat completely exceeded the psychological threshold of street thugs—it wasn't that they hadn't fought tough battles before, or that they hadn't encountered enemies equipped with S.A.S ...

Even the most skilled S.A.W.S ...

But what about V?
Her stopping Sianvestan doesn't mean her combat effectiveness will be reduced too much; with the help of her own armor, she doesn't even need to drive Krenzikov.

Relying solely on superhuman reaction speed, physical strength, combat instincts, and the electric drive boost provided by the armor, he can even outrun ordinary enemies who have activated the berserk system!
Those thugs with prosthetic bodies like synaptic acceleration might still see a hint of V, but for those without such prosthetic bodies, V is more terrifying than a ghost.

They could only see their own men screaming as they were hacked to pieces by the mantis blade, but they couldn't see V at all! They could only see a white light circle around once, and their companions who were just shouting were dead on the ground.

The Voodoo Gang's prized hackers didn't even dare attempt to hack in—because if V saw a hacking warning in her prosthetic eye, she would simply follow the signal and behead the hacker.
The Voodoo Gang members fled in disarray, and Mercer could even hear cries and pleas for mercy from below, thanks to the drone's microphone.

[Rebecca: Shouldn't we just stop? I don't see any of them fighting back.]

Rebecca softened and stopped the killing. She swung her axe, stood still, put one hand on her hip, and looked at the Voodoo Gang members who were now scattering and fleeing. She was reluctant to shoot them in the back.

If these guys pointed guns at her, she certainly wouldn't hesitate, but seeing some of them even calling for their mothers and crying their hearts out, she felt a pang of pity.

Mercer: It's alright, we don't have to be ruthless. If you're tired, come back and rest.

Mercer's words relieved Rebecca. Although she sometimes seemed crazy when she fought, she was not a person who liked killing.

V, on the other hand, didn't seem to be affected. In her view, when you're fighting for your life on the street, you should be prepared to die at any time when you pick up a gun. You should be as warm as spring to your friends and as cold as winter to your enemies.

However, since Mercer said there was no need to go to extremes, V had no interest in carrying out a massacre here.

So, she nimbly flipped and landed on an armored vehicle with two tires blown out. Her sharp eyes scanned the surroundings, and only after confirming that no one dared to fire again did she casually flick the mantis knife and put it away.

[V: What about the second-in-command of that voodoo gang?]

[Rebecca: Hmm, I think I punched him? I don't remember hitting a vital spot.]

[Mercer: Stop looking, it's under the car, the one right under V's feet.]

V paused for a moment, then jumped out of the car, crouched down, and looked at Placid, who was clutching a gun under the car and was covered in sweat: "Hello."

Placid roared and pulled the trigger of his shotgun under the car, but V deftly leaped out of his line of fire before he could pull the trigger.

The bullets landed in empty air, while Rebecca calmly walked over, bent down, grabbed the edge of the car with both hands, and with a casual flip, she overturned the incredibly heavy armored vehicle, making it roll over even more.

Placid cursed "bastard" in Haitian, nearly breaking the trigger of his shotgun—but when the bullets hit Rebecca, she simply walked forward, unfazed, and pulled him out.

Placid's tall stature was meaningless to Rebecca at this moment; she simply grabbed his arm and effortlessly subdued him in front of her.

"So you're the second-in-command of the Voodoo Gang? Oh, you must be the boss now. Why are you such a coward, hiding under the car? I thought I accidentally ran you over."

Rebecca scoffed—she didn't know why Mercer hated him, but it was clear that Mercer must have a reason for hating him, so she now hated him for no reason at all.

Placid yelled, "You bunch of bastards, where's Bridget?"

“Go to hell first and wait for you. Don’t worry, you’ll be there soon.” Rebecca unceremoniously grabbed his arm and pushed him forward.

Placid tried to struggle, but to no avail. Rebecca's hands were like iron clamps, and her strength was like that of a pushcart. No matter how much he struggled, he could not change the fact that Rebecca was pushing him toward the church.

V gestured to the surroundings.

[V: Lucy, Qiwei, can you confirm they're safe?]

[Lucy: The drones haven't detected any dangerous targets. The rest of the guys probably just want to run out of Pacific State.]

[Qiwei: We won't go over there. We'll keep an eye on things outside for you, just in case. You guys be careful too. With such a big commotion, even if the NCPD is about to be kicked out of Taiping, they can't completely ignore it.]

Mercer: It doesn't matter, it's close to Dogtown, we can just go home.

After a brief exchange, Pila, Lucy, and Qiwei stayed at a high vantage point in the distance to continue observing the situation, while the others quickly began cleaning up the battlefield.

Mann and his team already had a very professional recycling process for cleaning up the battlefield.

Ordinary, cheap junk guns are not wanted, but customized or valuable items should be taken. As for the money stored in the virtual wallets of each person's brain chip, whoever finds it keeps it as an unexpected gain.

And when picking and choosing a car, he would pick two that were valuable and in good condition to drive—even the armored vehicle that Rebecca had overturned was put back up by Mann and he drove it around happily.

The armored vehicle that Placid was riding in was a modified Tienvea Machino van, with both the interior and exterior altered. If you took it to the old captain, it could fetch at least 200,000 euros.

Jack, on the other hand, had his eye on a motorcycle. The first few Voodoo gang members who were riding motorcycles were almost blown away by Rebecca, who was passing by, before they even came to a complete stop. But one motorcycle spun around on the ground for more than ten meters before coming to a stop on the road.

This motorcycle is a Kusanagi Blade CT-3X. The original price of the motorcycle was only 2 euros, but this motorcycle has been modified a lot. The engine, exhaust, brake discs, and most importantly, Jack really loves motorcycles.

Everyone took their cars, guns, and equipment. It was a good thing Pila wasn't there, otherwise he would usually pick and choose to take back some high-priced or research-worthy prosthetics.

While they were cleaning up the battlefield, Rebecca and V had already dragged Placid back to the church.

Placid already knew that his life was nearing its end—so even though he was being held captive by Rebecca and unable to move, he still refused to back down.

"So you're A? You little coward."

As he spoke, he secretly sent Mercer a quick hacking program for synaptic melting.

Mercer was so angry he laughed. While he was electronically fighting him, he was also hacking into his network access bay. He didn't even activate brain-computer interface overclocking or synaptic acceleration. He just went head-to-head with Placid to show him the difference in their technologies.

To this end, he even restricted his brain's computing power output, just so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed by his computing power alone.

Placid's expression changed repeatedly, and in just three seconds, he screamed and began to convulse.

Mercer scoffed, "Even Bridget wouldn't dare blackmail me, you idiot, you've got some nerve."

"You bastard," Placid growled menacingly, but Mercer merely sneered, "Let him go. We'll test the strength of our machine dogs right here. Throw him that piece of junk."

"Don't you fucking try to humiliate me!" Placid roared. After being released, he tried to rush towards Mercer, but Mercer had already locked his prosthetic body's permissions. At this moment, his legs went weak, and he even had difficulty walking.

Rebecca then sent Mercer a message in a sly manner.

[Rebecca: I'm telling you, don't be too careless! What if he actually gets a gun and shoots you with a shotgun?]

[Mercer: Hmm, that makes sense. Let him come unarmed then. Hopefully, his muscles aren't just for show.]

Rebecca then took Placid's shotgun in her hand, examined it for a while, and then disdainfully twisted it into a pretzel and threw it aside.

This junk doesn't even qualify for the display gun rack on the wall of her room.

Mercer remained seated languidly on the farthest platform in the very center of the church, his octopus arm supporting him on the ground, allowing him to lean forward and rest against it.

"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. If you can beat my mechanical dog, I might consider giving you a quick death. But if you can't, then you're in big trouble."

As soon as he finished speaking, the robot dog beside him, which was in standby mode, lit up red with its eyes and lowered its body as if in a real dogfight, preparing to attack.

After Placid's prosthetic body was deactivated, he propped himself up on the ground, looked at Mercer, panting heavily, his eyes bloodshot.

This is undoubtedly a humiliation.

He wouldn't ask why, just as he would never answer the questions posed by those foot-wiping cloths. Now that he'd fallen to this state, the only thing he could do was at least die like a man.

He let out a roar like a wild beast and charged straight at Mercer.

Rebecca instinctively shifted her feet, but V calmly reached out and stopped her—even if things went wrong, she was confident she could take care of Placid before he met Mercer.

In fact, they really don't need their help.

After Placid had only taken two steps, the mechanical dog at Mercer's feet suddenly darted out, its agile body and powerful explosive force turning it into a blur in an instant.

V raised an eyebrow and said with interest, "This guy is pretty fast. His straight-line burst speed is almost half of mine."

Mercer didn't reply, just watched quietly. Placid was startled by the mechanical dog that rushed in front of him in the blink of an eye and leaped to bite his throat. He instinctively threw a punch.

The robot dog nimbly curled up in mid-air and completed a turn—its tail suddenly popped out, revealing a sharp chain blade.

Placid instinctively dodged to the side, but even so, the chain blade still sliced ​​off half of his ear and a small section of his scalp.

Mercer leaned against his octopus arm, pondering: "Aerial dynamic control needs improvement; perhaps the AI's intelligence is insufficient. I should have slashed his neck horizontally this time."

Placid was too busy to hear his words, because after the robot dog landed with its chain blades, it pounced on him again and tried to bite him.

He instinctively kicked out, but the robot dog opened its mouth and bit down hard, severing half of his foot.

Before he could feel the pain, Placid, taking advantage of the moment he bent over, swiftly pulled out the pistol hidden inside his coat, aimed it at Mercer, and pulled the trigger.

All of this took almost all of his strength; he didn't even have time to curse himself to hell when he fired the gun.

But Mercer smiled and gestured to V the instant he drew his gun, indicating that he didn't need to move. Then, almost simultaneously, he activated brain-computer interface overclocking and synaptic acceleration the moment V reached for his gun.

Time seemed to slow down incredibly in the blink of an eye.

The ferocity on Placid's face, the flames and smoke from the gun aimed at Mercer's head, and the bright orange bullets fired from the gun were all clearly visible at this moment.

dead!
Mercer could tell from the shape of his mouth, which was opening and closing but hadn't yet uttered a sound, just how much Placid wanted him dead.

But faster than the bullet was the octopus arm on his shoulder.

Even with time slowed down, the octopus arm maintained an extremely fast speed with its powerful electric drive, and then, with unparalleled precision, deflected the bullet that was flying towards Mercer in mid-air.

The gust of wind created by the octopus arm even ruffled Placid's hair, causing him to unconsciously squint slightly. Placid's finger continued to mechanically pull the trigger, while Mercer's octopus arm was already positioned across his face, waiting in the bullet's path.

His pistol bullets struck the metal of the octopus arm, making only two clanging sounds before bouncing off. This retractable bionic octopus arm itself possessed astonishingly high density, mass, and toughness of metal, with a large amount of nano-metal mixed within it.

Ordinary bullets can't even penetrate basic subcutaneous nano-armor, but this metal arm?

"Cang! Cang!"

In Placid's view, Mercer looked like he was doomed just a second ago, but the next second, his strange-looking metal arm appeared like a monster's tentacle in front of Mercer's face.

He didn't see the octopus arm until he heard the sound of the bullet being deflected.

Before he could turn his gun around, the mechanical dog had already bitten his neck. This time, Placid had no time to dodge. He was knocked to the ground by the mechanical dog's immense strength, biting his neck.

The aimless pistol was instinctively used to aim at the robotic dog, but pulling the trigger repeatedly only made the robotic dog make clanging sounds. Then, as his neck was almost completely bitten off, Placid spat out blood, trembling, unable to move anymore.

Mercer waved his hand and said meaningfully, "I haven't had a chance to experiment with what the process would be if a Soul Killer program were launched directly at an ordinary internet user from the network."

"Congratulations, Placid. You will now have access to a form of consciousness data that even Bridget never enjoyed, becoming a being similar to the AI ​​you admire."

Placid clutched his neck, spitting out more and more blood, but he could no longer utter a single word, because the Soul Killer program running in his brain-computer interface had already connected to the network and begun to operate.

His consciousness was forcibly transcoded, and for a moment it was as if he had entered a state similar to deep diving, and all the perceptions in his brain became utterly empty.

Mercer, however, merely squinted and inquired about the progress of the Morning Star.

[Morning Star: The effect is not very good. If the other party is not in a deep-sea state and there is no Relic chip to automatically convert and store its data, the amount of data we need to transmit over the network is enormous.]

Furthermore, due to the forced transcoding and transmission, the recipient's consciousness data showed obvious deficiencies and errors compared to other experimental consciousness data.

The moment his consciousness was transcoded and entered into transmission, it could almost be described as having lost its rationality.

[Mose: When those idiots from Arakasa were developing my network access pod, they wanted to copy the consciousness data of a target unit to the Divine Vehicle from thousands of miles away. Now it seems like that was just bragging.]

【Morning Star: If we look at it from the perspective of preserving a complete personality, that's true, but if Arasaka's goal is only some key memory data, rather than a complete consciousness data body.

Perhaps if we simply adjust the encoding algorithm of the Soul Killer program, we can extract as much important consciousness data as possible that we want to know.

Even with distorted consciousness data, key information can still be recovered through decryption.

Mercer pondered for a moment. Hmm, like Inception? Extracting key information from messy consciousness data? Well, for him, that thing isn't very useful.

It seems that if I want to directly control someone's complete consciousness data next time, I will still have to use it in conjunction with the Relic chip.

Mercer clicked his tongue and sighed.

It seems I'll have to try using the Relic chip to apply the Soul Killer transformation to the target's upload effect later.
[Lucy: I saw the slider; their people came in a hurry.]

Mercer: Got it.

He paused his thoughts, looked at Placid's mechanical dog, which was still tearing at him, its eyes rolled back, and which was already in its final moments, or rather, its soul had already departed some time ago, and gave it the command to standby.

The mechanical dog returned to his feet, but Mercer was not very satisfied with its combat performance—although Placid was somewhat of a gang leader, his skills were, frankly speaking, just so-so.

If he has to fight for several rounds against a guy who's unarmed, then it means his robot dog still has a lot of room for improvement.

Still have to practice.

"Isn't this guy in charge of the fighting in the Voodoo Gang? How come he's so weak in a fight?" V found it hard to assess his skill level.

Mercer shrugged and said, "He's essentially on a similar path to me. We both charge ahead and use close-range hacking combined with firearms in our fighting style."

His hacking was meaningless to us; even the ICE on your armor couldn't break through. I didn't even bother to counter-hacking him; he failed.

He was lying under the car because he had been burned by the ICE's automatic anti-hacking system, and he could only lie there to catch his breath.

"I was wondering why this guy, who looked so fierce, was hiding under the car," Rebecca muttered. "I thought I hit him too hard and made him cower."

Sasha chuckled and said, "It's not impossible, is it?"

The group chatted and laughed, while Jack and Mann stood guard at the door, keeping an eye on the forty-odd people that the slide had brought.

But to be honest, there's really no need to be wary.

Because the others were already stunned.

Corpses littered the ground, vehicles were burning, walls were smashed to pieces, and the roads were completely blocked.

Looking at the scene along the way, it didn't feel like watching a gang fight, but rather like arriving at some post-war ruins.

The ground was full of craters; these couldn't possibly have been caused by a grenade or some small firepower.

Especially a car that was crushed, with the people inside turned into mincemeat. It's unimaginable what kind of attack could crush a car and its people together.

Slide was terrified, even a little worried that Mercer's men might have been killed by the Voodoo Gang—he never expected that Mercer's small team could wipe out the entire Voodoo Gang.

At this moment, the silent corpses scattered on the ground silently proclaimed the severity of the conflict, while the eerie quiet around them clearly indicated that the battle was over.

It wasn't until Slippery saw Jack and Mann standing by the church, carrying weapons and smoking cigarettes, that Slippery couldn't help but gasp.

"Where is A?"

After he got out of the car, he asked cautiously.

“The boss is waiting for you inside.” Mann glanced at the large group of people behind him and said coldly, “You take a few people in, the rest of you go and hold off the NCPD. You need to transport Poseidon back to our base later.”

“Hmm.” Slide looked at his fleet of vehicles—he had rushed out and hadn’t brought much of a transport team, but luckily he had enough vehicles. If he disassembled the servers and left only one driver for each vehicle, he should be able to move most of them.

He looked at Jack with disbelief, then at Mann and Dorio, his voice softening involuntarily: "Plasid, where are Bridget and the others?"

"Those hackers died in the server room. Boss Placid said he wanted to use them to test the combat effectiveness of the robot dog. As for the humans, you can check for yourself whether they're alive or dead."

Mann and Jack made way for the door, and the usually lawless street thugs all looked very well-behaved at this moment.

Sliding quietly swallowed, beckoned his bodyguards to follow, and pushed open the door. What came into view was first the large cross behind the podium directly opposite the door, and then Mercer, who was sitting lazily on the podium with his octopus arm leaning against it.

Although he changed his mask into a helmet, he was the only man in the team with a normal build, so without a doubt, it must be A.

As for Placid, he lay on the ground with his eyes rolled back and bloodstains around his mouth and neck, clearly having been dead for some time.

V and Rebecca, one in white and one in black, stood casually on either side of the aisle.

Slider's breathing became heavy—Mercer, sitting on the platform before the cross, seemed to have the cross in the background shimmering with golden light.
Damn it, are you some kind of god descended from heaven?
Just looking at V and Rebecca's outfits made his palms sweat with nervousness. What on earth was this? He didn't know of any regular exoskeletons or armor like this.
Especially Rebecca's outfit, it looks like a shrunken, rounded version of Adam's Hammer, it's really fierce!

"Uh, I'm here."

The slider broke the silence, mainly because he was feeling a little uneasy in the oppressive atmosphere.

Mercer's laughter came from inside the helmet: "Haha, don't be so nervous, friend. As agreed, we've basically taken care of the Voodoo Gang's leaders and key members. Now, Taiping State is your territory."

"No, no, no, it's our territory, our territory!" Sliding corrected Mercer with a broad smile. "Once we deal with the Animal Gang, we'll be the sole rulers of Taiping Prefecture!"

"That's none of my business. I wish you success in dealing with the Savage King and his gang of big guys and becoming the boss of Taiping Prefecture. As for me, I'll just stay in Dogtown for now."

Mercer's words undoubtedly distanced him from the slider.

Slide paused for a moment, then said, "You mean you don't intend to accept the Voodoo Gang's assets?"

"So I'll have to trouble you to do the math for me, won't I?" Mercer said with a smile. "You take over the territory, take stock of the assets, and then give me 70%, and that'll settle the matter."

70%!?
Sliding Rod calmly replied, "What about other businesses, like factories or small shops?"

"I only want cash. Just convert all those things into money and give it to me. This territory, the shops, and the supply chain are all yours. I just want the money."

Mercer's words brought a bright smile to Slide's face, but it didn't last long before Mercer added, "In the future, the Voodoo Gang's market, whether it's software chips, arms retail, or cybernetic smuggling, will take 70% of it from me."

However, I'm not interested in the businesses that the voodoo gang relies on for survival; I'm happy with just 30% of the net profit.

Then we'll become your employees.

Slider tried to bargain, but Rebecca's shoulder cannon suddenly popped out, wobbling and aiming at Slider. She cried out and quickly touched her shoulder cannon: "Tank, don't panic, they're not bad guys!"

The slider immediately shut its mouth and nodded vigorously: "Okay, let's do it that way!"

Mercer then smiled: "Looks like you really know what it means to make money together. Buddy, you better remember this: I'm just too lazy to run the street businesses, that's why you guys have food to eat. If I were planning to join a gang..."

He raised his chin, gesturing for the slider to look at Placid's dead state.

"Then many people will really have nothing to eat."

Slide remembered that the last time he was so obedient, like a grandson, was when he only had a dozen or so men under his command, when he met Hansen.

But now, he adopted an even more polite attitude than he had towards Hansen, smiling and saying to Mercer, "I understand. Your Fireseed Squad is doing big things. You look down on these small-time businesses on the street, and you're not willing to cheat and swindle money from ordinary people."

Don't worry, from now on, the Fire Seed Squad will be our best and most important friends in the Voodoo Gang!
"Here's what we'll do: you keep a close eye on me with one of your trusted confidants, and I guarantee you won't miss out on a single penny! As for the market share afterwards, we'll do it your way: you provide the technology, and we'll handle the errands and store management."

Seeing that the slider was so clear-headed, Mercer nodded in satisfaction and said, "Then tell your people to dismantle the Poseidon server and move it to my base. I'm leaving now. As for the NCPD, you can find someone to stall them yourself."

Sliding Strip chuckled and shook his head, saying, "The NCPD's police station in Taiping is about to be demolished, so they don't have the energy to fight here. When it comes to gang fights, they usually wait until everyone's gone before they come, so don't worry, the stuff will definitely be delivered to you on time!"

Mercer chuckled softly, using his octopus arms to brace himself against the ground, allowing him to land smoothly as if floating. Then, the octopus arms retracted behind his back, resting on his shoulders. He stretched his shoulders and said:
"Okay, then go in through the side door and just keep walking along the road."

The slider recalled the mess on the street: "Everything except the Poseidon server."

"You can keep the messy odds and ends you clean up, but the rest, such as automated turrets, defense robots, and computer mainframes, are all assets."

After Mercer finished speaking, Slide nodded and said, "I understand. We just plan to take the prosthetics out and resell them or something."

"That's up to you."

Mercer said, looking down on these trivial matters, and led his team to leave immediately.

The sliding strip very considerately escorted him to the door, and even waved to him with a smile after he got into the car—only after the taillights of Mercer's group of cars were out of sight did he look around with a cold face.

"What the hell are you all standing there for? Go in and dismantle the Poseidon servers, then send them to the base! Hurry up, or the NCPD will come looking for trouble!"

As soon as the man finished speaking, his underling said somewhat resentfully, "Send it all away? I'm telling you, boss, it's like we're working for them. They want a cut of the market, and they want a cut of our own business too."
Do they have enough goods to supply the market?

"Why don't you go and talk to him and ask for more money?" Sliding just turned to look at him with a half-smile: "Go ahead, if you can make it work, you can be the boss in the future."

The young man looked at the street still billowing black smoke, remained silent for a moment, and then scratched his head.

The slider slapped him on the back of the head: "Idiot! Get to work! They don't have that much stock, so we'll deliver the business to their doorstep!"

The prosthetic bodies that are taken off in a while can be packaged up and sold to their base. They can then perform a simple program update and repair, and then they can be distributed to the market, right?

From now on, 70% of all the prosthetic bodies we receive will be sent to other companies. We'll just charge them the cost price; as long as we break even, that's fine!

"Then what should we eat!" another voodoo gang member asked impatiently.

The slider was speechless, rolled its eyes and said, "Take over the shops, smuggle more good stuff, sell more at a low profit margin, and keep up with the old Voodoo Gang business. You guys better stop torturing me and hurry up and move the stuff, damn it."

With a sigh, the slider turned around, looked at the church cross, and after a long while, smiled helplessly.

How could he possibly be willing to do it?
It's just that we're outmatched.

Mercer, back in Dogtown, had barely settled into his seat at the base and eaten a few steamed buns that Pila had bought when a series of emails arrived, prompting him to sigh.

[Hansen: How was today's activity? If you're feeling refreshed, come to the studio and use your brain—I'm very interested in your new invention. As my design director, how come you haven't mentioned such a big surprise before?]
I'll be waiting for you at the stadium. Don't keep me waiting too long.

Bryce: Wow, you guys are amazing! Did you get your hands on the stuff from Poseidon? I'll set up a dedicated internet line for you and send you the key. You can just send the data over.

I guess you've been quite busy lately, so I'll visit you in a few days to discuss further cooperation. Our internet monitoring team has high expectations for you.

Stott: You were the one who did the Voodoo Gang stuff, weren't you? I watched a few videos, and you think you've evolved Arasaka's exoskeleton to a new level?
The higher-ups are very interested in you. Would you like to come visit the Military Science Institute? If not, then I'll talk to you. Dogtown isn't very convenient. How about we go out for a drink? How about we go to the place where we first met, "Afterlife"?

Even someone Mercer didn't expect to receive a message from him.

[Xu Kangping: Hello, I am the general manager of Kangtao Night City branch. I got your contact information from a middleman. Would you be interested in talking about the new things you have on hand?]

We are also very interested in the data on the exoskeleton you previously sold to the Military Science Institute.

We've always been friendly and generous to our friends. Would you like to have a cup of tea together sometime?

Mercer stared at the string of emails in his inbox, and after a long while, he sighed softly.

Now, the Fire Seed Squad has finally stepped out from behind the scenes and into the spotlight.

This is a good thing.

But this also means that a broader, yet more dangerous, new world is just around the corner.

(End of this chapter)