Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 111 Interlocking
[Judy: Hey, Evelyn, are you okay?]

[Judy: I ​​heard from Moxie at the door that you got into a car and left. Where are you now?]

[Judy: Damn it! I told you not to try anything funny! You wait, I'm going to get someone to rescue you!]

[Judy: Hang in there, Evelyn, you'll be alright! I promise!]

[Evelyn: No need, I'll be back soon.]

[Judy: Evelyn!? Where are you now?]

[Evelyn: Don't worry, Judy, I'll be back soon.]

[Judy: Evelyn, answer the phone. Answer the phone, Evelyn!]

Inside the Mewtwo Studio at Ritz Bar, Judy slammed her fist on the table in anger.

Worry, fear, and unease mingled in her eyes, and the thought of running away even popped into her mind from time to time.

But in the end, she impulsively made a decision—no, she had to make sure Evelyn was safe first.

This was Evelyn's first reply to her message in two days; Judy had once thought she was dead!

Judy paced around the room for a while, and finally couldn't resist sending a message to her ex-girlfriend.

[Judy: Maiko, do you have the contact information for the Spark Squad?]

[Maiko Maeda: You seem to think a little too highly of me. Those guys are currently the most famous mercenary group in Night City. Even middlemen have to wait in line to get a job from them.]

[Judy: Please, Maiko, help me. A friend of mine has gone missing, and it might be related to the Spark Squad.]

[Maiko Maeda: I advise you not to go looking for trouble. Do you think they would tell you even if it were related? You're just asking for trouble! How could you, a Mewtwo editor, get involved with someone like that?]

[Judy: Fine, don't tell me then!]

Judy hung up the call and sat angrily in her room, staring blankly at the screen, her heart filled with regret.

I should never have helped Evelyn, or I should have tried to persuade her properly. Neither the internet police nor the mercenaries are easy to mess with. She shouldn't have gotten involved in this kind of thing!

Judy was lost, uneasy, and fearful, trying to find someone to ask about the situation, but clearly, no one could help her.

Judy didn't dare to do anything too blatant—she knew that Evelyn's matter involved many important people, and one wrong move could backfire.

It wasn't until evening that a sudden knock on the door finally woke Judy, who had been filled with fear and anxiety all day.

She warily picked up her pistol: "Who!"

"It's me! It's me! Evelyn!" The voice from the doorway made Judy excitedly take a step forward. When she opened the door, she saw Evelyn herself, looking tired, confused, and panicked.

As she stood at the door, she couldn't help but keep turning her head back to look, as if some terrifying monster was chasing after her.

"Evelyn!!" Judy hugged her tightly in surprise, but Evelyn pushed her away. After closing the door, she finally seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, revealing a haggard expression.

"What's wrong, Evelyn! Where have you been these past few days?" Judy hurriedly brought her a bottle of water, but Evelyn just found a can of ice-cold beer and gulped it down.

Then, Evelyn said in a somewhat weak tone, "Don't ask, Judy, it's the internet police. It's all the internet police pulling the strings behind the scenes."

"Internet surveillance?! Wasn't it the Fireseed Squad who asked you to meet that important person? Who exactly did you go to see?" Judy asked.

Evelyn shook her head, saying painfully, "It wasn't Team Spark, it was a trap set by the Cyber ​​Police. I... I was locked up by the Cyber ​​Police. They cut open my head and took my Mewtwo."

Footsteps, seemingly from a great distance, approached Judy's door. Evelyn, her face filled with terror, looked around frantically and quickly grabbed her hand. "We have to go, Judy, take me with you! We have to hide!"

"Calm down, Evelyn!" Judy felt a pang of heartache seeing Evelyn like this. She reached out and hugged her, saying in a deep voice, "I'm here, Evelyn. Don't be afraid, I'll protect you!"

Judy desperately wanted to know what had happened: "You need to calm down and tell me what happened first!"

"Phew," Evelyn rubbed her head, took a few more big gulps of beer, and then said in a somewhat dazed tone, "I was taken to see Arasaka Yorinobu."

"Arakasa Laira, my God!" Judy was almost paralyzed with fear.

She originally thought this matter would at most involve managers or directors of large companies, or city councilors or the like.

But now Evelyn says she saw Arasaka Yorinobu!?
"Then the Fire Seed Squad said that this was not their target, so I just completed the service as usual and got off the bus. Then the internet monitors sent me a message telling me to get back on the bus."
Then they took me away.
They took Mewtwo's recording chip from my head, and then... my God, I can't remember!"

Evelyn broke down crying, tormented by the throbbing pain in her brain and a vague sense of fear, which made her body tremble almost constantly.

"You mean, it wasn't the Fireseed team who did it?" Judy was stunned.

Evelyn cried, "Yes! Now they're asking me why I suddenly disappeared, what happened, and I don't dare answer them. They already know I've been working with the internet police behind their backs."
I'm doomed! Judy! I'm doomed! Not only do they want my money back, but they're also saying they'll make me pay. And the internet police are complete liars! They haven't given me my money, they're not going to send me to Europe, they want to kill me!

If I hadn't been lucky, I would be dead there, Judy, what should I do!

Judy felt a chill run down her spine.

In other words, this silly girl not only failed to complete the mission assigned by the Fire Seed Squad, but was also abandoned by the internet police. In fact, now both the internet police and the Fire Seed Squad want her dead!?
"How could this be? How could the Fireseed Squad have the wrong target? Could you have been tricked?" Judy asked incredulously. "Didn't you say before that this was the Fireseed Squad's mission target, and that the cyber police were just trying to steal secrets?"

"What?" Evelyn was stunned, then shook her head in anguish. "Don't joke around! Judy! We're in big trouble now!"

Did I remember wrong? That can't be!
Judy's mind was a bit of a mess, but she knew that staying in Liz was definitely dangerous, because if anyone wanted to target Evelyn, Liz would definitely be monitored.

Without a word, Judy picked up her pistol, looked at Evelyn, who was dressed in rags and covered in blood, and draped her own coat over her shoulders: "Let's go, Evelyn, let's go home first, and then I'll figure out a way to get you out of town!"

“Yes, yes! We have to run away!” Evelyn exclaimed as if waking from a dream, grabbing Judy’s hand.

Judy made a resolute decision; she couldn't let her friend die like that.

So she quickly packed her things, cautiously opened the door, and left through the back door of Liz with Evelyn.

Judy finally breathed a sigh of relief after getting into the car.

Evelyn, sitting in the passenger seat, was still anxiously looking around, while Judy comforted her, "It's okay, Evelyn, don't be afraid."

"You don't understand, Judy, you don't understand." The fear on Evelyn's face and her trembling body broke Judy's heart.

She was a kind-hearted girl who couldn't bear to see anyone so pitiful, especially her best friend, or even someone she had a romantic interest in.

Judy and her girlfriend Maeda Maiko have an on-again, off-again relationship. They often argue because of Maeda Maiko's ruthlessness in her career. Whenever that happens, the only person Judy can confide in is Evelyn.

Now, Evelyn is no longer the optimistic and composed woman she once was, but rather so fragile and vulnerable—this made Judy determined to protect her, whether it was the Internet Watch, the Spark Squad, or even Arasaka.
"Watch out!!!" Evelyn suddenly screamed.

Judy, still lost in her grief for Evelyn, only had time to turn her head before she saw a black sedan with bulletproof plates crashing into its side.

Judy's beat-up car simply couldn't withstand the full-speed impact of such a modified vehicle equipped with bulletproof armor. In an instant, the world spun around, and all Judy could see was a sea of ​​blood.

When they came to their senses, the car had been completely overturned on the ground, and a cold-faced Japanese man appeared by the car door. With just one hand, he pushed the car back from the overturned position to normal four-wheel landing.

Then, he used only one hand to forcefully pry open the passenger side door, which had been twisted and mangled from the impact.

Evelyn collapsed unconscious in her seat, her face covered in blood—she wasn't even wearing a seatbelt, and the violent impact made it seem as if she might already be dead.

"Who are you! Let her go! Bastard, let go!" Judy reached out her trembling hand, wanting to pull out a gun to deal with this bastard, but the other man just glanced at her coldly, then picked up a gun and aimed it at Judy's head.

"boom!"

"boom!"

Almost simultaneously, two gunshots rang out—one from the man's pistol, and the other from not far behind Judy's car.

Almost the instant the gunshot rang out, the man's head was hit by a bullet and bounced to the side, but then he disappeared from the spot like a ghost.

A pool of blood also splattered from Judy's chest, but fortunately—because the man had been shot in the head beforehand, causing the gun to shake, the shot did not hit her head directly.

But Judy could only cough up blood and slump on the steering wheel. The bullet that had hit her chest had almost killed her. She reached out her trembling hand, trying to wake Evelyn, who was lying on the side.

But his trembling hands could not reach her, who was slumped against the car door.

Just seconds later, Judy felt dizzy and fainted, losing consciousness.

Meanwhile, outside Judy's car, agents from the cyber surveillance network were already locked in combat with the mysterious Japanese man.

"Damn it! S.A.S.A.S.!"

"Hacking! Get him there!"

Inside the car used for cyber surveillance, four elite agents were almost powerless against the mysterious Japanese agents.

The Japanese agent who activated S.A.S ...

Of the four agents, the cyber surveillance agent who was the first to get out of the car and fire his gun, even though he also activated S.A.R.S ...

One of the other two was waving a gorilla arm, but in less than a second, the Japanese agent dislocated the arm and chopped off the head.

Of the last two remaining, one hacker was still trying to hack into him from inside the car, while the other could only activate the berserk system created by the internet surveillance system and, with Krenzikov's support, struggled to fire.

But when the bullets hit the Japanese agent, they only made a clanging sound, either being deflected by the bulletproof vest and subcutaneous armor under his suit, or being cleaved in two.

The Japanese agent, expressionless and like a shadow, passed through the bullets. Amidst the victim's screams, he first severed the victim's legs with a mantis knife. Before the victim could fall to the ground from the loss of his legs, the agent appeared from behind him, piercing his chest with two knives and cutting him in two.

In the end, only one hacker remained in the car, sweating profusely as he hacked and reported back to headquarters. The Japanese agent, however, simply stood indifferently by the car, raising his arm, his prosthetic eye gleaming.

The next moment, the high-temperature mantis knife pierced through the bulletproof steel plate and went straight into the head of the agent sitting in the back seat of the car. The high temperature carbonized his brain, killing him instantly.

The Japanese agent glanced around warily, then returned to Judy's car. Without a word, he removed the car door, pulled out the still unconscious Evelyn, and threw her into the passenger seat of his car.

Then he stepped on the gas and sped away.

A full minute later, the first to arrive at the scene were not the NCPD or the cyber police, but the girls from the Mox gang who had received a report from nearby residents and arrived immediately to see which bastard was causing trouble in their neighborhood.

But as soon as they arrived, someone exclaimed, "That's Judy's car!"

"Damn it! Go check if she's still alive!"

"He's still breathing! But he doesn't seem to be doing well!"

"Who brought the heart stimulant?!"

"Uh, all I have is adrenaline!"

"Damn it, forget about it, just use it first!"

A group of young women, cursing and swearing, quickly pulled Judy out of the car, gave her some medication, and then immediately put her back in the car, driving towards the illegal clinic—they had no money to take Judy to the hospital, and the nearest illegal clinic was their only option.

Judy was rescued, while the corpses of the cyber surveillance agents sent chills down the spines of Mox's gang: "Damn, it was cyber surveillance!"

"Forget about them, let's see if there's anything good we can take. Let their own people collect the bodies. Holy crap, who did Judy mess with? Who dares to kill a whole truckload of cyber police agents in the street?"

The Mox gang members hurriedly cleaned up the battlefield and then left.

Four minutes later, a trauma team's hovercraft landed, examined the body, shook its head, and immediately announced the account closure. Meanwhile, the internet surveillance team's support arrived even later.

When the cyber police arrived at the scene, they were met with a pile of corpses, and their faces darkened.

Oh shit
This is really troublesome!
Meanwhile, the Japanese agent who had kidnapped Evelyn was reporting to his superior.

[Oda Santao: Miss Hanako, I've captured this sex doll and am currently taking it to our secret base, but we've encountered some unexpected circumstances.]

[Hua Zi: What's going on?]

[Oda Sandayu: Internet surveillance agents have come to snatch him away—it seems the rumors might actually be true; the internet surveillance is behind this.]

[Hua Zi: Interrogate them thoroughly. I want to find out their purpose, their reasons, and exactly what they discussed with Lai Xuan.]

[Oda Santao: Understood. I will get this woman to tell me everything she knows as soon as possible.]

[Hua Zi: If necessary, the Soul Killer program can be used to crack consciousness data.]

[Oda Santao: Understood, Miss Hanako.]

[Hua Zi: Well done, no one discovered your identity, right?]

[Oda Santao: I used a disguised face mask and also blocked the camera beforehand using a program.]

[Hua Zi: Great, I'll wait for your news.]

[Oda Santayu: Yes!]

He drove his car erratically, making his way into the Santo Domingo district. In a secret garage disguised as an abandoned one, he switched vehicles before taking Evelyn to the safe house in the Kabuki district.

Back in the room, Xiaotian first checked Evelyn's condition. Realizing she had been badly injured, he even performed first aid to restore her vital signs before waking her up to begin the interrogation.

"Who are you!?" Evelyn tried in a panic to break free of her restraints, but she was tied to the chair and couldn't move.

Xiao Tian asked coldly, "Who told you to contact Lord Lai Xuan? What did you do with Lord Lai Xuan? Where did you go afterward? Why are internet police trying to arrest you?"

"You, you're one of Arasaka's people?" Evelyn was utterly desperate—in her memory, she had just escaped from the clutches of the internet police, but now she had been caught by Arasaka's people again.

"Answer!" Xiao Tian coldly took out a chip: "Unless you want to try this, I guarantee it will torment you to the point of incontinence, but your body will not suffer any harm as a result."

I will ensure your brain's health, and then repeat this process over and over again until you confess.

"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!" Evelyn gave a bitter laugh and slumped into the chair in despair. This time, even she herself had given up struggling.

Seeing this, Oda's expression remained cold: "Answer the question from before!"

"It was the internet police who installed a Super Dream recording program into my brain-computer interface. I don't know their purpose. I only know that after I left Lai Xuan's place, they arrested me."

Then they exported the recording I made of Mewtwo, and then they tampered with my brain. I escaped when they weren't looking, and then you caught me.

That's it. I don't know anything else. I'm just a small pawn that's been used and then discarded.

Evelyn's words only elicited a cold laugh from Oda: "Don't think I don't know. You met with that group of Fireseed Squad members a while ago. To tell you the truth, we've been keeping an eye on them for a while now."

He pretended to insert the chip into Evelyn's head, and Evelyn screamed, "I'm telling the truth! The Fireseed Squad is looking for me because they want to negotiate with a big shot through me."

I don't know what we're talking about, or who the target is, but I swear, it's not with Lai Xuan! Xiao Tian ruthlessly inserted the chip and then started the torture program. Evelyn quickly screamed and cried in pain, but no matter how she asked, the answer was always the same.

Oda could tell that Evelyn wasn't lying, which made him somewhat disappointed—it seemed that what he had caught was indeed just a pawn.

"How did you escape?" This was all Xiaotian was curious about now. Just how incompetent was the internet surveillance system to allow a sex doll to sneak out on its own?

"They locked me in a safe house, and after extracting my Mewtwo data, only one man was responsible for guarding me. I... I seduced him."

Evelyn cried as she recounted every detail, including the other person's name and physical characteristics.

Oda took out her laptop, logged into Arasaka's intelligence network, and found that there was indeed a cyber police agent whose file was kept by Arasaka that matched her description.

He glanced at Evelyn, whose face was now haggard and who was practically on the verge of collapse, and shook his head inwardly.

This woman is indeed quite beautiful. If it were one of those European guys who have absolutely no sense of honor, they might actually lose control of their groin—ha!
While Oda expressed his disdain for his European colleagues, he also felt that he was unlikely to be able to extract any more information from Evelyn.

But this doesn't mean Evelyn has lost her usefulness.

After some thought, Oda made a decision—to secretly send her to Japan first, then hand her over to Miss Hanako to use the Soul Killer program to retrieve her consciousness data, and finally see if she was still of any use.

If she's useless, she'll most likely be thrown into the divine carriage and become part of the consciousness data within.

The Arasaka currently stores a large amount of consciousness data, not out of kindness, but as part of their plan to modify and utilize this consciousness data after conquering the Relic chip.

They might be used in some modified warrior program, or converted into practical AI; in any case, it wouldn't end well.

Looking at Evelyn, who was crying pitifully in front of him, Xiaotian shook his head and decided to stop tormenting her.

After getting up, he went straight to Evelyn's side, injected her with a strong sedative, and put her into a deep sleep. Then he immediately began contacting his contact to prepare to take Evelyn back to Japan.

At the same time, Xiaotian also sent a message to Huazi, telling her that it was all a conspiracy by the internet police.

Just as Xiaotian obtained Evelyn and thought he had caught the internet censors red-handed.

The internet monitoring system itself has also fallen into chaos.

While everyone was shifting blame and shirking responsibility, they all felt immense pressure because Evelyn had been captured by Arasaka's people.

They knew exactly what Mercer had done—the Fireseed team had definitely figured out their 'hitchhiking' plan.

But why would Mercer throw Evelyn out alive?
The internet regulators don't think it's because he's soft-hearted.

Without much discussion, everyone guessed Mercer's intention—this bastard wanted to shift the blame for meeting with Lai Xuan onto their internet monitoring team.

Unfortunately, they had already learned through Ultraman that Mercer had contacted Lai Xuan for his own purposes and that he was in cahoots with them!
As long as they still want to cooperate with Ultraman, they can't ruin Mercer's plans; they can only grit their teeth and bear the blame.

However, it is clear that Mercer and the Internet Supervisor have completely different interests. If Mercer were to cooperate with Lai Xuan alone and take out the data body of the Silver Hand, how could the Internet Supervisor negotiate cooperation with Ultraman?

At this time, the resentment of the internet surveillance agent, Brest, was the strongest.

At the meeting, Bryce showed almost no respect for his colleagues, openly criticizing them: "I've said it before, we can achieve a mutually beneficial situation with the Fireseed team through peaceful and friendly cooperation."

But now? Because of what some colleagues say, "We must keep the progress of things in our own hands," the Fire Seed Team has now started refusing to communicate with us.

And Arasaka must have known about our internet surveillance plan and our secret contact with Lai Xuan.

Not only that, we've also lost four excellent colleagues—who's going to take responsibility for this?!

"Agent Brest! You need to get this straight, we are cyber surveillance, not some gang of thugs! We don't need to negotiate with a bunch of mercenaries, let alone expect them to share our technology!"
The internet police never share our advanced technology with anyone! Especially not with those guys, who are incredibly skilled counterfeiters! They're also a bunch of street thugs who have no moral compass when it comes to money!
Look at what has become of Arasaka's exoskeleton project; the person in charge of the project has been suspended!
Do you also want our technology to be leaked and sold to military science or Arasaka?

Another senior agent argued vehemently.

Bryce slammed his fist on the table and demanded, "So what do you suggest we do now? They're refusing to cooperate. Do you want us to take action now and kill them all, or capture them?"
If you have the ability, then go ahead and try. I want to see if you bunch of self-important guys can actually do it!
This is Night City! Not Europe! Not even New America! How many agents do we have here? We can't even legally drive an armored vehicle on the street! How are you going to deal with those guys that even military intelligence agents can't take down?

"His server is connected to Night City's internet. We can pool our resources and bring in a dedicated internet line from Europe to teach him a lesson! While he's deep in the night, we can lock him onto the internet and force them to surrender!"

Someone offered suggestions.

Some people expressed concern: "Given the other party's technology and server capabilities, it will be difficult for us to lock him online like we would with ordinary hackers. And let's not forget our agreement with Ultraman."

"If Ultraman finds out that those guys have already reached a cooperation agreement with Lai Xuan, and we're secretly hindering it."

When Ultraman was mentioned, everyone fell silent.

After exchanging bewildered glances for a long time, the European representative finally tapped the table and said in a deep voice, "Bryce, what conditions have they put forward for allowing us to rejoin the game?"

We cannot lose the support of Ultraman; it concerns the future of our internet surveillance! Even the future of humanity!

“He didn’t say anything, he just expressed his anger and told us to go eat shit and wait until he’s in a better mood before talking to us again.” Bryce said helplessly, shrugging his shoulders: “I guess if we want to get back on the bus, we’d better be prepared to bleed a lot.”

The European representative sighed, pondered for a moment, and then made a decision: "We need to talk to Otto and wait for news. No matter how powerful the Fire Seed Squad is, they're just a bunch of mercenaries."

Ultraman needs more than just Silver Hand's consciousness data; he needs the Divine Vehicle—we still have a chance to get ahead of them.

Moreover, I really can't understand what they talked about with Lai Xuan that made him willing to take such a huge risk to deliver the Silver Hand chip to them.

What bargaining chips do they have left?

Everyone fell into deep thought.

In fact, this is what the internet regulators are really curious about—they are internet regulators, and if they were to negotiate a cooperation with Lai Xuan, they are confident that they could persuade him.

But the Fire Seed Squad consists of just a few street mercenaries. What makes them think they can negotiate a cooperation with Lai Xuan?
The internet monitors had initially been confident that Mercer would eventually come to them and ask them to help them increase their bargaining power in persuading Lai Xuan, but it seems that Mercer doesn't need them at all!
This was completely unexpected by the internet regulators.

Ultimately, the entire meeting ended unhappily after the European representative decided to talk to Ott.

While the internet regulators and Arasaka were busy running around in circles, completely confused about the situation.

Mercer, however, was busy with something else unrelated to him, but equally important to him.

"The drug analysis results are in. Well, let's put it this way, the biotechnology company is quite generous. A box of medicine that costs 500 euros to produce is only sold to you for 6,800 euros a box, which is just over 11 times the price."

Mercer looked at the results displayed on the analyzer, then at Panan beside him, who was wearing a thick protective suit, complete with a mask and goggles. He shrugged and gave his reply.

Panan's face contorted with rage: "Those bastards! They poisoned us and then made ten times the money off a single box of medicine? How dare they!"

Mercer, however, stated directly: "This is true for most of the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, most biotechnology drugs cost more than ten times their production cost, and advanced, highly effective drugs are generally priced more than a hundred times higher. In drug development, raw material costs are only the lowest step."

However, I have already cracked their drug's ingredients using their machines, if you intend to produce it yourselves.”

Mercer thought for a moment and said, "I stole a drug synthesis machine from the biotechnology department last time. Its daily output is quite high, which should be enough to meet your needs."

The raw materials aren't anything rare. Even if we can't buy them directly, we can extract them from some commercially available drugs. If we use the smuggling routes through Zougou Town, we can buy enough for your year's use in one go, and it's not expensive.”

Upon hearing this, Panan excitedly reached out and grabbed his arm, shaking it: "Really! Mercer! Just tell me how much you want, as long as it's not too expensive, and everyone can afford it!"

Mercer curled his lips into a smile and shook his head, saying, "But this thing only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. If it drags on, you'll still die. Biotechnology hasn't actually created a specific antidote for you. This is just a temporary fix to buy time."

"What do we do now?!" Panan was truly panicked: "There are about sixty or seventy infected people in the Red Ochre tribe, and more than a dozen people in Adcardo have been quarantined!"

"I need to carefully analyze the virus samples before I can try to develop an antidote for you. But to be honest, as you can see, it's quite a struggle for me to even set up a sterile room here."

Mercer sighed. "I need time, and probably quite a while, Parnan."

"Damn it." Panan paced back and forth in frustration, finally turning to look at him with a pitiful expression: "Mercer, what should we do?"

Mercer remained silent for a moment, then suddenly turned to look at her and said, “If we want to speed up drug development, I need some specialized equipment and a professional chemistry lab, but right now I’m practically locked up by Hansen, so we have to resort to some drastic measures.”

“How do we do it!” Panan looked at him.

Mercer offered a solution that shocked Parnan: "We'll poison the entire Dogtown."

"Are you kidding me?!" Panan was so startled that he took a step back.

Mercer coldly replied, "No one cares about the lives of the Adka people, nor do they care about the lives of the Red Ochre tribe."

But there must be someone who cares deeply about the life or death of the Ghost Hound, and who desperately needs an antidote.

Mercer turned to look at Panan and said, "Do you know what I mean?"

“But… how are we any different from biotechnology then!” Panan objected vehemently. “No way! Mercer, we can’t do this! Only bastards would do something like that!”

Mercer remained somewhat indifferent: "What's wrong with that? Hansen has discovered that the Ghost Hounds have a viral outbreak, and he will definitely find a way to solve it."

As his only reliable technical expert, I can not only use his money to research the antidote for free, but also accumulate reputation among the Netherhounds.

Innocent people will be cured by the antidote.

Hansen's die-hard followers, however, will be more severely infected and die before the cure is available—after which I can unite you all.”

"Enough, Mercer!" Panan's expression was tinged with sadness, but he couldn't hide his anger. "How could you become like this? You would never have thought of such a cruel method before! I... I can't accept this!"

Mercer sighed, then turned to look at her: "Then you can only pray that I can develop an antidote when many people in Adca are also severely infected and have nowhere to turn for medical help."

Right now, I can only supply you with relatively inexpensive drugs to buy time, at least hoping that you can all live until the day an antidote is developed.

“What about biotechnology? They’re the ones behind this. We can’t let them get away with this.” Panan was rendered speechless by Mercer’s mocking smile before he could finish speaking.

Yes, if biotechnology were willing to take responsibility, why would Panan have come to Mercer?

Mercer said bluntly, "I guess they probably prepared for a city-wide epidemic as soon as they discovered that the virus you were infected with was contagious."

The effective drugs and antidotes must be on the development schedule—they're just waiting for another epidemic to break out in Night City so they can take the opportunity to reap the rewards.

The water poisoning incident happened a long time ago, and the levels of toxins detected in the water are not high.

I suspect they deliberately stopped your free medication now, just in preparation, waiting for you pathogens to spread the virus.”

Mercer has already identified the problem with this virus from monitoring and experimental data: "This virus is not highly contagious in its mild stages, but it can be transmitted through the air if it enters a severe stage."

Simply put, you can understand it as follows: if you continue to take medication to suppress your symptoms, your infectivity is very low; however, if you stop taking the medication, your infectivity will increase exponentially.
It's not that I want to develop biological weapons, but the people at the biotechnology company probably see this accident as another opportunity to make a fortune.
"Believe it or not, even if I immediately develop a cure and solve your problems, Night City will suddenly be hit by an infectious disease of unknown origin, and then biotechnology will rush to release a drug and make a fortune."

Mercer scoffed, “Decades ago, Night City was hit by bird flu, and we haven’t had a single piece of chicken since. What about this time? Maybe some synthetic meat or beef. It’s the same old trick, Panan.”

Panan lowered his head in frustration, but then looked at Mercer and said seriously, "We absolutely cannot let the infectious disease start spreading ourselves. Mercer, I know you're not that kind of bad person, so... please don't say things like that anymore, okay?"

Mercer looked at Panan, and after a long pause, nodded: "I understand, Panan. Go disinfect yourself, change your clothes, and go out first. I'll look into it some more."

With mixed feelings, Panan walked out of the virus lab that Mercer had temporarily converted. Following the instructions of the Morning Star, he carried out a strict disinfection procedure before changing into his own clothes and leaving the makeshift disinfection room.

Take the elevator to the living room, where only Mann and his wife are watching TV, while V is busy in the kitchen.

"What's wrong? Didn't you get it sorted out?" V looked at her with some concern—this carefree girl was quite to her liking, and even though she had only known Panan for a short time, she felt an instant connection with her.

Panan sighed: "No, at least the temporary medication problem, Mercer said he can solve it."

"Why do you look so worried?" V asked with concern. "Is there some other trouble?"

"Mercer predicted that this virus would eventually become a new infectious disease in Night City, just like the bird flu that Night City had experienced before."

Panan said sullenly, "And for the time being, Mercer has no cure. He can only imitate their special medicine to alleviate the symptoms."

"Uh, is this virus dangerous?" V asked curiously.

“I’ve seen the videos that the person who sent me the red ochre treatment—when the illness reaches a severe stage, the body temperature fluctuates, there is coughing up blood, coma, and even ulceration on some parts of the body, blindness, hearing problems, and difficulty breathing.”

Panan shuddered: "He was like a piece of rotting flesh, I'm not exaggerating, that's really how it was, bleeding and rotting all over."

This sent a chill down everyone's spine.

"Holy crap. Where did this thing come from?" V said in disbelief. "Didn't they say on TV that biotechnology had solved the poisoning problem?"

I saw that they also tested the water source near the Red Ochre tribe, and the readings are starting to return to normal.

"To hell with biotechnology! Yes, the toxins in the water are less, but all those weird viruses they released have mutated in the human body!"
Mercer said this mutation has altered the original structure of the virus, so a new vaccine must be developed.

Panan sighed sadly.

V thought for a moment and then smiled optimistically: "Don't worry, Mercer is really smart! There's nothing he can't do if he wants to do it!"
At first, he said he would get me a cool exoskeleton armor set from Arasaka, and I thought he was just talking nonsense. But in just a few months, I got a beautiful Falcon armor set.

The same goes for your antidote; if he says he can develop it, it's only a matter of time.

But V still had some concerns – the threat from Arasaka was imminent, and Hansen’s fear of Mercer was growing day by day. Did he really have the time and energy to deal with all of this while also developing an antidote?

Panan nodded, and finally got up and walked to the kitchen to lend V a hand, helping her prepare the ingredients.

V coughed and said, "Um, have you finished cleaning?"

"Don't worry, I smell like disinfectant all over right now. Qimingxing is watching me. You guys are really something. That AI is just like those old AIs that roam around on the internet that I've heard about. It's frighteningly intelligent."

Panan smiled, then fell silent. After a long while, he couldn't contain himself and asked her in a low voice, "I say, has Mercer changed a lot lately?"

V was taken aback, and turned to look at her in confusion: "Why do you say that?"

Panan hesitated, but still voiced his question: "Do you know what Mercer just said? He said that if we want to develop an antidote faster and save costs, he wants to poison Dogtown directly."

He said this would also allow him to use the virus to eliminate a group of Hansen's die-hard supporters and build his own reputation. I simply can't believe he would say something like that.

V was silent for a moment upon hearing this, but in the end, he just smiled and said, "An enemy is an enemy. Killing them with bullets is no different from killing them with a virus."
Mercer has just been under a lot of pressure lately, but believe me, he hasn't changed. He's just been dealing with too much and getting a little anxious.

She first offered an explanation for Mercer, then tried to smooth things over a couple more times, and finally, V said with a smile, "Oh dear, I guess he was just saying it offhand."

Panan could only nod and sigh, "Night City... Now I finally understand why the old folks in Adcardo hate coming to the city so much. It's a big dye vat; even the best people get tainted here."
I remember when he first came; he was just a kid back then.

They chatted idly, but V's mind had already wandered off to something else entirely.

Mercer said he was going to poison Dogtown?
This incident startled not only Parnam, but even V.

Because this is indeed not something Mercer would say.

What's wrong with him?
(End of this chapter)