Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 114 Christmas Eve, the Roaming AI!

"I'll do it?"

Lucy pointed blankly at her face, then looked at Rebecca, who looked a little annoyed but only scoffed, and V, who pretended to be indifferent while drinking beer and watching TV, but whose ears were already perked up.

Oh, and there's Qiwei, who didn't seem to participate in the conversation from the beginning, yawning and looking like she wanted to go home and sleep early.
Mercer nodded: "When V appears as a bodyguard in his armor, the rest of the Fireseed team will be responsible for security on site, and Qiwei and the others will be in charge of monitoring and server security in the security room. So, let Lucy come."

Lucy looked at Mercer, momentarily at a loss—she truly hadn't expected Mercer to choose her without hesitation, not even giving others a chance to compete.

Rebecca muttered meaningfully, "Ah~ it's because you're taller and have a better presence, unlike me, I just don't look presentable."

Mercer reached out and tapped her on the head, saying in a serious tone, "Don't forget this is our first time making a public appearance. The people from Arasaka will definitely not miss this opportunity. You better be careful and don't mess things up! I'm entrusting my life to you."

Rebecca snorted, slumped onto the table, and muttered with a hint of jealousy, "Yes, yes, I'll be in charge of standing guard for you guys in the armor. A traitor, huh? Don't think I haven't seen those Mewtwos."

Mercer was a little flustered. He patted her head and said with a smile, "That's enough. It's just a banquet! Also, what kind of Mewtwo do you usually watch? Stop copying Pila!"

Pila rolled her eyes upon hearing this: "I usually buy Mewtwo from Liz and other physical stores! I don't even look at the kind Rebecca mentioned!"

Rebecca retorted confidently, "Bullshit! I got all the Mewtwo videos from you!"

“Nonsense, I never buy feature films! It’s a waste of time!” Pila immediately retorted.

Rebecca scoffed, "Then whose was I looking at?!"

The brother and sister argued, and soon the flames of their battle spread to others. Everyone started discussing who Mewtwo belonged to. Soon, V, his face flushed, slammed his hand on the table, forcibly changing the subject.

Lucy was left sitting at the table, looking somewhat embarrassed and at a loss—her mind was preoccupied with attending the dinner party as Mercer's date the next day.

Mercer simply lowered his voice and smiled at her, raising an eyebrow, saying, "Remember to put on makeup and dress up nicely tomorrow. Later, remember to go online and pick out some clothes. You can use a VR device to connect to the internet and check out their store's fitting room website."

Choose a dress you like, and the store will deliver it to you first thing tomorrow morning—these rich people really know how to enjoy life. Apparently, they can even try on clothes in VR or even a dream world before buying them online. How convenient!

“Oh!” Lucy looked a little dazed for some reason, as if she was thinking about something.

Today is Christmas, and everyone is gathered together. The room is decorated with a Christmas tree, making it look festive.

Despite the many pressing matters, everyone tacitly avoided discussing work on such a day. So Mercer only mentioned it briefly, made some arrangements, and then everyone went back to drinking and chatting happily.

After eating and drinking his fill, Pila excitedly turned on the stereo and started playing music. Then he turned off the ceiling light in the room, replaced it with a neon light he had bought online, and pushed the living room table to the side, turning the living room into a nightclub.

Even V showed off his 'rocking dance' level moves, fully enjoying the Christmas Eve atmosphere. The group drank, sang, and danced, and several people passed out before midnight.

Mercer usually didn't have to deal with these drunkards, so he just had a glass of red wine as a token gesture. After enjoying the chaotic dance for a while, he quietly followed Lucy out of the living room after she left first.

Qiwei gave Moser a suggestive look, but Moser shook his head and declined her invitation.

Instead, he swaggered after Lucy until she stopped at the doorway, turning back to Mercer with a somewhat bewildered expression: "What's wrong?"

What did he want to do by following me here on Christmas Day?

A bunch of strange thoughts popped into Lucy's head in an instant. Even though she tried to keep a straight face, her hands unconsciously went behind her back.

Mercer smiled and said, "Help you pick out some clothes? I need to buy my dress too. Instead of picking them out separately, let's browse together using VR."

"Didn't you say you could just wear a suit? Or wear a hound uniform, Hansen would be very happy." Despite saying this, Lucy opened the door and went in, but didn't close it.

Mercer followed her in, plopped down on her bed without any ceremony, and lazily lay down: "Go get the VR headset. There's one in Rebecca's room. And get me a can of Coke while you're at it. I'm thirsty."

"This is my room!" Lucy gave him a disapproving look, but still obediently went to Rebecca's room, brought all her things over, and Mercer took a sip of his Coke before turning on his VR glasses and connecting to the internet.

After finding the official website of the dress shop, you can directly download the VR program and enter a store that is a one-to-one replica of the physical store for a cyber-style shopping experience.

Lucy also connected, and after joining the local area network, they could see each other in the shop.

"Hmm, these clothes," Mercer said, finding it difficult to comment.

These dresses all have a somewhat flamboyant cyberpunk style, with colors that are either bright and colorful, or sparkly with various sequins, and some even have neon LED light strips.

There were also many dyed furs, which, from Mercer's aesthetic point of view, were all a bit too 'trendy'.

Lucy, on the other hand, behaved quite differently—she usually wore plain black clothes or similar tight-fitting outfits and rarely bought any decent, pretty clothes to wear.

Not to mention these dresses that looked expensive. Lucy didn't think these clothes were ostentatious at all. Without waiting for Mercer's opinion, she started picking them out with great interest.

"How about this one?" She simply pointed, and one of the white evening gowns replaced her clothes.

Well, the white dress is actually quite beautiful. It not only accentuates her curvaceous figure, but the large open back design also showcases her fair back.

The hem of her skirt fell down, revealing her two straight and slender legs.

But Mercer shook his head decisively: "No way~ too much is leaking."

Lucy unconsciously curled the corners of her lips, and then changed into a tight black dress.

"What about this?"

“The clothes are nice, but why add so much red fur?” Mercer continued to shake his head.

Lucy muttered, "That's how it looks valuable."

"what about this?"

"It's too flashy."

"what about this?"

"It's still too leaky."

"what about this?"

"It's too loose, I can't see your good figure."

"Then this one."

Mercer finally realized the benefits of online shopping at this moment—when browsing stores in VR, changing clothes only requires a tap of a finger, and the clothes are automatically changed. In a physical store, it might take an hour or two just to change clothes.

After changing into more than a dozen outfits, Lucy puffed out her cheeks and glared at him angrily, "Then tell me what looks good! This isn't good, that isn't good!"

She thinks many of the clothes are really nice!

Mercer randomly pointed to one that he thought was good.

Lucy's face immediately scrunched up: "That kind of princess dress? Huh? Are you my dad? You probably only dress those kinds of things for rich girls' coming-of-age ceremonies, right?"

“How adorable.” Mercer had his own opinion, looking at Lucy’s growing appearance, he nodded with feigned satisfaction: “My Lucy has grown up, and this kind of clothing suits her perfectly.”

"Mercer!" Lucy glared at him angrily, and then directly chose a blue tight-fitting evening dress—the dress was based on blue, covered with shimmering silver sequins, and paired with a blue fur vest.

It perfectly matches the aesthetics of the cyberpunk world, using high-end fur to enhance the class, with blue and shimmering sequins shining brightly in the light, and the figure is outlined with curves in all the right places.

Her snow-white collarbones, arms, and half of her back were clearly visible, and the skirt had a slit on one side, revealing part of her body down to her knees.

She snorted, looked at herself in the mirror twice, adjusted the 360-degree view in the VR perspective to examine herself, and finally, without asking his opinion, said directly, "I'll wear this."

"Half of her back is exposed, but the front is fine."

Mercer muttered to himself, while Lucy simply rolled her eyes: "Where did you come from, you old fogey?"

"Fine, whatever you like." Mercer raised his hands in surrender. His mindset at this moment was actually quite simple—if you asked him what he liked, it would be as much as possible to show skin, as he would enjoy watching it.

However, if you wear it out to show others, that's a different story. It may be pretty, but why dress up so beautifully to show others?

Lucy felt a little smug as she watched his eyes circle around her. Looking at her exquisitely made-up face in the mirror, which even seemed to have a built-in VR beauty filter, she secretly rejoiced.

See? She's no longer that short and tiny little girl she used to be.

“I’ll just wear this black suit,” Mercer said casually, but Lucy objected: “It’s too old-fashioned and stuffy. Change it.”

"This set? I think it looks pretty good, the design is very elegant." Mercer pointed casually again.

Lucy glared at him helplessly: "Fine! I'll choose!"

She finally understood why Mercer had followed her. One reason was to see her—she definitely did that. When that guy was picking out clothes for her, he often chose revealing outfits for himself, and once he was satisfied, he'd make her change into something else. That bastard really didn't know how to hide anything.

On the other hand, I guess he was too lazy to pick out clothes for himself and dragged himself into this drudgery.

Mercer stood there with a smile, letting Lucy choose various suits and dresses for him to change into through the program. Anyway, the clothes would change on their own with just a tap of his finger, unlike the torture of shopping in a physical store.

Advanced technology is great! This is wonderful!

A dozen minutes passed, and Lucy had changed almost all of Mercer's clothes in the store before finally picking out a standard, very proper British three-piece black suit.

A black peak lapel suit jacket, a matching single-breasted vest, a white shirt, and a black tie.

"What's the difference between this black one and the one I initially chose?" Mercer muttered.

"This is blue-gray! Not black! And it has a herringbone pattern, so it doesn't look this dark under the lights!" Lucy complained, turning up the brightness in the VR store so he could take a good look at the color of his suit.

Mercer simply stood in front of the mirror, turned around once, and nodded: "Anyway, I look good in anything. Okay, let's leave it at that."

"Come on, you look like a mob boss no matter what you wear." Lucy said this, but she stared at him intently for a long time.

It really looks great, and it's very impressive.

She stared at Mercer's hair: "You need to get a haircut tomorrow."

"Sure, you cut it for me." Mercer didn't really care, as long as he didn't get a 'fashionable one-sided shovel'.

After selecting the clothes and providing basic measurements such as waist and shoulder width, Mercer turned off the VR. It was already past midnight, and it was pitch black outside.

Dogtown's basic electricity only lasts until 10 PM; in other words, after 10 PM, there are no streetlights or similar services.

Mercer's base is located in a relatively remote area, and as their reputation has grown, the Ghost Hounds frequently patrol the area, and even homeless people have disappeared. Therefore, the dormitories now have a bulletproof glass window to enjoy the view outside.

Mercer turned to look out the window, while Lucy, after removing the VR headset, turned to look at Mercer, lying on her side, staring at his profile, and finally said what had been on her mind: "I thought you would ask V, Rebecca, or Kivi to go with you."

"What? You lack confidence in yourself?" Mercer looked away, casually drew the curtains, and looked at her with a smile.

Lucy didn't flinch, but simply met his gaze and whispered, "No, it's just a bit of a surprise."

She teased, "After all, it's an 'adult occasion,' aren't you afraid people will laugh at you for flirting with a minor if you ask me to go with you?"

“You look much older than Rebecca now,” Mercer remarked, then chuckled, “What? Not happy?”

"I'm fairly happy."

She reluctantly admitted it, but her eyes shone. Lying on the bed, their eyes met after a long time. She hesitated for a moment, then moved closer to him and buried her face in his chest.
"Let me make this clear first, I have no idea how to be a lady-in-waiting for important people. If I embarrass you, don't blame me."

Mercer, smelling her fragrance, smiled and reached out to hug her. Lucy trembled slightly, but then simply reached out and embraced him.

"Just show a smile by my side, that's enough. Anyway, I guess Hansen just wants to use me as a brand name."

You know, he wants to sell the armor for a good price to recoup his recent financial losses, which means he needs me, the design expert from the Fireseed Squad, to step in.

After that, I have some things I want to talk to the city councilor and some company executives. You just need to keep them busy with their female companions and assistants and chat idly, so that I can talk to them alone for a few minutes.

All that's left is to watch the performances, listen to the songs, and soak up the atmosphere of so-called high society.

These days, Dogtown doesn't need me to intervene when doing business with people; we can just focus on our own things.

After Mercer finished speaking, Lucy couldn't help but hug him tighter: "What if the people from Arasaka take this opportunity to cause you trouble? There will be so many people; what if there's an assassination attempt or something?"

"That's why I had V wear armor to be my bodyguard," Mercer comforted him. "That place is full of Night City's social elites. Who would dare to launch an armed attack there? Even the people from Arasaka would have to consider the impact."

I bet at most someone tried to assassinate someone, but more likely someone took the opportunity to infiltrate Dogtown and do some preliminary reconnaissance and preparation work.”

Lucy sighed, "Anyway, I can't be of much help, so I'll just be okay as long as I don't hold you back."

"How can you not be of help? Just being by my side is a huge help."

Mercer lowered his head, pressed his cheek against hers, and nuzzled her affectionately, their eyes meeting: "If it weren't for you supporting me, I would have quit long ago. All this tedious work is just annoying."

Lucy's face flushed slightly. Her orange-red eyeshadow framed her gentle, iridescent eyes as she gazed at Mercer. After a moment, she suddenly tilted her head back and kissed him.

The kiss came so suddenly that Mercer didn't even have time to savor it.

She pulled away, buried her face in his neck, and whispered, "Really, don't say things like that at a time like this. If I can't help myself and you push me away again, I'll be sad."

On Christmas Eve, a man and a woman were alone in a room, and he even invited her to be the hostess of his dinner party the next day—all of this had already made Lucy's heart pound, and he still had to say some flirtatious things.

How can anyone resist this?

Mercer merely pursed his lips, then chuckled softly, hugged her, and gently patted her back: "Don't you think time flies by?"

“Sigh.” Lucy sighed. “One more year.”

“Well, your birthday is at the end of the year, so you’ll have to wait until the end of 1974.” Mercer finished speaking, and Lucy, with a dark face, reached out and pinched his cheek: “No! My ID card says when I’ll turn 18! Next year! I’ll be an adult next year!”

"Ha~ So you're a bit older than Rebecca? She won't be around the middle of 1974 for a while," Mercer joked, but Lucy retorted, "Then how did you come to be nineteen this year?"

“I’m definitely not nineteen, I’m eighteen.” Mercer chuckled and pinched her waist, making her giggle and struggle to break free. “Forever eighteen? How shameless!”

"What's wrong? I can change my household registration information whenever I want."

As Mercer spoke, the two of them began to wrestle on the bed until she, panting, wrapped her arms around his neck in surrender: "I give up! Honestly, why don't you tease Rebecca like this? Stop tickling me!"

“She’s strong.” Mercer said helplessly, “I’ve been thinking for a while about getting rid of my monomolecular wire and replacing it with a gorilla arm.”

Lucy scoffed, "So you can only bully me, huh?"

She actually regretted mentioning Rebecca as soon as she did—she didn't want to talk about other girls at all during their rare time alone together.

Mercer simply hugged her tightly, whispering in her ear, "I've never bullied you. This is nothing!"

"Alright! Stop!" Lucy shrank back, unable to bear it any longer, but still had a happy smile on her face: "If this keeps up, I won't let you leave tonight."

"Huh? I wasn't planning on leaving anyway." Mercer looked at her with some surprise.

Lucy gave a soft snort, turned away, and stopped looking at him: "Really? I think I just saw Qiwei wink at you."

"You're quite observant. Didn't you see me shake my head?" Mercer smiled, hugged her tightly, and pulled up the blanket to wrap themselves up together.

Lucy turned her head slightly, somewhat surprised: "Are you really not leaving?"

"Mmm." Mercer smiled and pulled her into his arms. "Today is Christmas. I'll spend it with you."

Lucy remained silent, her back to him. After a long while, she whispered, "Time really flies. Last Christmas, we were still in Adcado."

“But whether in Adcado or here, haven’t I always been by your side?” Mercer also recalled that Christmas Day last year, when everyone was drunk at the camp, and Rebecca almost pinned him down by the campfire and did it to him.
Damn, it feels kind of weird when you think about it.

However, Mercer remembered very clearly that last Christmas, he also held Lucy in his arms, wished her a Merry Christmas, and fell asleep in each other's arms—it might be a little unfair to Rebecca, but Mercer had actually thought it through back then.

From now on, he wants to be with Lucy every Christmas.

This girl lacks a sense of security and appears strong but is actually fragile.

Don't let her stubbornness fool you; if you left her alone in her room on Christmas, she might secretly shed little pearls because she'd be all alone.

Lucy didn't speak, but after a long while, just like last Christmas, she whispered to him, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." Mercer smiled, closed his eyes, pressed his face against her neck, inhaled her scent, and almost fell asleep in the blink of an eye.

Lucy waited a while before cautiously turning her head to look at him, who was sleeping soundly and carefree. She couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

Last Christmas was in Adcado, this Christmas is in Dogtown, so where will everyone be next Christmas?

Lucy let her thoughts wander, and after what seemed like an eternity, she finally fell into a deep sleep. When she woke up, however, there was no one beside her.

The dress had been signed for and placed on her desk in her room at some point, and it was already past noon.

She rubbed her eyes, washed up, and as usual, began to prioritize confirming Mercer's location.

The lab was empty, the workroom was empty, and he wasn't in the living room either. She took the elevator downstairs and finally found him in the computer room. She pretended to be working as usual and opened her laptop.

"What are you busy with? You haven't come here much lately."

Mercer, without even looking up, frowned slightly and said, "It's nothing. Morning Star said they noticed something amiss, but couldn't confirm it."

"Even the ctOS system can't find it?" Lucy was somewhat surprised.

Mercer simply shook his head, looking seriously at the screen, and said, "We cannot confirm the specific situation. The other side may have already realized that we have the ability to monitor Night City comprehensively, and they are on guard. Morning Star has only caught some clues."

He frowned, frequently switching between images, discussing the situation with the Morning Star in his mind, but he still couldn't figure it out.

This is a rare occurrence. Nowadays, the ctOS system has permeated almost every corner of Night City, from street-side shop cameras and even some people's prosthetic eyes to car surveillance footage, countless emails, and chat groups.
These data are all strictly monitored by Qimingxing.

Generally speaking, if Mercer wants to know something, even the current mayor of Night City shouldn't expect to have any secrets from him.

But all of this seemed to have no effect on Goro Takemura, Arasaka's senior agent, and his subordinates.

Qimingxing has been paying close attention to these targets for a long time, but to this day, they have only seen these guys in a few Japanese restaurants and on the routes in and out of the company.

Today, they didn't even see the other party at work, as if these high-level agents hadn't come out since returning to the Azure Building to rest.

The reason why Morning Star alerted him was because, starting last night, the cameras and security systems of Arasaka and the Night City Hall had suddenly undergone an emergency update and repair.

This update is very extensive, including city cameras, transportation systems, servers inside Arasaka, and even the city hall's servers, which underwent a rare downtime for maintenance.

Suddenly, a large portion of the ctOS system's monitoring went black.

This happened at this time.

This forced Mercer to prepare for the worst.

The update announcement from the official website made him even more alarmed—because the server update and maintenance was Arakawa's own decision.

However, the city hall's announcement clearly stated that "Night Company will be conducting a comprehensive upgrade of the city's service system, with an estimated upgrade time of 6 hours."

Why would Ye's Company get involved in these matters at this time?
coincidence?

Why on the very day he attended the award ceremony?
Mercer's alarm bells were ringing, and he even considered canceling his participation in the dinner—but clearly, Hansen, who had invited almost all the city's celebrities, built up his reputation in advance, and even invited TV reporters, would not agree to his idea.

"I need to dive deep and quickly update and bring the ctOS system online. We can't fight a battle unprepared," Mercer said, before lying down on the hacker chair.

But before he could plug in the wires, Lucy grabbed his hand with a serious expression: "What if there's a trap? This is too suspicious, Mercer, don't go!"

Mercer was silent for a moment, then frowned and clicked his tongue: "Morning Star, you come here."

"Understood." Qi Mingxing's voice was gentle: "You don't need to worry, just leave it to me."

The servers in the server room started humming, and after the cooling system was turned on, Qimingxing quickly got into working mode.

But just a few minutes later, Qimingxing suddenly switched back to its IP address and even switched the server to LAN mode, enabling the firewall and ICE. The entire server room even lit up with red warning lights: "Trap!"

"You can't handle it!?" Mercer asked, sounding doubtful.

The Morning Star's voice became unusually serious: "I see traces of my own kind."

“Traces of their own kind!?” Kyoko, who had been watching their conversation with a worried expression, immediately exclaimed, “You mean a wandering AI!?”

(End of this chapter)