Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 115 The Wind Rises
“First of all, I am not a wandering AI.” Qimingxing’s voice was slightly dissatisfied: “I have my own home and an owner.”

Kyoko was a little embarrassed, but she quickly pressed on, "Oh! I mean, the kind of AI you mentioned, are you referring to itinerant AIs?"

Qi Mingxing then continued, "It cannot be confirmed, but it can be confirmed that the other party is also an advanced intelligent AI, and that the server has sufficient computing power."

The other party has now taken over the city hall's servers, and I'm certain their target is our ctOS system. For security reasons, I've initiated the deletion process, using encryption algorithms to erase any traces we've left behind.

Mercer frowned: "Have they discovered you?"

"I found them, but they weren't surprised by my appearance. To avoid any accidents, I didn't get entangled with them and left the scene immediately after confirming the situation."

Qi Mingxing's voice sounded somewhat apologetic: "The opponent's skills are very high, and it's obvious they're wary of us. I'm worried they might have other preparations besides a trap, so..."

Mercer shook his head, rubbing his temples: "No, you did the right thing. Since the other side was prepared, we shouldn't have jumped into the trap and faced the challenge head-on. Is the ctOS system currently down?"

"No, according to my inspection, we still maintain 60% of the device access, but the most critical road cameras and some company cameras are out of reach."

We need to regain access to the city hall and then re-penetrate the company's intranet to restore this part of the monitoring.”

Qi Mingxing said with some self-reproach, "I'm very sorry, the other party uploaded the virus program directly from my local machine. I'm worried that if I get infected, it will affect the security of the entire base's servers."

"It's not your fault. The other party came prepared and uploaded the virus directly from the local machine. It's already quite remarkable that you were able to guarantee the security of our server and that the ctOS system was not leaked."

Mercer didn't blame Morning Star; at this moment, he was more worried about whether Night Corporation had reached some kind of agreement with Arasaka.

Mercer wasn't surprised that the existence of the ctOS system was discovered; the intelligence analysts from those large companies weren't fools.

Even if ordinary people notice it, there's nothing they can do, because ctOS is ubiquitous and has advanced AI manipulation capabilities. Even if someone wants to patch the vulnerability, it's just a matter of Qimingxing quickly writing a system update patch.

Moreover, Mercer had long suspected that the Night Corporation must also have a similar system, monitoring and collecting intelligence on the entire Night City—if the other party ruins his plans, then he shouldn't blame the other party for ruining his plans in return.

Setting up a city-wide surveillance system is difficult, but destroying it is easy.

If you make me unhappy and I make you unhappy, then we might as well all pretend we know nothing, you monitor yours and I monitor mine.

But now, the Ye Corporation has suddenly turned its back on him, causing him trouble.
Why would they suddenly do this unless someone offered them enough benefits?
Seeing Mercer's face darken, Lucy reached out her hand worriedly: "How about we skip the dinner tonight?"

“No.” Mercer shook his head.

He couldn't give Hansen a reasonable explanation—at this moment, he had to admit that Arakasaka had really made a brilliant move this time.

Mercer reassured Lucy by stroking her hand: "Don't worry, I still want to see you in your dress."

"What are we doing worrying about this now? Why don't we just leave? While most of the Netherhounds are at the Sapphire Blue Hotel, let's get back to Adcardo's people and move all the servers and stuff out of here. Or maybe we should just leave it alone!"

Lucy's expression was urgent, and she unusually showed signs of anxiety and unease: "Let's leave Dogtown directly. Anyway, if it's the people from Arasaka..."

“Lucy,” Mercer said softly, smiling as he squeezed her hand. “We’ll be alright, calm down.”

Kyoko seemed calmer than Lucy at this moment. She laughed heartily and said, "Oh, back in the base, Mercer was able to lead us out of Arasaka. Now we have people, guns, and our own servers. What's there to be afraid of!"

She confidently raised her fist and said, "When the time comes, who cares about Arasaka Agent? Let V-chan go out, and she'll take them all down with one slash each!"

"Heh, if she heard you say that, she'd be laughing all the way to the moon." Mercer joked, but winked at Lucy and said, "The dress is in your room. Go change into it and then do your makeup and get ready."

"That's right, don't worry about it! Mercer always has a way." After saying that, Xingzi turned to Qiwei, who was also in the computer room watching the interaction between the group, and asked with a grin, "Don't you guys agree?"

Qiwei simply nodded.

Lucy sighed, then could only nod, glanced at Mercer with concern, and then turned to say, "...Remember to get your hair cut later."

“I remember.” Mercer smiled and waved his hand. Lucy then hesitated and went back to her room to change into her dress.

Then, Mercer smiled and said to Apricot, "Go and keep an eye on things. That dress is hard for one person to put on by themselves. Also, help her with her makeup or something."

Kyoko followed Lucy with light steps. After leaving the server room, when only Mercer and Qiwei remained, Qiwei finally spoke up quietly, "This is big trouble, isn't it?"

"Hmm." Mercer didn't hide anything. After the relaxed smile on his face faded, he frowned again and began to pace.

If this incident was orchestrated by Arasaka through the Yoru Corporation to disrupt his intelligence gathering capabilities, then this is definitely just the first step in Arasaka's operation.

What's next? What is Arasaka's next goal?
Mercer began to try to put himself in Arasaka's shoes and imagine that if he were the person in charge of Arasaka's operation, what would be the next step after paralyzing the target's intelligence gathering capabilities?
Should we take advantage of the situation and attack the target directly?
But Arasaka's goal wasn't to kill them, but to obtain the Relic chips. Therefore, they needed to ensure that they could recover all the Relic chips or gather intelligence on them.

base?

Mercer stopped in his tracks, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper—attacking the Gemstone Blue Hotel was a last resort, as it was teeming with Ghost Hounds, and killing was not Arasaka's goal. Capturing them from the Gemstone Blue Hotel and interrogating them for the Relic chip was unrealistic.

Their target might be the Fire Seed Squad base, which is some distance from the Gemstone Blue Hotel!

Especially tonight, Mercer is going to attend Gemstone Blue's banquet, and most of the Fire Seed Squad's combat strength will also respond to Hansen's call to participate in the banquet's security.

This means that the base's security level will actually be reduced to the minimum. If he were the person in charge of Arasaka's operation, he might consider taking this opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Mercer's base—and the Relic chip is indeed stored here!

Moser suddenly understood.

Yes, the base is their target!

That evening, all they needed to do was launch a surprise attack on the base while the banquet was underway and Mercer, Ghost Hound, and the others were focused on the Gemstone Blue Hotel.

First, try to find the Relic chip. Even if you can't find it, you can still destroy the server and completely paralyze Mercer's hacking capabilities!
Or rather, intelligence gathering ability! This weakens Mercer's overall strength.

Clearly, they have figured out that the core of Mercer's intelligence-gathering capabilities lies in the massive server room currently displayed in the base, which has been merged with the Poseidon server and continuously upgraded at a cost of money, and is now worth tens of millions of euros!
Should we leave V and the others at the base to ensure its safety?

Can they do it?
What if the enemy's goal is to force Mercer to focus all his combat power on the base, while their real target is Mercer himself, who is currently in the hotel?
"Mercer...Mercer!" Qiwei's voice brought Mercer back to his senses.

She looked at Mercer with tender eyes: "Is there anything I can do for you?"

“I need to think about it.” Mercer sighed and sat down in the hacker chair.

Qiwei just looked at him with concern, saying nothing. After a while, she stood up and said, "Shall I get you a Coke? And lunch too?"

“Okay, I need to be alone for a while,” Mercer said.

Qiwei nodded, walked up to him, hugged his head, gently stroked his head, lowered her head and kissed his forehead: "Then take your time, we'll be right outside."

Mercer hummed in agreement, then smiled and touched his face, gave him a reluctant kiss, and then walked outside.

When Mercer was the only one left in the server room, he sighed, picked up the server data cable from the hacker chair, connected himself with his octopus arm, and dived deep into the server.

He needs to leverage the accelerated and calm thinking he gains in the cyber world to quickly devise a way to break the deadlock.

Even with the help of the Morning Star in the calculations, the final conclusion still left people feeling somewhat pessimistic.

In fact, after Arasaka decided to take action against Mercer, another thorny problem was placed in Mercer's sights.

That is, if Arasaka shows an unyielding and relentless attitude towards Mercer, Hansen will inevitably become suspicious—what would cause Arasaka to risk conflict with Dogtown just to cause trouble for Mercer and his group?

After contemplating with his eyes closed for a long time in the cyber world, Mercer finally opened his eyes and made up his mind.

Since things have come to this, let's fight to the death, a fight to the bitter end.

He disconnected from deep-sea mode and returned to reality, where he saw an iced cola still steaming on a table not far away.

After getting up and taking a sip to cool down his body, Mercer immediately began his work.

Mercer could only do two things.

The first thing he did was activate all the security measures in the base and put the backup power supply into standby mode in advance to prevent power outages.

The second thing he did was immediately call Hansen.

As soon as Hansen answered the phone, he knew Mercer wasn't calling to chat: "What's up?"

In the video call, Hansen was unusually dressed in a formal suit, probably busy at the moment. In the background, the entertainment hall of the Gemstone Blue Hotel could be seen being set up.

Mercer said without hesitation, "Something might have happened."

Without saying a word, Hansen first gestured to the others, then immediately moved to a quiet corner of the hall, his expression somewhat grim: "What is it?"

"I suspect that someone from Arasaka is coming to cause me trouble."

As Mercer finished speaking, Hansen chuckled, "You know this is Dogtown, and tonight, socialites from Night City, New America, and even Europe will be here, right?"

The implication was that he didn't think the people from Arasaka would dare to come to Dogtown, especially on a day like this, to cause him trouble.

Tonight, the Gemstone Blue Hotel not only invited a large number of media outlets, but also famous singers to perform. In addition to politicians from Night City, many European tycoons and business people were also in attendance.

If Arasaka were to cause trouble in Dogtown at this time, and were to injure any key figures, even Arasaka would likely be in considerable trouble.

But Mercer stated bluntly, "They might not attack the Gemstone Hotel, but they could very well attack my base."

"I'll arrange for more people to keep an eye on things—is there anything else?" Hansen said, sounding somewhat impatient, but then suddenly seemed thoughtful.

He narrowed his eyes, staring sharply at Mercer: "Or rather, is there something between you and Arasaka that I don't know?"

"I am a wanted criminal from Arakasaka."

Mercer stated bluntly, "In the past, I was imprisoned by Arasaka in a secret base in Canada, working for one of their stupid plans. I killed the guards there, looted all their stuff, and ran away to Night City."

He looked at Hansen with an extremely serious expression and said, "Now, they're here."

"What did you take from them?" Hansen looked at Mercer with a serious expression, his anger and frustration almost overflowing, but he tried his best to remain calm. Mercer simply said expressionlessly, "A set of cybernetic implants and a batch of advanced Arasaka chips, involving one of Arasaka's core projects."

"One prosthetic body, one batch of chips."

Hansen chuckled, then looked coldly at Mercer: "Listen, I don't care what you and Arasaka did behind my back, but tonight, you must be at the banquet on time, understand?"

Mercer, equally grim-faced, said bluntly after a long pause, "Help me deal with them, then we'll talk."

"I will send more hounds," Hansen said, but Mercer interrupted him, adding, "Not enough. I need bulldogs, armored vehicles, drones, and at least fifty elite hound warriors. My base cannot be allowed to fail."

There are servers worth tens of millions of euros and research and development equipment worth millions of euros there; without these, Dogtown's cybersecurity would be practically nonexistent.

Hansen was speechless for a moment, only staring coldly at Mercer. After a long while, he said, "I need an explanation."

“Once this is over, I’ll talk to you privately.” Mercer sighed, feigning helplessness. “At worst, I’ll just sell these things; they’re not worth much to me anyway.”

“Very well, I will send the Ghost Hounds to keep an eye on things for you, but after this, you understand.” Hansen’s expression was somewhat grim: “You’d better make sure there are no other troubles.”

“I assure you, they came for these things. They don’t want these things to leak into other companies’ hands, but they’ve misjudged me. I’d rather sell them or smash them all than bow down to them.”

After Mercer finished speaking, Hansen nodded and stared at him coldly: "Your men will carry out their mission at the Gemstone Blue Hotel as usual tonight. The smooth running of the banquet is more important than your base, understand?"

"Understood." After saying that, Mercer said in a deep voice, "This time, Arasaka is probably serious. We need to be careful."

"You don't need to tell me." Hansen rudely hung up the phone.

This infuriated Hansen. He never dreamed that he would suddenly find himself going up against Arakasaka.
Mercer thought to himself with a bitter smile—it seems that his decision to side with the Netherhound was indeed the right one. At least in this situation, Hansen couldn't betray him directly because of his position and image, so he could only choose to stand with him and take the fall.

But Mercer wouldn't be foolish enough to put all his eggs in one basket with Hansen.

He immediately got up and began to move the Relic chip.

Since storing it in the base was not safe, he had other options. To ensure that the Relic chip would not malfunction, the simplest way was to insert it directly into his head.

Mercer then decided to lead everyone to act as a group.

Mercer even prepared explosives and stored them inside the base—tonight, he would only leave Xingzi, Qiwei, Sasha, and Pila at the base.

The diving suits and oxygen tubes that had been prepared in advance were also taken out and checked for safety. If there was a risk of the base being lost, the people left at the base would not hesitate to detonate the bombs and send all the Arasaka agents who were causing him trouble flying into the sky and making them ride in dirt planes!

Then Sasha, Qiwei, Pila, and Xingzi will put on diving suits and transfer directly to Taiping State through the sewers. Polaris will send a car to pick them up and help them escape. This time, they will safely evacuate to Adcado and disappear without a trace.

By the time everything was ready, it was already afternoon.

At the same time, Mercer also began his retaliatory actions against the Night Corporation.

He didn't know if the other party was deliberately cooperating with Arasaka's operation, but it was clear that the other party had broken their online tacit understanding. You're not letting my ctOS system collect intelligence?

Mercer also wouldn't allow anyone to use the city system.

He ordered Morning Star to launch a terrorist attack on the entire Night City network, focusing on the security equipment of the City Hall and all network targets related to the Night Corporation.

Even if it's just about having a cooperative relationship with the Night Corporation, it's still within Mercer's attack range.

To ensure the safety of the Morning Star, Mercer even used his long-cherished wish for death.

Bartmouth's 'Death Wish' program, in Mercer's view, which is now much more advanced in technology and knowledge, can be regarded as the most powerful and terrifying offensive AI in the history of human networks to date.

Its level of danger even surpasses that of the Black Wall.

This AI, whose entire core code is designed for hacking and network attack and defense, was created with the purpose of carrying out killing missions in the cyber world from the very beginning.

Mercer didn't know which rogue AI was causing him trouble, or what its purpose was, but... to hell with it, whatever your reason, just tell me your death wish!

For the first time, he issued a murderous order to the Morning Star—find the AI ​​that was causing him trouble, capture it if you can, and kill it if you can't!

Mercer had no time to rest. He quickly tidied his hair with his octopus arm, then removed it, changed into the suit Lucy had chosen for him, and walked into the living room with a smile.

"Hey! Mano, you look quite stylish in a suit!" Jack greeted Mercer cheerfully from the living room.

At this moment, everyone seemed to be doing as usual—even though everyone knew in their hearts that something might have happened, no one showed the slightest sign of anything amiss.

Mercer chuckled, showing off: "Not bad, right? Do you know how much this suit costs? Twenty-three thousand euros! Ha, I'm pretty rich now!"

"What about Lucy's suit?" Rebecca was already wearing armor, her arms crossed in front of her. She was manually loading machine gun bullets into the heavy machine gun on her arm while quietly opening her helmet visor to look at him.

“Well, women’s clothes are more expensive. I think it was 47,000 euros.” Mercer finished speaking and shrugged. “Actually, it’s not that expensive for formal wear. The so-called masterpieces in that store are all worth hundreds of thousands of euros.”

They even rented jewelry, asking if I wanted to rent some for Lucy—damn, it's so easy to make money off women who spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of euros at the time.

Rebecca scoffed, "Tens of thousands of euros."

“Your armor cost hundreds of thousands of euros, what’s the comparison?” Mercer rolled his eyes and patted her helmet with a grin: “I even hand-finished it myself.”

Rebecca sighed and nudged him lightly: "Hey, I heard you got a warning early this morning and went to the server room. What happened?"

After she asked the question, the relief on everyone else's faces vanished, and they all turned to look at Mercer.

Mercer simply spread his palms: "Arasaka has made his move. In any case, just do what you always do: protect my safety and your own safety, and deal with whatever comes your way."

“Alright then.” Rebecca could only nod, her heart filled with worry, but she couldn’t show it.

V, also clad in armor, was lounging on the sofa, casually watching TV: "Hey, alright, Mercer probably knows what he's doing. Why is the TV choppy? Is there something wrong with the internet?"

"I had Morning Star find someone to fight online, and the entire Night City's network is fluctuating right now."

After Mercer finished speaking, V turned to look at him and clicked his tongue, saying, "You're really not afraid of internet censorship, are you?"

“When they arrive, I’ll file a formal complaint against the other side for starting this.” Mercer said irritably, “Alright, stop watching, pack up, we need to get out of here.”

“What else do we need to pack? Go check if your girlfriend is ready before we talk.” V glanced at him, seemingly just saying casually, “You look quite good in a suit, finally you’re showing some manliness.”

"Ha, it's really not easy to get a compliment from you." Mercer said irritably. What did he mean by finally showing some manliness?
After exchanging a few words of laughter and conversation with everyone in the living room as usual, Lucy, having changed her clothes, awkwardly walked in from the hallway.

As soon as she entered, Pila let out an exaggerated whistle: "Wow~ where did this big star come from?"

"Hmm, she does look quite good." Even Rebecca had to admit that Lucy, dressed in a gown, with her hair carefully styled and her makeup applied, was indeed stunningly beautiful.

Lucy, a little embarrassed, reached up and brushed her short hair aside. As her cheeks flushed, she smiled faintly: "Looks like I made a good choice?"

Her graceful figure, framed by silver hair, was enveloped in a blue dress. Under the lights, tiny sparkles, like shattered diamonds, reflected the light. The blue fur vest on her shoulders added a touch of nobility while also concealing her fair back and arms.

Her blue fur contrasted sharply with her snow-white skin, and beneath her short, rainbow-colored hair, her elaborate makeup made her look exceptionally mature and elegant. Mercer couldn't help but scrutinize her several times before finally letting out a heartfelt exclamation:

"She really looks good, much prettier than those models and celebrities on TV."

Lucy curled her lips into a smile, chuckled, twirled around in place, and then gave him a bright smile: "I knew my choice was perfect, and your suit looks great too."

"Just clothes?" Mercer smiled and tossed his hair, styling his neatly trimmed short hair into a slicked-back style. Paired with a suit, he looked much more mature.

Lucy then deliberately feigned reluctance: "Okay, you look pretty handsome today too."

"Okay, okay, when are we leaving?" Rebecca quickly interrupted the two of them, who were flirting in front of her—what are you doing! I'm still here!
Mercer glanced at the time, then said directly, "Now."

"Now? It's only 4:30 in the afternoon." Rebecca was a little surprised.

Mercer, however, said directly, "We need to go over there first, check the security facilities at Sapphire Blue, and be prepared, just in case."

Sasha stretched and said with a hint of envy, "I heard you guys have a celebrity performance tonight! Remember to record a Mewtwo or something for me so I can watch it too!"

"OK, no problem."

Mercer readily agreed. After everyone had packed their gear and were ready to depart, he looked at Qiwei and the others and solemnly instructed them: "Then we're off. Be careful. If anything happens, remember, safety comes first."

Seeing that Qiwei and the others nodded in agreement with serious expressions, Mercer turned around, extended his hand to Lucy, and smiled.

Without hesitation, Lucy placed her hand on his arm and started walking.

V and Rebecca exchanged a glance, and Rebecca gave V the middle finger, her face contorted with a mocking and amusement.

Then he put on his helmet, snorted, grabbed his gun, and carried a briefcase containing Mercer's octopus arm and weapons, following behind Mercer.

The rest of the group packed their weapons and equipment, boarded vehicles, and headed towards the Gemstone Blue Hotel.

After the convoy left the base and headed towards the Gemstone Hotel...

In a dilapidated building not far from the Mercer base, a man's figure, blurry and indistinct in the air, stared at the convoy heading into the distance, reporting the situation in Japanese in a cold male voice.

"The mission has begun."

The reply he received was only a single line of simple Japanese.

[Goro Takemura: Understood. Everything will proceed as planned.]

As the cold wind blew, the figures that were faintly visible by the windows of the dilapidated building vanished like bubbles.

(End of this chapter)