Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 127 The Death or Life of Hansen
Hansen is seriously ill.

At some point, everyone noticed that Colonel Hansen, who was always energetic and imposing, suddenly looked somewhat weak.

Sometimes, people would even see him covering his head in full view of everyone, looking dazed.

As his illness worsened, the time he spent recuperating each week increased, and the work that was originally his responsibility was gradually handed over to the people of the Netherhound.

In this atmosphere, Mercer gradually stepped into the limelight—he began to frequently represent Hansen at various banquets and meetings, took over Hansen's network of contacts, and was responsible for the final negotiations of most of the business deals.

Gago, who was originally just the financial director, was also promoted to an important position as Mercer's assistant, helping him manage some time-wasting interpersonal relationships.

Of course, those clients who thought they were maintaining contact with Mercer didn't know that most of the time, it was not Mercer himself who was handling their social obligations and conducting business negotiations, but rather Morning Star.

The anticipated problems or decline in Dogtown's business due to Hansen's serious illness did not materialize.

As Mercer gradually gained real power and his rule became more stable, the Hound of the Underworld immediately began a comprehensive systemic optimization.

Some treacherous underworld dogs disappeared without a trace, while some originally powerful figures were marginalized through repeated transfers and personnel changes.

Instead, the members of the Spark Squad rightfully took up key positions, and with the change of power, a new team was formed.

Secondly, the entire operating system of Dogtown has also been fully optimized.

Mercer fixed the bug where airdrops would frequently appear in strange locations. He wrote and built a brand new navigation and signal receiving system, creating a new smart tower for Dogtown.

All airdrops were deployed in an orderly manner to the transformed stadium airdrop platform under the management of an intelligent system.

As for security, it has been greatly improved thanks to more cameras, more robot patrols, and the work of more professional Ghosthound security personnel.

The original Dogtown followed the rules of Dogtown. As long as you did not violate the rules of the Ghost Dogs, you were not breaking the law.

Now, Mercer has also included some common violent crimes in its jurisdiction.

Cases including the distribution of illegal drugs, murder, and robbery have been effectively suppressed and dared not even show their faces under the ubiquitous surveillance of cameras and robots.

Once a case occurs, or even if it's just a camera being deliberately damaged, the Ghost Hound will immediately appear with a robot to forcibly detain the perpetrator—Mercer doesn't have the money to support a group of criminals, so his methods of modification are extremely brutal.

For minor offenses, the first offense may result in the option of paying a fine to obtain bail, while repeat offenders will be subject to compulsory labor detention.

Serious offenders are generally not given a way out; once discovered, they are usually eliminated on the spot.

Of course, those who committed crimes in Night City and ran in don't count. Mercer is only responsible for arresting people who commit crimes in Dogville and has no interest in cleaning up the mess for the NCPD.

These criminals are actually a major source of manpower for Dogtown. Many people run to Dogtown, but they have no jobs and dare not go out. Dogtown has very strict crime control, so they have no choice but to sign a contract to join the Ghost Hounds.

Their banditry will be quickly eradicated under the militarized management of the Netherhounds. Those born villains who repeatedly fail to correct their ways will be quickly identified, dismissed for breach of contract, and fined.

Mercer was relatively merciful; he wouldn't dismantle them and sell them for parts if they were broke, but he would force them to work until they paid off their debts before kicking them out.

In Night City, Mercer's actions were truly those of a philanthropist—he only asked them to work to pay off the debt, and they actually did pay it off, instead of exploiting them for free for a lifetime or selling them for money.

Even some villains who have been taking refuge in Dogtown for a long time and do not join the Ghost Hounds will spend money in Dogtown, promoting the town's economic development. In return, the Ghost Hounds will collect monthly rent, water and electricity fees, and property fees (protection fees) from all buildings in Dogtown.

Mercer also expanded the scope of management over Dogtown's buildings. The sight of a group of lazy homeless people occupying abandoned buildings has become very rare. Mercer has included all buildings in the scope of rectification and control.

They also strictly controlled Dogtown's energy system, including electricity, internet, and running water.

Improving the streetscape of Dogtown and providing a stable water and electricity network are also crucial for attracting investment and residents.

Anyway, there are plenty of dilapidated buildings in Taiping Prefecture. These homeless people who only know how to do drugs and commit crimes should just get out of Dogtown and find somewhere else to lie down.

Mercer doesn't refuse to let those who are still able to work find a proper job. The number of Ghost Hounds is never enough, and for some jobs, it is obviously much cheaper to have people do them than to use robots.

These subtle changes may not seem obvious, but they have actually greatly improved and enhanced the standard of living in Dogtown.

At least those slum dwellers, after paying the Ghost Dogs, don't have to worry about being bullied anymore. If they are bullied, they can ask the Ghost Dogs to handle it according to the law.

After paying the water and electricity bills, the more stable water and electricity supply, although slightly increasing the cost, is still better than frequent power and water outages.

Anyway, these things always cost money before, but now that there are separate water and electricity meters, it's actually easier to save on costs.

Dogtown remains the same welcoming dogtown, but some subtle changes are very real.

This has led many of Hansen's original supporters to change their mindset. Perhaps this young man with real power has indeed brought many positive changes to Dogtown.

For the original collaborators, the new successor actually seems easier to deal with than Hansen.

Gago was good at pretending to be a nice guy, used to being a hypocrite like a corporate dog, while Mercer never liked wasting time on haggling. Morning Star could always find a price that satisfied both parties, and it was extremely efficient.

After a period of effort, and with Hansen's 'intentional' relinquishment, the power in Dogtown was finally transferred relatively smoothly.

Unfortunately, although Mercer believed the power transition was not yet complete and many of his business partners still trusted Hansen's reputation more, time was running out.

In fact, Mercer's attempt to alter Hansen's consciousness was quite unsuccessful.

Compared to Evelyn, who only altered a memory, the difficulty of modifying Hansen's memory—from subconsciousness to memory and then to something that could be described as emotional manipulation—is far too great.

In less than three months, Mercer even had to modify Hansen's memories nearly five times, resetting Hansen to the state he was in during the first modification.

On one or two occasions, Hansen almost exposed something was wrong in public, but fortunately, the Morning Star monitored his brainwaves in time and made him 'fail' in time, so that no major trouble occurred.

But as the number of modifications increased, Hansen's consciousness gradually became overwhelmed. After the last modification of his consciousness ended, when Hansen remained silent with his eyes open, Mercer already knew that Hansen's last bit of value had been squeezed dry.

So Mercer began preparing for Hansen's funeral.

It's time for this man named Hansen to reach the end of his life.

September 29, 2074, the Spark Squad base.

Hansen lay vacantly in the hacker chair.

His head and body were covered in data cables. Although his eyes were open, the data and lines displayed on the instruments next to him were as still as those of a dead man.

“He can’t hold on any longer.” Lucy, who was standing to the side, only glanced at the data and came to the conclusion: “It seems that repeatedly modifying consciousness data may even lead to brain death. Mercer, the Soul Killer program, is far more dangerous than we imagined.”

"Could it be due to a mismatch between the consciousness data and the information recorded in the brain?" Mercer pondered.

Lucy merely frowned slightly: "But it's not like there's absolutely no reaction yet."

Mercer looked at Hansen, who showed no reaction, and tested him a few more times, but Hansen had almost completely stopped responding to the outside world.

"Let's dive in and take a look; the data didn't look that bad when we made the changes."

As Mercer spoke, he casually inserted a connecting wire into himself using his octopus arm.

Lucy hesitated for a moment, then held out her hand: "I'll go in with you."

"You want to go deep-sea diving? That's quite rare. Okay, let's go together."

Mercer smiled and used his hand to open the cover on the back of her head, then plugged in the wire for her as well.

Lucy's psychological trauma persisted; for her, deep diving was an extremely dangerous activity, and she preferred to spend more time working on the computer unless absolutely necessary.

Mercer didn't wait for Lucy. Instead, he plugged in the wires for her and then dived directly into cyberspace.

This time, when he saw Hansen's consciousness data, he couldn't help but sigh.

Looking at Hansen's consciousness data, which had been repaired with backup data just ten minutes ago, large sections of garbled text appeared again.

At this moment, in the cyber world, Hansen could only mutter to himself, "No, this isn't right."

If the consciousness of an ordinary person is a constantly changing and flowing data stream on the surface, but the core data inside is a stable kernel, then Hansen at this moment is a complete mess inside and out.

Code kept turning red, characters jumped around and became garbled text, sometimes returning to normal, sometimes suddenly showing an error.

Mercer had almost never seen such a broken consciousness data in a human being.

Lucy, who was standing nearby, logged on—she looked at Hansen, who was constantly getting error messages and muttering to himself, and wondered to herself, "The data errors seem to follow a certain pattern?"

"I suspect there's a conflict in his memory data. I'll try to fix it."

Mercer retrieved Hansen's consciousness data from the server backup again, but this time, no matter how he filled it in, Hansen's consciousness would collapse again after a brief period of stability.

Suddenly, Hansen turned his head, looked at Mercer, and roared, "It's you!"

He lunged at Mercer, but despite being only a few steps away, no matter how much he flailed his arms, he couldn't reach him.

It didn't even get close by the slightest bit.

Mercer calmly watched his actions, observing the changes in the data: "Oh? The data has actually stabilized quite a bit."

"You're toying with my memories! You're toying with my soul! Aren't you?!" Hansen's face, which was still relatively clear, was now blurred with mosaics.

Mercer, while observing the records, calmly said, "Do you know what happened?"

"I don't know! But I know something's wrong! Something's definitely wrong! It must be because of you! Because of you!!"

Hansen's voice echoed in cyberspace, but his data quickly became chaotic again. His face was contorted as he stared at Mercer, his eyes seeming to devour him.

Mercer remained calm and unwavering, asking directly, "Colonel Hansen, calm down, let's talk."

"I'm going to kill you! Kill you!" Hansen was still roaring a second ago.

The next moment, however, he suddenly burst into tears, saying sadly, "I'm not a deserter, this isn't my fault."

The grief didn't last long before anger resurfaced on his face, but this time his gaze wasn't directed at Mercer, but at the void: "Damn it, why did you betray me? Why did you retreat? We succeeded! The plan was a success! You're the deserters!" Mercer stared at him for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know where things went wrong. Even if we try to repair him using his original consciousness data, he'll quickly collapse again."

"Shall we proceed with the next experiment?" Lucy looked at the frenzied Hansen, her brows furrowing even more, and hesitated before asking, "The consciousness transfer and overwriting experiment with the .relic chip?"

"Let me study it some more, at least try to figure out why this problem occurs. Maybe it's subconscious data?"
During repeated brainwashing sessions, the subconscious data was not cleared, causing this sense of incongruity to accumulate and ultimately directly affecting the complete conscious data body.

Lucy watched as Mercer, once again in a way she couldn't understand, simply stared at Hansen and entered a state of research and analysis. After a moment of silence, she said softly, "So what is your purpose in studying consciousness data like this?"

"What?" Mercer said without looking up, "Of course, it's to avoid potential risks later."

"So, you're finally going to try uploading your entire consciousness?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.

Mercer calmly replied, "There are no plans for permanent uploading at the moment, but we do have the idea of ​​completely digitizing consciousness through a connection."

"Why?" Lucy asked defensively. "Nobody knows if uploading consciousness data like this, even if nothing is changed and it's sent back offline, will cause irreversible damage to the person."
Mercer, even Ultraman failed back then and couldn't come back, becoming an AI instead.

"Ultraman's failure was, to be precise, due to a lack of time. The Arasaka nuclear explosion was imminent, and her massive consciousness data was simply not in time to fully retrieve all the data, forcing Spider Murphy to disperse her data across the network."

Afterwards, rather than saying that Ultraman's consciousness data was retrieved, it would be more accurate to say that Spider Murphy used a large number of Ultraman fragments to synthesize an Ultraman.

This is why she's acting somewhat strangely now, and why many people believe she has completely become a wandering AI.

In fact, after Ultraman was first digitized by Arasaka's consciousness and uploaded to the Kamikoshi, she completed the process of autonomously returning to consciousness entirely on her own, relying solely on the Soul Killer program.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, as long as no data is modified and the connection is not disconnected during consciousness transmission, no accident will occur.

After Mercer finished speaking, Lucy couldn't help but ask, "What exactly did Ultraman tell you? You've been researching these things ever since that day."

Mercer was silent for a moment, then turned to look at her. After a long pause, he suddenly said, "Lucy."

Before he could finish speaking, Lucy sensed something, suddenly turned her head away, and dared not look him in the eye: "Think it over before you talk to me!"

“You should know that I’m special, the kind of special that’s completely different from ordinary people, right?” Mercer still said what needed to be said directly.

“You are indeed very talented.” As Lucy spoke, she unconsciously crossed her arms in front of her.

This is a subtle gesture she makes when she's lying or feeling uneasy.

Mercer simply shook his head: "You know, that's not some special talent, or rather, it's not a talent that humans should have at all."

He looked at Lucy calmly, but his tone was gentle: "I need to find out the truth. There's a saying that Ultraman said that's true: you have to know yourself first before you can make a decision. It's only a matter of time, Lucy."

Lucy, however, said somewhat emotionally, "Why isn't this a talent that humans should have? Mercer, you are special, but you are the Mercer I know, so there's no need for us to rush, right?"
We still have to deal with Arasaka and a lot of other troubles. Wouldn't it be better to wait until we've resolved those problems before thinking about the meaning of life and our true selves?

As she spoke, she pointed to Hansen, who was still in a state of frenzy beside her, and said, "What if, even if there's only a one in a billion chance, you end up like him, or even worse?"
Or have you ever considered that Ultraman might be lying to you?
She wants you to upload data so you'll become like her. Or what if, after you become conscious, you don't want to turn back into a human?

"What do you mean by turning back into a human?" Mercer said with a laugh, "Hey, even if my consciousness is digitized, I'm still human, okay?"

Lucy turned her face away, visibly dejected: "In short, I disagree. V and Rebecca won't agree either. You absolutely cannot, I mean absolutely cannot, secretly use yourself as a test subject until you get the majority's approval in a meeting."

"I never intended to hide it from you, so don't worry. If I really want to start my research on the datafication of my own consciousness, I will definitely have you all by my side, just in case."

Mercer smiled, glanced at Hansen who was currently covered in all sorts of gibberish, shook his head, and held out his hand: "Alright, that's enough, let's log off."

Lucy didn't speak, but her figure faded as she exited the deep dive.

Mercer checked Hansen's consciousness data again, instructed Morning Star to continue observing, and then exited the deep-dive state.

As soon as his consciousness returned, Mercer noticed a soft body in front of him. Unfortunately, after the large-scale modification and mechanization of his upper body, the number of his tactile nerves had been greatly reduced.

But even now, holding Lucy in his arms, he could still feel warmth and the faint fragrance emanating from her.

Lucy didn't say anything, she just hugged him and lowered her head.

Mercer didn't speak, but gently stroked her back. After a while, he smiled and said, "Stop being so coquettish. Since there's no cure, we'll have to send Colonel Hansen on his way."
Why don't you do it? You can personally delete his consciousness data, give him a quick death, and you'll have personally taken care of the former boss of Dogtown. That's a significant achievement, so cheer up.

"Don't think I don't know, you just want to delve into the scene when his consciousness data was deleted," Lucy's voice was a little muffled, but then she just raised her face, looked at him, and sighed softly.

Although Mercer's words just now were all in agreement with her, they also showed his attitude—even if he needed everyone's consent, he would try to digitize consciousness sooner or later.

Lucy could vaguely guess why he wanted to do this, but precisely because she could guess, she was even less willing to let him do it.

If he suddenly feels better as a human after being digitized, isn't that what happens to those roving AIs?

Ultraman, Spider Murphy, Bartmos, and others—after their consciousness was digitized, did they never consider turning back into humans?

Moreover, Mercer has his own secret, a secret that even Apricot can roughly sense.

At the Arasaka base, Mercer underwent an extremely sudden change, as if he had become a completely different person. This was in stark contrast to the fact that everyone was spending their days deep inside the old network, and that Mercer inexplicably became very familiar with Ultraman and other wandering AIs.
The closer Mercer got to the point of digitizing consciousness, the more uneasy Lucy felt. To be honest, she was afraid—afraid that the familiar Mercer in front of her would disappear, just like when he suddenly appeared.

"Lucy...Lucy?"

Mercer's voice brought Lucy back to her senses. She looked at him, but Mercer just smiled and winked at her while tidying up the connections in the neural slots: "Don't be silly, I'm right here."

"You're the one being silly." Lucy wasn't surprised that he could see through her thoughts. She pursed her lips and turned to look at Hansen, who was lying motionless beside her: "Are you sure you want me to delete his consciousness data?"

"Yes, once I go in, you start deleting his consciousness data from the outside, and then monitor his vital signs."

Mercer instructed, "Once I've finished recording the deletion process, bring the Relic chip over. We'll use his backup consciousness data to try and bring him back to life."
I want to try and see if I can keep Hansen in a deep-sea state to observe the process of consciousness transfer and the changes in the data body upon resurrection from cyberspace.

"Okay, you can go in now." Lucy nodded and agreed.

Seeing him close his eyes and enter the cyberspace again without hesitation, Lucy had no choice but to turn her head, turn on the computer next to her, and start operating the Soul Killer program.

Mercer, now back in cyberspace, quietly observed Hansen's death.

Consciousness data is a massive amount of data—which is why Arasaka needed to build a special shrine to store consciousness data.

Deleting such data is by no means a task that can be completed in an instant.

The deletion process, as seen through Mercer's eyes, was just the beginning, yet it already evoked a strange, oppressive, and deathly emptiness.

Mercer's first sight was that Hansen, who had been in a state of mental breakdown in the cyber world, suddenly became stuck.

Then came the collapse.

The consciousness data entity, which had condensed into a human form, was like an exploding balloon, scattering into tiny fragments. Lines of code quietly burst open, turning into meaningless blue data signals and disappearing into the air.

Mercer could see that some of the data belonged to Hansen's memories, some to his emotions, and some to the most crucial core data of his consciousness.

But whatever it was, all this data was rapidly disappearing. When the last piece of data vanished from Mercer's sight, only emptiness remained in the cyber world.

The consciousness code representing Hansen's soul vanished silently before Mercer's eyes, while Mercer's thoughts drifted to this chilling execution ceremony.

Let's suppose that human consciousness and soul are these segments of code that have been erased into thin air.

So what does it matter if Hansen's body remains in the outside world, still probably alive at this moment?
If it is assumed that both must be eliminated at the same time to completely kill a person, then if his physical body is preserved and replaced with the same consciousness data as before, is he dead or not?
Mercer's thoughts did not affect Lucy's work outside. She found the Relic chip loaded with Hansen's backup consciousness data and sent a message to Mercer.

[Lucy: The deletion process is complete. Shall we begin transferring consciousness data?]

[Mercer: Okay, insert the chip and start the transmission.]

Mercer waited quietly, and soon, blue data codes began to emerge in his cyberspace, and the data began to be slowly transmitted.

Unlike directly transferring consciousness data, this resurrection via the Relic chip essentially involves directly modifying the target person's brain using a neural conversion technology to upload a complete set of consciousness data.

The original consciousness data will remain inside the chip. You could even understand this resurrection as using the chip in your head to control your body.

The chip's work is only complete when the slow transformation is fully finished and your brain is indistinguishable from the consciousness data within the chip.

Since the technology for Relic chips is not yet fully developed, this modification process may even lead to an excessive dependence of the human brain on the chip, meaning that the chip cannot be removed even after the modification is completed.

Because the Relic chip is perceived as part of your brain, the effects of losing a part of your brain will be directly reflected in your body.

V in the game is the most extreme example—she was shot in the head, but was repaired and brought back to life by the Relic chip.

During this process, the Relic chip took over the functions of a damaged part of her brain, ultimately making it impossible for her to remove the chip to stop the transmission of consciousness data from the Silver Hand, leaving her with no choice but to seek surgical treatment.

In reality, the ideal state of the Relic chip is to transmit consciousness data into your brain entirely through neural modification and reverse transmission, and there should be no residual data in the Relic chip after the transmission is completed.

Since the human brain can be considered a biological computer in this world, once the data has been transmitted, there is naturally no need for a USB drive to function.

If the human brain and the chip retain data simultaneously, it means that this is not a transfer of consciousness at all, but a copying and modification of consciousness.

What Mercer is observing now is less a simple data transfer and more accurately the transcoding process of consciousness data being uploaded into the human brain, a biological computer, when the Relic chip is used to modify the human brain.

The data will first be etched into Hansen's brain, and then, with the help of the neural connections at the back of his head, it will be manifested in cyberspace in a deep-diving manner.

Therefore, Mercer can observe the order and process of data transfer in the Relic chip using data codes.

After an unknown amount of time, Mercer's gaze finally sharpened.

Before my eyes, streams of blue data, under the influence of a sudden piece of code, abruptly coalesced into a phantom image of a human.

Without hesitation, Mercer immediately activated his brain-computer interface—his vision captured every line of code, revealing the entire process in detail.

"found it!"

He murmured in disbelief.

"The core code of human consciousness!"

(End of this chapter)