Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 37: 350,000 in income!

Old Vie also noticed that Mercer had woken up.

"Hmm, don't rush. You woke up faster than I expected. There's only one eye left. Let me check the data; it's normal. I'll put it back in for you."

Mercer endured the pain without moving, waiting for Old Vie to put his eyeballs into his eye sockets, whereupon a strange, tingling sensation spread through the depths of his eye sockets.

Old Wei operated the instrument, and after a while, he said, "Good, the nerve signal connection is normal. Try moving your eyeballs; it's fine, no problem."

"Any particular sensations? The anesthesia hasn't worn off yet, but you should be feeling it."

Mercer moved around a bit, carefully sensing the sensations:

"My vision is a little blurry, but I'm adjusting it. My wrist is a bit swollen and sore."
It must be that this single-molecule wire is too thick; I need to get used to it.

Hmm. The brain-computer interface also feels a bit burnt. Was the surgery performed using a thermal connection method?
Signal reception is normal; it's truly a high-end product, with significantly reduced data latency.

My perception of the prosthetic body has also improved, but I still feel a bit awkward with how I operate my body and need to get used to it.

Victor asked gently, "Try it. If your arm often feels swollen and painful afterwards, then you'll need further prosthetic modifications."
Sigh, I really don't want to see you become like that. Think about it.
A person's prosthetic body cannot only have a head and not a lower head, unless you want to become a roly-poly toy.

So once you start doing this, your arm muscles, leg muscles, chest muscles, back muscles, and abdominal muscles may all need to be enhanced with muscle-building components.

While your muscles may grow stronger, your underdeveloped bones may not be able to withstand it, and in the end, even your bones will need to be coated with a layer of iron.

Just imagine what you'll look like then: a child's head and a strong man's body.
Moreover, so many prosthetic bodies require stronger internal organs to support them, and if this continues, it will never end.

Do you know, Mercer, I've seen too many people lose their bodies and flesh step by step like this.

They constantly add prosthetics to become stronger, and then modify their bodies to adapt to these prosthetics.

Finally, every single one of them was driven insane by these prosthetic bodies.

Victor sighed and earnestly advised, "If you can't get used to it, it's best to remove it. Wait two more years, exercise properly, and then you can put it back on."

Your products will remain top-notch for at least ten years; they won't become outdated.

"Thanks, Lao Wei, keep an eye out for muscle enhancement components for me."
I didn't say I wanted to install it. Okay, then I won't pay attention to that.

Keep an eye on the subcutaneous armor and the prosthetic leg implants.

Even if I can't beat someone, I at least have to be able to run fast, right?
If I get killed by a stray bullet one day, there's no future to speak of.

Mercer's words made Old Vieux sigh deeply, but he simply nodded:
"We'll discuss the rest of the things when you come next time. You can take them back with you; we don't need them for now."

"If it's convenient, why don't we leave the stuff here? You have professional equipment; we can take a look at that network access device while we're at it."

Mercer's words made Old Vie shake his head: "You haven't given up yet, have you? These things of yours aren't cheap. To be honest, they'd be enough to buy my clinic. You really feel comfortable leaving them here with me?"

"Of course, if I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have come to you at all."

Mercer laughed heartily, and with Old Wei's help, he stood up, straightened his body for a while, and then pulled out the monomolecular thread in his hand.

The black monomolecular wire was more inconspicuous than the regular red wire, and Mercer didn't dare to try turning it on; the sharpness of this thing was no joke.

After that, Mercer tried out the new functions of the prosthetic eye, such as the 32-meter range of wall-penetrating vision that he was very envious of.

After the data in my field of vision flickered for a moment, countless clear signals appeared before my eyes.

Even more remarkably, these eyes can not only see networked devices within a 32-meter range, but also outline the other party's vague figure by analyzing signal fluctuations.

Of course, this form is not stable and can only roughly help hackers determine whether the other party is a person or some networked device. At the same time, Mercer can also directly perform remote hacking based on the signal he sees.

This also means that Mercer has the ability to quickly break through enemies within a 32-meter range through cover in the real world.

He no longer needs to use his prosthetic eye to see if the other party has captured the signal before he can send a quick decryption.

Previously, to remotely hack into other networks, one either had to connect to a camera with their consciousness to capture the other party's exact network signal, or hack into the other party's subnet.

Now, as long as the scanning mode of the prosthetic eye is activated within range, Mercer can scan the other party even through a wall and directly hack into them.

This is a significant improvement to Mercer's safety in close-quarters combat.

Then Mercer looked in the mirror—wow, the blue prosthetic eye is so cool! The pupil looks like it's sparkling with blue stardust. This high-end product even saves you the money for colored contact lenses.

"Alright, I don't know if you treat everyone like this."

Viktor watched him excitedly experimenting with the prosthetics and nodded helplessly in agreement: "I'll help you with your research whenever I have time, and maybe see if I can make those prosthetics less of a burden on you."

"No problem, my brain works better than a server's CPU."

Also, I don't trust just anyone. Have some self-confidence, Old Wei.

Mercer chuckled and scratched the back of his head: "The interface at the back of your head got a new cover? Old Wei, how much did that cost this time?"

"The items are all yours, I'm just earning the surgery fee. Give me two thousand euros, mainly for some medicines and materials."

Even Panan, who was anxiously observing Mercer from the side, couldn't help but click his tongue at Old Vie's price—this doctor is really kind.

"This bottle contains anti-inflammatory medicine. Take it three times a day. In addition to inhaling it, you can also spray it on areas with severe inflammation. It also has a very obvious pain-relieving effect."

This bottle contains injectable medication. Try to avoid using it, as it is mildly addictive. Unless the pain is severe, just bear with it.

It's mainly used to relieve postoperative nerve pain. I recommend taking it before bed to help you get a good night's sleep. Be careful with the dosage; it's one dose for each press. Don't accidentally press too many times, as there's only a five-dose dose inside.

All symptoms will begin to subside within three days.

Depending on individual physical condition, recovery takes a maximum of seven days. If it exceeds this time, please contact me to confirm the situation.

Oh, and your singleton line.
You're a hacker, you know more than me, and your monomolecule line has a slot for quick cracking programs.

You can connect the brain-computer interface yourself and use this program to transfer the program to the monomolecule.

However, your single-molecule line, codenamed 'Neuromaev', comes with a built-in virus program.

I didn't dare to mess with it. Your skills in this area might be better than mine, so you should research it yourself.

It takes up a lot of neural load; the passively running program will constantly consume your brain's computing power.

I wanted to add a switch, but the nanotechnology involved is very advanced, and I was worried that turning it off would kill the automatically replicating nanoviruses and cause the program to malfunction, so I didn't turn it off.

If you feel that this neuromafia program is not very useful to you right now, I suggest you delete it directly.

Anyway, this thing can't be repaired if it's broken. The nanobots inside are all products of Arasaka. It's really amazing that they can attach to monomolecular lines.

Okay, that's it.

Oh, and brain-computer interfaces too.

Your current brain-computer interface is at least two versions more advanced than before. You'll find that the data reception speed is extremely fast. Be careful when directly connecting to the network; it's easy to overheat your head.
It's hard to imagine just how powerful the accompanying network receiver really is.

These two things together are not for ordinary hackers. Once you open them, the amount of data your brain receives will be terrifying!
It's fair to say that without professional cooling, that network receiver simply wouldn't turn on.

Otherwise, even in standby mode, your body temperature will rise to over 38 degrees Celsius within a minute.

Old Wei kept rambling on and on, while Mercer listened quietly, even though he already knew all of this, he still listened patiently until the end.

“Don’t blame me for nagging, child. If it weren’t for your insistence, I would never have performed surgery on children, whether they wanted it themselves or their parents wanted it. You made an exception for me.”

Old Wei looked somewhat conflicted: "I don't know if I did the right thing or the wrong thing."

"Thanks, Lao Wei. Regardless of the future, that's the path I'm choosing to walk."

You helped me, that's all. No matter what happens, I'll thank you.

Mercer simply patted him on the shoulder, then smiled and said, "Teach me some boxing sometime. I quite enjoy watching boxing."

"Alright." Old Wei glanced at the transfer record floating in his cybernetic eye, then turned and pointed to the 'dead body' cooler that he found somewhat distasteful: "You're going to sell the stuff inside?"

“Yes.” Mercer nodded, then said, “I also plan to sell the parts I took off my body.”

Old Wei pondered for a moment and said, "Although the items you took off your body are company goods, they're not too hot to handle. Besides, you haven't used them for long, so they're all in good condition. I can take them directly. I can even buy that mantis knife."

I just checked the supply list from the Arasaka distributor. Although that thing is also a lab model, it's actually mass-produced for high-level agents. I have plenty of it that my customers like.

"But that Sianwistan won't do. I can fix it for you, but I can't accept it." Mercer readily agreed, "That's great, old Vieira. If you can fix it for me, the service fee will be ten thousand euros."
Don't refuse, I've calculated it. The cost of just that ring of dissolved neural wiring alone is four thousand, and that's using commercially available low- to mid-range biotechnology products.

Although it shouldn't take much effort, it will still take at least an hour, and you'll only earn two or three thousand. If you're any more frugal, it'll be my turn to feel embarrassed.

"Alright." Old Wei could only accept it gladly, and then began to calculate the accounts.

"I'd give you a 100,000 yuan value for the monomolecular wire. Arasaka's monomolecular wire is still valuable, and you've already flashed the prosthetic program, so it's plug-and-play and you don't have to worry about backdoors."

The mantis knife costs 150,000 yuan, and it's a rather rare thermal mantis knife; in fact, it could cost even more.

But I can't afford to pay higher prices here, because very few people who come to me to load goods can afford to spend more than 20 yuan to buy good products. I have to actively find someone to sell them if I keep them here.

"Okay. As for the prosthetic eye, that'll be 5,500 euros. We'll round up the other odds and ends to a total of 360,000 euros."

As Old Wei spoke, he explained, "Although your prosthetic eye is not cheap on the market, it is, after all, a high-end prosthetic eye that can be used by hackers to connect."

However, in the field of prosthetic eyes, everyone only recognizes Qilusi as a high-end brand, while others are considered no-name brands.

Even the prosthetic eyes you're using now, I think their overall performance is slightly inferior to the high-end custom-made ones from Qilu Si.

"I understand, Lao Wei. Your price is very fair. If you didn't hate things pulled from dead people, I'd love to buy a batch for you every time I have free time."

Mercer's words made Old Vieira both laugh and cry: "Don't get involved in that kind of thing. I never deal with cleaners or the like."

"Hmm, what a coincidence, I don't like that kind of scum either. Don't worry, I'm not a killer either."

Mercer felt relieved and looked at Panan beside him: "Old Vie, I have to go. I'm going to have a fortune told by Misty and buy some things. I have things to do tonight."

"Okay, be careful on the road."
By the way, I changed the name of your prosthetic body and removed the logo. When others use the prosthetic eye to scan it, they can only detect that it is a special laboratory model.

You can rename the prosthetic body in the program so that others will only see a customized product when scanning the data.

I've already taken care of the backdoor; you can clean it up yourself later.

After Old Wei finished speaking, he discovered that the brain-computer interface had received a document from Mercer.

"I sent you a program, the one I use myself, 'Free Killer V1.0 Official Version'."

Ninety-nine percent of prosthetic bodies can be directly cracked and have their backdoors removed. You can install it on your machine and use it.

The one you're using doesn't kill the virus completely, which affects the efficiency of the prosthetic body.

Consider it a small gift. Oh, and is your brain even sharp enough? Should I transfer it to your computer?

Mercer chuckled and joked.

Old Wei shook his head and said, "I'm not used to having data in my head. Send it to me, and I'll download it on my computer."

"it is good."

Mercer blinked:
“A dedicated enterprise-grade ICE system would make 99% of hackers scratch their heads, and even the remaining few would find it troublesome.”

Unless it's a hacker of my caliber, or someone plugs a USB drive into your clinic's server computer, your clinic is absolutely safe.

"Thanks, Mercer."

Old Wei wasn't too polite either; that's how friendships are built.

"I'm leaving."

Mercer waved to Panan, who handed him his T-shirt. Mercer looked down at his somewhat thin frame and was not satisfied.

Logically speaking, his muscle strength should be quite good, and his talent is not low. It seems he didn't eat well along the way.

Eat more!
"Go on, child. Contact me anytime if you need anything," Old Wei said gently. "Take some time to exercise; it will be good for your prosthetic body."

"OK Bye Bye."

Mercer and Parnan went outside together.

Once outside, Panan, who had been holding it in for so long, was finally able to speak freely: "Holy crap, Mercer, that thread in your arm is worth 100,000?! And that crappy mantis knife, 150,000?!"
We just casually brought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff here like that? My God.

"Hmm, the Arasaka hacker-specific monomolecular cable—although it's a mass-produced product, the retail price starts at 120,000. Mine is the new version, so it'll cost 150,000."

The mantis knife is even more expensive; the thermal mantis knife is practically cutting-edge technology. Even the Terrorist Mobile Squad doesn't use one this good. If you really want to buy one from Arasaka, it'll start at 300,000 yen, and you'll need connections too.

Mercer said, watching Cassidy's bank account balance skyrocket, feeling incredibly pleased.

"And that Sianwistan, I plan to sell him on the black market for 20."

Sigh, it's such a loss. It's a pity. If I had connections to find a client, and that client wouldn't expose me, that thing would be worth at least three or four hundred thousand yuan.

Mercer suddenly had a thought: "But what if it's for our own people?"

V-Zhentian might be able to withstand it?

But if she's given such top-quality goods, she probably thinks Mercer is trying to keep her as a mistress.

That's enough to buy ten of her lives now.

Let's keep it for now and see if it can get along with the current V.

If V is willing to work for him, he can take out a loan to sell her and have her work to pay it off—wouldn't that be a win-win situation?

Even if we only consider it to be 20, it's equivalent to hiring V Zhentian to work for him for 20 euros. Given V's personality, he wouldn't run away with the money. Isn't this much better than selling on the black market?

Selling on the black market could lead to trouble.

Mercer thought about it more and more and felt that he could give it a try.

"Don't mess with yourself." Panan rolled his eyes and followed him into Misty's psychic shop on the other side of the alley, advising, "Aren't you afraid of mental illness?"

"I didn't say it was for me. Have you had it done here? What was the result of the divination?"

Mercer and she entered Misty's psychic hut together, where Misty had been waiting for some time.

She put the crystal ball on the table aside, placed a stack of tarot cards on the table, and made them two steaming cups of coffee.

"Uh"

Panan's expression was somewhat complicated: "What hermit, priestess, Wheel of Fortune?"

“It’s the Hermit reversed, the High Priestess reversed, and a mysterious Wheel of Fortune.” Misty smiled gently. “Please sit down.”

"In short, I was originally very unlucky, I would lose my way, I would leave my family, and fall into a long period of confusion and wasting time."

But suddenly, a twist of fate reversed everything.

This means that if I start thinking carefully now and make wise decisions, I can change my original fate and embark on a different path.
That's about it.

Panan seemed a little skeptical about the divination results. If Mercer hadn't said her divination was accurate, she would have thought that Misty was about to try and sell her some kind of fate-altering trinkets.

"Yes, that's about it."
However, I must say that the results of this kind of divination are very rare.

The reversed High Priestess card often represents a well-considered outcome, while the reversed Hermit card symbolizes a powerful and unchangeable reality.

After these two cards, the Wheel of Fortune appears.
This is the first time I've encountered this situation in all my years of divination.

This means that Miss Parnam encountered a truly lucky person, and it was this person who changed her destiny.

Misty's smile and voice were gentle and ethereal; her eyes were fixed on Mercer, a hint of eagerness in them.
"I think that person with extraordinary luck might be you. Would you like a divination? I'm very interested in your destiny!"

"Come."

Mercer was slightly shocked by the divination—it was really accurate!
He watched as Misty shuffled the tarot cards and then laid them out.

“Please select three,” she said.

Mercer carefully selected three cards, which were then placed in order by Misty. He then looked at Misty with anticipation.

Come! The moment of destiny has arrived!
(End of this chapter)