Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 38 The Legend of the Fastest Newcomer in Night City

Misty eagerly turned over the first card.

"The first card is the judgment."

"Yes, this means that your old ideas about life are dying out, and you are following your inner calling, searching for a new and more meaningful life."

At the same time, it also signifies resurrection and rebirth; you have weathered life's trials and are now on the path of pursuing success and continuous learning.

"The Second Card: The World."

Misty's eyes lit up: "If you take it all together, your positive changes will also influence many people."

Your efforts to pursue success are bringing you positive results.

The third one. Ah, emperors are such a rare combination.

Misty turned over the last card, and then fell into deep thought:
"If interpreted simply, it might mean that your power will continue to rise with your career, but when combined, it means much more."

You may be shouldering the responsibilities of many people, or you may be trying to shoulder the fate of many people.

You want to change all of this, and that process will be very difficult for you.
Mercer, you may encounter many difficult burdens in your emotional life, and
The fact that this card appears at the end also means that you will often have dealings with certain important figures.

These important figures don't necessarily refer to power, but also influence, well, more.
You may cooperate with them, or you may clash with them; either way, it signifies a change in the existing order.

Misty put down her cards and looked at Mercer with a sigh:
"You are indeed a naturally lucky person. Generally speaking, it is difficult for these three cards to come together."

Because when they come together, it means that your destiny is far broader and your influence is greater than that of ordinary people.

Sure enough, the book says that divination by people with strong luck often allows the diviner to glimpse a corner of the world's future, and I think that's really true.

Perhaps the entire City of Night will change because of you.

"Really?" Panan was still doubting, but Mercer had already believed it.

He laughed heartily, saying with satisfaction, "Everything went smoothly? That's just like me!"

"Well, from the current perspective, although you will encounter many challenges, as long as you stay true to yourself and keep working hard, you will be able to overcome them. Overall, it is a very good divination result."

Misty smiled and said:

"Perhaps even I am moving towards a better future because of you."

By the way, Miss Parnan, my suggestion is that if you have any questions, you might want to consult Mercer's opinion.

His intuition and advice will be incredibly sharp, and the direction he points you in will surely turn the wheel of fate for the better.

“Hmm,” Panan nodded, glancing at Mercer.

Mercer simply smiled and sent Misty a message on his messaging app, then transferred one hundred euros to her.

"Yes, in my hometown, there's a custom that if someone tells your fortune or makes a prediction, you have to give them money. It doesn't matter how much, but you have to give them money, otherwise the fortune teller will be tainted by something bad."

Misty thought for a moment, then exclaimed excitedly, "Ah, Eastern divination? I'm quite interested in that too, but it's much harder to learn than tarot cards, and I can't find any tutorials."

"Hmm." Mercer smiled, took a sip of coffee, drank it all in one gulp, and then stood up: "Thank you for the divination. Now I need to go buy something."

"Alright, then I won't keep you any longer for a chat. Be careful on the road. The Valotino gang and the Sixth Street gang have been clashing a lot lately, and a gunfight could break out at any time."

Misty gently gave her instructions.

"Thank you, I will." Mercer waved his hand and pulled Panan away.

Once in the car, he said directly, "Let's go buy some clothes. Let's go to the company square instead, but I want to buy new clothes, not secondhand ones, you understand?"

In today's world, there are trendy and fashionable clothes.
Eighty percent of them are a bit like the "emo" style, all brightly colored and flashy, which Mercer still can't quite accept.

He still prefers a more 'old-fashioned' aesthetic.

"Yes, I understand." Panan was still thinking about the divination when he started the car and squeezed her out of the alley with difficulty. The homeless people on both sides occasionally made disgusted grumbling.

Not far from there, in Little Chinatown, there was a 'Street Kid' store.

It sells all sorts of hoodies, flashy shirts, and trendy jackets with inexplicable decorations.
Mercer browsed for a while and bought three sets of basically similar, the most plain clothes.

3 black sweatpants, 3 plain black hooded sweatshirts, and 3 black jackets.

Panan rolled his eyes: "You're practically buying black socks too, at least get some pattern on them, right?"

Upon hearing this, Mercer pondered for a moment and changed all his coats into ones with a red Chinese dragon printed on the back.

The large logo on his back and the red print on the sleeve of his jacket added a touch of color to his look.

Doesn't A-Ge's jacket in the game also have a striped pattern?
He decided that since he was going to cosplay, he should do it as thoroughly as possible.

The price was quite reasonable; it only cost him 1,000 euros in total, including a pair of black and red sneakers and some socks and underwear.

Before leaving, Mercer thought for a moment and bought a set for Earth and Lyon as well.

Afterwards, Mercer also took Panan to buy two sets of clothes for Lucy and the others. He couldn't provide the girls' underwear, so he asked Panan to help him find out the sizes and buy some.

After buying the clothes, Mercer also bought a lot of Mewtwo, snacks, and other odds and ends before heading straight to the company square.

In addition to various high-rise buildings, the company plaza also has offline stores of major companies, such as Arasaka, Junke, and Biotechnology.

Mercer first visited the Comto Company, drooling over the various smart guns, but ultimately did not make an impulsive purchase.

He didn't even install a smart hand-connected prosthetic body, so even if he got a smart weapon, he could only use it with iron sights, which was meaningless.

He led a helpless-looking Panan to visit the stores of companies such as Junke, Biotechnology, and Zeta Technology.

After looking through all sorts of random and varied prosthetic bodies, in the end, apart from some small, miscellaneous items like the HyperDream Device, Mercer didn't dare to buy any of the other major items.

After comparing prices from several vendors, he finally chose to purchase the hacking equipment he urgently needed from Zeta Technology.

Zeta Technology, a large company that started with computer technology at the beginning of the century, has excellent computer-related software and hardware products.

Today, Zeta Technologies is a transportation industry giant with substantial operations in aerospace electronics and manufacturing.

Mercer placed an order for Zeta Tech's hacker chair, the latest model known as the 'Zeta Speed ​​Killer 2071'.

This hacker chair can not only connect directly to a hacker's network access pod.

Its built-in advanced network receiver, massive memory, and Zeta's latest processor chip essentially give hackers the equivalent of a portable mini-server.

There's also Zeta's latest hacker work computer, the 'Zeta Hacker Pro MAX'.

It is also designed to be used with a hacker chair. When used alone, this laptop boasts a large amount of memory, a top-of-the-line CPU, and excellent heat dissipation.

This handheld-sized device is also touted as having an explosion-proof outer shell; when closed, its sturdy shell can even withstand a rocket-propelled grenades if necessary.
This feature is a bit abstract.

Its most important function is that it can connect to the hacker chair via a data cable, directly import and exchange data, and interact with each other to enhance computing power.

When connected, the two built-in CPUs can be considered to run as a dual-core processor, further enhancing the device's computing power.

At the same time, both devices are equipped with large ports that can be connected to servers directly.

Then came the essential cooling equipment, for which Mercer chose the matching product, a hacker cooling kit called 'The Zone'.

Includes a hacker customer service system and a professional radiator that can be used with hacker chairs and clothing.

The black customer service unit comes with advanced heat dissipation capabilities, allowing excess heat to be dissipated through the skin.

It also has a professional hacker-grade cooling wire slot, which can be used with certain prosthetics to achieve internal circulation cooling, such as inserting a water-cooling wire into the body or head.
What Mercer valued was the scalability of this black-hat customer service system; it was a rare modular structure, rather than a monolithic black-hat customer service system.

This means that the heat dissipation parameters for each part of it can be set independently.

This is to facilitate the extreme pursuit of heat dissipation by certain professional hackers, who can overclock these components individually to improve cooling efficiency.

If it breaks, you can buy only the broken part, avoiding the need to replace the whole set.

Moreover, it is compatible with a variety of prosthetics and can adapt to various specifications on its own, leaving ample room for hackers to customize at both the software and hardware levels.

In addition, there is a matching radiator, which is used with the hacker chair and the hacker customer service unit. Just plug the radiator into the ports on the left and right sides of the hacker customer service unit and the hacker chair.

Once connected to a radiator, the black-hat refrigeration system can provide far greater cooling capabilities than simply retracting into a refrigerator or lying in ice water.

It also comes with a brain cooling device, which you can put on like a helmet when you're lying in the hacker chair to cool your head down.

Mercer touched the black customer service device on display. Except for some joints, the black customer service device felt quite soft to the touch, both inside and out.

It's hard to imagine that this place is filled with circuitry and countless tiny electronic components. The whole outfit looks a bit like the bodysuit from Gantz, and it's actually quite stylish.

No wonder hackers in anime and games wear hacker bodysuits when they go out, maybe with a jacket on top.

A hacker client is like an exquisitely crafted portable heat sink—which hacker wouldn't want to carry around a large heat sink with them at all times?

The purchase of the heat dissipation kit also includes some replacement electronic components and dedicated repair and DIY equipment, demonstrating that this black-market customer service kit is truly a professional-grade product.

It's the price
Mercer sighed. The computer cost 40,000 euros, the hacker chair cost 120,000 euros, and the cooling kit cost 70,000 euros.

Goodness, the money's barely warmed my hands and 230,000 euros are gone!
Panan watched in amazement—the most expensive thing she owned in her life was her precious car, originally worth three thousand euros, which she towed from a junkyard; the rest she had pieced together from scrap metal.

The system Mercer bought is basically the top-of-the-line setup for a typical lone wolf hacker.

Going a step further, there are customized high-end products, each costing hundreds of thousands of euros, belonging to enterprise-level equipment, which ordinary hackers don't need at all.

The employees of Zeta Technology smiled and wanted to get Mercer's information, but Mercer used Panan's personal information to make the purchase and left them nothing except his contact information.

Zeta Technology employees guarantee delivery within eight hours, even to remote homeless camps in the wilderness.

Coincidentally, Mercer did indeed want them to deliver it there—and the employee's expression became a little tense, but he eventually nodded in agreement.

Afterwards, Mercer browsed other stores, and saw a whole bunch of good things that made his mouth dry. But when he looked at his wallet, he couldn't buy them no matter how tempting they were. In the end, he could only sigh and hold back.

Mercer took Panan to get a haircut, mainly to re-dye his hair black.

His previous red buzz cut had grown quite a bit. After dyeing it black, he didn't cut it short, but just trimmed it slightly and gave it a small side part, making him look much 'docile'.

"What's next? It's getting dark."

Panan seemed to be getting impatient—the company square was bustling with middle-class people or company management.

The way those people looked at her was like they were looking at a homeless person who had wandered into the wrong place, which made her very unhappy.

“Well, next we’ll have a good meal. I haven’t had real meat in ages, how about you?” Mercer asked.

"Huh? I'm not interested. That stuff is ridiculously expensive. I'll just grab something to eat when I get back," Panan said dismissively.

Mercer looked at her firmly: "I want to eat beef!"

“Alright, young master.” Panan had no choice but to take him to a Western restaurant in the company square. It was supposedly made with real beef from Texas and belonged to a local Texas company called 'Texas Star'.

It is said that when the biotechnology company originally planned to enter Texas, it intended to follow its own 'habitual path' and first carry out biological and plant poisoning in Texas.

They have a history of destroying local agriculture, livestock and food industries first, and then bringing their Whole Foods and their own Chun2 Wheat products into the local market to steal the market share from local businesses.

As a result, the matter was exposed in Texas, which almost led to the Texans burning down the biotechnology company. Only then were they forced to preserve a certain amount of agricultural and livestock production from local enterprises.

The most famous of these is Texas Star, a local beef company that supplies all the real beef to several surrounding states.

However, it is said that it has also received a large amount of investment from biotechnology companies, and in fact, like Whole Foods, it has become a subsidiary of biotechnology companies.

The so-called real beef is indeed from real cows, but they are cloned. They select the best batch of beef to clone, and the genetically modified cows can be ready for slaughter in a month, each with full marbling.

This reveals the true nature of this biotechnology company that claims to be 'neutral' and 'fighting for nature'.

Despite possessing the technology to feed everyone in the world, they wished they could destroy all agriculture and animal husbandry and then control all the markets.

The Mexican company 'Whole Foods,' which they acquired, also only produces various protein foods made from insect meat.
Isn't it because insects are profitable, have short cycles, and are easy to make money from?
The result is that biotechnology, through its monopoly, has left everyone without a proper meal and forced to eat these junk synthetic foods.

Meanwhile, the rich continue singing and dancing, and this snowflake beef is enough to fill them up. Damn it, what a stupid world.

While waiting for his steak, Mercer mentally cursed biotechnology several times over.

But despite the criticism, they still ate.

Mercer proudly showed off a fillet and a sirloin, and even finished a whole plate of smoked brisket with Panan before settling down and leaving satisfied.

Well, 5000 euros just disappeared like that.

But damn, it's really delicious!
From this moment on, Mercer's new life goal became concrete—he wanted to build his own farm in Night City, where he could eat chicken whenever he wanted and pork whenever he wanted!

Biotechnology, you deserve to die!!

Panan had gotten a decent meal, and the resentment he'd built up in the company square that afternoon had dissipated. Satisfied, he said, "Where do we go now?"

"Let's go to the Next Life Bar."

Mercer let out a long sigh of relief, then thought for a moment and said, "Let's buy a unique mask in the Kabuki district on the way. I'll wear one there for now."

"Afraid of having your identity revealed? Hackers are so vulnerable." She teased, "Why don't you learn shooting from your sister?"

Mercer chuckled:
"You might not even be as accurate a shooter as me. This is to prevent some idiots from judging people by their appearance."

Wearing a mask, people might just think I'm short and have a soft voice. But if I take the mask off, what idiot would want to interact with a kid?

“That makes sense.” After saying that, Panan paused, then turned to stare at him with a displeased look: “Ha, do you think I’m an idiot?”

"Hey! Talk to me! Don't touch me! I'll get the NCPD to arrest you, you hear me?! You're molesting a little boy, aren't you?"

Mercer took emergency measures to save himself.

Panan rolled his eyes: "I'd be a ghost to treat you like a child right now."

She drove Mercer to the Kabuki district to buy masks.

Mercer spent quite a while choosing before he finished buying, mainly because most of the masks sold there were Japanese-style ghost face masks with the Tiger Claw Gang's characteristics.

In the end, after much effort, he only managed to choose an ordinary, plain black hockey mask.

From Mercer's perspective, he looks a bit like Jason, the serial killer from a movie he'd seen in his past life.

"You might as well wear a helmet," Panan commented honestly.

Mercer was quite pleased, and even found some dye to write a big letter A on the forehead of his mask: "You just don't understand my fun."

By copying the title and everyday look of A, the protagonist of Prototype, and adding a mask of Jason, the serial killer from Friday the 13th, Mercer felt incredibly cool.

Some people wear masks to hide their true selves, but he feels that wearing a mask makes him even more eager to let loose and be himself.

The car sped off to the afterlife. It was not yet eight o'clock when Mercer walked in with his hands in his pockets.

The Rebirth Bar is located underground and is said to have been converted from a funeral home or crematorium.

Looking at the graffiti covering the walls, stepping into the staircase leading to the underground, passing through an automatically opening door, and taking a few more steps, a burly security guard with a cold face blocked the entrance.

Behind him was the neon-lit Laisheng Bar, where rock music was playing at a moderate volume.

"Sorry, we don't serve nameless people in the next life. Anyone interested?"

"That security guard is quite arrogant."

Panan's temper is about to flare up—she seems even more irritable now than in the game, probably because she's only eighteen and hasn't experienced the harsh realities of life yet.

“I arranged to meet Roger at eight o’clock, so I told him, ‘A is here.’”

After Mercer finished speaking, the security guard nodded, his prosthetic eye shining, clearly speaking to Roger.

After a while, the security guard said, "You can go in now. Wait at the bar for a bit. Ms. Roger is currently discussing business. She'll have someone call you when she's done."

"A woman named V will come at 8:30. She's here to see me. Let her in."

"Understood." The security guard sized up Mercer, memorizing the short man's features.

Seeing that the security guard's tone had become much more polite, Panan just glared at him and followed Mercer inside. The security guard didn't cause any trouble.

Not many people get to meet Roger, and those who do are all qualified to enter the afterlife, because Roger is the boss here, it's that simple.

Upon entering, one is greeted by colorful neon lights, an underground-style decor, and numerous mercenaries who look intimidating and are scattered about.

The bar has a U-shaped structure, with a large bar counter at the inside and various private rooms, as well as pool tables and other facilities at the outside.

All of this made Panan, a true country bumpkin, click his tongue in amazement: "Wow, that's huge!"

Mercer simply looked around and then took a deep breath.

Next Life
Ha, he's qualified to enter Night City on his very first day here. Wouldn't you call him the fastest newcomer in Night City?
(End of this chapter)