Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 44 V's Doubts

After Mercer sat back down at the bar, Claire, still looking somewhat shaken, got up from behind the bar and asked with concern, "Are you alright? That was really..."

But he waved his hand and said, "I'll have an iced cola first."

"Holy crap, are you alright?" Panan also rolled over from behind the bar, looked at Fenrir who was still convulsing on the ground, and kicked him aside with disgust.

She clicked her tongue, finding the City of Night far more terrifying than she had imagined—these madmen who would suddenly fall ill at the slightest provocation were truly frightening.

Nobody thought a real fight would break out just now. This is the next life; who would dare to fight here? Wouldn't that be courting death?
Fenrir's prosthetic body, which had been kicked away, was still sparking under overload, making one worry that it might catch fire at any moment.

"It's alright. It seems that in Night City, a hacker like me really has to be careful."

Mercer sighed, "If it weren't for V, I'd probably have a few holes punched in me today."

"Hey, I told you, these guys are all show and no substance."

V's tough talk returned. He sat down on the side with an air of authority, raised his hand to Claire, and said, "Give me a 'Four Hundred Rabbits Dionysus' tequila, straight, less ice."

Panan remained silent, but seemed somewhat annoyed and irritated. She glanced at Mercer.
"If he dares to make a move in the next life, even if he doesn't die today, Roger will find someone to kill him later. Ha, this can be considered as me personally experiencing the strength of Sianwistan."

Indeed, hackers like me should stay away from the front lines.

As Mercer spoke, he gently tapped the table on Claire's face, who looked as if she had just escaped a disaster.

Claire complained, but her actions were swift: "You guys are something else, causing such a huge mess and you still can't drink?"

She placed the poured Coke in front of Mercer.

"Can you blame me? It was that hacker who tried to smuggle me out first. I just responded, and then his older brother wanted to have a chat with me."

"We'll just have a chat then. I thought we'd just exchange some harsh words, but he actually had a seizure like that."

Mercer silently picked up the iced cola Claire offered him, lifted his mask, and took a sip.

Claire shook her head, and then she saw Roger, his face dark, walking out from the depths of the bar: "What's going on?"

"The hackers on both sides somehow started fighting, and then this guy stood up and, after saying a few words, had an attack. His teammates tried to give him medication, but before the medication could be administered, he was chopped into three pieces by Fenrir."
Then it was this guy named A who, together with this woman, killed Fenrir.

The security guard briefly explained the situation, and Roger turned to stare at Mercer with annoyance: "I bet it's you. You're really something, managing to cause this kind of trouble on your first day here."

"To be honest, I'm not trying to cause trouble."

Mercer was telling the truth; he really felt he had been quite low-key, so how did things get to this point?
He and Panan turned to look at V, who was even more aggrieved: "Okay, Brother A, I admit I underestimated them at first, but I can't just happily apologize when they ask me to drink with them, can I?"

Mercer also thought it made a lot of sense, so he turned to look at Roger: "That's right, Roger, the hacker is about to hack into my brain, I can't just happily open my brain to him, can I?"

He slandered me, so I slandered him back. Then his boss and I made eye contact and he went crazy. I felt wronged.

"I should have struck first next time, run further away, and locked up all their cybernetic bodies. We could have chatted after they were all crippled."

"Alright, alright, I didn't mean to blame you. I just feel that you'll definitely cause even bigger trouble in the future."

Roger was quite certain of this—she knew that some people were born to cause trouble, the kind who would get into trouble just walking down the street.

And Mercer.
Rogge glanced at Fenrir's corpse on the ground, thinking: Night City might really be in chaos again.
"Let their own people dump the bodies out, and get the injured to the hospital immediately."

After Roger finished speaking, he nodded to Mercer, saying with a hint of concern, "Don't cause trouble here. Fenrir is only a minor figure here."

Even the most skilled hacker can't stop a bullet or shell flying from beyond their field of vision, let alone S.A.W. Stein at close range.

Mercer nodded in agreement: "You're right. When I get back this time, I'm going to lie on the hacker chair and stay quiet for a while. Even if I have to fight, I definitely don't want to test Sianwistan's strength up close."

After nearly being one-shotted by S.A.S ...

As for going out to fight those lunatics, V already has that, right? He can just stay behind her, connected to V's network, and provide her with technical support.

The rifleman who had been keeping his head down and covering his face wiped his eyes, silently picked up the big guy on the ground, and walked out.

"Please help me put the body in the car." After the rifleman finished speaking, the two security guards exchanged a knowing glance, but didn't say anything more. They bent down and helped carry Fenrir and the shotgunner who had been cut into three pieces out of the car.

Another security guard looked at the hacker, who was still breathing, and asked, "Should we call an ambulance for you?"

“They have members in the trauma group, just leave them outside.” The rifleman looked utterly dejected, barely bothering to say a word to Mercer and V, only wanting to rush to save his buddy.

Mercer watched the other person leave quietly, then shook his head: "This guy is finished."

After his initial excitement subsided, V sighed, "That's right. Almost all the brothers were dead in the blink of an eye, and they were all killed by their own boss."

"But you're really something. Just sitting here, you managed to knock the hacker's head out of his seat with just a few words! Did you hack Fenrir too?"

In just over three seconds, you crippled a top-tier mercenary!

V turned to stare at Mercer, giving him a thumbs-up with admiration: "This is truly the first time I've ever seen such an awesome hacker. To be honest, A, if you wanted to hack me, how many seconds would it take? Just face to face!"

Mercer glanced at her, and then V suddenly found herself seeing garbled text flashing before her eyes, followed by a scarlet progress bar.

[Intrusion detected!]

Then the intrusion progress bar flickered almost instantly and disappeared, replaced by a little penguin with a cigar in its mouth and wearing a scarf.

The penguin appeared behind her retina, even waved at V, and then automatically shrank to the lower right corner of her field of vision.

"Holy crap!" V was so startled he almost jumped up in shock.

Mercer took another sip of cola, smacked his lips, and seemed to be savoring the taste of the V brain-computer interface data: "The network protection built into your brain-computer interface is terrible." "Although you're not stupid, I guess, well, your intelligence stat isn't that high."

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused and said, "My suggestion is to install an ICE protection device on the frontal cortex, just like Fenrir, or I can rewrite the brain-computer interface program for you."

Otherwise, even if it weren't for a hacker of my skill level, that four-eyed guy from before could have hacked you in three or four seconds at most.

V looked incredulous: "Doesn't that mean that mercenaries like me are just easy targets in front of hackers like you?"

“Not really.” Mercer explained simply: “Generally speaking, for this kind of face-to-face hacking, the distance needs to be close enough, at least enough for the prosthetic eye to be able to scan your network signal.”

Moreover, when most hackers send out programs to hack into the site, their brains become unable to think because the programs consume computing power.

In other words, when the program is running, most hackers become stationary targets.

As for me, I'm pretty smart, and running one or two programs doesn't affect my thinking.

But if, like before, a hacker needs to concentrate all their efforts on attacking and defending, even I, when focused on cracking the opponent's program, will become sluggish.

Mercer's words reassured V somewhat, but he couldn't help but complain, "You guys are so unreasonable. Someone like me, an outsider, has no idea how to retaliate."

"Don't worry, most hackers aren't that good."

Mercer calmly said, "For an ordinary hacker, as long as you upgrade the model of the brain-computer interface and add an ICE program chip to the interface, you can delay him for six or seven seconds."

ICE programs used to prevent hacking generally only have three slots available.

Firstly, the brain-computer interface comes with its own memory. Major brands of brain-computer interfaces all come with their own firewalls, which are sufficient to deal with ordinary hackers.

If you're really scared, then just get a pre-written ICE program chip from a hacker and plug it into the slot that comes with the brain-computer interface.

Generally speaking, it would take an average hacker at least ten seconds to crack this kind of program written on a chip face-to-face, which is enough time for you to shut down the device and connect to the network in an emergency if necessary.

Secondly, there are network access vaults that only hackers would install. These vaults can have larger storage space and a small CPU, allowing them to store multiple ICE programs, much like they store fast-cracking programs.

While ICE can be simply explained as a firewall, its full name is actually 'Electronic Countermeasures Unit'. Its function is to conduct real-time electronic countermeasures against external programs, including both defense and offense.

In theory, as long as the CPU and brain of the network access module can handle it, it is possible to run several ICE programs simultaneously to fight intrusion and anti-intrusion.

The third option is to install a professional ICE prosthetic on the frontal cortex, which is equivalent to putting a professional electronic countermeasures hardware in the brain. This prosthetic is filled with ICE programs and advanced chips to provide computing power in place of your brain.

This can be considered the best way for non-hackers to fight against hackers.

With this ICE prosthetic body installed, even Mercer would need a considerable amount of time to hack in face-to-face, the speed of which would depend on the quality of the chip and the program inside.

This made Mercer somewhat nostalgic for the days when he was deep in Arasaka, connected to large servers—no matter what, as long as you were connected to the internet, you could be hacked in a second.

“Okay, um, A,” AV looked at the virtual penguin still smoking a cigar on the side of his retina, his expression a little strained: “Can I delete your program now?”

"No."

Mercer chuckled twice: "Don't worry, I put in encrypted communication software."

"The communication software that comes with the brain-computer interface is a piece of junk. Anyone with the ability can check it or look at it whenever they want. It's not safe."

Mercer paused as he spoke, then added, "My encrypted communication software usually runs on your communication software. It only runs when you're talking to your own people. The background usage is pitifully low, so you don't need to worry about it."

V seemed hesitant to speak, while Mercer laughed.

He turned around and looked into V's eyes: "Once Rogge brings me the information I need, I will officially issue you the mission."

If you do a great job on this mission, I will consider officially adding you to my team to be in charge of all my fieldwork.

In other words, V, I'm not just here to send you a commission.

I want to work with you.

Don't worry about the pay; I'm always very fair. You get paid for the work you do.

I promise you won't suffer any losses.

V hesitated, looking into the eyes beneath Mercer's mask: "Why me?"
I mean
If you're just looking for someone to do work, then it's not surprising that you came to me, after all, I'm quite well-known in the Heywood district.

But if your initial goal is to find a partner, then my reputation isn't enough.

You're a big shot who can chat and laugh with Roger, so I need to give you a heads-up, otherwise I won't feel at ease working."

Panan also perked up her ears at this moment, she was also extremely curious - where did Mercer catch such a beautiful tiger girl?

"You mean I should find a professional mercenary who can enter the afterlife to cooperate with?" Mercer smiled, while V nodded very honestly.

She spread her hands and said, "You can see that I'm dressed in rags. I can fight those guys on the street, but I can't handle that cybernetic monster from before."
If that guy hadn't gone mad and only focused on attacking you, we'd probably both be dead today.

A, please tell the truth.

After a moment of contemplation, Mercer finally decided to have a relatively frank talk with V.

Whether he can win V over depends almost entirely on whether his subsequent words can sway V's heart.

So, Mercer looked sincerely into V's beautiful eyes, which had been modified with colored contact lenses, and slowly began to explain his reasoning.

(End of this chapter)