Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 61 Ambush! (1.8 views, please vote!)
A Columbus van, which at first glance looks somewhat dilapidated, lies quietly beside a biotechnology protein farm outside Night City.

The vehicle had been modified in a rather strange way—it had a large, radar-like device on top, which didn't quite match the style of this dilapidated van.

The protein farm occupies a vast area, so it had to be located in Badlands to operate, and the nearby highway is the only road leading Night City out of the checkpoint.

Inside the van, Mercer, dressed in black with only a jacket over his shoulders, sat in the modified seat, belted up, and operating a laptop on his lap.

This van may look unremarkable, but its interior is surprisingly spacious. Not only has the back seat been completely hollowed out to create a room large enough for eight people to sit facing each other, but it has also been crammed with a lot of hacking equipment such as generators, small servers, and laptops.

At this moment, Mercer simply stared calmly at the laptop screen, observing the image of the pterodactyl drone he had assembled.

At this moment, the Pterodactyl drone hovered thousands of meters above the ground, its high-magnification camera monitoring passing vehicles in real time, waiting for the arrival of the Behemoth.

V sat next to Mercer, fiddling with the Freedom in her hand over and over again—Mercury had offered to lend her money to get a better gun, but V just couldn't bear to part with this one.

According to her, unless there's some really amazing product, she'd rather use this one than replace it with a generic one.

Rebecca, humming a little tune, was holding a 'Crusher' kinetic automatic shotgun in her arms. It's hard to tell what this girl was thinking; she's so small, yet her favorite weapons are all incredibly fierce.

Pila, meanwhile, nervously held an Ajax kinetic rifle, tapping her fingers back and forth on the gun.

There were only four people on board, responsible for dealing with the Behemoth armored vehicle and the biotech warriors and staff on it.

This does not mean that only four people came to the operation. In fact, just beyond the protein farm, in the wilderness, there is a deserted residential area.

Because the Protein Farm is where V and Jack first met in the game, and where they temporarily hid after being chased by Arasaka, Mercer has a deep memory of this part of the story.

Therefore, when setting up the plan, he had already thought about how to evacuate.

Lucy and Qiwei were waiting in that residential area, with the vehicles ready for evacuation and monitoring the surroundings to ensure no one would cause trouble. As for the dilapidated truck, they would just dump it in the garage here.

After that, the old captain can send someone to paint it and change the vehicle's certification. It will then be transformed into a brand new Columbus cargo vehicle. Selling it or keeping it for personal use will not be a problem.

In short, the whole process involves intercepting the car, killing everyone, taking the loot, driving around the protein farm, and then sneaking into the abandoned residential area.

They changed cars, moved all their belongings there, and then openly drove the hidden car back to Badlands.

It's that simple.

"Damn, why do I feel like my hands are shaking?" Pila muttered to herself.

Rebecca rolled her eyes: "Did you flush too much in the toilet last night? You jerk, I told you to go to bed early and not make things difficult!"

"Damn! I'm just nervous!" Pila's legs were shaking, and he rubbed his hands on the gun barrel a few times. "Damn it, if I could do it again now, I'm sure I could calm down."

"Is that all you have in your head, Pila?"

V gave him a disdainful look, then laughed and said, "But once this job is done, you can go to Liz and wear the Super Dream and have a blast. Doesn't that make things much easier?"

"Damn it, damn it, that's what they say, I'll give it my all!" Pila thought for a moment, and as he spoke, he actually felt his hands stop shaking and his legs stop going weak. Instead, his blood boiled and he became determined to fight.

Having worked myself to the bone on this deal, I absolutely cannot let Rebecca take all the money. I need to smooth things over with Mercer and save some money for myself to go out and have some fun.

"Ha~" Rebecca chuckled dismissively, then stared at V sitting next to Mercer, her tone unfriendly: "V, speaking of which, isn't it a bit much to use S.A.W.S. to steal a seat?"

“You’re just like your brother, your mind is always full of things about men and women. If you were next to him, how could he concentrate on his work?” V glared at Rebecca.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "It's not like I can't tell what's important and what's not. Hey? You don't happen to like Mercer too, do you?"

"How could that be? That's hilarious, I like him?" V laughed, pointing a finger at Mercer: "Him?"

V said dismissively, "If you ask me, you haven't met enough men. A womanizer like him, even if he got together with someone, he would eventually cheat on you."

If we were really dating, I'm afraid if I found out he was flirting with other women, I wouldn't be able to resist breaking his jaw and breaking his arms and legs! That would be awful.

"Come on, you're writhing on the ground begging for mercy after someone cracks it so quickly. Do you really think you're invincible just because you have a S.A.S.A.S. hack?"

Rebecca chuckled, then said meaningfully, "But you'd better remember what you said today."

Mercer turned his head and glanced at V speechlessly: "Well, V, you've improved. You're talking bad about me right in front of me?"

"I didn't say anything wrong! I could tell a long time ago that there was something going on between you and that little girl named Lucy. You're really something, how old is she?"

Rebecca looks really young too. Wait, you're not some pervert who likes underage girls, are you?

V muttered to himself.

"Damn it, that's enough! You're the pervert!"

Mercer gave her an annoyed look: "Don't talk nonsense. We're just friends right now. I like pretty girls over eighteen."

"Now?" V chuckled. "You mean it's only a matter of time, right? You like cultivating relationships, huh? You can fool your girlfriends, but don't fool yourself too."

"Are you here today to pick a fight with me? I haven't offended you, have I?"

This time it was Mercer's turn to have a bad expression. V pouted, turned his head away, and muttered under his breath, still unwilling to admit defeat: "I just think it's inappropriate. Why is a grown man like you always flirting with young girls?"

Is Lucy even sixteen this year? You're still living with her? How old are you?!

Why does this feel more and more off? Mercer looked at her suspiciously a few times: "Then who do you think is a good match for me?"

"You should at least be an adult, right? Aren't you an adult too?"
You yourself said you like adult women, so why are you always flirting with young girls? Even if you're going to date, shouldn't you find someone around your age, at least an adult woman?

V said it unconsciously.

Rebecca's eyes widened immediately: "So, you've been waiting here? Damn it, V, I'm going to fight you!"

"Damn it! I wasn't talking about myself! I meant, uh, like Qiwei?" V quickly retorted.

"Don't try to use her as an excuse!" Rebecca felt she had seen right through her; this two-faced, wicked woman!

Rebecca glared at her fiercely: "V, I think that's not very nice of you. If you're not interested in him, then whatever he does or whatever other people do is none of your business."

If you're interested in him, stop whining and let's compete fairly.

V remained silent for a while before finally blurting out, "Fine, I'm too lazy to care anyway. I'm trying to give you some advice, but you won't listen."

“I don’t need you to worry about me. I know what I’m doing and what kind of person he is. I know myself!” Rebecca remained unyielding.

Seeing that the two were about to fight in the car, Mercer waved his hand and said, "Alright, shut up, the car is here!"

The two exchanged a glance, but V looked away first. As the sounds of weapons being cocked rang out, Pila took a deep breath and climbed into the driver's seat.

"My job is just to drive and keep a safe distance from Behemoth, right?"

Pila said.

Mercer grunted in agreement, unplugged the data cable, and plugged it directly into the small server next to him.

"Move the car to its side, but don't let it fly through your air, can you do that?"

Pila nodded emphatically, "Don't worry! My long arms are pretty agile. Hold on tight, I need to get to the highway!"

Mercer was wearing his seatbelt and wasn't worried at all, but Rebecca was almost thrown out by the jolt. V instinctively pulled her back, and the two looked at each other but didn't say anything this time.

Making a fuss in private is a private matter; you can't mess around when you're working.

Pila drove very fast, and in just five minutes he approached the Behemoth armored vehicle. He stepped on the gas, and the seemingly dilapidated cargo truck was no less fast than the incredibly heavy armored vehicle.

Pila drove the car to the side of Beacon and immediately shouted, "That driver is looking at me in the rearview mirror!"

"Cracking in progress!"

Mercer's eyes flashed blue, and the car's radar instantly focused on Behemoth beside him.

As the server began to hum and roar, Mercer also took off his coat.

The heat sink on his back, resembling shark gills, slowly rose, and his body emitted a machine-like humming sound.

"Initiating the cracking process. Estimated time: three seconds!"

Mercer quickly assessed the time required to crack the code.

This Behemoth has large, professional military ICE equipment, but fortunately it also has professional servers, and moreover, it has him, a top-notch hacker.

Brain-computer interface overclocking, activated!
Synaptic accelerator, activated!
Mercer's world began to slow down, and a massive flow of data began to be exchanged from the network access bay, much like the feeling of diving deep into the Arasaka server, making him feel invincible.

[Mercury: Morning Star, give it a try.]

He even had the leisure to let his AI try it out.

[Morning Star: Cracking program is running. Estimated cracking time: 21 seconds.]

[Mercer: I gave you computing power, didn't I?]

[Morning Star: Estimated time, 5 seconds.]

[Mercer: Looks like I still need to practice. Simply using programs mechanically isn't enough to make a good AI.]

[Morning Star: You're right, I still need to learn more.]

Mercer's interaction with the Morning Star lasted less than 0.2 seconds, and that was while he was hacking in and casually chatting with it.

The heat sink behind him quickly turned on its highest power, and countless data streams were received and sent in front of him.

The military ICE began to resist, and a massive data stream rushed towards Mercer along the network connection. This was a large-scale military ICE launching an automated counter-intrusion against Mercer, with the aim of destroying any network targets that were intruding on it.

For most hackers, seeing this scene would only mean racking their brains to crack the hacking program and compete with ICE in a numerical battle.

But Mercer was different.

In a very short time, he saw the various programs composed of these complex data, and while hacking the automatically running programs, he analyzed the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the data program structure composed of ICE.

Then, exploit vulnerabilities and weaknesses to crack and infiltrate the system.

In Mercer's mind, this breathtaking cyber battle lasted for a long time, but in the real world, only a second had passed before the massive military ICE was about to be overwhelmed.

The driver of Behemoth had just seen the intrusion warning for the vehicle's infotainment system. He only had time to shout a warning to the entire vehicle before instinctively swerving the car to one side.

Pila instinctively slammed on the brakes, and Mercer, despite wearing a seatbelt, was nearly thrown out, but he simply let gravity carry him, his mind still fully focused on offense and defense.

V instinctively reached out and pressed his hand tightly against V's: "Mercer!"

"nailed it!"

Mercer blinked sharply: "The people hacking into the car's system, V, they're about to open the door. Get out and take them down! I'll apply the brakes slowly to prevent the car from going out of control due to inertia and things from crashing!"

Three seconds?

No, the actual time used was even less than three seconds!
With the computing power provided by a small server, which narrowed the hardware gap between Mercer and the large military ICE, and with the support of his brain, the entire process from intrusion to completion took only a little over two seconds!

Without hesitation, V activated the Sinweistein!

She opened the car door and jumped out in less than half a second. Then, in a way that was incomprehensible to ordinary people, she landed at high speed, jogged a few times to dissipate inertia, turned around, ran, and quickly approached the rear door of the Behemoth.

V stared at the Behemoth armored vehicle's door as it slowly opened.

That's so slow.
V even had the leisure to comment on how quickly the Behemoth's rear door opened.

The moment the car door opened just wide enough for one person to pass through, her hands, like iron clamps, suddenly reached in and grabbed the ankles of two biotech soldiers standing on either side of the rear door, holding Ajax assault rifles.

Before the two soldiers could react, they felt a tremendous force suddenly come from their ankles, and then they were pulled and shoved through the not-yet-fully-opened car door, thrown to the ground by a tremendous force.

Behemoth was still traveling at nearly 60 km/h, which was definitely not a slow speed. What does it mean to be grabbed and thrown out of a car at such a speed?
The biotechnology soldiers didn't even have time to think; all they saw was the ground getting closer and closer, followed by the sound of their bones shattering. After losing consciousness, they continued to roll around on the ground several times without stopping.

Inside the open car door, several biotechnology soldiers with shocked expressions could be seen, and the driver's terrified voice made it clear that disaster was imminent.

"The car is out of control! It's slowing down!"

V felt that the sound in her ears was strange and slow—the slowed-down and lengthened sound was like the babbling of some strange monster, which she disliked very much.

So she decided to get in the car and shut those guys up.

Rebecca was so anxious she wanted to jump out, but she didn't have the ability. So she could only flip over to the passenger seat, open the window, and lean out to face Behemoth's wide-open trunk.

However, he couldn't pull the trigger at all.

Because in the short time it took her to move from the trunk to the passenger side and open the window, V had already finished the fight.

"Damn it! I didn't even fire a single shot!"

Rebecca, enraged, fired a shot at the Behemoth carriage: "Speed ​​up! Speed ​​up! Drive faster than I can! I'm going to shoot that driver!"

Pila was completely stunned—he could barely see V's shadow, only two biotech soldiers who were suddenly thrown to the ground and turned into mincemeat.

Then came a series of clanging sounds from inside the carriage, followed by four more soldiers being thrown out. One of them even grazed the front of the van and was spun three times in the air by Pila before splitting into two pieces!
Then, two biotechnology researchers in white coats were thrown out. They were still alive in the air, and Pila could see them flailing their arms and legs as they flew out of the carriage, their faces filled with terror and confusion!

I'm crazy
What the hell is that monster?!
Pila felt a chill run down his spine; this was the first time in his life he had ever witnessed such an unsolvable battle.

He heard Rebecca's shout and instinctively stepped on the gas, rushing to Behemoth's driver's seat.

"Die to me!"

Rebecca pointed her shotgun at the car window, let out a furious roar, and then repeatedly pulled the trigger. But after firing two shots, she realized...
The driver had already died in his seat, convulsing all over.

To make matters worse, even after spraying it twice, she still couldn't break the Behemoth's super-thick bulletproof window!

"Damn it! What a piece of junk!" Rebecca slammed her fist on Behemoth's car door in frustration, turned and shrank back into the car, glaring at Mercer angrily: "Leave one for me!"

"Don't be silly, this thing is manufactured to withstand artillery fire. Even bulletproof glass would take a lot of time to break with a heavy machine gun."

This is a military armored vehicle, not one of those modified ones you see on the street.”

Mercer chuckled and urged, "Hurry up, slow down. I need to bring Behemoth to a stop. Get everything in, and bring the people in too. We need to get out of here."

Rebecca sullenly hugged the shotgun, looking at the weapon in her hand with disgust. This military science boasted so much, claiming it was the best choice for close combat firepower, but it was not even as good as the Iron Gallbladder she picked up from the animal gang!

What a waste of money!

No way, after this mission, she's going to get a gorilla arm! Or maybe a S.A.S.A.S.! She can't be too much weaker than V!
"Received!" Pila finally broke into a belated burst of excitement.

I grass!

Is this the strength of our team?

That was awesome! That was awesome!
Our team is just too strong!

Pira began to decelerate and brake rapidly, while Mercer remotely controlled Behemoth to gradually come to a stop as well.

Once the car was completely stopped, Rebecca couldn't wait to rush out, angrily grabbing her shotgun to see if there was any spot she could pick up.

But all Rebecca could see was a hand gripping a woman's neck, smiling broadly at her.

Inside the modified Behemoth's rear compartment, some medical equipment was scattered on the ground, and the white interior was smeared with red blood. The woman in V's hands was struggling desperately, trying to pry open V's hand that was gripping her neck.

The woman was Emilia Morton, the project manager whom Mercer had instructed to spare alive.

"Damn it! Just leave me one, please!"

Rebecca was so angry that she kicked Behemoth's tire.

"Alright, stop dawdling. Drug samples, which box contained the drugs?"

V released her grip, throwing Emilia off the train. She landed heavily on her backside, screaming in panic, "Who...who are you? Do you know who I am?"

"All I know is that if you fucking bastard again, I'll blow your head off! I haven't killed anyone yet today!" Rebecca fiercely pressed the shotgun directly against Emilia's head.

Emilia screamed, "I'll talk! I'll talk! The sample, the sample, it's here! It's this box!"

"Where are the other experimental data? Where are the important and valuable things?" Rebecca practically shoved the shotgun into her mouth, looking like she couldn't wait to pull the trigger.

V clicked her tongue in amazement, thinking that this little girl looked even more brutal than her when she got angry.

"Data, there's some valuable data in this laptop. I have money! I have money! If you spare my life, I'll give you all the money in my account!"

Emilia screamed in fear.

However, a red subtitle appeared in her eyes.

[?: I advise you not to waste your time. Just say what you need to say. All your prosthetics are locked down, and you can't send out distress signals. I have plenty of time to pry your mouth open.]

Emilia's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally died.

Because she didn't even know how she was hacked, a hacker of that skill who said they would lock her communication signal would not give her any chance at all.

"There's a high-end blood analyzer over there, it can sell for over ten thousand euros on the black market. That's it, there's nothing of value in this car!"

Emilia said with a hint of self-abandonment.

Mercer's voice rang in V's ear: "Get the people and goods onto the truck. Take whatever you want. We're leaving."

"Received." V replied simply, carrying the suitcase in one hand and glancing at the blood analyzer that was over two meters long and over one meter tall with the other.

"Do you want to take it? There's no room in the car." V was still a little reluctant.

"You can take it if you can carry it."

As soon as Mercer finished speaking, V used all his strength to lift the large instrument up without saying a word.

She's really ruthless. She only had some basic muscle enhancements in her arms, yet she's stronger than most people who have gorilla arms.

"Damn it, take that woman away! There's still cargo! What are you standing there for?!"

V said something to the somewhat dumbfounded Rebecca in an annoyed tone. Rebecca pouted, but grabbed Emilia and threw her out of the car.

Pila also got out of the car and helped carry Emilia into the trunk.

When Emilia looked up, she saw a man wearing a white hockey mask sitting at the back, staring at her.

"You should know that hackers like me have plenty of ways to pry things out of your head, so if you cooperate, it'll save me trouble, everyone's life will be easier, and if I still think you're useful in the end, you might be able to survive."

what do you think? "

As Mercer finished speaking, Emilia nodded repeatedly.

V and Rebecca worked together to stuff the machine, which looked to weigh at least 300 or 400 pounds, into the back of the truck. They then picked up two weapons left behind by the biotech people as trophies, climbed into the truck, and closed the door again.

"Go inside and stay there, don't move around."

V pushed Emilia, who was crawling on the ground making room for the machine, aside, and she looked at Mercer with a pitiful expression: "I'll cooperate, I'll cooperate with anything you want, please, I'm just an employee."

“Imelia, the project manager is no ordinary worker.”

Mercer unplugged the server cable, slowly put on his coat, covered his back again, and at the same time, activated the recording function in his prosthetic eye.

In 2077, one of the reasons why most people will be able to give up their mobile phones is that the combination of prosthetic eyes and brain-computer interfaces will almost completely replace all the functions of mobile phones.

"I... I really am just an obedient person! You have no idea that the current project team is just a tool for the two deputy directors to get promoted!"
This project, I mean the poisoning incident in Yucca Town, was also something the deputy director ordered me to do!

I have no idea! There's absolutely nothing I can do!

They wanted to scam money from the military science department, so they had to come up with an outrageous project; this poisoning was a demonstration!

Emilia assumed that Mercer had come for this reason—what else could it be?

Mercer's eyes, hidden beneath the mask, remained completely still.

"Don't rush to defend yourself. Tell me the whole story, all the information about the people involved, and the medication."

Emilia was on the verge of tears with despair, but she could only force a smile and say, "Okay, I'll tell you."
In short, this whole thing was orchestrated by Associate Director Joanna Koch, with technical support from Dr. Diana Kuno.

She wanted to cooperate with military technology. I mean, actually, I came up with the idea. My idea was to find a long and complicated project, make grand promises, get military technology to invest, and then we could make money off it.

As a result, Joanna came up with the idea of ​​poisoning the entire town of Yucca!
She drugged the residents of Yucca town with a chronic virus, and then, under the guise of drug testing, experimented with the development of an antidote.

This chronic virus isn't fatal! It's just a project demonstration, you understand? We're looking at the few viruses we're most confident we can handle.

Once we've demonstrated our capabilities to the military using this virus, we plan to use it to launch a larger project.

The current idea is that we can say we can develop a biological agent that, when injected, can make soldiers permanently immune to most toxins, turning them into super soldiers who are immune to viral weapons!

Our current medicine is actually quite effective. Look, no one in Yucca Town has had any problems yet. Those guys don't even know they've been poisoned repeatedly!
Sometimes we give antidotes, sometimes we give viruses. We repeatedly test whether several easily treatable viruses can work on people injected with the 'super soldier' ​​drug.

But I swear, everything is fine with the project now. Dr. Diana Kuno, although she is also the deputy director, is a true doer, and these drugs won't harm anyone."

Before Mercer could speak, Rebecca angrily raised her shotgun: "But you told the people in town that you were testing cold medicine!"
Damn it! You bunch of corporate dogs deserve to die!

"I...we were just trying to save money. I was wrong. When I get back, I'll withdraw from the project. I'll pay compensation to those people from Yucca Town, and I'm even willing to testify for you! I'm willing to accuse Deputy Director Joanna and Dr. Kuno on your behalf!"

Emilia spoke hastily.

Mercer remained indifferent: "The Red Ochre Tribe? Are they also testing the virus?"

"Red ochre? No, no, no, that's not the same thing. We poisoned the water source for red ochre in order to reclaim the land. Those bastards took advantage of the war to occupy a piece of land and then claimed it as their own."

We asked them to return the land, but they claimed that it was land they had been cultivating for many years and that they had paid to rent it. They said the contract was invalid!
They've been scammed! That money never even reached us! They said it was handed over to the city hall, but our company has the land certificate Night City gave us!
Since there were many of them, the company didn't want to cause any major incidents like forced demolition or a fight, so they simply targeted the water source.
Once their crops are dead and the water is poisoned, these people from the Red Ochre tribe will naturally leave obediently. Then we can... I mean, find them other jobs, and they certainly won't refuse.

After Emilia finished speaking, Mercer sneered.

“Work? I’m guessing it’s drug testing, right?” Mercer said.

Emilia swallowed hard: "This is the company's standard procedure. I mean, inject genetic viruses into water sources or land, and then when the original owner can't stand it anymore, we take the land back at a lower price."

Alternatively, they could be asked to grow crops that are immune to this toxin, for which we would charge a seed fee.
These are common tricks used by companies. A skilled hacker like you must have seen countless similar incidents online.

I'm just a working-class person. If I don't follow the rules, I'm doomed. I can't fight back unless I'm prepared to be kicked out!

Emilia pleaded desperately, "I've told you everything I know, please, let me go."

Mercer pondered for a moment, but V's temper had already reached its breaking point: "Mercer, just kill her! This kind of scum deserves to die!"

"Don't cause trouble! Don't you know who Mercer is?" Rebecca said, but surprisingly, she wasn't in a hurry anymore—she knew that Mercer would definitely make this woman pay the price.

Even she could tell that this woman was spouting nonsense, so how could Mercer not know?

V sat back down angrily, feeling utterly disgusted by everything she heard.

Just for money, they poisoned the entire town.

Just because of a land dispute, they actually wanted to poison the water source of a homeless family, to kill all their crops and all their hopes, and then force them to be guinea pigs for the company.

This biotech company is absolutely disgusting.

The thought of biotechnology companies being everywhere in Night City made V feel incredibly depressed.

For the first time, she genuinely felt that Mercer's madness made perfect sense, and that they should utterly destroy that group of idiots at the company!
Mercer said calmly, "I won't ask about those things now. I have a general understanding. I'll ask about something else."

“Okay, okay.” Emilia thought the two women were quite scary, but Mercer, who was wearing a scary mask, seemed to speak more gently. Maybe they could talk?
"Biotechnology companies, I mean biotechnology companies in Night City, besides your useless projects, do you have any valuable experimental projects, equipment, or things that you know what I mean?"

After Mercer finished speaking, Emilia was stunned: "You're planning to...you're planning to just go to the company and steal things? No, impossible! You can't do it!"

"It's not that I'm underestimating you, but even late at night, the company has two full squads of senior agents stationed there, along with a dozen robots and dozens of biotechnology soldiers on rotation."

Every key resource is monitored and patrolled 24 hours a day, and we can also call for support. Normally, three combat teams rotate shifts and rest in nearby dormitories, ready to arrive at the company within ten minutes to respond to any attack!

Mercer frowned beneath his mask, tilting his head slightly: "I'll ask you a question, and you'll answer it."

"Okay! Let me think about it."

Emilia gritted her teeth and began to rack her brains: "We don't have much data in our database. Most of the equipment in the company is large equipment, the kind you can't take away. Small equipment is the kind you don't need."
Advanced blood purification machines? Nanorobot production machines? But these are hard to obtain. We've already secured all the raw materials. Even if you take the machines, they're useless without the special raw materials they require.

Let me think... Uh, there's a lot of experimental data on the server, and some machine design diagrams? Maybe those are what you need?

Mercer sighed.

It seems there's nothing worth his time or effort.

Perhaps we'll have to wait until he hacks the server and searches through the data to see if there's anything he needs.

Well, it's fine. If we can make money by selling a big news story and a bunch of biotechnology data, then it should be worth the trip.

Hearing Mercer sigh, Emilia felt a chill run down her spine: "I really don't know anything else, please."

Suddenly, sparks flew from her head. Before Mercer's back heat dissipation system could even activate, her head had already been hacked.

Mercer took out a data cable from his palm, inserted it directly into her neck, scanned the contents of her brain-computer interface, copied everything that needed to be copied, then removed the personal chip from her neck, transferred all the money inside, and then opened his laptop.

He quickly found a matching bank using Emilia's personal information while she was unconscious, and then Mercer shook her awake again.

What is your bank password?

After Mercer finished asking the question, Emilia stared at him blankly for a while before she came to her senses.

Realizing she was doomed, her expression gradually turned ferocious and terrifying: "You want to kill me and take my money? Dream on!"

"If you want money, then let me go. I'll pay any price as long as I can see a way to survive, but don't even think about getting a single penny now."

Mercer pondered for a moment, then suddenly had a brilliant idea: he directly transmitted a lie detector program into her brain.

"How many digits is your online banking login password, 6-8 digits?"

"You can't find out!" Emilia cursed in anguish, clutching her head.

"A seven-digit number? Looks right. The first digit, 123456, seems to be 6. The second digit, 12345, um, is 5."

Mercer soon realized he didn't need Emilia's answer at all; he simply used the neurological fluctuations provided by the lie detector program to make his judgment.

Even if some numbers are misread, Mercer only needs to know the general idea.

Emilia was in agony and desperately wanted to be free. She would rather die than let Mercer take her money for nothing. Mercer simply tried a few times and opened her bank account. Then, using the personal authentication that Emilia had implanted in her body, he easily transferred all the money into the virtual wallet of her personal chip.

"Wow~ 370,000 euros! It has to be you, a manager can make that much?"

"Damn, wait a minute, you must have other money hidden away. Given your level and how ruthless you are, it wouldn't make sense if you didn't have a million euros in savings."

Mercer was overjoyed.

Damn, these corporate dogs are so rich!?
Why didn't I have this experience back then!
If I had known all this when I killed that old woman Arasaka, wouldn't I have been rich by now?
"Aaaaah! You're going to hell! You bastard! Damn it!" Emilia screamed in despair when she saw that he had actually transferred the money.

V and Rebecca, who had long been fed up with her, each gave Emilia a blow without saying a word after Mercer nodded in approval.

V used his fists, and Rebecca used the butt of her gun. The two of them, one on each side, managed to smash Emilia so hard that she almost died.

"Luckily I blocked her biometric monitoring, otherwise the trauma team would probably have come."

Mercer glared at them both: "I mean, knock them out first!"

“I know it’s her fault, she hit me too hard with the butt of the gun,” V immediately shifted the blame.

"Huh? How dare you say that, you super strong woman? I can't even hit you with a hammer as hard as your punch!" Rebecca started arguing with her again.

Mercer smiled, tossed Emilia's personal chip in his hand, checked it on the computer to find no dangerous programs, and then inserted it into her head.

Mercer transferred all the money from his virtual wallet to a new virtual wallet he had recently purchased, which was currently empty of coins. He breathed a long, happy sigh of relief.

There are so many good people in the company!

If this manager is this rich, how rich must the director be?

Pila's voice came from the driver's seat: "We're leaving the farm. We have to get off in a few minutes. What about the woman?"

"Take it with you, we'll kill it halfway and dump it in the landfill—trash should stay where it belongs."

Mercer gave Emilia a cold look.

Rebecca, on the other hand, was visibly excited, giggling happily: "Well said! Mercer! Trash should be thrown where trash belongs!"

She pointed at V and said, "You're not allowed to take her from me this time! I'm going to shoot this scumbag myself!"

"Whatever, I had a blast today." V ​​chuckled, rubbing her arm with satisfaction.

She felt like she had just been a superhero!
If Sianwistan is already like this, once I replace all the other stuff, who in Night City will be my match?

Rebecca looked at her for a while, then turned to Mercer: "After this job is finished, I want to get a prosthetic body too! Mercer, come with me! Help me see what I should modify! I want to make it even better than hers!"

"Okay, even if you don't tell me, I'll still take you, Pila, and V there. You're all going to be fighting on the front lines, facing the greatest risks and needing the most cybernetic modifications."

In the early stages, we will allocate some resources to you, but let me make it clear first: I need to reconsider the high-load prosthetic body like the S.A.S ...

It could easily turn into cyberpsychosis.

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused and said, "Moreover, that thing is very expensive. Cheap ones are not good, and good ones start at hundreds of thousands. My suggestion is to start small."

Anyway, go get a checkup first, then we'll talk. Don't keep comparing yourself to V; her talent is truly exceptional, something not everyone can learn.

Looking at the entire history of cyberpunk and considering the various endings of the game, it seems that only V has accomplished 'snatching people from the Terrorist Mobile Unit' and 'soloing the Arasaka Tower and defeating the Heavy Hammer in a one-on-one fight'.

Or perhaps it's one of those astonishing and terrifying achievements, like "sending a lark to the moon under heavy American military force" or "single-handedly sweeping away all the cyber psychopaths in Night City."

Rebecca was still a little unconvinced, but since Mercer had said it, she could only look at V with displeasure: "You think so highly of her? I'm very talented too!"

"I know, but the gap between geniuses can sometimes be bigger than you think," Mercer calmly assessed, hoping to make Rebecca realize her own limitations.

Otherwise, what if she impulsively changes herself to resemble V and then becomes a cyber psychopath?
Even from the detected attributes, we can only get a little reference, but no one can know the exact capacity of the prosthetic body.

"Just like how Qiwei is also a genius, but Lucy is probably even more of a genius, but if you're going to compare Lucy to me, what do you think?"

After Mercer gave this example, Rebecca suddenly became somewhat dejected. She pursed her lips and, after a long while, said, "Is the difference really that big?"

"I don't know, I don't know what your potential is, but I do know that what's more important than strength is that you have a strong heart."

Rebecca, in this city, the kindness of most people is killed the moment they first see the city for what it is, but yours wasn't. That's what makes you so precious, and what I believe is your greatest talent.

Mercer spoke in a gentle tone.

Rebecca then looked up into his eyes, which gazed at her with the same gentle yet firm look they had when they first met.

Oh shit.

From that moment on, Rebecca knew one thing clearly—she had to get this man.

Seeing her eyes regain their resolve, Mercer couldn't help but smile, thinking his encouragement had been effective.

V thought so too. She stopped arguing with Rebecca and showing off. Instead, she gently reached out and touched her hair: "I agree with Mercer on this point. Perhaps you are much stronger than me in this aspect."

Rebecca shook her head, her twin ponytails brushing against her arm as she broke free: "Don't touch my head. Anyway, don't worry, I'm not that fragile."

I just feel really frustrated that I can't help at all like this.

Pila remained silent, only glancing at the rearview mirror every now and then.

His eyes held a mixture of relief and inexplicable shame. Upon reflection, he realized that as the older brother, he had never been as steadfast in his support of Rebecca as Mercer had been.

With a sigh, Pila felt an inexplicable sense of belonging to this team for the first time.

He knew he was unreliable and always off-track, but that was just who he was. However, that didn't change the fact that he genuinely hoped Rebecca could live a good and happy life.

This was something his father had repeatedly told him to do, something he absolutely had to do, even at the cost of his life.

He never did a good job before, but if he were on this team, someone should be able to do all of this for him.

"Alright, there are plenty of battles to fight in the future. No matter how powerful V is, he's only one person. Don't expect V to do all the work by himself."

Mercer smiled and reached out to ruffle her hair. Rebecca didn't dodge, just hummed in response, reverting to her carefree self and proactively changing the subject:

"Pira, how much longer until we arrive?"

"We've arrived. Just a short walk up a dirt road."

Pila responded, and the car began to bounce.

Less than three minutes later, an open garage came into view. Lucy and Qiwei were waiting for them next to the garage, where a modified four-seater pickup truck, borrowed from Adcado, was parked.

In addition, Mercer's Mizutani Jun sports car was also parked to the side.

Mercer and his men quickly got out of the car, unloaded the goods, put the stolen blood testing equipment in the back of the pickup truck, and then took the laptops, small servers and other valuables from the car and put them on the pickup truck.

“V, forget it. Rebecca, you come with me to get rid of this woman. V, you and the others take the pickup truck and send the stuff back to Adcado.”

Mercer gave instructions, hesitated for a moment, and then handed the briefcase containing the medicine to V, while Rebecca excitedly grabbed Emilia.

Rebecca cheered, then gave her another hard pat on the forehead before stuffing her into the trunk of Mercer's car.

V and Pila then took the tarpaulin from the back of the pickup truck, covered the things at the back of the truck, tied it tightly with rope, and finally Pila sat in the driver's seat of the pickup truck.

"See you at the camp?"

V looked at Mercer.

Mercer nodded: "See you at the camp."

He stepped on the gas, and with Rebecca's happy laughter, the Falcon 'Wild Wolf' shot off in a flash.

Everything went very smoothly. On the way back, Mercer even saw the NCPD driving out of Night City, presumably someone had called the police about a crime that had occurred on the highway.

But it was precisely because he saw the NCPD first that Mercer felt completely relieved—this meant that his information blockade was very successful, and no one on the vehicle was able to trigger the distress alarm.

Biotechnology probably doesn't even know its car has been hijacked yet, let alone investigate who did it.

Sure enough, Mercer took a detour from Night City to the junkyard in the eastern suburbs, and the journey was smooth and easy, almost like taking a leisurely drive.

When they arrived near the junkyard, Mercer stopped the car, and Rebecca eagerly jumped out, clutching her shotgun.

"Leave it to me! Leave it to me! I'll blast this scumbag in two with my shotgun!"

Rebecca opened Mercer's trunk with murderous intent. Inside, Emilia, who had been jostled around all the way, was still unconscious with bumps all over her head.

She couldn't wake up even if she wanted to, because her mind was constantly being hacked and controlled by Mercer. Whenever her brainwaves showed any sign of waking up, Mercer would immediately knock her unconscious with a brutal data attack.

Rebecca roughly grabbed her and pulled her out of the car. Because she was short, when she dragged her along by the arm, almost half of her body was dragged on the ground.

Mercer thought for a moment, then followed.

The junkyard he chose was actually the place where the protagonist V was shot dead by the fat black guy in the game. It was also here that he was resurrected by the Relic chip and had no choice but to go on the path of causing trouble for Arasaka in order to survive.

The amount of trash here isn't as overwhelming as it seems now, but it's already starting to take shape.

Emilia didn't wake up even after being dragged deep into the junkyard. Rebecca kicked her roughly twice, then turned to Mercer and asked, "Is she already dead?"

"Let me try."

Mercer jolted her awake with data, and Emilia slowly opened her eyes, muttering blankly, "Where...where am I?"

“Very good!” Rebecca snorted, cocked her shotgun, and aimed it at the woman’s head.

"No! Don't kill me! No!" Emilia's plea for mercy was cut short.

"Go and tell those you poisoned!"

Rebecca pulled the trigger without hesitation.

She just wanted this woman to watch herself die—a shot fired for those who were unknowingly poisoned by biotechnology.

Emilia's head exploded instantly, but Rebecca, still not satisfied, fired two more shots at her before reluctantly putting the gun away. After taking a deep breath, she was overwhelmed by the stench of the junkyard, which made her face scrunch up.

She turned her head to look at Mercer and smiled, "Thank you, I feel much better."

"Let's go. Soon the prosthetic body inside her will lose power, which will trigger the employee's bio-signal alarm."

After Mercer finished speaking, Rebecca walked over to him with a giggle and leaned on his arm: "Where are we going next?"

"Go back first, change cars, and then keep watch around the biotechnology company—unless a state of emergency is declared, we'll carry out the infiltration at 2 a.m. tonight."

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused and said, "Once we get the data and hand it over to Wakako, this deal will be closed."

Then you can rest for a few days, lay low for a bit, and go to Dogtown to talk things over with Hanz.

Once we're in Dogtown, it won't matter if biotech gets our personal information; they don't give a damn about us there.

"So, we're just leaving it at that?" Rebecca casually put one of his arms around him, tilting her head slightly to look at him from the side.

Mercer tried to pull his arm away—but he couldn't. It wasn't that he was lying; Rebecca's strength was negligible for V, but for him, it was unbelievably great.

"What do you mean?" Mercer turned to look at Rebecca.

Rebecca looked him in the eye: "Of course we should expose them! How can we let biotechnology get away with doing such disgusting things? They're secretly poisoning an entire town!"
They even poisoned the water source for the Red Ochre tribe! This must be exposed so everyone can see the true face of biotechnology!

Mercer pondered for a moment, and he truly felt that the so-called exposure and news were meaningless to the people living in this city.

Because media outlets with vested interests in biotechnology will not report the relevant facts, while media outlets that are at odds with them are actually writing about related negative stories every day.

People are only interested in the 'facts' they like or believe; you can never wake someone who is used to living in a false dream.

But some things, once done, will eventually have some impact. Even if it only causes its stock price to drop, it can still cause trouble for some people in the biotechnology industry.

Moreover, he had already planned the use of Emilia's testimony; otherwise, he wouldn't have activated the recording function of his prosthetic eye beforehand to record everything she said.

Mercer said with a smile, "Of course it will be exposed, but we can't give away the information we got so hard to obtain to TV stations to earn traffic for free."
I think companies like Kangtao, Trauma Group, and Su Petrochemical probably wouldn't mind taking a side trip into biotechnology.

Moreover, these large companies will not let such big news pass by. They will definitely take advantage of this news to make a big profit in the biotechnology sector in the stock market, which will also make people in the biotechnology industry feel the pain for a while.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about finance, but luckily some people do, or I can learn some on the fly. We can use this information to get some investment advice and maybe even make a little money off the ride.

Despite its power, the cyberpunk world's corporations are still subject to the drawbacks of being publicly traded companies, namely, stock prices.

Stock exchanges are located all over the world, and one can often tell whether a company is doing well or poorly by looking at its stock performance.

"Well, I don't really understand, but as long as it gets exposed, that's fine," Rebecca said with a grin.

Mercer turned to look at her with a somewhat uncomfortable expression: "Why are you talking to me so rudely?"

"Really? Huh? How come I didn't know?" She hugged Mercer's arm and laughed even more happily.

Mercer looked at her speechlessly: "Be natural, Rebecca, you're starting to look a little scary."

"Damn it, I really didn't." Rebecca couldn't help but curse, looking at him with a bit of grievance and displeasure: "I just want to talk to you like this, is that not allowed?"
"Does it only make you comfortable when I talk to you like I do to Pila and V?"

After she finished speaking, she chuckled and said, "Oh, right. You still haven't answered the question I asked you on Christmas Day!"

"There's something I feel I need to make clear to you first." Mercer decided to get things straight with her.

He looked at Rebecca seriously: "I really think we should wait two more years before talking about dating. I'm not saying we have to be rigid and wait until we're all adults before we can talk about feelings."

Even from a realistic perspective, we have more than one or two things to do right now, and I don't have much time for romance in the short term.

Although I'd love to let loose and be myself, I'll wait another two years.

Rebecca gave him a 'Are you kidding me?' look, her little face scrunched up, and she looked at him with some dissatisfaction for a while. But in the end, she just clicked her tongue, let go of his hand as if she was sulking, and puffed out her cheeks without saying a word.

She felt that Mercer wasn't telling the truth.

The two returned to the car. After Rebecca sat down and closed the door, she stared intently at Mercer's profile. She glared at him for a while, clearly annoyed, before asking him very seriously:

"You think you don't like me? You don't have any good feelings towards me? If that's the case, I don't care about you. You can't push me away no matter how much I pester you."

Her attitude was very firm, and there was no hint of joking in her eyes as she said seriously, "I didn't just act on impulse; I've thought it through carefully!"

Before, it might have been because I had been drinking, or simply because I felt it was rare to meet someone whose values, personality, and appearance were all compatible with mine, that I wanted to have a relationship with you.

But now I'm sure I've made up my mind—I think I've fallen for you. You can think it's love at first sight, or that I'm just being overly emotional and thoughtless, whatever you want, that's how it is!
I don't think I'll ever meet another person as wonderful as you in Night City.
My father once said that in this lifetime, you might only meet the right person once in Night City, and if you miss them, you'll never have another one.

I won't give up just because you casually reject me a few times! I'll always only have eyes for you!

Mercer turned to look at her, but she unceremoniously reached out and removed his mask.

Since she had already seen it, Mercer didn't try to avoid it. Rebecca met his gaze and, for the first time, seriously examined his face and observed his expression.

"This doesn't sound like a confession, it sounds like you want to fight me. Staring at me like that is a little scary," Mercer replied half-jokingly.

"I'm prepared to fight! I've made up my mind, unless you find me annoying, I'll keep watching you!"

Rebecca snorted, showing no intention of backing down.

Mercer could only nod: "Okay, I understand."

"You know what that means?" Rebecca asked, annoyed, shaking her leg in frustration.

She felt she had been direct enough.

"What I mean is, if you want to keep an eye on me, then keep an eye on me. I'm not trying to find an excuse to refuse you or make excuses. I would say the same thing to anyone."

Mercer started the car and drove towards the Badlands.

Rebecca then smiled contentedly: "So even if we're not dating, I don't need to deliberately keep my distance from you, right?"

“No need, just don’t be too proactive, especially in front of everyone. I really don’t know how to react then.” Mercer said, trying to put his mask back on, but she reached out and pressed Mercer’s hand first.

"It's just the two of us, let me look a little longer, what's the rush?" she said casually, smiling at him. Seeing that he just glanced at her helplessly and didn't refuse, she was even happier.

Unlike Lucy, who looks noticeably younger than in the anime, Rebecca looks exactly the same as she does in the anime.

Girls like her will probably still be like this even when they're in their thirties or forties.

Therefore, Mercer finds it difficult to treat her the same way he treats Lucy. He always feels that she is already complete, and it is hard for him to refuse when she teases him.

Especially when Mercer thought about how she had the same straightforward personality in the anime, it was even harder for him to refuse her—who could refuse a girl who would be willing to sacrifice herself and become Rebecca for you, even if it was just as a backup option?
He can't refuse even a little bit.

If he had any backbone, V wouldn't be starting to suspect he's a pervert now. Damn it, what's wrong with liking pretty and cute girls?

"By the way, what's going on between you and Lucy?" Rebecca suddenly asked.

Mercer's gaze darted around as he said, "Something like your relationship?"

"Damn it! I knew it!" Rebecca immediately snapped, "You're living with her now?"

"I basically sleep in the hacker chair."

After Mercer finished speaking, Rebecca glared at him. Mercer could easily guess that if he couldn't give a satisfactory answer, Rebecca would probably move in starting today.

"Once we move to the new house, we'll definitely live separately."

Seeing his response, Rebecca pursed her lips, seemingly accepting the situation: "What about V? She's beautiful, has a good figure, and isn't young. What do you think of older women like that?"

"She's not bad, just a bit stupid and dares to call me a pervert. She'll see."

Mercer said unhappily, "One day I'll make her take back everything she said!"

"Just don't let her eat anything else you have!" Rebecca rolled her eyes. "That woman doesn't seem like a good person. I mean, I feel like her feelings for you aren't pure either."

Damn, what's wrong with you? You like every pretty girl you see, right?

But strangely enough, all those pretty girls seem to have a bit of a crush on you too.
I feel like even if we actually started dating, I'd be constantly on edge.

Mercer was quite pleased with himself: "Maybe my charm attribute is also 20 points."

"Hmph, it's not impossible." Rebecca changed the subject, looking at him with a smile: "Well~ anyway, we're done with our work, we can do the surveillance later, there's no one around here right now."

"What are you going to do?" Mercer's eyes widened slightly.

Rebecca looked at him for a moment, then chuckled, "We don't have to talk about love, but can't you let your sister have her fun first? I'm so old, and this is the first time I've ever touched a man's hand."

"Are you a pervert?" Mercer exclaimed in surprise.

"Damn, how is that perverted?" Rebecca retorted, "Go ask the girls on the street how many babies my age have they had?"

I'm usually too embarrassed to talk about these things with other people. Damn, I've never even been kissed by a man in my entire life.
Or are you the kind of 'traditional good man' who doesn't date and wouldn't even touch a woman's hand?

Rebecca's eyes were menacing, as if she wanted to devour someone.

Mercer thought for a moment, but under her burning gaze, he still couldn't bring himself to say that he was indeed a traditional good man.

"Just don't go too far."

Mercer spoke hesitantly, but still emphasized, "Let's wait until the atmosphere is right."

"Hehe, okay~" Rebella drawled out her words, then jumped out of the passenger seat, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him on the cheek without any hesitation.

Mercer nearly drove the car in an S-shape: "Are you fucking crazy?"

"Phew," Rebecca took a deep breath before sitting back down, satisfied. "Haha~ Why are you acting like a little girl?"

"Go to hell! Anyone would be stunned if they were hit like that!" Mercer was a little dazed for a moment, but when he came to his senses, he could only glare at her fiercely: "Take it easy."

"Don't worry, don't worry~" Rebecca giggled, like a little girl who had just received a favorite toy: "I won't make things difficult for you around other girls."
But let's get this straight, if I find out anyone dares to sneak away, or if I find out you're just pretending to be coy with me, I'm not going to hold back anymore.

You were the one who sneaked out the most.

Mercer rolled his eyes and put on a mask this time: "I should have rejected you harshly and made you shed your little pearls."

"Then why didn't you refuse?" She looked at Mercer with a smile, and seeing that he didn't speak for a moment, she already knew the answer she wanted.

Rebecca rolled down the car window, a bright, radiant smile spreading across her face. She excitedly raised a shotgun and let out a cheerful, mischievous yell: "Hahaha! I knew you wouldn't want to part with it!"

The driver of a private car passing by was so frightened that he almost slammed on the brakes and flew onto the dirt road beside the highway.

He thought this crazy woman was going to rob him with a shotgun!
Rebecca, seeing the driver's still-shaken expression, just laughed and made a V-sign before retreating back into the car. Under Mercer's speechless gaze, she happily hummed a tune.

Once back at the camp, she calmed down a bit and began to watch Mercer plan the next steps.

Once the action plan was finalized, Mercer and V drove straight to the vicinity of the Biotechnology Building.

Unlike the smooth carjacking, Mercer and V drove around the building a few times, and his expression gradually became serious.

"Looks like it'll take a little more effort."

"What do you mean?"

V was taken aback.

"The biotech people have tightened their defenses. It seems that the death of a technical director made them realize that someone might be watching their 'poisoning plan'."

I bet a lot of people will be working overtime tonight, either preparing for a potential scandal or frantically revising their plans.

Mercer said succinctly.

V scratched his head, not quite sure how he figured it out: "What should we do then? Should we just let it go? We've already squeezed a lot of money out of that woman anyway."

Plus, if I sell that machine to Old Wei or on the black market, I can get 100,000 euros. Then I can earn 150,000 euros in commission from Wakako. I think that's about right.

Wow, I never imagined I could make so much money from a single deal! If we split this, we can all live it up for a whole year!

Mercer did not reply, but instead pondered and looked around.

V's words make sense. Infiltrating the biotechnology building for Wakako's 150,000 euros, especially under martial law, is definitely not a good idea.

But his ultimate goal was to go through the server and see if there was anything he wanted, or any other data that was more valuable.

So, as long as there's an opportunity, I'll still do it—as for V's talk of living a carefree year, I'll just ignore it.

Look at her ambition. Is it really that carefree to eat synthetic meat for every meal, have a couple of beers at a bar, and move to a new doghouse?
Mercer tapped the steering wheel lightly with his fingers, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's try again tonight. According to Wakako's information, we have at least three ways to sneak in and take a look."

As long as there's still one road we can take, we can try to go in and take a look.

If the guard deployment changes and the defenses are strengthened, we will withdraw; if the changes are minor, we will continue with the plan.

This time, we don't need to go directly to the server room. We can just go to the executive office on the 17th floor and hack a computer with a local area network server.

With your and my abilities, sneaking in would simply be a change from a 'very easy' difficulty level to a 'relatively difficult' one.

I will prepare a safe evacuation plan—if an emergency occurs, we can evacuate directly from the top floor.

V was taken aback: "Evacuate from the top floor? How will you evacuate?"

Mercer smirked as his gaze settled on a large trash can.

At this moment, the trash can is being gripped by a yellow, drone-like mechanical arm and is slowly rising into the air.

This is the 'Huagai' special-purpose drone produced by Zeta Technologies, modeled after the Russian Caucasus Corporation's Alas drones.

This drone consists of four crab-leg-like nozzles and a metal clamp the size of a trash can.

The daily work of these drones is to collect trash cans in Night City, pick them up, and then fly them to a landfill in the suburbs to dispose of them.

It operates fully automatically without any human intervention. Even if a malfunction occurs, it can automatically alarm and find a safe place to land, or automatically return to the drone landing site of the garbage recycling company if it detects an abnormality during self-check.

The cost is low, they are everywhere in the city, and they operate 24 hours a day.

This is because the trash cans are also connected to the internet. As soon as the system detects that the trash cans are full, it will trigger the automatic recycling system, which will send a signal to the waste management company via the network, and a drone will fly over to clean them up.

Mercer's prosthetic eye glowed, and the next moment, the canopy drone that had been flying high suddenly stopped in the air for a moment before leaving along its original route.

"I hacked the drone and the trash can—anytime we need, I can fake a signal that the trash can needs to be emptied, and have the 'canopy' fly over without triggering any alarms."

Then, using the program I've planted, we can immediately hijack this drone, and we can experience a simple hovercar.

"Holy crap, is this going to work?" V looked a little panicked. "Won't this thing be destroyed in a few shots? What if we fall off and we're doomed?"

"Don't worry, this thing is very sturdy. Its maximum load capacity is 800KG. It has no drawbacks except for its short battery life, but it can fly for an hour without any problem."

At its full speed of 100 km/h, and capable of hovering and moving through urban areas regardless of terrain, it could easily take us out of Night City.

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused and said, "Moreover, we most likely won't need such a thing. As long as we are cautious enough and act quickly enough, with our abilities, the possibility of being discovered is very low."

The specific plan is that I will take care of getting rid of all the cameras, robots, automated turrets, and door locks that are in the way.

Your job is to eliminate all living people blocking your way.

Doesn't that mean there's no one in this biotech company at all?

"We can do it in ten minutes, steal all the data silently, and leave."

"Killing everyone is the same as having no one around, and eliminating all the witnesses is the same as not being discovered. I get it now, A. You seem calm, but you're actually way crazier than me!"

V muttered a complaint, looked at his hands, and clenched his fists: "I haven't done much stealth work. If something goes wrong, don't blame me!"

"Actually, I've never really done any stealth work properly," Mercer said honestly. "But the last time I did something similar, I did it pretty well."

Mercer felt that the experience he had at the Arasaka base could serve as a perfect 'stealth reference book' for him.

Despite his crude and ruthless work style, the end result is that he is still at large to this day.
"Really?" V looked at him suspiciously.

Mercer nodded confidently: "Really! Just wait until tonight, you'll see!"

(End of this chapter)