Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 83 Arakawa Takes the Bait

Qiwei's breath hit Mercer's neck, and he was breathing heavily as well, until their breathing returned to normal.

"You don't mind if I have a cigarette, do you?"

She had long since sobered up, but at this moment she was still languid and unwilling to move, her fingers gently tapping on his heart, pointing to the cigarette pack on the bedside table not far away.

Mercer reached out and handed her the cigarette case, then, after thinking for a moment, lit one for himself as well.

Come to think of it, this is the first cigarette he's ever smoked since transmigrating. Ironically, back when he was a mortal, he didn't mind smoking or drinking, but now that he's transmigrated to this world where even cancer is just a matter of replacing a part, he's stopped smoking and drinking altogether.

Qiwei was somewhat surprised, but she didn't say anything. She lit her own cigarette first, then leaned in and gently bit her cigarette. Moser understood, and their cigarette butts met. He used her burning cigarette butt to light his own.

"So, do you regret it?" she said softly, but her eyes were secretly watching his expression.

"Why do you ask that?" Mercer countered.

Qiwei chuckled softly, leaning against his shoulder: "Don't you feel like you're getting the short end of the stick with a woman like me for the first time?"

"These things are meaningless." Mercer was long past the age of caring about such things.

Moreover, this wasn't his first time in the true sense.

Before he transmigrated, when he was fourteen or fifteen years old, he thought that he would definitely find a virtuous girl to spend the rest of his life with. But as he grew older, this idea was shattered by the cruel reality.

Now Mercer believes that the only difference between men and women is whether there are feelings involved or not.

At least with Qiwei, he could feel her carefully trying to please him. This feeling was far more important than anything else, allowing him to release all the pressure without any restraint, something he hadn't done in a long time.

As for her past, well, that varies from person to person. Mercer, for one, doesn't care—at least she knows her past is shameful, while some people might even be proud of their rich experiences.

Qiwei just looked at him quietly, and after a while, she laughed: "That's good. I was worried that you would regret being seduced by me after you recovered."

"Of course not. You're a good girl, and I don't think there's anything to regret about becoming 'good friends' with a good girl."

Mercer exhaled a puff of smoke. Having not smoked for so long, he was somewhat unfamiliar with the feeling. Even the menthol-flavored women's cigarette made him feel a little uncomfortable.

Then I might as well not smoke anymore.

He stubbed out his cigarette, stood up, smiled slightly at her, and said, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Hmm, Little Coke?" She smiled and watched him get up and put on his clothes, but felt a little disappointed.

Mercer nodded, got up and took two small cans of Coke from the freezer outside.

Qiwei watched her put the cola on the table and blinked: "Aren't you going back?"

"You want me to turn around and leave right now?" Mercer said with a laugh. "I'll stay with you until you fall asleep."

If a guy turns around and leaves at this point, he's almost certainly a scumbag. He might not think he's that kind of innocent, but he wouldn't just leave after he's done with his work and use her as a tool for venting his frustrations.

"Then you'll have to keep me company for a while." She stubbed out her cigarette, picked up her cola, took a sip, then turned to face Mercer, who was sitting on a chair to the side, and beckoned with her finger.

Mercer simply lay down again, and she smiled happily, snuggling into his arms and gently wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Thank you for giving me a wonderful day and a beautiful dream."

She spoke softly, then closed her eyes.

Mercer hummed in response, gently stroking her back with one hand until she began to breathe evenly and fell into a deep sleep, before carefully leaving the room.

Standing at the door, he shook his head—saying he'd be there for a while, but he still fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

Before returning to his room, Mercer suddenly stopped. He activated the scanning program on his prosthetic eye and then spotted a network signal hovering outside Lucy's door on one side of his room.

Judging from the scanned silhouette, she was leaning against the doorway.
Mercer sighed, then stopped and coughed softly.

There was a slightly chaotic sound coming from Lucy's door. After about five or six seconds, she opened the door and cautiously peeked out to look at him.

The two remained silent for a moment, until finally Mercer said softly, "Go back and rest early."

"Did you do it?" she asked directly.

Mercer's hesitation revealed the answer in an instant. She lowered her head, her small face half-hidden beneath her short silver hair, revealing only her tightly pursed lips. After a long pause, she gave a dry laugh: "So... it's because she's an adult?"

“You could say that. If it were Rebecca, I would refuse,” Mercer said honestly.

Lucy was silent for a moment, then asked without looking at him, "Are you officially a couple?"

"Just good friends," Mercer summarized their relationship in the same simple words.

Lucy then slowly raised her head and turned to look at him.

She pressed her lips together so tightly they turned almost white, and finally said only, "Why didn't you pretend you didn't notice me? How did you know I was waiting for you?"

“I guessed,” Mercer said, smiling slightly at her. “I knew you would subconsciously pay attention to my movements.”

Lucy was speechless.

Even if you lie to her, at least you can give her a reason to deceive herself, right?
"Don't overthink it, just let things take their course. For Qiwei and me, tomorrow will be the same as before. She will still be just a member of the team, and I will be her captain."

She doesn't want to take things further with me, and neither do I; we're just friends.

Mercer spoke frankly.

He looked at her gently and smiled easily, "Don't worry, I won't just abandon you for no reason."

"Say something like that at a time like this?" Lucy was speechless, but for some reason she was also quite taken with it. Her complicated emotions turned into simple annoyance.

After all, logically speaking, she didn't really have the right to say anything to him—the two of them had at most a somewhat ambiguous relationship, and this ambiguous relationship was forcibly drawn by Moser.

But Mercer's willingness to clarify everything for her might, in a sense, be good news for her?
Lucy laughed at her own thoughts: "Never mind. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Mercer blinked, then actually turned around and went straight back to his room to sleep, leaving Lucy standing alone at the door.

She stared blankly at Mercer's closed door. After a long while, she bit her lip in annoyance and gave Mercer's room the middle finger.

You scumbag! What's the difference between you and the fish I keep?
After making a few middle finger gestures to express her anger, she stormed back into her room. But you know what? She was angry, but that was all that remained; her previous grievances and sadness had vanished.

Mercer, feeling perfectly at ease, took a shower and then went to sleep feeling refreshed.

The next morning, he went to the computer room to work as usual, just like nothing had happened. Although Qiwei got up a little later than usual, she looked radiant and naturally came to the computer room to work as usual.

The two exchanged a simple greeting, giving each other smiles that seemed even warmer than before, before getting back to their own business.

Everything seemed normal, which made Lucy a little confused—if she hadn't heard Mercer admit yesterday that something had happened between them, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell that there had been any change in their relationship.

Both Qiwei and Moser regarded yesterday's events as a beautiful dream. After waking up, everything returned to normal, and neither of them lingered.

On the contrary, Lucy was distracted for most of the day because she kept trying to observe the two of them. It wasn't until Mercer suddenly shouted excitedly in the computer room in the afternoon that she suddenly recovered from her chaotic state.

"Did you finish?" Anzu, who had been fiddling with the smart plug-in for the weapon, looked up and clapped happily, even though she wasn't quite sure what its usefulness was. But anyway, she celebrated first.

After the applause, Xingzi excitedly walked over to Mercer and asked, "So, what can this system do now?"

"Look at this. Morning Star. Show it to her."

As Mercer finished speaking with excitement, the laptop screen suddenly switched to a map of Night City. At the same time, many different colored dots were flashing on the map, and some dots even had a rough countdown timer.

"See these dots of light? The red dots represent 'crimes' that the Morning Star has discovered and monitored. The ones with countdowns are how long it predicts a crime will occur here."

As soon as Mercer finished speaking, Kyoko exclaimed, "You mean it can even predict when a case will happen?"

“Yes,” Mercer said proudly, “not only can it predict certain events in advance, but most importantly, this system can automatically analyze a person’s behavioral patterns using algorithms.”

Based on data from the NCPD and City Hall, a more detailed and comprehensive personal profile will be rebuilt.

As the system runs automatically on the servers of the City Hall and NCPD, it continuously collects various data, integrates and calculates it, and after being categorized by the Morning Star, high-value or high-risk targets are classified and stored on our local server.

Through this system, algorithms, and the resulting character models and real-time monitoring, we can uncover all the secrets of the city from the comfort of our homes. Look, for example, here!

Mercer's words drew all the hackers in the server room to gather around.

"This golden highlight represents the key figures that the Morning Star is focusing on. Let me see who it is—it's our mayor."

Mercer tapped the screen as he spoke, saying, "The Morning Star will monitor the other party's actions in real time and collect relevant information as much as possible to improve his file. I believe that given enough time, we will soon be able to uncover all his secrets."

Most importantly, the ctOS system I wrote is not just a big data analysis and monitoring software; it also has a self-evolving program.

"A self-growth program? AI?" Qiwei asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No, no, no, it's not AI, it refers to a program—I've provided it with a rich library of puppet programs that will seize every vulnerability that appears in the online world and spread the surveillance program as widely as possible."

You can think of it as an automated hacking program that actively intrudes into various networked devices. It automatically analyzes which devices are hackable and which are not, and when it encounters a tough nut to crack, it automatically calls in Qimingxing (a hacking tool) to take over with AI.

After Mercer finished speaking, Kyoko suddenly realized and said, "In other words, the current ctOS system is only running on the data and device permissions of the City Hall's database and the NCPD's database."

But if it runs for a period of time, could it automatically hack into the power system, or even some companies' servers?

“That’s right.” Mercer laughed heartily. “The more data it has, the more accurate its analysis will be, and the more things it can control.”

Sooner or later, we will be able to sit at home and learn about every little thing happening in Night City through the intelligence gathered by ctOS.

It's not just about understanding; if necessary, we could even take over the city and make all the connected devices our tools.

Moreover, consider the power of this intelligence-gathering system—from now on, every move of gangsters, politicians, and corporate dogs in Night City will be under our watchful eye.”

Mercer smirked, gesturing for Qiming to turn on the surveillance footage, and said, "Do you know what's even more terrifying? We can even use this ability to control what happens or doesn't happen in the city from thousands of miles away."

"Look, according to Qimingxing's analysis, there's an 82% probability that this speeding car will cause an accident at the second intersection, but we only need to adjust the traffic light for two seconds."

So everyone watched as the speeding sports car narrowly missed a car that was also slightly speeding, and made it across the intersection without any serious incident.

The reason he was able to narrowly avoid the danger was because Mercer stopped another car that was speeding for two extra seconds at the previous traffic light.

“But his speeding is too dangerous, so we need to teach him a lesson.”

Suddenly, the camera switched to an NCPD patrol car three blocks away.

Controlled by traffic lights, the patrol car unknowingly sped up due to a series of green lights, and happened to reach the same intersection as a speeding car.

Generally speaking, the NCPD is too lazy to deal with cars that are only about 30% over the speed limit. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to do anything else all day but would be busy catching speeders.

But if you speed in front of him and almost get hit by him—that's a different story.

So everyone watched as the NCPD police car suddenly turned on its lights and sped up to catch up with the speeding car.

Finally, surrounded by several police cars, the car driver had no choice but to get out and surrender. He was then firmly pinned to the car by the NCPD, and it seems he will have to be detained for a few days or pay a large fine before he can be released.

"Do you understand? This is achieved simply by controlling traffic flow through traffic signals."

No matter how much Mercer says, it's not as clear as demonstrating it like this.

At this moment, even Lucy selectively forgot about yesterday's events. With her arms crossed in front of her and one hand gently supporting her chin, she said, "Hmm, I originally thought you were just planning to create an intelligence system."

"Heh, you underestimate me. My goal is to eventually gain complete control of this city through various means via the internet, down to every individual's personal device, their car, computer, and room access control."

After Mercer finished speaking, Kyoko said with some distress, "Aren't we being a bit too intrusive on ordinary people's privacy?"

"For ordinary people, once their brain-computer interface is connected to the network, it will automatically upload their biological information to the company that produced the brain-computer interface, and their prosthetic eye will have 'ownership' of all the images and audio recorded by them with their prosthetic eye."

Everything in their homes is rented, even the washing machine and television. Do you think those devices won't record their usage habits and collect their big data?

Even their Mewtwo headbands automatically upload their usage preferences, which are then sold by the Mewtwo headband company to the Mewtwo manufacturing company for adjusting production strategies.
Where is privacy in this world? I was just doing what other companies are doing, compiling all the information they've collected.

Mercer said, but he also agreed with Kyoko's statement: "However, you are also right. I also oppose this kind of ubiquitous information intrusion, but that's how this era is. If we don't do it, someone else will."
Rather than entrusting this power to some treacherous individuals, it's better to keep it in my own hands. At least I can be sure that if something goes wrong someday, I can destroy it myself and expose everything."

Mercer said in a low, heavy voice, "I left instructions in the core of the Morning Star server. If anyone steals or attempts to steal the program, it will automatically destroy the program and damage the server."
I don't want my program to end up like Ultraman's Soul Killer, falling into the hands of some big company and becoming a tool for them to exploit the masses.

"Well, I think that in some ways your program is even more terrifying than Ultraman's Soul Killer."

Qiwei concluded: "If the Soul Killer goes out of control, it will at most kill people online, but if your program malfunctions, it will directly affect everything connected to the internet in the real world."

Lucy, her face filled with worry, warned, "Mercer, you need to keep a close eye on Morning Star. Bartmouth's rabies virus destroyed the old network, and if your ctOS system and Morning Star get out of control, it will at least make a mess of Night City."

“Yes, I know.” Mercer smiled and then said, “But it is ultimately just a program. As its creator, if even I can’t control it, then it means that I didn’t create it at all.”

At this point, Mercer thought of the original code for the Morning Star—the 'AI Soul Core Code' that he had copied from Death Wish and had yet to fully understand.

"As for the Morning Star, I am also confident. Although I cannot yet understand the composition of the core code of these highly intelligent AIs, AI is ultimately driven by logic."

They have their own behavioral logic and goals, and unless corrupted by a puppet like Bartmouth's rabies virus, they cannot escape their initial logic. After Mercer's brief explanation, the others could only nod in agreement.

Mercer has gone too far on the path of hacking and programming, to a level that ordinary geniuses simply cannot comprehend.

If he thinks there's no problem, then there's no problem. If a problem arises, it's probably not his fault. If even he can have problems, then no one in this world is immune to problems. It sounds a bit convoluted, but it's the truth.

"So, this procedure you're so eager to get done, will it help us close that biotechnology deal?"

Lucy frowned slightly. Mercer had spent almost all his time these past few days developing and experimenting with this program.

Mercer nodded, a smile playing on his lips: "Of course."

At this moment, Morning Star issued a timely reminder. Its electronic voice has now become a more mature and gentler female voice, which means that it has matured more during its time on the server and has developed its own preferences.

Mercer never interfered with her choices on such 'personal' matters.

“Master, Mann has completed the handover with Faraday. As you expected, Arasaka has sent a professional intelligence agent to make contact with him. Fortunately, we now have surveillance access to the restaurant where they are communicating.”

As the morning star's voice faded, a webcam feed popped up on the laptop screen.

At this moment, in the video footage, Faraday, dressed in a suit and looking quite respectable, is sitting in a corner of a restaurant that is empty except for him, waiting for Agent Arasaka to arrive.

The camera automatically zoomed in, capturing details of Faraday's expression, and a pop-up window appeared next to his face, displaying his name, age, and recent activities—details that Morning Star deemed worthy of attention.

Then, the camera panned slightly, and a man in an Arasaka suit walked in with a cold expression. He simply nodded to Faraday and sat down opposite him.

The camera captured the identity of the Arasaka man, and then a series of messages popped up next to his face.

Name: Chris Paul

[Age: 58 years old]

[Character Analysis: A senior agent of the Arasaka Counterintelligence Department, whose abilities are not particularly outstanding, but he is patient and steady in his work. He is the right-hand man of Arthur Jenkins, the then head of the Arasaka Counterintelligence Department.]

However, due to their advanced age, difficulty in promotion, and significant psychological pressure, it is advisable to use appropriate persuasion to increase the likelihood of their participation in biotechnology initiatives.

Home address:

This name... It just burned down a Chris factory, and now another one deserves to be burned down.

Xingzi clicked her tongue in amazement: "How did you analyze this? For example, how did you gather information such as a capable assistant, excessive pressure, and difficulty in getting promoted?"

"To put it simply, we have senior administrator accounts on various forums in Night City, and we use internal registration information to screen company employees as 'puppet virus spreaders'."

Through these employees who had been secretly programmed with puppet-like devices for various reasons, the system monitored their private communication groups and collected relevant information to create character profiles.

Morning Star's words made the group realize once again just how powerful the Mercer ctOS system was—if nothing unexpected happened, he had done these things while testing the program.

Perhaps it was precisely because he had achieved this that Mercer excitedly announced that the ctOS system was complete.

Mercer, however, was focused on watching the video on his computer.

At this point, Faraday had already exchanged data chips with Arasaka's agent.

Agent Arasaka took out his notebook and began reviewing the data in front of him. After only glancing at a few entries, he suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "Are you sure about this intelligence?"

The agent deliberately lowered his voice, but thanks to the AI's automatic intelligent volume amplification, the conversation was still clearly audible to everyone.

"If this intelligence is true, then we've caught a big fish this time! This is a batch of experimental equipment transferred from headquarters, and it's very likely that a second one cannot be replicated in the short term!"

Chris clenched his fists excitedly—those who hadn't worked in Arasaka probably couldn't understand his feelings at that moment.

There are only three paths to promotion in Arasaka.

One is subversion of superiors. As long as you do your job well and find something to use against your boss, and find an ally to cooperate with, then go ahead and subvert your superiors.

If you get rid of your boss, your allies are willing to support you, and you also bring benefits or recover losses for the company, then you can directly take over the position.

The second point is that he made a great contribution to the company.

The third point is to severely hinder the military science department—the more losses the military science department suffers, the greater your merit will be.

Given Chris's age, ability, and personality, the first two paths are basically out of the question, but now, a third path to promotion is right in front of him!
Faraday looked confident and laughed, "Of course, how could I send you the information if I wasn't sure?"

Chris Paul's smile lasted for a while, but in the end, he calmed down, closed his notebook, and said in a deep voice, "I need to verify the authenticity of this intelligence."

"Go ahead and investigate. I can guarantee that it was stolen from a biotechnology server and is exactly the same as the one obtained by the military science department."

Faraday spoke with absolute confidence, but he was actually a little apprehensive. After all, Mann had done the job too quickly this time. He only said that he happened to have a connection and got the job done, but Mann refused to reveal the specific process.

Because Mann had always been reliable, he didn't have too many doubts. He just had an expert check the data to see if it was authentic. After confirming that the data was probably fine, he quickly contacted Arasaka's people to take over.

He had already reviewed the intelligence beforehand. Without a doubt, the sooner he told Arasaka, the more time Arasaka would have to consider how to handle the intelligence. Once it was done, Faraday could also use this intelligence to gain merit with Arasaka.

Faraday has great ambitions. Currently, Arasaka mainly uses Wakako as a middleman in Night City. Although Rogge is famous, she belongs to Michiko's faction, so Arasaka doesn't actually ask her to do many of his tasks.

Faraday's goal was to replace Wakako and become Arakawa's personal middleman in Night City.

Therefore, even if it was just for his own benefit, he would do his best to push Arasaka to use the information he had obtained by accident to severely hinder the military science and biotechnology departments—if it succeeded, he would be considered to have made a great contribution.

Chris Paul simply nodded, and then said, "I will apply for financial approval for the money you need after verifying the intelligence data. If all of this information is confirmed to be true, we may have a big job to assign you."

"No problem, you know I never let you down at crucial moments."

Faraday smiled. His prosthetic modifications were quite unique. His left eye was a yellow and red prosthetic eye, while his right eye had three red prosthetic eyes arranged vertically.

When these three prosthetic eyes smile, they bend down together like normal eyes, giving a rather eerie feeling.

Chris, however, remained unmoved. He simply nodded calmly, picked up the chip, and stood up, saying, "Then wait for my news."

“Okay, no problem!” After Faraday finished speaking, he got up to see him off, but Chris just waved his hand and left in a hurry.

Mercer looked away from the screen, a smirk playing on his lips, and turned to Lucy and Qiwei beside him: "Looks like we don't need to put in any more effort. Just as I thought, as long as we put the military intelligence in Arasaka's face, they'll start fighting each other."

"What about your previous affair with that agent from the Military Science Bureau? Find Arasaka's people, lest they end up taking the blame and rushing to settle scores with you."

As Lucy spoke, Qiwei glanced at her sharply, tilting her head slightly, and noticed that Lucy's attitude towards Mercer seemed a little 'harder' than before.

But then, Qiwei simply looked away calmly, without saying a word, and as usual, quietly disappeared from the public eye.

"As long as I don't say anything, and she doesn't say anything either, we can just shift the blame to Diana. Ha, this woman seems afraid that I'll change my mind and kill her first. Lately, she's been sending me messages every now and then to test whether I'm still planning to steal the stuff as planned."

She was afraid I wouldn't accidentally run into the military science convoy.

Mercer said coldly, "On the day of the operation, we must make sure Diana dies in Night City. We must not give her a chance to escape. If she hides in her hometown in Europe, it will be really difficult to deal with her."

"Let's see if things develop the way you expect," Lucy said, then turned and returned to her seat.

Xingzi looked at her back suspiciously, then at Moser, and whispered, "Did you two... have a fight?"

"No, it's nothing," Mercer said casually, patting her head. "We've finished our work, and it's rare that we have nothing to do. How about I take you out for a walk? Aren't you bored staying cooped up here all the time?"

"Me? Hehe, actually it's pretty good to stay at home every day. V or Rebecca will take me out for a walk when they have nothing to do. But I feel better staying at the base, I feel safe there."

As Xingzi spoke, Mercer simply stood up and said, "Alright, let me see how well you did with your homework."

"No way!" Xingzi immediately looked distressed. It wasn't that she didn't like studying, but Mercer's teaching methods always made people doubt whether their talents were too poor.

She might not understand something even if the other person just said it once, and every single assignment Mercer gave her would make her scratch her head for ages.

After you finally finished the task he assigned, he came over, plugged in a brain-computer interface, and in a dozen seconds, he turned your homework into something you couldn't even understand.
Qi Wei smiled slightly and said softly, "Forget it, she's been working quite hard lately."

"Okay, then I'll give you a day off to go see Mewtwo. I'm going to visit Pila for a bit."

Mercer then gave Qiwei a word of advice: "You and Lucy need to familiarize yourselves with drone operation more often. I wrote a simple swarm control system, and Pila tested it; the results were pretty good."
You need to master how to use this drone as soon as possible. If you find any bugs or areas that need improvement, let me know immediately, and I will fix them. You must ensure that you can achieve precise control within a 3-kilometer range.

"Okay." Qiwei nodded, then turned to ask, "Shall we go together?"

“Okay.” Lucy glanced at Mercer, then turned and followed Qiwei upstairs to find Pila to test the drone.

Afraid that she would be given a new lesson by Mercer after finishing her homework, Xingzi hurriedly followed him out to her room to watch Mewtwo.

Mercer, meanwhile, remained alone in the server room, mentally simulating the process of robbing biotechnology and pondering what vulnerabilities still needed to be addressed.

After much thought, he had already made arrangements for everything that could be done at the base. Now, all that remained was how to quietly and secretly transport the stolen goods back to the base.

When the word "transportation" came to mind, Mercer immediately thought of Parnam.

He sat in his chair and made a phone call to Parnan.

"Our big boss finally remembered me?" Panan's carefree voice rang out. In the video, she was sitting in a car with the wind whistling, obviously with the windows open.

"Ha, I think about it every day, the wind, the sand, and the smell of campfire smoke in Adcado. Okay, I have a big job. I need a group of absolutely reliable drivers, quick and tight-lipped, you know what I mean."

As Mercer spoke, Parnan raised an eyebrow: "Tell me more?"

"When it comes to stealing things, I need you to separate the items and transport them away, then make sure to disappear as quickly as possible, making a roundabout way to deliver the items to my base. You're experts in this area, so I don't think I need to give you too much direction."

Mercer's words piqued Parnan's interest: "Who are you going to rob? Where are you going to rob them?"

"It's either on the border or on the road from the outskirts of Night City to the city center. The target is a joint transport convoy for biotechnology and military science. You don't need to participate in the firefight. Just get the stuff out of here quickly after the battle is over."

After Mercer finished speaking, Parnan showed a somewhat incredulous expression in the video: "Huh? A joint transport team of military science and biotechnology?"

“Yes.” After Mercer finished speaking, Panan looked at him with a serious expression, as if he were checking if his brain had broken down.

Mercer rolled his eyes: "If you keep looking at it like that, I'm going to find someone else."

"No, no, no, I was just worried about you." Panan said with a smile, "Okay, I'll help you find someone, I'll only find reliable people, but how much are you planning to pay?"

"Let's get this straight, if it includes transportation—hiding the stuff, going around in circles, and then delivering it to Dogtown—it won't be cheap. It'll take a lot of manpower, resources, and time. You'd better give me some accurate figures, like how big and how many items you need to move."

After a moment of contemplation, Mercer said, "As for the price, I will give each person between five thousand and ten thousand euros for doing the work. It will depend on the specific situation later, but this is the minimum."

As for the size of the cargo, based on my estimate, if you want to move everything, you'll need at least three small trucks with a capacity of ten tons each.

"So big?" Panan hissed.

"These large pieces of equipment are transported in special containers and are stored in modular form. I will send you the corresponding specifications in a moment, and you can decide for yourself."

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused and said, "I can do my best to ensure that the NCPD won't chase after you, and that the city cameras won't capture any details of your activities."

But try your best to avoid letting anyone discover that these things were sent to Adcardo; I don't want to cause you any trouble.

"Don't worry, this isn't the first time we've done something like this. We'll definitely be more careful this time when we're dealing with company dogs!"

After receiving the big job, Panan said excitedly, "It's all thanks to you, Mercer! If we can pull this off, we can earn tens or hundreds of thousands of euros!"

Mercer looked at her innocent smile. How to put it? It suddenly made him a little nostalgic. V looked just like that when she first received her share of the money. But now…
The bottle of wine that girl drank yesterday cost more than her rent for the past two months.

"You need to make the appointments for me in advance, clear your schedule, and prepare the vehicles. After you've reviewed the information I sent you and confirmed how many people and vehicles you need, contact me again so I can plan the arrangements."

After Mercer finished speaking, Parnan agreed without hesitation. After hanging up the phone, Mercer sent Parnan the size, dimensions, and weight of the equipment he wanted.

She quickly sent an OK reply, and then excitedly went to find reliable people for him.

After that, Mercer refined the plan while waiting for news from Mann.

Mann finally called him a week before the transport convoy arrived.

"A, Faraday Future contacted me, saying they want to work on both biotechnology and military science. I said I need to think about it. What's your opinion?"

When Mann's voice rang out, Mercer's lips curled up slightly.

Opinion?

“My opinion is this: let’s do this job, and tell Faraday that there’s a awesome mercenary team called the Fire Seed Squad who’s willing to do this for him. But I need Arasaka’s weapons support, you know what I mean?”

After Mercer finished speaking, Mann understood and said, "I know, I told you I wasn't confident and needed to bring some brothers and sisters with good skills. Faraday definitely won't mind."

"So, are you coming?" Mercer asked with a smile.

Mann had already made his decision before he called.

He said in a deep voice, "Come on, we'll do this deal with you!"

(End of this chapter)