Chapter 11: I Have Decided to Take My Talents to Night City

Mercer looked at the girl, whose iridescent short hair was visible even in cyberspace.

Her virtual avatar was nearly identical to her real-world appearance, complete with the hacker goggles that obscured her eyes.

"Is this... a program you coded yourself?"

Lucy approached him with a complex expression, glancing between the cat and him—she never would have imagined that Mercer would do something like this.

In cyberspace—or more accurately, the Old Net—comfortably playing with a cat? It was, to say the least, unexpected.

However, this only added to the growing questions in Lucy’s mind.

Everyone in the hacker trainee program had been trained by Arasaka at the same facility before being sent into this "Project Star" initiative. While she hadn't been very close to Mercer before, they had lived in the same place for a long time, spoken often, and dived together many times. She couldn't say she knew him intimately, but she at least knew his personality.

But the Mercer of today... Lucy didn't know how to put it. It was as if, ever since his "brain burn," he had become an entirely different person. He was livelier, more free-spirited, and significantly more mature—and reliable.

In the past, although no one spoke of it, a single glance at each other’s faces revealed the despair and confusion regarding the future in everyone’s eyes. The old Mercer was the same. But now... Mercer gave off the feeling of someone who suddenly possessed the confidence and composure to face anything. This temperament made him stand out like a crane among chickens.

Not only that, but his attitude seemed to inexplicably instill a sense of calm and courage in everyone watching him. At least, that was how Lucy felt.

In the past, her heart was filled only with fear and confusion; the desire to survive had overwhelmed all other aspirations. But now, whenever she saw Mercer and his composed demeanor, the fear and unease in her heart would miraculously settle.

Yet, it was precisely because of this drastic change in Mercer that Lucy found him somewhat... dangerous. In this world, there was no shortage of technology capable of altering a person’s consciousness. In fact, it was widely believed in the Net that the most advanced versions of this technology were held by rogue AIs.

Had he been possessed by some rogue AI?

"Is it a small AI?" Lucy asked cautiously while sizing him up.

"Hmm, I suppose you could say that."

Mercer smiled and patted the ground beside him. Lucy hesitated for a moment before sitting down.

"Go." He tossed the cat aside. The cyber-cat landed gracefully with a nimble flip and, with a knowing air, hopped onto Lucy’s lap.

Lucy reached out instinctively, only to be surprised to find that the cat felt incredibly realistic! Even though her sensory perception in cyberspace wasn't particularly strong, she could feel as if she were truly petting a living cat.

"This is amazing... what is this AI for?" she asked curiously, her fingers gently stroking the cat's back. Watching it emit a comfortable purring sound made her feel even more incredulous—cats could do that? Lucy had never touched a real cat in her life.

"It’s designed to take care of the 'Guardian' AI attached to you."

Mercer pointed to the faint blue data flickering on her. Even though Lucy had manually hidden the shell of the Guardian ICE, her skills still occasionally caused some overflow of blue data.

Why go through the trouble of hiding that imposing samurai form? Mercer guessed it was because she feared that being too visible would attract the attention of rogue AIs, so she compressed her data as much as possible.

"What?"

Lucy looked up, her expression one of shock despite the data-goggles obscuring her face. "You... this is your first time seeing Arasaka’s 'Guardian' AI, isn't it?"

"Isn't it everyone's first time?" Mercer smiled. "It would take quite a while to find the vulnerabilities in that AI and kill it. But with this, I believe it’s only a matter of time. If we don’t handle this Guardian AI, we won't be able to leverage the server’s power to bypass the security."

"...Then I'll leave it to you."

At this moment, Lucy could no longer fathom the true extent of Mercer's hacking skills.

The two didn't speak further. Lucy had too many questions she felt uncomfortable asking, while Mercer was simply using the server’s computing power for his own mischief. Although the Guardian AI wasn't cracked yet, as long as he didn't trigger any red flags, using the server's spare capacity to optimize his own software or experiment with creating programs was perfectly fine.

After Lucy snuck a few glances at him, Mercer finally looked at her. "Speak if you have something to say."

"Um... have you thought about where you're going after we leave?"

Lucy finally asked.

Mercer looked at her speechlessly for a while, then at the cat in her arms.

The body of 'Death Wish' suddenly turned into a stream of data and lunged into her body. Immediately after, the blue light on her surged, and an imposing armored samurai broke free from within her, taking human form.

The samurai let out a silent roar, his mouth wide open, and a deep blue katana appeared in his hand, which he plunged viciously into his own chest.

However, the black hairless cat that had been wandering inside his chest moved like a fish darting through water, and in the blink of an eye, it jumped onto the samurai's head. The black 'Death Wish' now looked far more ferocious than the samurai. It opened its jaws wide, and with every bite, it tore away a large chunk of blue data.

With each bite, its own size surged. The massive blue samurai, which had initially stood tall like a forty or fifty-meter giant, was reduced to twice the size of a normal human after just a few bites. Meanwhile, 'Death Wish' in its cat form had grown into a terrifying beast over ten meters tall.

After it swallowed the last of the ICE deployed by the Guardian AI, it even let out a satisfied yawn. Then, with a flicker of its form, the giant black beast transformed back into a small cat made of blue data.

It stretched on the ground before hopping back onto Lucy’s lap. As for Lucy... she had been stunned into silence long ago.

"You didn't think the ICE Arasaka installed for you was just a simple ICE, did you? It contains subroutines of the Guardian AI—it’s essentially a low-intelligence AI."

After saying this, Mercer paused and offered a comforting word. "Don't blame yourself, though. Given your skill level, it would indeed be hard to spot, especially since you’ve never dealt with this kind of AI-related technology before."

"I'm sorry, I... I thought..." Lucy felt that if she were in the real world, she would be blushing with shame—she really had been too naive this time.

But... "I just... um... I feel like I don't have to worry so much when I'm by your side," Lucy decided to be honest.

Mercer curled the corner of his mouth, making no effort to hide his mood. "Uh-huh, good explanation. Alright, back to your previous question."

"I’ve decided to take my talents to Night City."

Mercer gave his answer.

"Night City? I've heard of it. They say it's chaotic there. Because it's currently a neutral city, Arasaka and Militech are constantly at each other's throats. There's also Biotechnica, Night Corp, Kang Tao... and outside the city, there are Nomads and the Raffen Shiv."

Lucy was surprised. She had expected Mercer to go somewhere safer. Night City? That didn't seem like a pleasant place to settle down.

"Yeah, corporations are dogs fighting dogs, and the gangs underneath are even more fractured. You've got the Valentinos made up of Heywood locals. A bunch of Yanks in the 6th Street Gang. A group of cyberpsychos in the Maelstrom, a pack of idiot collaborators in the Voodoo Boys. There are Scavengers who deserve to be killed on sight. The Raffen Shiv in the Badlands, the Tyger Claws who are Arasaka's pet dogs, the Animals who are so hopped up on drugs their heads are pointed..."

Mercer rattled off the factions with simple terms, then laughed heartily. "That’s exactly why that's the place for us."

"Only there will we have a chance to climb to the top, and maybe even land a big one on a stupid company like Arasaka—remember the Arasaka tower nuke fifty years ago? That kind of thing only happens in Night City. Morgan Blackhand, Spider Murphy, Bartmoss... countless legends wrote their stories there. Even if the endings weren't all beautiful, believe me, some things can only be done in Night City."

After Mercer finished, he paused and looked at her with a grin.

"Even if you just want to hide... it's the best place for you to go. Although Arasaka currently holds a dominant position in Night City, there are plenty of people there fighting back against them. You're just a small-time 'miner'—if you ran off there, nobody would bother spending the time to find you. Hmm... though if you're with me, that might change, because I have no intention of just slinking away like a coward."

Lucy looked into his eyes. Even in cyberspace, where his face was covered by a smiling mask, she could still vaguely see his confident, rebellious eyes through the dancing data-light in the eye sockets.

"Aren't you afraid..." she hesitated.

"Afraid of Arasaka? Or afraid of death?"

The smile on Mercer’s mask became even brighter.

"Since I'm living in this world now, I have no intention of dying like a loser. Luckily, I seem to have the possibility—or rather, the ability—to change these things. So, of course, I’m going to turn everything upside down before I die."

Lucy couldn't understand. Right now... she just wanted to survive. Other things like the meaning of life felt too far away. However...

"I see... then, I'll go to Night City, too... can you take me with you?"

She turned her face away, looking at the cat in her arms. It seemed to be napping on her lap, digesting its meal.

"Sure," Mercer said with a smile. "Then I'll take you with me. Arasaka won't be able to stop us, I promise."

"...You'd better not be just talking big." Lucy felt her face heat up for some inexplicable reason. How strange—how could there be temperature in cyberspace?

"Then, what do you plan to do after we get to Night City?" she changed the subject.

"First, find a place to settle down. Then, switch careers and become a mercenary—earn money, build a reputation, make connections, and along the way, gather some like-minded partners."

Mercer described the future in a relaxed tone: "Once I've made some money, I'm going to buy a mansion to live in, the kind with a swimming pool. I've never experienced such luxuries in my life! Once I make it big in Night City, I'm definitely going to enjoy myself first. Oh, and I'll keep improving my hacking skills, tinkering with and developing cyberware technology. Anyway, short-term goal: become a legendary big shot in Night City!"

After finishing, Mercer turned to look at Lucy.

"You should think about what you truly want, too... I know you’re scared. Scared of Arasaka, scared of death, and even more scared of dying without meaning. There’s nothing wrong with that, but... I think, compared to worrying all day about how to die, or how to avoid death, the meaning of life should lie in what you actually want to do. Only when you’ve found the meaning of living, and an attitude toward life, does the fear of death have any significance."

"Hmm..." Lucy nodded gently, not saying anything, just keeping her head down.

Mercer reached out and patted her head gently. "You're still young, no need to think about all that nonsense all day... At the very least, if you're with me, you can just take it one step at a time."

"...You're only one year older than me," Lucy muttered with some dissatisfaction, not liking his attitude of treating her like a child.

"Uh... speaking in terms of mental age, I think I'm at least ten years older than you," Mercer said truthfully. Lucy looked at him suspiciously, but in the end, she just nodded.

"You're the boss, you call the shots." She let out a long sigh and then smiled. "Then leave these troublesome things to you, Mercer—the one who is mature in both body and mind."

"...Bite her."

As soon as Mercer’s words fell, 'Death Wish' on her lap really did bite her. It miraculously brought a touch of real pain, but caused no data damage.

"Alright, go get the others. From now on, we'll gather at the same IP address for our dives; let's not get separated. With me around, we basically won't run into rogue AIs. Even if we do, the ICE we have—the collection deployed by Arasaka’s Guardian AI—plus my cat, should be enough to stall them until we can all safely withdraw."

Mercer gave his orders.

"Okay." Lucy happily rubbed the cat's head and stood up immediately to track the IP addresses and call the others.

After she left, Mercer pondered for a while and then quietly spat at the thought of Bartmoss—that old guy must have intentionally transferred him to Lucy’s IP address.

*Buddy, she's only thirteen or fourteen! Is your cyber-world always this intense? Aren't you afraid of the iron fist of justice?*

Shaking his head, Mercer lay back on the ground, relaxed.

Time to keep reaping the benefits. While he could still use the Arasaka servers, he would use their computing power to write programs for himself!

What should he write first?

Hmm...

Got it!

He'd start by writing all those common attack-type daemons like cyberware malfunction and synaptic burnout, and compress them into quickhacks! Once he wrote a dozen super-viruses, he'd be able to kill anyone with a single glare. That would definitely give Night City a little bit of cyber-shock!