Chapter 49: The Smiling Stranger

"Anyway... maybe become a hacker, hiding in some dark corner and doing some profitable shady business."

Kiwi was daydreaming aimlessly. "Once I save up enough money, maybe I can find somewhere to retire? I don't know, but I definitely need to make a lot of money, and I will never let anyone manipulate my life ever again!"

V was noncommittal. Of course she also wanted to get rich, but compared to mere money, she craved even more to become a true 'big shot'.

This was the dream of the 'big figure' that every street kid yearned for since childhood.

To be revered, with her legend echoing across the entire city, achieving worldwide fame!

V suddenly fell silent as well, because she couldn't help but think of Mercer's proposal once more—a nameless nobody, or a legend of the streets?

She felt as though she had already found her answer.

Besides...

V glanced sideways at Kiwi. "He only asked you for fifty thousand eddies?"

"Yeah, though at first he said he didn't actually need payment, as long as I asked him from the bottom of my heart... But if it were you, would you think this is reliable? Would you believe it?" Kiwi asked.

V shook her head matter-of-factly. "I'd think he was a total idiot... Such a simple trick would probably only fool a kid."

"Right... So when he saw I didn't believe him, he said, based on my own value system, fifty thousand eddies it is."

Kiwi couldn't help laughing. Everything that happened tonight felt like a beautiful, unreal dream. "And just like that, I was rescued by him. That A... Have you met him? What kind of person is he?"

"Uh, he's pretty good at sweet-talking, but he's also genuinely formidable. His hacking skills are probably top-tier in all of Night City.

His cyberware looks pretty high-end; doesn't feel like someone who lacks cash, and he's very generous with his money. But his attire isn't particularly fancy—just standard street kid style, though quite clean.

I've only ever seen him wearing a hockey mask. Honestly, his voice sounds a bit like a child's, and he's not very tall either..."

V thought for a moment before making her own judgment. "Still, he speaks quite maturely, and gives off a relatively reliable vibe. A pretty sincere sort of guy. Probably just a short man using a voice modifier.

Most hackers I've seen are scrawny; maybe all his nutrients went straight into his brain."

Kiwi nodded inwardly, conjuring an image in her mind: a very short, unattractive nerd hacker who happened to be kind to pretty women, generous with his money, and exceptionally skilled.

Perhaps because he was always overlooked by women in the real world, he enjoyed recruiting attractive women, or playing the hero saving the damsel in distress?

[Mercer: I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but honestly, your slander really breaks my heart, V.]

"Holy shit! Don't just suddenly pop words directly into someone's optics, you're gonna scare me to death!" V yelled out loud.

Mercer's voice reached her ears with a light chuckle. "If I spoke out loud directly, wouldn't you be scared into steering this car right into a ditch?"

"Damn it! I knew the program you left me definitely had a backdoor!" V said, looking somewhat indignant.

"It doesn't. I just looped you and Kiwi into the same squad comms channel... and then I happened to hear you talking trash about me."

Mercer's voice made V feel a little guilty, but she still maintained a defiant tone. "Living in Night City, not many people go around wearing masks and acting all mysterious...

Tell me the truth, girlie isn't the type to judge by looks. A bit short, a bit ugly—it doesn't affect your skills."

"Screw you, V. I'll have you know your boy is a certified handsome stud, and right now I've even got a pretty girl keeping me company, terrified that something might happen to me in cyberspace."

Mercer argued righteously. "I'm short because I haven't finished growing yet. All my nutrients are focused on my brain right now. Just you wait until my brain finishes developing, I'm guaranteed to hit over six feet tall."

"Ha~ I think I've heard a similar excuse before. Where was it from again?

Let me think... Oh, there's this notorious guy in Heywood called 'Shorty Wood'!

He was barely over five-foot-three, and every single day before turning twenty, he swore it was just because of poor nutrition and that he'd grow once he got a full meal.

Ha, but the moment he turned twenty, the kid went and installed a pair of synthetic legs, stubbornly claiming he grew them himself. Then, during a shootout with the Sixth Street gang, he tripped and caught a grenade right with his face.

Hahaha!"

V burst into unreserved laughter. She found that Mercer was actually quite easygoing; teasing him like this didn't bother him in the least.

"Oh..." Mercer uttered a meaningful "oh". "We've got a long time ahead of us... V."

V let out an "uh". "Oh yeah, didn't you say you were being tracked by NetWatch just now?"

"Uh-huh, still being chased right now too... But I'm doing it on purpose."

Mercer's tone was utterly calm. "The programs developed by NetWatch are actually quite interesting—IP tracking, blocking IP hops, and programs that lock onto your signal to keep you from logging off.

Not gonna lie, their skill level is genuinely not bad. I took a stroll all over Night City's net, and they're still right on my tail."

"Holy shit, and you're not focusing?! I've heard stories about people being locked in the net by NetWatch for a whole week without being allowed to log off. By the time NetWatch found their apartment, they had starved to death sitting in their chairs! Hurry up and ask your friend to pull your plug!"

V grew somewhat tense.

"Don't worry, pulling the plug right now is actually the worst move. Those idiots could trace the offline signal right back to my place... I'm just playing with them, sparring a bit."

Mercer paused for a moment before continuing. "By the way, I'm testing out their programs to see what other tricks they have up their sleeves. I'm going to learn every single one of them."

"Don't bite off more than you can handle, A." V remained worried.

Kiwi spoke up for the first time as well. "Do you need my help? I used to secretly hack into some private computers; you can use them as IP jump points."

"No need."

After a brief pause, Mercer's voice came through with absolute confidence. "Looks like they've run out of new tricks. Give me thirty seconds. Once I finish dealing with them, I'll come back and chat with you—V, I advise you to stop badmouthing me."

He wasn't overly petty, and while he wouldn't take jokes to heart, he did hold a genuine grudge. Whenever he got the chance to mock her back, he would certainly do it a hundredfold.

Kiwi couldn't help pressing her lips together.

Thirty seconds?

Those NetWatch agents all dove deep into cyberspace backed by massive mainframe servers!

Meanwhile, Mercer had already stopped playing catch-and-release with IP hopping within cyberspace.

...

"Target has stopped! Come on, David! Send the locking program!"

In cyberspace, a virtual avatar with the NetWatch logo emblazoned across its chest shouted loudly, aiming a ridiculously oversized digital cannon directly at the motionless Mercer.

Beside him, another man in similar attire wearing virtual sunglasses calmly trained his laser gun on Mercer and pulled the trigger.

Red laser light flickered, carrying dangerous traces of red code as it flew straight toward Mercer.

However, to that NetWatch agent's utter astonishment, the moment the laser struck Mercer, his virtual avatar dissolved into a cluster of dispersing blue data.

"Damn it! Zack! It's a decoy program!"

The NetWatch agent named David panicked, instantly leaping away from his spot. Streams of blue data formed a virtual skateboard beneath his feet, carrying him across cyberspace at high speed as he continuously changed his IP address to prevent Mercer from locking onto him and executing a counter-program.

Zack whipped his heavy firearm around, blasting a massive cluster of blue data forward. Upon impact, the projectile shattered a vast expanse of the network into jagged fragments.

This cloud of blue data spread across the net, instantly fusing the fragments into a massive blue cage.

This meant his program possessed regional network-locking capabilities.

With a single attack, he had briefly isolated this sector of Night City's network into an inescapable local area network, attempting to cut off any possibility of Mercer's escape.

"The location ping is still right here, he didn't go far!" Zack shouted loudly.

Then, he suddenly felt nothing beneath his feet.

He abruptly looked down to see a black hole-like anomaly materialize right under him: "I'm trapped! I can't move! My IP is locked!"

"Execute quick-hack protocols! Reconnect if you have to!" David rushed over frantically, attempting to dispatch a few utility programs to assist him.

Yet a man wearing a smiling face mask, a hooded sweatshirt, and a black jacket abruptly blocked his path. "Been chasing me for so long, what's with the rush to leave?"

The black-painted smile on that pale mask looked scarier than a ghost in that instant, causing David's entire stream of data to freeze momentarily.

What in the actual hell!

Zack's virtual avatar flickered repeatedly, but he could only remain anchored in place uselessly as the vortex beneath his feet swallowed him halfway down like a swamp.

He attempted to use server computing power to forcefully crack the program, engaging in a computational battle against Mercer, but discovered the program was unexpectedly refined.

He blindly searched for vulnerabilities in the program using raw compute power while simultaneously trying to deploy ICE for data defense, but the black hole lived up to its name—without finding the correct entry method, even a server's massive computing power was completely useless.

Mercer said leisurely, "Don't bother wasting your effort. This program even borrowed from your guys' routines—a laser gun and a cannon, your avatars lack any creativity whatsoever."

"Damn it! Do you have any idea what you're doing? Daring to attack NetWatch in the net, aren't you afraid—"

Before David could finish speaking, he suddenly drew his weapon. This time, a pair of massive machine guns materialized in his hands.

A roaring torrent of data bullets filled the entire space, but Mercer's voice sounded softly right behind his ear.

"Can't win, so you resort to brute-forcing with server compute power, planning to crush me through sheer processing muscle?"

Even in cyberspace, David felt a chill run through his entire being. He threw all his server compute power into driving his ICE program to its absolute limit, generating layers upon layers of heavy blue armor.

Yet Mercer merely delivered a gentle poke to his back with a black dagger: "Just piling on raw compute power is useless against a high-tier operator... Your brain can't even handle that much throughput, you're just relying on brute force... What a waste."

The moment the black dagger pierced his consciousness entity, it transformed into a terrifying shadow spreading outward from within his data stream.

David watched in shock as his ICE shattered like a sheet of paper: "You..."

"The vulnerability is too glaring, little bro. If you can't even find a target to counter, what's the use of running ICE?

Hmm... David's personal records... Oh man, you're making ten thousand eddies a month, why are you risking your life like this?

Forget it, I won't wreck your servers; don't want you guys having a system shock... Though your server ICE is actually pretty decent. Without finding vulnerabilities, breaking in without the computing power of a large server would genuinely be impossible.

You guys probably even have an AI hidden inside there. Fine, let's call it a day.

Still, I've got to warn you—stay away from me from now on. I have zero interest in playing hide-and-seek with you guys on the net every single day.

What, upset because I took out a bunch of scum? Those Voodoo Boys idiots kill and extort people online every single day, why don't you raid their hideouts?

Scared of a trash server and trash defense system cobbled together by a bunch of good-for-nothings?

Then you should be even more terrified of me.

Let's make this clear: next time we run into each other, you better greet me properly. If you dare make a move on me again, I'll genuinely go all-out against you.

In Night City, you NetWatch agents ought to dial it back a bit. Don't actually get yourselves killed, there won't be anyone around to bury you."

Mercer's figure vanished in an instant, leaving behind only a smiley-face icon branded onto the ground, forcing the two still-immobilized NetWatch agents to stare at each other in blank dismay.

"What the fuck... We're screwed. When did a monster like this show up in Night City?"

David's data-rendered face was filled with gloom.

Zack sighed, his lower body still buried within the trap program, currently throwing every ounce of his effort into cracking it.

Though he couldn't find any vulnerabilities or clever workarounds, relying on server compute power allowed him to force his way out through brute force—especially since Mercer had stopped supplying compute power to the program, causing the data black hole to instantly dissipate.

"That guy is ruthless. Honestly, we're completely outmatched. Our compute power didn't even get to matter; the guy went straight for the program vulnerabilities.

I maxed out our server's computing power, but I couldn't dig up a single vulnerability in that program; all I could do was try to brute-force a compute clash... But he didn't even give us the chance to clash compute power.

What do you think?"

Zack looked over at David.

David pondered for a moment before speaking. "Report it. This guy definitely has a small—no, I'm betting a medium-sized server backing him up with compute support.

His thought processing speed was operating way too fast. I doubt our compute-enhanced cognitive speeds even reached half of his. That level of cognitive acceleration is impossible with just a human brain's processing power.

Check power consumption and recent server equipment procurement, see if we can dig up any clues.

This guy must be new to Night City; that latency was so low it doesn't look like he's running a dedicated line routed from elsewhere.

Anyway... Looks like our internal wanted list is going to have one more new name added to it.

What are you planning to call him?"

"Smiley Ghost?" Zack glanced down at the smiley face icon on the ground that seemed to be mocking him.

"Works too." David said speechlessly. "These rookie hackers, why are they all so lawless? It's almost 2072, and they still dare to pull stunts like this."

"Alright, the rest of the operation will be handed over to the others per usual protocols. Our skill levels aren't quite enough... Don't worry, even that legendary Songbird back in the day got dealt with eventually, right?

Let the ground team investigate offline. What hazard rating are you planning to assign?"

Zack asked.

David thought it over. "Highest tier, report it to headquarters. Someone like this needs to be flagged immediately."

"Tsk tsk, how many years has it been since a hacker this fierce popped up? We really drew the short straw today, though we should be thankful the guy was nice enough not to toast our brains."

After Zack finished speaking, David shrugged, wearing the expression of someone who had narrowly cheated death. The two exchanged glances, used server diagnostics to confirm no backdoors had been left behind, and simultaneously logged off.

Ten minutes later, the public net-wanted board of Night City quietly updated with a brand-new smiley face emblem.

[Wanted: Smiley Ghost]

[Gender: Highly likely male]

[Identity: Unknown]

[Age: Unknown]

[Physical Traits: Wears a pale smiley face mask, height roughly that of an average adult male, no distinctive markings. (Attached Image)]

[Criminal Record: Hacked the server of the 'Pleasure Doll' club in Japantown, utilizing a daemon program to murder twenty-three citizens of Night City, overclocking servers to trigger fires resulting in massive property damage.

Assaulted NetWatch, causing psychological trauma to NetWatch personnel...]

[Warning Notice: This individual is extremely dangerous, possessing advanced daemon programs capable of locking networks and preventing disconnection. Suspected of being backed by medium-to-large-scale server computing power. If encountered in cyberspace, immediate network disconnection is advised.]

[Danger Level: Extreme (Bolded and Highlighted).]