Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 130 News of Silver Hand

The Cubans left with calm expressions.

But V's expression under the helmet turned excited. She whispered to Mercer through the team voice chat, her tone barely concealing her excitement: "Wow, Mercer, you really managed to pull it off? You're such a con artist!"

"Keep it low-key, it's just an investment of fifty million euros."

Mercer smiled and said in a low voice, "Besides, this fifty million euros isn't free. How can you expect to have a relatively stable tank armor series without investing any money?"

V, however, curled his lip and said smugly, "Come on, everyone knows your tank series armor has actually been in mass production for a long time. This money wasn't taken for nothing."

"Who said that? I'd still have to rewrite a less burdensome operating system," Mercer said with a laugh, but also with a touch of melancholy.

Not long ago, he was racking his brains over a server costing millions of euros, even having a group of people risk their lives to make it happen. But now, an investment of tens of millions of euros was resolved in just half an hour of conversation.

The Cubans wanted to equip themselves with large-scale, individually armored vehicles to enhance their strength, while Mercer needed a large sum of money to continue research and upgrade equipment. The two sides hit it off and reached an agreement immediately.

In addition to the one-time investment of 50 million euros, the Cubans have also pledged to provide as much equipment and raw materials as possible for Mercer's research.

Furthermore, when purchasing 'tank' series armor later, they will pay 500,000 euros for a standard model armor set.

In name, Mercer sold them 'Tank 2' individual armor with a modified operating system, promising to reduce the neural load to a level that an ordinary person could use normally.

Furthermore, the Tank 2 will also come with the latest anti-EMP pulse design, along with a high-level ICE protection plugin written by Mercer himself.

Mercer also promised that Cubans would be given priority in purchasing any new weapons that would be developed in the future.

Fifty million euros is nothing to the wealthy Cubans. Considering Mercer's confident promises and his proven track record, the Cubans ultimately decided to spend a small sum to see what Mercer was really capable of.

In addition, and most importantly, the Cubans confirmed Mercer's stance—Mercer promised to continue maintaining the smuggling trade routes in Dogtown and to maintain Dogtown's independence in Night City, without favoring other large corporations.

But Mercer's work was not over after the Cubans left.

Before he could even catch his breath, Scott, an agent from the Military Science Department, came over.

"Congratulations! I never expected that those mercenaries would become the masters of Dogtown so quickly."

Stott walked up to Mercer with a smile, his face no longer showing the aloofness he once had, but instead displaying a friendly demeanor: "I remember you're not even 20 years old yet? That's unbelievable."

“Ms. Stott, you flatter me. It’s been a long time. How have you been?” Mercer greeted her with a smile, raising his champagne glass to lightly clink with her whiskey, and inviting her to sit down.

Stott and Mercer exchanged a few polite words, but in the end, she took the initiative to probe: "From what you just said, are you planning to lift the restrictions on commercial investment in Dogtown?"

"Interested in military science?" Mercer said with a smile, "You're welcome anytime!"

“I bet our investment director is really interested, but the key question is how broad your scope is?” Stott said. “We all know Dogtown has a lot of weird and wonderful rules.”

"Look, Dogtown has so many great projects, like spas and expos, all of which are sitting idle. Reopening these entertainment facilities as soon as possible would be a great thing for Dogtown's economic recovery."

After Mercer finished speaking, Stott said with a smile, "Mercer, we've known each other for a while now, so let me be frank—what do you think if the Military Science Academy is planning to build a new research base here?"

Research base? It's better to call it an outpost and a revival plan for the Beidou navigation system.

“That’s a bit troublesome.” Mercer didn’t immediately reject the idea, but said, “Dogtown is currently mainly receiving investments in entertainment projects.”

But then Mercer subtly hinted, "The future of Dogtown shouldn't stop at this one block, but at the entire Pacific State."

Stott said noncommittally, "Night City can tolerate a small dog town, but Pacific State? The interests here are much more complicated."

"We'll see." Mercer wasn't in a hurry to push the project forward. If no one was willing to invest in Dogtown later, he would rebuild Dogtown little by little on his own.

As long as he can make money, people will naturally be willing to follow him.

Dogtown's no-man's-land nature inherently gives it high investment potential for entertainment projects, making the creation of a land-based Crystal Palace not impossible.

But Mercer would never allow military science to enter without restrictions just for the sake of economic development; that would be like throwing a spark into a haystack, a recipe for disaster.

However, Mercer didn't completely rule out the possibility of conflict—allowing Arasaka to dominate Night City alone was not in his interest either. If the Military Science Academy was willing to help him further expand his influence in Taiping State and provide assistance, then it wouldn't be impossible to discuss cooperation.

In short, what the military science wants is to bypass Night City's control and take advantage of Dogtown's independent status to project the company's influence and heavy firepower into the area.

But others obviously don't want to see this happen; if the military sciences show any interest, Dogtown will inevitably be in big trouble.

Therefore, if the military wants to use Mercer as a weapon, the ammunition costs must be sufficient, and not just a little bit.

Can't do it? Then let's talk about it later.

After a few more casual words, Mercer and Stott dismissed her, since she didn't have investment authority and a brief chat was enough.

Afterwards, Mercer lingered at the banquet, speaking with city councilors one after another. The mayor of Night City and the director of the NCPD both expressed their views—they hoped that Dogtown could return to Night City's control along with Pacific State.

They promised to arrange for lawmakers to amend the bill to facilitate Dogtown's existing operations, but Mercer wasn't foolish enough to trust a bunch of politicians.

So they simply stalled for time, causing the NCPD chief and the mayor to leave early with dark faces.

What a joke! A group of politicians who came to power through elections expect a warlord to lay down his guns and become their money bag?
The only condition for cooperation between the two sides is that the special privileges of Dogtown and Pacific State be established first at the legislative level, which is obviously unacceptable to those politicians.

Overall, however, the interactions with other businessmen were very pleasant.

After chatting all night, Mercer was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

At least for now, not to mention the future, the current smuggling market will definitely continue to operate.

Next, he will further repair the nuclear-powered engine of the cargo airship—the reactor built into this nuclear-powered engine can not only be used to directly power Dogtown, but its special design structure is also very valuable for reference.

Mercer already had some ideas. If everything went smoothly, he might soon have his own small nuclear power plant, and once there were no more restrictions on electricity, Dogtown's development would naturally take another step forward.

Mercer also had a basic idea of ​​the business areas he wanted to expand into next.

The primary business focus is on individual soldier weapons, for which Mercer has already established a certain market advantage. Whether it is individual soldier armor or munitions, their development potential and future possibilities have been fully demonstrated through actual combat.

This type of individual weapon can not only arm people, but the entire individual armor can also be further developed into unmanned equipment.

In today's cyber world, unmanned warfare is the true future trend.

To truly unleash the capabilities of unmanned equipment, the relevant areas are nothing more than the hardware, software, and AI intelligence of the unmanned equipment.

Mercer has a significant technological advantage in software and AI, which is the only area where he can compete with large companies. Even through a trade method that involves importing raw materials at high cost, assembling them himself, and then exporting them, he can still reap huge profits through his technological prowess.

However, Mercer's ambitions could not be satisfied by relying solely on the arms business.

Therefore, Mercer set his sights on biotechnology companies.

The core business of the biotechnology company is fuel refining technology based on wheat alcohol 2.

Mercer had no idea about this for the time being, as he knew little about this amazing crop that could be extracted to produce fuel.

However, other core businesses in biotechnology fall within Mercer's area of ​​interest.

The food trade market, which is almost entirely monopolized by biotechnology, will be the first to be affected.

Biotechnology companies, through acquisitions of Whole Foods, are using poison to increase the cost of other food products by poisoning crops and livestock.

On the other hand, by bribing members of parliament and manipulating public opinion, they strictly prohibited the appearance of any real meat products in Night City under the pretext of bird flu.

Then, through its advanced protein synthesis technology and its high-yield protein farms, it produces inexpensive synthetic foods to monopolize the market. This results in extremely high production costs for normally grown agricultural products, while other fast-food competitors cannot compete with biotechnology on cost. This is why Night City is filled with synthetic foods, with Whole Foods taking the lion's share.

In addition, the clean water crisis that Night City, or rather the entire North American continent, is experiencing has further increased the cost of food, making it difficult for ordinary people to find food. People like Mercer, who love to eat, even have to resort to smuggling to satisfy their cravings.

How absurd!

Mercer had already planned it out. Once the time was right, his first priority would be biotechnology, and naturally, the biotechnology market would be the first thing he wanted to seize.

And now, he has found such a perfect window of opportunity with all the right timing and location.

First, Mercer received some good news from Jefferson City Councilor—biotechnology was about to make its move on the general public.

Since last month, a few cases of illness have been reported in the San Di Mingo district, which alerted the city hall to the risk of an influenza outbreak.

Ever since Mercer told Senator Jefferson that biotechnology might be planning to poison Night City again, Jefferson has been actively monitoring similar incidents.

Therefore, taking advantage of the meeting at the Gemstone Blue Banquet, Jefferson reminded Mercer and hoped that he could investigate further and gather evidence to see if what Mercer was worried about was finally about to happen.

But Mercer didn't need to investigate to guess that this matter was about to be exposed—because after Mercer provided the Adca people with cheap special drugs, they would inevitably realize that the Adca people were looking for outside help.

Therefore, biotechnology companies only have two choices.

Either stop here, or take advantage of the fact that Adcado's reinforcements are not yet ready to launch the virus outbreak and make a quick buck.

As for the risk of negative public opinion, biotechnology has never really cared much about it—there's no solid evidence, it's just rumors, and they've always touted themselves as saving people's lives.

But this time, biotechnology has misunderstood again.

Because Adcadodo's new foreign aid this time is Mercer.

Mercer had clearly disliked biotechnology for a long time.

Mercer decided to start with this poisoning incident and was determined to completely banish biotechnology from Night City.

To do this, he needs help.

The first one was Senator Jefferson, a passionate and somewhat idealistic man.

Although the other party has not yet made a statement, Mercer believes that as long as he can produce evidence of the vaccine and related biotechnology being used to poison people again, Jefferson will definitely be willing to work with him on a biotechnology project.

Moreover, if handled well, this matter could also help Jefferson accumulate political capital and enhance his prestige for his future mayoral campaign, making it a win-win situation.

The second one was the Night Corporation, which Mercer intended to personally communicate with—although the grudge from the last time these idiots annoyed him hadn't been forgotten, Mercer knew very well that dealing with matters objectively was the quality of an adult, or rather, an excellent businessman.

Even a feud spanning ten generations can be avenged; a gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years.

Mercer will eventually settle scores with them for helping Arasaka sabotage him, but right now, he genuinely needs the Night Corporation's assistance in dismantling biotechnology.

The reason is that Night Corporation still wields considerable influence over the City Hall, and it undertakes many businesses related to Night City's infrastructure and basic services, whether it's currently trying to expel biotechnology companies or expose their misdeeds.

Whether it's further developing Night City's agriculture and animal husbandry to restore the normal food industry, it will require Night City's natives, Night Clan, to contribute money and effort.

As for the third one, it is Adkadodo.

Mercer can't do the work for others for free. He can't farm and raise cattle himself in the food market for the time being, but he can make money by being a food importer and processor.

In short, the complete plan is for Mercer to first negotiate with Jefferson and the Night Corporation, with Jefferson acting as their representative to launch a media attack on the biotechnology company.

Night Corporation pressured city councilors to force biotechnology companies to leave by amending previous laws and demanding huge fines, taxes, and compensation.

Then, Mercer will provide new technology, one of which is to develop new synthetic foods to seize the market.

On the other hand, the Night Company and Jefferson spearheaded the implementation of legislation within the city, while Mercer provided technology outside the city to gradually restore agricultural production and trade in agricultural products outside Night City.

Agricultural production doesn't necessarily have to be carried out near Night City. Mercer has already contacted food companies in free states like Texas and New America.

He wants to use Adca people to trade these foods, start a food trading company, and import food into Night City.

If legitimate channels fail, it may even be necessary to smuggle cheap food on a large scale through Dogtown, thus devastating the biotechnology food market.

Even frozen meat and canned vegetables are more like food for humans than sticky, processed foods, aren't they?
What Mercer needs to do next is simply to further develop food seeds that can resist biotechnology poisoning, animal vaccines that can prevent genetic viruses, and break the food industry production dilemma caused by the vicious competition and monopoly of biotechnology.

It was a long process, but Mercer remained steadfast in his determination to start from there—he believed that one day, everyone in Night City would be able to eat fresh vegetables and meat, and at prices no more expensive than synthetic fast food.

What happened next was quite similar to what Mercer had predicted.

According to intelligence gathered by Morning Star through the ctOS system, the flu situation in the Santo Domingo region is rapidly worsening and is spreading throughout the city.

Meanwhile, Mercer's vaccine development progressed rapidly to the third phase of clinical trials, given sufficient funding and time.

Meanwhile, his company also expanded rapidly and quietly, with the help of Senator Jefferson and the support of connections in Dogtown.

Mercer then founded a food company and acquired a near-bankrupt food processing plant in Pacific State.

They also created a legal pharmaceutical company that had passed Night City's approval process and could produce and sell validated drugs.

At the same time, he also proactively discussed food import agreements with the food authorities of the major free states in advance—due to the previous regulations of Night City, a large amount of legal, low-priced food could not possibly appear in Night City.

However, he still signed a letter of intent with a hefty penalty for breach of contract.

Even if he fails to push Night City to further open up the food trade bill, he can still use Dogtown to smuggle the food into Night City.

It's just that the transportation costs are a bit higher.

In addition, Mercer also repurposed the company that had previously distributed profits to the team, officially designating the head office as a 'Giant God Investment' enterprise.

Under the parent company of this Giant God Investment, Mercer also successively established three companies: Giant God Technology, Giant God Military Industry, and Giant God Heavy Industry through cross-shareholding by individuals and enterprises.

Giant God Technology will own Mercer's patents in advanced technologies such as software technology.

Giant God Arms Corporation is responsible for producing these patented advanced weapons and equipment.

Giants Heavy Industries is currently only responsible for building small nuclear power plants in Dogtown, but Mercer's ambitions are far greater. Sooner or later, he wants his company to have a truly global presence and to have its own genuine industrial chain.

In addition, food companies and other companies were also invested in and controlled by Giant God. Mercer also established a legitimate company called 'Giant God Logistics' for the Dogtown business.

Most of the Ghosthound soldiers were packaged up and put to work at the Colossus Military Industry, while the stadium researchers were sent to Colossus Technology, and Adcardo's smuggling operatives were persuaded by Mercer to join the Colossus Logistics Company.

Although there is no company entity, this does not prevent Mercer from signing contracts with them, paying their salaries, and providing the necessary benefits and insurance—which is truly a great act of kindness on his part, adding a considerable cost to himself.

The reason Mercer established such a formal company was not out of kindness, but because he knew very well that in this day and age, if you wanted to build a career, you couldn't just rely on being a warlord or a gangster to get by.

Only by corporatizing first can you achieve further development.

Meanwhile, Mercer was quietly laying a trap for biotechnology companies while also actively developing his own business.

Another piece of news, neither good nor bad, reached his ears at the end of 2075.

[Yorinobu Arasaka: I got the Silver Hand Relic.]

(End of this chapter)