Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 34 First Meeting with Old Wei
Mercer had Parnan park the car directly in front of the clinic—in a somewhat dimly lit alley.

The alley was lined with buildings that looked quite old. After getting out of the car, Mercer couldn't help but turn his head to look around with a sense of nostalgia.

On the left side of the alley is the building where Misty, Jack's girlfriend in the game, has her psychic house.

In the game, the protagonists V and Jack usually get off the bus on the street near the psychic house, pass through the psychic house, and go through the alley to reach Old V's clinic.

Mercer, having brought a truckload of valuable goods, naturally found it inconvenient to carry them and swagger through the streets.

The only option was to painstakingly drive into the alley and park right at the entrance.

To his right, the steps lead to a semi-underground building, which is Victor's clinic.

Mercer first sent a message to Old Vie.

[Mercer: Old Vieira, open the door. I have a lot of stuff with me; I'll have to move it several times.]

[Victor: Okay.]

Victor replied quickly, probably having been waiting for him, and didn't mention being late.

As Panan struggled to help Mercer carry the refrigerated box containing the prosthetic body, he looked around and muttered, "This is it? It doesn't look very good."

"Unlicensed doctors are usually hidden in these remote corners. But their skills are definitely up to par."

Mercer struggled to carry a large box, carefully climbing the stairs to the door, where the automatic door opened.

Before him stood a robust middle-aged man wearing sunglasses, the very person Mercer wanted to see: Victor Victor.

Victor looked down and saw a little boy, whose head barely reached his shoulder, struggling to carry a large box.

This scene made him instinctively reach out his hand:

"Child, just hand it to me."
"And Mercer? He just sent a kid to carry things?"

Victor frowned and placed the box on the ground next to the clinic. He turned his head and saw a woman carrying things in as well.

Mercer smiled helplessly at Victor and said, "I am Mercer."

".ha."

Victor looked at Mercer and could only let out a "ha" sound, which sounded like a sigh or a lament.

He then offered to lend a hand, helping to move things while asking, "So, this is what your sister wanted installed?"

“She is my friend and the driver who helped me today. She is one of Adcado’s people. The prosthetic body is for me.”

Mercer spoke while sizing up Victor.

He looks pretty much the same as he does in the game.

Victor's appearance was not outstanding, but he looked very clean and tidy.

His black hair was draped behind his head, and his arms were muscular and well-defined. It looked like he had hardly undergone any modifications to his body, with only his eyes behind his sunglasses gleaming.

He's a man who seems very reliable.

"Well, I won't ask where you're from, anyway, you don't look like a local."

Old Vieux carried the load while eyeing Mercer.

This child, who looked no more than fourteen or fifteen years old and was thin, exuded a strange sense of maturity in both his expression and speech.

Arasaka's prosthetic eye is equipped with a monomolecular wire, a brain-computer interface, a network receiver, and an interface at the back of his head used for large servers.
All of them are Arakawa prosthetic bodies.

In addition, even the refrigerated boxes currently being moved, containing the prosthetic bodies, are all high-end refrigerated boxes emblazoned with the Arasaka logo.
"But this batch of goods is too pure. It's all from Arasaka."

Stolen? Or robbed?
But whether it's the former or the latter, I don't recommend you install it yourself.

Victor told the truth: "You are too young. Installing too many prosthetics will affect your development, and these prosthetics are usually designed for adult body types."

"It's okay, let's see how much we can fit first." Mercer seemed completely unconcerned.

Viktor sighed inwardly, but knowing that it was best not to speak too deeply with someone you didn't know well, he didn't say anything more.

After moving everything, Panan crossed his arms and sat down in an empty space in the clinic—in the shady clinics of Night City, if you're going to have prosthetic surgery, make sure someone's with you.

Otherwise, if you go to an unlicensed clinic alone to get a prosthetic body installed, the surgery could very well fail inexplicably in the end.

Then you become a corpse, and finally your body parts, along with the prosthetic body you were going to install, will be put on the shelf.

"You guys chat, just pretend I don't exist."

Panan played the role of bodyguard very professionally, while Mercer just smiled:
"It's alright, Panan. You haven't eaten anything this morning, have you? Let's go to the Chinatown behind the building and get something to eat."

Across the alley is Misty's psychic shrine. She works part-time as a receptionist at Old Vivi's clinic, and the psychic shrine is her main job. Her divination is said to be quite accurate; you can give it a try.

"It might take me a long time to figure things out here, and it's pointless for you to keep watching."

"Are you sure?" Panan stared at Victor warily. "Surrounding him here alone to perform surgery?"

"Ha, don't underestimate Old Wei."

Mercer pointed to the wall covered with trophies and certificates:

"If you had come a few years earlier, Victor would still be a professional boxer. Back then, he was known as 'Victor Without Armor,' the best boxer in the entire Night City."

People like you and me could be taken down with a single punch from him.

Don't be fooled by the fact that he didn't have a cybernetic body. During his retirement match, he fought a full twelve rounds against that guy whose entire body was covered in high-end equipment from major corporations!
Both fighters had a knockout, but unfortunately, the latter lost on points. But this is a real boxer versus a cyborg superhuman! Now you know what Dr. Victor is capable of, right?

"You know that too?" Victor couldn't help but smile. "I thought nobody remembered."

He truly loves boxing, but he has to leave the ring because boxing matches have now become a showcase for prosthetic bodies.

But deep down, he was happier when people praised his boxing skills than when they praised his medical skills.

But wow, this kid really investigated him thoroughly! Where did this little monster come from?
"Holy crap. Really?"

Panan, on the contrary, felt that Victor was even more unreliable—this boxer had put down his gloves and picked up a medical book instead? Could he possibly understand it?

"Don't worry, Old Wei is one of the few reliable and good people in Night City. You go ahead and get busy. When you're done and have nothing to do, come back, sit down, have some beer, and watch TV. After I'm done here, I'll take you to some interesting places."

Mercer repeated herself, and Parnan didn't insist. She sighed.
"You're such a complicated guy sometimes, and so simple at other times. Okay, I'm going out for breakfast, what about you?"

"Has Old Viktor eaten?" Mercer asked Viktor in a very familiar manner.

"Uh, I've already eaten. You can have some, but I need to see what all this stuff is first."

Old Wei casually opened a box, and his face immediately scrunched up. Inside were piles of tattered Sianwistan weapons, a mantis knife stained with dark red blood, and some other odds and ends.
"Oh, that's the one I was planning to repair and sell. I was wondering if you could lend a hand. I need to install those parts."

Mercer pointed to the others, and Old Wei frowned as he opened one, raising an eyebrow: "A new model?"

"A laboratory-level prototype, a treasure from the Arasaka Prosthetics Research Center in Canada."

Mercer stood smiling beside Old Vieira and said:

"I sent you a file containing relevant information that I retrieved from the Arasaka server."

I've already looked it over once, and I feel that apart from the network receiver which needs some research, the rest shouldn't be too difficult to install.

“It’s not difficult,” Old Vil turned to look at Mercer, then said seriously, “But do you really know how much of a neural burden these prosthetics put on the human brain?”

It's no exaggeration to say that even though there isn't much stuff, those cyborgs in the Whirlpool Gang wouldn't last more than three months before they started having an attack!

Even heat dissipation requires connecting to the brain's neural pathways; the people who designed this prosthetic body never even considered the immense pressure the wearer would have to endure!

Panan, who hadn't left yet, looked worried and patted Mercer on the shoulder earnestly: "I know you want to do great things, but you have to be realistic about your abilities. Don't forget, there are people around you who are counting on you. Think of Lucy."

"Alright, go eat, sister."

Mercer rolled his eyes, while Panan gave him a speechless look: "You don't know what's good for you."

After saying that, she turned and left: "In short, you need to know what to eat and what the doctor tells you to eat."

"I want to eat steamed buns, fried dough sticks, tofu pudding, roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), pancakes, dumplings, or even fried dumplings."

Before Mercer could finish speaking, Panan chuckled speechlessly, "Then you just wait, I'll go to China to find it for you."

She stormed off in a huff.

Victor shook his head and told Mercer to sit on the operating chair first.
"I've never seen some of these things you're talking about. A roujiamo, similar to a hamburger? A patty sandwiched between meat?"

"No, it's a pancake with meat inside. There aren't many random vegetables. I just love pure meat. The meat inside has been braised for hours. It crumbles when you squeeze it. The aroma of meat and sauce blends perfectly with the pancake."

As Mercer spoke, his mouth started to water—he hadn't had a decent meal in a long time.

In this world, all meat is made from insect meat. If you want to eat real animal meat, the price will absolutely make your heart stop just by looking at it.

"Hmm, that sounds good. Are you of mixed Chinese and Chinese descent?"

After helping Mercer lie down, Old Vieux pulled up a chair and sat down beside him, using his external, glove-like prosthetic right hand to tap on the screen.

While reviewing the data, he spoke gently to Mercer: "Child, I need to give you a check-up first to see how your health is."

“I understand, come on. I don’t know if I’m mixed race or not. I couldn’t find out who my biological parents were in Arasaka’s records, but I was probably Chinese in my past life.”

As Mercer spoke, he helped Old Vito insert the brain-computer interface—and also secretly hacked into the device to check the data.

This has almost become an instinct for him; the first reaction when his brain is connected to any device is to look through the program code of that instrument inside and out.

"Don't mess with the data, it's already unstable. If you're interested, you can think about it later."

Old Wei was able to keenly detect the instrument's delay, which meant that a program was secretly using the instrument's computing power in the background.

"I'm used to it. The Arasaka people love to stick things into people's heads randomly. I get anxious if I don't understand what they're doing."

Mercer didn't hide it, laughing and saying, "Just consider it an occupational hazard."

"Hmm, it sounds like your past was quite painful."

Victor looked at him with pity and sighed, "How old were you when Arasaka took those guys from the company?"

"Eight years old? They were taken there for a few years of training, and then they were used as expendable resources."

Mercer said, while Old Vie picked up a bunch of instruments and stuck them all over him, looking at him and scanning him—a few minutes later, the basic information collection was completed.

Then, Lao Wei suddenly froze on the spot, staring blankly at the numbers on the screen.

Is this data accurate?
Right?
Is that really true?

No, no, no, no
Is the machine broken? No, it isn't.

So it's correct? But is this number really accurate?
Victor fell into a long period of deep thought—it was unbelievable!
(End of this chapter)