Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 42 The Naive V
Mercer's first reaction was to watch her fight first—to understand V's true fighting power now.

But after he opened his prosthetic eye and scanned V, he suddenly didn't know what to say.

First of all, there's a pair of cheap, generic prosthetic eyes. Well, to be precise, they're old stuff from the military academy from ten years ago. I don't know where they found them.

Secondly, there's the Pain Editor, which is basically standard equipment for most mercenaries. It can reduce pain during combat and maintain combat effectiveness.

But Mercer looked it over and realized that this thing was probably an old gadget from a biotechnology company from six or seven years ago.

Besides
She only had one pistol.

How to put it? It has a kind of retro beauty—in the early 21st century, when Johnny Silverhand was still the band's guitarist, there was a legendary mercenary named Morgan Blackhand.

Morgan Blackhand is a staunch physical warrior who believes that with his well-honed muscles, brilliant mind, and a handy weapon, he can face any enemy.

Judging from his track record, Morgan Blackhand did indeed achieve this. He not only made a name for himself in the early 21st century, but also became a top mercenary in military technology.

Moreover, he is the lifelong enemy of Adam Hammer, a tough guy who believes in the supernatural power of machinery.

And V
Yeah, I wish she were that awesome now.

Mercer watched as V and the mercenaries started yelling and about to go outside the bar for a one-on-one fight. He sighed and walked over.

"V, my time is very precious."

V heard Mercer's words, turned to look at him, then glanced at the group of mercenaries, pointing to the largest one who still looked fierce.

"Hey big guy, I'll come find you when I'm done with this. Then I'll show you what I'm capable of!"

The burly mercenary sneered, "Don't worry, I'll dismantle you until you're just a spine, then piece you back together and throw you in the trash."

V wiped his neck with his hand in front of the burly mercenary, then turned around with a flourish and looked Mercer up and down.

"You're client A?" After she finished speaking, Mercer simply nodded and turned to walk towards the bar.

V pursed his lips, but thinking of his bank account, he still followed along eagerly. When he got to the bar, he heard a woman's sneer.

"Mercer, did you hire this idiot? She's really something, getting into a fight within three minutes of coming in. You're not thinking of hiring her to do your bidding, are you?"

Panan felt that Mercer had misjudged this time. With that woman's stupidity, what could she possibly accomplish?
V stared coldly at Panan: "Is this woman one of yours?"

“Panan.” Mercer glanced at Panan, who then shrugged, picked up his beer, and stopped talking.

Mercer turned to look at V, sized him up, and then said in a flat tone, "V, can I know why you've been causing trouble for others since you came in?"

"If you really want to contact me, a phone call would suffice. You seem to be deliberately picking a fight."

V's eyes darted around: "Nothing else, I just wanted to ask about your situation first."

After she finished speaking, she saw Mercer staring at her without moving. In his eyes, which she had never seen before, blue spots of light flickered, like fireflies dancing in his pupils.

Mercer didn't say anything, he just stared at her.

V turned his face away somewhat awkwardly, and then said softly, "Okay, actually I was just a little excited. There were so many celebrities, all big shots I'd heard of in the underworld, so I couldn't help but want to strike up a conversation."

Mercer stared at her speechlessly: "Didn't you think about what would happen if you got into trouble?"

V, however, smiled nonchalantly:

"What's there to be afraid of? At worst, I'll just run away. I took a detour while you were gone, and there's a back door I can slip out through."

Even if you can't win a fight, you can't back down verbally. When you're out on the street, you can't tolerate people talking trash to you. If you dare to back down even once, no one will take you seriously anymore.

And this idiot dares to call me "little girl" and ask me to have a couple of drinks with him?

To be honest, I'm not afraid at all. So what if I'm a little big and can carry a lot of things?
Don't be fooled by its imposing size; it's packed with heavy subcutaneous armor, gorilla arms, and nano-buffered head protection.

But just by watching him move those two times, I could tell he wasn't very good at fighting.

He probably walks with a swaying gait!

If they use a gun, I can slit three holes in his head in a second.

"Even if I fight him bare-handed, I can put this big guy down and not let him move in thirty seconds, at most thirty seconds."

After V finished speaking, she looked at Mercer with confidence and said, "Really, otherwise you can wait until I deal with him before you come back. I'll make sure he and his henchmen are all taken down by you before you come back!"

What a boast. Mercer, to some extent, understood how Roger felt when facing him.

"That's not a gorilla's arm."

Mercer couldn't take it anymore and interrupted her expressionlessly: "That's a wrist grenade launcher disguised as a gorilla's arm."

V's eyes widened slightly, his mouth agape, unable to continue his boastful words. "Can't tell? That's good."

Mercer sighed and tapped the table: "Also, that big guy isn't the boss; he's at most second-in-command."
See that skinny guy? He's the one next to him who doesn't talk. That's their squad leader.

S.A.W.S., a muscle-enhancing device, also carries a smart submachine gun in his lower back.
He also deliberately only showed a portion of the prosthetic body information; the rest, your prosthetic eye can't see—but I can see it, there's also the Mantis Blade, the accessory heart, and the frontal cortex should also have ICE components made of military technology.

Hmm. There are two more prosthetic bodies, one on the back and one on the thigh.

I still need to investigate what the specific components are. The shape of the network signal is quite unusual; it's probably a modified part made by a small factory or someone who hired an expert.

Don't let his appearance fool you; he looks the most human among them. He's actually undergone the most drastic changes. I suspect he even had internal organ surgery.

Mercer's words made V even more silent. She clenched her fists, lowered her head, and didn't say a word.

Mercer continued to torture him: "The tricks you learned on the street, if you apply them here, you're asking for death, V."

This isn't your usual little bar, but the one you used to frequent. Didn't you get excited when you first heard the name? How come you've forgotten that everyone who comes here is no pushover?

See that idiot with glasses? He's the one who wears two extra glasses on his face to look cool; he's a hacker.

Believe it or not, your signal has been locked by him, and he's ready to hack you the moment you're about to leave.

He hasn't made a move yet because he saw me.
Oh, this idiot is pretty clever; he used a spoofing program to mix his network signal fluctuations into the server signal of the next server.
He's going to try and connect again while spoofing a signal. He's asking for it!

Mercer's eyes shone brightly with blue light, as if they were glowing blue beneath his mask: "Let me give him a warning first, and tell him to get lost. What kind of idiot would dare to cause me trouble?"

Without hesitation, he connected to the network signal that was disguised as a bar network, trying to sneak in.

Then, Mercer's brain began to fully exert its defenses against the intrusion.

In an instant, the hacker on the other end felt a massive amount of data suddenly flooding into Mercer's network. By the time he realized he had been hacked, Mercer's icebreaker program had already begun chipping away at his ICE.

The hacker didn't have time to speak. His eyes widened as his mind raced—up until this moment, he was still quite confident that no one, no matter how insignificant, would dare to infiltrate him.
At that moment, he no longer concealed himself, fully activating his brain and unleashing his hacker prosthetic body!

But then he was horrified to discover something was wrong: "No, it can't be!"

Mercer's hacking speed was terrifying. By the time he discovered that the first virus program was breaching his defense system, Mercer already had more programs executing hacking and intrusion!

He subconsciously pushed his ICE program to its limits to start electronic combat, trying to outcompete Mercer in computing power.

But then, the hacker's expression became increasingly terrified, as if he had seen a ghost.

Damn it, how many programs is he running at the same time? One, two, three. No, no, no, no!
It's unstoppable! It's impossible to stop it now!

"Ahhh!"

He screamed, his face turning red and his eyes rolling back in his head. His brain was overloaded, and his whole body was convulsing. Like a fish out of water, he slid off the sofa in the private room and onto the floor.

All of this happened so fast that even his companions didn't have time to react.

Because the hacker never expected to be instantly killed, he didn't give any warning beforehand—obviously, he was wrong.

As the hacker screamed, all the mercenaries in the private room turned to look in the direction of Mercer and his group.

Mercer gave the group of bewildered mercenaries the middle finger, openly admitting that he was the one who did it:

"If you motherfucker try to smear me again, I'll burn all the brains of you idiots dry!"

Claire, who had been watching the commotion at the bar, couldn't stand it anymore and quickly reminded him, "Hey! Don't cause trouble here! If there's a problem, go outside and handle it."

The mercenary squad suddenly stood up, and several pistols and submachine guns were abruptly pointed at Mercer.

The burly mercenary stretched out his arm, and the entire gorilla arm suddenly deformed, transforming into a dark, gaping cannon muzzle:
"Damn it, did you burn his brain?! You're asking for it!"

"This idiot burned his own brain." Mercer just sneered: "He insists on using his pig brain to fight me head-on. Does he have the ability?"
There's still hope if I go to the hospital now, but if you point a gun at me again...
Then the outcome is hard to say.

Meanwhile, Mercer also secretly connected to their subnet.

A hacker is the network core of a team. In the process of fighting the hacker on the network, Mercer not only overloaded the hacker's brain but also successfully hacked into the hacker's subnet.

Unsurprisingly, this mercenary squad had great faith in their hacker, and everyone was connected in a subnet centered around the hacker.

Now, their brains are like pieces of meat on a chopping board—Mercer is ready, and if the other side shows any sign of fighting, he will upload all the viruses in an instant.

"Quick, give him the medicine! Go to the prosthetic doctor!"

The big guy was both anxious and furious, his eyes blazing with anger.

The lean mercenary behind him stared at Mercer with a cold gaze, speaking calmly, "You take your men and I'll have a good chat with this hacker friend."

(End of this chapter)