Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 68 Saving the Pirated Batman (1.7 votes needed)

Outside the Whole Foods factory, Mercer circled around, chose a suitable spot, and launched the drone.

The pterosaur drone took off high into the air and quickly disappeared into the sky, using its high-magnification camera to scan Mercer's defensive setup at the food factory.

The food factory looked somewhat dilapidated, surrounded by a high wall with barbed wire, with only two gates at the front and back for entry.

Inside the walled area, there are dedicated security booths, fixed turrets, concealed folding turrets, and a jumble of cars parked by members of the Vortex Gang.

Many of the Whirlpool Gang's thugs were gathered in twos and threes outside the factory, smoking, drinking, and playing cards.

Mercer counted them; there were at least sixteen Vortex Gang members drinking and playing cards on the outside alone, while there was only one person in each of the two security rooms at the front and back doors, responsible for guarding the doors and monitoring.

V and Rebecca couldn't see the drone's field of vision, so they could only hold their weapons and be wary of their surroundings.

On their way here, Mercer gave them a brief overview of the mission to "rescue the pirated Batman." Mercer didn't go into detail about where he learned about "Night Shadow," only saying that he found him by chance online.

After hearing about the eccentric man in Night City who calls himself the "Night Shadow" and fights criminals at night, V and Rebecca became very interested.

They became even more interested when Mercer told them that when this 'Shadowman' went out to fight crime, he always drove a modified Stone Sword supercar.

The supercar named 'Sword in the Stone' won't be as cheap as it is in the game.

In the cyberpunk world, the 'Refield' brand, which has almost become synonymous with luxury cars, produces supercars that can be considered the 'Lamborghini' of the cyberpunk world.

Even the standard production version of the Sword in the Stone costs between 300 million and 500 million euros, not to mention that almost all buyers of this car request private customization.

If it were a limited edition Sword in the Stone, custom-made in every aspect, including the interior, its price could soar to between 700 million and 1200 million euros.

Driving a car this price and going out to be a 'superhero'?
The price of a single dent in a car's paint could buy ten bulletproof, modified secondhand Mazda 5s!

"This guy must be so rich!" V's eyes gleamed as he began to fantasize about how much money he would get after rescuing the person.

"Alright, I've basically figured out the situation. We still need to find a way to get in through the back door. I'll use X-ray vision to hack the guys in the security room by the door, and then continue hacking into their security room's computer to connect to this security network."

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused, looked at the two girls staring at him, and continued, "The Vortex Gang at the back door will be marked with cameras, and you can see through them with your special vision."

I'll quietly and discreetly resolve the issue I've highlighted in red, and then I'll figure out how to get into the factory.

“No problem, leave it to me!” V laughed and flexed her hands, while Rebecca pouted and said, “I’ll just watch from behind. If you mess up, I’ll open fire.”

With V possessing S.A.S.A.S.A.S., he was undoubtedly the best candidate to carry out such an assassination.

"Don't worry, for some tough guys, I'll just shove their heads off."

Mercer sat in the back seat of the van, took off his coat, revealing himself in only his black coat, and smiled as he tapped his head with his finger.

V got into the driver's seat: "Shall we just drive there?"

"Yes, stop close to the wall near the back gate. By the time you've parked the car, I've already taken care of that guy in the security room."

Mercer said confidently.

With the aid of cybernetics, he wasn't afraid of even the modified madmen from the Vortex Gang who might install military-grade ICE equipment on him.

Electronic countermeasures devices can be assessed by examining both the software and the hardware.

Given the Vortex Gang's level of expertise and the hardware they've assembled, it's impossible for them to surpass the professional ICE anti-tank devices that Mercer hacked into the Behemoth armored vehicle.

Although Mercer had some help from hacker cars when he hacked the Behemoth, they couldn't install anti-tank devices on themselves as large as those in the Behemoth.

It's estimated that only a super-modified human like Adam Hammer could possibly house a military-grade ICE device within his body.

Without saying a word, V followed Mercer's instructions and drove the car toward the factory's back gate. As she slowed down and approached, the security camera at the factory's back gate quickly turned its attention to her car.

But just a second later, the camera suddenly drooped its head listlessly.

Mercer's prosthetic eye gleamed, and a buzzing sound came from his back. Just three seconds later, he said in a relaxed tone, "We can get out of the car and prepare for the operation."

V didn't waste any words and pulled out a short knife: "You don't need to hold back this time, right?"

"Where did you get this?" Mercer was taken aback. "Don't hold back. If you kill all those idiots from the Vortex Gang, there might be innocent people, but if you kill every other one, there will definitely be some who escape. Go ahead and do it."

However, I don't want to be targeted by the Vortex Gang and fight those lunatics to the death, so let's try to eliminate them discreetly, so they won't even know who did it until they die.

V smiled and touched the short knife in his hand: "I bought it from the military store yesterday. It's super sharp. I'll use this as a temporary measure before installing the Mantis Knife."

She pushed open the door and got out of the car, while Rebecca cocked her gun and got out of the passenger seat to follow her.

Now, her brightly colored iron bladder, nestled in her arms, looks like a sniper rifle, with a muzzle that seems a size larger than before.

Mercer guessed that Pila had modified it a lot, and its power should be no less than before.

“You’ll have to climb over; opening the door is too loud.”

Mercer reminded him.

V stood in front of the gate, which was over three meters high, glanced at it, and then turned to Rebecca: "Come up."

She gestured, then half-squatted down and placed her hands on her knees.

Although Rebecca had never tried a similar operation before, her body was in excellent condition, and even though it was her first time, she and V worked together quite well.

She stepped on V's hand with one foot and pushed off hard. V also pushed her up with force. Rebecca grabbed the edge of the door and used her two gorilla arms, now covered with cracks, to easily send her up.

Rebecca didn't stay up there to pull V. Instead, she quickly climbed over and went straight to the security room by the gate, slipping inside to avoid the gaze of the Vortex Gang members who were smoking and chatting outside.

V's speed was, of course, no slower than Rebecca's—in order to avoid being discovered, she activated Sinwistan for about a second, took a full run-up, and jumped with all her might, flipping over the gate almost without using her hands.

Then, after landing, it vanished as a blur and slipped into the security room as well.

“Everyone visible to the cameras is highlighted, all security measures have been disabled, and I have already hacked into the security server inside the factory using the turrets set up at the back door. Once you’ve dealt with your opponents, you can enter directly through the back door.”

Mercer's voice came from beside them. V and Rebecca exchanged a glance, and then, through their own cybernetic eyes, they saw enemies highlighted in red, passing through the walls and obstacles.

"This is awesome! It feels like I'm cheating in a game." Rebecca couldn't resist asking, "Can I have one?"

"Let's do it together, you on the left and me on the right. Let's take care of those two chatting by the car first. If things get out of hand, I'll drive the S.A.R.S.A ...

V thought for a moment and decided to give her best friend a chance to show off, and also let her see the skills of this gorilla arm.

I heard that her arms alone are worth 130,000 euros, and Rebecca has a 10,000 euro electric shock plug that is said to be able to punch a hole in a concrete wall.

The two tiptoed out of the security booth, taking advantage of the haphazardly parked cars inside and Mercer's ability to see through and highlight the figures.

They silently approached two members of the Whirlpool Gang who were not far from the gate, leaning against their car, smoking and drinking.

Rebecca and V exchanged a glance, then simultaneously jumped out from behind the car. One of them caught sight of the dark figure out of the corner of her eye and was about to turn her head away, somewhat puzzled and wary.

A small fist smashed into the back of his head and then popped out of his mouth.

Another member of the Vortex Gang who was chatting with that guy almost screamed in fright—anyone who finds a fist suddenly growing out of their friend's face would jump up in fright.

But he found himself unable to make a sound, as V's dagger had slashed open most of his neck, and a hand was tightly covering his mouth as he was dragged to the back of the car.

Rebecca had a bit of a problem—she jumped up to throw a punch, but her hand got stuck in the guy's head, surrounded by a bunch of metal bones, messy flesh, synthetic fluid, and mechanical structures, making her feel nauseous.

She decided to use brute force and pulled the head off completely, then disdainfully tossed it away with her other hand.

V was stunned, feeling a bit nauseous. How to put it? She usually killed people quite cleanly and efficiently, unlike Rebecca who was so violent.

[Rebecca: Ugh, I never want to try this again in my life, it's disgusting! V, you do it.]

V: Wow, that's really impressive.

[Rebecca: Haha, pretty cool, right?]

The two even started chatting casually via text in their team voice chat.

Mercer rolled his eyes and sent a message.

[Mercer: Hurry up, stop dawdling.]

V gave a thumbs-up to any random camera; she knew Mercer would definitely see it.

Then, she took a deep breath and activated Sianwistan.

Mercer subconsciously activated the synaptic accelerometer, trying to capture V's figure from the camera, only to find that she was so fast that even the camera was dropping frames when it looked at her.

It felt like she was teleporting in the camera's view, one frame at a time.

Once V activates Sinweistan, he doesn't care so much about being quiet anymore; he just emphasizes speed. He runs up behind someone, and in the blink of an eye, he delivers two slashes that scramble their brains, then runs off to find the next opponent.

Almost as efficient as Mercer's hacking, three seconds later, V stood with her hands on her hips by the back door of the warehouse, giving Mercer a thumbs up. Behind her, the two Vortex Gang members she had just taken down were slowly collapsing to the ground.

Rebecca clicked her tongue, feeling even more compelled to install the operating system and Krenzikov, kicked aside an obstructive Vortex Gang corpse, and walked to the back door.

Mercer: Throw the body in the trash can. If we're lucky, it'll buy us a little time.

Rebecca: Okay~

She bent down, grabbed two people with one hand, and tossed them into the trash can like garbage.

V disdainfully ripped Rebecca's head off, aimed at the trash can, and threw a three-pointer. After making the shot precisely, he flicked his wrist and raised an eyebrow triumphantly at Mercer, who was walking in through the back door.

"Alright, stop showing off. I only hacked the main gate and a few cameras next to it using this back door turret. I don't know what's inside yet. Keep a low profile."

Mercer walked to the back door, and the factory's back door slowly rose and opened, revealing a folding turret hidden in the ceiling behind it.

Unfortunately for it, it was facing Mercer, whose prosthetic eye could scan through walls at a distance of 32 meters. Without signal interference, Mercer would have hacked it along with the security server behind it long ago.

"It's still working hours, so we have to use the employee entrance."

After Mercer finished speaking, V was taken aback: "This food factory is still open?"

"It's open, but we don't know what it's making. Maybe it's counterfeit food, or maybe it's used to make medicine. Who knows what these madmen from the Vortex Gang will do with the machines inside."

After Mercer finished speaking, he pointed to the fork in the corridor and said, "I guess our target is being held in the innermost basement."

Our goal isn't to just go in and fight them—so first you need to find me a server that can connect to the basement network.

“I understand. But how do I find it?” V blinked at him.

"Aren't you becoming a little too dependent on me?" Mercer turned to look at her.

V, somewhat annoyed, said, "I don't even know which road in this factory leads where. I can't possibly walk through every room and every corner. Besides, aren't you supposed to be highly intelligent? What, now I need to figure it out?"

“That makes sense. It’s a manifestation of great wisdom appearing as foolishness,” Mercer praised.

V clenched his fists, gritting his teeth, thinking that if he made a lot of money on this deal, he would have to pay Mercer back first—otherwise, he really couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Let's go. I can use my prosthetic eye to judge from the network equipment. Where there is a lot of network signal, that's where the server is located."

Mercer said as he walked into the employee corridor, still holding his Zoe shotgun in his hand. The shotgun was connected to his hand smart device and was ready to fire at any time.

Mercer walked unhurriedly down the corridor. Almost every camera would lower its head when it saw Mercer. Rebecca and V were amazed by this scene. The infiltration operation they had planned seemed to have turned into a leisurely stroll.

"Click." A member of the Vortex Gang suddenly pushed open the door of a room in the corridor. Before V could make a move, sparks flew from the Vortex Gang member's head, and he fell to the ground with his mouth agape, making only a short, sharp thud.

This Vortex Gang has really gone too far with their modifications. They've replaced their eyes, nose, and mouth with prosthetics. Mercer felt a little guilty when he criticized them; the feeling of all the prosthetics rebelling after a single puppet program is not pleasant.

There was only one Whirlpool in the room, still wearing Mewtwo Happy. Mercer gently transferred a Synaptic Melt to him. Whirlpool probably didn't even realize his brain was being burned before he died in Mewtwo's world.

Not long after they left, Mercer used his prosthetic eye to scan a place that looked like a security room.

Just looking at the security room located on the second floor of the factory workshop, and then at the seven members of the Vortex Gang gathered on the first floor of the factory, watching the machines run while drinking and chatting, Mercer knew that the tough part was coming.

“I’ll have to think about it.”

Mercer pondered for a moment around the corner of the employee corridor, then proceeded to hack into everything.

Hitting seven people in one go seems a bit difficult, mainly because there's no guarantee that you can kill them all instantly. If you trigger the alarm, you'll have to fight the entire Vortex Gang in the factory.

Even if Mercer's brain supports it, the memory of his network access module is limited. Running too many programs at the same time may not be enough to transfer that much data.

This is also a key reason why Mercer chose to use a hacked car to deal with Behemoth. In network warfare, besides the contest of computing power, the memory and data transmission speed of the network access module must also be considered.
How about trying brain-computer interface overclocking and Krenzikov?

Mercer thought about it and felt that this might actually be a good opportunity. With V as a backup, he could also test his ultimate combat power.

"V, I need to overclock and hack their brains. If anything goes wrong, you'll have to take action. Be prepared."

After Mercer finished speaking, V immediately pulled out his pistol, cocked it, and nodded.

Rebecca had been getting a little bored waiting, and now she was holding her shotgun with shining eyes, just waiting for the unexpected to happen.

After Mercer took a deep breath, he turned on the cooling system in advance. V and Rebecca saw the covers on his back and neck pop open, and the mechanical humming sound was like a small engine.

Synaptic accelerator!

The moment Mercer poked his head out, he activated the synaptic accelerometer. In the instant his world slowed down, his prosthetic eye precisely captured the signal from afar.

Brain-Computer Overclocking!

The moment the brain-computer interface was overclocked, Mercer's prosthetic eye began to emit a somewhat striking blue light.

In Mercer's view, a series of red program boxes suddenly appeared above the heads of the Vortex Gang members, whose movements had almost stopped.

Morning Star, run the program!

Mercer also gave Venus a practical opportunity, and it immediately began to use the rapid cracking techniques stored in the access bay by Mercer to hack into the enemy.

Mercer simply provides it with the most powerful computing power possible.

In 0.5 seconds, sparks suddenly erupted above the heads of the four members of the Vortex Gang, and then the remaining three members were also programmed with the same program.

First, the fastest 'sonic vibration' was loaded. The group of Vortex Gang members felt a huge sound suddenly come to their ears, their minds buzzed, and they immediately lost control of their prosthetic bodies for a short time.

Then comes synaptic melting, where their brains are forcibly overclocked, and electric currents burn their brains, causing some to instinctively open their mouths and cry out in pain.

But what follows is a memory erasure, a feeling similar to the dizziness after being hit hard, which makes people's minds go blank for a moment. It is this blankness that causes them to lose their last instinct to call for help.

Only one, equipped with a professional ICE system, managed to withstand the strain for a mere second before letting out a pitiful scream.

Mercer clicked his tongue, took a step forward, and leaped with all his might. The instant his eyes met those of a Vortex Gang member who was about to see what was happening outside, through the glass of the second-floor security room, sparks flew from his head.

The distance was too far, and there was too much equipment inside. The signals that Mercer's prosthetic eye scanned were all blurry. He had to rely on this direct-viewing method to accurately capture the signals on the other side with his prosthetic eye before hacking them.

"All done?" Rebecca watched as Mercer landed, his body swayed, and the blue light from his prosthetic eye faded. She instinctively caught him.

Mercer nodded: "Hopefully, the security guards didn't trigger the alarm."

Indeed, we still need to rely on real-world experience to discover the problems.

Killing an enemy instantly and killing an enemy before they can even make a sound are two completely different levels of difficulty.

In particular, Mercer still needs to rely on program hacking, and the process of loading the program, no matter how fast, still takes time.

If these people were all wearing professional ICE suits, meaning given the equipment of a company dog, it would be almost impossible for Mercer to simultaneously take their heads off and prevent them from even screaming.

Mercer can only send 4-7 programs at the same time when all the RAM in the network access module is used up. The exact number depends on the memory occupied by the program during runtime.

This is something he can't change no matter how brilliant he is, because humans can't run programs directly with their own brains; they need a medium.

Furthermore, to burn someone's head using their brain-computer interface, you first need to run a program on their brain-computer interface, which takes time. Even a wandering AI or a black-walled AI cannot solve this problem.

[Morning Star: I'm sorry, I wasn't able to complete the task you assigned perfectly.]

Mercer: It's not your fault; it's a limitation of hacking techniques.

[Morning Star: I'm very sorry.]

[Mercer: Next time I'll give you more computing power to try. I might have set my limits a bit too low this time.]

Mercer didn't demand too much from the Morning Star; its accuracy in running programs was already very high, and it hardly wasted Mercer's computing power. It was just that its real-time response was limited by its technological reserves and was still a bit lacking.

There are only a few ways to break the ice, and they basically haven't escaped the framework of Mercer's quick cracking program. They can't be as flexible as Mercer in fine-tuning the ICE for each person.

Perhaps it's time to hand over a portion of the core program code from Bartmouth's 'Death Wish' to it.

"There seems to be no movement."

V watched warily for a while, but when he heard no alarm or footsteps, he finally relaxed.

Rebecca was still supporting Mercer, looking at him with some concern: "Are you alright? After all this time, the cooling noise hasn't completely subsided."

"It's not a big problem. If it were the situation just now, I could probably last for about seven or eight seconds before I would need to stop and rest for a while."

Mercer said.

Seeing that he had straightened up and it seemed that he wasn't seriously affected, Rebecca let go of his hand: "Where to next?"

"I'll connect and take a look first. If I'm lucky, this security room will allow me to directly connect to their internal server, and then my target will be clear."

As Mercer spoke, he walked through the still-automatic server room, looked at the Vortex Gang corpses with their heads on fire, and couldn't help but shake his head.

Judging from the burn marks, what was burned was not flesh and blood, but a bunch of messy mechanical structures. These people really changed their mouths and throats into machines, and their voices were probably synthesized.

Above their noses, they all have the distinctive red eyes of the Whirlpool Gang—they love to modify their faces with a bunch of red eyes, making them look like a human head with a bunch of cameras stuffed inside.

It's no wonder that the most famous cocktail at the Vortex Gang's exclusive nightclub, "Dance of Death," is "Doomsday," which contains cockroach extermination spray, car antifreeze, and human blood—all sorts of weird stuff.

Only mechanical fanatics like them could drink that stuff and not die on the spot.

Compared to them, my level of modification is really just beginner level.

Mercer sighed, while Rebecca gave the group a disdainful look: "Don't try to imitate them, it's hideous."

“I agree with that. At least he should look like a human being, right? Look at this madman, he added two training wheels to the bottom of his two legs. He’s fucking insane.”

V also looked at a corpse and grumbled, "The Vortex Gang's madness about cybernetic modifications is something that ordinary people can hardly understand."

If Adam Hammer came here, he would definitely feel like he was back home.

"He's definitely insane. Even if he wasn't originally insane, after putting on so much of a show, he's not far from going completely mad."

After Mercer finished speaking, the group had already walked into the second-floor security room, which was made of iron frames. He went in, found his laptop, and first remotely transferred a program to check it before connecting the cable.

"I've got it! Good luck, or maybe the Vortex Gang only has one internal security server? Anyway, I've got access to the basement cameras."

As Mercer spoke, his prosthetic eye flashed, and he switched to the camera feed.

"Fortunately, it seems they are still torturing our Nightshade and don't intend to kill him immediately. V, Rebecca, you two follow the route I've planned for you to the designated location I've marked."

Once you're all here, I'll start hacking and take out the guys marked in red. The remaining two are Royce, the third-in-command of the Vortex Gang, or rather, the de facto second-in-command, and his henchmen.

I will signal you when I begin the hacking, and you will immediately take action to protect the hostages' safety as much as possible.

After Mercer finished speaking, V and Rebecca nodded, picked up their weapons, and set off.

Mercer didn't plan to follow, so the two of them could fight freely without worrying about him, a fragile hacker. He could also hack remotely using the camera, though it would be a bit slower.

He sat down at the computer in the security room and used it to control the cameras in the basement, checking the situation there.

At this very moment, in the basement, the poor 'Night Shadow' had been beaten into a punching bag.

He was tied to a chair, his head drooping, his face bruised and battered, barely recognizable as human. One of his arms had been dislocated, and a member of the Vortex Gang was brandishing a chainsaw around him, threatening him.

Royce sat in a chair opposite him, while a burly member of the Vortex Gang stood behind him with his arms crossed.

There were also six members of the Whirlpool Gang watching the spectacle from the sidelines.

Mercer kept the camera plugged in, turned up the audio, and listened to what they were saying.

"You're definitely a tough nut to crack. Most people would have given up after one night, but you're really tough, huh?"

As Royce spoke slowly and deliberately, he stared at the oddball in front of him who called himself 'Night Shadowman'.

Nightshade said weakly, "It's because I have nothing to say, so of course you can't get anything out of me."

"So you want us to believe your so-called 'righteous hero' bullshit? Damn it, if you ask me, we should just put him in the microwave and bake him to avenge those brothers!"

After speaking, a member of the Vortex Gang standing behind Shadowman, wielding a chainsaw, asked Royce with a fierce expression, "Shall I try breaking another leg?"

"So, you want me to believe that a corporate dog, who works diligently during the day, exploiting the people of this city like a dog, suddenly becomes a 'superhero' at night?"

Royce sneered, "I think you're fucking treating me like an idiot!"

"What idiots. To fall into the hands of idiots like you who can't even speak properly, my death is truly tragic." Nightshade laughed bitterly, seemingly having completely given up hope.

Royce, his half-face red and eyes gleaming, stared intently at him for a moment, then decisively pulled out his pistol: "Then I'll assume you're a truly insane idiot."

After he finished speaking, Royce's expression suddenly changed. He turned to look at the camera, instinctively raised his gun, aimed it at the camera, and pulled the trigger.

But before the bullet even left the barrel, his movements froze on the spot. First, his arm went out of control, and then he only had time to let out a curse before turning his head and looking fiercely at Night Shadowman, wanting to kill him first.

Before he could even make a move, several gunshots rang out, causing him to fall to the ground to one side.

"You're the idiot..." But before Nightshade could finish his reply, his eyes, swollen to slits, saw a flash of red light before him, followed by a series of gunshots.

He shuddered, instinctively thinking that the other person had pulled the trigger.

However, what followed was a loud roar of a shotgun.

The guy standing behind Nightshade was instantly struck hard by the chainsaw.

The chainsaw vortex gang member was blasted away by the blast. His sturdy body and iron skin blocked some of the bullets, but he also suffered a greater impact. He flew two or three meters to the side before rolling to the ground.

Rebecca descended from the sky, shouting excitedly, "Awesome! That spray was really powerful!"

V, on the other hand, casually put away his pistol and turned off S.A.S.S. – because the remaining few Vortex Gang members around him had already been hacked into the heads by Mercer, and were now writhing in agony, turning into human torches.

"You're pretty quick." She gave the camera a thumbs up.

The camera nodded at her, indicating that it accepted her praise.

"So you're the Night Shadow?" V walked up to the Night Shadow and shot Royce's henchman, who was still lying on the ground, instantly killing him.

"Who are you?" Nightshade struggled to open his swollen eyes, trying to make out V's face.

V nodded, then looked at the camera. When the camera pointed at her and nodded back, V knew she hadn't made a mistake.

"Never mind who it is, they're here to save you. According to my boss, guys like you are the ones we should save if we can, and you happen to be pretty rich, so we won't lose money."

As V spoke, Rebecca walked over, grabbed the ropes binding him, and untied them. Seeing that he still had handcuffs on his wrists, she squeezed them with both hands and broke the handcuffs in two.

Night Shadow instinctively said thank you, then asked with a puzzled look, "So, you don't actually know me, you only know I'm a Night Shadow, and that's why you came to rescue me? How did you know I'd been captured?"

A voice interrupted Nightshade's words.

"Bruce Will, senior project manager of Night Corporation. Let me see. Sure enough, my dad and mom were the chief managers of the Night City light rail project. When they were alive, they had their own construction company and financial company."

But when you were twelve, your parents died in a robbery and murder, and you were lucky enough to survive. Afterwards, you sold your parents' company, went to university, joined the company, and have worked there ever since – a typical profile of a high-achieving professional.

Mercer's voice alerted Bruce, who turned his head and saw a man who was about 1.76 meters tall emerge from the shadows.

It must be said that the scanning program hacked from the NPCPD is really useful. For a law-abiding citizen like Bruce, the information recorded in the NCPD's database is quite complete.

"I'm A. Never mind how I knew. You're just lucky to have run into me."

After Mercer finished speaking, he paused and said, "I came here specifically to save you. There's nothing sinister or scheming about it. To put it simply, I wanted to save you, so I did."

Anyway, as your savior, I feel I should get something in return, like that sword in the stone you gave me, which I quite like, so it wasn't a complete waste of my efforts.”

Hearing Mercer say that, Bruce felt relieved—it was good that he had what he wanted.

He quickly calmed down and turned to look at Royce, who was still alive, lying on the ground groaning softly and clutching his head.
"Alright, we'll talk about the reward once I'm safe. I will definitely not treat my savior unfairly. But what do you plan to do with this Royce?"

After he finished speaking, Mercer laughed: "See if there's any valuable information in his head. If not, kill him. What, you want to do it yourself?"

“No, I don’t kill people randomly.” Bruce shook his head decisively in refusal.

"Oh, so you have a principle of not killing too?" Mercer tilted his head as he looked at him.

"Are you serious? If it had been a second later, they could have smashed your head in!" V looked at Bruce incredulously.

Bruce, with his pig-like face, said seriously:

“I never kill an enemy who has lost all resistance. I prefer to capture him and hand him over to the NCPD.”

V sneered, "Come on, what good is the NCPD? Night City's laws are a pile of crap. A guy like Royce, once he's in jail, he'll be released in a few years."

“Then we’ll arrest him then!” Bruce said firmly.

Mercer, on the other hand, found it increasingly amusing; this guy really did look more and more like Batman.

But then Mercer suddenly became a little wary—was this really just a regular Easter egg in the game?

Can someone like Bruce really grow up in a place like Night City?
At this moment, Royce, who had almost fainted from shock, finally came to his senses and asked in a hoarse voice, "Who the hell are you?"

"Watch your mouth!" Rebecca kicked him with unexpected force, twisting Royce's face.

With an angry look in his eyes, his red prosthetic eye, which covered almost half his face, could only flash red light: "I've lost today. Draw a line and give me a chance to save my life."

"You guys don't really intend to kill me outright, do you? The Vortex Gang members aren't easy to kill! I'll give you 500,000 euros for my life—man, that's no small sum!"

Royce had expected the two women in front of him to waver somewhat, but to his surprise, neither of the two girls dressed like street kids gave him a second glance.

V even let out a sneer.

Reus quickly added, "Five hundred thousand euros per person! As long as I live!"

"Then you can pay me first," Mercer said with a smile.
“Of course it’s impossible to give it to him now.” Before Royce could finish speaking, Mercer walked over and directly pulled out the personal chip from his brain.

"This guy only has 10,000 euros in his virtual wallet, but he keeps talking about 500,000. Does he think I'm an idiot?"

After Mercer transferred all the money from his personal chip, he sneered, installed a lie detector program directly into his brain, and then asked him:

"How much money do you actually have? 100,000 euros? 200,000 euros? 300,000 euros? You're the de facto second-in-command of the Vortex Gang!"

Royce was shocked: "What the hell did you put in my head?!"

“Looks like you’re hopeless.” Mercer looked at V with regret, and V cooperated by raising his pistol and pointing it at his head.

Royce immediately replied, "I just don't have that much money in the bank! Who among us gangsters would keep such a large sum of money in the bank?"

"Hey buddy, I just bought something really rare. If you guys let me off the hook, I'll give it to you. It's worth almost a million euros, a truly rare find!"

Mercer stared at him and asked, "Is that thing in your hands, or in your boss's? Never mind, I'll ask you one last time, where is your own 300,000 euros?"

Royce's expression was somewhat ferocious as he stared intently at Mercer without uttering a word.

"It's not stored in cash, is it?" Mercer asked.

Royce remained silent, but Mercer guessed the answer from the general fluctuations detected by the lie detector in his brain.

Mercer rolled his eyes and said with some regret, "Looks like there won't be a chance to make some extra money this time. V, get started."

Reus opened his mouth, but it was unclear whether he wanted to curse or beg for mercy.

But V pulled the trigger without saying a word, and her shot only knocked Royce's head to the side, instead of blowing it off.

"Damn it!" V cursed, then angrily pulled the trigger repeatedly until Royce's head was riddled with holes.

Rebecca laughed heartily, picked up her shotgun, and fired a shot at Royce's head.

The next moment, green and white things flew all over the ground.

"See that? I told you your old relic needed replacing. Even with the revised caliber, it's still not enough." Rebecca laughed as she showed off her treasure.

V looked at his pistol defiantly: "Who said that? If you ask me, it's the bullets that are no good. You wait until I modify them and switch to armor-piercing rounds. With such a large caliber, one shot can blow his head off!"

"Why bother with all that trouble? Why do you like playing with these old relics so much? If you ask me, even a large-caliber revolver would be better than your gun. The design of this gun is fixed. You should know better than me the limits of how much you can modify this gun."

After Rebecca finished speaking, V could only mutter things like, "This is the first good gun I've ever had," which made Rebecca laugh even harder as she endlessly showed off her Ironclad Gun.

Bruce was stunned—the two girls in front of him didn't look like good people!

The synthetic fluid flowing from Royce's head was still steaming hot when the two girls started discussing how to improve their killing weapons.
"Alright, can you still walk?" Mercer smiled and extended his hand to Bruce.

Bruce gritted his teeth and barely managed to get up: "It's alright, just don't go too fast."

"Then let's go out first and talk about your business. To be honest, I have a lot of questions about you." After Mercer finished speaking, the Morning Star indicator flashed before his eyes.

[Morning Star: I suggest you start evacuating immediately; someone is coming.]

Morning Star also showed Mercer the camera footage—five Vortex Gang vehicles were passing through the factory's main gate.

From the camera's perspective, there were two faces that Mercer looked somewhat familiar in the driver's and passenger's seats of the lead car, which were deliberately magnified and shown to him by Morning Star.

"They're leaving. Brick, the leader of the Vortex Gang, and Doom Doom, his second-in-command, are here."

Mercer spoke up to remind them, while Rebecca and V quickly pulled out the other Vortex Gang's personal chips as well, which added up to a small sum of money.

"Bear with it." Mercer reached out and put Bruce's arm around his neck as he stumbled, helping him walk outside. Rebecca wanted to help, but given her size, she figured she'd have to drag Bruce along the ground.

Bruce was truly a tough guy. He was missing an arm, and his legs looked like they had taken a lot of damage, but at this moment he just walked quickly outside with Mercer's help without saying a word.

They almost brushed past Brick and his group—Merser and his group had just walked from the employee entrance to the back door of the factory when Brick and his group arrived at the factory building leading to the basement through the front door.

Unsurprisingly, the scattered corpses of the Vortex Gang members, who had been dealt with by Mercer, immediately alerted Brick and the others.

"Quick! Go check the basement!" Brick shouted, first examining the body on the ground with his gun, then immediately yelled warily, "Open the ICE software beforehand and let the factory's hackers check the security system!"

Mercer helped Bruce walk out while using a camera to observe the situation inside and outside the factory. Upon seeing this, he knew that things had been exposed, so he immediately started transmitting the virus to them through the camera.

But Brick was very alert. The moment he noticed movement on his ICE device, he immediately raised his gun and shot the distant camera, interrupting the hacking process.

"Holy crap, watch out! Smash all the cameras!" Brick yelled. "There's a hacker! My ICE almost couldn't hold up! Watch out, all of you!"

After saying that, Brick, while turning on the camera, muttered and cursed, "Those stupid idiots from the Voodoo Gang told me that my ICE program could withstand even corporate hackers for ten seconds. What a load of crap, they're just trying to fool me!"

The poor Voodoo gang got unfairly blamed.

As the Vortex Gang members immediately destroyed all the cameras, Mercer lost his sense of what was inside the factory. He shook his head, not feeling any regret. In fact, he had just used the cameras to test Brick's abilities.

If Mercer were to activate brain-computer interface and Krenzikov, and instead of using a camera, hack him face-to-face, he was confident he could install the program into his system in about a second.

If even the leader of the Whirlpool Gang is only this level in his eyes, then Mercer is very confident—more than 90% of the guys in Night City should be powerless against him.

The only thing to worry about is being ganged up on by multiple skilled opponents, or encountering interference from high-powered electronic countermeasures equipment, or long-range shooting.

Mercer didn't want to cause a massacre. After returning the way he came, the Vortex Gang also noticed something amiss near the back gate of the factory—although Mercer had thrown the bodies into the trash can, the bloodstains on the ground could not be hidden.

This immediately made the Vortex Gang, who had already sensed something was wrong, realize where the enemy had infiltrated from.

"They're at the back door!"

A member of the Vortex Gang shouted, but he was met with Rebecca, who kicked open the door and laughed as she pulled the trigger of her shotgun.

The moment the powerful shotgun blasted the Vortex gang member away, V activated Sinwidman and charged out.

Mercer discreetly helped V, through cover, to knock away the vortex that was trying to hide and shoot, thus eliminating the danger at the back door. Only then did he continue to support Bruce, and after leaving the factory, he threw him into the car.

V jumped into the driver's seat: "Damn, we have to get going! Those guys will be catching up soon!"

"Do you have any good places outside the city?" Mercer didn't want to lead the Vortex Gang to Adcardo.

"Go, go to my secret base." Bruce coughed as he spoke, panting heavily. He had to endure the omnipresent pain from all parts of his body as he moved. Although he didn't cry out in pain, his face was already covered in cold sweat.

"Where?" V asked.

"Drive out of the city, onto the highway to the Badlands. I'll show you the way. There's an abandoned tunnel there; I've turned it into my secret base."

Bruce said, while Mercer examined his condition and judged, "You need to stop the bleeding immediately, replenish your blood, and have an internal bleeding test done. You may also need surgery if necessary."

“My facility has basic medical equipment and they have shut down my trauma group membership; I will call the trauma group if necessary.”

Bruce said weakly.

Rebecca, however, said, puzzled, "Why don't you just call the trauma team?"

Bruce simply said, "You don't understand. My trauma group membership was purchased from the company, and it goes through the company's insurance reimbursement process, which could expose my identity to the company."

“How could a corporate dog like you think of doing something like this?” Rebecca was genuinely curious: “Is it really for justice, or just to seek thrills?”

Bruce paused for a moment, then said, "This city needs me."

“In a ‘superhero’ way?” V strongly disagreed.

She glanced at the rearview mirror, and mainly at Mercer, and said, "I heard from A that what you do every day is just to replace the NCPD, go out on the streets to stop crime, and crack down on criminals and the like."

What's the point of doing this for the city?

"That's better than no one doing it!" Bruce suddenly became agitated. "Are we just going to sit here and watch those crimes escalate and innocent people keep sacrificing themselves?"

"What constitutes an innocent person? Aren't those who are forced by their companies to the point of not being able to afford food or water, and who are forced to join gangs, innocent people?"

V sharply retorted: "Are those who rob supermarket bread for a bite to eat inherently evil criminals, or pitiful people with nowhere else to turn?"

“I’m targeting serious crimes,” Bruce said.

V countered, "We killed a whole bunch of Vortex gang members to save you, so what are we? According to the NCPD and Night City laws, we should all be sentenced to life imprisonment. Would you come and arrest us then?"

Bruce fell silent.

But V persisted in pressing him: "Companies like biotechnology, everyone knows they're poisoning people all over the world and tricking innocent people into doing human experiments, why don't you go and cause them trouble?"

"What kind of hero are you, just picking out street thugs with no connections, helping them get arrested?"

Bruce opened his mouth, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes, but then his expression became increasingly firm: "That doesn't mean that what I did was meaningless!"

“I’m not saying what you’re doing is meaningless, but I think, why would a rich person like you choose this method? Even if you invested in the NCPD and got them to enforce the law properly, wouldn’t that be more efficient than you messing around like this by yourself?”

V's words surprised Rebecca, and Mercer couldn't help but laugh.

But before Mercer could speak, V glared fiercely at the rearview mirror: "If you dare to say you're wise but foolish again, I promise I'll punch you right now!"

"Haha, but V, this time I really agree with you."

Mercer chuckled a few times, then said seriously, "For this city, simply cracking down on criminals is meaningless."

Of course, I'm not saying we shouldn't do similar things anymore, but rather that simply being a street hero won't change anything.

After Mercer finished speaking, Bruce simply lowered his head in silence, not saying a word.

Even Rebecca agreed with V and Mercer's ideas, saying, "I also think that if fighting criminals could make Night City a better place, someone would have done it long ago."

"If you enjoy doing this kind of thing so much, why don't you join the NCPD and instead go work for the Night Corporation?"

Then, Rebecca said in a confident tone, "I bet the Night Corporation has done a lot of disgusting things too. You're a senior executive at the Night Corporation, so why didn't you do anything about it?"

Bruce lowered his head even further. Mercer shook his head, signaling everyone to stop talking, otherwise this guy's Dao heart would shatter and he would kill himself by crashing into his head. Wouldn't it have been a waste of time to save him?
"Think about it again. Hold on tight, the Vortex Gang is here." V's eyes suddenly narrowed as he saw several motorcycles speeding towards them in the rearview mirror.

At that moment, the motorcycles were weaving through the traffic, chasing after their Macintosh.

"You're courting death, let me handle this!" Rebecca, holding Iron Gallbladder, leaned half her body out of the passenger seat and sprayed it at the back.

"Get out of my way if you don't want to die!" she shouted, but the cars blocking her way became an obstacle to her shooting.

Rebecca had to consider these innocent people, but the Vortex Gang didn't. One of the Vortex Gang members, sitting on a motorcycle, was wielding a smart submachine gun in one hand and firing indiscriminately at Rebecca.

Bullets whizzed past, and Rebecca only had time to curse before she had to retreat back into the car to avoid the onslaught.

"Drive faster!" she urged V.

V rolled his eyes: "Look at the road conditions yourself, how fast can we go?"

Nowadays, in order to get out of the city quickly, they didn't take the back roads, but instead took the city's expressways. There was a lot of traffic, and even though V was flooring the gas pedal, he still had to overtake other cars, which slowed him down.

Motorcycles are much more convenient; they can nimbly weave through gaps and close the distance by more than ten meters in the time it takes to talk.

Mercer stood up decisively: "I'll do it."

"What a joke! You're not even wearing a bulletproof vest!" Rebecca refused his attempt to get closer.

Mercer simply rolled over and squeezed in, placing Rebecca's small frame on his body. This didn't affect his sitting in the passenger seat, holding his dagger, and leaning out the window.

In terms of sheer strength, Rebecca could easily push him back with one hand, but after squeezing her own gorilla-like arm, she could only obediently move aside to make room for him: "Be careful! They're using smart weapons too!"

"They call that smart locking?"

Mercer said confidently, and the moment he probed, he activated the brain-computer interface and synapse accelerator. He did not choose to hack, but instead raised his Zoe shotgun and completed the smart lock in less than 0.1 seconds.

Then, he slightly raised the muzzle of his gun and fired two shots in quick succession.

The projectile, equipped with intelligent tracking capabilities, shot out, arcing through the air before whistling as it landed on the faces of the two motorcycle drivers.

All the projectiles were evenly distributed in a circle, and none of them deviated from their impact point.

The Vortex Gang members were caught off guard. Even if they instinctively tried to dodge the moment they saw the shotgun, the homing bullets didn't care about anything and in the blink of an eye, they transformed half of their faces into red eyes, turning them into real 'red-eyed' people.

The two motorcycles instantly lost their balance, one of them flying off the expressway, its vortex-like body screaming as it crashed into the concrete and steel guardrail on the side of the road, becoming completely embedded in it.

The other car fared even worse, getting caught under another car. The civilian driver was so terrified that his face turned pale, and screams could be heard from the driver's seat from dozens of meters away.

Mercer casually shrank back, a smirk playing on his lips: "See that? Marksmanship."

"Damn, does smart lock-on count as marksmanship?" V said with a hint of sourness, looking at the situation in the rearview mirror.

This smart gun is so overpowered!

Seeing this, Rebecca just smiled and tilted her head back, snuggling into his arms: "Not bad~ Sure enough, shotguns are more effective, right?"

Mercer then noticed that the two were acting somewhat intimately.

Rebecca chuckled, only now beginning to exert force with her arms, and sat facing him: "Don't move around, what if you fall?"

"Damn it!" V muttered under his breath, "What are you two doing!"

"Oh well, since we're already here," Rebecca chuckled, her two gorilla arms securing Mercer to the passenger seat like seatbelts.

Mercer just chuckled, but didn't struggle—he was just a weak hacker, what could he do?

Turning his head, Mercer looked at Bruce, who seemed to still be withdrawn: "Hey, can you still hold on?"

"I'm fine," Bruce replied listlessly, seemingly lost in thought.

"Take it easy, don't strangle me. Move a bit, I need to turn on the cooling." As soon as Mercer finished speaking, Rebecca chuckled and let go, relaxing as she sat in his lap in a different position.

Mercer then activated the watchdog program in his network access bay, getting Morning Star to work.

[Morning Star: Planning your route using the city's transportation system.]

[Morning Star: We have used city cameras to mark the vehicles belonging to the Whirlpool Gang and are currently analyzing suitable evacuation routes. Estimated time: 52 seconds.]

[Morning Star: We have located three evacuation routes for you.]

Mercer looked at the map that the Morning Star had shown him and couldn't help but smile.

[Mercer: Deploying a third escape route to V's prosthetic eye, well done, Morning Star.]

[Morning Star: I suggest you improve the CTos system as soon as possible. The current analysis and planning method is still too inefficient without the computing power you provide.]

Mercer: You're really pushing me now.

[Morning Star: I'm just offering suggestions. Your proposed CTos system is indeed an amazing idea, and once developed, it will allow me to provide you with even better service.]

Mercer didn't reply, but after providing V with the evacuation route, V exclaimed, "What the hell is this thing you threw at my prosthetic eye?"

"Evacuation route, follow the route," Mercer said.

V rolled his eyes speechlessly: "Of course I can tell this is an evacuation route. I mean, why is this route marked so clearly?"
It even marked out where the traffic was, how many seconds the red light was, and what speed to drive at! Wow, it even marked overtaking routes for me? Amazing!

Mercer touched his slightly feverish head: "How could I not be divine?"

The current method of relying solely on AI to temporarily extract data and perform on-the-spot calculations and analysis is still too crude.

Maintaining such a simple route and monitoring only a few vehicles, the real-time power consumption even made his head feel slightly hot.

If he really wanted to monitor the entire city, his brain would be fried.

This is still based on the premise that AI is used for boosting, so that the user does not need to analyze or think for themselves.

It seems that writing the Ctos program as soon as possible to give Qimingxing a separate server is now imperative.

This thing is indeed quite useful—at least judging from the real-time map data provided to him by Morning Star, he visibly left several of the Vortex Gang's vehicles far behind.

Some of the Whirlpool Gang's vehicles that chose other routes, attempting to outflank and intercept them from the highway exit, had virtually no chance of catching up with them.

Because every intersection they passed was a red light, and even NCPD patrol cars were intentionally led along their route.

Although the NCPD doesn't usually get involved, it can't ignore those vortex gangs speeding recklessly through red lights; they still have to do something about it when they see them.

In other words, when Morning Star intervened and began to simulate CTos's actions using the NCPD's database, the Vortex Gang would have virtually no chance of catching up with Mercer.

Meanwhile, the locations of all the NCPDs along Mercer's escape route became crystal clear—he could even hear news about himself from the NCPD's dispatch information.

[NCPD Radio: Attention all units, we have received a report of serious speeding and shooting on the expressway leading to the eastern suburbs. It appears the Vortex gang is engaged in a gunfight with an unknown target. Are you aware?]

[NCPD Officer: 3-0-1, Received, en route to the expressway]

[NCPD Officer: 3-0-22 Calling headquarters. Serious speeding and reckless driving incident in Watson District. Requesting backup. We don't know who provoked these lunatics. They're speeding and running red lights, and it looks like they're targeting people on the expressway.]

[NCPD Officer: 3-0-1 Call Dispatch! What's wrong with the traffic lights today? They're all red here! Can you give me a green light?]

[NCPD Radio: Dispatch received, coordinating.]

[NCPD Officer: 3-0-1 call, what are the target vehicle's license plate number and characteristics?]

[NCPD Radio: Currently, the cameras are being jammed. The other party may have installed camera jamming devices on the vehicles, making identification impossible. Only the Vortex Gang's vehicles are visible. We are currently questioning the caller about details of the other vehicle.]

Mercer turned off the NCPD's internal voice chat with satisfaction.

V drove the Mageno effortlessly out of the suburbs—once you get there, the NCPD usually won't chase you.

On the Badlands outside Night City, there are no city cameras to help the NCPD locate criminals. If they are ambushed, they will die in vain, and there will be no time for reinforcements.

Unless they really mess with the NCPD, the NCPD generally won't relentlessly pursue ordinary crimes, because there are countless serious crimes in Night City every day. If they pursued every single one to the end, the NCPD would never be able to get off work.

The 'secret base' Bruce mentioned is actually the abandoned tunnel in the game where players can get a free Stone Sword.

In 2077, this tunnel had been used as a secret base by the Chaotic Blade Society, and the Sword in the Stone was hidden in a container inside.

I don't know why those thugs didn't notice what was in the container, but in any case, that place is still Bruce's territory.

V drove his Mazda into the abandoned mountain tunnel and asked curiously, "What was this place originally for? Why did they carve this mountain out of itself, make a road inside, and install electrical wiring for lighting?"

“I reckon it’s for smuggling.” After saying that, Mercer suddenly sighed, “Since Dogtown came out, the smugglers in Night City have really had a run of bad luck.”

As the car drove inside, Bruce suddenly spoke up: "It's over here. See that container? Open it, go inside, there's a secret room inside."

V stopped the car, and Bruce struggled to his feet. After getting out of the car, he walked to the seemingly abandoned shipping container at the edge of the tunnel, fiddled with it for a bit, and then opened the container door.

And the sword in the stone that Mercer longed for was sitting inside this shipping container.

The black sports car was parked discreetly here, and behind it were several toolboxes, tables, and other items.

"This container is your secret base?" V felt his expectations were somewhat disappointed.

Bruce silently walked to the table, opened a wardrobe, fumbled around for a bit, and turned on a switch inside.

Then, V heard a rumbling sound, turned his head, and suddenly a rock wall was smashed open.

Inside the door was a dug-out room, about twenty square meters in size—something even Mercer had never seen before in the game.

"Come in, let's talk."

Bruce limped toward the room. As he passed the black car, Sword in the Stone, the car's headlights suddenly lit up. "I deactivated the car's infotainment system. Weren't you interested in him? Here you go. Consider it payment for saving me."

"Wow, buddy, I really think you're a good guy now." V's breathing became heavy. Maybe she wouldn't be this upset even if you gave her millions of euros, but this is a sword in the stone!
The lifelong pursuits of street kids, besides fame and fortune, are things like big gold chains and gold watches; luxury cars and mansions are also among their life goals.

For most street kids, a high-end Gudera 66 muscle car or a modified high-end Mizutani Jun sports car is the pinnacle of their lives.

The Sword in the Stone?
Damn it, she wouldn't even dare to dream of this!
"I'll give you a good time later." Mercer chuckled and followed Bruce into his secret base hidden in the tunnel.

Once inside, Bruce took out a first-aid kit, gave himself an injection, and then took out a hemostatic bandage.

Mercer took it and skillfully wrapped it around his broken left shoulder: "Fortunately, they stopped the bleeding for you, although they were a bit rough around the edges."

"If burning your arm with a spray gun counts as stopping the bleeding, then you really have to thank them," Bruce said in a hoarse voice, taking out a medical spray, holding it to his face, and taking a few deep breaths.

After the pain reliever took effect, Bruce finally looked a little more relaxed: "Let me rest for a bit. I need to ask you guys to take me to the doctor."

"Okay." Mercer casually found a table and sat down. "Let's talk. Where would you like to start?"

Bruce turned to look at Mercer, his tone calm: "I think we should start with your self-introductions?"

(End of this chapter)