Mercer looked at the girl whose rainbow-colored short hair was visible even in Cyberspace.
Her avatar was almost identical to her real self, still wearing the netrunner glasses that obscured her eyes.
"Is this... a program you coded yourself?"
Lucy walked toward him with a complicated expression, glancing between the cat and him, she never expected Mercer to do something like this.
In Cyberspace, or more accurately, in the Old Net, leisurely playing with a cat?
It was truly unexpected.
Yet, it only deepened the doubts in Lucy's heart.
Everyone at the Netrunner Academy had been trained by Arasaka in the same institution before being sent to this "Star Project."
Though she hadn't been very close to Mercer before, they had lived in the same place for so long, spoken quite a bit, and deep dived together many times.
She couldn't claim to know him deeply, but at least she understood what kind of person he was.
But the Mercer now...
Lucy didn't know how to put it; it was as if, ever since he burned his head, he had become a completely different person.
More lively, more carefree, and much more mature and reliable.
In the past, though no one said it outright, a single glance at each other's faces would reveal the despair and confusion about the future in their eyes.
Mercer used to be like that too, but now... he gave off a sense of suddenly possessing the confidence and calm to face anything with ease.
This demeanor made him stand out like a crane among chickens among all the little netrunners.
Not only that, but his presence or attitude also inexplicably lent a bit more composure and courage to everyone around him who watched him.
At least, that's how Lucy felt.
In the past, her heart was filled only with fear and confusion; the desire to survive almost overwhelmed any other longing.
But now, just seeing Mercer, observing his composed demeanor, somehow eased much of the fear and unease in her heart.
Yet, precisely because such a drastic change had occurred in Mercer, it made Lucy feel that he might be a bit dangerous.
In this world, there were plenty of technologies capable of altering a person's consciousness. In fact, in the network, it was widely believed that AI had the strongest grasp of such techniques.
Could he have been taken over by some rogue AI?
"Is it a small AI?" Lucy asked cautiously, studying him as she spoke.
"Yeah, you could say that."
Mercer smiled, patting the ground beside him. After a moment's hesitation, Lucy sat down next to him.
"Go on." He casually tossed the cat aside, and the cyber-cat nimbly flipped mid-air, landing gracefully before obediently leaping onto Lucy's lap.
Lucy instinctively reached out her hand, then gasped in surprise, the texture felt astonishingly real!
Even with her limited sensory perception in Cyberspace, it felt as if she were truly petting a cat!
"This is amazing... What does this AI do?" she asked curiously, her fingers gently stroking the cat's back as it purred contentedly, which only made Lucy find it even more incredible, so cats could do this too?
Lucy had never touched a living cat before.
"Specially designed to deal with the 'Guardian' AI on you."
Mercer pointed at the faint blue data shimmering on her body. Even though Lucy had manually hidden the Guardian ICE shell, her abilities still occasionally caused some blue data to leak out.
Why go to such lengths to hide that imposing warrior form?
Well, Mercer guessed, she was probably afraid of being detected by rogue AI due to her large data signature, so she compressed her data as much as possible.
"What?"
Lucy looked up, and even with her data-formed glasses obscuring her face, her shocked expression was clear: "Is this your first time seeing an Arasaka 'Guardian' AI?"
"Aren't we all seeing it for the first time?"
Mercer smiled:
"It'll take some time to find a vulnerability in that AI and eliminate it.
But with this, I believe it's only a matter of time. If we don't take down this Guardian AI, we won't be able to use the server's power to bypass security."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
At this point, Lucy couldn't even begin to imagine just how skilled Mercer was as a netrunner.
The two fell silent. Lucy had too many questions but didn't know how to ask, while Mercer was simply using the server's computing power for his own shady purposes.
Though he hadn't cracked the Guardian AI yet, as long as he didn't break any rules, secretly using the server's processing power to optimize his software and experiment with some programs was still feasible.
It wasn't until Lucy stole several glances at him that Mercer finally looked her way: "If you have something to ask, just ask."
"Well... have you thought about where you'll go after we leave here?"
Lucy finally voiced her question.
Mercer gave her a speechless look for a moment, then glanced at the cat in her arms.
Deathwish's body suddenly dissolved into a data stream and plunged straight into her body.
Immediately, the blue glow on her intensified dramatically, and an imposing armored warrior broke free from within her, taking human form.
The warrior let out a silent roar, mouth wide open, as a gleaming blue katana materialized in its hands and was brutally driven into its own chest.
But the black hairless cat roaming inside its chest moved as nimbly as a fish darting through water, leaping onto its head in the blink of an eye.
Now transformed into a black "Deathwish," it looked far more ferocious than the warrior. With its jaws wide, each bite tore away huge chunks of blue data.
Simultaneously, its size swelled with every bite.
The massive blue warrior, initially towering like a skyscraper at what seemed forty or fifty meters tall, shrank to just twice the size of a normal human after a few bites.
Meanwhile, the feline-formed "Deathwish" had now grown into a terrifying beast over ten meters tall.
After it devoured the last of the ICE deployed by the Guardian AI, it even let out a contented yawn.
Then, with a flicker, the black beast shrank back into a small cat composed of blue data.
It stretched lazily on the floor before hopping back onto Lucy's lap. As for Lucy, she was completely dumbfounded.
"You don't actually think the ICE Arasaka installed for you is just some simple ICE, do you? This thing contains a subroutine of the Guardian AI, basically a low-intelligence AI."
After saying this, Mercer paused, then added reassuringly, "But I don't blame you. With your skill level, it's really hard to detect. After all, you've never dealt with AI-related tech before."
"I'm sorry, I...I thought..." Lucy felt that if this were the real world, she'd probably be blushing with embarrassment, this time, she'd really been foolish.
It's just...
"I just, well, feel like when I'm with you, I don't have to worry so much." Lucy decided to be honest.
Mercer curled the corner of his mouth, not hiding his amusement: "Mhm, not a bad explanation. Alright, back to the earlier question."
"I've decided to take my talents to Night City."
Mercer gave his answer.
"Night City? I've heard of it. They say it's pretty chaotic there too. Since it's still a neutral city, Arasaka and Militech are locked in a fierce struggle. Not to mention Biotechnica, Night Corp, and outside the city, there are nomads and the Maelstrom gang."
Lucy was surprised. She had thought Mercer would choose somewhere safer. Night City? That didn't seem like a pleasant place to settle down.
"Yep, corps at each other's throats, and the gangs below are even more fragmented. You've got the Valentinos, made up of Heywood locals. The 6th Street Gang, a bunch of Americans. The Maelstrom, full of cyberpsychos. The Voodoo Boys, a pack of stupid traitors. The Scavengers... kill on sight. The Wraiths out in the badlands, Arasaka's attack dogs the Tyger Claws, and the Animals, all hopped up on drugs till their heads are pointy."
Mercer rattled off the factions with simple descriptions, then laughed heartily, "So that's exactly why it's the perfect place for us."
"Only there do we have a chance to rise up, maybe even hit a shitty corp like Arasaka where it hurts. Remember the Arasaka nuclear blast fifty years ago? That kind of thing can only happen in Night City. Morgan Blackhand, Spider Murphy, Bartmoss, countless legends wrote their stories there. Even if the endings weren't all happy, trust me, some things can only be done in Night City."
After finishing, Mercer paused, then said to her with a grin, "Even if you just want to hide, it's the best place to do it. Although Arasaka's taken the lead again in Night City lately, plenty of people there are still fighting back. A little mining GPU like you slipping in? Nobody'd bother looking for you. Hmm... though if you're with me, that might change. I don't plan on slinking away quietly."
Lucy looked into his eyes. Even in Cyberspace, with his face hidden behind a smiling mask, she could still vaguely see his confident, defiant gaze flickering in the data-light shining from his eye sockets.
"Aren't you afraid..." she trailed off.
"Of Arasaka? Or of dying?"
The smile on Mercer's mask grew even brighter:
"Since I'm alive in this world now, I don't plan on dying a pathetic death."
Fortunately, it seems I now have the possibility, or rather, the ability, to change these things. So of course, I'm going to raise hell before I die.
Lucy couldn't understand.
Right now, all she wanted was to survive. Things like the meaning of life felt too distant, but...
"Alright then, I'll go to Night City too. Can you take me with you?"
She turned her face away, looking at the cat in her arms. The cat seemed to have eaten its fill and was now dozing on her lap, digesting.
"Sure."
Hearing this, Mercer smiled and said, "Then I'll take you with me, not even Arasaka can stop us, that's a promise."
"You'd better not be bluffing." Lucy felt her face grow strangely warm. How odd, how could there be temperature in Cyberspace?
"So, what do you plan to do once we get to Night City?" she changed the subject.
"First, find a place to settle down, then switch to being a mercenary, earn some money, build up my reputation, make connections, and gather like-minded comrades along the way."
Mercer described the future casually:
"Once I make some cash, I'm gonna buy a mansion to live in, one with a swimming pool. Never experienced that kind of luxury in this life!
When I make it big in Night City, I've gotta enjoy the high life first.
Ah, and I'll keep improving my netrunning skills, tinkering with and developing cyberware and other tech.
Hmm... In short, my short-term goal is to become a legend in Night City!"
After saying this, Mercer turned to look at Lucy:
"You should think about what you really want too.
I know you're scared, scared of Arasaka, scared of death, and even more scared of dying meaninglessly.
There's nothing wrong with that, but...
I think, rather than worrying all day about how to die or how to escape death, the meaning of life should be more about what you truly want to do.
Only after you find a reason to live, an attitude toward life, does the fear of death have meaning."
"Mhm..." Lucy nodded softly, lowering her head without saying a word.
Mercer reached out and gently patted her head:
"You're still young. No need to overthink everything.
At the very least, if you stick with me, you can take things one step at a time."
"...You're only a year older than me." Lucy muttered discontentedly, not fond of his condescending tone.
"Well, in terms of mental age, I'd say I'm at least ten years older than you."
Mercer spoke honestly, but Lucy eyed him suspiciously. In the end, though, she just nodded.
"You're the boss. You call the shots."
After saying this, she let out a long sigh and smiled. "Well then, I'll leave all these annoying matters to you, Mercer, the one who's mature in both body and mind."
"...Bite her."
As soon as Mercer spoke, Deathwish on her lap actually bit her. Strangely, it brought a real sense of pain but caused no data damage.
"Alright, go gather everyone else. From now on, when we deep dive, we'll meet at the same IP. No more splitting up.
By my side, you'll rarely run into rogue AIs. Even if we do, the ICE deployed by Arasaka's Guardian AI on us, combined with my cat, should buy us enough time to safely withdraw."
Mercer instructed.
"Alright." Lucy cheerfully rubbed Deathwish's furry head, then immediately got up to trace the IP and summon someone.
—--
After she left, Mercer pondered for a moment before secretly cursing Bartmoss under his breath, that old man must have deliberately dropped him near Lucy's IP on purpose.
Dude, she's only thirteen or fourteen!
Is Cyberpunk world this wild? Not afraid of the iron fist of justice at all!
Shaking his head, Mercer relaxed and lay down on the floor.
Time to keep milking the system, while he can still use the Arasaka servers, he'll harness their computing power to fiercely code programs for himself!
What to write first?
Hmm.
Got it!
He'd start by coding all those common offensive virus from the games, like Cyberware Malfunction and Synapse Burnout, and compress them into Quickhacks!
Once he'd written a dozen or so super viruses, he'd be able to open his eyes, glare at anyone, and drop them dead, guaranteed to give Night City a little cyber shock!