There was no roar of gunfire.
There were only agents and staff clutching their heads and wailing.
Their cybernetic eyes flickered with blue light, overloaded by data.
Their access ports were on fire.
They struggled to open their eyes wide but couldn't see their companions.
Their desperate screams couldn't reach their already deafened ears... Because the entire first floor of the base building was where the largest number of security personnel and Arasaka agents were gathered.
So Mercer simply integrated a virus package from his stored quick-cracks and sent it out.
This included multiple daemon viruses such as cyberware malfunction, cyberware overheating, synapse burnout, sonic shockwave, and cybernetic eye malfunction.
Thanks to the server's powerful computing, and because all these unfortunate souls were connected to the sub-network provided by the server.
After their ICE was wiped out by Death Wish at a speed almost imperceptible to humans, this virus package was silently injected directly into their brains.
They were defenseless, they were helpless, their wills were overwhelmed and destroyed by the data, and then the sparks igniting on their heads turned the contents of their brains into cooked brain matter.
Even the Arasaka agent captain, equipped with military-grade ICE, only lasted a second before his entire body twisted into a pretzel, and he died in the flames, screaming and clutching his burning head.
The reason he twisted into a pretzel was that, in his dying moments, he tried to activate his Sandevistan to slow down time and find a glimmer of hope for himself.
However, due to a cyberware malfunction, the incorrectly activated cyberware began to move in different directions at different speeds, resulting in him looking like a pretzel.
Fortunately, the resilient Sandevistan cyberware was still intact, preventing him from directly breaking his own spine.
This terrifying, hellish scene made the children, none older than fourteen, swallow hard, even momentarily forgetting to step out of the elevator.
But then, Mercer's figure appeared beside them.
"Move, according to the signal, the hovercar should arrive in about ten minutes. It seems we have plenty of time. I'll continue to fake a normal signal.
Once they land, you wait for the robots I control to deal with the driver and agents in the car, then go in and take over the hovercar.
Hmm... while I have the chance, I can also go talk to our director and see if she has any more good intentions to offer me.
Oh, and you can just strip that agent's Sandevistan later. The other cyberware won't be needed, don't worry about breaking it.
I estimate that thing is already partially damaged. Just take it for me to research and see if it can be repaired... I didn't expect an attack launched with computing power to be so strong. Perhaps it's because I put in too many daemon programs? I should have put in two fewer when I made the virus package."
Mercer still looked calm and composed, his expression as he looked at the pile of bodies was as serene as if he were enjoying a bonfire.
"Understood... Are you okay, Mercer?" Lucy tried hard not to throw up. A foul stench permeated the air, a strange mix of burnt smoke and the smell of cooked meat.
"Huh? Oh, don't worry, it didn't take much effort. They were all connected to the same sub-network, so transmitting viruses to them via the server was as easy as pulling the trigger of a fully automatic weapon. Press a button, and they all died."
Mercer commented, and then said:
"No more talking, see you later. Right now, I'm busy monitoring and sending software, while also trying to chat with our director, and at the same time, trying to dig up useful data from Arasaka's servers... These idiots stored all the data we mined on their servers. I'm trying to save all of it, package it up, and then see if there's anything interesting.
Besides that, there's a lot of useful information. I have to find a way to take it all. These guys also stored a lot of miscellaneous stuff on the server..."
Lucy realized that his current conversation with them was purely instinctive, or stream-of-consciousness, because his brain was simply too busy to chat with them carefully.
Multitasking... How was his brain constructed? Was he really a rogue AI... or was he transformed into some strange data consciousness after that accident?
Such things should only be possible for legendary hacker geniuses like the fabled Bartmoss and Alt! Was Mercer a genius on their level?
Lucy pondered wildly as she advanced according to his instructions.
Then she noticed that Mercer had not only thoughtfully marked the route in her cybernetic eye but also applied some pixelation—specifically to the faces of certain agents who had met particularly gruesome ends.
He really was... Lucy didn't know what to say, but just seeing those pixelations made her feel much calmer.
Regardless, a person who, at such a moment, still bothered to pixelate for his companions, was absolutely someone she could trust right now.
And Mercer was indeed swamped at the moment, continuing to ensure that no signals were transmitted out of the sealed base, while also accessing Tano Ena's top-floor office equipment.
The hidden turrets, automatic alarms, and emergency rescue buttons installed in her room were quickly scanned and located by Mercer.
But unexpectedly, Tano Ena's office network did not choose to connect directly to the server, but rather to another sub-network.
Only the surveillance cameras were directly connected, likely for the convenience of internal base personnel to protect her.
And Tano Ena's own room had no camera equipment at all, only detecting some network signal fluctuations, meaning there were other networked devices in her room, possibly defensive facilities.
Mercer guessed that this sub-network belonged to a dedicated Arasaka Corporation security server in Vancouver, perhaps also responsible for certain executive-exclusive communication channels.
This made Mercer briefly ponder, and soon, he clarified his plan of action.
First, Mercer began programming using the server's computing power.
Countless lines of code surged rapidly, and the special software he needed was being woven at an extremely fast pace.
First was signal isolation; he had to immediately block Tano Ena's ability to transmit messages to the outside world after hacking in.
Then came signal takeover; he had to immediately take over the communication software in her brain-computer interface after hacking in.
Finally, cyberware paralysis; he couldn't cause significant cyberware damage to avoid triggering automatic alarm facilities connected to certain cyberware.
Hmm, he also needed to write a life signal deception program.
This was written for the life detection cyberware on her body, to prevent Trauma Team from showing up if biological signs went awry, or if the program had an automatic alarm function.
He had to ensure that he wouldn't trigger any alarm devices connected to this sub-network, nor could he be detected by any AI that might exist on this sub-network's server.
Otherwise, once exposed, his subsequent safe escape time would be reduced.
Mercer wrote code while considering whether this was worth it for some potentially existing intelligence and resources, but then he reconsidered, even if he did nothing, Tano Ena could wake up at any time.
Since she was supposed to have cyberware installed for him today, she might even wake up to sign when the hovercar arrived for delivery. She couldn't possibly not know the exact arrival time of the hovercar.
And most importantly... You motherf***er, trying to screw me over?
Although he didn't know what trap she had laid in the cyberware, such a good deal of free top-tier cyberware would absolutely never happen at Arasaka.
She wouldn't be so kind as to freely turn him into a hacker version of Adam Smasher just for a favor.
So... old grudges and new, it's time to settle them!
Once the program was ready, Mercer immediately took action.
First step, using computing power, he immediately used a cracking program to crack the opponent's sub-network signal.
After gaining access, he immediately used Death Wish to penetrate the ICE of the hidden combat robot in the office.
Then, using device takeover, he made this Arasaka robot his proxy.
Second step, while taking over all detectable devices in the room, Mercer used the robot's vision to find Tano Ena's bedroom.
As the robot approached the password lock in front of the bedroom door, Mercer, using the robot's built-in network receiver, hacked into the password lock at close range and began cracking it.
It only took a second for the automatic door to slide open with a whoosh. In the large bedroom, Tano Ena suddenly opened her eyes, only to see a guard robot with glowing red eyes.
"What..." She didn't finish her sentence before she suddenly realized with terror that crimson warning text abruptly appeared in her cybernetic eye.
[ICE...]
[ICE detected failure...]
[You are being...]
[Warn...]
The text nearly flooded the cybernetic eye, each word becoming garbled before it could even fully display. This series of text, from appearance to garble, took less than a second!
Hacker! It was an extremely powerful hacker attack!
Tano Ena almost instinctively activated the alarm function built into her cyberware, and then, with extremely swift movements, reached out and slapped the vase on her bedside table.
The vase was knocked away cleanly and shattered on the floor, but it was all useless.
The vase was connected to the base's emergency alarm system; moving the vase would trigger the optical sensor underneath.
But in the current Arasaka base, Mercer was in charge. Her alarm signal went into the monitoring room and then sank without a trace, because all alarms had already been turned off and had to be manually reset in the monitoring room.
As for the alarm function in her cyberware... "Oh, that was really dangerous. You were just a hair's breadth away from sending out the message."
Mercer's bust appeared in her cybernetic eye, as if he had made a voice call to her. Just seeing Mercer lying in the hacker's chair in the display, Tano Ena despairingly realized the situation.
'Impossible, how did you crack the server's AI?'
Then, Tano Ena discovered with horror that she couldn't even open her mouth to speak; her entire body was stiff like a vegetable, all her cybernetics locked, and it felt as if even her brain nerves were being controlled.
"Don't be nervous. You can't speak because your bio-signals are being interfered with after I took over your neural interface. You can't precisely control your body… But it's okay, I can hear your voice—from inside your head."
Mercer said in a relaxed tone:
"It's truly marvelous. Human consciousness, the brain, the signals it emits can actually be converted into data.
And as a hacker, during a Deep Dive, I can actually observe, analyze, and interfere with these brainwaves by taking over your neural interface… How does the Soulkiller protocol, in the form of the network access pod you developed, directly capture human data in the real world?
Perhaps by drilling through your neural interface, forcibly digitizing your consciousness in some form, and then annihilating and plundering it?
Hmm… What an incredible program, ingeniously unbelievable.
Oh, it seems similar brainwashing also utilizes this point, condensing certain data into invisible signal waves, and then these signal waves infiltrate the human brain through the neural interface… I'm truly a genius; I've just cracked the secret of brainwashing like this… Ahem, done."
Tano Ena could only watch with wide-eyed terror as Mercer, using her identity, logged into the subnet she was connected to—Arasaka Corporation's executive internal network.
He immediately began reading the text messages in her email and work logs at a speed of three or four pages per second.
Just seeing this, she screamed in despair in her mind, "You're not human! You're a rogue AI!"
"Bullshit, I'm a standard human, a perfectly healthy human who can't help but get excited when watching a super-dream with beautiful girls because of this vibrant body!" Mercer was always sensitive about this issue.
"Nonsense! No human can do what you're doing right now. How much has time slowed down for you in Cyberspace?
50%? 70%? Or 500%, 700%?
This is the difference between humans and AI! No human brain can process and receive so much information in an instant like an AI can!"
"Hmm… Now that you mention it, I realize why I felt you all were moving a bit slow, taking so long to respond. It seems I'm processing too much information at once, causing me to lose track of time… Holy crap, I'm amazing.
It seems I have a high affinity for cybernetics like Sandevistan and synaptic accelerators. How long do you think I can overclock with the set of cybernetics you gave me?"
Tano Ena was almost speechless—but precisely because of this, she was now finally certain that Mercer was indeed human. No matter how absurd an AI, it wouldn't feel proud about this; only humans would.
But this only made her more terrified, because she had only heard of similar names for such powerful hackers in legends.
Could he have been tampered with or revived by the consciousness of some legendary hacker?
As for the idea that Mercer himself was a genius hacker… If he had this ability, why didn't he use it sooner?
The hackers assigned here were typically ordinary geniuses, but Mercer was a genius among geniuses. Such a person couldn't hide during Arasaka Corporation's training!
No, no, no, could he really be a super genius like Bartmoss, who connected to the network at four years old?
Is that why he managed to forge the evaluation system during Arasaka Corporation training, deliberately hiding his identity, just to find a suitable time to escape Arasaka Corporation?
Damn it, these hackers are all crazy. What's so bad about Arasaka Corporation? Why the hell can't they just work honestly and be superior people?
She couldn't tell, she really couldn't tell!
'Please, don't kill me. I can help you with anything you want!
At this point, killing one more of me won't mean anything. I can help you, no, cover for you to escape far away!
I'll blame the losses here on rogue AI, and the rogue AI's fault, I'll push onto the former director… I can help you install and debug that set of cybernetics; I was responsible for supervising and designing them. Please, I'm really useful!
It was the former director who forced you to your deaths. Haven't I always been good to you? I was even trying to help you get into the company… With your skills, why do you want to do this? After you complete your cybernetic modifications, you could completely become Arasaka Corporation's most formidable hacker, a hacker version of Adam Smasher!
You know his salary and benefits…'
"You're deafening!"
Mercer's voice was amplified fivefold, causing Tano Ena to scream in pain in her mind.
"You idiot, do you think I only installed this much program? Remember the lie detector chip? Remember that thing you plugged into my head when we first met?
I cracked the program inside when you first plugged it in. Guess if you have that program in your head right now?
You said a bunch of things, but only 'don't kill me' was true, you old woman."
Tano Ena fell silent. Then, she watched as Mercer, using her identity and permissions, began to retrieve data from the server. Afterward, her eyes lit up slightly.
'You're interested in these design blueprints?
Where are you from? Militech? NUSA? Or an independent state, or Netwatch?
How about this, we cooperate. As long as I can survive, I'll accept being a spy. Spare my life, and I'm willing to leave you enough evidence to incriminate me, which you can hold onto.
Afterward, whatever information you want, I'll help you, how about that?
Just arrange an escape route for me afterward!
Look at my resume. In the field of cybernetic development for hackers, I can definitely rank in the top three at Arasaka Corporation!
You Militech, or whoever you are, you just need to check and you'll know!
What good is a dead person!?
Please, you installed a lie detector program on me, you should know that what I'm saying is true, right?
I'll blame it on rogue AI, and I can even fake your death…'
Mercer was indeed a little tempted to plant a spy in Arasaka Corporation, and a god-tier one in the field of hacker cybernetic development… But on second thought, never mind. This woman only wants to live now, and even if all this was done by rogue AI, she would definitely be held accountable.
Because the destruction of the base was irrelevant, and the loss of a set of cybernetics was acceptable, but the loss of seven Relic chips carrying the Soulkiller program… she was as good as dead.
However, she did provide Mercer with a valuable idea.
Let you be this spy.
Hmm… Which one to choose?
Mercer pondered for a while and had an idea.
Why not let both of them take the blame?
So, Mercer immediately began searching her contacts for anyone who might be connected to Militech or NUSA. When he couldn't find anyone, he simply decided to pin the blame on her secretary.
He first found the secretary's room in the same manner, and then used the same method to take over all his programs.
With the secretary's horrified and powerless expression, right in front of him, Mercer began to play both sides with their chat software, fabricating chat records.
Secretary Inoue: Where are you? Something's happened! Our server has been hacked! Those Little Hackers are fleeing in the chaos!]
Tano Ena: What? Are you kidding me!? They can hack our server? Immediately arrange personnel to deal with it!]
Secretary Inoue: No, no, we need to meet first. I suspect someone has already come up. Where are you?]
Tano Ena: Useless! I'm in the room, quickly! Damn it, I need to send immediately…]
Mercer feigned a network disconnection, then controlled the security robot in his room, found the gun in Secretary Inoue's room, and took Secretary Inoue upstairs with him.
Tano Ena and Secretary Inoue had already realized something. At this moment, they were both desperately pleading through brainwaves, but Mercer felt nothing about it.
Their consciousness had already been filtered out as junk data by him. When Secretary Inoue entered the office, Mercer personally used the robot to hold Inoue's hand and aim the pistol at Tano Ena.
"Alright, the data transfer from the subnet is also done. There's a lot of useful stuff, damn it, I need to figure out how to take it all with me…"
After Mercer finished speaking, he began to clean up the traces.
Tano Ena suddenly rolled her eyes back, and then, her entire body went limp and collapsed onto the bed.
This wasn't even a quick hack; it was purely because the data flow Mercer took from her neural interface was too large, overwhelming her.
This was Mercer deliberately slowing down and taking his time, fearing that he would directly burn out her brain and cause the neural interface to fail.
Only when the data was temporarily transferred to the server did Mercer let out a long sigh, looking at Tano Ena lying on the bed through the robot's perspective, in her pitiful, disheveled pajamas, and shook his head.
Forgive me, Auntie, this is the last time I'll fleece you.
With a thought, Secretary Inoue could only watch as the robot held his hand and pulled the trigger of the pistol, firing again and again.
Mercer felt he was being gentle this time; being shot while unconscious, she probably wouldn't feel any pain.
However, looking at her body twitching repeatedly as Secretary Inoue pulled the trigger again and again… Mercer still thought she wasn't in pain.
Mercer was kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see such scenes.
So he decisively switched his main perspective, while directly transmitting a large amount of junk data into Secretary Inoue's head, knocking him out, and then having the robot carry him away, all while checking on Lucy and the others' progress.
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