"The situation is not optimistic; his brain nerves have been severely burned." A fatigued female voice sounded in his ear.
"Just give me the conclusion." A cold male voice was slightly impatient.
"Alright... The conclusion is, even if he wakes up, there's a significant probability he will become an idiot. If not, there's a high chance of memory loss.
His brain nerves have been corroded to a very fragile point, so fragile that even a network fluctuation might make it impossible for him to stand upright." The woman sighed at the end.
"Understood... Has the technical department's assessment come out? Is it the AI or the Black Wall?" The man turned to speak to another person.
"It's impossible to determine, but it's likely the AI. If it were the Black Wall, there's no way it would just mildly burn out someone's head."
At this moment, another cold female voice sounded.
"When he wakes up, perform a test evaluation. If he's wasted, follow procedure. I'm going to a meeting first."
"Understood."
Footsteps gradually faded away, along with the click-clack of automatic doors opening and closing, making the room quiet again, leaving only the sound of an unknown instrument beeping every ten seconds.
Mercer tried hard to open his eyes wide, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not see the scene before him.
He tried to move his arm, but it was as if his arm had disappeared, and only his body continued to twist.
"Click."
The door was opened again.
"Don't move." A calm female voice spoke: "Listen, you will now find that you can't see anything, your arms can't move, you're dizzy, nauseous, want to vomit, all of which is quite normal, because most of your cybernetic implants have been removed."
"As for the inability to see, it's because your Prosthetic Eye has been forcibly shut down; it will be addressed when we reboot it later on."
"Next, I will activate your Prosthetic Eye, be sure to keep your emotions stable."
Mercer could only let out a muffled "mm" sound.
The sound of tapping a screen reached his ears, and before long, his vision suddenly brightened.
[Arasaka Seed-Type 3 Cyberoptic is rebooting.]
[Recalibrating...]
"Just like when you first had the Prosthetic Eye installed, take a deep breath, the blur will soon disappear."
Mercer did as instructed, and after about ten seconds, his vision, which was like a scene through nearsighted eyes, gradually became clear again.
He looked around to see a woman in a white coat staring at several display screens nearby. The lighting around was bright, resembling a clean operating room.
Hmm... In the Cyber World, an operating room usually means a bed, a doctor, and a bunch of equipment.
Mercer looked down at himself—the fortunate part was that both of his hands were still there. The reason he couldn't move was probably due to having the neural link switched off.
At present, he could see the part on his forearm, where many interfaces connecting to cybernetic parts were cut open with a scalpel, exposing both flesh and some mechanical structures, fixed with cold restraining straps.
"Good, the matching data for the Prosthetic Eye is very stable, it seems you're not entirely wasted yet."
The female doctor's voice sounded relieved: "Now maintain your awareness; we need to experiment and find out your current cybernetic capacity limit. If you feel headache, nausea, or mental anomalies at any point, speak up immediately."
"Okay..." Mercer could only say okay. At this moment, the stabbing pain in his head had significantly eased, but like a spasm, it would still occasionally hit hard, making his body shiver involuntarily.
"Do you understand your current situation?"
The doctor tapped on the screen, and from Mercer's angle, he could only see her face—a typical Asian middle-aged woman's face, very well-maintained and elegantly tempered.
"I overheard a bit."
After Mercer finished speaking, he couldn't help but ask, "What does 'follow procedure' mean? Dismissal?"
"Most likely." The female doctor turned around expressionlessly, gazing at his face: "If I were you, I would contemplate how to report this incident to the company before worrying about being dismissed.
This is the first time there's been a rogue AI attacking the servers. All operations at the entire training facility have been halted, and the manager has been held accountable.
The severity of the incident far exceeds your imagination; in the worst case... the project is terminated, a large batch of people are laid off, transferred, and you, as the direct provocateur of the incident, being dismissed might be the best outcome you can hope for."
All Mercer could do was twitch the corner of his mouth—truly Arasaka, or rather, truly a company in the Cyberpunk World.
Sending unsuspecting kids to mine in the old net whenever AI might attack, and after the incident, pinning the blame on these clueless kids forced into mining.
Mercer pondered for a moment and immediately realized the severity of the situation.
No matter what, he couldn't let the blame fall on him; otherwise, once he lost his utility, Agent Arasaka might eliminate him under the pretense of harming the company's interests.
"It's not my fault."
Mercer quickly deduced: "It's Tony's problem."
Tony was the young hacker boy beside him when he woke up, whose brain had been burnt and died.
Although he had no time to carefully digest the extra 'Mercer' memories in his mind, at this moment, the original Mercer's memories were like data awaiting retrieval, available for his use at any time.
With just one thought, he could extract the relevant knowledge and concepts.