"Are you sure? You've been running around outside all day... How about we talk about it tomorrow morning?"
Beside the brand-new hacker chair, Lucy looked at Mercer with some concern.
At this moment, Mercer had already changed into a new black customer service suit and was excitedly checking the programs of the hacker chair with his new laptop.
"Lucy, don't you want to deep dive and check out Night City's network world?"
The expression on Mercer's face was simple, like a child who just got a new toy.
Lucy hesitated to speak, but in the end, she simply said, "Then I'll sleep here in your room tonight and watch over you, since you'll probably spend the night on the chair anyway."
Deep diving is dangerous work. After a complete deep dive, a hacker almost loses perception of the real world.
Moreover, if danger occurs, someone needs to pull the plug for him; otherwise, he might not have time to log out and could end up with brain damage before he returns.
Emergency unplugging also has risks, but deep diving is different from uploading consciousness to the Cyber World. Once disconnected from the hacker chair, usually, at most, you'll just damage the chair.
Many hackers actually don't die inside Cyberspace.
But are attacked in Cyberspace, their brains are shocked into a coma, and even though the hacker chair automatically disconnects for protection, no one notices the anomaly, and no one can provide emergency aid, ultimately leading to brain death.
"Uh...okay."
Mercer thought for a moment and did not refuse. The hacker chair is quite comfortable, anyway, much more so than the broken mattress Adcardo set up in the tent.
He ran through the program one last time and cleared out the backdoor programs left by Zeta Technology.
"These big companies really can't change their nature. It's one thing to have backdoors in computers, but even hacker chairs have them; even black customer service devices and coolers secretly hide backdoor programs..."
Mercer grumbled as he shared the programs he found with Lucy:
"Look at this, network IP positioning, information entry, they even dare to blatantly write in the user agreement that they will collect customer information, and you can't use it if you don't agree to the terms.
Once you clean the backdoors, even the warranty is gone. They're like worms, trying to crawl into your brain by any means."
Lucy just smiled, leaning slightly against the mattress, watching him fiddle with those things: "But they still can't escape your eyes."
"Of course not! No matter how strong their programmers are, they're no match for yours truly."
Mercer finished with a grin, looking a bit apologetic at her: "But your new hacker gear might have to wait for a bit; these things are much more expensive than I thought."
"It's okay, I don't plan on deep diving anytime soon... Aren't you at all affected by psychological shadows?"
Lucy sighed, to be honest, even seeing a hacker chair made her jittery: "I think buying me a deep-diving chamber would be enough, with ice cubes inside... Maybe that would make me feel a bit better."
Mercer just smiled at her: "Then you'd have to go in naked—don't forget we still have to be together after this."
"...You don't really think I'd care about something like that, do you?" Lucy seemed calm, but her ears turned slightly red.
She hadn't even thought of that.
"Those cheap ice-filled things are useless except for being cheap. If the hacker chair doesn't work, there's also a high-end diving chamber. Although it looks like a big fridge, it's still better than lying in ice water."
Mercer said, but didn't insist, simply saying: "It's okay, Lucy, I won't agree to deep diving until you're ready.
Today's Cyberspace is a stage for geniuses only. There's organizations like Internet Supervision that monitor Night City's network 24/7, not to mention that major companies have people watching the network too.
And there are lots of jerks like the Voodoo Gang, who love lurking in Night City's network, waiting for newcomers to show up, doing cyber extortion.
Yeah, there's also New America. Trust me, even though FIA withdrew from Night City on the surface, there's definitely someone keeping an eye on Night City's network."
As Mercer said this, he thought of a woman.
Lark.
The favorite under the new president Miles of New America, an exceptionally gifted genius hacker, and a pathetic caged bird.
Right now, she is probably still in the early stages of being transformed into a Cyber Bomb. It's unknown whether she is the one FIA has monitoring Night City's network.
Mercer's eyes suddenly showed some excitement—if it were her, that would be great... He's really curious about who is stronger, himself or the top hacker under the new president of New America.
After tidying up the hacker chair and thoroughly checking all the hardware and software, Mercer quickly lay down on it.
"Lucy, help me plug in."
Lucy could only sigh, helping him pick up the cooling line and plugging it in, connecting the hacker chair with the black customer service device, and then directly pinched the data line from the back of the hacker chair into his brain interface.
Mercer immediately took a deep breath comfortably: "It feels great to have computational power boosting again... It's like my brain is relaxing."
"You are such a classic case of internet addiction..." Lucy said with a slight annoyance: "Don't become one of those guys who never gets off the chair, 24/7."
"You wouldn't understand the feeling of a genius like me... It's like shedding heavy clothes from my brain. Now I feel incredibly active, like swimming through network data."
Mercer was indulged in ecstasy.
Lucy still wasn't very enthusiastic: "Isn't that right? Your body's temperature rose by a degree as soon as you plugged in... Be careful not to fry your brain again, who knows if the Relic Chip is reliable."