"I've acquired the NCPD's prosthetic eye scanning program. As agreed, I'll sell it to you first."
Mercer finished speaking, and Old Wei looked up with a smile, "Alright, send it over. I'll give you a cut for each installation, but it won't be priced too high here. What do you think about 500 Euros per copy?"
After Victor finished speaking, he paused and added, "Those who need this the most are really just street punks, and they usually can't scrape together much cash."
"You know the situation better than I do, so it's up to you."
After Mercer spoke, Victor nodded and said, "These kinds of programs are generally prone to failing without notice, and no one offers after-sales service. It's a one-time deal."
"We'll split it fifty-fifty, Old Wei. It's just to make some quick cash; I'm not hoping to get rich off this," Mercer said.
Victor laughed, "Don't underestimate it due to the low price. In a month, it's no problem to sell a few dozen copies. That adds up to tens of thousands of Euros.
You can throw in a confidentiality update, making the old version obsolete occasionally and charge a fee for updating—Voodoo Gang types love pulling that trick."
Indeed, those Voodoo Gang guys know how to make a profit.
Mercer shook his head with a smile, "Forget it. If I were to focus on this, I'd need to set up a dedicated server to run the program locally. The Voodoo Gang has their own Sea God; I don't have the money to invest in that right now.
Let's just sell it as is. If the program stops working, it means the NCPD found the anomaly and patched the loophole. I won't be providing updates."
"Alright, that's the deal," Victor nodded. These types of programs are like gaming cheat codes; when they're blocked, creators usually just vanish without a trace. Buyers have come to expect it's a one-time service.
However, Mercer pondered for a moment and sent Old Wei a higher-end version he planned to use internally but had trimmed down, leaving only the prosthetic eye scanning part because Victor likely wouldn't need the rest.
"This is for your own use; it's an internal version I intend to use myself. It won't become obsolete. I'll maintain and update it periodically," Mercer said.
Victor didn't immediately accept the program and responded, "I'm just a doctor, I don't need this."
"You'll find it useful. No matter who visits you, just a glance will tell you their name, what crimes they've committed, their gang or organization, how many warrants they have... saves you a lot of trouble," Mercer said.
"You've really turned the NCPD inside out with this," Victor praised and accepted the program without any fuss, "Okay, we'll do it your way."
After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Old Wei, Mercer hung up the phone.
As Mercer stared at the software on his computer, he mulled over an idea gradually forming in his mind.
Wasn't it a bit wasteful to only use the NCPD data privileges for such trivial deeds?
Is it possible...
To do more with these data privileges?
Mercer pondered as a keyword that he had just casually mentioned to Lucy flashed through his mind—"Watchdog."
Yes!
Watch Dogs!
The thought of the game's setup suddenly inspired Mercer.
Watch Dogs is an RPG game starring a hacker character, and the game's background is actually built upon a city management system called "cTOS."
In the game, a villainous company creates the "cTOS" city management system and integrates it into every city infrastructure and electronic terminal, secretly collecting data through these devices.
Finally, all this collected data is integrated and analyzed, so just by flicking a finger, one can immediately know a person's name, identity information, and even their home address and annual income from the gathered data.
Moreover, the villainous company in the game taps into this covert data gathering and analysis to hold dirt and crime evidence on many politicians and celebrities.
Right in front of Mercer laid a surveillance system exactly like the "cTOS" in the Watch Dogs universe, didn't it?
In this Cyber World, every device is connected, and everything is collecting user information.
Mercer holds server access for both Night City Hall and the NCPD, which means, in essence, the majority of user information in Night City is laid out in front of him!
He only needed to write software akin to the "cTOS" system to effectively utilize all that data, creating a city intelligence system that only he could use, right?
Upon reaching this point, Mercer suddenly grew a bit excited—writing such a program might allow him to lie back at home while gaining complete control over most of Night City's secrets, wielding invisible eyes to rule the city!
And he wouldn't even need to buy huge data storage servers himself; just have an AI lurking within the city servers siphoning data!
He only needed to provide a small server for the AI, giving the program computational power support!
The AI could further utilize the servers to gather and integrate secret intelligence that even the NCPD and Night City Hall haven't been able to collect...
This realization made Mercer suddenly wary—hadn't Ye Corporation, which provided similar services to the city, noticed the enormous potential within the city's servers?