"I have a spare, at home, and..." Bruce suddenly seemed a bit agitated, holding his head with one hand and rubbing his temples, "I think it's time for me to take a break."
"It's not because of what we said, and now you want to retire, is it?" V said awkwardly, "Actually, you're not that bad. I mean..."
"No, no need to say it." Bruce cradled his head with one hand, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, "I think you make a good point. Why... why don't I try to invest in NCPD to do this kind of thing?"
V was stunned, "Don't tell me this is the first time you've thought of something like this."
"I've thought about it, but..." Bruce inexplicably smashed his head with his hand, "I don't know, I just feel I should take down those criminals. I just should... have revenge."
He muttered to himself, "You know, I used to be really afraid of the dark, but my parents would always tell me, 'Don't be afraid, there's nothing there.'
But on the day I saw my parents robbed and killed by some street thugs in an alley, I hid in the darkness and felt safe there.
Since then, I swore to avenge upon this dying city, to bring it the destruction and justice it deserves...
I'll keep doing it, forever, until my heart stops beating..."
Bruce seemed to zone out suddenly, his eyes turned a bit vacant, just repeating, "I should personally— no, I must personally bring justice to this city, I should do it, so I can't give up yet."
He looked extremely pained, continually pressing his head with the hand holding a cigar.
V got a bit nervous, "Damn, he's not going cyberpsycho is he?"
"He's nearly stripped all of his implants… but something's definitely off," Mercer said.
And Bruce, at that moment, looked up at him, suddenly turning very serious, holding back discomfort as he said, "Tell me, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?"
"What do you mean?" Mercer confirmed.
"I mean, if you wanted to bring justice to this city, would you choose to dress up in a suit, act as a vigilante at night like me?" Bruce asked.
"Of course not. Doing such things occasionally to satisfy oneself is enough. If you truly want to change this city, it takes showing the city's people hope from the ground up, to muster their courage.
The more critical issue is to deal with those corporate dogs."
Mercer paused, then continued, "As long as corporate tyranny isn't reined in and resolved, this city will never have hope, that's something even a Street Kid knows."
Bruce showed a complicated smile, "Yeah, even a Street Kid understands, another masked vigilante can't change this city... I, what have I done? I shouldn't have... but why do I..."
He fell back into mumbling to himself.
By now, everyone could see that he seemed to be in big trouble.
Mercer launched the Spider program, cautiously inquiring seemingly always-observant over Night Shadow Hero, Spider Murphy.
But Spider Murphy did not respond.
Mercer sensed that things seemed to be getting a bit tricky.
Originally, he thought it was just a small easter egg in the game, he simply wanted to freeload a Sword in the Stone vehicle, and casually see what this small easter egg was about in this now-realized Cyberpunk World.
But now, Mercer felt a premonition, that he had unknowingly been pulled into a huge conspiracy by Spider Murphy.
Logic told Mercer, enough was enough, further inquiry might bring huge trouble.
Yet emotionally, Mercer fell silent briefly, then suddenly asked, "When did you start wanting to become the Night Shadow Hero?"
Bruce instinctively answered, "When my parents died in front of me, and I could only hide in the dark alley..."
"Do you know who the perpetrators were? Where was the alley you hid in? Why didn't they find and eliminate you? Where did you go afterwards? How did you grow up?"
Mercer's barrage of questions left Bruce with his mouth open but suddenly tongue-tied.
[Mercer: Venus, help me thoroughly investigate Bruce's situation, I feel something's not right.]
[Venus: Retrieving data meeting criteria from NCPD and City Hall servers, please wait.]
Bruce suddenly stood up, tossed the cigar to the ground, and started pacing back and forth uneasily, "I can't quite remember, was it in the... Watson District? Or Little Chinatown? I can't recall.
I only remember it being very dark, truly dark... but with an indescribable feeling of safety.
Afterwards, I went back home, went to school, sold my parent's company..."
"Who helped you sell it? According to you, you were very young then, right?" Mercer asked.
"It was a friend of my father from Ye Corporation." Bruce answered.
"Does he have blue eyes?" Mercer asked urgently.
Bruce stared blankly at Mercer's eyes, "Yes, he has very similar... blue... eyes... to yours..."
He suddenly seemed triggered by some PTSD, his body oddly trembling, "Do you know him?"
"Calm down, Bruce..." Before Mercer could finish, a message came from Venus.
[Venus: Based on your requirements, I re-investigated all information related to the person in front of you, Bruce. Upon comparison, I think he's actually not the 'Bruce Will' you got from the NCPD scan.]