"You're guessing right, I estimate we'll have to use it in one or two weeks at most," Mercer said.
Pira thought for a moment, then said, "Then I have to think carefully..."
"Just do your best, be careful when fiddling with stuff this powerful, don't blow yourself up," Mercer chuckled a few times.
Pira laughed heartily, "Don't worry, the money I loaded at Liz's place hasn't been spent yet, I won't die over something this stupid."
Mercer shook his head with a smile, turned around and went to the warehouse, carefully selected a few drones, and began disassembling them in the workroom.
Mercer felt that modifying or assembling, in terms of cost-efficiency, drones were by far the easiest and most cost-effective.
Don't be fooled, even though Military Science can sell a single Winged Dragon drone for as much as 10,000 Euros, in reality, the cost is ridiculously low. If you exclude the value of the camera and AI fire control chip, Mercer estimated the remaining parts would be worth no more than 1,000 Euros.
This calculation is based on Mercer buying the parts himself. If it were Military Science's own factory, using workers who might not even earn 1,000 Euros a month to mass-produce on assembly lines, perhaps a few hundred Euros would be enough to make one fly.
Considering the consumption level in Dog Town and his own personal preferences, Mercer felt that if he wanted to find a reliable, cheap, high-yield, and destructively adjustable equipment, drones would definitely be the focus of his future developments.
As he performed simple disassembly, numerous good ideas started forming in Mercer's mind. He pulled over the engineering microcomputer, connected it, and while disassembling and researching these drones, began drawing design sketches in his mind.
This multitasking act of drawing designs with his mind on the computer left Pira's scalp tingling—can a human even do this?
But observing Mercer's deeply immersed actions, Pira just muttered softly to himself, calling Mercer a pervert, then quietly started tinkering with his rocket launcher.
No one expected Mercer to be so absorbed that he remained focused for three full days.
Even when V led a team to deal with those Cleaner Fish, Mercer merely said, "Be safe," and continued immersing himself in the research of drones and robots.
Countless sketches and drafts were either refined or abandoned by him. In the end, he simply wrote a simulation program and connected it to the server, diving deep into 'paper warfare' using accelerated thinking with the server's computing power.
It wasn't until Diana Kuno and Rogue almost simultaneously sent him messages that Mercer finally emerged from this intensely focused R&D state.
[Diana: I need to talk to you in person, there are things that can't be said online or over the phone, you know what I mean, right?]
[?: You want to meet me to probe my bottom line?]
[Diana: No, that's not what I mean!]
[?: Load the information I want onto a chip, I'll send a drone to pick it up, just like before.]
[Diana: You know I can't always be your puppet... let's consider this our last cooperation, you help me, I help you, do you think that works?]
[?: Certainly, but I hope you genuinely mean it—however, let me remind you, Diana, don't play any tricks.]
[Diana: I won't!]
[?: I hope so, set the time, I'll set the place, after this cooperation, we won't contact each other again.]
[Diana: Alright!]
Mercer let out a cold laugh, not believing a word Diana said, but he still felt confident that she would at least send the biotechnical equipment he wanted.
If you want to fish, at least the bait has to be real, right? If even the bait is fake, then Mercer would say, Diana shouldn't be that foolish.
Mercer directly called Venus: "Venus, activate the backdoor program in the biotechnology server, let's see if what she says is true."
Back then, it wasn't just about stealing data—just like when he hacked into the household registration server at the city hall, he left a backdoor program wherever he went, isn't this a basic hacking procedure?
However, Mercer estimated... it wouldn't be long before the biotechnology server experiences an 'unexpected accident,' forcing an emergency format or a rigorous antivirus sweep.
Previously, Diana was overwhelmed, absolutely not daring to expose the fact that she was being threatened and her server was hacked.
But now, she's almost officially landed, having dealt with her biggest competitor, the next step naturally would be to eliminate any hidden threats.
[Venus: Currently investigating for you...]
[Venus: Successfully re-hacked into Diana's studio computer, searching now...]
[Venus: Search complete, Diana indeed requested the equipment from the headquarters as per your requirements, the application list is as follows...]
After carefully reviewing it, Mercer nodded and said: "Leave a virus on her personal computer, if possible, try hacking into her brain-computer interface again, we need to find a way to verify the accuracy of this information."
[Venus: Understood, I'll continue to monitor her.]
Diana's brain-computer interface must have been formatted, to silently hack into it again depends on a given opportunity.
Subsequently, Mercer opened the message Rogue sent him.
[Rogue: I've investigated the woman you're looking for, Meredith Stout. She isn't allied with the people you're targeting, more precisely, she's in a competitive relationship with another agent responsible for this matter.
If you want someone to sabotage them, Stout might indeed be a good choice.
Here's the contact, you decide how to proceed—just don't drag me into it.]
Mercer glanced at the contact Rogue sent, only replied with a thumbs-up emoji, then began contemplating how to approach Stout and align her with his side.
Thinking it over, he realized he still needed to first see the information Diana provided.
Dealing with this woman, Stout, requires sufficient caution, otherwise, this ambitious character could easily turn around and sell him for her gain elsewhere.
After taking a deep breath, Mercer set down the drone in his hand.
In his hand now appeared a small drone, only sixty centimeters long, over twenty centimeters high, driven by four rotors, looking somewhat simplistic.
Mercer quietly observed the drone for a moment, and finally, made a decision.
This will be it.
The overall cost is only 800 Euros for a disposable suicide drone.
After brief contemplation, Mercer officially named it the first model of the Swarm series drones—'Death Warrior'.