Mercer spoke candidly: "In the short term, the restraints are unavoidable, as you can see, Hansen's wariness towards me increases daily. Instead of being treated as an ungrateful wolf, watched and restricted everywhere, it's better to just pretend to bow down."
"The fear is that even if we lower our heads, they'll keep suppressing you." Jack sighed, saying, "I've been in the gang long enough to understand that sometimes if someone doesn't like you, no matter how hard you try, it's useless."
"But the problem now is, if we continue with the current situation, once Agent Arasaka makes a move against us..."
Frowning, Mercer said: "I'm really worried that Hansen will exploit the situation, making matters worse—he won't deal with Arasaka for us, and it's bad if Arasaka's people come knocking first..."
V, after some consideration, optimistically said: "If worst comes to worst, we could just join them. His offer isn't bad, and usually, he won't bother us. At most, we'd wear those ugly Netherworld Dogs uniforms, just to keep an eye on things.
Right now, nobody's casually messing with the Netherworld Dogs. What's the harm in having our name associated with them? Didn't Hansen say our squad is still Mercer's to command?
Even if he has ulterior motives, in the short term he surely won't break the agreement. If he totally loses face, the closer we are, the easier it is for us to strike, right?"
Mercer nodded, unusually aligning his opinion with V: "I think the same. We can also use the identity of the Netherworld Dogs to deal with Arasaka's agents.
Besides, I have some ideas of my own..."
Mercer hesitated for a moment but then confessed to his team: "There's a secret buried under Dog Town. It's a 'Little Beidou' facility secretly built during the war by Military Science and New America, researching Black Wall AI and capturing rogue AIs.
I'm very interested in the design plans for the Network Access Vault inside, especially New America's research on the Black Wall—if we could grasp similar technology, I am confident I could become a network nuclear bomb.
This could be our strongest trump card against Arasaka. We need to find a way to get it in our hands as soon as possible."
Seeing the somewhat bewildered looks of his crew, he cut to the chase: "If we find a way to use Black Wall AI, I could even directly attack Arasaka's headquarters in Tokyo.
Even paralyze Arasaka's network worldwide!
The Black Wall spreads across the global network. Whoever controls the Black Wall can destroy the current network world again. Even in the real world, the Black Wall program is an extremely aggressive tool.
If I have control over it, I could wipe out dozens of people in an instant... Yes, because using Black Wall to attack isn't essentially attacking yourself, but guiding the omnipresent Black Wall on the network to launch an attack on the enemy."
Finally, everyone realized how terrifying what Mercer was talking about really was.
Jack gasped, "You mean this stuff is even more powerful than whatever Bart... uh, Bat..."
"Bartmos!" V proudly filled in.
"Right, more dangerous than whatever virus Bartmos created? Able to blow up the global network instantly?" Jack spoke in disbelief: "Aren't all cities now setting up their own local networks?"
"But each local network relies on the Black Wall's separation from the old net to be safely established, because rogue AIs are omnipresent. Without the Black Wall's protection, infiltration by rogue AIs into any city's network is just a matter of time."
Mercer calmly explained—in fact, even with the Black Wall, the networks of various cities are probably not lightly infiltrated by rogue AIs.
Nothing in the Cyber World can escape the network; thinking simpler local networks can isolate hacks is just a pipe dream.
Especially since human technology halted its development following the collapse of the old network, yet AIs gained great enhancements because super AIs like Ultraman can freely traverse the Black Wall and explore any knowledge from the old network.
While human technology hasn't progressed and even regressed, AIs can continue forward based on the accumulated technologies of the past, and this technological gap is not just minor.
And the Black Wall, which safeguards the existing human network safety... once it becomes a weapon usable by Mercer, its power is evident.
Mercer initially restrained himself from delving into such dangerous power, but the present crisis forces him to prepare for the worst possible outcome in advance.
With a nuclear bomb in hand, only then could he stand firm. Why did Hansen, in the game, prefer to kill the President of New America just to capture Lark?
In the end, it's because he coveted the power of Lark's ability to use the Black Wall, a network nuclear bomb more terrifying than a regular nuke.
Now, Mercer prepares for the worst scenario — if anything goes wrong with Yoshinobu, in the worst-case scenario, he can threaten Arasaka, at least protecting those around him before solving his own problems.
"Wow, so you're saying there's a network nuclear bomb buried under Dog Town? The Military Science and New America have the guts to leave it underground? No one's reclaimed it?"
Jack expressed his amazement with a clicking sound.
But Mercer just smiled, not elaborating—Black Wall is there, but not everyone can use it. Even super hackers like Lark, equipped with top-level hacker implants from Military Science, could suffer physical breakdowns from frequent Black Wall exposure.