Lucy stared intently at the program window on the screen. Only when the progress bar reached the end did she eagerly put down the tablet and turn to look at Mercer, who was lying in the netrunner station.
Mercer, whose eyes had been shut tight, slowly opened them, but his gaze was vacant; he looked a little dazed.
"Mercer? Mercer!?"
Lucy couldn't help but reach out and touch his face, her voice trembling slightly.
"Hm? Oh, I'm fine, don't worry. It's just... a little hard to get used to."
As if waking from a dream, Mercer finally came to his senses. He smiled and tried to sit up, but he swayed and couldn't manage it.
"Where does it hurt? Should I get Vik, or have one of the Barghest doctors take a look first?" Lucy asked hurriedly, but Mercer just waved his hand, squinting. He took a moment to recover before finally sitting up.
"The lag feels a bit too high," he lamented. "It's hard to get used to..."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Lucy asked again, seeking confirmation.
Mercer just smiled. "I'm really fine. I don't know how to describe it... To you, I was probably only gone for a little while, but to me, it felt like I was in there for a whole year. So I'm just having a little trouble adjusting..."
Strictly speaking, Mercer currently felt like he was playing an online game with a ping of 9999+. His brain would excitedly issue a command, but his body would only act after a delay.
Not only that, but he also felt as if his brain had been stuffed with a large glob of paste. The once-surging torrent of his thoughts had now become sluggish again, making him feel as if he had suddenly turned into a gonk.
When he was an engram, his thoughts moved as fast as a flood. Now, it was like a faucet that had been screwed shut. The feeling was truly unbearable, even making Mercer involuntarily want to go back.
He wanted to re-upload his consciousness, to return to the server and let his thoughts flow smoothly again, as if that was the world where he truly belonged.
"...Want some water? Or a NiCola? You look a little pale, Mercer," Lucy asked cautiously when she saw him sitting there silently.
Mercer smiled at her, then simply tilted his head. "Let me lean on you for a bit."
"Lean on me?" Lucy froze for a moment. Then she saw him move closer and rest his head on her shoulder.
She instinctively reached out, stroked his head, and adjusted her posture to make him more comfortable. "Is this okay?"
"Mmm..." Mercer smiled, his eyes narrowed. After a while, he finally said, "It failed."
"What?" Lucy looked at him, puzzled and worried. "What went wrong?"
"The decompression of the Consciousness Data Core..." Mercer sighed. "Not only did the data decompression fail, but there was also no progress in observing the data. However, it's not all bad news. At least my Consciousness Data Core is compressed very stably. This means that even when entering a data transfer state, my consciousness code can be transmitted completely like a normal person's, without any loss of core data."
Mercer paused, inhaling her pleasant scent, which finally helped him gradually readjust to his "human" body. He said with regret, "If I could crack the secrets of my Consciousness Data Core, perhaps... I would find the direction for humanity's next evolution..."
"You're starting to think humanity needs to evolve now, too?" Lucy was both worried and couldn't help but hold him tighter in unease. "You're not planning to... like Alt..."
"Not that," Mercer said with a smile, cuddling with her on the netrunner station. In the quiet underground base, only the hum of the servers was audible.
"It's just that, after becoming an engram, I was truly powerful. So powerful that it makes you not want to come back," Mercer began to discuss his feelings about consciousness digitization with Lucy.
The more Lucy listened, the more silent she became. Finally, she couldn't help but say, "This doesn't sound right..."
"I know. After a normal person undergoes consciousness digitization, they can't do any of the things I did... They'd be considered successful if they could just use their processing power to maintain normal thought and not turn into a gonk."
Mercer smiled. "Maybe I really am an anomaly."
Lucy didn't say much more, just held him and lowered her head. "So... are you going to keep trying?"
"Rather than trying..." Mercer fell silent for a moment, then looked at Lucy seriously. "Next, I'm going to perform a deep dive and try to master the abilities I have as an engram as much as possible while in that state. I believe that in a Deep Dive state, the human consciousness has already undergone a certain degree of digitization. So, I want to try to push the boundaries of this technology, to find a balance between a deep dive and full consciousness digitization, to maximize my abilities without taking on too much risk from digitization."
Mercer said calmly, "I have to admit, in that state, both my thinking speed and work efficiency are just too high. If I could work for just two hours a day in a state of consciousness digitization, my efficiency would probably be higher than a normal week's, or even a month's, worth of work. And for me right now... time is the most precious thing."
Mercer believed that although Saburo Arasaka's death in 2077 in the game was somewhat dramatic, based on the deets about Saburo gathered by the Skynet system, the man probably wouldn't delay his own consciousness digitization beyond 2080.
And once Saburo Arasaka achieved consciousness digitization, his next focus would inevitably be on how to rule the world.
This meant the Fifth Corporate War might be imminent.
Taking other factors into account, like Night Corp's "Operation Carpe Noctem" remote brainwashing technology, it was likely already in practical use.
And the "Sublimation Program" that Lilith possessed, which could be used to brainwash both humans and AIs, was probably also in its final stages.
Mercer felt that he was really running out of time.
So many crises, any one of which could lead to a catastrophe.
Before, when Mercer had not yet performed consciousness digitization on himself, he might have felt that time was a bit tight. But now, after experiencing it, Mercer had changed his mind.
Lucy was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I know I can't talk you out of it... but... promise me you won't stay there. Don't get addicted to that feeling. I can't go that far. If you go too fast, I won't be able to catch up, no matter how hard I run."
She looked at Mercer with sincerity.
Mercer looked back at her. After just a second or two, he couldn't help but smile, gently leaning his face in to kiss her.
"You don't have to go anywhere. If we ever get separated by accident, you just need to wait patiently. No matter where you are, I'll come find you. I promise."
"...Mmm."
Her voice was slightly muffled.
—--
For a period of time after that, Mercer once again immersed himself in his work, and his life gradually found a new balance.
He would work until eight o'clock every day and go home on time, first watching TV or playing BDs with Lucy and V. Then, at eleven, he would be dragged into the room by Rebecca.
Occasionally, Kiwi would also send Mercer a message, and he would meet up with her from time to time for an hour or two. She knew Mercer was very busy, so their meetings were always short, and she was never clingy.
In fact, after the first consciousness digitization, Mercer had secretly digitized himself a few more times, with Morning Star controlling the Octopus Arm to watch over his physical body.
This was all to catch up on his work, which included figuring out how to find a balance between a deep dive and consciousness digitization.
In the end, Mercer actually managed to develop a "Super Deep Dive" technology, which was more digitized than a Deep Dive state but not fully digitized.
And the development of this technology was surprisingly reliant on the Relic biochip. Mercer had managed to transfer his Consciousness Data Core into the Relic and connect directly to the server via hardware.
This way, even if the power was suddenly cut or the cable was unplugged, as long as the Relic biochip was still in his head, Mercer's Consciousness Data Core would not be damaged in the slightest.
Furthermore, in this state, other consciousness code would not be lost due to the disconnection.
And in this state, if he encountered an accident, Mercer could decide to transfer his consciousness code back to his body to wake up, or conversely, upload his consciousness code directly to the server network.
To put it simply, he had transferred his consciousness code into the Relic biochip. This engram would remain constantly active within the Relic, and the Relic biochip would also be given network connectivity.
To some extent, Mercer's brain was no longer even a necessity.
If an attack occurred, as long as the core functions of the Relic biochip were not damaged, his data would be immediately transferred with the help of the Relic, even if his head was hit directly.
There was even a function that Mercer had already developed but regarded only as a final backup option.
He had made a backup of the memory and cognitive-emotional data from his consciousness code. If he encountered a special situation where his brain was destroyed and there was no time to fully upload his consciousness code, he could even transfer just a Data Core; a few seconds later, his consciousness would awaken in another engram that lacked a core.
In this state, which Mercer called "Super Deep Dive," he could mobilize processing power on a deeper level and push the limits of his mind.
His thinking speed was about 10 times faster than in a normal Deep Dive state. Although it couldn't compare to his abilities during full consciousness digitization, it significantly reduced the need for his body to dissipate heat, instead transferring the hardware stress to the Relic biochip and the server.
It was precisely after the development of the Super Deep Dive technology that Mercer's work progress began to skyrocket.
Keep in mind, he was already handling work with multiple parallel processes, essentially splitting one person into several. And now?
He alone was a super research and development team!
The first breakthrough was in cyberware and the Armor Operating System.
After carefully studying the Sandevistan and the Berserk OS, Mercer finally integrated the relevant technologies and developed a brand-new cyberware operating system.
He called this cyberware operating system the "Daedalus" series. It integrated both the Berserk OS's enhancement of nanotechnology and the Sandevistan's neural acceleration effects, capable of significantly boosting a person's strength, reaction speed, and body speed.
However, it wasn't as extreme as the Sandevistan and didn't even have the same potential for nerve damage.
This cyberware operating system, like the Sandevistan, would modify the host's entire spinal cord. But after connecting to the neural link, it would run a data test to determine a safe threshold and a limit threshold.
Below the safe threshold, there was almost no neural strain. Of course, neural and physical fatigue were unavoidable, and exceeding fatigue limits would still cause some damage, but this damage was very minor.
The limit threshold, on the other hand, was the intensity at which permanent nerve damage would occur. Unless the host decided to risk their life, the operating system would lock this upper limit, ensuring that even with overclocking, no permanent neurological damage would be caused.
Mercer first selected several outstanding Barghest soldiers as guinea pigs to test the Daedalus, and the results were remarkable; even the worst of them achieved an astonishing 52% neural acceleration index!
This figure was already comparable to some outdated versions of the Sandevistan!
Building on this test, Mercer put them through a week of high-intensity usage tests, and the results were equally gratifying.
Mercer could basically conclude that this cyberware had completely broken the monopoly held by the Sandevistan and Berserk OS on human neural operating systems.
Safer, more powerful, and capable of self-adapting to the host's strength. Mercer believed that this operating system, which he called "Daedalus," could be considered a complete generational upgrade over previous operating systems!
The name "Daedalus" comes from the master craftsman in Greek mythology who built the Cretan labyrinth. He forged wings that could soar, but it was his son Icarus whose wings melted when he flew too high.
He named it this because although he had limited the cyberware's safe power and threshold, he was obviously aware that not everyone would use it strictly according to the instruction manual.
And once a host chose to ignore the safe threshold and overclock it, Cyberpsychosis would likely not be eradicated.
So, the name also served as a warning, hoping its users would use it carefully to avoid flying too high and falling too hard.
But as long as one strictly adhered to the threshold tested by the system, this operating system was theoretically as safe as any other cyberware.
With the technological breakthrough in the human body's cyberware operating system, the consciousness transfer system for armor naturally made significant progress as well.
In the past, individual combat armor relied heavily on the assistance of a built-in AI for consciousness code transcoding to reduce usage latency and neural load.
But after this technological breakthrough, the host could directly control it by pairing it with the "Daedalus" operating system.
The armor's built-in neural link could connect directly to the Daedalus cyberware operating system, linking the body's nerves directly to the armor and greatly reducing the latency of consciousness code transmission.
Furthermore, when adapted to the "Daedalus" operating system, it wouldn't have the "speed discrepancy" issue that Sandevistan users experienced when equipping individual combat armor, which caused even higher armor latency.
It could be said that as long as one was equipped with the Daedalus cyberware operating system and wore the new generation of compatible individual combat armor, the combat latency would be reduced to an extremely low level. Even when body acceleration was activated, the armor would not experience lag.
The neural load was also greatly reduced. It could be said that as long as one didn't constantly keep the Daedalus operating system on and overclock it, the neural load was basically on par with operating a Basilisk; it had completely reached a combat-ready level.
If compared to Arasaka's "Cyberskeleton" from the anime, Mercer could confidently say that, aside from that flashy and impractical gravity weapon, his own individual combat armor completely crushed Arasaka's Cyberskeleton armor.
Mercer could even confidently say that in the current world, the individual combat armor technology he had developed could be considered the best in the world!
Mercer had no doubt that once this technology was rolled out on a large scale, the entire landscape of individual combat in the Net would be changed because of it.
And apart from the technological breakthroughs in operating systems, Mercer had also finally made new weapon designs in terms of weapons and equipment technology.
For example, a special grenade called the "Gravity Net," developed based on Arasaka's gravity weapon. When this grenade detonates, it forms a circular gravity wave. Within this gravity zone, it continuously generates a magnetic net that simulates gravity.
The immense gravity can pull flying bullets in the space toward the ground through strong electromagnetism or interfere with their trajectory, reducing their flight speed. A human's fragile internal organs would also suffer tremendous damage from the gravity.
Its power couldn't compare to Arasaka's gravity weapon, which could even crush the front of a Behemoth APC, but its lethality against personnel was in no way inferior.
Because to kill a person, you don't need to crush them with gravity; it's enough to make their internal organs and the delicate electromagnetic circuits in their cyberware fail.
There were also things like EMP grenades, heavy smart sniper rifles, new drones, and bots...
And for armor, Mercer developed the "Heavy Mantis Blades," "armor-mounted monowire," and other enhanced-power versions of cyberware weapons.
In armor development, Mercer also further launched the official version of a new type of armor, but it was mostly performance improvements, so there was no need to go into too much detail.
Of course, this was in addition to the development and upgrading of weapons and equipment.
But all of the above were not Mercer's main development focus during this period.
After realizing the difficulty of bringing heavy weapons and armor to fight on the moon, Mercer decided to develop a highly destructive virus program himself.
He had only one requirement for this virus: its destructiveness and danger level could not be lower than the Blackwall. When necessary, it could even be used to destroy Arasaka's entire moon base with a single virus program.
Thus, an extremely terrifying super virus, one that Mercer considered even more dangerous than Bartmoss's "R.A.B.I.D.S.," was born after months of his thought, refinement, and creation.
Its name: "Blacklight."