Lucy just stared into Mercer's eyes, stubbornly silent. The elevator descended slowly, but she seemed determined to get to the bottom of things no matter what.
"Fine. The Rapid Cloning unit is in the bio-lab at the stadium."
Stared at by her direct gaze, Mercer could only sigh in resignation. He reached out his hand, but she avoided it, refusing to let him hold it. "So, for this insane plan of yours to storm the moon, you've already started preparing for failure?
You didn't come here to discuss anything today, did you? You came to inform us, that just you and V? Are going to the Arasaka Base on the moon to assassinate Saburo, and you also have to deal with a super AI entrenched in an extraterrestrial server, plus Orbital Air's base?"
Lucy couldn't hide her agitated and somewhat furious emotions. "If I hadn't felt that something was off about you recently, were you planning on not telling me what you were thinking until you and V were already on the moon?
Or do you think that since you have the final say here anyway, as long as V has no objections, you'll just go off with her to die?
You don't care about your own life, you think you can be revived with a Relic biochip, but what about V? Have you asked her?"
Faced with her barrage of questions and the rare sight of Lucy losing her composure, her eyes red, Mercer could only try to placate her by grabbing her hand. "Lucy, listen to me..."
It only now occurred to him that while he and Lucy occasionally had their cold wars, they had never really had a shouting match where both were angry, the same went for everyone else.
On one hand, it was because his temper was genuinely quite good with his own people. On the other, it was because everyone was, to some extent, tolerant of him. But this time, Lucy was clearly serious.
The elevator doors slowly opened. Lucy stopped talking and her expression returned to one of calm, this was because there were Barghest soldiers on duty outside the elevator.
No matter how fiercely they argued behind closed doors, Lucy wouldn't cause Mercer to lose face in front of outsiders. She simply took his hand in turn and led him toward the underground garage.
"I don't want to listen right now, I want to go to the bio-lab and see just what you've been doing."
Lucy didn't want to hear his excuses. In fact, based on her understanding of Mercer, he would undoubtedly describe this incredibly crude plan as if it were as easy as a simple fixer gig.
But the real danger of it sent a chill of unease down her spine just thinking about it.
"Lucy..." Mercer called her name, a little helpless, but Lucy just pulled him straight to the garage.
She opened the door of an APC, pulled him into the back seat, and then spoke directly, "Polaris, to the bio-lab at the stadium."
"Understood. Hmm... I don't know why, but please don't fight, you two~"
As Polaris's voice faded, Lucy just turned her head to look at Mercer. She said nothing, but her eyes said everything she wanted to say.
The vehicle drove toward the stadium under Polaris's autonomous control. Inside the quiet car, only the sound of Lucy and Mercer's breathing remained.
Mercer could only sigh, then looked at her with a serious expression. "What do you want to know? Ask away."
"I don't understand... Does something like saving the world have to be done by you? Why are you always like this, like some kind of savior, taking all these things upon yourself?
You said you want to deal with Saburo Arasaka. I can understand that. After all, we're still on Arasaka's wanted list. To live a peaceful life, having Saburo die and Yorinobu, who has ties with us, take over is naturally the best choice.
But what about the rest? If you're dealing with Biotechnica, it's somewhat because they've done so many monstrous things, but what about Lilith?
Let Alt and NetWatch handle its schemes. That's not our responsibility!"
Lucy looked at Mercer, a vulnerable expression on her face. "Why do you always carry all these things on your own shoulders?"
Mercer was silent for a moment, then he just pursed his lips grimly before saying, "Because I feel like this world could fall apart at any moment, and I don't want any of us to get hurt."
"So your choice is to proactively engage with the most dangerous things and solve them? Mercer, I don't understand!"
Lucy spoke frankly, her tone almost pleading. "This world has been broken like this for many years. No one can change it. This isn't something one person or one organization can solve!
Mercer, we're safe now. No one is coming to bother us. You've already protected everyone very well. Why do you still always feel so uneasy?"
"But what if I don't do certain things, and in the end, everyone dies? What then?" Mercer showed a rare hint of frustration in front of Lucy.
His frustration wasn't directed at Lucy, but at this damn world. "If I don't deal with Saburo Arasaka, that old devil will sooner or later use the Relic to regain his youth.
What will greet us then is an opponent who is curious and greedy, wary and utterly ruthless.
He won't let us go, not just because of the Relic biochip in my hands, but also because of the other abilities I've shown, should we run? Or throw ourselves at the mercy of another corp and become a pawn?
Do you really want to go back to living like you did in the Arasaka Base?"
Mercer's tone grew heavier. "As for Lilith, you have no idea what they're really doing!"
He explained his findings to Lucy with a sense of helplessness. "The program they're co-developing with Night Corp can directly affect human consciousness through the network, even through signal waves. If this technology matures...
You know what happened to the Old Net. All the AIs were corrupted, and the network became a dead zone. Once this technology is made into a program and spread across the network, something even more terrifying will happen!
You could forget who you are, who you love, what you're doing, all because of a sudden signal wave. You'll become a stranger wearing your own body. At that point, what's the difference between being alive and being dead?"
Seeing Lucy about to speak, Mercer cut her off and continued, "You might think all this is far off? No. What if I told you that Night Corp has already started using Maelstrom members as Lilith's guinea pigs for human experiments? Would you still think it's far off?
Those morons even call Lilith the 'Lunar Madonna.' It's fucking hilarious. A bunch of guys with chrome in their heads have started treating an anti-human AI as a religion!"
After speaking, Mercer revealed something even more incredible to Lucy. "Arasaka has a lunar mass driver, and you think a space corporation like Orbital Air doesn't have similar technology?
The deets I've gathered using the Skynet system completely confirm that Orbital Air is secretly assembling a large-scale mass driver right under the ESA's nose.
Once this thing is built, do you know what that means?"
Mercer spoke in a helpless and gloomy tone. "It means this stupid AI can drop asteroids on Earth at any time! It could destroy a city with pinpoint accuracy, or even a continent!
I don't want to be hasty either, but the fact is, Arasaka's research on the Relic has even accelerated because of me. It's very likely already in the final research stage!"
These were all things Mercer hadn't told the others, it was frustrating enough for him to know about this crap. The others in the crew had limited capabilities anyway, so knowing would only add to their worries. What was the point?
And the fact that Arasaka's Relic research had accelerated was also something Mercer had learned with the help of the Skynet system.
Originally, this technology was still in the experimental phase even in 2077. But from the game, the fact that Silverhand could live on in V's body in one of the endings was proof enough that Relic technology was basically confirmed to have a possibility of success.
And now, due to the butterfly effect, perhaps because Saburo sensed a crisis and was personally overseeing the Relic's progress, the technology was maturing much faster than before.
It could be said that the Silverhand Relic biochip currently in Yorinobu's possession was already the practical-use version that only appeared in the game in 2077. The entire development progress had been advanced by at least a year.
Through intelligence analysis from the Skynet system, Morning Star had given a relatively pessimistic conclusion, Saburo Arasaka might not wait for his body to die of old age before he started preparing for his "rebirth."
As for the mass driver Lilith was building on the moon, Morning Star projected it would be completed in 2079.
And the brainwashing technology that could affect human consciousness and memory, which Night Corp and Lilith were each focusing on but still jointly researching, had already officially entered the practical testing phase.
Lilith was using Night Corp to find suitable human subjects and had begun frequent tests of the brainwashing tech. She was even trying to have an AI directly enter a human body and replace the human's consciousness, the key was, this technology was actually fucking close to succeeding.
All this information gathered through the Skynet system was making Mercer more and more frustrated and anxious.
And besides old rivals like Arasaka, Lilith, Night Corp, and Biotechnica, the Skynet system had also gathered a lot of information about factions like Militech, the NUSA, and the European Economic Community.
Furthermore, the Skynet system had scraped a lot of key data and analysis from many high-level think tanks. Among them, almost all institutions believed that the Fifth Corporate War was almost certain to arrive before 2085.
This was because, considering the NUSA presidential term limits, the current President Myers's approval ratings would likely begin to decline after three consecutive four-year terms.
To consolidate her power, she was highly likely to initiate another unification war, invoking wartime clauses to circumvent an election that might be unfavorable to her.
Besides, there was no easier slogan to win votes than "Reunify and Make America Great Again." Myers had already achieved quite impressive results in the last war; there was no reason not to do it again.
Synthesizing all this information, Mercer had also come to his own conclusion, Saburo Arasaka would not delay his consciousness transfer beyond '78.
Because Arasaka's power was currently on the decline, to deal with the ambitious NUSA and Militech, Saburo needed to return to his peak as soon as possible and then prepare for war with all his might.
All of this was forcing Mercer to be faster, and faster still.
Dealing with Lilith, even if it was just destroying her lunar base, would delay the threat she posed to humanity as much as possible.
And dealing with Saburo Arasaka and putting Yorinobu in power was, on one hand, to eliminate the major threat of Saburo, and on the other, a necessary step for Mercer to prepare for the Fifth Corporate War as quickly and as early as possible.
He needed money, lots and lots of money. He needed resources, many of which couldn't be bought with money. Only by possessing these could he have the qualifications to at least remain neutral, or have a seat at the negotiating table, in the coming Fifth Corporate War.
"..." Lucy just looked at Mercer, her mouth agape. "Then why do you have to be the one to bear all this? Alt is the one who wants Silverhand's chip, why doesn't she go herself?
The threat of rogue AIs is something NetWatch needs to deal with. Why don't we go to NetWatch and make them take responsibility?
Even Saburo... Yorinobu Arasaka, just for the sake of his own life, shouldn't be acting like nothing's wrong and dumping all the trouble on you..."
Mercer just shook his head and sighed. "Trust them? Or expect them to be useful? Assuming they really could change and save this world, perhaps..."
Mercer fell silent for a moment, looked at Lucy, reached out, and gently took her hand, saying seriously, "You know? Ever since you and I escaped from Arasaka together, I've been thinking about what I want to do with my life.
Become a savior? To be honest, I'm not that noble of a person. All that talk about 'for all humanity,' 'for the world,' it's all bullshit.
I just want to live a good life with everyone. It's that simple, but in this fucked-up Night City, living a good life is the most extravagant wish. To truly achieve it, you can't rely on running away, on luck...
It's like how we prepared so much, but when Takemura came to ambush us back then, we were still almost done for. After that, I kept thinking, how can we ensure we don't repeat the same mistake...
And right now, the only way I can think of is this."
He looked at Lucy, his gentle tone laced with determination. "And that is not to wait for trouble to come knocking, if these bastards are the demons that will destroy the world, then I have to be one step ahead and send them all back to hell!
I can't think that far ahead. I don't even know how to face the inevitable Fifth Corporate War yet, how to keep Night City out of the battlefield, how to keep us away from the flames of war...
But at least, right in front of me, I have one chance."
Mercer looked at Lucy and spoke in a resolute tone. "In fact, for this operation, I asked V to come with me, but it's not really to assist me in the operation."
"What do you mean?" Lucy was stunned.
"My plan is really simple, a high-level NUSA netrunner, Songbird, came to me for help. In exchange for saving her life, I want her to pretend to reach an agreement with Lilith and get me to the moon.
And to make Lilith lower her guard, Songbird herself has to go to the moon as well. The only reason I'm taking V is to have V bring her back.
I have to keep my promises. I can't be the kind of bastard who uses people and then throws them away like a doormat, right?"
After Mercer finished, Lucy stared at him with an incredulous look. "Then what about you!?"
"I have to stay there." As soon as Mercer's words fell, Lucy's voice rose. "No! Are you crazy? You're going to stay on the moon?"
"I need to ensure the Blacklight virus operates safely, the entire moon might become a testing ground for the Blacklight virus."
Mercer spoke in a somewhat cold tone. "I've tested the virus's combat effectiveness on Scavengers and some low-level AIs, but the nature of AI means that Blacklight, a virus program AI destined for slaughter, has a very high risk of corruption.
I can't just toss the virus over and forget about it. I have to ensure the virus is successfully deployed, and then stay until it's either zeroed by Lilith, or it zeroes Lilith."
"Why do you have to stay on the moon!?" Lucy gripped his hand tightly, so hard it hurt a little. "At your level, the entire netrunning battle wouldn't even take a day..."
But Mercer shook his head and said, "In a Super Deep Dive state, I ran simulations with Morning Star, in the worst-case scenario, I might need to enter a Super Deep Dive, or even a state of consciousness digitization, on the moon to have a chance of dealing with Lilith.
I must ensure the Blacklight virus is deployed successfully, and at the same time, I must ensure the Blacklight virus absolutely does not fall into Lilith's hands due to some accident.
And once I enter the consciousness digitization stage to fight Lilith, it will be a war of attrition with no concept of time.
If I choose to launch the attack from Earth against Lilith on the moon, or even on her servers on Mars or a space station, the immense latency could very well cause me to miss my chance and let her escape...
So, I must go to the moon, as close to her server as possible, to leave her nowhere to run.
And, once the battle begins..."
Mercer sighed and said, "Let's just talk about the Arasaka Base. I'm confident I can fight my way in and kill Saburo Arasaka, but I'm really not sure I can get out in one piece, given Saburo Arasaka's personality and the intelligence analysis I did with Morning Star...
That old devil has probably prepared a nuke for Arasaka's lunar base, just in case, for mutual destruction."
Lucy's eyes trembled as she looked at Mercer. "So you've thought it all through. Once you get to the moon, you'll handle Lilith, and then have V bring that Songbird person back.
After that, you're going to deal with Saburo Arasaka alone. The worst-case scenario is you and him in a nuclear blast at the Arasaka Base?"
Mercer smiled. "Or worse... who knows if Lilith has a backup plan with Orbital Air? Like pulling out a nuke of her own if things go south..."
He looked at Lucy seriously. "If I can't deal with Lilith on the moon, then I have to destroy all her servers near the moon and Earth, trapping her on Mars!
On the moon, we don't have the right weapons and equipment. All we can rely on is still the network... I have to make sure all the servers are destroyed, to ensure Lilith has no way of connecting to Earth in the short term."
After speaking, Mercer paused, then said, "When I'm fighting Lilith, since I estimate most of the battle will take place in Cyberspace, V will also be there to watch over me for a while.
And after that, no matter what, I'll have V immediately bring Songbird back, otherwise, I'm very worried Lilith will block our path back to Earth.
As for Arasaka, I really do plan to handle it alone. If everything goes smoothly, I'll take care of Saburo, find Arasaka's lunar mass driver, and give the Saburo currently in Tokyo, whether it's his real body or a double, a surprise...
And if an accident occurs, I will detonate the nuke at the Arasaka Base, ensuring both Saburo and I are physically annihilated. Then I'll immediately use some of the missile launch systems under the Skynet system's control to carry out a devastating strike on Arasaka's Tokyo base."
Mercer's words made Lucy feel a little dizzy. "Then what about you? How will you come back!?"
"You already know, don't you?"
Mercer looked at Lucy and gave a slight smile.
The car stopped in the parking lot of the bio-lab near the stadium. Mercer opened the car door and extended a hand to Lucy.
She was silent for a moment, her expression complicated, but she still took his hand without hesitation and followed his steps.
After passing through a decontamination procedure and entering a dimly lit room, Lucy's pupils trembled slightly as she looked around.
Placed here, one after another, were bodies floating in culture vats, in liquid. They looked similar to Mercer in appearance and build, yet seemed completely different in some way...
Corpses.
"These are all failed clones!?" Lucy's voice was almost trembling, the sight of body after body, each bearing some resemblance to Mercer, made her hair stand on end. This horrifying scene was like a nightmare.
Mercer just stared at the bodies with a blank expression. "No. Strictly speaking, these aren't 'clones' replicated from my body's DNA."
"Then what are they?" Lucy forced herself to calm down and observe carefully.
Indeed, the bodies varied in height and build. Some were thin, some were muscular. Some looked to be in their twenties, others were only teenagers, and some were even in their thirties or forties. Their faces were also slightly different.
"I am creating my body."
Mercer calmly stated the astonishing words. "Did you know? Because of a sudden whim, I discovered something very interesting."
"Human consciousness can be digitized, to the point where you can even see a Data Core. I've tried to breach it in many ways before but haven't succeeded yet. But on a sudden whim, I managed to see some very interesting things inside...
After decryption and deciphering, some of the data codes actually looked like DNA gene chains..."
Mercer turned to look at Lucy and said softly, "So, I tried to synthesize this DNA that seemed to exist in my Consciousness Data Core by mere coincidence. Then I tried to clone it, or rather, produce it using a Rapid Cloning unit."
"And so, these guys who look somewhat like me, but not quite, grew in the embryos. This is because the technology and equipment for synthesizing human DNA aren't mature enough, and rapid cloning itself is prone to producing defective products.
But I will succeed, and very soon. These failures have already provided me with more than enough experience."
He tapped on the culture dish, then his gaze fell, deep and profound, upon a familiar yet strange corpse. He began to speak slowly, "I'm not replicating or cloning my own body. I'm creating a body that truly belongs to me..."
Mercer lowered his eyes, looking at the "himself" in the culture dish, a complex smile on his face.
"I'm not preparing for a consciousness transfer in case of an emergency."
"Rather, it's for a new birth... Perhaps, when that time comes, my Consciousness Data Core will no longer be in a completely sealed, compressed state, and I won't need to undergo consciousness digitization to feel my true self."
Mercer retracted his gaze, turned his head to look at Lucy, and knocked on his chromed upper body. The chrome gave off a crisp clang.
She just looked at him with a silent, knowing gaze.
After a long moment, he grinned at her. "Anyway, I promise you, I give you my word..."
"I will come back. No matter what form I'm in, even if it's just a string of code, a piece of data, I will jump into your cyberdeck and reunite with you."
Mercer looked at her with gentle eyes. "I know you're timid and insecure, so even if I die, I would never leave you alone to suffer in a place like Night City...
Trust me, and wait for me. That's what I hope you can do for me. So... are you still going to stop me?"
Lucy was silent. Finally, in a helpless and sorrowful tone, she said, "If you're lying to me..."
"Hmm..." Mercer stroked his chin, feigning deep thought. "How about you go online and flame me in a post? With my temper, even if my consciousness code shatters into a million pieces, I'll definitely be drawn back by a post cursing me out..."
"Don't say such unlucky things!"
Lucy raised her voice, then simply reached out and hugged him tightly, burying her head in his chest. Her voice was thick with tears. "You'd better not be lying. If you don't come back, I'll go to the moon to find you. If I can't find you on the moon, I'll go to Mars..."
Mercer held her, chuckling softly as he hugged her body tighter, just humming in agreement.
He would come back, and in a prime state he had never experienced before.
It was a powerful premonition.
And luckily, to this day, Mercer's premonitions had never been wrong.