Mercer has a real talent for driving—his mind works fast.
When he's highly focused, he even gets a bullet-time-like sensation. Even without a Synaptic Accelerator, he handles racing at extreme speeds with ease.
Pan'an initially planned to just mess around with him, but she didn't expect this kid to have some real skills.
The two of them got excited and raced all the way from the Saint Domingo District to the outskirts of Night City in the east before finally calming down.
Cassidy and Daichi nearly lost their way driving after them, but fortunately, Mercer didn't get too carried away. He'd slow down if he saw they couldn't keep up.
Yet, even so, from the southern entrance of Night City to the Wanderer camp in the east, they made it in just over an hour.
Once outside the camp, after parking the car at the edge, Pan'an pushed open the car door, laughing and exclaiming, "Wow! I have to say, I haven't raced inside the city much before!"
"Oh man, I'm gonna puke..." Leon said, while Daichi, who had driven him, also looked pale, feeling like his Pika was about to fall apart.
Cassidy took his time getting out of the car, finally shaking his head saying, "You guys are nuts... Lucy, why didn't you try to talk them down."
Lucy's face was also flushed with excitement. She chuckled, shook her head, took a deep breath of the wilderness air, and said, "Isn't it fun?"
She has a wild side buried within her.
And Mercer? Well, he excitedly patted his pounding heart—this was way more thrilling than racing in a game!
Night City... Ha!
"Let's park the car here, we'll move our stuff later."
Pan'an proudly pointed to the camp ahead, saying, "This is the Adcardo camp, what do you think? Not bad, huh?"
It's a camp made up of RVs, tents, and various container-like converted houses, appearing a bit shabby.
But looking in from the entrance, you could see everyone had a relaxed and peaceful expression on their faces.
Next to where they parked, there was an old man holding a guitar, drinking a beer and playing music in the morning while sitting on a box.
A man working on car repairs next to him occasionally hummed along.
Further inside, you could see small signs hanging outside some RVs or container buildings, seeming to be gun shops, prosthetic shops, and the like.
"Is this the Adcardo camp?" Lucy marveled.
"Well, does it exceed your expectations, or disappoint?" Mercer joked.
"Hmm... I heard Adcardo used to be a huge family of millions."
Lucy was curious, "Why does it seem like there are not many family members along the way? You always talked about it being big, but now it seems there's only at most a few hundred people."
"Who knows." Mercer wasn't too informed either, but thought Adcardo should have a main base somewhere, just unsure where exactly.
"Your tents are set up over there in the corner, it's convenient for you to access electricity and water.
Yesterday, we got everything ready for you, all together... four tents.
We don't have many extra houses, so you might have to squeeze together to sleep, or go into town to buy two new tents."
Pan'an pointed to a corner of the camp, leading them after parking the car, introducing the camp's facilities as they walked.
Mercer finally got a chance to take a good close look at her.
Now seemingly only eighteen or nineteen, Pan'an was in her prime, full of wild charm.
Her skin looked smoother than in the game, but she had already started wearing the thick makeup ubiquitous in the Cyberpunk World.
Her eye circles and lips were painted dark, yet it didn't look unattractive.
"Got it." Mercer agreed, letting Pan'an lead the way.
Lucy discreetly glanced at him, "Looks like you've checked her out several times now, what's up? Interested?"
"I said before, pretty girls over eighteen are all in my interest range…"
Mercer's words made Kyoko playfully nudge him, "Should I ask for you later?"
"Give it a rest, does she look like someone interested in kids?"
Mercer suddenly felt a bit rueful, shook his head, sighing—he saw Lucy and Kyoko as kids, and undoubtedly others saw him the same way.
Pan'an, with sharp ears, turned and glanced at Mercer, giggling, "You kids are really interesting... Growing up fast huh."
"I'm gonna go talk to Sol."
Cassidy mentioned, with Pan'an casually pointing him in a direction, "He's over there, in the biggest tent, I won't be going over."
Cassidy nodded, signaling Mercer, and went to chat with the camp leader Sol.
"Looks like you really don't stand a chance~"
Kyoko took the opportunity to joke with Mercer, then winked at Lucy, making Lucy a little uneasy, turning her face away, arms crossed.
This posture looked a bit like something from anime.
Mercer's mouth twitched, he didn't respond.
Kid...
He quickened his pace to catch up to Pan'an and started chatting with her.
"With so many of you, how do you usually make a living? Just smuggling and transporting?"
Mercer's words made Pan'an glance at him, she was around 170 cm tall, now wearing boots that made her appear taller than Mercer: