Isn't it better to at least give her a reason to deceive herself?
"Don't overthink it, just let it be. For Qiwei and me, when tomorrow dawns, everything will be just like before. She's still just a member of the team, and I'm her leader.
She won't be thinking about taking things further with me, and neither will I. We're just... friends."
Mercer said frankly.
He looked at her warmly, smiling with a relaxed tone, "Don't worry, I won't just leave you out of nowhere."
"Saying that at a time like this?" Lucy was a bit speechless, yet somehow, she found it endearing. Her originally complicated emotions shifted into pure annoyance.
After all, theoretically, she didn't really have the right to say anything to him — at most, they had a bit of an ambiguous relationship, which Mercer had forcibly defined.
But Mercer's willingness to clarify everything for her, in a way... maybe it's good news for her?
Lucy was amused by her own thoughts, "Forget it... good night."
"Good night." Mercer blinked, and then astonishingly turned around and directly went back indoors to sleep, leaving Lucy standing alone at the door.
She stood there dumbfounded, staring at Mercer's tightly closed door. After a while, she bit her lip in annoyance and frustration, flipping a middle finger at Mercer's room.
Jerk! How is this any different from stringing me along?
After flipping the finger a few more times instead of cursing, she angrily returned to her room. But, believe it or not, despite her anger, all that was left was anger. The previous feeling of grievance and sadness had somehow disappeared.
Mercer, on the other hand, took a leisurely shower and then blissfully went to sleep.
...
The next morning, he continued to go about his day as usual, heading to the computer room to work. Although Qiwei got up a bit later than usual, she also seemed energetic as she naturally went to work in the computer room, just like always.
The two simply exchanged a greeting, each showing a seemingly warmer smile than before, and then they both immersed themselves in their work.
Everything looked so normal that Lucy found it a bit disorienting. If she hadn't heard Mercer personally admit what had happened between them yesterday, she probably wouldn't have noticed any change in their interactions.
For Qiwei and Mercer, yesterday's events were just like a dream. Once they woke up, everything returned to its original state, and no one was fixated on it.
On the contrary, Lucy was out of sorts for most of the day trying to observe the two, until Mercer suddenly shouted excitedly in the computer room that the ctOS System was completed, pulling her out of her chaotic state.
"It's done?" Kyoko, who was busy adding smart plugins to weapons, looked up and applauded him joyfully, even though she wasn't quite sure what this thing actually did... but she decided to celebrate first anyway.
After clapping, Kyoko eagerly walked over to Mercer, "So, what can this system do now?"
"Look at this... Venus, demonstrate for her."
As Mercer's excited words fell, the laptop screen suddenly switched to a map of Night City. At the same time, many different colored dots were flickering on the map, with some of them displaying a rough countdown.
"Do you see these dots? The red dots represent 'crime events' detected and monitored by Venus. The ones with countdowns indicate how long until it predicts a crime event will occur there."
As soon as Mercer finished speaking, Kyoko exclaimed, "You mean... it can even predict cases ahead of time?"
"Yes." Mercer said proudly, "Not only can it predict certain events in advance, but more importantly, this system automatically analyzes a person's behavior patterns through algorithms.
Based on the data from the NCPD and City Hall, it rebuilds a more detailed, comprehensive personal file.
With the system running automatically on the servers of City Hall and the NCPD, it continuously collects various data, integrates and computes it, categorizing high-value or high-risk targets for storage on our local server after being classified by Venus.
Through this system and the algorithm, the profiles and real-time monitoring it establishes can help us uncover all the secrets in this city from the comfort of our homes. For instance, look over here!"
Mercer's words naturally drew the whole room of hackers over.
"This golden highlight represents an individual of particular interest to Venus. Let me see who it is... oh, it's our mayor."
Mercer said, tapping the screen, "Venus will monitor their actions in real-time, gathering as much relevant information as possible to complete their file. I believe with enough time, all their secrets will be revealed.
The most important thing is, the ctOS System I programmed isn't just a big data analysis and monitoring software. It has a 'growth' program within it."
"A growth program? AI?" Qiwei asked somewhat puzzled.
"No, no, no, it's not AI, just a program — I equipped it with a comprehensive Magic Puppet Program library, where it detects any vulnerabilities in the cyber world and spreads the monitoring program as widely as possible.
You could think of it as an automatic hacking program that actively invades various networked devices. It automatically analyzes which devices are worth hacking into and which ones aren't, and when encountering a tough one, it automatically calls Venus for AI assistance."