Mercer didn't insist. This time, both he and Lucy ordered a low-alcohol cocktail, while V opted for an iced cola, finished it in two gulps, and then put on his helmet and mask, entering bodyguard mode.
During the break, Mercer wasn't idle either. He opened his prosthetic eye to check on the situation outside Dog Town.
What he saw shocked him.
There were over twenty NCPD armored vehicles parked outside Dog Town!
Even the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Squad's hovercars were hovering not far from the entrance of Dog Town.
A group of NCPD officers surrounded the Dog Town checkpoint tightly, led by the current NCPD chief!
The Netherworld Dogs gathered at the entrance of Dog Town, along with Minotaur Robots, armored vehicles, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, and heavily armored troops in Centaur exoskeletons.
Even the hovercraft that had been floating above Dog Town moved to the entrance, its gun barrels aimed outside.
The atmosphere was incredibly tense. At this moment, not to mention guests coming to the banquet, even some residents who usually went in and out of Dog Town kept a safe distance, and there were hardly any people on the streets of Taiping Prefecture.
Only the bold media were still around, documenting the scene.
While clicking his tongue in amazement, Mercer also inquired about the situation with Venus.
[Mercer: What's the situation?]
[Venus: It escaped. I tried to track it, but failed. The other party directly jumped to a network area outside Night City.]
[Mercer: What's Ye Corporation's response?]
[Venus: They have completely retracted, switched important servers back to the local area network, and didn't resist much. I've retaken control of City Hall's servers, shut them down, and left a backdoor.]
[Mercer: So they just came to cause trouble and ran after creating chaos?]
[Venus: Yes, I'm tracing back the other party's origin, and per your instructions, carrying out indiscriminate attacks on domains related to Ye Corporation and Arasaka Company.]
[Mercer: That's enough for now. Have the Internet Supervision people shown up?]
[Venus: There were signs of detection program activity, but no traces of hacker activity.]
Mercer frowned tightly—this only meant one thing: Internet Supervision likely got wind of this in advance, otherwise, they wouldn't be indifferent to such matters.
Venus wreaked havoc on Night City's network multiple times and barely concealed its behavior as an AI. If Internet Supervision wasn't prepared, they would have at least called to inquire.
But since they didn't make that call, it indicates they certainly understand roughly what's happening in Night City and know this is Mercer's retaliation...
It seems Internet Supervision not only understands Mercer's methods but also knows about Ye Corporation, as well as the wandering AI Venus previously reported seeing.
[Mercer: Have you found any traces of Agent Arasaka?]
[Venus: The related footage was deleted early, and some critical locations' cameras were physically damaged. I'm trying to recover the video data, but... Sorry, based on my estimate, the chance of data recovery is very low.]
[Mercer: Understood, you can stop. Starting today, every day we'll hit Ye Corporation until they can't withstand the retaliation, or are ready to talk.]
[Venus: I suspect if they wanted to act, they have already entered Dog Town taking advantage of the blind spots and NCPD distraction.
Dog Town has many secret passageways, but few cameras, you must be extra careful.]
[Mercer: Got it.]
After hanging up the communication, Lucy softly asked, "What's the situation now? Why did the NCPD come?"
"City Hall and NCPD are now both half a dog raised by Arasaka. I guess on one hand, it's to create some noise to attract attention, on the other, to pressure Hansen...
Mercer could only guess so, and Lucy, after a slight sip of her cocktail, didn't press further.
About half an hour later, Hansen returned to the hall with a darkened face, and without saying much else, directly informed Mercer of the follow-up to NCPD blocking the entrance: "Many of the VIPs won't be coming to today's banquet."
He didn't elaborate, only checked the time and then said with a stern face: "The banquet continues, did your people find anything unusual?"
"No." After Mercer replied, Hansen nodded, turned around, and left: "Be ready, don't wander around, once the performance ends, you need to go on stage."
Mercer agreed with a nod, and Hansen hurriedly left again.
Ten minutes later, the lights in the hall suddenly dimmed.
But in the center of the hall stage, neon lights suddenly glowed, as a blue shimmer flickered, a silver-coated woman walked to the center stage.
"Wow! It's Lizzy Wizzy! She's a big star!" V, who was originally behind Mercer, couldn't help but exclaim.
Mercer adjusted his posture with interest, saying somewhat surprised: "Is she very popular now?"
"Come on, she just completed her first tour last year! She's pretty much top tier in New America, right?"
V muttered but only glanced a few times before reluctantly withdrawing his gaze and alerting to the surroundings—now that the lights dimmed, only the stage center was lit. If any agents were lurking, now would undoubtedly be the best time to act.