Lucy stared intently at the program box on the screen, and only when the progress bar reached the end did she quickly put down the tablet and turn to look at Mercer lying on the hacker chair.
Mercer slowly opened his eyes, but his gaze was somewhat vacant—he looked a bit lost.
"Mercer? Mercer!?"
Lucy couldn't help but reach out and touch his face, her voice trembling slightly.
"Huh? Huh, I'm fine, don't worry, it's just... a bit of an adjustment."
Mercer finally came to his senses as if waking from a dream, smiled, and attempted to sit up, but wobbled for a moment and couldn't get up.
"Are you uncomfortable somewhere? Should I get Old Wei, or perhaps fetch a doctor from the Netherworld Dog to have a look?" Lucy anxiously suggested, but Mercer just waved his hand, squinted his eyes, and after a moment's pause, sat up.
He sighed: "The latency feels too high, I'm not really used to it..."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Lucy double-checked.
Mercer just chuckled: "I'm really fine. I don't quite know how to explain it... To you, I might have just gone in for a moment, but for me, it felt like I've been in there for about a year.
So I'm just a bit unaccustomed..."
Strictly speaking, Mercer's current sensation was like playing an online game with 9999+ network latency; his brain excitedly issued commands, but his body always acted with a delay.
Not only that, he also felt like his brain was crammed with a mass of glue, the once rushing thoughts now slowing down, making him feel like he'd suddenly turned into an idiot.
When he was an embodiment of consciousness data, his thought speed was like a torrent, but now it's like a tightened faucet; this feeling was quite intolerable, even making Mercer involuntarily want to go back.
He wanted to upload his consciousness again, return to the server, and let his thoughts flow smoothly again—it felt like that's where he truly belonged.
"...Want a drink of water? Or a cola? You seem a bit off-color, Mercer." Lucy asked cautiously, seeing him sitting there silently.
Mercer smiled at her but simply tilted his head: "Let me lean for a while."
"Lean for a while?" Lucy was taken aback, then saw him proactively lean closer, resting his head on her shoulder.
She instinctively reached out, touched his head, and adjusted her posture to make him more comfortable: "Is this okay?"
"Mm..." Mercer smiled with squinted eyes, and after a while, he said: "It failed."
"What?" Lucy looked at him with confusion and concern: "What went wrong?"
"The consciousness data core decompression..." Mercer sighed and said: "Not only did data decompression fail, but data observation also made no progress. However, there is some good news: at least my consciousness data core is compressed very securely.
This means that even in data transmission mode, my consciousness data can be fully transmitted like ordinary people, without losing core data."
Mercer paused, taking in her pleasant scent, finally beginning to adapt to the 'human' body, regretting: "If only I could crack the secret of my consciousness data core, perhaps I might find the direction for humanity's next evolution..."
"Are you now beginning to think humans need to evolve?" Lucy, both worried and a bit restless, held him tighter: "You're not planning to be like Ultraman..."
"No, I won't." Mercer laughed, nestled with her in the hacker chair, the quiet underground base filled only with the constant hum of servers.
"It's just that the me after consciousness data-ification is indeed very powerful, powerful enough to make me not want to come back." Mercer began discussing with Lucy his feelings after consciousness data-ification.
As Lucy listened, she grew more and more silent, until she couldn't help but say: "This doesn't seem right..."
"I know, ordinary people can't do what I've done when their consciousness is data-ified... They can keep normal thinking with computational power; not turning into idiots would already be considered a success."
Mercer chuckled: "Maybe I am indeed an anomaly."
Lucy didn't say much, just held him, bowed her head: "So... do you still plan to continue trying?"
"Rather than trying..." Mercer paused for a moment, then looked at Lucy earnestly and said: "I will proceed with a deep dive, attempting to master the abilities post-consciousness data-ification as much as possible while in a deep dive state.
I believe that in the deep dive state, human consciousness has actually achieved a certain degree of data-ification.
Therefore, I want to try and break through the boundaries of this technology, to find a middle ground between deep diving and complete consciousness data-ification, maximizing my abilities while minimizing the risks of data-ification."
Mercer calmly said: "I must admit, in that state, whether it's thinking speed or work efficiency, it's incredibly high.
If I could maintain the consciousness data-ification state for even just 2 hours of work each day, its efficiency might exceed my usual weekly, or even monthly, work efficiency.
And for me right now... time is the most precious thing."
Mercer thought, despite the somewhat dramatic nature of Saburo Arasaka's death in the 2077 game, based on the intelligence information about Saburo gathered by the Sky Net System, this guy probably wouldn't delay his own consciousness data-ification until after 2080.