Hansen had fallen gravely ill.
At some point, everyone began to notice that Colonel Hansen, who had always been full of energy and imposing presence, suddenly appeared frail.
Sometimes, they would even see him clutching his head in public, looking disoriented.
His weekly recovery time due to illness increased day by day, and the responsibilities that were once exclusively his gradually shifted to the Barghest as his condition worsened.
Amid this atmosphere, Mercer gradually stepped into the spotlight. He began frequently representing Hansen at various banquets and meetings, taking over Hansen's connections, and handling the final negotiations for most business deals.
Meanwhile, Jago, who was originally just the financial director, was promoted to an important role as Mercer's assistant, helping him manage time-consuming interpersonal relationships.
Of course, the clients who thought they were dealing directly with Mercer had no idea that most of the time, it wasn't Mercer himself handling their social interactions and business negotiations... it was Morning Star.
Contrary to expectations, Dogtown's operations did not falter or decline due to Hansen's illness.
As Mercer gradually solidified his control and stabilized his rule, the Barghest immediately underwent a comprehensive systemic optimization.
Some disloyal Barghest members quietly disappeared, while certain former powerholders were marginalized through a series of transfers and personnel changes.
In their place, members of the Kindling Squad legitimately assumed key positions in critical roles. With the shift in power, a new core team emerged.
Next, the entire operational system of Dogtown was fully optimized.
The bug that frequently caused airdrops to land in strange locations was fixed by Mercer. He developed and implemented a new navigation and signal reception system, establishing a brand-new smart control tower for Dogtown.
Under the management of the intelligent system, all airdrops were now orderly delivered to the modified airdrop platform at the EBM Petrochem Stadium.
As for security, it saw significant improvements thanks to more surveillance cameras, increased bot patrols, and the work of more professional Barghest security personnel.
Previously, Dogtown followed its own rules. As long as you didn't break Barghest's regulations, you weren't breaking the law.
Now, Mercer brought common violent crimes under jurisdiction as well.
Crimes such as the circulation of illegal drugs, murder, and robbery were almost eradicated under the watchful eyes of ubiquitous cameras and bots.
If a crime occurred, or even if a camera was deliberately damaged, the Barghest would immediately arrive with bots and detain the perpetrators forcefully. Mercer had no money to feed a bunch of criminals, so his methods of reform were brutally straightforward.
For minor offenses, first-time offenders could choose to pay a fine for bail, but repeat offenders would face forced detention and labor.
As for serious offenders, they were generally not given a chance to survive. Once discovered, they were usually eliminated on the spot.
Of course, those who fled to Dogtown after committing crimes in Night City didn't count. Mercer only handled offenders who broke the law within Dogtown, with no intention of cleaning up NCPD's mess. These criminals actually serve as a major source of recruits for Dogtown. Many flee to Dogtown, unable to find work and too afraid to leave, while the town's strict crime control leaves them with no choice but to sign contracts and join Barghest.
Their bandit tendencies are quickly worn down under Barghest's military-style management. Those inherently wicked individuals who refuse to reform are swiftly identified, expelled for breaching contracts, and fined.
Mercer is relatively merciful. If they have no money, he doesn't dismantle them for parts. Instead, he forces them to work off their debts before expelling them.
In Night City, Mercer's approach could truly be considered charitable. He actually demands they work to repay their debts and allows them to eventually clear them, rather than exploiting them for free their entire lives or selling them off for cash.
Even the hardened criminals who take long-term refuge in Dogtown without joining Barghest still spend money there, boosting the local economy. Meanwhile, Barghest collects monthly rent, utilities, and service fees (protection money) from all buildings in Dogtown.
Mercer has also expanded management over Dogtown's structures. It's become rare for lazy squatters to occupy abandoned buildings, as he has brought all constructions under renovation and control.
He strictly regulates Dogtown's energy systems, including electricity, internet, and water supply.
Improving the streetscape and providing stable utilities and networks are crucial for attracting investment and residents.
After all, Pacifica has plenty of dilapidated buildings. These drug-addicted, crime-ridden vagrants should just get out of Dogtown and find somewhere else to loaf around.
For those still capable of working, Mercer doesn't refuse them seeking legitimate employment. Barghest is always short-handed, and for certain jobs, using humans is clearly cheaper than bots.
These subtle changes may not seem obvious, but they have significantly improved and elevated the quality of life in Dogtown.
At the very least, after paying Barghest, the slum dwellers no longer worry about being bullied. If harassed, they can report it to Barghest for handling under public security regulations.
While paying for utilities slightly increases costs, having more stable water and electricity is far better than frequent outages.
Previously, these services still cost money anyway; now, with separate billing, it's easier to manage and save on expenses.
Dogtown remains as open as ever, but the underlying changes are undeniable.
This has led many of Hansen's former supporters to reconsider their stance. Perhaps this young man in power has genuinely brought positive changes to Dogtown.
For existing partners, the new successor seems easier to deal with than Hansen.
Jago, skilled at posing as a nice guy and accustomed to the hypocritical dealings of a corpo, finds Mercer, who dislikes haggling, a refreshing change. The Morning Star always proposes a mutually acceptable offer with high efficiency.
After some effort and with Hansen intentionally stepping aside, power in Dogtown has finally transitioned relatively smoothly. Unfortunately, although in Mercer's view the transition of power still hadn't fully concluded... many trading partners continued to place greater trust in Hansen as the living symbol... time was running out.
In fact, Mercer's modifications to Hansen's consciousness could be considered quite unsuccessful.
Compared to Evelyn, whose memories had merely been altered, modifying Hansen's subconscious, memories, and even what could be called emotional manipulation proved far more challenging.
In less than three months, Mercer had been forced to reset Hansen's memories nearly five times, returning him to the state after the first modification.
On one or two occasions, Hansen nearly revealed abnormalities in public. Fortunately, Morning Star monitored his neural signals in time, causing him to pass out promptly and avoiding major incidents.
However, as the modifications accumulated, Hansen's consciousness gradually became overwhelmed. After the final modification, when Hansen lay with his eyes open but silent, Mercer knew he had essentially drained the last of Hansen's value.
Thus, Mercer began preparing Hansen's funeral.
It was time for the man called Hansen to reach the end of his life.
—--
September 29, 2074, Kindling Squad base.
Hansen lay vacant-eyed in the netrunner station.
Data cables snaked across the back of his head and body. Though his eyes were open, the readings and waveforms on the nearby monitors remained as steady as a flatline.
"He can't hold on," Lucy concluded after a single glance at the data. "It seems repeated modifications to consciousness code might even lead to brain death... Mercer, Soulkiller is far more dangerous than we imagined."
"Could it be caused by mismatches between the consciousness code and neural recordings?" Mercer pondered.
Lucy merely furrowed her brow slightly. "That shouldn't explain why there's no response at all now..."
After running several final tests on the unresponsive Hansen, Mercer found even external stimuli elicited almost no reaction.
"Let's deep dive and see. The data didn't look this bad during the modifications..."
As he spoke, Mercer used his Octopus Arm to plug in his own connection cable.
After a moment's hesitation, Lucy extended her hand. "I'm coming with you."
"You want to deep dive? That's quite rare for you... Alright then, together it is. Come here."
Mercer smiled as he opened the panel on the back of her head and connected her cable.
Lucy's psychological trauma persisted. For her, deep diving remained extremely dangerous. Unless necessary, she preferred taking extra time to complete tasks through conventional interfaces.
Without waiting for Lucy, Mercer finished connecting her cable and immediately deep dived into Cyberspace.
This time, when he saw Hansen's consciousness code, he couldn't help but sigh.
The consciousness code that had been restored using backup data just ten minutes earlier now showed vast stretches of corrupted data.
In the Net, Hansen kept mumbling incessantly: "Wrong, this is all wrong..."
If ordinary engrams appeared as shifting data streams on the surface with stable core data at their center, then Hansen's current state was chaos through and through. Code continuously turned red, characters flickering into garbled text, sometimes restoring to normal, sometimes abruptly throwing errors.
Mercer had almost never seen such corrupted consciousness code in a human.
Lucy came online beside him. She watched Hansen, who was currently constantly erroring and mumbling on the spot, unsure what she was thinking: "The data errors seem to follow a certain pattern?"
"I suspect his memory data is conflicting... Let me try to repair it."
Mercer once again retrieved the backup of Hansen's consciousness code from the server, but this time, no matter how he tried to replenish it, Hansen's consciousness would destabilize again after briefly stabilizing.
Until one moment, Hansen suddenly turned his head, looked at Mercer, and roared: "It's you!"
He lunged fiercely toward Mercer, but despite being only a few steps away, no matter how he flailed, he couldn't reach him.
Not even coming close by the slightest margin.
Mercer calmly observed his actions, watching the changes in the data: "Oh? The data has actually stabilized quite a bit..."
"You're tampering with my memories! You're toying with my soul! Aren't you!" Hansen's relatively clear face now flickered with blurry pixelation.
Mercer continued observing and recording while speaking calmly: "Do you know what's happening?"
"I don't! But I know something's wrong! Everything is wrong! It must be because of you! Because of you!!"
Hansen's voice echoed through Cyberspace, but soon his entire data structure underwent large-scale corruption again. His face contorted as he glared at Mercer, his eyes as if trying to devour him.
Mercer didn't dodge or avoid, merely asking calmly: "Colonel Hansen, calm down. Let's talk."
"I'll kill you! Kill you!" Hansen was still roaring one moment.
The next, he suddenly broke down in tears: "I'm not a deserter, it's not my fault..."
Before the sorrow could linger, anger reappeared on his face, but this time his target wasn't Mercer. He looked into the void: "Damn it, why did you betray me? Why did you delta? We succeeded! The plan was successful! You're the deserters!"
After watching him for a moment, Mercer shook his head: "Not sure where the problem lies. Even if we use the original consciousness code for repairs now, he'll quickly collapse again..."
"Shall we proceed to the next experiment?" Lucy watched the frenzied Hansen, her frown deepening as she hesitantly asked: "That is... the consciousness transfer override experiment using the Relic?"
"Let me research this further. At the very least, we should try to understand why this problem occurred. Perhaps it's subconscious data? While repeated brainwashing occurred, the subconscious data wasn't cleared, causing this sense of dissonance to continuously accumulate, ultimately affecting the complete engram..."
Lucy watched as Mercer began using methods she couldn't comprehend again, simply by staring at Hansen to enter his research and analysis state. After a moment of silence, she softly asked: "So what's the purpose of your research into consciousness code?"
"What?" Mercer replied without looking up: "To avoid potential risks we might encounter later, of course."
"So, you're finally planning to attempt a complete upload of your own consciousness?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.
But Mercer just calmly said, "I don't plan on permanently uploading yet, but I do have the idea of fully digitizing consciousness through a connection."
"For what?" Lucy resisted, "No one knows if uploading consciousness data like this, even without making any changes and downloading it back offline, would cause irreversible effects on a person... Mercer, didn't Alt fail back then and couldn't return, becoming an AI?"
"Alt's failure was precisely due to lack of time. The Arasaka nuclear blast was imminent, and her massive engram couldn't be fully recovered under those circumstances, forcing Spider Murphy to scatter her data across the net. Afterwards, it wasn't so much that Alt's engram was recovered, but rather Spider Murphy synthesized an Alt from a bunch of Alt fragments. That's why she's a bit odd now, and also why many consider her to have completely become a rogue AI. But in fact, after Alt was first digitized by Arasaka and uploaded to Mikoshi, she managed to autonomously return to consciousness entirely on her own, using only Soulkiller. So theoretically, as long as no data modifications are made and the connection isn't cut during consciousness transfer, accidents won't happen."
After Mercer finished, Lucy couldn't help but say, "What exactly did Alt tell you? Ever since that day, you've been researching all this..."
Mercer fell silent for a moment, then turned to look at her. After a long pause, he suddenly said, "Lucy..."
Before he could finish, Lucy seemed to sense something and suddenly turned away, unable to meet his eyes: "Tell me after you've thought it through!"
"You should know I'm special, the kind of special that's completely different from ordinary people, right?" Mercer still spoke directly what needed to be said.
"You are indeed very talented." As Lucy spoke, she unconsciously crossed her arms in front of her chest.
This was her little habit when lying or feeling uneasy.
But Mercer just shook his head, "You know it's not some special talent... or rather, it's not a talent humans should have at all."
He looked calmly at Lucy, but his tone was gentle, "I need to figure out the truth... Alt was right about one thing; people need to understand themselves first before making decisions. This is inevitable sooner or later, Lucy."
Lucy responded with some emotion, "How is it not a talent humans should have? Mercer, you are special, but you're the same Mercer I know, so there's no need... we don't need to rush, do we? We still have to deal with Arasaka, with many troubles. Can't we wait until we've solved those problems before thinking about life's meaning and our true selves?"
As she spoke, she pointed at Hansen who was still in a frenzied state nearby, "What if, even with just one in a million odds, you end up like that, or even worse than him... Or have you considered that Alt might be deceiving you? What if she just wants you to upload your data, and then you'll become like her? Or what if, after digitizing your consciousness, you don't want to become human again?"
"What do you mean by 'turning back into a human'?" Mercer said with amusement. "Hey, even if my consciousness becomes digitized, I'm still human, alright?"
Lucy turned her face away, visibly dejected. "Anyway, I don't agree... V and Rebecca wouldn't agree either. Until you get majority approval in a meeting, you absolutely must not, I mean absolutely must not, secretly test this on yourself."
"I never planned to hide it from you... Don't worry. If I really do start researching the digitization of my consciousness, I'll definitely have all of you by my side as a precaution."
Mercer smiled, glanced at Hansen, whose body was currently flickering with garbled code, shook his head, and reached out. "Alright, that's enough watching. Let's log off."
Lucy didn't respond, her figure simply fading as she exited the deep dive.
Mercer took one last look at Hansen's consciousness code, instructed Morning Star to continue monitoring, and then also withdrew from the deep dive state.
The moment his consciousness returned, Mercer noticed a soft body pressed against him. Unfortunately, after extensive cyberization that had mechanized his upper body, his tactile nerves had been drastically reduced.
But even now, holding Lucy, he could still feel her warmth and the faint scent coming from her.
Lucy didn't speak, just held him with her head bowed.
Mercer also remained silent, gently stroking her back. After a long moment, he finally said with a smile, "Stop being clingy. Since there's no cure, we have to send Colonel Hansen on his way... Want to do it? You can personally delete his consciousness code, give him a clean end. You'll have taken out Dogtown's former boss yourself; that's quite an achievement. Cheer up."
"Don't think I don't know, you just want to deep dive and observe the moment his consciousness code gets deleted..." Lucy's voice was muffled, but then she just lifted her head to look at him and let out a quiet sigh.
Though Mercer's words had humored her, they also made his stance clear. Even if he needed everyone's approval, he would eventually attempt consciousness digitization himself.
Lucy could vaguely guess why he wanted to do this, but precisely because she could guess, she wanted even more to stop him.
What if after digitizing, he suddenly found this state better than being human... Isn't that what happened to all those rogue AIs?
Alt, Spider Murphy, Bartmoss, didn't they all never consider returning to human form after digitizing their consciousness?
Moreover, Mercer had his own secrets... ones even Kyoko could somewhat perceive.
That sudden, complete personality shift Mercer underwent at the Arasaka base... combined with how everyone had been deep diving in the Old Net daily back then, and Mercer's inexplicable familiarity with rogue AIs like Alt...
The closer Mercer got to digitizing his consciousness, the more uneasy Lucy felt. To be honest, she was somewhat afraid. Afraid that this familiar Mercer might disappear, just as suddenly as he'd first appeared.
"Lucy... Lucy?"
Mercer's voice snapped Lucy out of her thoughts. She turned to him, only to find him tidying up the neural link cables while giving her a playful wink. "Don't be silly, I'm right here."
"You're the silly one..." Lucy wasn't surprised he could read her mind. She pressed her lips together and glanced at Hansen lying motionless beside them. "Are you sure... you want me to delete his consciousness code?"
"Right, once I'm inside, you start deleting his consciousness code from the outside, then monitor his vital signs."
Mercer instructed: "After I record the deletion process, bring the Relic biochip. We'll use his backup consciousness code to try bringing him back to life... I want to see if we can keep Hansen in a deep dive state, observing this consciousness transfer process and the changes in his icon during resurrection from Cyberspace."
"...Understood, go ahead." Lucy nodded in agreement.
Watching him close his eyes and re-enter Cyberspace without hesitation, Lucy could only turn to the computer beside her and begin operating Soulkiller.
Back in Cyberspace, Mercer quietly observed Hansen's flatline.
An engram was an extremely massive data structure; this was why Arasaka needed to build a specialized Mikoshi to store consciousness code.
Deleting such data was by no means an instantaneous task.
The deletion process unfolding before Mercer's eyes felt unnaturally oppressive from the very beginning... a dead, hollow silence.
What Mercer first witnessed was Hansen, who had been in a state of mental collapse within the Net, suddenly freezing up.
Then came the disintegration.
The human-shaped engram burst like an exploding balloon, scattering into fine fragments. Strands of code quietly fractured, transforming into meaningless blue data signals that vanished into the air.
Mercer could discern that some data belonged to Hansen's memories, some to his emotions, and others to the most crucial consciousness source code within him.
But regardless of what they were, all this data was rapidly dissipating. When the final data strand vanished before Mercer's eyes, only emptiness remained in the Net.
The consciousness code representing Hansen's soul had silently evaporated before Mercer, yet his thoughts had already drifted beyond this inevitably sobering execution ritual.
If human consciousness, the soul, was merely these strands of code being annihilated into nothingness...
Then what was the significance of Hansen's physical body remaining outside, likely still retaining its vitality at this moment?
If both must be destroyed to truly kill a person, then what did it mean to preserve his body while replacing it with an identical consciousness code; was he truly dead, or not?
Mercer's contemplation didn't affect Lucy's work outside. She retrieved the Relic biochip loaded with Hansen's backup consciousness code and sent Mercer a message.
[Lucy: The deletion process is complete. Should we begin transmitting the consciousness code?]
[Mercer: Yes, insert the chip and initiate transmission.]
Mercer waited quietly. Soon, blue data streams began emerging in his sector of Cyberspace, slowly transmitting data.
Unlike direct consciousness code transfer; this resurrection via Relic biochip essentially involved using neural conversion technology to directly modify the target's brain neurons with a complete set of consciousness code, achieving the goal of data upload.
The consciousness code itself would remain within the chip. You could even understand this form of resurrection as the chip in your head controlling your body.
Only when the gradual transformation is fully completed, and your brain becomes indistinguishable from the consciousness code within the chip, will the chip's work be considered done.
Since Relic biochip technology hasn't been fully developed yet, this transformation process might even cause the human brain to develop excessive dependence on the chip. That means even after the transformation is complete, the chip cannot be removed.
Because the Relic biochip would be regarded by your brain as part of itself, and losing part of your brain would directly manifest in physical consequences.
V in the game represents the most extreme case. She took a bullet to the head but was revived through repair by the Relic biochip.
During this process, the Relic biochip actively took over the functions of her damaged brain tissue, ultimately making it impossible for her to remove the chip and stop Silverhand's consciousness code transmission, leaving surgical treatment as her only option.
However, the ideal state of the Relic biochip should involve completely transferring the consciousness code into your brain through neural transformation via reverse transmission. After the transmission is complete, there should be no residual data left in the Relic biochip.
Because in this world, the human brain can essentially be viewed as a biological computer. Once data is transmitted into it, there's naturally no need for a USB drive to function.
If both the human brain and the chip retain the data, this wouldn't be consciousness transmission at all, but rather a consciousness replication procedure.
What Mercer is currently observing isn't merely simple data transfer, but more accurately, he's watching the transcoding process as consciousness code uploads into the human brain, this biological computer, during the Relic biochip's transformation of the brain.
The data would first be etched into Hansen's brain, then manifest in Cyberspace through deep diving via his interface plug.
This allowed Mercer to observe the sequence and process of the Relic biochip's data transfer in the form of data code.
After an unknown length of time, Mercer's gaze finally sharpened.
Before him, streams of blue data, influenced by a sudden piece of code, abruptly coalesced into human-shaped silhouettes.
Without hesitation, Mercer immediately activated Overclock at that moment. Every piece of code was captured by his vision, revealing the entire process in perfect detail.
"Found it!"
He murmured in disbelief.
"The human... consciousness source code!"
------------
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