The Cuban's expression was still calm as he departed.
But beneath her helmet, V's expression grew somewhat excited. She spoke to Mercer in a low voice over the squad comms, her tone unable to hide her thrill, "Holy shit, Mercer, you actually pulled it off? You're one hell of a smooth talker!"
"Keep it down. It's just a fifty-million-eurodollar investment fund."
A smile touched the corners of Mercer's mouth as he whispered back, "Besides, it's not like we're getting these fifty million eddies for free. How can they expect to get a relatively stable Tank series armor without spending a little on investment?"
V just pouted and said smugly, "Oh, come on. Who doesn't know your Tank series armor was ready for mass production ages ago? Isn't this money basically free?"
"Who says? Don't I still have to write a new Operating System with a lower load?" Mercer said with a laugh, though he felt a wave of emotion at the same time.
He remembered how, not long ago, he was racking his brain over a server worth a few million eurodollars, even needing a whole crew to risk their lives for it. But now, an investment of tens of millions was secured with just a half-hour conversation.
The Cuban wanted individual combat armor that could be mass-produced and equipped to enhance his own strength, while Mercer needed a large sum of money to continue his research and upgrade his equipment. The two sides hit it off and immediately reached an agreement.
In addition to the one-time investment of fifty million eurodollars, the Cuban also promised to satisfy Mercer's needs for various equipment and raw materials as much as possible.
Furthermore, when they purchased the 'Tank' series armor in the future, they would pay five hundred thousand eurodollars per set of standard-model armor.
Ostensibly, what Mercer was selling them was the 'Tank Type-2' individual combat armor with a modified Operating System. He promised to reduce the neural load to a level that an ordinary person could handle normally.
The Tank Type-2 would also come with the latest Anti-EMP design and an advanced ICE protection module written by Mercer himself.
Mercer also promised to give the Cuban priority purchasing rights for newly developed weapons in the future.
Fifty million eurodollars was nothing to the deep-pocketed Cuban. Considering Mercer's confident promises and the strength he had demonstrated multiple times before, the Cuban ultimately decided to spend a little to see what Mercer was made of.
Additionally, and most importantly, the Cuban had confirmed Mercer's stance... Mercer promised to maintain Dogtown's smuggling trade routes, to maintain Dogtown's independence within Night City, and not to favor any other major corporation.
After seeing the Cuban off, however, Mercer's work was not over.
Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, Militech's Agent Scott approached him.
"Congratulations, congratulations. I never would have thought that the group of mercs from back then would become the masters of Dogtown so quickly."
Stout walked over to Mercer with a smile, the aloofness from their first meeting long gone, replaced by an affable demeanor. "I remember you're not even twenty this year, are you? Truly incredible."
"You flatter me, Ms. Stout. It's been a while. I trust you've been well?" Mercer greeted her with a smile, raising his champagne flute to lightly clink it against the whiskey glass in her hand and inviting her to sit.
Stout and Mercer exchanged a few pleasantries before she took the initiative to probe, "From what you said just now, are you planning to lift the restrictions on commercial investment in Dogtown?"
"Is Militech interested?" Mercer said with a grin. "You're welcome anytime!"
"I'm guessing our investment director would be very interested, but the key is, how wide does that welcome extend?" Stout said. "We all know Dogtown has more than its fair share of messy rules."
"Look, Dogtown has so many great projects, the spa, the exhibition center, all of them are sitting idle. Restarting these entertainment facilities sooner rather than later would be a great boon for Dogtown's economic recovery."
After Mercer finished, Stout smiled and said, "Mercer, we're old acquaintances, more or less. Let's be frank, what would you think if Militech planned to build a new research base or something similar here?"
A research base? Might as well call it an outpost and a plan to revive the Cynosure facility.
"That would be rather troublesome," Mercer didn't reject her outright, merely stating, "The investment projects Dogtown is currently accepting are still primarily focused on entertainment."
But then, Mercer gave a subtle hint, "Dogtown's future shouldn't be limited to this one district, but all of Pacifica."
Stout was noncommittal. "Night City can tolerate a small Dogtown, but Pacifica? The interests here are very complex."
"We'll see," Mercer wasn't pushing the project urgently. If no one was willing to throw money at Dogtown later, he would just slowly rebuild it himself, bit by bit.
As long as he could make money, others would naturally be willing to follow.
Dogtown's lawless nature meant it was inherently blessed with high investment potential for entertainment projects. Building an onshore Crystal Palace wasn't out of the question.
But Mercer would never allow Militech to enter without restrictions just for a bit of economic development. That would be like tossing a spark into a haystack, pure self-immolation.
However, Mercer didn't completely shut the door either, letting Arasaka be the sole dominant power in Night City didn't align with his interests. As long as Militech was willing to help him further expand his influence in Pacifica and provide aid, then cooperation wasn't off the table.
Simply put, what Militech wanted was to bypass Night City's regulations and use Dogtown's independent status to project corporate power and heavy firepower into the city.
But others would obviously not want to see that happen. The moment Militech showed its intentions, Dogtown would inevitably face huge trouble.
Therefore, if Militech wanted to use Mercer as their gun, they had to pay enough for the ammunition, and it had to be more than just enough.
Can't do it? Then we'll talk later.
After some more small talk with Stout, Mercer sent her on her way. She didn't have investment authority anyway, so a brief chat was sufficient.
Afterward, Mercer circulated through the gala, speaking with city council members in succession. The mayor of Night City and the NCPD chief both made their positions clear, they hoped Dogtown, along with Pacifica, would return to Night City's jurisdiction.
They also promised to have council members amend the laws to facilitate Dogtown's existing businesses, but Mercer wasn't stupid enough to trust a bunch of politicians.
So he just employed delaying tactics, causing the NCPD chief and the mayor to leave early with dark faces.
What a joke. A bunch of politicians who got into office through elections, expecting a warlord faction to lay down their arms and become their moneybags?
There was only one premise under which the two sides could cooperate: legally establishing the special privileges of Dogtown and Pacifica first. This was obviously something those politicians could not accept.
But his conversations with other businessmen were, on the whole, very pleasant.
Only after the evening of chats was over could Mercer finally breathe a sigh of relief.
At the very least, for now, setting aside the future, the current smuggling market could definitely be maintained.
Next, he would further repair the cargo Aerozep's nuclear engine. The reactor built into this nuclear engine could not only be used to directly supply power to Dogtown, but its special design was also highly valuable as a reference.
Mercer already had some ideas. If everything went smoothly, he might soon have his own small nuclear power plant. Once electricity was no longer a constraint, Dogtown's development would naturally take another step forward.
Mercer also had a basic idea of the business directions he wanted to expand into next.
The main business direction was small arms, where Mercer already held a certain market advantage. Whether it was individual combat armor or munitions, real-world combat had fully demonstrated their ample development potential and future possibilities.
This kind of small arms could not only be used to arm people, but the entire individual combat armor could be further developed into an unmanned device.
In the world of today, unmanned warfare was the true future trend.
And to truly unleash the capabilities of unmanned equipment, the fields involved were none other than the hardware, software, and AI intelligence of the unmanned devices.
Mercer had a significant technological advantage in software and AI, which was the only area where he could contend with the megacorps. Even through the trade model of importing raw materials via high-cost smuggling, assembling them himself, and then re-exporting, he could still reap high profits through his technical prowess.
But relying solely on the arms business could not satisfy Mercer's ambitions.
So, Mercer set his sights on Biotechnica.
Biotechnica's core business revolved around fuel refining technology centered on CHOOH2 wheat.
Mercer had no ideas in this area for the time being; he didn't know enough about this miraculous crop that could be refined into fuel.
But Biotechnica's other core businesses were all within Mercer's range of interest.
First and foremost was the food trade market, which was almost completely monopolized by Biotechnica.
Through its acquisition of All Foods, Biotechnica, on one hand, poisoned crops and livestock to drive up the cost of other food products.
On the other hand, by bribing council members and manipulating public opinion, it used pretexts like bird flu to prohibit all sorts of real meat products from appearing in Night City.
Then, through its own advanced protein synthesis technology and its high-yield Flats, it produced cheap synth food to monopolize the market.
This led to extremely high production costs for normal agricultural products, while other instant food competitors couldn't beat Biotechnica on cost. This was why Night City was flooded with synth food, with All Foods taking the lion's share.
Coupled with the water crisis that Night City, and indeed the entire North American continent, was facing, which further increased food costs, it became difficult for ordinary people to get a decent meal. Food lovers like Mercer even had to rely on smuggling to satisfy their palates.
How absurd.
Mercer had long since decided that once the time was right, the first company he would go after was Biotechnica, and the first thing he would seize would naturally be Biotechnica's market.
And now, as it happened, he had found the perfect window of opportunity, where timing, location, and popular support all aligned.
First was a piece of news Mercer got from Councilman Jefferson, which was good news for him... Biotechnica had more or less decided to make a move on the general public.
Starting last month, a few isolated case reports had appeared in the Santo Domingo district. The reports warned City Hall of the risk of a flu outbreak.
Ever since Mercer told Councilman Jefferson that Biotechnica might be planning to poison Night City again, Jefferson had been actively monitoring similar incidents.
So, taking advantage of their meeting at the Black Sapphire gala, Jefferson had alerted Mercer and hoped he could investigate further and gather evidence to see if what Mercer feared was finally about to happen.
But Mercer didn't need to investigate to guess that this matter was about to blow up, because after he provided the Aldecaldos with cheap, effective medicine, they would inevitably realize the Aldecaldos were seeking outside help.
Therefore, for Biotechnica, they had only two choices.
Either stop now, or, before the outside help the Aldecaldos found was ready, trigger the virus outbreak early and make a quick buck.
As for the risk to their public image, Biotechnica had never cared much about that, without solid evidence, it was just a rumor. They had always portrayed themselves as saviors of human life and safety.
But this time, Biotechnica had miscalculated again.
Because the outside help the Aldecaldos found this time was Mercer.
And Mercer, clearly, had long been displeased with Biotechnica.
So, Mercer decided to start with this poisoning incident, determined to completely drive Biotechnica out of Night City.
To do this, he needed help.
The first was the passionate and genuinely somewhat idealistic Councilman Jefferson.
Although the other party had not yet stated his position, Mercer believed that as long as he produced the vaccine and evidence of Biotechnica's latest poisoning, Jefferson would absolutely be willing to join him in taking on Biotechnica.
Moreover, if this matter was handled well, it could in itself accumulate political capital for Jefferson, adding to his prestige for his future mayoral campaign... a win-win situation.
The second was Night Corp, with whom Mercer planned to have a personal discussion, although the grudge from when those idiots caused him trouble last time hadn't faded, Mercer knew that being pragmatic was a quality an adult, or rather, an excellent businessman, should possess.
A feud ten generations old can still be avenged; for a gentleman, ten years is not too late for revenge.
Sooner or later, Mercer would make them pay dearly for helping Arasaka trip him up back then. But right now, he did indeed need Night Corp's help in expelling Biotechnica.
The reason lay in Night Corp's still-significant influence over City Hall. Furthermore, Night Corp was responsible for many businesses related to Night City's infrastructure and basic services. Whether it was expelling Biotechnica now and exposing their evil deeds, or subsequently developing Night City's agriculture and animal husbandry to restore a normal food industry, he needed Night Corp, a Night City native, to contribute money and effort.
As for the third, it was the Aldecaldos.
Mercer couldn't just do the work for others for free. He couldn't handle farming and ranching himself to get into the food market for now, but he could make money by being a food importer and processor.
In simple terms, the complete plan was for Mercer to first negotiate with Jefferson and Night Corp, with Jefferson acting as the representative to attack Biotechnica on the public opinion front.
Night Corp would pressure the council members at City Hall, forcing Biotechnica to leave by amending previous laws and compelling them to pay huge fines, taxes, and compensation.
Then, Mercer would provide new technology, on one hand developing new synth food to seize the market.
On the other hand, Night Corp and Jefferson would lead the push for legislation from within the city, while outside the city, Mercer would provide technology to gradually restore agricultural production and trade outside Night City.
Agricultural production didn't necessarily have to be centered around Night City. Mercer had already made contact with food companies in free states like Texas and NUSA.
He would use the Aldecaldos to trade these food products, establishing a food trading company to import grain into Night City.
If legal channels didn't work, he could even resort to large-scale smuggling of cheap food through Dogtown to overwhelm Biotechnica's food market.
Even frozen meat and canned vegetables were more like human food than slimy synth food, weren't they?
What Mercer needed to do next was simply to further develop grain seeds that could resist Biotechnica's poisons and animal vaccines that could prevent genetically engineered viruses, breaking the production dilemma of the food industry that Biotechnica monopolized through vicious competition.
It would be a long process, but Mercer was still resolute in his decision to start here, he believed that one day, everyone in Night City would be able to eat fresh vegetables and meat, and the price would be no more expensive than synth food.
And the subsequent developments were, as Mercer had guessed, largely similar.
According to the intel Morning Star collected through the ctOS, the flu situation in the Santo Domingo district began to worsen rapidly and spread throughout the city.
Meanwhile, Mercer's vaccine development, with sufficient funding and time, rapidly advanced to the third phase of clinical trials.
At the same time, his company expanded rapidly and quietly. With Councilman Jefferson's help and the connections from Dogtown, Mercer successively founded a food company and acquired a food processing factory on the verge of bankruptcy in Pacifica.
He also established a legitimate pharmaceutical company that had passed Night City's approval and could produce and sell verified drugs.
At the same time, he proactively discussed food import agreements with major free state grain suppliers in advance, due to Night City's previous regulations, a large amount of legal, low-priced food simply couldn't appear in Night City.
But he still signed letters of intent with high penalty clauses for breach of contract.
Even if he failed to promote the further opening of Night City's food trade laws, he could still use Dogtown's smuggling routes to move this batch of grain into Night City.
It would just mean higher transportation costs.
In addition, Mercer also injected capital into the company previously used to distribute money to his team, officially establishing the parent company as 'Titan Investments'.
Under this Titan Investments parent company, through a mix of personal and corporate cross-holdings, Mercer successively established three more enterprises: 'Titan Technologies', 'Titan Armaments', and 'Titan Heavy Industries'.
Among them, Titan Technologies would own Mercer's patents in advanced technologies like software.
Titan Armaments would be responsible for producing these patented advanced weapons and equipment.
Titan Heavy Industries was currently only responsible for constructing the small nuclear power plant in Dogtown, but Mercer's goals were much broader. Sooner or later, he wanted his company to have a truly global presence, to have his own, real industrial chain.
In addition, the food company and others were also controlled by Titan Investments and him personally. Mercer also established a legal company for Dogtown's business, 'Titan Logistics'.
Most of the Barghest soldiers were packaged into Titan Armaments, the researchers from the EBM Petrochem Stadium were sent to Titan Technologies, and the Aldecaldos responsible for smuggling were persuaded by Mercer to join Titan Logistics.
There was no corporate entity, but that didn't stop Mercer from signing contracts with them, paying them salaries, and providing due benefits and insurance, this was truly a great act of kindness on his part, adding a considerable cost to himself.
The reason for establishing such formal companies was not that Mercer was being benevolent, but that he knew very well that in this day and age, if you wanted to build a business, you couldn't just get by as a warlord or a gang.
Only by corporatizing first could you achieve further development.
And just as Mercer was quietly preparing a large net for Biotechnica on one hand, while also actively developing his own business on the other, another piece of news, neither good nor bad, reached his ears at the end of 2075.
[Yorinobu Arasaka: I've got Silverhand's Relic.]