Mercer's last three days have been terrible.
No TV, no computer, no phone—just lying in bed isn't easy.
Dr. Ota only visits once a day for a detailed check-up, and then leaves in a hurry, insisting that he doesn't get out of bed.
The procedural review that was supposed to come quickly didn't appear, which made it even more frustrating—a knife hanging in the air is the scariest.
Honestly, he regrets it somewhat—if he had known, he wouldn't have made a choice, wouldn't have crossed over, or perhaps he would have simply chosen to be a Wanderer...
But these regrets didn't last long.
Not because Mercer is that sanguine, but because... he found his ability to perceive emotions had faded.
His brain's thinking speed is increasing; emotions are becoming distant. This situation inexplicably scares him—if there's no emotion, only calm rationality...
What's the difference between him and an AI?
Fortunately, when he cautiously asked Dr. Ota, the response was reassuring.
After his neural damage, only losing some emotional perception isn't necessarily bad. On the contrary, it might be a mechanism of brain self-preservation, and as his brain heals, emotions may recover...
Maybe.
Dr. Ota even thinks that if they don't recover, it's still a good thing. In this world, maintaining calm and clear thinking at all times is an excellent talent.
For now, Mercer can only set aside these fears and use this calm thinking to start considering ways to survive.
Fortunately, when the fourth day came, Dr. Ota brought good news.
"Your Network Access Vault has been reinstalled. Over the next few days, you can freely access the internet. If the monitoring data meets the conditions, you'll be reassigned to hacking activities. Beyond that, I don't know."
After speaking, Dr. Ota was about to leave when Mercer hurriedly spoke up, "Dr. Ota, about the accident..."
"...From what I know, after Director Aoki reported the specifics, headquarters didn't halt the project. Instead, they arranged a new experimental project. As for the accident impact...
It's not the first time someone's died, after all. On the other hand, the server needs repairing, the firewall needs resetting, including transferring network IPs. In short, the excavation operation was forced to pause for a few days, but it will soon resume."
After speaking, Dr. Ota looked at Mercer with a calm tone, "You're lucky. Though the neural damage was severe this time, it's not fatal, and not everyone has the potential for recovery after neural damage.
This too is a talent, implying that your hacking potential might be far greater than initially assessed.
Of course, greater potential may not be a good thing for you."
Although Dr. Ota seems indifferent, Mercer can keenly sense a bit of warmth in her words.
Even though most company employees are ruthless climbers, it doesn't mean everyone is entirely cold-blooded and ruthless in exploiting and manipulating others.
Dr. Ota seems like that kind of person, with a bit of conscience, though not much, it seems.
"Are you implying that the new project might be related to me?" Mercer's words surprised Dr. Ota, and she looked at him without a word, then turned to leave.
Mercer furrowed his brow and began to ponder—the new project...
After a while, he sighed and stopped thinking, activating the recently installed Network Access Vault in his mind.
The Network Access Vault is the core prosthetic for hackers to affect reality. It allows hackers to directly influence online devices in the real world with their brains and connect to nearby networks via wireless signals.
Meanwhile, different models, or rather, companies, of Network Access Vaults have unique special functions.
For instance, the Internet Supervision model's Network Access Vault comes with a diffusion module, allowing hackers to give programs viral transmission capabilities during quick hacks, automatically spreading to other nearby connected devices.
Arasaka's Network Access Vault, however, leans more towards stealth and destruction or cracking of a single target.
Of course, at the moment, these are meaningless to Mercer. What he needs is simply to get online.
These past few days have been incredibly boring for him.
[Arasaka Mk3 Network Access Vault initiating...]
[Biometric verification passed]
[Permission review... Review passed]
[Mercer Han... Usage authorization completed]
[Current neural latency: 2.7ms]
[Current data bandwidth test result: 780GB/S]
[Exclusive ICE: Obsidian V.2 successfully initiated]
[Co-processor: 'Prajna' quick hack module running normally, no quick hack program currently loaded (please comply with Arasaka employee agreement during use)]
A string of text flickered before his eyes, and with just a thought, Mercer made the data disappear.
He turned slightly, laboriously taking a tablet placed by Dr. Ota at his side, onto his lap, and then pulled out a data cable from his wrist to plug into the tablet's port.
In fact, with a Network Access Vault, he doesn't need these devices to directly connect to the internet via wireless signals, browse websites, and watch videos. But in today's Cyberpunk 20...
Mercer glanced at the time on the tablet.
October 12th, 2071.