Mercer looked at the girl whose iridescent short hair was noticeable even in Cyberspace.
Her virtual appearance was almost identical to her real self, complete with the hacker glasses that concealed her eyes.
"Is this... a program you coded yourself?"
Lucy approached him with a somewhat complex expression, glancing at the cat, then at him—she could hardly believe Mercer would do something like this.
In Cyberspace, precisely in the Old Net, leisurely playing with a cat?
This was truly... unexpected.
However, it also deepened the questions in Lucy's mind.
Everyone in the hacker training school had been trained by Arasaka at the same institution before being sent into this 'Star Plan' project.
Although she wasn't very familiar with Mercer in the past, they had lived in the same place for so long, exchanged many words, and dived deeply many times together.
It can't be said that she understood Mercer deeply, but at least she knew what kind of person he was.
But the Mercer of today...
Lucy didn't know how to put it; since his brain had burned, he seemed like a completely different person.
More lively, more carefree, and also more mature... much more reliable.
Although no one would say it outright, just a glance at each other's faces could reveal the despair and bewilderment about the future in their eyes.
Mercer used to be like that too, but now... Mercer gave off a feeling of sudden confidence and calmness in facing everything.
This aura made him stand out like a crane among chickens among all the junior hackers.
Moreover, this aura, or rather attitude, seemed to inexplicably grant those around him a few more degrees of calmness and courage.
Anyway... that's how Lucy felt.
In the past, her heart was filled only with fear and bewilderment, with the desire to survive nearly overwhelming her longing for anything else.
But now, just seeing Mercer, seeing him so composed, the fear and anxiety in her heart would magically calm down a lot.
But also, precisely because of Mercer's dramatic change, Lucy felt that he seemed a bit... dangerous.
In this world, there are numerous technologies capable of altering human thought and consciousness, and it's widely believed that in this domain, AIs possess the strongest technology.
Could he have been taken over by some rogue AI?
"Is it a small AI?" Lucy cautiously questioned, while examining him.
"Hmm, sort of."
Mercer smiled, patting the ground beside him, and Lucy hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to him.
"Go." He casually dropped the cat, and the cyborg cat dexterously flipped in mid-air, landing on the ground and, understandingly, jumped onto Lucy's lap.
Lucy reflexively extended her hand, then was surprised to find that the cat's texture was surprisingly good!
Even though her sensory abilities in Cyberspace weren't considered strong, she could feel as if she were actually petting a real cat!
"Truly amazing... what is this AI for?"
She asked curiously, her fingers gently caressing the cat's back, listening to its contented purring, making it even more unbelievable for Lucy—so cats could do this?
Lucy had never touched a living cat before.
"It's specially designed to deal with the 'Guardian' AI on you."
Mercer pointed to the faint traces of blue data on her, despite Lucy manually concealing the Guardian ICE's exterior, her abilities still occasionally caused some blue data to overflow.
Why go through so much trouble to conceal that mighty samurai form?
Hmm, Mercer guessed, perhaps because she feared being too big a target and getting detected by rogue AIs, so she compressed her data as much as possible.
"What?"
Lucy looked up, even with the data-formed glasses obscuring her, her shock was evident: "This is your first time seeing Arasaka's 'Guardian' AI, right?"
"Isn't it the first time for all of us?"
Mercer smiled:
"Finding the loophole to eliminate that AI will take some time.
But with it, I believe it's just a matter of time. If we don't deal with this Guardian AI, we won't be able to use the server's power to secure security."
"...then, it's up to you."
Lucy was now completely unable to imagine how high Mercer's hacking skills had become.
The two said no more, Lucy having too many questions that were inappropriate to ask, while Mercer was simply using the server's computing power to do wicked things.
Although the Guardian AI hadn't been cracked yet, as long as no violations were committed, secretly using server power to optimize software or attempting to create some programs wasn't an issue.
Only when Lucy sneaked a few glances at him did Mercer glance at her: "If you have something to say, just say it."
"Hmm... did you, have you thought about where to go after leaving here?"
Lucy finally asked.
Mercer stared at her for a while without speaking, and then looked at the cat in her arms.
The body of the Desire for Death suddenly turned into a stream of data, thrusting into her body.
Afterward, the blue light on her body began to shine brightly; a mighty armor-clad samurai broke free from her body, transforming into a human shape.
The samurai roared silently, mouth agape, a bright blue samurai sword manifesting in his hand, fiercely stabbing into his own chest.
Yet the black hairless cat that was roaming in his chest moved nimbly like a fish swimming through his body, in the blink of an eye jumping onto his head.