"Alright, I'll see if I can get some real meat to eat then..." Mercer licked his lips, craving it again.
Pan'an looked at him speechlessly, chuckling twice: "I didn't realize you were such a foodie. A kilo of real beef must cost two to three thousand Euros? You'd better save some money."
Mercer sighed, dismissing the thought—for now, his savings were limited, so he decided to take it easy.
After settling in Dog Town, he'd celebrate properly and have a good meal with his crew.
After a brief chat, Pan'an waved him off to go back to her room to gather her things and take a bath, while Mercer returned to his tent to find two girls huddled together on a mattress.
Lucy and Kyoko were holding hands, wearing the Super Dream Headband, though he couldn't tell if they were watching a movie or playing that Moon-interactive Super Dream game.
Mercer didn't disturb them. Instead, he sat in the hacker chair, took out the Black Customer Service kit, and began modifications.
Using the tools provided by the manufacturer, he DIY'd a bit and changed the back of the Black Customer Service into a hollow design, compromising some of its cooling for his own cooling implant compatibility.
Then, Mercer picked up the delivery boxes by the door from Military Science.
The boxes were filled with drones and parts, and he lined up the boxes to form a makeshift workbench. He borrowed some tools from the old mechanic at the camp and started assembling the devices.
While assembling the drones, Mercer pondered his next plan.
Mercer planned to split his team into two groups to carry out the biotech mission.
Firstly, V, Rebecca, and Pira, along with Pan'an, who was familiar with the Evil Land situation, would set out to investigate and verify the route of the biotech transport vehicle, determining when and where to hijack it.
While he would try to dive into the biotech's server from the internet.
Trying to silently infiltrate a server through deep dive hacking was no simple task.
Just like the highest level of corporate battles often involved taking out the company's boss or seizing their company seal.
The top tier of hacking skills was always about physically infiltrating and inserting a program chip into the server.
Beyond that, trying to breach a company's ICE defense systems head-on from the web, much like Bartmos used to, and exploit a vulnerability to get into the server was considerably difficult.
Especially since many companies had wizened up after being tormented by Bartmos for years, putting their critical information on offline local servers.
Even within the company, only a few had local network access to connect to the servers, and those computers were typically not connected to the internet, purely for local server communication, making public network hacking nearly impossible.
It wasn't like the municipal hall servers housing resident data, supposedly local-only, yet conveniently accessible from various computers in the hall for citizen transactions and updates.
Nevertheless, Mercer decided to try.
Even if he couldn't hack in directly, he still needed to gather as much detailed information as possible to confirm whether the biotech server held any valuable data before taking any risks.
At worst, he could earn the 150,000 Euros, steal some samples, and complete the mission.
He couldn't afford to rush in foolishly, only to discover it was a trap or there was nothing valuable at all.
If he confirmed there was something worth going after, Mercer considered having V infiltrate while he provided remote technical support for the operation.
Multitasking, Mercer assembled the drones while reviewing the data and information Wagako had given him. By the time the drones were complete, a rough plan had surfaced in his mind.
Until the Winged Dragon drones, able to fold into the size of a small briefcase, were modified from harmless household versions into high-altitude, long-endurance, drone-gun-equipped killing machines, he nodded with satisfaction.
Each of the two drones could be folded up to look like an all-black handbag, but when unfolded, they became brain-controlled drones with a maximum stable control distance of 15KM.
These two drones would greatly enhance Mercer's remote reconnaissance and fire support capabilities.
Connecting to the network signal during a deep dive would allow extremely long-distance device control as long as the network remained within public signal coverage and was free of electromagnetic interference.
However, if controlling the drones remotely this way, they would remain connected to the public network, open to remote hacking by other hackers.
So that's why the drones have a 15KM maximum stable distance—it's the farthest the drone's own operating signal and the operator can maintain a stable local network connection.
But in necessary cases, Mercer could still support remotely with drones while lying comfortably at home.
Mercer also had some bold modification ideas for the drones, such as turning them into network relay stations, enabling him to use them for remote hacking?
Or modifying them into specialized electronic warfare units, providing real-time ICE protection on the battlefield for his team and engaging in electronic warfare with enemy electronics and units?
Believing in the reference and modification potential of the well-tested, old-model Winged Dragon drones from Military Science, Mercer thought mastering their technology could open up a path for him in 'handcrafting drones'.
Of course, implementing these would require the base to be settled and procure many specialized equipment components and materials before attempts could be made.
"Mercer? When did you get back?"
A voice sounded from behind him, unsure and slightly surprised.
He turned around to see two astonished little faces.
"What? Don't recognize me?" Mercer greeted with a smile.
Lucy opened her mouth but couldn't speak, while Kyoko's face was already full of worry: "What about your body… Is this from the stuff we grabbed from Arasaka?
Did you check thoroughly? Is your body feeling alright?"
Nobody understood better than them the load of these implants or how bold Arasaka's 'experiments' really were.
Mercer smiled: "Don't worry, I feel fine for now, just a bit of adjustment... By the way, Lucy, how's my Venus doing?"
"Still running programs in the computer; I check on it every hour. It's behaving well, just executing the programmed commands."
Lucy pursed her lips, gazing at Mercer in his black Customer Service rig, with the hollowed-out back revealing mechanical blackness underneath, feeling inexplicably saddened.
She reached out a tentative hand to touch Mercer's back: "Can you still feel it?"
Mercer tilted his head: "I can, though not clearly—it's like you're touching me through a thin back of metal, the integrated circuits are embedded under the metal surface."
"Why the sudden rush? Weren't you going to wait a few days..." Lucy hesitated.
But Mercer suddenly straightened, lowering his voice solemnly: "Lucy, human capability has limits. I've learned this from my short life...
The greater the intellect, the more apparent the limits of human capability become, unless you transcend humanity...
So… I'm no longer human! Lucy!"