Rebecca looks like the kind of fresh-faced type... Wait a minute, kid, you aren't one of those perverts who like underage girls, are you?"
V muttered.
"Damn, enough already! You're the pervert!"
Mercer shot her an annoyed glance: "Stop talking nonsense, we're just friends, and I like pretty women who are eighteen and older."
"For now?" V chuckled: "So it's just a matter of time, huh? You're into grooming, right? You can fool the girls, but don't fool yourself."
"Are you here today to give me a hard time on purpose? I didn't offend you, did I?"
This time it was Mercer's turn to look displeased. V smirked and turned her head, still muttering defiantly: "I just think it's inappropriate. You're a grown man, why hang around with young girls.
Is Lucy sixteen this year? And you're living with her, how old are you?"
Why does it feel more and more off the longer I listen? Mercer looked at her suspiciously: "Then who do you think is right for me?"
"An adult, preferably, right? Aren't you an adult too?
You're saying you like adult women, so why are you always hanging around with young girls? Even if you want to date, you should find someone who's more or less the same age, at least an adult woman?"
V said subconsciously.
Rebecca immediately widened her eyes: "Alright, is this what you were waiting for? Damn, V, I'm going to fight you!"
"Damn! I'm not talking about myself! I mean, uh, like Qiwei?" V quickly retorted.
"Stop using her as a shield!" Rebecca felt she'd seen right through her; this hypocritical woman!
Then, Rebecca glared at her: "V, I think you're being unfair. If you're not interested in him, it's none of your business what he or anyone else does.
If you are interested in him, stop griping, let's compete fairly."
V fell silent, and after a short pause, she muttered, "Fine, I can't be bothered... I'm just trying to give you advice, but you won't listen."
"I don't need you to worry for me, I know what I'm doing, and I have a clear understanding of what kind of person he is!" Rebecca stood firm.
Seeing that the two were about to start a fight in the car, Mercer waved his hand: "Alright, shut up, the car's here!"
The two exchanged a glance, and it was V who looked away first. As the sound of weapons being cocked echoed, Pira took a deep breath and flipped into the driver's seat.
"I'm just supposed to drive and stay within distance of the Behemoth, right?"
Pira said.
Mercer nodded and pulled out a data cable, directly plugging it into a small server on the side.
"Drive the car to its side, but don't let it get knocked away, can you do it?"
Upon hearing this, Pira nodded vigorously: "Don't worry! These long arms of mine are pretty nimble... Hold tight, I'm about to hit the highway!"
Mercer was calmly fastening his seatbelt, while Rebecca nearly flew out of her seat, saved by V's instinctive grab. The two exchanged a glance but said nothing this time.
Fooling around was a private matter; when it's time to work, there's no messing around.
Pira's driving was fast, taking only five minutes to catch up to the Behemoth Armored Vehicle. He floored the gas pedal, and the seemingly ragged freight compared to the massive armored vehicle was no less lacking in speed.
Pira drove the car to the Behemoth's side, immediately raising his voice to warn: "The driver is looking at me in the rearview mirror!"
"Currently hacking in!"
Mercer's eyes flashed with blue light, and the radar on the car instantly aimed at the side of Behemoth.
The server hummed and roared as Mercer took off his jacket.
The cooling panel on his back rose slowly like shark gills, and his body emitted a machine-like hum.
"Starting to crack... Estimated time... three seconds!"
Mercer quickly evaluated the cracking time.
This Behemoth has massive military-grade ICE equipment onboard. Fortunately, he has a professional server, and he's also a top-tier hacker.
Brain-Machine Overclocking, activated!
Synaptic Accelerator, activated!
The world before Mercer's eyes started to slow down, and gigantic streams of data began exchanging from the Network Access Vault, making him feel invincible, akin to when deep-diving into the Arasaka Server.
[Mercer: Venus, give it a try.]
He even had the leisure to let his AI give it a go.
[Venus: Running cracking program, estimated time, 21 seconds.]
[Mercer: I've given you processing power?]
[Venus: Estimated time, 5 seconds.]
[Mercer: Looks like you need more practice; just blindly using programs doesn't make a good AI.]
[Venus: You're right, I need more learning.]
The exchange between Mercer and Venus happened in less than 0.2 seconds, and this while he was hacking, casually chatting with it.
The cooling behind him quickly ramped up to maximum power, receiving countless data streams before sending them out.
The military-grade ICE started resisting, with a massive data stream rushing towards Mercer through the network connection. This was an automatic counter-intrusion launched by the large military-grade ICE, aiming to destroy all targets invading its network.
For most hackers, upon seeing this, the only choice is to desperately apply brainpower to provide cracking and hacking programs to fight the ICE in a competition of values.
But Mercer was different.
In extreme time, he saw all types of programs created by complex data, and while the automatic running programs were hacking, he analyzed weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the ICE's structural data programs.