"I'm going down first, I'm going down first!"
Without another word, V dashed inside.
Mercer twitched the corner of his mouth but didn't rush. Instead, he connected to the system and ran a full sweep of the hidden authentication program, checking all the code.
He didn't want to find himself locked in after getting inside.
You can never be too careful!
Oh, how I envy those with Intelligence 6, living without a care.
After spending a few minutes, going through almost every piece of data, and confirming the control over the door was in his hands, Mercer slowly went down.
At this time, V was still excitedly wandering around the underground space.
"Look! A, there's even an independent generator here, a water storage, and an automatic purification system!
They've even got the drainage pipes ready, just no toilet installed, plus a computer and a small server. Damn, A, this place is pretty awesome!
And there's central air conditioning! My god, just a bit of renovation here, other than missing some sunlight, it could totally be like those secret bases in spy movies!"
She excitedly called out to Mercer, gesturing around, "Look, these pipes are even pre-piped, they can definitely connect to the city's water system!
This place has got to be five or six hundred square meters?
There's also three to four hundred square meters upstairs, this place is really nice!"
"Not comparing it to your detention center?" Mercer couldn't help but laugh.
"Ah, I had no idea there was such a big place underneath!" V stubbornly said, "It's not even that great. Renovating this place would cost quite a bit, right?"
"But at least there's no rent now, just a bit of tidying up, put up a few concrete walls as partitions, allocate room functions, and the rest is just personal preference for decorating, shouldn't cost too much."
Mercer did a quick estimate; with such a big space, dividing it into seven 20-square-meter bedrooms was more than enough. With a simple renovation, given the cheap labor in Cyber World, he figured one room, including labor and materials, could easily be done for 10,000 Euros.
Then a few workspaces, like a dedicated server room, a hacker space for his hacking jobs, a storage room for weapons and equipment, a workshop for modding weapons and prosthetics...
He could even make a large living room.
Getting all that done should be within 100,000 Euros.
Of course, that's just basic renovation and partition walls, not including equipment and some decor.
But Mercer wasn't sure about the construction speed in Cyberpunk style, and his basement construction conditions were limited.
Mercer did a rough estimate of his needs and couldn't help but grimace.
He had simplified it in his head. Even without rent, this place might need 200,000 to 300,000 Euros to be livable, and the construction period was still unknown.
This is Dog Town; construction projects probably aren't that easy.
After thinking for a moment, Mercer simply called Pan'an.
Pan'an quickly picked up the video call.
"Whoa, where are you? Why is it so dark there?" Pan'an was taken aback by the dark background in Mercer's video call.
"Dog Town... I wanted to ask you, if the Adcardans were hired for renovation, for a place this big, to make six independent bedrooms with bathrooms, 3-4 functional rooms, and a living room, how much would it cost and how long would it take?"
Mercer asked.
Pan'an thought for a moment, and said, "Hold on, let me ask the uncle in charge of this at the camp..."
She jogged over, talked for a bit with someone, then said to Mercer, "About ten days should do it."
"That fast? This place is 400 to 500 square meters." Mercer was surprised.
"It takes at most two days for water and electricity, two for partitions, another two for painting and flooring, then just moving in what you want to install, ten days is considering unexpected delays that might happen.
Generally, those tasks can be completed in a day each,"
Pan'an said with a smile, "You just need to rent a set of professional equipment for renovation, there's a professional machinery rental company in the city."
"And the price?" Mercer pressed.
"You'll need to pay the rental yourself. Generally speaking, machines for wall building and drilling rent for 1,000 Euros a day, and renting those exoskeleton construction half-armors goes for 500 Euros a day.
Labor costs 50 Euros a day, and we'll get professionals to do it; it's quick."
Pan'an seemed familiar with it: "When we built floors for someone before, we could finish a floor in a day. The speed of modern construction is fast now, even if it's just manual work, wearing that kind of professional construction armor, one can achieve that efficiency.
But I say, in my experience, with what's already in place, about 10,000 to 20,000 Euros should finish the basic renovation, the rest is just personal decorating.
Are you at the place you found now? It looks a bit dark here."
Mercer felt a bit boastful, he deliberately showed Pan'an around the facilities, then walked up the stairs.
Pan'an was a bit surprised, "You've got a two-story structure?"
"Not just that, earlier was the underground base." Mercer recorded the footage with his prosthetic eye, showing her the switch for the hidden door in the floor.
Pan'an clicked her tongue in envy, "Pretty nice, feels cool. How much is the rent? So big, even in Dog Town, it would cost 70,000 to 80,000 Euros a year, right?"
"No rent, got it for free, but it's a bare shell, so renovation is all at my own cost."
After Mercer's words, Pan'an was even more envious, "Damn, that's so good... Who found the place for you?"
"Hans, only he could find a hidden spot like this."