"Tch..." She reverted to her usual cheeky manner, but then suddenly turned her head and unexpectedly gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Mercer looked at her, blinked, said nothing, and didn't move.
Seeing this, Rebecca couldn't hold back her emotions, leaned over, and kissed him again, only then satisfied, curving her lips as she got up, saying, "That's a thank-you gift~"
"I think you just wanted to enjoy yourself for a moment..." Mercer said with feigned annoyance, "Go on, good night."
"What's the big deal about a kiss on the cheek..." Rebecca teased, her green hair swaying, her orange and pink alternating eyes reflecting her amusement, joy, and a hint of reluctance.
She seemed to want to say something more, but when the words reached her lips, she swallowed them back down.
In the end, Rebecca just waved her hand and walked out with light steps.
When she reached the door, she had already turned the corner, but then stopped, poking her head out again, she gave him an exceptionally radiant smile, though her voice was soft:
"Good night, Mercer."
"Mm, good night."
Hearing Mercer's response, she glanced at him a few more times before retracting her body, putting on the pajamas left at the door, and leaving Mercer's room.
Mercer knew why she looked at him a few more times—it was probably because she was hoping Mercer would ask her to stay.
Stretching his body out from the hot water again, Mercer sighed, got up, turned on the shower, rinsed briefly, and then dried off to go back to sleep.
It's time to seriously think about what to do in the future...
...
Mercer, rarely, tossed and turned for quite a while before falling asleep, and it was unusual for him to get up a bit late the next day.
When he finally got up, packed his things, and was ready to head out, only Kyoko and Rebecca were left waiting for him at home.
Kyoko was staying at the base to monitor the operations of the servers, ensuring no one with a pea-brain would have any bad intentions towards Mercer's base.
Meanwhile, Rebecca had already gotten dressed, lounging in the living room watching TV, legs crossed.
"Mer~cer~ so slow." She leaned back on the sofa, flashing a row of small white teeth as she laughed, "What did you do last night? Getting up so late?"
Mercer gave her a glance, just nodded his head in the direction of the elevator, yawned, and walked out with his hands in his pockets, donning his mask on the way.
"I say, don't you want to change that mask? It doesn't seem to fit you very well."
Rebecca flipped herself off the sofa, casually picked up her Iron Gall to hoist it onto her shoulder, and briskly followed him into the elevator.
"Change it? Forget it, I'll make do for now. Someday, I'll take off this cumbersome thing."
Mercer said lazily, leaning against one side of the elevator, and only pressed the button to ascend once she got in.
"Aren't you taking your Zhuo Style?" Rebecca asked, glancing him over.
But Mercer merely pulled out his Kenshin from behind his waist, waved it slightly, and said, "We're going to scout, not start a firefight. This is enough, and even if something unexpected happens, my first instinct will be to hide and hack in."
"True enough..." Rebecca stood beside him, holding the Iron Gall behind her back, occasionally rising on her toes, "You haven't eaten anything this morning yet, have you? Want to grab a bite first?"
"Synthetic fast food? Nah, forget it." Mercer said, just as Rebecca handed him a lollipop.
"Then have this first." Rebecca said in a motherly tone, "How can a hacker's brain function properly if they're not full?"
Mercer took it, chuckling, lifted his mask, and stuck the lollipop in his mouth: "Oh, watermelon flavor? Rare."
"Right? I think it's quite delicious." She said naturally, her arms wrapping around his, given there was no one annoying around, she felt today could fully be a 'company-paid date' with Mercer.
Every time Mercer went out alone with V, she didn't say it, but inside, she had been jealous several times.
Mercer chatted idly with her as they got in the car, his Prosthetic Eye flickered, and then he placed both hands on the steering wheel. Rebecca, somewhat surprised, looked a few times before asking, "Auto-pilot?"
"It's AI chauffeur—I had Venus make a driving sub-AI, and even hacked a new vehicle system. If the test results are good, we can use AI for driving all the time in the future."
Mercer paused before continuing, "Thanks to the use of 'Crystal Ball' technology, cars with bulletproof windows are equipped with 360-degree real-time cameras to complement the view, allowing AI to assess the road conditions and driving strategy more accurately than humans.
As long as this sub-AI doesn't malfunction, all our cars can be self-driving in the future. It can even have the car come to pick us up on its own... isn't that pretty cool?"
Rebecca curiously asked, "Can this AI talk too? Just like Venus?"
"Yes, welcome aboard the Venus." A cheerful female voice suddenly came from the speaker's direction.
Rebecca couldn't help but be amazed, "I always felt you seemed more active than when you were at the base?"
"Because I am an independent sub-AI entity, specifically responsible for vehicle driving. In essence, my relationship with Venus is similar to that of a mother and child, so naturally, we have different personalities."
While the car automatically joined the traffic flow, it answered Rebecca's queries with rich emotion.
Rebecca, spirited, shook Mercer's arm, "Hey, in that case, shouldn't she have a different name than Venus? How about we give her a new name?"
"I wouldn't recommend getting too emotionally invested, because the stability tests and various aspects for the sub-AI have just begun. I'm not sure if I'll have to format her later."