Mercer glanced at him a few more times without leaving a trace.
In fact, the first time he saw this guy, Mercer already recognized his identity.
Through the NCPD scan program in his prosthetic eye, Mercer had already scanned David's registration information the moment he saw him, and after a quick comparison, Mercer could confirm—this guy is David himself, the protagonist from the anime "Edgerunners."
The current David, although only thirteen years old, already shows what he might look like in the future, especially with that signature aircraft-head hairstyle, the delicate little face, and those clear eyes that don't seem like they're from around here.
The so-called clear eyes, in other words, show that visible naiveté that hasn't been beaten up by society.
Clearly, his mom has put significant effort into this; in Night City, for a single mom to raise a child with such a personality, it's really not easy—she protected him quite well.
Mercer didn't speak, but Rebecca and David were chatting away happily—the main reason being the emotion value David provided was really quite high.
This kid is very interested in Edgerunners and street stories, no matter what Rebecca talks about, it always leads David to exclaim and gasp, perfectly satisfying Rebecca's vanity to show off.
Rebecca picked and chose stories from her past, like how she single-handedly swept away four street toughs with her iron fists, or how her squad wiped out the Cleaner Fish's stronghold in Dog Town—each 'heroic deed' made David's eyes light up.
When the car stopped, David eagerly looked at Mercer: "Brother A, are you a hacker?"
"Yeah."
Mercer simply acknowledged, while Rebecca proudly proclaimed, "He's the most badass hacker in Night City, and I'm not even joking, you know the Voodoo Gang?
On his own, he made those idiot Haitians not even dare to go online in the Taiping Prefecture!"
"Oh my god..." David's eyes were almost sparkling with admiration: "That guy who suddenly dropped on the ground earlier was attacked by the Sorcery Puppet Virus, right? How did you do it?"
Mercer opened the car door and said with a laughter: "Let's fix your nose first."
Rebecca nimbly hopped out of the car and looked around: "Where are we?"
"The black market clinic," Mercer briefly explained and then looked at David with a half-smile: "I guess his original destination was here."
David seemed slightly embarrassed and shifted his gaze: "Uh...yeah, they sell some cheap Black Mewtwo here..."
"Don't watch that stuff too much, you'll turn into an idiot," Rebecca concisely warned and then turned to Mercer: "I suspect Pira watched too much of this stuff as a kid and turned out this way."
Mercer shrugged: "I say it depends on the person...but David, I do suggest you watch less of it, escaping reality with this stuff is meaningless."
"Yeah..." David hesitated but agreed and entered the black market clinic hidden inside the apartment building with the two; the prosthetic doctor inside was an old man who seemed somewhat sleazy.
This old man had modified three prosthetic eyes, his right hand was an old-model biotech prosthetic arm, with messy white hair scattered on his head, looking somewhat bald.
"Yo, kids, brought an adult today?"
This prosthetic clinic was divided into two spaces, resembling the game-like 'Fingerbro' prosthetic doctor's clinic; outside was a living room used as a reception area, and inside was a bedroom space serving as an operating room.
At this moment, the doctor was outside smoking and watching TV with a few punks, and upon seeing David, he grinned, revealing a mouthful of uneven teeth.
"No..."
David didn't know how to introduce Mercer and Rebecca, so he said: "Ran into some trouble on the road earlier, got beat up, and these two guys saved me."
"Oh~ Bosses." A punk who seemed heavily modified sat on the sofa and joked: "Which school's bosses are these two kids from?"
"Screw you." Rebecca didn't waste words, raised Iron Gall, and aimed at the punk's head, baring her teeth: "If you can't speak, shut the hell up!"
The punk raised his eyebrows, revealing a cold smile: "Hey, girl, wanna play with us guys?"
"Play with your mom..." Before Rebecca could finish her sentence.
"Waste of time."
Mercer calmly uttered, and then the punks on the sofa suddenly started twitching all over, with sparks flying, scaring David to step back: "What's happening!"
"Fix his nose first, any problem?" Mercer turned to the prosthetic doctor looking terrified.
The prosthetic doctor just glanced with his scan program and then nodded vigorously without saying more: "No problem, David, come here, I'll fix your nose, it'll be done in five minutes, within five minutes!"
"But, uh, I have to give this guy a shot first...I can smell his brains scorching." The prosthetic doctor hurriedly said.
Mercer nodded, casually picked up an still-twitching guy and tossed him aside, while Rebecca grabbed them one by one, stacking them up on the ground.
The prosthetic doctor promptly moved to shut down the prosthetics of the twitching and unconscious punks on the ground, then jabbed them individually to stabilize their vitals.
Mercer wasn't too interested in the situation of these punks; he merely sent out a Sound Wave Shock combined with a quick hacking package for prosthetic overheating, as for how much they overheated, that depended on their luck.