As for Johnny Silverhand...
Although it sounds nice, the idea of wanting him to reignite the city or something like that is just something to listen to and forget.
Actually, Mercer is just using him as a guinea pig, but saying that out loud is a bit too harsh—however, if Silverhand can safely resurrect from a cloned body, then Mercer thinks he surely can too.
As for where to get the genes to clone Silverhand's body, that's for Ultraman or Rogue to worry about.
If they really can't find it, they'll just have to randomly pick some genes and slap together a face to make do. Given Silverhand's personality, he probably doesn't care if the body is original or not.
Everyone exchanged glances and tacitly decided not to discuss the cloning technology any further for the time being.
After all, things might not even work out, even if they get the stuff, Mercer's technology might not succeed. The specifics will be discussed when the time comes.
And after discussing this for a round, when everyone talked about the deals with the Sixth Street Gang, it suddenly seemed less stressful.
Thinking about the Military Science's Demon Lizard and those dozens of professional soldiers they still had to deal with, this group of Sixth Street Gangsters seemed nothing more than a bunch of small fry by comparison.
So, after a lighthearted and pleasant meeting about the Sixth Street Gang, Mercer announced the meeting adjourned, suggesting V and Lucy take some time to figure out the operational details on their end, while Mercer would keep it simple and be adaptable.
He dove into the server room, continuing to perfect the ctOS system, while Venus diligently monitored the network data, using the NCPD's city surveillance to keep a real-time watch on some of Mercer's current interests.
To test the ctOS system's capability to gather big data, Mercer added familiar people like Mann Squad, Old Wei, Misty, Jack, and enemies like Diana Kuno to Venus's watchlist.
Venus would use city surveillance and info from various connected devices to keep track of their various states.
Should an unexpected event occur, it could predict what might happen before it actually does, and report the matters that needed Mercer's attention.
In this way, Mercer continually optimized the algorithm, enhancing the ctOS system, hoping that one day the system could achieve full city surveillance analysis and have AI automatically report any major events that have occurred or might occur.
If they could reach this step, the ctOS system would be complete, and from there, they only needed the AI to continually optimize the algorithm.
As for other supporting traffic control and similar functions, fundamentally, they're all based on the city hall's and NCPD's authority over public city equipment, devoid of any technical difficulty.
...
Time flew by, and just before the night fell on the next day, Mercer, along with Rebecca armed and ready, quietly drove a very low-key, easily overlooked Thorton Colby to the neighboring district of their target location.
Mercer's first target to tackle was John Will, the head of a pharmaceutical factory hidden within a small two-story building of the Sixth Street Gang.
Equipped with Sianwistan, he was the most troublesome type of enemy for Mercer—but fortunately, this time Mercer was in the shadows while the enemy was in the light, allowing him to choose a suitable battlefield and launch the first attack.
Mercer and Rebecca sat relaxed in the car, quietly waiting, until a signal came from V's side, prompting Mercer to use Polaris's autopilot to drive the car towards the two-story building's district where the target was located.
More accurately, the target was to drive the car onto the road leading from that district to the Canyon District.
[V: We're starting our operation on this side.]
[Mercer: Stay safe, keep in touch.]
[V: Roger that, same to you.]
[Mercer: Got it.]
After a simple confirmation of the information, Mercer patiently waited for the target to appear.
And on V's side, it took them only about thirty seconds to send in a battle report.
[Qiwei: First floor is secure.]
[V: Help me deal with the camera around the corner on the second floor.]
[Lucy: Hacking in now.]
[Lucy: The camera on the second floor is connected to the main security server, so Qiwei and I are retreating to the hacker van to provide you with remote support.]
[V: Understood.]
This time, everyone switched to using a network chat software running on the server to communicate tactically, allowing Mercer to stay updated on their combat progress in real-time.
Just after waiting for about a minute, Venus, who was constantly monitoring the situation through city cameras, sent a warning.
[Venus: Target John Will has led Sixth Street Gang members away from the building. The enemy force consists of three cars, nine combat members.]
Details on the members are as follows...
The vehicle the target is riding in is an Alvarado V4F 570 delegation, estimated to arrive at your intersection in one minute and thirty seconds.]
Mercer glanced at Rebecca, who seemed a bit nervous beside him, and said, "The target will arrive in one minute and thirty seconds, driving an Alvarado with two cars behind, totaling nine people.
The lead car is John Will's; I'll hack the gas pedal of the tail car to disrupt their formation when they cross, and then go all out to hack John Will. You just need to buy me some time to break in."
"Got it, don't worry, if they want to mess with you, they'll have to get past my corpse first..."
Before she could finish, Mercer playfully knocked her on the head: "Don't jinx it, with your setup, they're not capable of that yet."