"How did you do it!" V said incredulously: "How did you hack into his car?"
"It's not as dramatic as you think, I just hacked in when he got nearby. I still can't control every car in the city remotely unless I spend money to upgrade all the city cameras to ones that can execute network hacks."
Mercer said casually, watching as V sat in the driver's seat with his hands off the wheel, turning to look at him.
Ever since Polaris came along, everyone upgraded their private vehicles with smart driving features. Now, each person's car can be freely controlled by Polaris.
And because Mercer has his own server connected to the public network, he doesn't need to set up a sub-AI for each car.
The reason why an autonomous driving AI like Delaman places a separate AI in each of its cars is more likely because Delaman was originally an AI captured from the old network.
The company operating it doesn't have the capability to repair and supervise the AI in time, nor the confidence to directly connect their server to the internet without fear of hacker attacks.
So they chose a more stable way by having Delaman create sub-AIs for driving, only using the company's intranet to keep sub-AIs in contact with Delaman.
"How did you know he wasn't there?" Rebecca was curious about something else: how did Mercer know that the factory owner wasn't at the factory and hack into the manager to message him?
"That's thanks to the ctOS System. When Qiwei said we were leaving, I had Venus look through the factory's information, locked onto that company owner's personal info ahead of time, and then confirmed his location with surveillance footage."
Mercer said succinctly: "If the system is fully matured, everyone in the city's whereabouts will be under my control."
"Tsk... do those companies have similar methods?" V's first thought was that companies must have already done work like this.
"I guess Ye Corporation might have similar technology." Mercer said, not wanting to discuss it further, and turned his head to Qiwei.
At this moment, Qiwei was still looking at the distant factory, where thick smoke was rising into the sky, and even from a street away, the sky looked red with flames.
She noticed Mercer's gaze, turned her head, and meeting his eyes, sincerely said in a soft voice, "Thank you, Mercer."
"It's a pity you didn't get to see him go up in flames..." Mercer said regretfully.
"It's enough, Mercer." Qiwei looked at him, smiling as if she was finally free, leaning back in her seat.
Qiwei murmured, "It feels like a dream... Thank you, without you, I really don't know how long it would have taken to do all this by myself."
Mercer just smiled, glanced at her, everything being understood without words.
"There's an NCPD car coming." V suddenly warned.
Everyone turned to look back, and sure enough, a police car was following behind.
"No worries, just say we were passing by. The surveillance around here didn't catch us in the act, they're probably suspecting us because we left the crime scene," Mercer said casually, not too worried. The NCPD came because in order to lure the owner over, Mercer had to mention something happened at the factory.
Subsequently, the owner likely couldn't contact anyone at the factory, so he reported to the police in a hurry and came over.
The NCPD is probably clueless now—the reporter suddenly drove his car into the flames. Who are they supposed to ask for details?
So V volunteered: "Don't worry, I'll handle the NCPD."
"Alright, you go ahead," Mercer said with a smile, then sat in the back seat, waiting for the NCPD to speed up as if planning to initiate a classic American roadblock.
V, visibly annoyed, slowed down and pulled over, with the NCPD car stopping in front of them.
Out of the driver's seat came a well-built man, appearing to be around twenty-six or twenty-seven, with a buzz cut and dark skin. In the passenger seat sat an older, slender Asian man with combed-back graying hair.
"Stop! Turn off the car!"
The sturdy man pressed on his holster as he walked aggressively over, but the older Asian man's face suddenly changed, and he nudged him, stepping up near the driver's side himself.
The sturdy man took a step back, understanding, with a slightly tense expression and one hand on his pistol.
"No need to be nervous, just doing a little questionnaire. You've seen that factory's up in flames, we're logging anyone around the scene," the experienced officer immediately worked to diffuse the tension with his first words, smiling as he revealed his badge hanging from his neck:
"I'm Officer Han, an NCPD senior sergeant, and that big fellow is Reaver. Don't mind him, he's new and just too tense."
V replied dismissively, "Ask whatever you need, but hurry up. I have a date for drinks."
"Why are you here?" Officer Han glanced into the car, pretty much knowing already—even if these guys didn't start the fire in the factory, they're certainly not clean.
Everyone had a gun, and there were two who looked like professional hackers... this doesn't look like an ordinary gang, more like a team of professional mercenaries.