The silence below was quickly broken by Mercer's next icy command.
"Everyone, disarm yourselves. As per command, you will be temporarily held collectively. Afterwards, I will re-evaluate your individual situations for position allocation."
As Mercer finished speaking, a Netherworld Dog gritted his teeth and said, "We'll decide after we see Colonel Hanssen!"
"Does anyone else agree with him?" Mercer asked bluntly, "Those who accept the command, stand to the left, those who do not, stand to the right."
After this, the Netherworld Dogs exchanged glances. Some wanted to act immediately, but others hesitated, seeing the bloodstains that hadn't been cleaned and the surrounding robots and AI-controlled armored tanks watching intently.
In fact, everyone knew that talks about Hanssen being attacked and taking over command were nonsense, because anyone familiar with the Netherworld Dog structure knew that even if Hanssen were dead, a researcher would never take over.
What would be the outcome of laying down arms?
But if they resist now...
Someone, gritting their teeth, felt a surge of impulse—pull the trigger now, create chaos, and force other Netherworld Dogs to fire together; surely Mercer couldn't kill them all?
But just as one Netherworld Dog suddenly raised the rifle, the robots surrounding them opened fire, hitting that Netherworld Dog's head.
"Fire!"
Suddenly, more than thirty Netherworld Dogs raised their weapons.
Those Netherworld Dogs unwilling to clash with Mercer were visibly flustered; some simply threw down their weapons and crouched with their hands over their heads, while others directly turned and ran.
But how could Mercer be unprepared?
Just as the enemy pulled the trigger, his figure vanished from the scene.
V's movements were even a beat behind him; startled, she activated Sianwistan, and in her somewhat cumbersome tank armor, followed him without further ado.
Automated machine guns and drones hovering in the base instantly opened fire. The robots, relying on their mechanical bodies, ignored the barrage of conventional firepower and precisely targeted the Netherworld Dogs raising their arms in resistance.
At the same time, these robots loudly and coldly repeated, "Cease resistance, surrender immediately!"
Correspondingly, screams echoed through the arena.
Mercer's movements were extremely swift; terrifyingly, he did not need to use conventional weapons against enemies like ordinary Sianwistan users.
The bodies of the Netherworld Dogs resisting with guns suddenly became uncontrolled, electric sparks began to burst, while Mercer smoothly maneuvered through the crowd, and every two seconds, those Netherworld Dogs would fall to the ground screaming.
Mercer had no intention of holding back.
Any Netherworld Dog still standing in the field faced the viral spread of a rapid hack attack, and for Mercer, conventional firepower was extremely difficult to hit, and even if it did, the armor simply deflected it.
"What kind of monster is this..." someone muttered, despairingly laying down their weapon, yet quickly getting their augmented body privileges hacked, screaming and lying on the ground, twisted and immobile.
Only some Netherworld Dog soldiers who never intended to fight Mercer, threw down their guns and surrendered, avoided disaster by immediately lying on the ground.
But at that moment, they were trembling nervously, heads in hands, shivering—what the hell kind of monster is this???
This wasn't some common street punk!
Why, in front of Mercer, did they seem like a flock of lambs ready for slaughter!?
Mercer remained silent, simply hacking with the aid of the new Devil May Cry implant, making him almost a true mobile humanoid AI, needing no computational power support from a server, yet resolving the Netherworld Dogs entirely on his own.
When none of the Netherworld Dogs remained standing, the moment of ruthless execution arrived.
As Mercer stopped, emitting white steam from all over his body, hovering and surveying the scene, the robots collectively started moving forward to specifically execute those Netherworld Dogs hacked by Mercer.
All Netherworld Dogs who pointed a gun at Mercer got their heads blown off, while those trying to escape were roughly tossed aside for classification.
The Netherworld Dogs who surrendered at the earliest were ordered by robots to form a shaky, empty-handed line on the other side, no longer daring to move.
Mercer counted the heads and sighed inwardly.
Only thirty people—among these thirty people, there might be quite a few opportunists, those who know when to retreat, their loyalty not worth considering.
Even including the Netherworld Dogs from the Gem Cyan Hotel, the manpower usable in Dog Town would amount to barely a hundred.
A hundred people on the street could be quite a force, but in Dog Town, it's entirely inadequate.
This is why Mercer has never taken action against Dog Town; violent takeover not only makes loyalty difficult to ensure, but there's even more trouble ahead.
If Dog Town's smuggling operations are affected, that's fatal—if business can't continue, those customers aside, Hanssen's biggest backers, those Cubans will surely hate him.
For Military Science and Arasaka, Mercer was doing them a huge favor; next, many forces' eyes would turn towards Dog Town, and if Mercer showed any weakness, Taiping Prefecture's situation would change drastically.