"What's he been up to lately?"
In the restaurant, V looked at the empty seat that belonged to Mercer and couldn't help but ask, "Does this guy always need someone to deliver his meals before he remembers to eat?"
"If you don't bring it to him, I bet he won't even remember eating is a thing," Rebecca quipped, swinging her short legs.
At home, she wore a simple printed white t-shirt and black shorts, with her green hair draped over her shoulders, making her look even more like a kid.
V furrowed his brows and turned to Lucy, who was quietly eating: "Lucy, what's he doing in the server every day?"
"No idea," Lucy replied honestly. "He was previously all excited, saying something weird about 'humans might really have souls,' and then I don't know what he's been up to."
It's not that Lucy didn't want to say more, but she truly didn't know what Mercer was up to.
All she knew was that Mercer never did anything useless, especially not when there was a heap of trouble looming ahead that required his attention.
V sighed, tossed aside his apron, and looked at the dishes on the table: "Then let's just ignore him and send a portion over after we finish eating."
"How's Hansen doing?" Mann asked while eating: "Gago asked me today if we're still holding the Gem Cyan banquet this month. Some people are quite interested in Hansen's current situation.
Mercer hasn't shown his face much lately either, and many people want to know what's next for Dog Town..."
"Mercer said the situation isn't ideal; Hansen is likely to lose the resurrection match..." Rebecca said with a grin, "That's an interesting analogy."
"Wasn't the success rate supposed to be high?" Jack asked curiously.
"Mercer said it was a good thing, he probably discovered another problem... Anyway, according to Mercer, even if the experiment succeeds, Hansen should retire. He doesn't have time to keep fixing Hansen's consciousness data."
Lucy replied simply.
Sasha, who was eating heartily, looked up: "Does that mean we have to deal with the Cubans personally? I've heard they're quite tricky."
V, resting her cheek on her hand, watched everyone eat happily. After cooking for the whole family, she wasn't too hungry: "Cubans? I think they're okay.
Their boasting is intense, like lighting a cigar in Havana and heads start rolling, but their ace assassin isn't even worth one punch from me."
Rebecca habitually argued with her: "They're assassins; they do stealthy work."
The two bickered for a few sentences, then suddenly heard footsteps approaching, and everyone turned their heads simultaneously.
Mercer yawned, squinting like he hadn't slept in days, wearing the Black Customer Service uniform and wobbling over from the hallway.
"Oh, a rare guest! You actually remembered to eat today?" V looked at him disapprovingly and said, but got up swiftly to serve him food and set up utensils.
Mercer lazily sat in his seat indifferently: "Ah, busy lately... but I'll stop being busy here for a while. I can't spend any more time in the lab researching this data."
Lucy looked at him: "So, did you discover anything?"
"Pretty much, I've basically figured out the process of consciousness data processing, and the current limitations and problems of the Relic Chip."
Mercer paused and said, "Simply put, the current Relic resurrection has a quite high failure rate, but what's hindering the Relic is actually the human brain itself.
Our previous approach of trying to use a cloned body to replace the original one might have been a shortcut. Clones grown rapidly this way start with a blank brain.
Through repeated trials, it can be confirmed that the human brain gradually adapts to data writing and naturally develops defensive mechanisms, and it's these mechanisms that caused Hansen's consciousness disorders and data chaos.
And it's these defensive mechanisms that obstruct the Relic chip's insertion..."
"Stop, stop! Don't talk about work while we're eating," V complained, placing the dinner plate in front of Mercer, cutting him off. "Especially technical stuff like this, do you really think we understand?"
Mercer chuckled teasingly: "Fine, fine, I'll try to talk about topics you can grasp from now on."
V, already annoyed, slammed a glass of ice water in front of him: "The cola's finished."
"I could've sworn there was some left..." Mercer glanced at the fridge.
"Finished!" V declared firmly, sitting down next to him and picking up her chopsticks: "Eat."
Mercer could only roll his eyes but picked up his chopsticks regardless: "Oh, by the way, Hansen's dead."
"Hmm?"
Everyone almost simultaneously looked at Mercer.
But Mercer only spoke with an ordinary tone as if discussing the weather: "Consciousness data was successfully written into his brain, but his brain nerves have already collapsed. If we continue experimenting, we'd have to perform a brain nerve repair surgery on him...
But I estimate that even if he's cured, he'd just drool, so I decided against it since there will be plenty of opportunities to experiment with this later."
"So what do we do next? Issue an announcement or follow a procedure?" Jack asked eagerly while drinking a beer: "Should we host some sort of inauguration ceremony for you? Maybe throw a banquet at Gem Cyan ourselves?"
"A funeral is still necessary; either way, I'm now rightfully following the inheritance route."