"It would be nice to swap a manned spaceship with one carrying warheads; we have to find a way to get a nuclear warhead..."
"I really don't know if you're joking or serious..." V looked at Mercer with a gaze of astonishment: "You didn't really go online and drive yourself insane, did you? Maybe you should see Old Wei for a psychological test?"
Mercer sighed and then, merely looked at V seriously and asked, "Assuming it's just you and me...would you be willing to get on the spaceship with me, even if this plan sounds like suicide."
This time, V understood; it wasn't a joke, nor a negotiating strategy to first reveal the roof before opening the window— but come on, are you really serious?
"Then how will you convince them?" V asked back: "Even if I'm willing to be crazy with you, you saw it; Lucy and Rebecca both think you've lost it."
"Then don't convince them, let's just go, just the two of us." Mercer's remark left V speechless: "What, is this a dictatorship?"
"Let's just say it's a private job between us, a private gig doesn't need everyone's agreement, right?"
As Mercer spoke, V hesitated without responding, only saying, "I'll think about it again, you also need to think again, Mercer, this is no small matter!"
Mercer nodded, and after watching V turn and leave, he sat alone in the empty conference room, propping his chin with one hand, sipping cola.
In his ear, Venus's voice sounded.
[Venus: Master, I think you should prioritize showing them your 'Black Light Virus'. When they realize how deadly the virus in your hand is, they certainly won't think it's a fantasy.]
[Mercer: The risk certainly exists objectively, even with Black Light, the probability of accidents is not low. From a certain perspective, calling me suicidal isn't wrong.]
[Venus: How about doing as Miss Lucy suggested, sending the Black Light Virus from Earth to the Moon through the network as a test?]
[Mercer: You also know that if we do this, they could simply cut off the network, letting us lose control over Black Light. Who knows what chaos Black Light might cause in the Moon's network then?
The Black Light Virus hasn't been tested on a large scale. If the scale of the war expands during network warfare… I might cause a disaster scarier than Bartmos.
I'd rather go to the Moon, directly deliver the virus through their local network, ensuring the Black Light Virus remains under my control at all times, than conducting experiments directly online.]
[Venus: Perhaps we should act directly instead of having this meeting, knowing full well everyone won't agree.]
[Mercer: We need to give them time to prepare and digest. Anyway, Lark needs effort to get to Dog Town, and we need to prepare some behavioral trait faceplates for our moon escape.]
This time Mercer didn't plan to go online with his real name—he planned on preparing a set of behavioral trait faceplates to disguise his real identity when planning the moon landing.
Thanks to Dog Town's enclosed and independent nature, coupled with his somewhat shallow but deep style, he was confident that he could leave Dog Town in the short term without being discovered.
Even if someone guessed his identity, as long as there was no tangible evidence, there would be no fear of subsequent trouble either.
This time, what Mercer is doing isn't small; if his identity isn't preserved well, it could easily attract big trouble.
Such as retaliation from Orbital Aviation, and even if Arasaka Saburo is dead and Arasaka Yoshinobu takes the throne, he wouldn't openly let his father's murderer go lightly—even if only for appearances, Mercer would have to play the part.
And as for the behavioral trait faceplates that could disguise identity information, Mercer didn't need to worry about stealing it from Military Science; with his current technology and resources, crafting a couple of sets was trivial.
Mercer sat for a while, slowly got up.
Anyway, his plan was already laid out, although everyone tacitly opposed his decision, that didn't mean he was going to abandon his straightforward moon landing plan.
The plan appeared straightforward now, only because the details weren't filled in—next, the aim was to make this seemingly absurd plan feasible.
He felt as long as the plan gradually became fuller, the details filled in, allowing everyone to see practically that this plan held feasibility, eventually everyone would agree with him.
The primary goal of revealing this idea first was still letting everyone make a psychological preparation in advance.
Can't suddenly inform everyone right before the action that we're heading to the Moon, can we?
However, just exiting the door, Mercer was blocked by Lucy.
In fact, she had been standing quietly at the door ever since leaving the meeting room, face cold without a word.
Upon seeing Mercer emerge, she wasted no words, only reached out to grab him, directly leading him away.
The other members at the meeting room door exchanged glances but in the end, nobody spoke up, allowing Mercer to be taken away by her.
Everyone tacitly agreed that Mercer needed to be sternly told and persuaded.
After dragging Mercer into the elevator and pressing the floor button, Lucy fell silent for a moment, then suddenly turned, fixating on Mercer: "Mercer... where is the rapid cloning device?"
"What?" Mercer appeared somewhat surprised.
Yet Lucy mercilessly exposed him:
"Stop pretending! Tell me, where did the rapid cloning device you got from Biotechnology go!"