Once Arasaka Saburo achieves consciousness data conversion, next, he will inevitably focus his efforts on global domination.
This implies that the fifth corporate war might be imminent.
Considering factors like Ye Corporation's "life is short" remote brainwashing technology, it is likely already in practical use today.
And the 'Sublimation Program' controlled by Lilith, capable of brainwashing both humans and AI, is probably in its final stage.
Mercer felt that his time was truly running out.
So many crises, any one of them, could lead to a catastrophe.
If earlier, Mercer had not yet undergone consciousness data conversion, he might have felt the time was insufficient; but now, after experiencing it, Mercer's perspective has changed.
Lucy was silent for a moment and then said softly, "I know I can't persuade you... but... promise me, don't stay there, don't get lost in that feeling.
I can't go that far, and if you go too fast, no matter how hard I try to catch up, I can't reach you."
She looked sincerely at Mercer.
Mercer looked back at her, only for a second or two, before he couldn't help but smile and gently moved closer to kiss her.
"You don't need to go anywhere, if someday we're accidentally separated, just patiently wait a bit, no matter where you are, I'll come find you, I promise."
"...Alright."
Her voice was slightly muffled.
...
In the following period, Mercer immersed himself in work again, and his life gradually found a new balance.
Every day he worked until eight o'clock and then returned home on time, first watching TV or playing Mewtwo with Lucy and V, and then at eleven, Rebecca would drag him into the house.
Occasionally, Qiwei would send messages to Mercer, and he would occasionally meet her for an hour or two. She knew Mercer was busy, so their meetings were always short, and she was never clingy.
In fact, after the initial consciousness data conversion, Mercer secretly converted alone a few more times—with the Octopus Arm controlled by Venus watching over his physical body.
All this was to catch up with work progress, including thinking about how to find a balance between deep diving and data conversion.
Eventually, Mercer developed a technology even more data-intensive than the deep dive, yet not entirely data-based: the 'Super Deep Dive' technology.
This technology was surprisingly developed using the Relic chip—where Mercer had suggested transferring the consciousness data core into the Relic, connecting directly to the server via hardware.
In this way, even if there was a sudden power outage or disconnection, as long as the Relic chip remained in his head, Mercer's consciousness data core would remain intact.
Furthermore, in such a state, other consciousness data would not be lost due to disconnection.
Moreover, in this state, in case of an accident, Mercer could decide to transfer his consciousness data back to his body to wake up, or conversely, directly upload the consciousness data to the server network.
In simple terms, he transferred his consciousness data to the Relic chip, where this consciousness data unit would stay active and the Relic chip would be equipped with networking capabilities.
To some extent, Mercer's brain was even no longer a necessity.
In the event of an attack, as long as the core function of the Relic chip remained undamaged, even if Mercer's head was directly hit, data transfer would be immediately facilitated by the Relic.
Even more, there was a feature Mercer had already developed, which he regarded as a last resort.
He made a backup of his consciousness data, including memory and cognitive-emotional data. In special circumstances, if his brain were destroyed and complete data consciousness upload was not possible,
he could transfer just a data core—in a few seconds, his consciousness would awaken in another data unit without a core.
In this state, which Mercer called 'Super Deep Dive,' he could mobilize computational power at a deeper level, pushing the limits of his thinking.
It was about 10 times faster in thought processing speed than the normal deep dive state, though not matching Mercer's capability in full consciousness data conversion, it significantly reduced the demand on body heat dissipation, shifting hardware pressure to the Relic chip and server.
It was after developing the super deep dive technology that Mercer's work progress began to surge.
He had originally handled work under multi-threading; breaking a single person into several; but now?
He was a one-man super research team!
The first breakthrough was in the fields of prosthesis and armor operating systems.
After thoroughly studying Sianwistan and the Frenzy System, Mercer eventually integrated the related technologies to develop a new set of prosthesis operating systems.
He called this prosthesis operating system the 'Daedalus' series operating system. It integrates the nano-tech amplification from the Frenzy System and the neural acceleration effect from Sianwistan, significantly enhancing human strength, reaction, and speed.
But unlike Sianwistan, it was less extreme, and even provided some protection against neural damage.
This prosthesis operating system, like Sianwistan, would adjust the entire spinal nerves of the host, but once connected to the neural interface, it would test a safe threshold and an extreme threshold based on a set of data tests.