Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 19 Departure to Night City!
Name: Takeda Luxina

【Age: 14】

[Place of origin: Warsaw, Poland]

[Family background investigation: Father Takeshi Takeda (highlighted in red) is the head of the security department of Arasaka's Warsaw office, and mother Him (highlighted in red) is a core member of the former Polish hacker group 'Squadron 404'.]

The employee was sent to a youth hacker training center for special training by his father. Because his father described him to the company as "unstable," "rebellious," and "not in line with Arasaka's spirit," he requires close monitoring.

[Competency Assessment:]
The score from the Junior Hacker Training Institute is 92 (Excellent).

Arakasa Spirit Rating: 51 (Re-education on loyalty is recommended within the facility).

Psychological stress resistance: 72 (mediocre)
Overall assessment: Exceptionally talented, but due to personality flaws and an unstable stance, lacking the potential to assume significant responsibilities.

The training institute's assessment of his post-graduation career path: He meets the hacker requirements for certain high-risk projects.

[Assigned to the Vancouver Experimental Base in July 2070 to execute Project Star.]

Mercer checked the data that was highlighted in red.

Takeshi Takeda: An outstanding employee during the Fourth Corporate War, who performed excellent cleanup tasks in Poland and suppressed opposition forces for a long time. He is highly loyal to the company and is trustworthy.

The detailed action records are classified as Level 2 encrypted files and cannot be viewed without authorization.

[Sim: This person did not take up a post in Arasaka. According to the investigation, she fits the image of a devoted housewife and is a special record talent. The keyword involved is 'Squadron 404'. There is no record of this information on this server.]

Mercer closed the file, deleted it, and then looked at his own file.

She was no different from what I remembered. She was described as mediocre, cold-hearted, and an orphan who was sold to Arasaka by her adoptive parents for 50,000 euros.

After taking half a second to think and then two seconds to review the files of all the junior hackers and important employees, Mercer noted down the important information and then deleted all the data that needed to be deleted.

After confirming the server's settings one last time, he quickly scanned the situation with his camera and then discovered a scene that made him frown.

Yu Sakata, who had once chosen to inform on others, was now frantically banging on the door of another junior hacker's room on the basement floor.

Mercer stared at him silently with the camera for a moment, then unlocked the door to the room of the little hacker who was staying in the basement, and then simply disconnected from the server and exited Deep Dive.

Then, when he returned to reality, as soon as he opened his eyes, he felt a sudden urge to vomit.

Grass.
He felt dizzy and his head throbbed with pain, just like when he first traveled back in time.

Moreover, it wasn't just physical discomfort; I also felt a very stifling sense of emptiness.

The feeling of being omnipotent when connected to the server quickly faded away. He was like a god who had suddenly lost all his divine power and become a mortal.

The huge gap between his mental state and physical sensations made him feel weak all over.

Staggering to his feet as if drunk, Mercer gasped for breath and staggered outside.

A robot was waiting for him at the door, holding the Qianxin pistol specially made by the director's aunt.

Mercer took the pistol, cocked it, and had the robot help him into the elevator. After leaning against the edge of the elevator and pondering for a moment, he pressed the button for the basement level, panting heavily as he tried to recover.

Deep diving is really dangerous. Ordinary hackers are okay, but even if they connect to servers in cyberspace, there's not much they can actually do. They can basically only push their brains to the limit.

Mercer was certain that he had just performed exceptionally well.

That performance was far beyond the current capacity of his brain—damn it, he felt like his brain must have been fried again.

He could even smell a faint burnt odor coming from the brain-computer interface.

The bio-monitoring self-test program sent him test data, proving that he quickly entered a state equivalent to brain-computer interface overclocking after entering the server.

Fortunately, the excellent server-grade cooling system helped him; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to hold on much longer. There aren't many hackers who can put themselves in such a state.

Most hackers only do this when they passively receive too much data, but he did it purely because he manipulated too much data too intensely and used his brain too much.

In the cold yet inexplicably exhilarating state of cyberspace, he wouldn't have considered this minor injury worth worrying about. And indeed, he could still walk and think.
uncomfortable.

The elevator quickly arrived at the basement level. When the elevator doors opened, what appeared in front of him was Sakata Yu, who was nervously pulling out a monomolecular wire and staring intently at him.

"What...what have you done! Why are all the rooms locked? Where are Lucy and the others? You're trying to escape, aren't you! You're trying to escape!?"

Sakata Yu's hands trembled, and finally, in a shrill voice trembling with sobs, she cried out, "Why didn't you take me with you? If you were sure you could escape, why didn't you tell me beforehand!"

"And then you wait for me to betray you? Save your breath, kid. Please make way, I'm not here to see you."

Security is down now; if you want to run, just run.

The people from Arasaka are definitely still mainly chasing us; you could survive no matter which way you run.

Mercer spoke weakly, and Sakata Yu noticed that Mercer needed to be supported by an unarmed robot, and he could barely hold the gun in his hand.
This made Sakata Yu's breathing immediately become heavy.

In the blink of an eye, Sakata Yu had already made up his mind: run away? And then wait for Arasaka to catch him? No, he would climb to the top of Arasaka's mountain, no matter what it took!
If he could catch Mercer, he would definitely be able to—he tried to swing the monomolecular wire in his hand violently, but the monomolecular wire in his hand felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

His eyes widened suddenly, the red indicator in his prosthetic eye almost completely obscuring his vision.

"no no!"

He stammered out two sounds that sounded like a gasp or a scream, and then collapsed to the ground, his body stiff.

As Mercer passed by his kneeling body, his brain was already ablaze, like a human torch on the ground.

“I’ve given you chances, more than once, child.”

Mercer's voice allowed him to let out a piercing scream even in the final moments of his life.

Mercer, however, only made it to the last room, to the door of the little girl hacker who is still in the room.

He clearly remembered her name from his memory, and he also remembered the little girl's resume from the files he scavenged from the server.

"Lily, are you leaving? Let's leave together."

After a brief silence in the room, the child's voice rang out.

"Where can we go?" Her voice trembled in the room.

"No matter where we go, as long as we keep moving forward, we are heading towards freedom," Mercer said gently.

"Does freedom still exist in this world?" Lily's voice was tinged with a faint sob. "Freedom is not in this world, but in your heart, child." Mercer's tone became even gentler: "Come on, the world outside is vast, and everyone can find their own place."

".free."

Lily's voice became inexplicably calm, and then a gasp came from inside the room: "Mercer, thank you. Really, thank you."

Then, a faint, rustling sound, as if a singleton wire was being pulled out, suddenly came from inside.

Mercer frowned slightly and subconsciously placed his hand on the doorknob; he had already unlocked the door from the server.

In fact, he could have opened it with just a little force, but after hesitating for a moment, he chose to wait quietly.

A few seconds later, the door opened, revealing a small, fair hand holding a tiny wind chime.

"Send it to the winds of freedom; that is the Shadow Bear's dream. As for my dream, it is my freedom."

Mercer took the wind chime from her hand.

Then, there was a scraping sound coming from inside the room, followed by the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. Something hit the door, accompanied by a noisy sound like flowing water, and the girl's indistinct moans accompanied by the sound of air leaking out.

"I finally feel free."

Her faint voice was eventually drowned out by the seemingly endless, annoying ventilation fan in the room.

May your soul rest in peace.

Mercer clutched the wind chime in his hand, then turned and walked away. The robot helped him into the elevator, and he simply pressed the button for the first floor with a calm expression.

In this despairing world, having the right to choose how to die is also a manifestation of personal freedom.

He might be able to save her, or he might be able to enlighten her, but wouldn't that be depriving her of her freedom of choice?

To encourage her to overcome all these difficulties and endure all this torment is nothing less than interfering in someone else's life with one's own ideas, a self-satisfying act of bestowing favors.
Mercer felt as if he had been thinking for a long time in that moment, and for the first time felt confused about whether what he had done was right or wrong.

But when the elevator reached the first floor, Mercer immediately took a step and sent a program to make the robots that were originally in the rooms of Director Tianye and Secretary Inoue return to their original positions.

Then, all the security equipment in Director Tianye's room was set to automatically execute an electromagnetic short-circuit procedure.

He wanted to create the illusion that Secretary Inoue had solved the robot security issue, killed Director Tano, and then escaped.

He heard the concerned greetings from those little hackers again, and he simply replied that he was on his way before heading towards the cargo workshop where the hovercars were parked.

However, the sight of corpses along the way made him feel nauseous again.

Especially that burnt smell. He figured he wouldn't be able to eat barbecue for a while.

In cyberspace, seeing these corpses was as insignificant to him as seeing NPCs in a game; killing was just a matter of typing on a keyboard.

But back in reality, looking at the corpses scattered on the ground, a sense of guilt and horror welled up inside him uncontrollably.

He chuckled self-deprecatingly. He had thought it was a bit exaggerated when he saw Anzu and Lucy's faces turn pale, but when it was his turn, to be honest, he almost threw up.

Those ruthless protagonists in novels are all incredibly tough people. He considers himself to be someone with exceptional adaptability, a very easygoing personality, and a carefree nature.

But now he realizes that he probably still has a long way to go before he can fully adapt to the cyberpunk world.

Regarding life and death, regarding justice, regarding the path one must take.
He actually needs a period of calm to digest and reflect before he can find the answer.

However, for now, he still has to withstand all of this and do his best to stand up for these kids; an older brother has to act like an older brother.

"Mercer. Mercer!?"

Lucy, who had been standing by the hovercar in the distance, holding the Kenshin pistol in both hands and in a vigilant posture, spotted Mercer's unsteady figure approaching from afar.

Her expression immediately turned tense, and she ran over without even thinking.

Tetsuya Daichi stopped Leon and Kyoko, who were also about to go over, with an expression that said, "You should know better," but his eyes were filled with worry as he looked at Mercer.

Lucy instinctively supported Mercer, looking at his deathly pale face: "Are you alright?"

"My mind is a bit muddled. Get me a Relic chip. I haven't told you yet, but I've already cracked the program inside."

"I'll flash the firmware for you guys in a bit. After that, this chip can stay plugged in. It can actively repair brain nerves, and it can also be passively activated after the host dies to save their life."

Mercer smiled and didn't refuse her offer; with her help, they walked a little faster.

I must say, she's quite petite, but she's surprisingly strong.

"Stop talking, we'll deal with flashing the ROM later, you should rest first."

After Lucy finished speaking, Mercer shook his head.

"No, I still have to drive. Okay, I'm just feeling a little unwell, but I'm not sick enough to be considered a patient. I'll feel much better after a couple of days of rest."

Mercer said, refusing Lucy's suggestion that he sit in the back and rest. He then took the chip that the quick-witted Anzu handed him, which she had immediately opened from the box containing the Rlelic chip after hearing him speak.

He then inserted the chip directly into his head and used the program given by Ultraman to quickly clear out the Soul Killer inside.

He then activated the chip's built-in neural repair function, opened the cockpit door of the hovercar, crawled inside, and inserted his personal link into the vehicle's infotainment system.

Then he breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back in his seat, and watched as the entire vehicle passed the certification.

"Hurry back and sit down, we're about to leave. Remember to keep an eye on our guest and make sure he doesn't wake up halfway. He needs to sleep until the final stop."

Lucy pursed her lips and looked at him, but in the end she nodded vigorously and returned to the passenger cabin.

After closing the door, he also kicked away the unconscious Inoue secretary, who was in the way, a little.

Then the hovercar started its engine.

Due to the structure of the airship, passengers in the passenger cabin can only see each other in pairs, while the cockpit is covered by metal, and they can only hear Mercer's voice through the vehicle's voice system.

"Stop looking so gloomy! This is the taste of freedom that so many people dream of! Get ready, buckle up! We're off!"

"Departure to the City of Night!"

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(End of this chapter)