After Ena Tanino finished speaking with a smile, she saw that many of the young hackers' expressions had calmed a bit, and then she immediately spoke:
"Alright, now that everyone understands our objective, you just need to act as usual.
Your position is up to you, and the number of people is up to you. Hmm, if you ask me, how about you all log in under the same IP, it's better that way.
Alright, let's begin."
Lucy instinctively glanced at Mercer, who also turned to look at her, smiling unabashedly as he said, "You guys go together, I'll act alone for now."
"Okay."
Lucy said no more, not even daring to send an encrypted message to ask him in this situation, but instead, dutifully lined up to receive a chip, just like the other kids, before heading to her own hacker chair.
Mercer also received one, but as he took the chip, Ena Tanino suddenly spoke up:
"Mercer, you're different from the others. If you encounter an AI during a deep dive, I allow you to log out immediately, regardless of the situation, whether it's Ultraman or another male-featured AI."
"...Understood." Mercer's expression remained unchanged, but suddenly a sense of caution surged within him.
Could my Relic Chip be specially made?
Like, once inserted, I'll see Johnny Silverhand as soon as I enter Cyberspace, and then Ultraman actually shows up... I definitely don't want to experience V's fate!
But at this moment, being stared at with a smile by Ena Tanino, he couldn't do anything out of line — never mind that this woman smiled so gently, he was sure if he dared to do anything strange...
Whatever she would have him do next would probably be compulsory.
In the end, Mercer gritted his teeth and inserted it.
Damn it, if I'm pushed to the limit, I'll find a way to achieve Cyber Ascendancy with Ultraman. I don't care about this flesh and blood body, I'll become an AI, and hunt down these Arasaka fools even as a ghost.
Turning around, the moment he inserted the Relic Chip, Mercer immediately began running a self-check, his eyes gleaming as he quickly examined to see if the Relic Chip had activated.
Fortunately, it hadn't.
It was indeed an unactivated Relic Chip, and even the activation conditions matched what she said.
Mercer walked to the hacker chair, breathed a long sigh of relief, and sat down. Before connecting to the server, he immediately began programming.
He planned to modify the Relic Chip's activation conditions, changing the automatic detection to manual activation.
After connecting to the server, programming using its computational power would leave traces, unless he could crack the server permissions and modify the logs.
But fortunately — his programming speed was unnaturally fast.
Just before connecting the neural wire of the hacker chair to the special plugin at the back of his head, he finally succeeded in changing the Relic's automatic activation program.
However, Mercer was very cautious not to touch the core program of the Relic, nor did he dare to try cracking it open.
Because he highly suspected that the Relic in his neck wasn't simply a recording or capturing chip, but a 'Soulkiller' program modified for AI!
If it were activated wrongly or triggered its mechanism, and the Soulkiller immediately targeted him...
Mercer wasn't arrogant enough to think that he could withstand this super-virus, created by the legendary hacker Ultraman and improved by Arasaka for decades, with just a network receiver and his brain's computational power.
Once everything was ready, unknown staff who had arrived at some point finished arranging all the wires.
Mercer touched the black special Arasaka Black Customer Service on his body, took a long breath, and reclined on the hacker chair.
"Let's begin!"
"Deep dive, enter Cyberspace!"