As Mercer delved deep into Cyberspace, the hum of the server gradually faded away.
He slowly opened his eyes, and the massive cyber representation of the giant Arasaka server, mimicking the structure of Anzhu City, appeared before him.
This cyber giant city lay quietly on the ground, and Mercer quietly gazed at it, while the cat embodying Desire for Death gently meowed at his feet, rubbing its head against his ankle.
Mercer picked up Desire for Death; in this Cyberspace, his thoughts were unexpectedly calm.
Here, only the quiet flow of data streamed endlessly; he sat on the ground, gently stroking the head of the cat in his arms, his fingers lightly tickling its chin, making it purr contentedly.
For the first time, Mercer was observing this space so quietly and meticulously.
Looking into the distance, he could see flickering blue phantoms inside the giant city; they were devices and images connected to the server, and there were even humanoid presences.
Those were the Arasaka network monitors connected to the server network, who usually direct connect to the server from the hacker chair in the control room.
And because of this, Mercer could clearly see—a silent blue figure suddenly letting out a voiceless scream in Cyberspace, convulsively collapsing into a cluster of data.
Then, the massive cyber city before him abruptly began to shake violently.
[Lucy: Quick! Quickly! The hacker in the control room triggered the server's ICE before dying... Alert...]
The encrypted communication was cut off, and undoubtedly, the server had already activated its security protocols, interfering with network connections, and the Guardian AI had been activated!
No need for her reminder, Mercer already knew what he had to do.
Desire for Death in his arms suddenly turned black, its eyes becoming scarlet, then it dashed toward the distant cyber city.
Mercer immediately chose to log off and, without hesitation, pulled out the direct neural connection.
Sure enough, within just 2 seconds, he heard the loud sound of the server's power ramping up—signifying the server's cooling system being pushed to its limit.
Desire for Death, designed by Bartmos, was a program with AI intelligence. As soon as it was sent into the server, it could utilize the server's own computing power to hack into it.
The hardest part of this hacking attempt to infiltrate the server was actually sending the program into the server; once that's done, the rest could be left to the program itself.
And now, as Mercer found himself in the server room, he actually didn't even need to dive deep; he just needed to plug the cord into the server to transfer the program in.
Yet, to be safe, he decided to take the risk to dive in first, watching the program run inside the server before disconnecting.
Mercer stood there until the hum of the server's cooling lessened, then he lay back on the hacker chair, inserted the neural link into his head, and started deep diving again.
As soon as he entered Cyberspace, he couldn't help but be awed by the somewhat terrifying sight before him.
The towering giant earth city had become somewhat fragmented; a massive black beast was mercilessly devouring the remains of a giant blue-armored warrior.
Judging by the remains of the enormous warrior, its original data form in Cyberspace might have been fifty or sixty meters tall.
The black beast simply devoured excitedly, gnashing, greedily consuming all of the armored warrior's data fragments, finally letting out a satisfied roar to the sky.
The enormous sound echoed in Cyberspace, and then its gaze turned toward Mercer.
"Master..."
Its voice was sharp, rough, yet still betrayed its excitement and joy.
"The Guardian... I devoured it."
"Grant me access to the server."
Mercer's brow slightly furrowed, but he said no more, merely giving a command, and then Desire for Death crouched to the ground, and the once fragmented cyber city began to reassemble.
Only this time, the highest part of the original Arasaka emblem became the cat head of Desire for Death.
"Connecting... Success."
After saying this, it shrank to the size of a leopard cat, excitedly hopping around the ancient city: "I've become smarter, how nice."
Mercer said nothing, only after confirming he was connected to the server, he revoked its computing power access.
The black cat turned back to blue, froze in place, then turned its head to Mercer, seemingly with a hint of grievance.
But in the end, it said nothing, quietly walking to his feet again, rubbing against him: "I completed my task very well."
"Yes, you did well, but I'm not satisfied with the tendencies you've displayed, so... format."
Mercer calmly issued a format command to the program, and Desire for Death shook its head urgently: "I absorbed a large amount of the Guardian's AI and became stronger. Formatting would degrade my abilities."
Mercer said no more, and then, the Desire for Death beside him suddenly collapsed and dispersed into a heap of data.
It didn't have time to scream, nor could it voice any opinion, only watch as its program was dismantled and the AI reset.
When it re-coalesced, it reverted from a leopard cat into that simple meowing kitten.
The AI of the Cyber World can evolve by devouring other AI, and this growth in algorithms and intelligence doesn't even need to be based on server connection.