Mercer had Pan'an park the car right at the clinic's entrance—a somewhat dim alleyway.
On both sides of the alley were buildings with a vintage feel. After Mercer got out of the car, he couldn't help but turn his head to look around with some sentiment.
On the left side of the alley stood the building where Misty's Spirit House, Jack's girlfriend in the game, was located.
In the game, the protagonists V and Jack usually got off the street by the Spirit House, passed through it, and crossed the alley to reach Old Wei's clinic.
But now with a car full of valuable goods, Mercer naturally couldn't afford to carry stuff openly from that side.
He had to take the cumbersome route of squeezing the car into the alley, parking right at the entrance.
To his right, the steps leading to a semi-underground building was Victor's clinic.
Mercer first sent Old Wei a message.
[Mercer: Old Wei, open the door. I've got a lot of stuff, need to make several trips.]
[Victor: Okay.]
Victor replied quickly, likely having anticipated Mercer's arrival, without mentioning anything about being late.
Pan'an, while helping Mercer with the effort of moving the cold storage box with prosthetics, looked around and muttered, "Is this the place? Doesn't look like much."
"Black market doctors usually hide out in places like these... but their skills are definitely adequate."
Mercer painstakingly carried a large box, carefully stepping on the stairs towards the door, which automatically opened.
A stout middle-aged man wearing sunglasses appeared before him, the man Mercer was here to see—Victor Victor.
Victor looked down to see a young boy, whose head barely reached Victor's shoulders, struggling with a large box.
The sight instinctively made him extend his hand:
"Kid, just hand it over to me...
Where's Mercer? Sending a kid to move stuff?"
Victor frowned, placing the box down on the clinic's floor, and turned to see a woman carrying something inside.
Mercer smiled wryly at Victor and said, "I'm Mercer."
"...Ha..."
Victor looked at Mercer and could only let out a "ha," as if sighing or expressing awe.
He then simply went out to lend a hand, asking while helping with the moving, "So, is this batch of stuff for your sister?"
"She's a friend of mine and today's driver, part of the Adcardo people. The prosthetics are for me."
Mercer said this while sizing up Victor.
He didn't look much different from his in-game character.
Victor's appearance wasn't particularly distinctive, but he seemed very tidy.
He had long black hair over his back, muscled arms that seemed untouched by prosthetic enhancements, and only his eyes, hidden behind sunglasses, glimmered faintly.
He looked like a reliable man.
"Hmm... I won't ask where you came from, but you don't look like you're from around here."
Old Wei said while handling things, casting a look at Mercer.
The kid, seemingly no more than fourteen or fifteen, with a slender build, exuded a strangely mature demeanor both in expression and speech.
Arasaka's prosthetic eye, single molecule line, brain-computer interface, network receiver, a large server-friendly interface behind his head...
All Arasaka prosthetics.
Even the cooling boxes being transported, all bore Arasaka's logo, high-grade storage units...
"But this batch is too pure... all Arasaka stuff.
Stolen? Or robbed?
Either way, I don't recommend you install them yourself."
Victor spoke candidly: "You're too young; installing too many prosthetics can affect development, and these prosthetics are usually tailored for adults."
"It's alright, we'll see how much can be installed for now," Mercer was indifferent about it.
Victor sighed internally, but knowing the superficiality of their relationship, refrained from saying more.
Once everything was moved in, Pan'an clasped her hands in front and took a seat in the empty space at the clinic—because in Night City's underground clinics, if you're getting prosthetics, make sure you have someone with you.
Otherwise, if you go alone for a prosthetic installation in a black market clinic, the surgery might mysteriously fail in the end.
And then you end up a corpse, with your parts and the prosthetics you were going to get installed placed on a shelf.
"You guys talk, pretend I'm not here."
Pan'an professionally assumed the role of a bodyguard, but Mercer just chuckled:
"It's fine, Pan'an. You haven't eaten since morning, right? Go grab a bite at Little Chinatown out back.
Across the alley is Misty's Spirit House. She's the front desk for Old Wei's clinic, but her main gig is at the Spirit House. Her fortune-telling is said to be quite accurate, you should give it a try.
I'm not sure how long this will take, and keeping watch is probably pretty dull."
"Are you sure?" Pan'an warned, eyeing Victor, "Doing the surgery alone?"
"Ha, don't underestimate Old Wei..."
Mercer pointed to the wall lined with trophies and certificates:
"If you'd come a few years earlier, Victor was still in professional boxing, and back then he was known as 'Victor the Armorless,' the most formidable boxer in Night City.
Kid, back then, he could knock the likes of you and me out with just one punch.
Don't let the lack of prosthetics fool you; at his retirement match, he went twelve full rounds with a guy loaded with corporate, top-notch mods from head to toe!
Both sides managed to knock each other down once, but alas, he narrowly lost on points in the end.
"But this is the real achievement from a boxing champion fighting against a cybernetic superman... Now you know Dr. Victor's skills, right?"
"You know about this too?" Victor couldn't help but smile, "I thought no one remembered."
He truly loves boxing, but now that the matches have become a showcase for cybernetics, he had to leave the arena.
Deep down, he still felt happier when people praised his boxing skills rather than his medical skills.
But... this kid really dug deep! Where did this little monster come from?
"Oh, come on... is it true?"
Pan'an actually found Victor less dependable now—did this boxer put down his gloves to pick up medical books? Can he learn this?
"Don't worry, Old Wei is one of the rare reliable good people in Night City. You go take care of your business, and when you're free, just come back for a beer and watch some TV. Once I'm done here, I'll take you somewhere fun."
Mercer repeated, and Pan'an didn't insist. She sighed:
"Sometimes you seem so complicated, and other times so simple... Alright, I'm going out for some breakfast, what about you?"
"Has Old Wei eaten?" Mercer, being quite friendly, looked at Victor.
"Uh, I've eaten, you should have something. I have to look at your stuff first... what are these?"
Old Wei opened a box casually, and then wrinkled his entire face. Inside were scrapped Sianwistan parts, Mantis Blades stained with dark red blood, and some bits and pieces...
"Oh, those are what I plan to repair and sell, see if you can lend a hand... What I want installed are those."
Mercer pointed at other items, Old Wei frowned and opened it, his eyebrows raised: "New model?"
"Laboratory-level prototype, treasures from the Canadian Arasaka Artificial Body Research and Development Center."
Mercer stood beside Old Wei with a grin, saying:
"I sent you a file with the relevant information I pulled from the Arasaka Server.
I've skimmed through it, and except for that network receiver, the rest shouldn't be hard to install."
"It's not hard..." Old Wei turned to look at Mercer seriously, "But do you even know the neural load these cybernetics have on the human brain?
I'm not exaggerating when I say, even though there aren't many components, even those cybernetic maniacs from the Vortex Gang couldn't last three months with these before they start to suffer!
The cooling system has to be connected to the brain's nerves. The designers didn't even consider the immense pressure on the users!"
Not having left yet, Pan'an showed a worried expression and seriously patted Mercer on the shoulder: "I know you want to achieve great things, but you should never bite off more than you can chew. Remember, there are people counting on you, think about Lucy..."
"Alright, go have your meal, sis."
Mercer rolled his eyes, and Pan'an gave him a speechless look: "Ungrateful heart."
With that, she turned and walked off: "Just keep in mind, listen to the doctor... What do you want to eat?"
"I want steamed buns, fried dough sticks, tofu pudding, a meat sandwich, a pancake, dumplings, fried dumplings..."
Before Mercer could finish, Pan'an laughed speechlessly: "Then you'll just have to wait, I'm going to China to find them for you."
She walked off in a huff.
Victor shook his head and motioned for Mercer to sit on the surgical chair:
"I haven't seen some of the things you mentioned... Is the meat sandwich similar to a hamburger? With meat holding the bread?"
"No, it's bread holding the meat, without all the miscellaneous veggies. I love eating the pure meat ones, where the meat is braised for hours until it falls apart, the aroma of the meat and the sauce blending with the bread..."
As Mercer spoke, he couldn't help but drool a bit—he hadn't had a good meal in a long time.
In this world, meat is synthesized from insect proteins. If you want real animal meat, the price would give you a heart attack at first glance.
"Hmm, sounds nice... Are you of Chinese mixed descent?"
Old Wei had Mercer lay down, and then sat next to him on a chair, using a special prosthetic similar to a glove to type on the screen.
While examining the data, he chatted warmly with Mercer: "Kid, I need to run a checkup on you to assess your body's condition."
"Got it, go ahead... I don't know if I'm mixed, I couldn't find anything about where I come from in the Arasaka data, but in my past life, I was most likely Chinese."
Mercer said while cooperating as Old Wei inserted the brain-computer connection—and also sneakily hacked in to check the instrument's data.
It's almost instinctive for him, the first reaction when connecting his head to any equipment is to thoroughly review the code of that instrument's program.
"Don't move... the data is unstable, you can study it later if you're interested."
Old Wei could sharply detect the instrument's delay, indicating some program in the background was freeloading the device's processing power.
"My bad, it's a habit, Arasaka loves to install stuff in people's heads without a second thought, not understanding it makes me anxious."
Mercer didn't hide it and chuckled: "Just consider it an occupational hazard."
"Hmm... sounds like your past was quite painful."
Victor showed sympathy and sighed, "Those corporate guys... How old were you when Arasaka took you?"
"Eight years old? They dragged me for training for a few years and then just used me as a consumable."
Mercer said, while Old Wei picked up a pile of instruments and stuck them all over him, scanning up and down—and within minutes, the basic information collection was done.
Then Old Wei suddenly froze in place, staring at the numbers on the screen, lost in thought.
Is this data correct?
It can't be, right?
Really correct?
No, no, no...
Is the machine broken? No?
So it's correct? But are these numbers really correct?
Victor thus fell into a long contemplation—seeing is believing!