With a side glance, that damn scumbag still looked like he was hopelessly engrossed in reading code.
Well, actually, it wasn't that she was silently protesting, but ever since Mercer got his troubles sorted, he had been wholeheartedly focused on cracking the Soulkiller Program, almost forgetting to eat or drink and doing nothing else.
Not to mention talking to Lucy on his own, even when V, who usually bickered with him, passed by, or when Rebecca invited him out to play, he would just casually respond and decline any time-wasting activities.
From initially using low-level AI, constantly incubated by Venus, as bait to trigger the Soulkiller Program, Mercer had now locked onto the targeting attack code of the Soulkiller Program and had specifically written shielding software to crack the automatic targeting program.
It took Mercer only a week to make the Soulkiller Program within the Relic Chip completely lose its aggressiveness.
Afterward, he had low-level AI produced by Venus to filter the essence of the Soulkiller Program in the Relic Chip for him.
With the help of AI, by comparing the Relic Chips that had the Soulkiller Program removed, Mercer finally fully extracted and replicated the renowned Soulkiller Program in less than half a day.
It could be said that from then on, if Mercer intended to retire, just relying on the Soulkiller Program he had in hand, he could turn to any company in exchange for enough wealth to live worry-free for life.
But for Mercer, acquiring the Soulkiller Program was merely the beginning.
What he wanted to do next was not only to understand the program but to analyze it, attempt to deeply study its principles, and be able to use it skillfully, even modify and improve it to make it truly useful for himself.
Mercer had big ambitions; in fact, researching the Soulkiller Program was only part of his goal. What he truly wanted to understand and master was the data consciousness of humans after uploading.
The secrets between humans and AI, or even his own secrets, might be hidden in the process of human transformation into data and the consciousness data body transformed by humans.
However, after Mercer extracted the Soulkiller Program, he discovered another problem.
That is, the Soulkiller Program he currently possesses is incomplete.
The Soulkiller Program in Mercer's possession has only one function—killing the opponent's consciousness data and copying the data in the process of extermination.
In other words, if the complete Soulkiller Program allows Otter Cunningham to fully upload himself using it,
then the program Mercer has at hand can only let Otter Cunningham commit suicide first and then clone himself.
Of course, perhaps the bigger possibility is that Mercer hasn't fully understood the core of this program and is unclear about the concept of transformation.
This is rare for Mercer; so far, the only program he has encountered that he cannot comprehend is the AI's intelligent core soul code.
It must be said, these old-school hackers indeed have something up their sleeve; even a 'superpower user' like Mercer cannot directly decipher what they have.
But Mercer is not in a hurry; he feels that what he lacks to comprehend and understand these codes is just some time.
And right now happens to be the most favorable research condition and the most abundant time he has had since his traversal.
"Hey..."
The voice in his ear didn't manage to distract Mercer; he was unusually focused and immersed in his research, even losing his usual multitasking ability, with his brain CPU running at full speed.
"Hey!"
It wasn't until the voice grew louder that he turned his head to see Lucy's frowning little face: "I said... did you hear me?"
"What?" he asked in a daze.
"Jack and Sasha are here. Today is the day they also move into the base... you haven't even asked about the renovations upstairs, and V has been settling Adcardo's payments for you."
Lucy looked at him helplessly: "How many days has it been since you went upstairs?"
"Oh!" Mercer then hurriedly stopped and smiled: "Jack and Sasha are here?"
"Yes! I'm going up first, you wash your face and come up!" Lucy gave him a reproachful glance: "V is getting anxious waiting."
Mercer then realized the seriousness of the problem and quickly got up, saying: "Okay!"
Oh no!
What was the outcome last time when he let V wait too long for dinner?
Uh... Mercer's shoulder started to ache faintly.