In the following half-year, the group managed to effortlessly complete two commissions almost every month, earning hundreds of thousands of Euros each time.
They even took on smaller jobs worth about 100,000 or tens of thousands of Euros.
These jobs were passed to Mercer through intermediaries, and Mercer posted them on the team's communication program's commission board, allowing them to take up the side gigs, form small teams, go out, earn some pocket money, and buy things they liked.
As for Hansen and Hua Tiao, they dutifully handed over the split money, accumulating to about a million Euros a month, filling up the team's funds, providing interest-free loans to newcomers like Mann and Jack for upgrading equipment and prosthetics...
Of course, in return, Mercer had to put in some corresponding effort.
For example, Hansen eventually felt compelled to ask him to tackle new projects after sending him two months' worth of money, like unlocking program locks on some Military Science equipment, or upgrading the Netherworld Dog's existing gear...
But Mercer controlled the pace, only doing one task a month at the most, extending it to two months if it was difficult. Although Hansen found it frustrating that Mercer was making money while idling, the results were impressive each time.
Hansen couldn't find other tech experts, so he had to grudgingly fund Mercer, providing whatever he asked for; otherwise, Mercer would ensure the next task would be even more delayed...
All in all, you get what you pay for. After a half-year, Hansen understood the key to working with Mercer.
This bastard is the epitome of doing as much work as he is paid for, and no matter how hard Hansen tried to be nice to him, Mercer would only smile and call him Colonel... Hansen's assessment was: An ungrateful white-eyed wolf.
Mercer's assessment of Hansen was quite similar—this bastard, although I do my job well every time, he constantly sends more work and makes it seem like no work means no pay...
One day I'll get rid of this damn boss.
As for Hua Tiao, he was quite pressing on Mercer.
He quickly shared the market for cracking programs and even shared a cut with Mercer for smuggling prosthetics, but Mercer seemed in no rush to make a move against the Voodoo Gang in Taiping Prefecture; how could this satisfy Hua Tiao?
But Mercer remained nonchalant, focusing on his own matters.
After he cracked the Soulkiller Program, there was no further breakthrough in the short term, so he concurrently started researching the Soulkiller Program, along with developing Relic chips, prosthetics, and gear.
And in October of 2072, the various things he was researching finally began to yield real practical results, resulting in a cluster of complete, usable test version products.
Firstly, regarding the Relic chip—Mercer finally broke through the technical barrier of knowledge transfer, utilizing a program similar to the Military Science 'Training Chip' program, using the Relic chip as a carrier to develop a complete 'Super Learning System.'
He named the 'Super Learning System' loaded on the Relic chip the 'Deep Blue System,' emphasizing a straightforward approach—'Deep Blue, add points for me!'
Its function and goal are to transmit various knowledge directly into the human brain through the Relic chip, achieving miraculous operations like in pre-transmigration novels where the "system adds XX skills for me."
Due to certain concerns, Mercer didn't fully unleash its capabilities and simply treated it as a 'Memory Bread' like that of Doraemon.
The overall process could be understood as first finding the needed learning materials online, then using the Soulkiller Program to convert these materials into consciousness data that humans can download and understand, finally uploading that data to the human brain via Relic.
After testing the safety range of the program using some poor or deservedly doomed Cleaner Fish, the Relic chip became the team's shared 'super learning machine.'
Everyone could use the Relic chip once a week to directly transfer a million-character quantity of knowledge into their brains — a real godsend for the likes of Rebecca and V, who were never fond of studying.
Because the converted million-character data could be understood as directly memorizing as much text knowledge as a Xinhua Dictionary.
Actually, the Relic chip can directly add skills to a person—that's why Mercer named it Deep Blue.
But the premise of adding skills is that Mercer needs to first find a set of skill data, and this kind of skill data comes from the consciousness data of humans who possess that technology.
He has actually managed to accurately identify, extract parts of memories from human consciousness data, and convert them into downloadable skill data.
But Mercer is very concerned that duplicating skills from others in this way may inadvertently transmit parts of their memories or mindset to the downloader's brain, affecting their personality and subconsciousness.
That's why he only opened certain functions to his own people.
But this made Mercer even more determined—as long as he completely figures out the consciousness data transformed by the Soulkiller, one day, he can precisely strip only the technique without taking any memories.
By then, Mercer could use the Soulkiller to duplicate, for example, V's melee combat skills, Sianwistan's usage techniques, and directly transmit them into his own brain, essentially getting her melee skills for free.