But Venus suddenly brought him some good news.
[Venus: You actually don't need to actively seek a meeting opportunity. Do you remember Colonel Hanssen mentioned awarding you an "Honorary Medal" at the Gem Cyan Hotel?]
[Mercer: I remember. Are you saying that Jefferson will also be there that night?]
[Venus: Not only that, but also Lucius Lane, the Mayor of Night City, his deputy Wilton Holt, and other Night City celebrities.
Additionally, Hanssen invited journalists like Gillian Jordan from News 54 to formally promote the first medal awarding ceremony in Dog Town...
I suspect his goal is not just to tie you down to the Netherworld Dog but also to use your fame to make deals regarding your equipment.
Hasn't he been urging you to quickly come up with a mass-producible tank armor model and also asked you to let Miss V wear the armor for a live test at their shooting range?
I reckon he wants to use the new equipment you developed to attract investments and demonstrate force.]
Mercer snorted coldly, "Fine, let's see who benefits the most in the end."
What good is attracting investment? It still relies on him to achieve mass production and further development. And once production becomes stable and new things are developed, Mercer figures it's likely the time will come to "unload the donkey" after the millstone is no longer needed.
Mercer doesn't know if Hanssen wants him dead, but he's decided not to keep him around for too long.
After dealing with the first wave of assassination attempts from Arasaka's agents, when Yoshinobu returns to try to steal the chip, Mercer plans to use this gap to deal with Hanssen and take over as the leader of Dog Town.
After that, he'll try to find a balance between New America, the Cubans, and Arasaka, while establishing a company to expand influence into Taiping Prefecture.
Then comes the crucial time—if he can make a decisive move, if he can take down Arasaka Saburo with Yoshinobu's support, then Mercer will have a chance to establish himself in Night City.
He can also leverage Dog Town's advantages to quickly climb the technology tree and recruit combat personnel.
With territory, money, and people, Mercer finally qualifies to stand on the stage that can influence the situation in Night City and fully showcase his talents.
Of course, risks and troubles are sure to increase... but to change a city, is there ever an easy and enjoyable method?
The TV screen cut to commercials, and only then did Mercer wake as if from a dream, quickly finishing his meal, washing the dishes, putting everything away, and turning back to his research.
[Mercer: Venus, I'm assigning you a task. Investigate and collect evidence on biotechnology crimes as much as possible.]
[Venus: Understood. But considering the completeness of the evidence chain, I'd like to request some funds to hire some journalists for evidence collection and photography.]
[Mercer: Take it. I don't have many expenses recently. You can decide on the allocation of funds and earn me more back.]
[Venus: Understood.]
Mercer tossed the money to Venus and didn't worry about it anymore; he didn't even know how much money he had in his bank account now. Anyway, the accounts managed by Venus showed money constantly fluctuating.
Almost all the time, it's appreciating—Venus enjoys trading short-term stocks, buying and selling calculated by the second, while operating thousands of accounts simultaneously.
And almost all of them achieve over 10% profit, occasionally making a big move herself, with the speed of profit almost sparing Mercer from worrying about daily expenses.
The benefits of having someone financially support you mean Mercer no longer has to worry about suddenly spending all his money and needing others to pitch in with their savings.
Now with Venus managing it, even the funds from others' personal savings rolls might be handed to her for management and appreciation. If others weren't also quick spenders, they might achieve financial freedom in a few years just relying on Venus.
...
Meanwhile, as Mercer was fully engrossed in his research, development work within the Netherworld Dog never ceased.
Without leaving the base, Mercer, only relying on online guidance, managed in the Netherworld Dog's development workshop to direct the designers to handcraft an entire yellow-black classic Netherworld Dog-colored tank model personal armor in an astonishingly short half-month period.
The height of this armor is an impressive 1.95 meters, but the actual user's height requirement is around 1.85 meters.
It didn't mount any weapon modules, merely equipped with the same model of compressed propulsion, thick armor, and a personal armor's mechanical pressure and operating system. Within the first hour of its assembly completion, Hanssen immediately decided to conduct a trial worn test.
Cautious as he was, Hanssen wasn't foolish enough to try it himself first; instead, he had his confidant Bennett try it.
Bennett unhesitatingly put on the armor, his face full of excitement—when he first saw that sturdy little outfit on Rebecca, he couldn't stop itching to try it himself.
He usually wore a Nanometer Combat Suit, even saving on the cost of its built-in Nanometer Suit. At this moment, under the designers' assistance, he quickly got into the outfit and couldn't wait to move his hands and feet.
In the design workshop's central screen, Mercer's figure appeared in video call form, participating in this "experiment."