Mercer sighed, "I need time, and I'm afraid it won't be a short time, Pan'an."
"Damn it..." Pan'an paced irritably, and finally, could only turn her head to look at him somewhat pitifully, "Mercer, what should we do?"
Mercer remained silent, then suddenly turned to her and said, "If we want to speed up the drug development process, I need some specialized equipment, a professional chemical laboratory, but now I'm almost locked up by Hansen, so we have to use some tough measures."
"How do we do it!" Pan'an looked at him.
And Mercer offered a solution that shocked Pan'an a bit: "We poison the entire Dog Town."
"Are you kidding!!" Pan'an was so startled that she took a step back.
But Mercer just said indifferently, "No one cares about the lives of the Adcardans, and no one cares about the lives of the Red Ocher Tribe.
But there are definitely people who care a lot about the lives of the Netherworld Dogs and will desperately, desperately need a cure."
Mercer turned to look at Pan'an and said, "Do you understand what I mean?"
"But... if we do that, how are we different from the biotech companies!" Pan'an resisted firmly, "No way! Mercer, we can't do this! Only bastards would do such a thing!"
Mercer still appeared somewhat indifferent, "What's so bad about it? Hansen finds out there's a viral outbreak affecting the Netherworld Dogs, and he will definitely try to solve it.
And as his only reliable technical expert, I not only can use his money to research the cure for free but also can build my reputation among the Netherworld Dogs.
The innocent will be cured by the antidote.
And Hansen's loyalists will be more heavily infected and die before the antidote arrives—then I can join forces with you..."
"Enough, Mercer!" Pan'an's expression was somewhat sad, barely hiding her anger, "How did you become like this? You would never have come up with such a cruel method before! I, I don't accept it!"
Mercer sighed again, then turned to look at her, "Then you'll just have to pray that I can develop an antidote before the Adcardans are severely infected and have nowhere to seek medical assistance.
For now, I can only supply you with relatively cheap drugs to buy time, at least to ensure you all can live until the day the antidote is developed."
"What about the biotech companies? They're behind this; we can't let them..." Pan'an didn't finish her sentence, interrupted by the somewhat mocking smile on Mercer's face, leaving her speechless.
Yes, if the biotech companies were willing to take responsibility, then Pan'an wouldn't have come to Mercer.
Mercer spoke bluntly, "I guess they may have already prepared for an outbreak in Night City once they discovered the virus you're infected with is contagious.
The special medicine and antidote must also be in the development schedule—they're just waiting for another outbreak in Night City to exploit it for profit.
Now, the water poisoning incident happened a long time ago, and the detected indicators of toxins in the water source aren't high.
I suspect they've deliberately stopped your free medication and are ready, just waiting for you group of pathogen carriers to spread the virus."
Mercer had already recognized the issue with the virus from the monitoring and experimental data, "This virus doesn't have significant transmissibility in its mild form, but if it reaches a severe outbreak stage, it can spread through the air.
Simply put, you can understand it this way: If you continue taking medication to suppress symptoms, the transmissibility is very low, but if you stop medication, the transmissibility will increase exponentially...
It's not me intending to create a bioweapon, but the people at the biotech company seem to consider this incident as yet another opportunity to make money...
Believe it or not, even if I manage to develop a special medicine right away to solve your problem, Night City will suddenly experience an outbreak of some unknown disease, then the biotech companies will quickly release their drugs, and make a huge profit."
Mercer mocked, "Decades ago, when avian flu broke out in Night City, we haven't been able to eat chicken ever since; this time? Maybe something like synthetic meat, beef, or the like...it's all an old trick, Pan'an."
Pan'an bowed her head dejectedly, but then she still looked at Mercer seriously, "But we must never be the ones to let the infection spread...Mercer, I know you're not a bad person, so...please don't say things like that again, okay?"
Mercer looked at Pan'an, and after a while, nodded, "I understand, Pan'an, go disinfect yourself, change your clothes and head out for now, let me investigate this further..."
Pan'an, with complex feelings, left Mercer's temporarily modified virus laboratory, performed the rigorous disinfection procedure as per Venus's instructions, changed into her own clothes, and exited the makeshift disinfection room.
Taking the elevator to the living room, at this time, only the couple Mann was watching TV, and V was busy in the kitchen.
"What's wrong? Didn't get it settled?" V looked a bit worried at her—a straightforward girl who appealed to her taste, though she had only recently met Pan'an, she felt a sense of déjà vu.
Pan'an sighed, "No, at least the temporary medication issue, Mercer said he could resolve it..."
"Then why the long face?" V asked with concern, "Is there anything else troubling you?"
"Mercer predicted... this virus will eventually become a new epidemic in Night City, just like the avian flu Night City faced before."
Pan'an said gloomily, "And for now, Mercer doesn't have a cure, he can only replicate their special drugs to alleviate the condition."