Mercer observed the recording calmly as he spoke, "Do you know what happened?"
"I don't know! But I know, something's wrong! Everything's wrong! It must be because of you! Because of you!!"
Hanssen's voice echoed in Cyberspace, but soon his entire data experienced another massive disruption; he glared menacingly at Mercer, his eyes seemed to want to devour him.
Mercer stood his ground without flinching, merely asking calmly, "Colonel Hanssen, calm down, let's talk."
"I want to kill you! Kill you!" Hanssen roared one moment.
The next, he suddenly burst into tears, "I'm not a coward, it's not my fault..."
The sadness didn't last long before rage returned to his face, but the target was no longer Mercer; he looked into the void, "Damn it, why did you betray me? Why did you retreat? We succeeded! The plan worked! You are the cowards!"
Mercer looked at him for a moment, then shook his head, "I don't know where the problem lies, even if we use the original consciousness data for repair, he would soon collapse again..."
"Should we proceed to the next experiment?" Lucy watched the frenzied Hanssen, her brows furrowing deeper, hesitating, "The... transfer and overlay experiment of the relic chip's consciousness?"
"I'll research it further, at least try to figure out why the issue occurs, maybe it's the subconscious data?
During multiple brainwashing sessions, the subconscious data wasn't cleared away, causing this dissonance to accumulate, ultimately directly affecting the complete consciousness data body..."
Lucy watched Mercer as he entered the research analysis state in a way she couldn't understand, just by gazing at Hanssen, then said softly after a moment of silence, "So, what's your purpose in researching consciousness data?"
"What?" Mercer spoke without lifting his head, "Of course, to avoid risks that might be encountered later..."
"So, you've finally decided to try uploading your complete consciousness?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.
But Mercer simply said calmly, "Currently, I haven't planned for permanent upload, but the idea of fully digitizing consciousness through a connection is still there."
"For what?" Lucy said with resistance, "No one knows if uploading consciousness data might cause irreversible effects even if nothing changes when brought back offline...
Mercer, even Ultraman failed to return and became AI back then, didn't she?"
"Ultraman's failure, to be precise, was due to time running out, with the Arasaka nuclear explosion imminent, and her massive consciousness data body at that time couldn't be fully recovered, leading Spider Murphy to have to disperse her data online.
Subsequently, rather than saying Ultraman's consciousness data body was retrieved, it's more accurate to say Spider Murphy synthesized an Ultraman from a bunch of Ultraman fragments.
This is what led to her being somewhat strange at present, and why many people believe she has already become a roaming AI.
In fact, when Ultraman was first datafied by Arasaka and uploaded to the Divine Chariot, she fully relied on herself, relying solely on the Soulkiller Program to complete the autonomous return of consciousness.
So theoretically speaking, without data modification or unplugging during consciousness transfer, no accident will happen."
After Mercer finished speaking, Lucy couldn't help but say, "What exactly did Ultraman tell you? Ever since that day, you've been researching these things..."
Mercer was silent for a while, then looked at her, and after a long pause, suddenly said, "Lucy..."
Before he finished his words, Lucy sensed something, suddenly turned away, not daring to meet his eyes, "Think it through before you tell me!"
"You should know I'm special, a kind of special completely different from ordinary people, right?" Mercer straightforwardly said what he needed to say.
"You do have talent," Lucy said, but she unconsciously crossed her arms in front of herself.
This was her little gesture when lying or feeling uneasy.
However, Mercer just shook his head, "You know, it's not some special talent...or rather, it's not a talent humans should have."
He looked at Lucy calmly, yet his tone was gentle, "I must figure out the truth... What Ultraman said is correct, people must first recognize themselves before making decisions; it's only a matter of time, Lucy."
Lucy, however, spoke with some emotion, "Why is it not a human talent? Mercer, you are special, but you are just the Mercer I know, so there's no need... We don't need to rush, right?
We still have to deal with Arasaka, with many troublesome things, let's think about life's meaning, our true selves after we solve those troubles, isn't it better?"
She spoke while pointing at Hansen, who was still in a frenzied state: "What if there's even a one in a billion chance you become like that, or even worse...
Or, have you considered that Ultraman might be deceiving you too?
She wants you to upload data, then you'll become like her, or what if you don't want to become human again after datafying consciousness, then what?"
"What do you mean by becoming human again?" Mercer said with amusement, "Hey, even if I datafy my consciousness, I'm still human, alright?"
Lucy turned away, visibly somewhat dejected, "In any case, I disagree... V and Rebecca won't agree either, before you get the majority's approval in the meeting, you absolutely must not, I mean absolutely not, secretly test yourself."