Venus made the risks of invading the Moon very clear, with three major difficulties.
The first is that the Moon's network is more difficult to infiltrate compared to Earth's. She needs time to assess Arasaka's base situation on the Moon, identify Saburo's location, and plan a route of action for Mercer.
Second, being on the Moon, if one opts for armed invasion, there's a high chance of being discovered and attacked even before the invasion begins. In space, even a small breach in equipment can pose a lethal risk.
Therefore, it's highly likely that Mercer will face an infiltration operation with limited equipment.
Third, there's the consideration of how to evacuate.
Once risk and unforeseen events occur, escaping on the Moon is far more difficult than on Earth. They need an escape pod to return to Earth. If immediate return is not possible, they will need to find a Space Station or Moon Base to temporarily dock and wait for a return voyage.
Mercer firmly believes Venus will find a way through the first challenge. Once the approximate direction of the target is confirmed, Mercury will personally complete the hacking infiltration.
Given Venus's current computational power and software capabilities, few AI and consciousness data forms in the world can withstand, or even detect, her infiltration.
But the remaining two issues are more troublesome.
Currently, only three organizations have influence on the Moon.
One of them is the European Space Agency—currently the only organization openly controlling the Moon's orbital weapons and having a Moon Base, their power is undeniable.
But there is no intersection between Mercer and them. From a purely interest perspective, killing Saburo benefits them, but why would they help Mercer escape?
Another is Arasaka.
Logically, killing Saburo would mean Yoshinobu has the authority to help Mercer and others return via Arasaka channels, but Mercer doesn't trust Arasaka Yoshinobu at all.
During Takemura's first attack, he didn't issue a warning as agreed, and now he returns with Silver Hand's Relic Chip, changing his mind and demanding Mercury to do it himself—this all fully illustrates Yoshinobu's low credibility.
And the third power is Orbital Aviation.
But, after learning about Lilith in advance, Mercer has roughly understood that this company, seemingly controlled by a group of alien space colonists, is likely now a pawn under roaming AI on the Moon.
Expecting them to help? Considering that Mercer handed over all AI in the Little Beidou Facility to Ultraman, he now worries that once his plan leaks, that figure named Lilith might jump out to attack him midway.
In this way, all three evacuation plans carry risks, and Mercer currently doesn't have the ability to develop rockets himself—this isn't just about technology, but also industrial strength.
If Mercer relies on smuggling to mess around with rockets, by then Arasaka Saburo might have completed Reincarnation in the Filthy Land.
The terrifying thing is, once Saburo considers the technology mature, this madman might even back up his consciousness data more than once, allowing his constant revival.
In that case, it would be like whack-a-mole—knock out one Saburo and another pops up... well, Mercer seriously suspects this old man might even choose to become a consciousness data form and simply not revive.
Look at Ultraman; isn't she very satisfied with her life as a consciousness data form now? Who knows what Saburo might think when he reaches that point?
Moreover, once Mercer's identity is exposed, Mercer has no doubt Saburo would immediately use all means, including nuclear bombs, to destroy any area where Mercer might exist.
When the war situation comes to this point, Mercer believes he might unwittingly become the trigger for the fifth corporate war...
So what's all this effort for? Accelerating the world's destruction? Ha, might as well enjoy life now.
Mercer racked his brains, but couldn't come up with a solution for the third issue in a short time.
But he has a bit of a solution for the second problem.
No way to carry Single Soldier Armor or some conspicuous weapons for infiltration combat? Ha, doesn't that just return to Mercer's original combat style?
Using hacker programs to solve enemies, isn't that the way?
What Mercer needs is simply a straightforward, large-scale destructive program, and this program must have extremely strong destructive power, capable of ignoring equipment gaps, forcibly hacking into various devices, and causing devastating blows.
And coincidentally, he has on hand a tool shelved due to its high risk but genuinely regarded as a network superweapon.
That is the 'Black Wall Gateway' protocol left by Military Science in the Little Beidou Facility, and the production components for its network access vault.
The Black Wall Gateway protocol is a special program capable of invoking the Black Wall. This program can be simply understood as having mastered the vulnerabilities of the Black Wall program, and in a connected state, it can directly guide the Black Wall to launch an attack.
And the reason there is a set of production components for network access is because guiding the Black Wall is very damaging to humans and requires a high level of hacker expertise. Any carelessness can lead to the Black Wall running out of control and indiscriminately attacking.
Thus, in the Military Science concept, ideally, it would be guided and used by an AI placed in a Network Access Vault.