V was stunned for a moment, genuinely not expecting the answer to this question. Who would normally pay attention to how trash bins are cleaned up?
After thinking for a while, she hesitatingly said, "Seems like there's a drone-like device that does the collection... Damn, you're not planning to use that to fly us out, are you?"
V looked resistant, "I think it'd be better for us to fight our way out with Diana from downstairs..."
"Alright, relax. The standard load of the Halo drone is 300KG, with a maximum load of 500KG. It flies a bit slow, but they're all over Night City. When the time comes, we'll use this thing to retreat from the sky," Mercer said with a mischievous smile. "I've been wanting to try this for a while. Remember our first infiltration into the Biotechnology Building? I hacked a drone back then as our backup escape plan.
Finally, we get to use this thing," he continued.
"Damn, hiding in a trash bin to escape, that's filthy..." V muttered, but in the end, she reluctantly nodded, "Fine, but you'd better hope it doesn't stink in there."
"We'll toss Diana in, and the two of us can stand on top. We can enjoy the night breeze, look at the moon and stars, how romantic," Mercer said, drawing a disdainful look from V. But she didn't say much, just gestured with her fist, "If we fall and die, we'll probably become legends in Night City."
"Hahaha," Mercer laughed heartily, just waving his hand. "Let's go, let's quickly grab Diana. The sooner we make a deal with the Military Science folks, the sooner we can go home and rest."
V pursed her lips, stretched a bit, and then headed straight for the room.
Mercer highlighted the enemies in his prosthetic eye, so she didn't need to worry about running into an ambush. She just had to act once Mercer opened the electronic doors.
The reason Mercer always liked partnering with V wasn't entirely personal; their efficiency together was just too high.
Just like now—V walks ahead, Mercer follows behind her. Once near the enemy, Mercer activates brain-machine overclocking to quickly hack them.
When the quick hack hits, and their minds go blank for a second, V can seize that one or two-second window to physically finish them off.
The deadliest part is, with a malicious virus like disabling an opponent's cybernetics or causing synaptic fusion with a Sorcery Puppet virus, their ICE might still hold for a while, allowing a one or two-second buffer when the program runs.
But the quick hacks that Mercer now uses in partnership with V, like "Sound Wave Shock" and "Memory Erasure," are designed to be fast, precise, and ruthless.
While a vicious Sorcery Puppet virus might take a second to operate even if it breaks through their ICE, a program affecting brain nerves like Sound Wave Shock activates instantly upon execution.
The first reaction of targets realizing a hacker deployed a virus into their brains is often to eliminate the hacker, not request backup.
By the time they realize the hacking process is ridiculously fast, V is already in their face, leaving them no time to respond.
This dynamic duo's teamwork is just unreasonable—just like what V is doing right now.
Having developed a rapport with Mercer, she isn't in a rush to kill when facing these capable opponents, who even have Sianwistan equipment.
She just waits for Mercer to hack them, and at the moment their brain-machine alarms trigger, she moves in, catching them off guard.
The faster responders might activate Sianwistan to engage hand-to-hand, while slower ones get instantly taken out with her blade.
Agents using Sianwistan, already sweating facing V's swift attacks, become horrified after a second or two when they realize their ICE is breached, and in that instant the Sorcery Puppet program runs, their minds go blank.
Spacing out in a showdown between Sianwistan-equipped adversaries?
That's a sure path to death.
V just needs to exploit that momentary loss of control to stab through their heads, easily dispatching these elite agents.
Killing from the living room to the bedroom, their speed was almost like a normal walk.
By the time the two reached the bedroom door, all that was left behind them was a pile of corpses, most unable to even scream before being jointly killed.
Only one agent with Sianwistan managed to curse 'fuck' as his ICE was breached, before V's blade pierced his eye socket.
"Is she inside?" V took a deep breath, having killed her way from outside to inside, activating Sianwistan at least four times, each time lasting 2-3 seconds.
This frequency of stress is no small feat for an average person, yet V only seemed to be slightly breathless, her face a bit flushed.
"Yeah, I bet she's anxiously thinking about an escape plan now... Let's give her a surprise,"
Mercer walked over to V, and the high-end electronic door unlocked with a click, as if welcoming its owner.
No denying, the places where the wealthy reside are indeed lavish. This penthouse reserved half of its space for security, yet the remaining living room-sized area matched the size of Mercer's base.