"Damn, why does that sound off?" Mercer glanced at her, then leaned back on the sofa, looking lazy.
Used to waking up and immediately getting busy, he felt a bit out of place suddenly having downtime.
After listening for a while, Mercer found an opportunity and changed the topic to something he was interested in.
"Do you know a guy named Li De?" Mercer's sudden question made Mann instinctively turn to look at him.
Mann frowned: "I do, we're comrades-in-arms. When we retired, he invited me to Night City to continue working for New America... Do you know him?"
"I know him, he doesn't know me," Mercer paused and then said directly, "He's still in Dog Town now."
"Are you sure?" Mann was a bit surprised, "I thought after the ceasefire agreement came into effect, the New America people had all left... Back then, Arasaka cleaned up Night City pretty thoroughly."
"More or less, he barely escaped death, got sold out by his own people but was ultimately rescued by President Miles of New America."
After Mercer finished speaking, Dolio curiously asked, "Is that also thanks to your ctOS System? I heard Rebecca talking about it for a while, you developed a really awesome intelligence gathering system."
Rebecca, however, replied irritably, "You ask, he'll definitely say yes... but I suspect this guy has other sources of intelligence, so mysterious."
She glared at Mercer, seeming a bit annoyed by his napping with Lucy — in the afternoon, she noticed Mercer had been gone for a while, went looking for him stealthily, only to find him and Lucy sleeping soundly together.
Mercer shrugged, "Anyway, this guy is currently an FIA agent, just in hiding and hasn't been activated by New America yet. I wanted to know what you think of him."
Mann gave quite a direct answer: "A good person, a reliable comrade, a loyal soldier — he's different from me, he's willing to do anything for New America."
Sighing, Mann showed a rare, somewhat dejected expression, seemingly reminiscing about something. After a couple of seconds, he continued, "I wouldn't recommend dealing with him unless you plan on siding with New America."
"How's his skill level?" Mercer pressed on.
In the game, Li De was ultimately taken down by V in a single shot, but that definitely doesn't mean he's just some low-level thug easily killed by V.
As an agent, his skills are far from his strongest trait; his mind, strategy, and composure are what truly define his value.
"Well... let's put it this way, besides V, no one here should be able to rival him, and if he sets his mind on assassinating someone, even V might find it hard to escape," Mann spoke honestly.
V suddenly felt a headache coming on and raised her hand: "Hold on, hold on... what's this FIA business? I mean... aren't we hiding out in Dog Town to avoid trouble?"
She heard Mercer asking this and guessed he was definitely thinking about something involving New America.
No matter if Mercer wanted to cooperate with them or sabotage them... Either way, it's definitely going to be trouble.
"I know, but I guess once this is over, the Military Science people and New America will both be watching me," Mercer said.
"Why? Your hacking skills? Such a big New America shouldn't bother you just for that, right?" V replied.
Mercer chuckled lightly, "Honestly, if they truly understood my level, just by my hacking skills alone, if I were to apply for a job, I could walk straight into the White House with my bags."
V knew his skills were indeed impressive but had no idea just how good they were, looking at him suspiciously: "Really...?"
"But this time, it's mainly because of that exoskeleton," Mercer admitted directly, "Once the Military Science people study it, they'll probably see just how remarkable my talent is as its user.
In recent decades, Military Science has always been eager to find someone to succeed Morgan Black Hand, a reliable mercenary to help them vie for position in Night City and suppress dissent.
And New America's Miles... is even more complicated; I'm worried she'll see me as some poor hacker replacement."
Mercer felt he wasn't exaggerating and was pretty sure this would happen.
"So what are you going to do? Do you have a plan?" V asked, frowning.
"I do~ If I had no plan, I certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to hand this equipment over to Military Science just like that."
Mercer laughed, "My idea is to take the sweet reward first, then toss the bomb back to them. No matter how they plan to recruit me, let's see their benefits first."
"Aren't you afraid they'll treat you like a guinea pig?" Rebecca picked up on the implication of his words.
"That would be great; the implants in my body, weren't they just a free experiment for someone who wanted to treat me as a guinea pig?" Mercer laughed heartily.
Smiling, he said, "Once we've taken the benefits from Military Science and New America, we'll just keep jumping around, maybe leap over to Kangtao or Arasaka, and move out of Dog Town to officially live in the Night City urban area."
"That's pretty ambitious," V evaluated.
Mercer, however, was confident: "Just wait and see, but we still have to try to negotiate cooperation with Military Science and New America for now.
While selling them the exoskeleton this time, we'll establish some connections, then do our best to reap the benefits thereafter."
Mercer had always decided, if Stout was reliable, he'd genuinely consider establishing some short-term cooperative relations with Military Science to gain as many benefits as possible.