Cassidy didn't notice Mercer's gaze, he just sighed and said:
"The Chaotic Blade Association itself is a bunch of scoundrels and outcasts chased out by the Wanderers. I reckon a few of them were expelled by nearby families.
This temporary shelter location was probably known to them back when they were still with their families.
Our luck isn't great; these guys are likely operating on the nearby highways, perhaps too far from their base.
And this time, Ha Dabo is too fierce, so they chose to come here to hide...
It's my fault too; I haven't moved around for so long that I forgot to tell you to turn off the lights.
Otherwise, if it was an ambush, it wouldn't have been this troublesome at all. Two grenades, four guns, one face-to-face and we could have directly entered the endgame stage."
"It's not your fault; after all, you're just an old cowboy who was kidnapped a moment ago."
Mercer joked as he and Cassidy were tossing the bodies outside. Dust was still raging, and the wrecked first floor was no longer suitable for resting.
What a pity for that cup of coffee; Mercer didn't even get to take a sip.
"Ha... but you're right."
Cassidy didn't retort, sighing: "It seems like I'm not the only one who needs to adapt to the wilderness, there's also me."
"You seem to have been stable for quite a while now?"
Mercer turned his head to ask.
"...Yes, I got married before, had kids, and thought I could live a stable life. Planned with my family to settle in New America to farm for Biotechnology, start early retirement, and basically hadn't touched a gun since.
But then the kid fell ill and died, and my wife got killed by a landmine while transporting supplies for Military Science and New America during the war...
The crops we planted were sold, and Biotechnology hiked up the seed prices, making farming impossible, throwing the entire family into chaos."
He sighed: "I drifted for a while, left home, and only a month later was caught by the Chaotic Blade Association and ended up in this situation, almost at the hands of you young guys...
I might really be old, maybe after delivering you to Night City, I should just find a peaceful place to wait for the end."
Cassidy's expression turned somewhat gloomy.
Mercer, after a moment of silence, tossed aside the corpse in his hands, leaned against the door, and sighed: "You just haven't readjusted... Wanting to live stably in this world is a luxury dream."
"...You're right; it's not the time to breathe a sigh of relief yet." Cassidy forced a smile.
Tetsuya Daichi and Leon had already driven to the door, and Lucy and Kyoko had also come down from upstairs.
Mercer greeted them and was about to continue moving the bodies, but Kyoko pulled him back, eyes wide open:
"What are you doing! You're covered in blood!
Sit down quickly, Lucy, go get the pure water from our car...
Quick, take your clothes off, you've got so many holes in you, don't you feel pain!"
"It's fine... don't yank me, let's change location, go to the bathroom.
The living room on this floor isn't habitable; the wind's blowing sand everywhere."
Mercer obediently went with Kyoko to the bathroom, taking off his previously pilfered filthy jacket, then looked at the black customer service outfit in the mirror.
"Damn, I wouldn't have minded the dirt and would've changed clothes earlier... the black customer service outfit's ruined!
This thing's worth thousands, right? Tch, I wonder if it can be repaired..."
Mercer lamented as he unzipped the back and pulled down the clothes, revealing his bloodied upper body.
It actually wasn't that serious, just rubble from the exploded wall had covered him—those grenades used by the Chaotic Blade Association sure were packed with a lot of explosives.
"Now's not the time to be worried about these things!"
Kyoko, puffed up with anger, told him not to move around, helping him pull the black customer service outfit to his waist and took out a medical kit from the individual survival kit.
Inside were needles, antiseptics, some anti-inflammatory pills, a mess of antibiotics, and radiation-busting medicine.
Kyoko also brought a stool over for him to sit on, then stood to the side.
Mercer allowed Kyoko to carefully pick out the stones with tweezers, asking Leon outside, "Is your shoulder really okay?"
"Looks a lot better than you..."
Leon also unzipped his own black customer service outfit, tenderly feeling his clothes:
"Had I known, I would've changed too... Ugh, but those clothes from the Chaotic Blade Association are stinky and filthy..."
"Come with me, kid, you've got a puncture in your muscle. Those Chaotic Blade Association bullets probably aren't clean; you'll need thorough disinfection, it might hurt a bit."
Cassidy took the initiative to approach Leon, which relieved Tetsuya Daichi, who was worried and didn't know how to handle Leon's wound.
Meanwhile, Lucy, carrying the backpack, delivered the pure water to the bathroom, seemingly also wanting to help Mercer but not knowing what to do. After thinking, she said:
"I'll help tidy up the battlefield, throw the bodies out."
"I'll help too."
Tetsuya Daichi had the same thought, and the two busied themselves by piling the bodies together and scavenging the house and the Chaotic Blade Association's cars.
Mercer stayed stoic and silent—he found he had quite a tolerance.
But Leon was different. He climbed to the second-floor bathroom and was promptly poked with antiseptic cotton swabs by Cassidy's tweezers, practically yelping from the first moment.
"It hurts! Damn... ah, ahhh!!"
Cassidy, keeping a straight face, held him down with one hand, preventing Leon from moving: "Bear with it, learn from your boss."
"How can it be the same! If he got poked like I ... ow!!"
Leon's strange calls from the second floor amused Mercer until Kyoko playfully slapped his back: "Stop moving! You're spurting blood all over!"