Rowan never expected that after finishing yet another playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, a strange easter egg he had never heard of would suddenly appear on his screen.
As V, he once again stormed Arasaka's underground Mikoshi server and blew Adam Smasher's corpse apart with a shotgun. From an AV, he gazed down upon Night City as its new king—when suddenly, a line of text flashed before his eyes:
[Are you satisfied with the ending of this story, with everything that happened in this cyber world?]
[1 — I am satisfied, after all… regret always runs through life.]
[2 — I am not satisfied. If everything is destined to end in tragedy, why did I embark on this journey?]
Satisfied? How could he be?
Jackie's pistols were gathering dust in storage, David and Rebecca were reduced to cold text carved into gravestones, and V himself only had a few months left to live. No—there was no way Rowan could call that satisfaction.
Driven by his own frustration, he chose the second option without hesitation.
"Strange. Has no one triggered this easter egg before? I'll try again after loading a save… maybe record it and post it online to see what's going on."
He leaned forward, eyes fixed on the flickering dialogue box.
[Then, are you willing to try again, to make up for everything, to see if you can truly save a city… or burn everything to ashes? Even if this time, you might have to burn yourself?
Please consider carefully and give your answer. Once you make a choice, you cannot go back!]
[Player, please make your choice.]
[1 — Forget it. V is V, and I am me. No matter how strong I am in the game, it's fake.]
[2 — From this moment on, let my small flame ignite!]
As if it needed asking. Rowan smirked. He was definitely choosing the second option.
But then he paused. Something about this choice felt… different.
This wasn't a decision for V, the in-game character. It was directed at him—the player sitting in front of the monitor.
Wasn't that even more intriguing?
Rowan took a sip of cold cola, eager to see what would come next.
[Then, please choose your beginning. Out of kindness, I've provided you with a few choices.]
[Choice 1 — A Bakker nomad, a foolish hacker peering at the edge of the Blackwall out of curiosity.
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.]
[Choice 2 — A hacker from Arasaka Corporation's training facility, ordered to excavate Old Net data from behind the Blackwall.
A foolish gravedigger.]
[Choice 3 — A Voodoo Boys street kid, diving into Cyberspace with friends, ignorantly summoning demons.
A pathetic nobody.]
Rowan scanned the options, mind racing.
All three involved hacking, Cyberspace, the Blackwall, and AIs.
"Could it be… the one talking to me is an active AI?"
It made sense. According to the lore, players themselves were likely rogue AIs, with V merely a puppet controlled by them.
Now came the matter of choosing an identity.
The third option—Voodoo Boys—was immediately off the table. Rowan had always despised them almost as much as the Scavengers.
The Scavs were bottom-feeders: street parasites who butchered people for organs and cyberware. The Voodoo Boys were no better. Mostly Haitian netrunners, they were xenophobic and fanatically loyal to rogue AIs. Their ultimate goal was to breach the Blackwall and unleash AI upon the world, then kneel as dogs to their new masters.
To Rowan, they weren't human anymore.
Option Two, the Arasaka hacker, seemed grim but familiar. It reminded him of Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Arasaka's "training facility" wasn't a school but a prison camp for gifted children, forcing them to mine Old Net data day and night.
Dark, yes—but also interesting.
As for Option One—the Bakker nomads—that was V's original family background if you chose the Nomad life path. On the surface, there were no pitfalls. Rowan even thought he might be able to cross paths with V himself.
"Wait… this dialogue never specified what year I'd be sent to. Please don't drop me straight into the Fifth Corporate War…"
Before he could make his choice, the options on screen flickered. Option One, the Bakker origin, suddenly vanished.
Rowan froze. Then, not daring to hesitate, he immediately selected Option Two.
"Better to be Arasaka's mining rig than a damn Voodoo Boy."
He muttered as his finger clicked down, equal parts nervous and excited.