There was a guy who absolutely adored Cyberpunk 2077.
To give you an idea of how much he loved it?
His playtime easily surpassed 1000 hours. He had seen every ending and even did ridiculous things like completing every side story and minor gig, and collecting every single type of item—three of each, to be exact.
One day, he watched the spin-off anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, on TV. He laughed, and then wept at its conclusion.
Later, when the game was updated, adding traces of the Edgerunners characters to 2077, he repeatedly paid "respects" to Adam Smasher using one of the show's characters' shotguns.
After "fucking" up Adam Smasher with the Carnage GUTS as usual, he found himself thinking for what felt like the umpteenth time, "If only it were me, I could have made them happy..." Having this thought had become a kind of daily ritual. He quit the game and, succumbing to exhaustion, fell asleep.
Little did he know that when he woke up, that very wish would become his reality...
Beep… beep… beep…
"…Good morning, Night City! Yesterday's casualty count quiz is…"
'So loud… Let me sleep a little more…It's my day off, I want to sleep in,' an alarm was going off somewhere.
He couldn't muster the energy to get up; it was too much trouble.
Besides, on his day off, he had no desire to wake up at a specific time.
Beep… beep… beep…
"…Sounds like a Cyberpsycho and Max-Tac are going head-to-head in Watson! And then…"
He left it ringing for a while, finding it too bothersome to deal with, but the incessant noise gradually started to piss him off.
"Haaah, so damn noisy… Give it a rest already."
Beep… BAM!!
Reluctantly, he got up and slapped the alarm clock with force, only for it to shatter into splinters right before his eyes.
"Wha—!? What the hell!?"
Shocked by the flying fragments, he looked at his palm and saw that it was composed of unfamiliar mechanical parts.
Panicked, he glanced around, taking in an unfamiliar ceiling and room that felt strangely familiar. His voice didn't even sound like his own.
Trembling with fear, he approached a mirror and saw a face with an ancient Egyptian-style platinum blonde haircut, Edo purple eyes that shimmered with a double-pupil effect—a Kiroshi.
It was the exact face of the player character V he had customized just before going to sleep.
"W-why…? I just went to sleep normally last night… And this room, isn't this the Corpo Plaza apartment?"
Spinning around to look, the room was furnished with what were clearly high-end decorations that exuded presence.
But the interior design was subtly different from the standard version.
"This… this is the one with the MOD applied."
It seemed the interior mod for the apartment was active. Since he had numerous mods installed in the game he was playing before bed, it was possible they were all applied now.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, a sudden headache struck and static noise flickered across his vision.
"Guh…!? What the…!!"
The next instant, a massive amount of information bombarded his mind like an explosion, triggering flashbacks of various memories.
The sheer volume of data gave him the sensation of his brain, which shouldn't even be capable of feeling pain, convulsing.
Unable to withstand it, he collapsed to his knees, rolling on the ground, able to do nothing but writhe as he vomited.
"Gaaaaah!? Ugh…"
He was reliving the lives of other people, flashing before his eyes one after another.
There was no time to properly process the information, but it seemed to be the memories of this body's original owner.
Like the last character he had played in the game, the Life Path appeared to be Corpo, but it seemed the owner had somehow managed to leave Arasaka amicably about six months ago.
He gathered that for the past half-year, the owner had been holed up in this apartment, studying for the Ripperdoc licensing exam.
The final memory was of the owner, overjoyed at passing the exam, getting high on a neural booster, and drinking whiskey and Bolshevik Vodka like water before passing out.
'…Well, if I did that, I'd remember even memories from my past life.'
He sort of understood now. It seemed his current consciousness was a personality drawn in by the memories of his past life. However, recalling those memories created a jumbled sensation, as if the two personalities had been mashed together.
"Haaah… Haaah… So it's a past life, huh. I guess I died in my sleep."
He lay on the ground, covered in vomit. The overwhelming fatigue left him with no will to move…
"Hah, so… the mod changes are like a reincarnation bonus, I guess…??"
He stopped thinking when he saw a familiar UI in the upper left corner of his vision, mediated through the Kiroshi eyes, watching a bar rapidly refill.
"So all that headache and vomiting only drained my stamina…"
The next day, he woke to the stench of vomit. He sent all his clothes out using the Corpo Plaza's optional cleaning service and thoroughly washed himself in the shower.
After freshening up, he looked in the mirror again. He'd been too panicked the first time to notice, but his hairstyle was the Cleopatra-like one from a hair mod.
"Well, since this is reality, I guess hairstyles are practically infinite… but still… kinda weird."
With so many elements of his Corpo V playthrough present, he reached back to touch the chip socket near his posterior auricular muscle on a hunch. It seemed the Relic wasn't inserted.
"Thank goodness… If that thing was in there, I'd start questioning my very existence…"
That was just one of many things he realized he needed to re-check.
First things first: money. He had to check his eddies. The apartment was one thing, but whether he could afford tomorrow's meal was the primary concern.
"...Pretty sure I had over 200 million €$ by the end of the game… Yep, still there."
"Hmm… Even if 1€$ is about 150 yen, that's still 30 billion yen…
Not really an amount meant for a single person's wallet. Then again, with all the mods and extras seemingly applied, or maybe this life's original owner was just a killer investor and legitimately rich…
Feels kinda pointless to think about it seriously."
"Anyway, with this much cash, I could live without working a day for the rest of my life."
It seemed his current age was 20, and in the Cyberpunk world, going full chrome could let you live up to 150 years. Adam Smasher was proof enough of that.
"Well, money's no problem. I'm 20 years old with a fresh body, and… wow, these are big."
He gave his own chest an experimental squeeze, but a sudden feeling of emptiness made him stop.
"Alright then… what year is it anyway?"
He remembered the circular map and time display in the upper right corner of his UI. Focusing on the time area brought up a calendar.
"I even know how to use this instinctively… It's 2072. So that means David is… still 15? Probably just about to enter Arasaka Academy? Wait, is Arasaka Academy even a high school? …Hmm, not sure."
He decided to table that for now and check his weapons and inventory. Procrastinating on the bigger questions, he headed to the apartment's stash. What greeted him was a mountain of Tier 5 to Tier 5++ items…
"In the game, I'd just open a menu… Wha—!?"
It actually appeared. The menu screen UI he'd seen more times than his own parents' faces…
"Well, of course. If the mods are applied, this much is expected. Guess I shouldn't be surprised by this level of weirdness anymore."
Focusing on the inventory brought up weapon equipment screens and item lists. The equipped gear was identical to his final game save.
"Looks like the Ripperdoc mod isn't applied, though…"
Perhaps in its place were the actual Ripperdoc license, knowledge, and experience. What was the logic in having a magical inventory but not the convenience of the mod? It seemed the equipment menu allowed for instant clothing changes.
Large weapons seemed to materialize from nowhere, while smaller ones like pistols could be concealed under clothing. Incredibly convenient.
Checking the implant screen revealed a body utterly filled with chrome. Perhaps due to the implant slot expansion mod he'd installed, the core system slots contained a Sandevistan, a Berserk, and a Cyberdeck simultaneously.
"Isn't this just a one-way ticket to cyberpsychosis…?"
The amount of chrome installed was clearly enough to risk losing his humanity. The Cyberware Capacity bar on the left side of the UI was maxed out.
He didn't know why he hadn't gone insane yet, but maybe recalling his past life's memories meant two personalities were sharing the mental burden. Whatever the case, as long as he didn't succumb to cyberpsychosis, it was fine. No problem.
Anyway, with this utterly broken setup, it was clear he could probably change the course of history in this life.
Knowing that, there was only one thing to do. …Well, maybe two or three things.
"First, secure the apartment next to the Martinez family in the H4 Megabuilding.
Then, befriend Jackie at El Coyote Cojo.
After that, become a mercenary recognizable to the fixers around town."
He could figure out the rest later.
For now, it was time to get moving…