Chapter 1

〈 Chapter 1 〉 0. Prologue

* * *

Cover view

A boy with a lively expression shouted, making a commotion. Incongruously, he held a pistol, and his companions around him muttered a few words.

Amid the noisy atmosphere, the scene changed to show a different place.

A dilapidated building covered in dust. Just as the sunset was setting, the dust particles in the air sparkled, creating a fantastic background. A man stood against this backdrop, with another man lying in front of him.

The man on the ground, spitting out blood, slowly closed his eyes. In a hoarse voice, he vented his grievances and anger.

Thud. His head fell, and the man standing alone turned his gaze to the sky.

The camera followed, slowly rising to the sky, eventually filling the screen with the red sunset.

"Wow... They say it's a masterpiece, and it really isn't a joke."

The screen turned black, and the game's credits began to roll. Jinhyun, who saw this, was amazed.

'The Cyberpunk'. This masterpiece, released three years ago, had taken all of his leisure time over the past two months.

Interactions with his colleagues and NPCs set as enemies, and numerous branching points during the story progression. The ending left a lingering impression, hinting at another story.

True to its massive 4 terabytes, the game's content was incredibly rich.

"But there are four more stories like this?"

However, just seeing one ending doesn't mean it's over. 'The Cyberpunk' has five cities in total, and he had only completed the story in one of them.

It wasn't for nothing that it was called the masterpiece of the century. Jinhyun felt his heart race at the thought of the stories that would unfold in the other cities.

160 hours of playtime. At this point, he should be tired, but there was no sign of it.

"Oh, what should I do?"

Jinhyun turned his head to check the time. The short hand of the clock pointed to the number 1.

He had finished work and showered around seven, so he had been playing for about six hours. He needed to wake up at 7:30 to go to work the next day, so even if he went to sleep immediately, he would only get six and a half hours of sleep.

But Jinhyun, immersed in the aftertaste of the ending and feeling a surge of excitement, couldn't choose to go to sleep right away.

"I should go to sleep... but let's just set up the second playthrough and then sleep."

After watching all the cookie videos that appeared after the game's credits, he returned to the main screen. Jinhyun, who had once again marveled at the results of his choices, quickly moved the mouse.

"Let's see."

To start a new story, there were two options: New Game and New Game+. Jinhyun pondered between the two.

New Game means starting a new game with a new character, while New Game+ means continuing with the character used in the previous playthrough to start a new game.

After hesitating between New Game and New Game+, Jinhyun clicked on New Game.

"New wine in new bottles."

Since he had completed the first playthrough normally, he thought he would set a concept and proceed in a completely different style this time.

This time, he wanted to go for a more straightforward and bold style.

After pondering the concept for a moment, Jinhyun roughly set the character he would play in his mind.

In the first playthrough, he was a cyborg, so this time, an enhanced human?

No, in the first playthrough, he played as a gunner, so this time, he would play as a swordsman. But enhanced humans don't have the same cool factor.

There's a romantic ideal of being a swordsman, right? A cyborg or enhanced human swordsman? They just don't have the same flair compared to a pure human swordsman.

He also wanted to hear the interactions with his colleagues as a pure human protagonist.

"Then, let's go with natural..."

Natural, meaning a pure human, has one disadvantage.

That is, the physical abilities cannot be raised above a certain level. In 'The Cyberpunk', the maximum physical ability of a character is LV10, but a pure human, without any enhancements or modifications, cannot exceed LV5 no matter what.

It was a reasonable limitation. Human physical abilities have a limit to how much they can grow through training, and this limit is far shorter compared to the enhancements or modifications that allow humans to transcend their limits.

However, Jinhyun, who wanted to enjoy this playthrough more boldly, had a method.

"Let's set the concept properly this time."

Using 'cheats' and 'trainers' to manipulate the game's values and change them to his desired direction.

'The Cyberpunk' was a game that had been out for three years, and as such, cheats and trainers were easily available.

Since the last playthrough started from the bottom and reached the ending, it wouldn't be bad to try this once.

Jinhyun used cheats and trainers to significantly modify the initial abilities and proficiency of his character. He then completed the character setup by loading the customization data he had already purchased.

Ashen silver hair and deep blue eyes. A handsome man stood with a savage smile, waiting for the game to start.

Jinhyun nodded at the sight.

"Looks good as always."

It was worth spending 50,000 won on a customized character. There was no need to have an ordinary appearance and body in the game.

"Then, before we start... let's set the name."

'Ash Ronmore'. He set the name and reviewed his character setup to ensure everything was correct.

*

Character Name: Ash Ronmore

Gender: ◀ Male ▶

* Appearance Settings *

(Expand▼/Collapse▲)

Alignment: Chaos – Neutral

(Expand▼/Collapse▲)

Statistics (Current/Max)

Physical Ability – ◀ 12/10 ▶

Mental Strength – ◀ 10/10 ▶

Remaining Stat Points – 0

Proficiency (Current/Max)

Blades – ◀ 12/10 ▶

Guns – ◀ 0/10 ▶

Cyber Networking – ◀ 0/10 ▶

Riding – ◀ 0/10 ▶

Manufacturing – ◀ 0/10 ▶

Remaining Proficiency Points – 0

*

"Okay, everything looks good. Let's start with this."

After confirming the character sheet and ensuring there were no issues, Jinhyun clicked 'Character Setup Complete' and moved to the location settings.

Five massive cities centered around the Central Federal Government appeared.

John City

Wayne City

Connor City

Cyber City

Punk City

Jinhyun smiled at the names of the cities.

"Wow, it's ridiculous to look at again."

Anyone familiar with the developers of 'The Cyberpunk' would recognize the city names. Jinhyun, who knew nothing when he started the first playthrough, now saw things differently.

John Wayne Connor.

Cyberpunk.

The city names were simply the developer's CEO's name and a slice of the game's world.

It was a silly joke, but the game was so well-made that no one could deny it. It occasionally became a topic of ridicule in the community.

Anyway, Jinhyun, who had a different impression of the city names, chose one of the five cities.

Do you want to choose Wayne City? ­

­ Y/N ­

The reason for choosing Wayne City was simple. He had already cleared John City in the first playthrough, and he knew nothing about the others, so he chose Wayne City, the next in line.

Jinhyun clicked Y on the question that appeared. The monitor turned black, and the scene changed.

The opening video was about to play, but the game ended there.

The opening video seemed different from the one at the start, but he decided to save it for the next day after work.

After completing the character setup, Jinhyun returned to the desktop and looked at the clock on the taskbar.

It was already 2 AM. Jinhyun sighed.

"Ah... I'll be tired again tomorrow."

He usually turned off the computer and went to bed at midnight, but he had gone over time today because of the ending and setting up the second playthrough.

Jinhyun set his phone alarm for 7:30 AM, forced himself to lie down, and closed his eyes.

'Gotta clock out early tomorrow and start the second playthrough right away.'

With this expectation in his heart.

However, the next day, when Jinhyun opened his eyes, he was no longer on Earth.

"...What?"

* * *

Oh