[Notice: The rent for your apartment is one month and five days overdue. In accordance with the contract drawn up on June 4, 2076, our company will forcibly seize all property located in your apartment and deactivate your access card in twenty-five days. Please settle all outstanding debts as soon as possible. – Sender: Meridian Property Management. Recipient: Leon Mercer]
[Dear Mr. Leon Mercer, employee ID 102512, due to the fact that you have been absent from work without authorization in recent days and failed to notify your superiors, as well as a total of five unexcused absences during three years of employment, in accordance with company regulations you have been relieved of all duties and your employment has been terminated. In addition, your absence caused a delay in the execution of one contract, resulting in damages of 35,000 dollars to the company, which you are required to compensate. The company has initiated forced collection and seizure proceedings, taken all of your external prosthetics, and frozen your personal account. Please compensate the remaining 26,000 dollars within five days. Otherwise, professional debt collectors will come to your address to collect the debt. – Sender: Westlake Systems. Recipient: Leon Mercer]
[Hey, choom, the neural stimulation package you ordered was just delivered to your door. Seriously, this latest dream-video is incredible! Three white-haired, red-eyed girls in various uniforms, they’ll blow your mind. No kidding, you have the best taste out of everyone I know. – Sender: Victor Lee. Recipient: Leon Mercer]
[Dear Mr. Leon Mercer, the ashes of your parents have been taken care of by our specialists. In accordance with your wishes, they will be scattered far out at sea, in a part of the ocean that has not yet been polluted. As you know, coastal waters are almost completely contaminated. Our company can provide the deceased with an untouched marine environment and allow them to rest in peace. Choose Blue Horizon Funeral Services and enjoy the beauty of the world that comes after death. – Sender: Blue Horizon Funeral Services. Recipient: Leon Mercer]
…
The stench of rotting garbage spread through the filthy streets.
Homeless people lay wherever they could, on dusty cotton mats.
On their heads they wore digital screens that flickered in all kinds of colors.
Compared to their dirty clothes, those somewhat greasy screens were undoubtedly the cleanest things they owned, like a gambler’s last chip, something they would be willing to do anything for.
Most of those homeless people lay on the ground.
Each of them had only a tiny piece of space for themselves, with straw mats or torn blankets beneath their bodies.
Occasionally, one of them, no longer able to endure the misery in which they lay, would get up and begin rummaging through street dumpsters in search of food.
“What a dump,” the man muttered contemptuously as he walked down the street like a zombie.
His impeccably tailored suit made the homeless instinctively move out of his way, even though both fear and malice could clearly be seen in their eyes.
Although he had already been fired, those clothes still allowed him to intimidate others and avoid some unnecessary trouble.
Leon inhaled the foul-smelling air, quickly left that filthy street and, after several turns, returned to his apartment.
He swiped his access card, the electronic door opened, and he stepped inside.
The moment he entered the apartment, the computer on the desk automatically turned on and displayed a whole pile of messages.
Each one seemed to tell part of the story of the situation he was currently in.
A situation that was already bordering on despair.
He tossed the packaged food aside, dropped onto the sofa, and leaned back exhaustedly.
Twenty-one years had passed since he came to this world.
Whenever he remembered his previous life, Leon would be overwhelmed by a deep sense of hopelessness toward the world he now lived in.
In this era of incredibly advanced technology, the living standard of the ordinary person was still desperately low.
The poor were so poor that they could not even afford underwear, while the rich were still devising every possible way to extract the last eddie from their pockets.
And then there were the merciless working conditions and endless working hours.
Sixteen hours of work a day was considered standard.
When some emergency arose, people would even take stimulants to steal a few more hours from the time meant for sleeping and continue working.
These five days of striking had simply been the best days of his entire working life, a rare and precious dream.
“And now it’s time to wake up.”
Leon pulled out a box from under the table.
If there was anyone to blame, he could only blame his own stupidity.
You transmigrated into another world with all your memories intact, and instead of ending up as the heir of some wealthy family, you were born into a completely ordinary household.
As if you got the chance to be born a second time, only to end up in the same shitty situation again.
Still, he could not blame his parents from this world.
They had done everything they could to provide him with the best possible conditions for growing up.
Everything began to fall apart after his parents died in a traffic accident.
The man who caused the accident was himself just another unfortunate person.
Three people died in the collision, so in the end Leon did not even have anyone to take revenge on.
After losing his parents, the pillars of his life, there was no longer anything in this world that he was particularly attached to.
So he decided that he would at least enjoy the time he had left while he still could.
He opened the box and saw a brand-new screen inside, with a small chip beside it.
Neural Stimulation could directly stimulate the user’s brain and induce a dream-like experience.
After inserting a dream chip, the user could completely immerse themselves in the physical sensations of the person who made the recording.
Smells, heartbeats, pleasure, and three angelically beautiful, white-haired and red-eyed women.
That was exactly the kind of dream chip Leon had bought with the last of the money he had left for entertainment.
In a way, it was very similar to the braindance from the game he had played in his previous life, Cyberpunk 2077.
Both were cheap ways for a person to escape reality, if only briefly, and surrender themselves to pleasure.
Come to think of it, this world was pretty similar to the Cyberpunk universe anyway.
Everything was equally fucked up!
Leon skillfully lifted the screen, inserted the chip, and was just about to surrender himself to the experience when he noticed that the box he was still holding in his hand was not empty.
“Oh? A free gift?”
Leon examined the box for several moments and only then carefully noticed a hidden inner compartment.
When he opened it, he saw a device worn on the head, a semicircular ring of black, futuristic design, with two small glowing projectors in the middle.
When placed on the head, the projectors would shine into his eyes.
A strange, yet at the same time very familiar memory surfaced in his mind.
As a hardcore gamer from his previous life, Leon immediately knew what he was looking at.
Braindance Wreath from Cyberpunk 2077!
“Strange… That guy gave me this as a bonus? In this world, even the concept of Cyberpunk doesn’t exist.”
Leon muttered this to himself, but in the end curiosity still made him put the BD wreath on his head.
The instructions were written on a small piece of paper.
Leon followed them and activated the device.
His vision suddenly went completely dark, and then a series of dazzling characters appeared on the dimly lit interface:
[Welcome to Cyberpunk Life Simulation.]
[Would you like to begin the simulation of your life in the cyber world?]
[If you choose Yes, within a few minutes you will begin life again in the cyber world and experience it from the very beginning. If you are satisfied with the experience, you will also be able to launch a fully immersive simulation, truly descend into the cyber world and personally experience its life, customs, and culture. In any case, in the end you will receive the rewards that belong to you.]
[If you choose No, this simulator will be permanently shut down.]