“Game playtest: Must record gameplay experience and bug feedback, valid play duration no less than 24 hours, reward 2000 yuan, accept?”
The notification chime in his social media backend suddenly rang, the message coming from an anonymous user with a solid black avatar.
“2000?”
In front of the computer, Jake’s eyes lit up instantly.
He was a graduate from an ordinary university, and because of physical health issues, he couldn’t go out to work, so he could only take various freelance gigs online to make ends meet—Photoshop editing, video editing, game boosting, account managing…
he did almost anything.
Having recently started making social media content, he had very few followers, so a gig that could earn two thousand in one go was something he naturally could not miss!
“I’ll take it!
Do I need to sign an NDA?”
The other party did not offer a single extra word, directly tossing over a download link.
After Jake clicked it,
a notification popped up at the bottom right corner of the desktop at lightspeed, showing download and installation complete.
“?”
Jake was stunned.
This fast?
Could it be an extremely small pixel indie game?
He moved his cursor to look at the desktop, where a brand-new icon appeared right there.
That was David Martinez’s avatar.
The bright yellow EMT jacket half-covered that sharp-featured young face, eyes vicious as a wolf, staring straight at him outside the screen.
Icon name: Edgerunners
Isn’t this the spin-off anime of 2077?
Did a game sequel come out?
Jake looked at it with a head full of question marks.
Wait, that’s not right.
For a AAA blockbuster of this scale, how could an internal playtest find a low-traffic booster like him?
And without even a formal developer rep contact, just an anonymous link?
Doubts aside.
With the agreed reward right before his eyes, Jake set up screen recording anyway and double-clicked the icon.
The screen went completely pitch black.
Only the hum of static in his headphones persisted, growing louder and louder.
Immediately following that.
A few lines of crimson text composed of fragmented code pulsed into view in the center of the darkness:
[Neural Interface Simulation Initiated]
[Reality Sync Protocol Activated]
[Breaching…]
These characters restructured, finally morphing into an extremely minimalist menu interface.
[Start Game]
[Load Game]
[Settings]
[Exit Game]
Jake clicked Start Game with practiced ease.
The screen went dark again, and in the blink of an eye, noisy ambient sounds came through.
Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk—!
The operational noise of an old washing machine echoed in the narrow space.
The screen slowly lit up.
Dim yellow light seeped into the laundry area of just a few square meters.
A teenager sporting a mohawk sat in front of the washing machine, staring numbly at the clothes inside through the round viewport of the machine.
“Is this…
David?”
Jake’s fingers were already resting on the WASD keys, ready to control the character’s movement: “Graphics are sharper than 2077, not bad…”
Before he could press a key.
Translucent white text popped up on the screen.
[You will take over David Martinez’s body and life trajectory.
Please shape him into your ideal form.
Night City has no limits, and all choices are yours to make.]
The crimson system text slowly faded in the center of the screen.
“No main quest?”
Jake looked carefully and found no quest log or anything similar on the interface.
Open world?
I can do whatever I want?
He sized up the apartment’s laundry area.
This should be…
part of the first episode in the original plot, right?
David washes clothes, then goes to Arasaka Academy for class.
But because he couldn’t afford the device upgrade fees, he secretly went to a ripperdoc to heavily mod his BD wreath.
Once connected.
The Arasaka Academy system would glitch out.
Then his parent would be called, ultimately leading to Gloria getting caught in a gang firefight on the way home and dying tragically, after which David was even subjected to school bullying.
“If it’s an open world…”
Jake pondered aloud: “I should be able to change the original storyline, right?
Mm, let me find Apogee first.”
David’s most famous cyberware was undoubtedly the Sandevistan, and based on its absurd performance, the player community generally considered it to be the Apogee in 2077.
As a spinal cyberware.
Upon activation, it slows time by 85%, serving as the core cyberware for blade builds.
If he gets this piece of chrome.
Forget bullying—unless it’s a scripted death, no enemy in the early game will stand a chance against him!
Jake cracked his neck and clicked on the game interface.
Many games have design choices that hide secret items near the spawn point.
According to the anime plot.
Apogee is very likely inside this apartment right now!
…
Beep!
Beep!
The washing machine stopped shaking, red text flashing in a loop: Insufficient balance, drying stopped!
Mom forgot to add funds again…
David was used to this and prepared to stand up to handle the wet clothes.
He tried to stand up, but his knees wouldn’t budge.
“…?”
What was going on?
David thought his legs were numb from squatting too long.
He took a deep breath, engaged his core, and tried again, yet there was still no sign of his body standing up.
What the hell?!
Did some garbage BD fry his neural system?
David tried to roll his eyes and call for his mother Gloria, only to find all sound trapped in his throat, unable to utter a single word.
He tried again to dial a holocall.
But the cyberware that had worked flawlessly every time before was now completely out of control, as if totally disconnected from his consciousness.
Just as David was at a total loss.
His legs stood up uncontrollably.
He paced back and forth in the laundry area, even doing little hops in place every now and then, shaking the tiles with loud thuds.
“Movement is pretty agile…”
A voice rang out directly deep inside his head.
Who?!
David scanned the narrow laundry area.
Besides himself, there wasn’t a second person here at all.
Hallucination?
No, it couldn’t be a hallucination!
Someone was controlling his body!
David left the laundry area and walked into the living room.
In the sunken living room sat a cracked, mottled leather sofa, where Gloria slept with that bright yellow EMT jacket draped over her.
David paused in the living room.
He looked around, and finally walked around the sofa, heading toward his own room.
Inside the room, a single bed was pushed against the wall, two movie posters with curled edges were stuck on the wall, next to a storage cabinet, with no other decorations besides these.
Jake controlled David to walk straight toward the storage cabinet.
This looked like a place where things could be hidden.
The cabinet was opened.
Inside lay miscellaneous items like old boots and a tablet, but the most eye-catching thing was the black plastic bag stuffed deep in the back.
“Yo?
A drop!”
“Pretty good luck!”
The plastic bag was yanked out.
Don’t, that’s…!
David’s pupils constricted; he wanted to stop it but couldn’t.
The bag was untied.
Inside was no Sandevistan, but several magazines.
The women on the covers wore revealing fluorescent lingerie, their body curves contoured to perfection under neon lights, their alluring facial expressions exceedingly provocative.
The magazine titles were written in exaggerated pink font: Night City Babes and Playboy.
Jake: “…”
Whoa, a legendary drop!
In the moment he went silent.
David’s face had already flushed red as a cooked shrimp.
Right now, he just wanted to stuff those things back in, lock the cabinet door tight, rush out of the room, and find a building to jump off!
Knowing the item wouldn’t be in David’s room, Jake controlled him to turn around and leave the room.
Those magazines were casually thrown onto the floor just like that.
Get back here!
At least help me clean it up!!
Mom was sleeping right in the living room, liable to wake up and see all this at any moment.
Yet David could only watch helplessly as his own body walked out of the bedroom without turning back, leaving behind a floor full of clutter, completely powerless.
Could there be anything more desperate in the world than this?
Leaving the room.
Jake checked out other corners in the apartment.
In the end, a black canvas duffel bag was uncovered.
He unzipped it.
Inside was a translucent biohazard disposal bag containing a section of spine covered in stained blood.
The metallic vertebrae segments were extremely precise, their sockets covered with fine neural connection points.
“Found you!”
Jake happily picked up this piece of cyberware.
Now as long as he finds a ripperdoc to install it, he’ll be overpowered!
Just as he was preparing to turn around and leave.
He suddenly heard a languid, exhausted female voice.
“Good morning.”
Gloria had been woken up.
She sat up from the sofa, the bright yellow jacket held tightly in her hands, her eyes still a bit hazy, habitually looking at her son first.
Then, her gaze landed on the duffel bag in David’s hands.
Gloria snapped awake in an instant.
“David…”
“What is that in your hand?”