Chapter 1 Prologue – Outlaw in Cyberpunk

 I fell into the world of a cyberpunk game I watched lightly half a year ago.

Literally light, I’m not a fan of this game, and I can’t remember the strategy.

And, I fell here basically naked.
Nanomachines in the body, cyberware, biometric IDs that everyone here has… but I don’t have any of that.

In a dark future city with a dystopian worldview, I’m an illegal resident of the lowest class with nowhere to go and nothing I can do.

I’m f**ked.

* * * * *

And half a year has passed.
Not exactly half a year, but about five months.

It was five months, but it was a very hellish time that felt like five years.

Many things happened in that time span.

Having endured so many ups and downs, thus I may have exaggerated a bit.

 And yet, here I am.

 In the world of cyberpunk game, where are megacity of the Americas—a metropolis full of chrome and neon, drones and robots, only Dusk City feels familiar like home.

It started with suddenly falling into the middle of a street full of neon signs while taking a shower and humming lululala in the bathroom at home.

After the research center was blown up due to a dispute between companies, I managed to escape and survive.

However, only my life was saved, and I had no proper status, no money, and no ability to stand on my own.
Help me please! I even tried praying to god for help.

Luckily, I entered a company under a high-ranking CEO, worked like a dog, and somehow ended up here…

Looking back on the past like this, it makes me sad.

What did I do wrong to end up in the middle of this f**king city?

Of course, I liked cyberpunk.

A gigantic forest of skyscrapers, media façades filling up the walls, and monorails running through the city center, and billboards full of oriental paintings underneath…

Internet encompassing both cyborgs and androids, machines and humans, a system of surveillance and control that coexists within vastness and freedom.

And megacorp overlooking everything, and small bars in the slums.
A decadent arcade filled with purple and blue lighting.

All of this in one game.
It’s romantic in itself, how could you not like it?

But I don’t like it to the point where I want to end up in it myself.

It is said that anything is beautiful when viewed from a distance, and cyberpunk is also beautiful when enjoyed only as a game.

Just because technology and science have advanced doesn’t mean it’s good.
At least here, there are many, many times more bad than good.

Even in Korea in the 21st century, not the Dusk City of 2107, where I am now, the plight of illegal immigrants without their resident registration card was truly hopeless.

An unidentified person from a past world, in this insanely controlled society where every citizen’s biometric ID is stored in a database, tracked and monitored through the nanomachines inside the body, and every job and entire society is under Megacorp’s grasp.
What is the situation of illegal immigrants?

So in long story short, terrible.

Although, he somehow managed to find a job and a fake identity by beating the CEO.

 It does not change that he is in a position of fear that he will be detected whenever drones, city police, or corporate android soldiers pass by.

And it doesn’t end there.
It is not just a problem that only he is experiencing, but a fundamental problem of this city and the world itself.

Cyberpunk is a world where it is difficult for people to make a living.
It’s not harsh, but really harsh.
It’s not just hard, it’s f**king hard.

It’s like the world of an edge lord, where gangs run rampant—the police who have to stop it are corrupted, life is tough due to the tyranny and extortion of the companies that dominate the city, and environmental pollution has reached the level of world doom.

People have lost hope and are addicted to real drugs and even virtual electronic drugs.

Hundreds of people take their own lives every day, but companies don’t even care.

Because they have reached a level of technology sufficient enough to replace the meager human labor force.

Even if hundreds of people die, thousands of workers migrate to the city of freedom and openness with unrealized fantasies.

In a world where human life is worth less than that of a fly, it is a city where people die more easily than a fly.
Well, a dystopia is not a dystopia without lots of death.

How will I get out of this world?

Even Korea in the 21st century, which was so cursed, is like a paradise on earth when compared to this place.

I don’t know how many times I cried because I missed the old world.

There are so many games that I have enjoyed playing, why the hell did I