Waking Up!

{Apartment 0923, Megabuilding H10, Little China, Watson}

...

My head was pounding as I woke up. I remembered drinking a lot last night, so the headache checks out. A tune was playing in the background, something that sounded like a piano mixed with a little bit of the blowing horn thing.

'Who the fuck is listening to this crap' I thought as I turned away from the soft white light that was so not good for my headache. A wave of nausea and dizziness hit me, and I dry heaved a couple of times, my hand pressed against my chest as I wheezed. As I moved around, my hand knocked against something, something hard and metal that had no business being anywhere near mebed.

'Ow... what the fuck.' I thought as I opened my eyes and looked around. I was definitely not in my bed, or even in my room because I sure as hell did not have a holographic projector in my room.

With a confused look, I leaned up and looked at the bed. It was a small space, barely enough for me to slide in. Instead of a wooden headboard like there should be, a weird protruding contraption of metal was behind me, with a few slits that were blowing out scented air.

'Huh, that's neat. Everything looks so futuristic,' I commented as I grabbed onto the edge of the bed and swung my legs out. As my feet touched the ground fairly quickly, I realized a couple of more things. The bed's height was low, just a single foot from the ground. The floor felt weird and grimy. I took my legs back up and looked down. The carpet had this weird hexagonal design, and it looked worn off. Dust covered the place, making me wonder when the last time it was cleaned was.

My eyes took in the neon blue reflection of the light, and my gaze turned upward, once again seeing the rotating projected screens. Behind that was the sofa, which looked decent, but my gaze was stuck to the rotating screens. It was still far away, but I couldn't figure out what it said. I was about to stand up when it happened. My vision kind of zoomed in. Like a computed glitch, the scene in front of me was broken down into pixels before I was able to see things more clearly.

Reading what clearly was an advertisement, a man was holding a glass of water with the words 'Real Water. Only 99$/Gallon.'

I backed away at the sudden change in my vision, and the pixelated feeling returned before my sense of perspective was restored; I closed my eyes and felt my eyelids with my fingers. 

'What the fuck is happening?' I panicked. Now, realizing that something was clearly wrong as I stood and walked through the grimy floor, my eyes were immediately caught in the view from the window to my left. The window was shaped like a long rectangular slab, but what was more important was the view. My eyes took in the scene of a car flying in the distance. My eyes did the same thing again as they zoomed in, giving me a clear view of the vehicle that had something out of an Iron Man movie as thrusters were firing from under the car.

The view of the dystopian city gave it away already as my mind finally caught up. The headache and vertigo, further enhanced by the zooming-in eye trick, made it hard to figure out. While playing the game, I didn't spend much time thinking about or even looking at the apartment where we started out, but things finally clicked as I stumbled back. The glowing hot pink words upon whom my enhanced eyesight was fixed told me the whole story.

'KIROSHI...'

The word was quite famous, as it had an entire cybernetic line associated with the company. I wouldn't have remembered it if it hadn't been so iconic and hadn't been part of the game as the intro mission. As the implication of where I was set, I stumbled back. The grimy scene and the slightly sour smell made a little sense now. As I got further away from the bed, the smell got worse.

My eyes zoomed around the room until, finally, I looked at the panel just behind me. Set aside in a small space, likely meant for a small office, I rushed toward the computer screen and tapped on the messages button. My eyes glazed over the name displayed on the open message, and I took a sigh of relief.

...

[Rent paid]

[From: Megabuilding Administration]

[To: Nooa Delwyn]

[Dear Sir/Madam,

Our records show that your advanced rent for the whole year has been credited under your name. According to the tenancy agreement, VD-2131232134, in addition to the 5% discount on the bill, you can now enjoy an additional 5% discount on all amenities offered across all Megabuildings. Additionally, access to the restricted marketplace on floor 23 has been added to your personal Militek Paralink MK1 OSC.]

...

"It's not V, thank fucking God." I cursed aloud, and my voice felt a little different. It sounded a little deeper than I was used to, which pissed me off some more. Now that the primary crisis was dealt with, aside from the fact that I could be in a perfectly lucid dream, there should be a better explanation.

'How the fuck am I in Cyberpunk. This better be some elaborate prank.' I walked over to the door and stared at the latch. The fact that I didn't know if it had a biometric lock or not was another hurdle altogether as I stared at the handle.

'Nope, I'll deal with this later.' I turned around and took in the room. The room was an exact replica of the one that V had at the start of the game before everything went to shit. My eyes glitched and zoomed across the room as I got used to using them. They responded to my thoughts... although not my thoughts. It's a little difficult to explain. It's like a new muscle that I had that I now knew existed and had complete control over. My vision zoomed in when I wanted to get a clear look at things, and it didn't every other time.

My right hand, which thankfully was flesh and bones, darted up as I felt the cold metal port behind my right ear. When I turned to look at my left wrist, there was a small port that was very easy to pry open. I grabbed onto the cord and pulled, and a wire, almost 2 feet long, came out of my port. V famously used these to breach through everything and anything and have his/her way through any secured system.

'Will breaching be as easy as it was in the game?' I thought before I pulled myself together. Aside from the fact that I had no intention of going against crews, gangs, and netrunners, the fact that I was in one of the harder worlds in fiction history was a concern.

'Why did it have to be Cyberpunk? I would have liked Pokemon, Digimon, any-fucking-mon over this shit world...'

"Fuck-" I cursed aloud with universally understood frustration. My eyes turned to look at the bathroom to the side, but there was no entrance to it. Surprisingly, the idea of an open bathroom was what mankind's future held. I stared at the green curtain made out of an unknown circular metal tied together, kind of like the entrance to a fortune teller's mysterious room that held a witch with her circular glass ball.

The disturbing thought that the bathroom had no door was quickly pushed aside as I walked over and looked at the mirror; like everything in this world that had some weird twist, the mirror was set to non-reflection mode. When I stared at it for a moment, a couple of options appeared in the corner frame of the mirror. Most of them were jibber jabber to me, but one option stood out. It was an icon for the unlock button, and when I clicked on it, the aluminum plating of the mirror changed into a mirror.

The change was accompanied by a couple of computer-generated sounds. While the change was fascinating in itself, my vision was focused on the face in front of me. I looked nothing like me, yet I knew that face. It was the de-aged version of the basic ass first preset the game gives you when you load in male V. I remember making him my first V as I had been too lazy and excited to play the game, which was then ruined by the bugs.

I did come back to the game 3 years later with Phantom Liberty and then created the new character, but that time, I went for the female V.

'Should I be glad that I was not ported over to the female version of the character I created.' The thought stayed in my mind as I stared at my new reflection. Still, this face was quite handsome, as CDPR had made some effort to create the preset. The cybernetic implants that went over the side of my ears and through my eyes looked way cooler than they did in the game.

The reality of my situation slowly began to settle in; it came with the panic of what I was going to do now. I looked to be in my late teens, with school not being a thing. I don't know how I paid for this apartment or if I should be expecting some parents or some other bullshit.

'At least school isn't a thing in this world. I don't think I'll get anything out of school in the dystopian future anyway, not with all my knowledge about the game that revolved around the mercenary business. I wonder if there is a V in this world,' I thought as I shifted back and clicked on the lock icon once again. The mirror once again went through its whirling noise as I walked out of the bathroom...area.

My eyes shifted to the glowing red vending machine, appropriately titled Night City Vending Machine. The selection of Burrito it offered was limited to 3, so at least I won't have to go out of the apartment just yet. 

'Although that depends on how much money I have... it's called Eurodollars, right?' I thought, and my thoughts went back to the game. Everything had been gamified for me to enjoy in Cyberpunk 2077. I wonder how everything functions now without things like that.

'Status? Help? Inventory?' I tried out several commands, but nothing worked. With nothing else in mind, I tried to open the interface of the UI of my cybernetic implants. My eyes were overtaken by a red screen that appeared in front of me. It had several menus that looked interesting, but it was the last one that caught my eye. It was a chance for me to salvage this situation as I thought of opening the last menu.

[CDPR]

...

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AN - A Cyberpunk 2077 SI fanfic. It will be a slow ride, so buckle up! I read The Ghost in the City and knew I needed my own version, especially with a male MC. As good as Ghost in the City was, I needed a better connection with the story, so here it is.