"Ten minutes remaining."
As midnight approached, many people in Japan were destined to have a sleepless night.
Because a video game that countless people had been waiting for was about to be officially released.
Due to time zone differences, Asia would be the first region to experience Cyberpunk 2077.
Japan, because of its location, would be just slightly later than some other Asian countries.
At this very moment, for many Japanese players, every passing second felt like an entire year.
Even before its release, Cyberpunk 2077 had already become a global topic due to its unprecedented level of investment.
With that came an extraordinary level of attention.
So much so that even the Japanese government had stepped in to help promote the game, hoping to use it to solidify Japan's position in the video game industry.
"Five minutes remaining."
Murakami Kazuo was the world's most famous game media reviewer. In the past, he had always been granted early access to Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's games, allowing him to publish detailed evaluations ahead of release.
But this time was different.
This time, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment did not distribute full versions of the game early to well-known figures. Instead, they chose to let everyone experience the game at the same time as regular players.
According to Takayuki himself, allowing anyone to play early because of their status or position would be unfair—both to the players who were waiting, and to the person who played early.
Murakami Kazuo found the reasoning quite sound.
A game of this caliber didn't need any pre-release review hype.
All it needed was the official launch day—when everyone could experience it together.
That feeling, he believed, was the best of all.
"Three minutes remaining."
Starting today, Murakami Kazuo had given everyone in his company a long holiday—a full week off.
And if anyone felt that wasn't enough, they could apply for additional leave, which he would approve without question.
In the end, everyone had at least ten days off to fully immerse themselves in Cyberpunk 2077.
Even Murakami Kazuo's review website had temporarily halted updates. Basic maintenance would continue, but all other work was suspended.
After all, as a game review media outlet, playing games was part of their job.
Playing Cyberpunk 2077 was work.
And Murakami Kazuo's company wasn't the only one doing this.
Many well-known game development studios also granted their employees time off during this period.
In fact, they had no choice.
Anyone working in the industry had already been completely captivated by Cyberpunk 2077—to the point where they could barely focus on work.
They talked about it every day.
Counted down to release day obsessively.
So rather than forcing low-efficiency work, it was better to let them take time off and enjoy the game.
After all, once Cyberpunk 2077 launched, other games would have little chance of competing for at least one or two weeks.
Every game company wisely avoided releasing their own titles during this window.
They all knew they couldn't compete with Cyberpunk 2077.
At the very least, they would wait until the hype died down.
The same was true for Suri Electronics' gaming division.
Having learned from past experience, Uehito Hayakawa also approved a long holiday for that department.
He even noticed that some of the younger departments had been requesting a lot of leave recently.
Hayakawa estimated that at least half of them were taking time off because of Cyberpunk 2077.
Just like people taking leave during the World Cup to watch matches.
There were only a handful of top-tier games like this in the world—so why not just let them go?
Still, Hayakawa was also deeply curious.
He wanted to see just how well this game would perform.
Did it truly deserve this level of attention?
At Mickfow's headquarters, Myron Case could only look helplessly at recent attendance records.
His company had a lot of young employees.
They had all requested leave at the same time.
Their reasons varied—some said a child had been born, others claimed their parents were gravely ill, some said they were going to inherit family property.
One even claimed he was going to "burn Night City to the ground."
Mad.
They were all mad.
That was the only conclusion Myron Case could reach.
The younger the workforce in an internet or electronics company, the more severe the collective leave situation became.
When everyone broke the rules together, management could only turn a blind eye.
"One minute remaining."
In Japan, the game's release countdown had entered its final moments.
Midnight was the official release time for the digital version.
At the same time, many Gamestar Electronic Entertainment official stores in Japan already had long lines of people waiting to buy physical copies.
Late at night, some larger stores already had hundreds of people in line.
This was a spectacle that hadn't been seen in a long time.
Even the release of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's latest consoles hadn't drawn crowds like this in years.
"Thirty seconds remaining."
Murakami Kazuo sat upright in front of his console, frantically pressing the confirm button on his controller, desperately trying to force his way into the already pre-downloaded Cyberpunk 2077.
But every response from the console was cold and unyielding.
"Sorry, this game has not yet been released. Please wait until the official release time to begin."
"Release countdown: 00:00:29"
The countdown continued.
But Murakami Kazuo refused to give up.
He kept mashing the confirm button.
He felt that if he tried hard enough, he might trigger some kind of bug—just enough to get in a few seconds early.
"Ten seconds remaining."
He pressed even faster.
Still, the console's response remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, at Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's headquarters, the night-shift internet maintenance staff were staring at the server monitors without blinking.
They all knew this was a special day.
Even before the game's release, the servers were already under enormous pressure.
Countless users were continuously accessing Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's servers—the load comparable to a high-frequency DDoS attack.
Sweat ran down everyone's faces as they feared even the smallest problem at this critical moment.
"One second!"
Ding!
Across Japan, countless Gamestar Electronic Entertainment consoles simultaneously popped up a notification.
"Cyberpunk 2077 is now officially released. Welcome to Night City—enjoy life in Night City!"
Murakami Kazuo, Oda Okin, Oda Okin Sr., and countless other players all pressed the confirm button at the exact same moment.
The Cyberpunk 2077 logo filled the screen.
The game had released.