"Good morning, Night City!"
"Yesterday's final body count in the Dead Man's Lotto came to a solid thirty!"
"Thanks to nonstop gang shootouts, Heywood alone accounted for ten."
"But a cop went down too—so I guess you're all paying up."
"Because the NCPD definitely won't swallow this one."
"Another blackout hit Santo Domingo."
"The power grid was sabotaged—yet another hacker job."
"Meanwhile, in Westbrook, Trauma Team is still collecting the bodies of cyberpsycho victims off the sidewalks."
"And over in Pacifica…"
"Well…"
"Pacifica is still Pacifica."
"I'm your old pal Stan."
"Stick with me and let's kick off another day in the City of Dreams."
…
The game opens with what sounds like a TV news host delivering a broadcast.
Though calling it "news" might be generous—it feels more like an entertainment program.
The host speaks of death casually, even jokingly.
In this city, human life seems cheap.
The opening cinematic lasts about three minutes.
Most players could choose to skip it.
Skipping cutscenes is basic gamer behavior, after all.
Many players don't care much about story—they care about gameplay.
As long as it's fun, that's enough.
But this time was different.
According to later official statistics, only 18% of first-time Cyberpunk 2077 players skipped the opening three-minute introduction.
A full 82% chose to watch it all the way through.
It might mean nothing.
Or it might mean everything.
Murakami Kazuo had no intention of missing a single detail.
When the opening ended and the game transitioned to the main menu, he even felt a hint of reluctance.
So many of the stories the host mentioned were fascinating.
Would he encounter them in the game later?
Oh right—the host mentioned Trauma Team earlier.
Maybe that would tie into a Trauma Team storyline.
Without hesitation, Murakami Kazuo entered the game proper, arriving at the character creation screen.
This character creator was easily the boldest he had ever seen in a video game.
The face customization alone was incredibly detailed.
The game even offered a facial scanning app that allowed players to scan their real faces into the game and play using their own likeness.
The technology was cutting-edge—but that wasn't what shocked Murakami Kazuo the most.
The truly daring part was that even intimate body parts could be customized—openly and without restraint.
Of course, the game included options to disable violence and similar elements.
But Murakami Kazuo understood that if he wanted the full experience, those options shouldn't be turned off.
Those settings were probably meant for livestreamers.
Public figures had to avoid showing inappropriate content on stream.
As for Murakami Kazuo himself, he could freely create whatever character he liked.
Without hesitation, he chose a female character.
Creating a beautiful woman was far more pleasing to the eye than sculpting a rugged old man.
He spent over an hour just on character creation.
By now, many players had already completed the early tutorial sections.
Murakami Kazuo was still deeply absorbed in tweaking facial features.
The customization really was extensive.
As expected of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
Other companies, constrained by political correctness, often ended up making unattractive characters.
Some cases were understandable.
Others were downright baffling.
Could you imagine an elf in a medieval fantasy game being uglier than an orc?
And worse—no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't make them look good.
Gamestar's character creator had none of those restrictions.
Beauty or ugliness was entirely up to the player.
Murakami Kazuo felt this was the correct approach—choice should always belong to the player.
And in a cyberpunk sci-fi setting, where people enhance themselves with cyberware and technology, only someone seriously unwell would choose to look ugly.
After two hours of tweaking, Murakami Kazuo finally created a character he was fully satisfied with.
She bore the striking beauty of a famous real-world celebrity—Murakami's favorite actress.
Playing the game with that face made the immersion incredible.
And while he was at it, he "fixed" a few of the actress's real-life flaws in the game.
No more flat chest—now she was far more elegant and curvaceous.
Perfect.
Murakami Kazuo smiled in satisfaction.
With character creation complete, it was time to choose a background.
There were ten different backgrounds available.
Some characters started as members of high society.
Others began as addicts at the very bottom of the food chain.
Each background had its own strengths and a unique main storyline.
While the ultimate endings eventually converged, the journey itself could be worlds apart.
Murakami Kazuo chose the Trauma Team background without hesitation.
The protagonist begins as a newly hired Trauma Team employee, fresh out of a successful interview.
The opening mission is semi-tutorial in nature, with an in-game character guiding the player through their first assignment.
The objective: rescue a VIP client with a Silver-tier membership.
Murakami Kazuo's task was to familiarize himself with Trauma Team's core mechanics.
In simple terms, Trauma Team are mercenaries with advanced medical rescue capabilities.
The rescue mission involved facing off against several armed criminals.
Since this was just a tutorial level, the difficulty was low.
A veteran gamer like Murakami Kazuo dispatched the enemies quickly and moved to locate the Silver VIP.
But just then, the main story kicked in.
Someone else had arrived ahead of them—and was already close to rescuing the VIP.
"Drop your weapon! Put the VIP down!"
The man was large and powerfully built.
Hearing the protagonist's shout, he reluctantly raised his hands and turned around.
"Jack?!"
The protagonist cried out in surprise.
"Long time no see, sis. Last time we met was when we went to apply for Trauma Team together."