The characters in this game were, undeniably, nothing more than lines of code—but Murakami Kazuo felt as if they were truly people living in this city.
On the street, he saw a group bullying a small, scrawny guy. Acting on instinct, Murakami Kazuo rushed in and started fighting them.
Shooting them dead didn't draw the attention of the law enforcement officers, because those people already had bounties on their heads. Capturing them alive would have earned the full reward; killing them only paid half.
But the small guy who had just been bullied wasn't a good person either. He was another low-level figure operating in the gray zone. Taking advantage of the protagonist's carelessness, he hacked the protagonist's optical implants, temporarily blinding them, then stole the protagonist's car.
In the end, the protagonist had to pay three thousand credits in insurance before the insurance company compensated them with a new vehicle.
Night City really was dark—there wasn't a single good person!
That was Murakami Kazuo's new conclusion.
Even just wandering around the city felt incredibly interesting to him.
It seemed like something different could happen in every corner.
On his very first day alone, he had already been roaming all over the city nonstop, to the point where he almost forgot that the game even had a main storyline.
The amount of content in this world was absurdly overflowing—there was simply too much of it. Even just the opening portion felt like something that could never be fully exhausted.
He even felt that if one truly played this game patiently, it might last an entire year… no, probably several years.
There was no denying it—the price of the game was absolutely worth it. He had never seen a game with this much content.
Still, the main storyline had to continue. Although there was plenty he hadn't explored yet, he wasn't a completionist obsessed with 100% achievements. He also had another task: to quickly clear the game once and give it a basic evaluation, so he could offer a reasonable purchase recommendation to players who were still on the fence.
And honestly, even if asked right now, he would have no hesitation in giving it a five-star recommendation.
Just the opening content alone was already more than enough to satisfy the vast majority of players.
Murakami Kazuo returned to the main storyline.
The next part of the story followed the protagonist, V, and another major character, Jack, as they carried out missions together.
Sometimes they had to cooperate to rescue VIP clients; other times, Jack would take side jobs as a mercenary, dealing with underworld troubles to earn extra money.
According to Jack himself, he came to Night City to become a "big shot." Even if he could only be one for a single day, an hour—or even just a minute—he felt his life would have been worth it.
So even if some mercenary jobs paid poorly, as long as they could earn him enough reputation, he would take them without hesitation, all for the chance to make a name for himself in Night City.
Because of this, Jack's mother and his girlfriend, Misty, had argued with him countless times.
Without realizing it, Murakami Kazuo played through another entire day. Spending time with Jack during this period felt almost like his own real daily life.
Both characters had their own troubles.
The player character, V, had to worry about rent, and in order to carry out missions more effectively, had no choice but to visit underground ripperdocs to install stronger cyberware—just to survive.
As a result, V accumulated quite a bit of debt.
Meanwhile, Jack continued running himself ragged in pursuit of becoming a big shot.
Murakami Kazuo gradually grew accustomed to the big guy's somewhat goofy demeanor.
Jack always looked after the protagonist, treating V like family.
If V ran short on cash, he could even call Jack directly to ask for some money. Jack never hesitated—he'd transfer the funds immediately, joking that V could pay him back later after becoming a big shot within Trauma Team.
And so, day after day, life went on.
This part of the game felt relatively calm—but only relatively.
Gamestar had laid the pacing exceptionally well. By this point, the story had already reached roughly half the length of a typical linear narrative, yet here it was still just the beginning.
Every ten or so minutes of gameplay, a sudden mission or unexpected event would pop up, pulling the player's attention straight back into the game, ensuring they stayed focused on the experience itself rather than anything outside it.
Throughout this opening section, Murakami Kazuo felt no fatigue at all. Without noticing, he played from four or five in the morning all the way until midnight.
If not for his body finally giving out, he would have kept playing.
But he was no longer as vigorous as he had been in his youth. Reluctantly, he crawled into bed to sleep, planning to continue the next day.
When Murakami Kazuo woke up again, he immediately threw himself back into the game.
Yet just as life in the game seemed calm, one day an emergency Trauma Team mission shattered everything.
On what should have been a rest day, the player character V was asleep in their rundown apartment when a call from Trauma Team's upper management jolted them awake.
They ordered V to report immediately. A critically important Diamond-tier client was in mortal danger. All Trauma Team members were ordered to cancel their leave and report at once to protect a major figure.
V tried to contact Jack, but no matter what, Jack wouldn't answer his phone. Clearly, Jack had skipped work this time. V even started worrying about how to explain this to their superiors so Jack wouldn't get fired.
V guessed Jack had probably gone off to do some mercenary job again.
Having seen countless stories unfold, Murakami Kazuo suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
A sudden plot development like this was clearly a major turning point in the main storyline.
V quickly put on their Trauma Team gear and reported to the designated location. Soon after, their superiors arranged transport via aircraft to the top floor of a hotel tower controlled by the Arasaka Corporation.
Along the way, based on reports from fellow Trauma Team members, V learned that a top-tier figure in this world—Saburo Arasaka, the actual head of the Arasaka Corporation—had been assassinated.
"Saburo Arasaka?!"
Murakami Kazuo couldn't help showing a look of shock.
Over the two days he had spent in the game, he had already learned that Arasaka was one of the largest corporations in the setting.
The sudden assassination of its true leader was a piece of news on the level of a real-world superpower's president being assassinated.
It was almost impossible to imagine.