Following orders, the player character heads to the top floor of the designated hotel tower to perform emergency medical treatment on Saburo Arasaka.
But everything is already too late.
By the time Trauma Team arrives, Saburo Arasaka has been dead for quite some time. Their presence there is little more than a formality.
For Trauma Team, there isn't much responsibility to bear.
Still, for Trauma Team as a company, it's a significant blow—though that has little to do with the player character.
Just then, a series of piercing alarms and the thunderous roar of heavy weapons fire erupts outside.
"What's going on?"
One of the Trauma Team members beside the player character peers out the window and sees armed aerial units under the Arasaka Group in hot pursuit of a target.
"It's the person who assassinated Saburo Arasaka!"
The group snaps back to attention. Several Trauma Team members crowd toward the windows to watch, leaving one or two behind to handle Saburo Arasaka's remains.
The player character naturally joins the onlookers—and then spots a figure that seems strangely familiar, darting swiftly between the gaps of the skyscrapers before slipping back into the hotel building.
At that moment, the main quest objective changes.
No longer is it about checking Saburo Arasaka's condition or escorting his body away, but about leaving the team to investigate the fleeing individual.
Because the player character blurts out, almost instinctively, that the figure looks familiar.
Murakami Kazuo immediately takes control of the character, slipping out of the window while the other team members aren't paying attention, then following the game's guidance and leaping onto a nearby platform.
Before this section begins, the game imposes a requirement: the character must already have installed cyberware that reduces fall damage from great heights, ensuring they won't die instantly from the drop.
Now, that preparation pays off perfectly.
The player character sprints onward and re-enters the hotel building.
Along the way, Murakami Kazuo sees countless corpses. Clearly, the intruder has slaughtered everyone in their path.
Such skill is rare even in Night City.
Taking down so many Arasaka operatives—this ruthless figure is bound to become infamous very soon.
At this point, the player character can't help but mutter a name aloud:
"Jack… could it be you?"
Well-versed in story tropes, Murakami Kazuo already knows what's coming next.
A reunion with Jack, followed by a series of thrilling, high-stakes events.
But knowing it is one thing—experiencing it is another.
Murakami Kazuo races through the area and soon reaches the ground floor via a temporary elevator. The moment the doors open, deafening gunfire erupts all around.
Bullets tear through the floor, and the ground is littered with bodies.
Some belong to Arasaka's own armed forces; others are from NCPD units hastily mobilized as reinforcements.
Yet none of them seem capable of defeating the lone opponent.
The player character has no intention of joining the fight. She only wants to find the person who assassinated Saburo Arasaka—and confirm whether it's truly Jack.
And, unsurprisingly, the assassin is indeed Jack.
After pushing through the hail of gunfire, the player character finally reaches him. Jack nearly fires at her in panic.
"Kid?! What are you doing here?!"
"Saburo Arasaka is dead! We're here because of that—don't tell me you killed him?!"
"Of course not, kid! This is a total disaster. I was just following instructions to steal something—who the hell knew I'd run into this kind of crap?!"
While dodging bullets and returning fire, Jack keeps cursing as he talks to the player character.
"I'm telling you, the one who killed Saburo Arasaka was his own son—Yorinobu Arasaka! I recorded the whole thing!"
"His own son killed him? Why would he do that?"
"Who knows what's wrong with that family? I just want to get out of here alive!"
"I'll help you!"
Without hesitation, the player character raises her weapon and joins Jack in fighting off the security forces.
Through their combined efforts, they finally eliminate all enemies.
Together, they also take down a medium-sized mech—the boss of this section.
With the boss defeated, the player character prepares to leave with Jack.
But Jack is gravely wounded now, clearly running out of strength. It's impossible to tell how much longer he can hold on.
The player character helps the weakened Jack into the Delamain cab he had prepared earlier.
What follows is a high-speed chase.
This sequence is one of the early game's major turning points. Several intense battles in quick succession send players' adrenaline surging.
For players who may have started to feel slightly fatigued by earlier story-heavy sections, this moment snaps everything into focus.
Even though the early pacing was already solid, it lacked major spikes—because all of it was building toward this.
When the chase finally ends and the cab reaches a sufficiently safe location, Jack pulls out a chip that had been embedded in his brain all along.
This was the real target of his mission. On the brink of death, Jack asks the player character to take the chip to the fixer.
Even if he can't survive, Jack believes the player character can at least get paid.
"Kid… once you get the money, go do whatever you want. Pay off your debts, become a big shot—it's all up to you."
"Don't talk! I'm taking you to a doctor right now!"
"…"
"Jack!"
Murakami Kazuo feels his throat tighten.
The buildup between the player character and Jack has been extensive—far more developed than in the original storyline.
From initial awkwardness, to growing closer, to becoming inseparable partners… even family. Every step of that relationship unfolds naturally.
In the original version of the game, this entire arc is rushed through. Back then, Takayuki had felt that this made Jack's death lack emotional impact for players.
"You're the real big shot, Jack."
The player character watches Jack die, then steps out of the cab and heads toward the fixer's room.
At the very least, she must fulfill Jack's final wish.
His death can't be meaningless.
With that resolve, the player character enters the fixer's room to meet them.
But the moment they meet, the fixer knocks the player character to the ground and executes her with a single shot.
As the screen fades to black, the Cyberpunk 2077 logo appears.
"This… this is only the beginning?"
Murakami Kazuo's eyes are red.
He never imagined that the game was only just getting started.