Cyberpunk 2074: Shadows of the Past

"I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the sun...but the sunshine has made my desolation a newer desolation..."

"Sister Lucy, are you leaving here?"

The little girl's tender voice interrupted the short-haired woman's low soliloquy.

On January 9, 2074, Lucy decided to leave this small town adjacent to Morro Bay and set off for the city inhabited by demons - the City of Night.

"Where to go?" the little girl asked, walking over with short legs, and gently hugged Lucy's calf with both hands.

"Alice..." The short-haired woman bent down and hugged the landlord's little daughter into her arms.

"Sister is going to Night City..." She stared at Alice's flawless golden eyes and said goodbye softly.

"Why?" the little girl asked in a low voice, like an oriole crooning.

Alice, who is only 4 years old, does not know the weight contained in the three words "Night City".

The only thing she knew was that the gentle elder sister in front of her was leaving.

"Because I saw the sun..." Lucy pressed her face against the little girl's fleshy white face and gently closed her eyes.

"But mom said you can see the sun every day..." The little girl's innocent confusion came to her ears.

"It's different, Alice..." Lucy hugged the person in her arms tightly and murmured softly, "What you see is the earth's sun, not my sun..."

2074, January 8, night

As usual, Lucy connected to cyberspace, intending to mine some low-end data and sell it on the black market to earn some rent.

Until, someone galloped from a very far away place and came here.

Right in front of her.

It was a human-shaped shadow, whose face could not be seen clearly, and it was impossible to distinguish between male and female.

The moment she tried to look directly at Him, she was almost forced to disconnect from the network.

The mysterious man ignored her presence and captured the town's network node core with a wave of his hand, seizing the highest authority.

"What is he doing?" Lucy thought to herself, stopping what she was doing to prevent the other party from seeing her as a threat.

The mysterious man left quickly.

Driven by curiosity, she couldn't help but trace the man's unhidden traces all the way to the border of the Night City network.

Lucy heard about Night City.

Because Arasaka Company is entrenched in the center of this city, roaring from hell to the entire world.

She couldn't forget the harm Arasaka Company had caused her.

The painful implantation of violence, the cruel training day after day, the cries when his companions died tragically...

She once abandoned her companions who depended on each other and escaped from hell alone.

But one day, she will return to hell, embracing fire and explosives, and die together with this insensitive hell ghost.

The fire of revenge has been burning silently in her heart and has never been extinguished.

In the original plan, she would set foot in this city a year later, perhaps succeeding in revenge, or perhaps remaining anonymous.

Now, she couldn't help but follow the traces of the mysterious man and arrived ahead of schedule in this city that never sleeps, which seemed to lead directly to hell.

Because in that mysterious man, she smelled something from the past.

It is older, purer, and more powerful than the battle AI from the old network that I have come into contact with before, like the ultimate in the world.

She seemed to have discovered the "explosive" that could end everything.

The battle in the next few seconds also confirmed her suspicion.

No, this can't be called a battle.

The mysterious man was like shooing away flies, and with a wave of his hand, he crushed many well-known independent hackers into pieces. Even the professional hackers who monitored the Internet were not spared, and were destroyed physically and mentally.

Most of this vast cyberspace was cleared in an instant, and she stood there, not daring to take a step forward.

The surviving hackers all surrendered and used their virtual bodies to worship the only God who stood at infinite heights.

She remained frozen in place.

Then He cast a curious look at her.

She raised her head and met his gaze.

At that moment, she seemed to see the blue sun, the sad sun.

Rather than the godlike indifference imagined.

Can gods be as sad as humans?

She watched the god go away in confusion, returned to the town alone, and disconnected from the cyberspace.

Lucy lay in the cold pool, thinking silently.

After a while, she was awakened by the cold and climbed out of the pool, drying her body with the towel she had prepared.

She sat on the edge of the bed, facing the cold moon, and lit a cigarette.

She doesn't like smoking.

But the guilt of abandoning her friends and running away alone in her childhood has always haunted her, forcing her to use nicotine to relieve the torture from the depths of her soul.

She exhaled a long mist, silently feeling the feeling of her lungs being gradually eroded by toxins.

She could hear the withering sound of her lungs, and she could also hear the gradually subduing wails of the dead souls surrounding her.

She lay gently on the bed and closed her eyes.

But the blue sun couldn't stop appearing in front of my eyes.

Not dazzling, not violent, not indifferent, just sad and... a little confused.

The old beings who were like the shadow of God had such emotions, and her troubles seemed nothing.

She raised the corners of her mouth, and, accompanied by the cold moon and lonely wind, fell asleep together with the entangled undead.

January 9, 2074, morning

"Sister's sun?" the little girl's immature question woke Lucy up.

"It's nothing. My sister didn't sleep well yesterday. You're talking nonsense..." She gently stroked the little girl's silky long hair and whispered softly.

"Well, Alice heard her mother say her sister was leaving yesterday, and she didn't sleep well at night!" the little girl said in a tired voice, squinting her pretty eyes.

"Alice..." Warmth burst out in her heart, and she hugged the little girl tenderly, smiling with her eyes curled up.

"elder sister……"

Two girls, one big and one small, hugged each other for a long time under the warm morning light.

Until the long-decided moment of separation finally arrives.

"Sister Lucy! Remember to come back to see me often in the future!" The little girl held her mother's hand and said her final goodbyes to her.

"Okay!" She waved her hand and said goodbye with a smile, but her eyes were red.

2074, January 11, night

Lucy chose to walk to Night City.

Beautiful girls should always pay attention to safety when going out alone.

So she is unwilling to take a ride from a stranger to the destination.

In the cyberspace, she is brave and good at fighting, and one is equal to ten.

In the real world, she doesn't want to cause trouble without enough guns, ammunition and offensive prosthetics.

So she walked step by step in the wilderness, accompanied by the bright moon and cool breeze, like a pilgrimage, walking to the edge of the City of Night.

Even though she dislikes the City of Night, Lucy still has to admit that this city that never sleeps is breathtakingly beautiful under the cover of night.

She walked with heavy steps on the outskirts of Night City.

She looked at the time, "23:00"

She was tired, so she stretched lazily, picked a high place at random, and collapsed in the loess.

God seemed moved by her pilgrimage of asceticism.

So he mercifully sent down nine stars.

She lay on the hillside, staring at the night sky, and saw nine star marks.

She was shocked by the beauty of the nine streaks cutting through the night.

So she slightly raised the corners of her mouth.

"Found it..." Amidst the loud explosion, she heard herself whispering softly, full of joy.

When the explosion subsided, she slowly closed her eyes and slept with her clothes on, using the bright starry sky as her quilt.