"Adam Smasher, you’re guilty beyond redemption—aaaaaah!"
In front of his TV, the veteran player slamd his controller in fury.
On the screen was Cyberpunk 2077.
Displayed was the final battle scene against Adam Smasher.
Even in the ga, Adam Smasher’s sense of oppression was unmatched.
Takayuki had given this character special enhancents, adding abilities and technical chanics that hadn’t existed in the original design.
For example, Adam Smasher was equipped with a much more advanced AI during combat, making players feel as though they were truly fighting a powerful, intelligent opponent.
Depending on the difficulty level, Adam Smasher’s AI combat proficiency also varied.
But no matter how advanced, AI was still AI—it had its limits.
Takayuki couldn’t make Adam Smasher completely invincible. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fun; it would just be one-sided punishnt.
Players had to be handled with care.
Too hard was bad. Too easy was bad.
When the balance was right, the ga truly shined.
This was one of the many lessons learned by generations of developers.
Right now, the veteran player was burning with rage.
He rembered facing Adam Smasher more than ten tis before, yet he had never felt this angry.
This fury didn’t co from the ga itself.
It ca from an animation—the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners series he had just finished watching.
In the ani, the protagonist David ultimately lost to the overwhelming Adam Smasher and died at his hands.
And what made it even more unforgivable was that Adam Smasher didn’t just kill David.
He also killed Rebecca—another incredibly lovable character.
The veteran player adored her.
And she didn’t just die—she died horribly.
Worse still, the animation’s creators had the audacity to show her death in full, making his anger boil over.
Of course, he wasn’t about to curse the animation staff.
Given the buildup of the story—and the nature of Night City—death was simply inevitable.
Sudden, aningless death was the most common sight in that city.
But anger had to go sowhere.
So who should he vent it on?
There was only one answer.
The root of all evil—Adam Smasher.
In the ani, Adam Smasher was invincible.
He killed David.
But in the ga?
Heh.
The veteran player hadn’t touched Cyberpunk 2077 for a while.
Not because there was nothing left to play—there was still plenty of content he hadn’t experienced.
But people got tired. Eventually, they wanted to try sothing new.
Only the most die-hard fans could keep playing indefinitely.
For most gas, if a player willingly put in 100–200 hours, that was already a huge success—it ant the ga genuinely made them happy.
According to statistics, over a million players had logged more than 100 hours in Cyberpunk 2077.
After sales surpassed ten million copies, more than half of all players had completed the ga.
Around two million players had cleared it multiple tis.
The veteran player, who had already started feeling burnt out, now picked the ga back up—because of an ani.
Just to beat the living hell out of that damn Adam Smasher.
No—once wasn’t enough.
Ten tis.
A hundred tis.
He wouldn’t stop until his anger was completely gone.
At the sa ti, countless other players were doing the exact sa thing.
On Facebook’s livestreaming platform, so strears even broadcast themselves watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Normally, streaming ani or TV shows would be considered copyright infringent.
But Gastar Electronic Entertainnt was incredibly generous with its IP.
The animation itself wasn’t restricted either—even non-mbers of Facebook’s streaming service could watch it, though they had to sit through an extra ten seconds of ads per episode.
Facebook still needed to make money, after all.
In these livestreams, many strears reacted almost identically at key monts of the story.
Sadness.Anger.Shock.
And when David died, when Lucy stood on the moon embracing the sunlight in mourning, many strears—especially female strears—completely broke down, crying uncontrollably.
Won tended to be more emotionally expressive, and those willing to livestream ani were usually passionate fans to begin with—making them even more empathetic.
The effect was incredible.
Genuine emotion always resonated the most.
Viewers were deeply moved—and deeply furious.
Then, within minutes of finishing the ani, every strear who had been watching it made the sa decision.
They opened Cyberpunk 2077.
"Damn it! I’m going to kill Adam Smasher!"
"Where’s my ga? Oh—I uninstalled it. Sorry guys, I’m downloading it again right now. I’m going to crush Adam Smasher hundreds of tis! I’ll use brute-force builds to flatten him again and again—let him experience what it feels like to be crushed!"
Strears who still had the ga installed logged into their accounts, loaded the final save, equipped their strongest gear, and jumped straight into the last mission to face Adam Smasher.
The entire sequence of actions was smooth and decisive—no hesitation whatsoever.
Those who had uninstalled the ga re-downloaded it without a second thought.
The only problem was the massive file size—it would take quite a while before they could actually play.
During that ti, viewer counts dropped rapidly.
But none of the strears cared.
All they could think about was getting into the ga and avenging David—and the cute, badass Rebecca.
Among these viewers were also many people who had never played the ga at all.
So were pure ani fans who had stumbled upon the series by chance.
Not knowing the ga’s lore didn’t affect their enjoynt of the ani in the slightest.
Asami Shinji had worked incredibly hard to make that possible.
He had to balance fan service for Cyberpunk 2077 players—adding familiar elents—while also ensuring newcors could fully understand and enjoy the story.
That level of balance was a serious test of a director’s skill.
Thankfully, he pulled it off beautifully.
Even viewers unfamiliar with the ga were deeply moved by the ending.
"What? This is a ga spin-off? This is one of the best cyberpunk stories I’ve seen in years—and it’s just a spin-off? How good must the ga be?"
"The ga’s a masterpiece too? Then I have to try it."
"You can kill Adam Smasher in the ga? Say no more. I’m buying it right now. I’m playing imdiately—don’t anyone stop !"
"My PC doesn’t et the requirents? The specs are kind of high... damn it. Fine. Ti to upgrade."
Every viewer.
Every player.
They were all thinking the sa thing.
Find a way into the ga—
And kill Adam Smasher.
To avenge David.
To avenge Rebecca.
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