Chapter 1: Cyberpunk
"Ayumi... Huh? Ayumi!"
Ayumi Ito was stunned for a moment, then turned around, bowed deeply to the man behind her, and said fearfully, "I'm sorry! Senior! I didn't respond to you in time!"
Takashi Yamamoto scratched his head, opened his mouth, and said helplessly, "There's no need to be so polite, and no need to call me senior or anything. There's no senior-junior culture here."
But he still understood Ayumi Ito very well; after all, she was a "wandering mage" from Japan.
It is said that this senior-junior culture is widespread in Japan. If juniors don't respond to seniors' questions in time, the consequences will be very serious.
However, new Japanese colleagues like Ayumi Ito will slowly adapt to the local environment and culture sooner or later.
"Alright, Ayumi, you've just joined our Akatsuki Cultural Company, and it's hard to assign you work." Takashi Yamamoto said, "It just so happens that the company is holding a new grand prize for mid-length manga. You can take a look at these new manga."
He patted the stack of manga on the table. When placed, it seemed almost as tall as Ayumi.
There are thirteen works, and due to the competition requirements stipulated by the company, each must have at least 10 chapters or 150 pages to be submitted.
Ayumi should be able to review them for several days.
And, after all, they are manga submitted by newcomers, so there will be no problem if they are given to a new manga editor like Ayumi.
"Do you want me to pick some?" Ayumi asked nervously. "How many do you want to choose?"
"Don't be nervous, you don't have to force yourself to select them; you can also eliminate them all..." Takashi Yamamoto said naturally.
After all, this is just a part of the submissions, and they are all works by newcomers, so it's normal to discard them all.
But thinking about it, what if there are some good works, but Ayumi doesn't see them?
He immediately said, "Forget it, Ayumi, pick three that you think are good and give them to me."
"Okay!" Ayumi nodded and then carried the stack of manga manuscripts to her workstation.
Upon returning, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She had recently joined this manga company, one of the top ten in the world. The company is large, and the colleagues are also very friendly.
But that made her a little uncomfortable. There is no serious senior-junior culture here like in her native Japan, and colleagues who don't know each other don't call each other by their surnames, but by their first names.
However, this place is undoubtedly better than her hometown.
'Ayumi! If you want to stay, you must complete the task well!' Ayumi secretly encouraged herself and said, 'Start with these submissions and work hard to finish the job!'
She looked at the stacked manga manuscripts, picked up the first one, and began to read it carefully.
The first manuscript, with the cover "Magic King," has a fairly good style and follows the main plot of passionate youth manga.
Ayumi read it carefully and found no flaws in the plot or style, but she felt nothing.
'Is this... good?' Ayumi was in a dilemma.
Her task was to choose three good ones and give them to the chief editor, Takashi.
This one looked good, but Ayumi felt nothing.
"First... put it here and decide after reading the works of other sensei." Ayumi looked at the next manuscript.
Then, she began to have endless difficulties in choosing.
"This "Journey of Floating Immortals" seems okay..."
"But this "Dark Spellcaster" also seems okay..."
"This "Fire Dragon Lord"... is... okay..."
...
After seven books, Ayumi thought six were okay, and she rejected the only one because the painting seemed too immature.
As for the other six books, she felt that it didn't matter which one she chose.
These were works that caused her no trouble or emotion after reading them.
What Ayumi didn't know was that if they were given to Takashi to read, he would eliminate them all.
Because the plots of these works are almost all the same, the same old story, and the world view is also the same.
If this kind of work fails to convey emotions to readers or memorable plot points, it is destined not to be popular.
"Let's keep reading..." Ayumi put down another manuscript and looked at the tenth submission...
"Cyberpunk 2077: Edge... Runner?" She read the name, which was unexpectedly long and sounded a bit strange.
This name is also the first manga name she sees clearly different from the nine previous manuscripts.
Ayumi opened it directly and read it. The beginning was a passage spoken by a man in a yellow jacket whose true appearance was unknown.
"In 2077, the city I live in was rated as the worst area in America."
"Why? Violent crimes emerge endlessly..."
"The number of people living below the poverty line is the highest in America..."
At the same time, the manga shows high-tech urban scenes that look futuristic, with maglev cars, holographic projection technology, trains running through the city, and...
semi-transformed people with mechanical human organs.
"It's an undeniable fact, but people are still flocking in. This city always gives you a ray of hope..."
"No matter if it's a lie or an illusion, but it's so close that it seems to be within reach... Despair!"
'This is the world of the future, or the America of the future!'
Ayumi immediately understood that this was a story from the future.
No... It should be said that it is the truth.
She continued reading. The protagonist of the manga is named David Martinez, and the city he lives in is called Night City.
However, the first plot is about a sudden attack on the night-shift city police by an armed thug who has nothing to do with the protagonist.
This confused Ayumi.
At the same time, the police began a fierce shootout with the thug, but he stood firm and fired wildly as if he were not afraid of bullets.
Then, the on-duty police, in a panic, called for help, saying, "It's a cyberpsycho! Call the Cyberpsycho Containment Team!"
'Cyberpsycho? What is it? Is it the name of an evil villain organization?'
'Also, why isn't the thug afraid of bullets? Is it some special superpower in the context of this manga?'
With this curious reflection, Ayumi continued to read it eagerly.
Then she understood the plot of the manga. This manga has no superpowers, only the so-called human body transformation and artificial prosthetics.
Powerful prosthetics give transformed people great power, but when the human spirit cannot bear the burden of transformation, it turns into a walking corpse, only knowing endless slaughter in reality, becoming a so-called cyberpsycho.
This context is truly novel, and Ayumi only read it once to remember it.
Then she continued reading it with interest and curiosity...
However, she saw the protagonist being bullied by the rich second generation at school and the worrying situation of his family, and she suddenly understood that Night City, as it was said at the beginning, is not so beautiful.
On the contrary, the gap between rich and poor is deep, and the poor live without any dignity.
The protagonist argued with his mother about this, but then he got caught in a gangster shootout and had a car accident.
However, at that moment, something like a rescue team seemed to appear.
The protagonist, David Martinez, responded, "The Trauma Team, they're safe."
However, just when Ayumi believed that the protagonist and his mother had been rescued, the cold conversation of the rescuer from the supposed Trauma Team jumped off the page: "This person is not a client, and this woman isn't either."
"Ensure the client's personal safety and leave these people to the municipal corpse transport service."
Then, those people were directly evacuated, with no intention of saving the protagonist and his mother.
"How is that possible?" Ayumi asked, clenching her fists, somewhat angry.
Fortunately, the situation changed, and the protagonist and his mother seemed to be saved.
It seemed they had simply arrived at the cheapest "hospital."
Al mismo tiempo, David también encontró la poderosa prótesis de uso militar que su madre había escondido en casa: la prótesis tipo "Sandevistan".
Pero entonces fue golpeado por los compañeros ricos de segunda generación de la escuela.
"It seems this is the key to the protagonist's rise." Ayumi said excitedly, "David will definitely change this hateful world!"
However, the next plot is that David's mother announced her death under the carefree words of the garbage collector...
David didn't even see his mother one last time, and could only return home with her ashes...
Incited by his mother's death, the bullying from his rich second-generation classmates, and the Trauma Team's indifference to their plight, David found a black-market doctor and asked him to transplant the military "Sandevistan" prosthetic.
This episode has ended.
Ayumi was looking forward to starting the next episode, but...
"Did I really finish reading it without realizing it?!" she said in a daze.
She finished reading more than a hundred pages of three episodes without realizing it.
And unlike the previous manuscript, this time she wanted to keep reading.
'I want to see how the protagonist, David Martinez, will use the "Sandevistan" prosthetic to rise up and change this hateful world!'
¡Este! ¡Sin duda es uno bueno! Tras leerlo, Ayumi también decidió que este era el manuscrito que quería entregarle a Takashi.
"The art style of this sensei is very beautiful, and the plot is also very good. What's their name?" She turned back to the first page.
The author's name was written as a pseudonym: Silverhand