Cyberpunk in the Heavenly Demon
The world of cyberpunk.
A dystopia teetering on the brink of apocalypse, the complete embodiment of disorder eroded by the ruthless logic of capitalism.
What filled the air was not refreshing oxygen but thick, choking particulate dust.
Even in this dystopian world born from reckless development and total chaos, a minimal order had been established.
That order was the law of the jungle.
The weak are devoured by the strong.
The place where the logic of power held absolute sway was this very city.
The Sleepless City.
As its name suggested, Cyberpunk in Murim 2077 was a cyberpunk world.
Yet what set it apart from ordinary cyberpunk settings was the existence of martial arts.
The lineage of Murim had not been severed. It had endured into the future, ushering in an era where countless people practiced martial arts—an age in which even dogs and cows could wield them.
This was precisely why Myeong-yun had taken an interest.
He wondered how different it would be from Narak.
And how much these people’s martial arts would entertain him.
“...So this is the place.”
The moment he launched Cyberpunk in Murim 2077, Myeong-yun realized he stood atop the roof of a towering skyscraper.
He took a deep breath while gazing down at the neon-drenched city, only to inhale murky, polluted air.
Frowning at the unfamiliar dystopian landscape created by unregulated development, he wondered whether martial arts could truly flourish in such a place.
“How utterly wretched.”
Myeong-yun stood there for a while, staring down below, before checking the text floating before his eyes.
It was a simple overview and tutorial provided before the game began in earnest.
Freedom and choice.
These were the two concepts the game emphasized above all else.
Thanks to the ultra-advanced AI built into the game, every player decision branched into infinite possibilities.
The relationships between NPCs.
Depending on how the player approached the game, this place could become another living, breathing reality.
Along with the prompt to choose an occupation, a vast array of options flooded his vision.
Occupation was one of the game’s most important elements.
The choice determined your character’s background, the quests you could receive, and your overall path.
The options were incredibly diverse, ranging from homeless beggar to professional fixer—literally anything was available.
Myeong-yun scrolled through them, but his finger eventually stopped. He had not found what he sought.
“My dear viewers, there is no Heavenly Demon among the occupations. Tsk, they did not even bother to include it.”
Shouldn’t it be there by default?
With no other choice, Myeong-yun briefly opened the floor to his viewers for occupation recommendations.
All sorts of occupation suggestions flooded in.
None of them satisfied him. After pondering for a moment, Myeong-yun selected one.
“This one shall suffice. Life is like the wind. It is not a bad choice for a brief period of immortal leisure.”
The occupation he chose was Wanderer.
It was a concept character who had suddenly appeared in the Sleepless City—an occupation with very little inherent merit.
Most players who picked Wanderer were those who simply wanted to travel around in the early game.
It was generally regarded as a temporary starter class that most people switched out of later.
The viewers’ harsh criticism continued.
They began delivering long speeches about how little merit the Wanderer occupation possessed. Myeong-yun cut them off cleanly.
“Even occasional wandering can be enjoyable. Let us all wander together and behold this world so full of deficiency.”
When Myeong-yun smiled after speaking, the viewers were instantly persuaded.
The rare smile from someone who seldom laughed was impossibly beautiful.
His face held such persuasive power that it was hard to believe it was mere 3D modeling.
Having convinced his audience, Myeong-yun finished his character setup and once again looked down at the neon-filled streets.
The Heavenly Demon Cult existed in this world.
He was unbearably curious what the future version of the Heavenly Demon Cult—imagined by others in his absence—would look like.
“Then let us go.”
Myeong-yun leaped from the railing and plummeted downward.
The viewers were horrified by the freefall, just as they had been in Narak.
While Narak began by throwing yourself into a black abyss, Cyberpunk in Murim had fall damage, so jumping meant instant death.
But Myeong-yun was an existence who far exceeded his viewers’ expectations.
Falling along the building’s wall with his long robes and hair fluttering dramatically, he kicked lightly off the wall the moment the ground came into view.
The recoil sent him soaring to the opposite building. He kicked off that wall as well, killing his momentum.
When only a few meters remained, he spun elegantly through the air to bleed off even more speed before landing softly on the ground.
The people on the street looked up at Myeong-yun, who had descended from the sky.
They were dressed in shabby, revealing clothing. They stared at him with curious eyes.
To them, he looked like a supreme expert who had suddenly dropped from heaven.
His luxurious robes and lofty appearance only heightened the mysterious aura around him.
Myeong-yun glanced around briefly before beginning to walk with confident, majestic strides.
“It appears to be a marketplace.”
The street was lined with food stalls and entertainment venues aggressively soliciting customers.
On the giant electronic billboards hanging everywhere, a commercial played.
Most of the people wandering the streets were dressed in rags and appeared to have learned no meaningful martial arts.
“Hm?”
As Myeong-yun observed the crowd, he noticed something peculiar.
The vast majority of people—nearly all of them—had various body parts replaced with machinery.
So this was cyberpunk.
“Everyone seems to have machines attached to their bodies. That person over there has four arms.”
Eyes, arms, hands, legs.
Some had their entire lower bodies replaced with machinery, while others walked around with bundles of cables dangling from their bodies.
It was one of the defining traits of the cyberpunk genre.
In a world consumed by capitalism, scientific advancement had brought environmental destruction and skyrocketing medical costs. As a result, proper medical care became inaccessible.
If a body part began to necrotize, it was cheaper to amputate and illegally replace it with machinery than to treat it. That was the cold logic at work.
Since this was a world he was experiencing for the first time, Myeong-yun looked around with great interest.
All the nearby NPCs were focused on Myeong-yun, whose appearance was by far the most mysterious, but he paid them no mind.
“Truly a wretched world in many ways. How do the people of Murim survive in a place like this? Martial arts are meant to be performed with one’s own flesh and blood.”
The viewers left meaningful messages in response to Myeong-yun’s words.
On the surface the city was beautiful, yet beneath that lay a desolate and bleak world. Myeong-yun had yet to learn what kind of events unfolded here.
While he was exploring the marketplace, one of the drunk pedestrians deliberately tried to collide with him.
Myeong-yun twisted his body at the last moment and lightly evaded.
The man stumbled forward on his own and slammed his face into the ground.
Myeong-yun continued walking as if nothing had happened, but the man who had planted his face in the dirt clearly did not feel the same.
“Hey, you! Stop right there!”
The man sprang to his feet and pointed with his mechanical prosthetic hand.
“You son of a bitch, you dodged?”
“If someone is clearly trying to run into me, is it not natural to dodge? You act like an Open Beggar.”
When Myeong-yun turned around and asked with genuine confusion, the man’s already flushed face grew even redder.
“Do you know who I am? I am Iron Fist Wall Tiger of the Sleepless City!”
“This is the first time this seat has heard such a title.”
“Bastard, you think dressing like that will make anyone scared? I’ll beat you to a pulp!”
“Is this neighborhood always like this?”
A sudden combat event had begun. Myeong-yun remained calm and simply took one step back.
At the same time, steam burst from Wall Tiger’s prosthetic arm as it slammed into the spot where Myeong-yun had been standing, shattering the ground.
Stone fragments flew in every direction, instantly scattering the pedestrians nearby.
“So this is how combat proceeds.”
Having roughly grasped the game’s mechanics, Myeong-yun stepped forward and drove his knee upward into the jaw of Wall Tiger, who was charging in with another punch.
“Guh…!”
He then spun halfway around and extended his long leg in a powerful kick that struck the man’s solar plexus.
With a dull sound like breaking bone, Wall Tiger flew backward, slammed into a wall, and lost consciousness.
Having finished his first battle in Cyberpunk in Murim, Myeong-yun turned his back on the fallen man and continued walking.
“It seems this will be quite entertaining.”
In the world of cyberpunk.
The Heavenly Demon had descended.