Watanabe Keisuke stared at the silver flash drive as if it were a live grenade. He hesitated, his hand hovering over his laptop. The air in the room had shifted from condescending heat to a sudden, chilling uncertainty.
Was it possible? he wondered. Could a mangaka really... code?
"Take a look," Aoyama said, his voice light and airy. "It's not like it'll bite. Unless you're afraid of being proven wrong?"
Watanabe let out a sharp, defensive grunt. "I'm not afraid of anything."
He snatched the drive, his movements jerky, and plugged it into his high-end workstation. He pulled his mouse close, his eyes narrowing. "I assume this isn't going to melt my GPU? A 'AAA' demo usually requires a bit more than a standard integrated chip."
"It might make the fans spin a bit," Aoyama admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "But considering it's just a single-scene vertical slice, your rig should handle it just fine."
Watanabe entered the drive's directory. There was a single executable file: Cyberpunk 2077 - Combat Demo.
He double-clicked.
The screen went black for a second, then a stylized, pulsing logo shimmered into existence. CYBERPUNK 2077. The font was sharp, industrial, and neon-drenched, immediately conveying a sense of high-tech grit.
Ryo Shien leaned forward, his reflection caught in the glow of the screen. Even the opening splash screen looked professional, too professional for a solo hobbyist project.
The loading bar zipped across the bottom, and then, the world blossomed into life.
It was first-person. The camera swayed slightly, simulating the movement of a human head. The player's hands were rendered with a staggering level of detail, showing fine lines of skin and the subtle glint of cybernetic joints as they gripped a heavy, industrial-looking pistol.
"Hey, David! Look alive! Stop daydreaming or the Scavs will pick you clean before you even see 'em!"
A text box flared at the bottom of the screen. Standing in front of the player was a 3D model that made Watanabe's heart skip a beat.
It was Pilar. The tall, lanky technician with the oversized metallic arms and the perpetual punk-rock grin. The model was flawlessly rigged, his movements fluid and natural as he adjusted his goggles. There was no "uncanny valley" stiffness here. It was a masterpiece of character design and animation.
"This is..." Ryo Shien whispered, his eyes wide.
There was no voice acting, as Aoyama didn't have the time or the resources for that, but the atmospheric sound design was impeccable. The distant hum of the city, the patter of rain against rusted metal, and the low, industrial thrum of the soundtrack created an immediate, suffocating sense of place.
The camera panned automatically. On top of a stack of shipping containers, a hunched, shivering figure stood. The hobo cyberpsycho.
"Alright, kid," Pilar's text continued. "Check your kit. I'm gonna go show this guy whose turf he's pissing on."
Suddenly, the UI bloomed into life. The controls were intuitive, standard for any top-tier FPS. WASD to move, Mouse to aim. And in the corner, a glowing icon for the 'Sandevistan,' mapped to the E key.
Watanabe took the controls. He moved the character through the small, enclosed alleyway. The physics were tight. The lighting was dynamic, the neon flickers from a nearby sign reflecting realistically off the wet asphalt and the polished chrome of Pilar's arms.
Pilar stepped forward, shouting at the psycho. In the manga, this was where the technician met his end. The demo skipped the cinematic buildup, jumping straight to the moment the psycho lunged.
CRACK.
Pilar was gone in a burst of stylized digital blood.
"Your partner is down. Neutralize the threat."
The prompt flashed on the screen. Watanabe didn't hesitate. He swung his aim toward the cyberpsycho, who was now moving with a jerky, unnatural speed. To heighten the challenge, Aoyama had programmed the enemy's head to sway and twitch, making a clean headshot nearly impossible for a normal human.
"Damn it! He's too fast!" Watanabe muttered, his fingers flying across the keys.
"Try the E key," Aoyama suggested calmly.
Watanabe slammed his finger onto the E key.
The world slowed to a crawl. The colors shifted into a high-contrast, blue-tinted haze. The sound of the rain turned into a deep, rhythmic bass thrum. The cyberpsycho's movement froze into a frame-by-frame stutter, leaving a trail of after-images behind him.
Watanabe moved his crosshair with ease, lining up a perfect shot between the psycho's glowing optic sensors.
BANG.
The psycho's head snapped back, the model collapsing in a tangle of limbs as the time-dilation ended.
DEMO COMPLETE.
The screen faded to black, returning to the desktop.
Silence reclaimed the room.
Watanabe Keisuke sat frozen, his hand still gripping the mouse so tightly his knuckles were white. He stared at the blank screen as if he could see the ghost of the demo still playing in the darkness.
He knew what he'd just seen. It wasn't just "good for an amateur." It was professional-grade. The optimization, the combat flow, the aesthetic cohesion... it was better than anything his entire studio had produced in three years.
Ryo Shien slowly exhaled, a long, shaky breath. He looked up at Aoyama, his expression one of pure, unadulterated awe.
"You... you really did this? Alone?"
Aoyama gave a modest, slightly mischievous shrug. "I had a bit of help from some... automated tools. But yeah. That's my vision for Cyberpunk 2077."
He leaned forward, his eyes locking onto Ryo's. "So. Are we still talking about a 2D side-scroller? Or do you want to talk about how we build the most ambitious 3D RPG this world has ever seen?"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]