Shard.00: Synopsis

Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

Ambition and Fall

Set in Night City, a cyberpunk metropolis ruled by megacorporations, V—an ambitious mercenary dreaming of making it big—takes on the gig of a lifetime alongside their partner, Jackie Welles. Commissioned by the high-profile fixer Dexter DeShawn, their objective is to steal the “Relic”—a top-secret biochip developed by Arasaka Corporation, the world’s ultimate megacorporation—from a luxury hotel suite where Yorinobu Arasaka, the scion of the empire, is staying.
However, during the heist, they witness Yorinobu murder his own father, Saburo Arasaka, the supreme ruler of the corporation. Forced to escape under heavy lockdown, the chip’s protective case is damaged. To prevent the chip from degrading, V slot the Relic into their own neural socket, but Jackie succumbs to fatal wounds. Upon returning, V is met with betrayal: Dexter, terrified of Arasaka’s retaliation, shoots V in the head and leaves them in a landfill, marking V’s first “death.”

Erosion and Coexistence

V miraculously revives, saved by the Relic itself. The Relic is a specialized biochip designed to overwrite a host’s brain with a saved human consciousness (Engram), resurrecting it into a new physical body. The mind stored within is none other than Johnny Silverhand, the legendary terrorist who nuked Arasaka Tower in 2023.
While repairing V’s brain, the Relic simultaneously initiates the process of permanently inscribing Johnny’s consciousness into the nervous system. Johnny appears as a phantom within V’s mind, forcing them to share a single body. However, due to the Relic’s programming, V’s identity is gradually being overwritten, leaving V with a grim reality: complete physical and mental erasure within a matter of weeks. Seeking to evade certain death, V forms a tense alliance with their unwanted mind-tenant, Johnny, and races across Night City to find a way to remove the Relic.

Paths to Survival and the Multitude of Endings

V’s search branches into three distinct paths: contacting Alt Cunningham—an AI lurking beyond the Blackwall, the barrier of the old Net—via the Voodoo Boys hacker gang; teaming up with the Nomad Panam Palmer to capture Anders Hellman, the Relic’s lead engineer; or intervening in Arasaka’s internal power struggle alongside Saburo’s former bodyguard Goro Takemura to reach Saburo’s daughter, Hanako Arasaka.
Yet, no matter which path is chosen, a complete cure remains out of reach. As time runs out, V and Johnny launch a final assault to physically breach “Mikoshi,” Arasaka’s neural data bank.
The outcome diverges based on the player’s choices: “The Devil,” surrendering one’s soul to Arasaka; “The Star,” forging unbreakable family bonds with Panam and the Nomads to ride off into the Badlands; “The Sun,” becoming a legendary mercenary heading into space; “Temperance,” relinquishing V’s body to Johnny permanently; or taking one’s own life to spare others. Set against a deeply unequal and dystopian society, the narrative presents a multitude of endings that force players to confront their own humanity and the weight of their choices.

DLC: Phantom Liberty (2023)

Crash and Compact

Midway through the main story, as V suffers under the Relic’s erosion, they receive a call from a mysterious netrunner named Songbird (Somi). Acting as the right-hand agent to President Rosalind Myers of the NUSA (New United States of America), she offers a cure for the Relic in exchange for V rescuing the President from a deadly hazard zone. Spaceforce One, carrying President Myers, has been hijacked and is crashing into Dogtown—Night City’s most dangerous, walled-off combat zone.
Infiltrating Dogtown, a district ruled by warlord Kurt Hansen and his private militia, V successfully rescues the President after a fierce conflict. However, Songbird goes silent. To safely evacuate the President and secure their own cure, V joins forces with Solomon Reed, a veteran FIA sleeper agent embedded in Night City, and embarks on a covert espionage operation.

Loyalty and Exploitation

Infiltrating Hansen’s stronghold, V uncovers the dark truth behind the crash. Songbird was not captured; she engineered the incident herself to betray the President. President Myers had been exploiting Songbird to breach the Blackwall—a dangerous cyber-frontier forbidden by international law—leaving Songbird’s neural network on the brink of total collapse. She orchestrated the conspiracy as a desperate attempt to escape state control and survive.
V, eroded by the Relic, and Songbird, consumed by the Blackwall—the two are mirror images of each other, exploited by massive institutions (corporations and the state) and haunted by time bombs ticking inside their heads.

The Ultimate Choice and a New Outcome

The two attempt to cure their condition using an ancient technology known as the “Neural Matrix,” only to discover a cruel limitation: it can save only one of them. V is forced into an agonizing choice: side with Reed, who remains bound by loyalty to the state, or side with Songbird, who craves freedom and survival even if it means betraying everyone.
If V chooses to help Songbird, they must decide whether to send her to the Moon—even after learning she lied about the cure—or hand her over to Reed at the final moment. If V sides with Reed, they must choose whether to grant the cyber-degraded Songbird her request to die, or surrender her alive to the NUSA.

If V accepts treatment from the NUSA, a new ending to the main campaign unfolds: “The Tower.” Through state-of-the-art medical technology, the Relic is successfully removed, securing V’s survival. However, V wakes up from a two-year coma only to learn that the procedure has left them permanently unable to use combat cyberware. Abandoned by former friends and lovers, reduced to a mere civilian who can be knocked down by low-level thugs, V loses the dream of becoming a Night City legend and quietly fades into the anonymous crowd.