Can You Live a Normal Life in Cyberpunk 2077?

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live in Night City from Cyberpunk 2077 if you were just a regular person? Like if you needed to

regular person? Like if you needed to have a job, commute to work, and get food and stuff, what would that look like? This question has always

like? This question has always fascinated me. So, I came up with a

fascinated me. So, I came up with a little experiment for myself. I'm going

to live for seven straight days in Cyberpunk 2077, which means I'm going to find a place to call home and come back there every single night to sleep. I'm

gonna find a place to work and go there every single day for hours at a time.

I'm only going to eat in real life when my character is able to eat in game. And

I'm even going to buy real life foods that match the types of foods available in cyberpunk so I have similar nutrients flowing through my body. But the thing that's really going to make this

difficult is that the cyberpunk dayight cycle is 3 hours long. So living seven straight days is going to take 21 hours which is 21 hours of walking to the same

buildings, seeing the same people, and doing the same monotonous tasks. And I'm

going to do it all in one sitting. I've

got lots of other crazy rules to share with you about the challenge. But first

we need to figure out the details of our fictional life, starting with where we're going to live. There are a variety of housing choices in Cyberpunk 2077 from humongous mansions and swanky

penthouse apartments to tents on the side of the road. But we're not looking for something fancy. We're looking for something extremely average, like the type of place your normal working-class person would live. And Night City has

the perfect option, mega buildings. You

probably noticed these huge skyscrapers with giant numbers on the side while playing Cyberpunk. But if you have

playing Cyberpunk. But if you have attention problems, uh, you may not have really put together that these buildings are all apartment complexes that the people of Night City live in. And

according to the lore, each of these buildings is supposed to contain everything that a person might need to live, including food, places to hang out, entertainment, [music] and common areas. They're sort of like uh hamster

areas. They're sort of like uh hamster cages, but for people. In fact, the apartment you receive at the start of the game, the one that's owned by the protagonist [music] V, is in mega building number 10. I

thought about just using that one for this exercise, but it felt a little bit too nice for an average guy like me. So

instead, we're going to put our no-name average person over here in mega building number eight, located in the neighborhood of Japan Town. In order to access our apartment, we're going to have to head to the upper levels of the

building by using this elevator, which has TVs that blast news and advertisements in your face 24/7. We'll

be riding this thing twice a day, every day for a week, which is going to matter later, so we better get used to it. Our

cozy little apartment is going to be out the elevator to the left and right up these stairs. You'll notice that

these stairs. You'll notice that technically this door isn't actually functional in the game. There's not

really an apartment here, but thankfully I know how to edit a YouTube video so I can do a little trick. And voila. This

is where you and I are going to be living from now on. A small studio-sized apartment complete with everything we need. A bed to sleep in, a bathroom to

need. A bed to sleep in, a bathroom to bathroom in, a computer to play cyberpunk on, and a kitchen to do nothing because there is no kitchen. In

fact, no apartments in this game really have kitchens, which is a problem we're going to contend with when we talk about how the people of Night City find food.

We can also change our clothes here which will be super helpful after we get home from work each day, depending on the type of place that we work at. I

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Anyway, let's get back to our miserable average life where we live in a tiny apartment in a disgusting dystopian city. So, we found our apartment and now

city. So, we found our apartment and now we need to figure out where a normal person might work. And in my mind there's really only one good option for entry-level work in a giant city. Food

service. Sure, we could pretend to be a street fender or a janitor or whatever but Night City's lowerass is built on entertainment and hedonism. And the

quickest way to get into that industry is through restaurants. Now, we're going to want to find a restaurant that's within walking distance of our apartment building because the train system in the city doesn't have nearly enough stops to be useful for commuting to work. and the

fast travel mechanic, which I assume is representative of a taxi service, would be much too expensive for a workingclass Joe Schmo like me to use every single day. The best option for work I could

day. The best option for work I could find here is this little place tucked in an alley a few blocks away from our apartment called Xiao Jong Mau, also known as the Ginger Panda. This is a sit-down restaurant, which is great

because it means better tips, and it also means we're not just going to be standing behind a counter all day. These

are my two co-workers who actually make the food and tend to the bar. and my job will be to manage tables, take orders and keep the place clean and tidy. I

didn't know it yet, but these two workers and a handful of our customers were about to become the closest thing that I had to friends for the next 20 hours. But first, the big question here

hours. But first, the big question here is, how long is my shift at this restaurant going to be? Well, there's a little bit of lore in Cyberpunk that we can actually reference to figure this out. There is a shard in the game that

out. There is a shard in the game that you can pick up and read that makes mention of the fact that an 80hour work week in this game would be considered desirable at a big tech company in the city. And another piece of lore mentions

city. And another piece of lore mentions a device you can get that can make it so that you only require 3 hours of sleep per night to function normally. My guess

would be that these things would apply more so to your corporate workers rather than a lowly server. That said, we're going to assume that the world of cyberpunk has really good and cheap stimulants as well as uh minimal uh

labor protection. So, our character is

labor protection. So, our character is going to work 12-hour shifts 6 days a week with one day off, and we're going to sleep a minimum of 6 hours per night.

Feels like a reasonable cyberpunk style compromise. We'll work out the details

compromise. We'll work out the details of when each shift is going to be later on. But next, we have to figure out

on. But next, we have to figure out where, we're, going to, get, food., So,, you remember how earlier I mentioned that our apartment didn't have a kitchen and that most apartments in this game don't have kitchens? It also turns out that

have kitchens? It also turns out that there aren't really grocery stores in Night City. All of the purchasable food

Night City. All of the purchasable food is in convenience form, either from vending machines or corner stores. And

the only exception to that are the food stalls and restaurants. Most likely

this means that mass- prodduced synthetic food has become so cheap and standards of living so reoriented that people basically just eat out of vending machines for most meals. You can see good evidence of this by the fact that

the player character's apartment in the game literally has vending machines inside of it from which you can order basically anything you might need to get by, not just food. How convenient. Get

me one of those. What this means is that rather than fitting in a grocery run on our commute to and from work, we really just need to remember to grab something out of a vending machine a couple of times a day or stop at one of the food

stalls. With that taken care of, we

stalls. With that taken care of, we really just have one more thing to sort out before we can begin recreation. That

would include socializing entertainment fulfillment relaxation anything that we do with our free time that isn't directly tied to surviving.

In real life, we have lots of options for, this,, at least, ideally,, including public parks, hiking, going out to bars or clubs, playing video games, and so on. And in cyberpunk, we kind of have

on. And in cyberpunk, we kind of have the same options. By far, the most common leisure activity in the city is drinking, or some variation of chemical escapism. This can be done in

escapism. This can be done in restaurants and bars, but also just on the street, meaning that Night City likely doesn't have open container laws or, at least, not, ones, widely, enforced.

Most people also have access to a computer of some kind, which we can assume means people are still scrolling on the internet and playing video games possibly doing other things with their computer. Green spaces like parks, as

computer. Green spaces like parks, as you can imagine, are not very common but there are a few places near where we live that kind of qualify. Like this

walking path along the canal here, or this plaza area with benches and sculptures. Not exactly going to feel

sculptures. Not exactly going to feel like a breath of fresh air, but it's slightly less claustrophobic than sitting in a back alley people watching.

And then the last accessible entertainment option for us would be the various clubs across the city. None of

these are super close to where we live but with any luck, maybe after work we'll uh have time to get to the train station, head across town, have some fun, and get home in time for work the next day. If we were richer, we might be

next day. If we were richer, we might be able to do some higher class entertainment activities like brain dances, which is sort of like VR, but for your whole brain. But for our purposes, our options for joy and fulfillment are basically going to be

limited to the classics. gaming

drinking, dancing, and going for walks.

All the good stuff. With these

logistical things figured out, we're starting to get a pretty good idea of what an average life in Night City might look, like,, at least, on, paper., Long, hours at work, substances to keep you going minimal time for relaxing, and doing

your best to scrape together some kind of meaning in a pretty unforgiving world, which is kind of our job as people on Earth, too. Cyberpunk just

exaggerates the circumstances a little bit. But just listing out these facts

bit. But just listing out these facts about life doesn't actually make me feel like I truly understand what day-to-day life here would be like. The only way to figure out what day-to-day life here would actually be like, we're going to

have to live it for seven straight days.

So, like I said up front, each day in Cyberpunk is apparently about three real life hours long, which is extremely long as dayight cycles in video games go.

Minecraft's, dayight, cycle,, for example, is only 20 minutes. Red Dead Redemption 2's is 48 minutes, and Skyrim's is longer, but it's still just barely over an hour. That means that in order to

an hour. That means that in order to live out one week in Cyberpunk Time I'll have to play the game for about 21 hours straight in Earth time. Each of

these days, I'm going to expect myself to get at least 6 hours of sleep. And

all but one of the days, I'll be working a shift at the Ginger Panda from noon to midnight, which will be about 90 minutes of real life time, which means that over the course of the experiment, I'll be spending 9 hours doing nothing but

standing inside this one building in Cyberpunk 2077. I'll get one day off

Cyberpunk 2077. I'll get one day off during the week, which I can use for anything I want, but I have to make sure that no matter what I do, I get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep, and I cannot be late to work the next day. If

I am, the whole experiment starts over.

In order to make this exercise as immersive as possible, of course anytime that I want to eat in real life I'll have to make sure I'm able to do that in game, which also applies to drinking things. And also, like I said

drinking things. And also, like I said I've lined up a bunch of foods that correspond to foods that are available in our area in the game. The only catch here is that because days in Cyberpunk

are eight times faster than real life any food or drinks I consume will need to be eight times smaller than their normal serving size. So, I'm subjecting myself to the same cycles of hunger and thirst that our in-game character will

be experiencing. And last, but certainly

be experiencing. And last, but certainly not least, I'm only going to be able to use the restroom if I can actually get to a bathroom in the game. So, that'll

be fun. Let's begin the experiment.

I started this experiment at 10:00 a.m.

in game, but in real life, it was about 7:00 in the morning on a Sunday. And for

maximum immersion, I had not eaten or drinken drunken drunk drank. I hadn't

had anything to drink all morning. So

the first thing I wanted to do was start to get a sense of where near my apartment I could grab some kind of breakfast and some kind of caffeine. And

thankfully, there was a vending machine in a small alley next to our apartment building that had both coffee and some kind of milkshake thing. I snagged both grabbed a seat on some nearby stairs drank my real life 1/8-sized coffee and

shake, and did a few minutes of people watching before heading down the street for my first shift at work. Now, you're

probably realizing, just like I did that if I just woke up in real life, I was going to be a lot more than 1/8 normal hunger. You know, having an

normal hunger. You know, having an eighth of a protein shake isn't exactly going to fill me up in the morning. But

my thinking was that while early on I would probably be slightly hungrier than my character might actually be in game over time that line would even out because I'd be eating small quantities

fairly frequently and cycles of hunger would follow the same motion in real life as they would in the game, which is the important part. Once I arrived at work, the first thing I did was get acquainted with my co-workers and then go around checking to see what kind of

customers I might be dealing with over the next 12 hours. Some of these customers were nice.

>> What, a, lovely, day., Some, of, them, were mean >> lost,, honey.

>> And, some, of, them, were, pretty, weird.

>> I'm, collecting, knees., I, got, seven.

>> Pretty, quickly,, it, became, clear, that this was going to be a real test of my patience. And it dawned on me that I was

patience. And it dawned on me that I was going to have to find a way to kill 90 minutes, not just once, but six separate times inside this one room restaurant that had basically no interactive

objects in it. All while pretending to do a job that doesn't actually exist in Cyberpunk 2077. To put that in

Cyberpunk 2077. To put that in perspective, that means the time I would have to spend doing nothing but staring at the walls of this restaurant was roughly the length of a feature film.

Only instead of watching a feature film I'd be listening to the same two voice lines from the same 10 or 15 NPCs hearing the same four songs on loop and watching the minutes slowly tick by on the clock in the upper right of the

screen until it hit midnight and I could leave. So, I did what you would do at

leave. So, I did what you would do at any job where you want to pass the time.

I gave people names so I could keep track of them and talk to them. The two

most important ones are the owner of the restaurant here, who I decided to call Armando, and the line cook over here I named Lucille. The rest of the cast just

named Lucille. The rest of the cast just kind of slotted in place around them.

Throughout the day, not a single new NPC came into the restaurant, and none of the ones that were there left, but I did start to find myself relying on some of the more entertaining voice lines to lift my spirits as the long hours started to get to me, including this

one.

>> Forward, March >> and, my, personal, favorite.

>> Yeah,, what's, up, in, the, big, world?, So,

anytime I found myself getting bored, I would go strike up a conversation with one of these NPCs, chitchat with them until they said my favorite voice line.

>> Yeah,, what's, up, in, the, big, world?

>> And, then, move, on, to, the, next, one.

>> Forward, March.

>> Eventually,, 10:00, rolled, around., All, the NPCs popped out of existence except my two main co-workers. And all that was left to do was pretend to sweep and bust the tables, say goodbye to my new boss

and head out into the night that gave this city its name. I had to be asleep by 4:00 a.m. if I wanted to get up at 10:00 a.m. for my shift the next day.

10:00 a.m. for my shift the next day.

But as any good food service employee knows, you can't end your first shift at a new restaurant without a celebratory drink. It was 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday, by

drink. It was 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday, by the way. So, I had a seat at a little

the way. So, I had a seat at a little stall that served some kind of highquality intoxicant called Cala Felis, filled up my shot glass with 1/8 of a shot of this liquid, and threw it

back while advertisements blared in my ears telling me about a sweep stakes where I could win a trip to a luxury casino in space. Send the word space to 7299

for a chance to win a oneweek getaway.

>> This, was, the, first, moment, that, I, felt something interesting during this experiment. With the taste of calera

experiment. With the taste of calera feliz still on my tongue and the relief of no longer being inside that building in my heart, I listened to this guy on the TV tease me with a life of luxury I

knew I would never have. And I looked around at the late night crowd wandering through this alley with the litter everywhere and the grimy tabletop I was sitting at. And I got a tiny feeling in

sitting at. And I got a tiny feeling in my stomach. For just a brief second, my

my stomach. For just a brief second, my body, not my mind, but my body felt a little melancholy feeling of actually being in this depressing alley. And I

know it was just a random coincidence but right at that moment when the advertisement told me to text space to 7299, I looked over at the food stall worker and she was texting someone with a big smile on her face. I ended up

going for a late night walk after that and getting extremely lost in the tangled walkways of Night City's layered streets. But I made it back home just in

streets. But I made it back home just in time to snag some water, head up the steps, and get to bed on time.

Good morning, everybody. Day two started much the same as day one. I got in the elevator, caught up on some advertisements, and grabbed my morning coffee and shake from the vending machine. Rather than sitting on the

machine. Rather than sitting on the steps today, I opted to walk to work early and drink my 1/8 sized drinks in the alleyway next door so as not to be late. And while I was drinking my

late. And while I was drinking my coffee, I had another weirdly immersive feeling wash over me. Oh, I'm not excited to go have another shift to this damn job. This is only number two. But

damn job. This is only number two. But

we signed up for this and we had another long shift to get through. So, here we go. Good morning, beautiful people at

go. Good morning, beautiful people at the Ginger Panda. The one thing I was eager to see is whether or not the NPCs were going to cycle out from day to day.

And as it turned out, it was a little more complicated than that. The main

guy, Armando, is still here. And the

middle staff member with the pink beard who we called Paul, I believe, is uh here as well. But Lucille, the line cook, has been swapped out for a new girl. We decided to call this new girl

girl. We decided to call this new girl Chloe, and she was going to end up being the person I talked to most throughout the whole experiment. The customers are where things got interesting, because even though a lot of them had been

swapped out, every single chair that had somebody in it on day one also had somebody in it on day two. For

reference, the layout of the Ginger Panda is like this, with tables around the edges and the bar in the middle. And

these tables are the ones that always have somebody at them. Each of these tables also has a set animation that goes with it. So on this table, for example, whoever is sitting here is just staring at their hand all day. At this

table, there's always one guy standing up and staring at another guy sitting down [music] and so on and so forth.

This was fine, but it did mean that occasionally you would have an NPC that you really liked one day >> what's, up, in, the, big, world, >> who, was, now, sitting, in, a, new, chair, with a totally new personality.

>> The, [ __ ], you, smiling, at?

>> Which, is, a, little, sad,, but, I, can, deal with it. The other big change on our

with it. The other big change on our second shift is that I ran out of things to do. a whole lot sooner. This is

to do. a whole lot sooner. This is

really a slog, I'll tell you. Yeah, I am really bored. Actually, this is an

really bored. Actually, this is an extremely boring job, which makes sense.

And if you think about it, it's actually very fitting because uh real jobs are boring, but pretending to do a real job inside of a video game is actually even more boring because there aren't any real people to talk to or real tasks to

do. This is also where the experiment

do. This is also where the experiment stopped feeling like a cute idea for a video and started feeling like an actual challenge. I continue to have fake

challenge. I continue to have fake conversations with the customers and I talked to our new line cook Chloe a lot because her animation incorporated a lot of subtle nods or headshakes which means I could kind of use her as like a magic

eightball where I could ask yes or no questions and she would kind of affirm or deny each one. Almost started to feel like she could hear me. How you doing Chloe? You're like my number one

Chloe? You're like my number one co-orker I feel like. Well, Armando's

pretty good too. By the end of the shift, I had also spent some time analyzing the duct work on the ceiling and looking at other minute details that I hadn't noticed on day one, but those were quickly running out as well. I hid

in the restroom for a bit, just like a real service job, and eventually 10 p.m.

rolled around. And just like last night every single NPC disappeared into the void as soon as I looked away from them.

The customers today were definitely less charming than the first day. A lot of them were pretty rude, and there were fewer amusing voice lines to listen to but my co-workers were starting to grow on me at this point. After work, I knew I wanted something to eat, so I grabbed

one of the burritos from a vending machine on the other side of the street as well as a N cola, and sat down on a chair across from the ginger panda to enjoy it. Now that work was over, I

enjoy it. Now that work was over, I found myself overcome with a feeling of relaxation, just sitting in an alleyway eating 1/8 of a microwave burrito, and reminiscing about my day. Eventually, I

walked back home, played on one of the available arcade machines for some relaxing stimulation, and then rode the elevator back up to my apartment for a good night's sleep.

Good morning everybody.

Welcome to day three. Another day

another elevator ride. Another stop at our vending machine for coffee and a shake. I was visibly more irritated

shake. I was visibly more irritated today than the last two days on my way to work. Why are you honking?

to work. Why are you honking?

I'm going to do it. I'm going to punch him. And it was starting to transition

him. And it was starting to transition from this is a silly live stream to this is just actually really annoying and I'm not looking forward to it. But

thankfully, along the way to work, I spotted a new group of vending machines that I hadn't looked at before, and I discovered they were carrying Hollow Bites pies, which are little sugary hand pies that I could take to work as a

snack and use as a dopamine boost halfway through my shift. That would

help with the monotony, but even still I let out an involuntary oh god when I turned into the alley with the restaurant in it. It's uh I think the one I got secondly apple flavored. Oh

god. And felt that very familiar feeling of not feeling ready to go into the building before your shift starts. But

once noon rolled around, I didn't have a choice. I finished sipping my coffee

choice. I finished sipping my coffee across the street and then it was time for another shift. Good morning

staff. How are we doing today everybody?

I'd kind of gotten into a rhythm where the first thing I did every morning was check in with the staff, say hi to the new dishwasher, ask Armando a question in which he would always respond by saying,

>> "Yeah,, I'm, kind, of, in, a, rush, here."

>> And, then, go, do, a, lap, to, get, to, know, all of the new customers. There were a few regulars back in again today, which is always nice to see, including this lady in the blue jacket, who had been with us all three days so far. But the one lady

who didn't return was our number one girl from day one.

>> Yeah,, what's, up, in, the, big, world?

>> Maybe, we'll, see, her, again, tomorrow.

Aside from those minor changes, the first few hours of the shift went by relatively quickly, and before I knew it, 600 p.m. was rolling around, and it was time for me to take my break and eat my 1/8 of a snack. Armando, I'm stepping

out for a second. I'm going to have a pie. Okay, nice. So, we have a little

pie. Okay, nice. So, we have a little one 1/ 1/8 size of a of a little Hubig's apple pie here. We were getting pretty deep into the experiment at this point and a lot of funny things were starting

to happen to my relationship with the game. For one, I was feeling the dayight

game. For one, I was feeling the dayight cycle a lot more than in a normal playthrough. Most of the time, when you

playthrough. Most of the time, when you play a game like Cyberpunk, you don't need to sleep. You don't need to be anywhere at a specific time, whatever.

So, forcing yourself to do those things makes you intimately aware of how time is passing and how the energy shifts throughout the day. And that adds a whole other layer of immersion almost like uh it's like we got a VR headset

but instead of being for our sense of sight, it's a VR headset for our sense of time. The other thing that happened

of time. The other thing that happened is that once I finished eating my treat the last 6 hours of the shift dragged.

If you watch my face, you can see that I'm visibly getting tired and starting to vent to the customers about it.

>> You, have, nothing, better, to, do.

>> Believe, me,, lady,, I, wish, I, did., And, it only got worse when I really thought about where I was in the course of the whole challenge because we were just now getting to the end of day three, which meant we hadn't even reached the halfway

point yet. And I was already completely

point yet. And I was already completely over it. It's like I condensed all the

over it. It's like I condensed all the novelty of the first few weeks of a new job into just a few short hours by maximizing my own boredom and suffering and combining it with the familiar taste of food and the familiar flow of time.

And through that combination of sensory inputs, I had hijacked my nervous system into believing that this restaurant was my life. And to be fair, that's exactly

my life. And to be fair, that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted the part of a job where the novelty is gone and you're just grinding through the day legitimately annoyed. I was pretty wiped

legitimately annoyed. I was pretty wiped after work. So after I finished, I ate

after work. So after I finished, I ate my burrito, headed home, and spent the evening planning out what to do with my day off, which was going to be on day five.

And welcome everybody. Welcome to day four. I had a real pep in my step today

four. I had a real pep in my step today and it felt good to have something new to look forward to tomorrow. After

seeing nothing but Crescent Avenue and the inside of the ginger panda for 10 straight real life hours, a dust storm of some kind had moved in overnight giving our walk to work a new atmosphere, and I was enjoying the

ambiance so much that I was nearly late.

[music] I slammed my coffee in the alleyway next door, took a deep breath and headed in for my last shift before our day off. Good morning, everybody.

Armando, how are we doing? Just like

yesterday, we've got a mix of recognizable faces and a few newcomers.

And all of the same animations are playing out at all of the same tables.

Two of our favorite regulars have returned today, including blue jacket lady and the cool girl with the black sunglasses, as well as some of the other minor characters. One of my favorite

minor characters. One of my favorite guys that I didn't mention yesterday is back today, but this time he's on a date. Additionally, in the seat at the

date. Additionally, in the seat at the back of the restaurant, we have a familiar voice.

>> Yeah,, what's, up, in, the, big, world?

>> So,, that's, going, to, be, a, great, boost, for our mood throughout the shift. I also

continue to chat with our line cook Chloe, which is always a great way to pass the time. Chloe, strong silent type. I saw that pan flip. Nice work.

type. I saw that pan flip. Nice work.

How's your um soup feel? And at 6:00, as usual, I took my break and had a snack in the alleyway. Before I knew it, it was 8:00. My favorite song came on the

was 8:00. My favorite song came on the jukebox, and I was actually starting to feel a little bit sentimental about this whole journey. Yeah. Here's what would

whole journey. Yeah. Here's what would really get me. If you put together like an a a slideshow of scenes from my time at the restaurant with this song in the background once this is over

unironically I'd be like a how nice is that? At this point I also noticed that

that? At this point I also noticed that the bathroom rule never really ended up being a big deal because we were basically always at work so we were always right near a bathroom. Thank

goodness I picked a a job with a bathroom. Uh there's an argument to be

bathroom. Uh there's an argument to be made that in Cyberpunk they wouldn't give you bathroom breaks but I don't know. Armando seems like a chill manager

know. Armando seems like a chill manager and I don't think he would do that to me. Eventually 10:00 rolled around, the

me. Eventually 10:00 rolled around, the NPCs left and I had to try and look busy for 2 hours before I would be allowed to go home. I made small talk with Armando

go home. I made small talk with Armando and Chloe. I ran in circles watching

and Chloe. I ran in circles watching plates break and then midnight struck and I clocked out fully ready for a hard-earned day off. I decided against doing anything too crazy tonight so I could get up early tomorrow and have a

full day of fun. So I snagged a burrito ate it outside across the street like usual, and headed home.

Good morning, folks.

It's officially day five. So, it's

finally our day off. And our goal today which I'm very excited to share with you, is really to do two things. I

decided that I wanted to go down to Pacifica, uh, because they have a roller coaster down there, and I think it would be fun to see a roller coaster after seeing nothing but that restaurant for a bunch of hours. So, that's goal number

one. And goal number two is I wanted to

one. And goal number two is I wanted to go to one of the nightclubs. And I

picked one called Ton Ton. [music]

Since we're just an average working-class person, we will not be using the in-game fast travel system because we can't afford all those taxi rides, which means instead we're going to have to use the trains. I have to

give CD Project Red an insane shout out for the trains in this game because I was really trying to avoid having to open up the map to navigate around the city as I thought it would be less immersive, but it would also pause time

and I really didn't want to pause time.

So, one night after work, I spent some time studying the train stops in Night City, and I determined what stops I would have to get on and off, as well as how to walk to those stops from my house in order to get to these places I wanted

to go. But the one piece of the puzzle

to go. But the one piece of the puzzle that I didn't anticipate was that CD Project Red would have created an entire system of functional maps with individual train lines that you could

read and navigate by, and that you could literally ride the trains, like sit on the trains and watch the city go by out the window. for a game developer to go

the window. for a game developer to go out of their way to design a functional gameplay system like this, complete with in-game tools to make it work without menus, and for that system to actually be less efficient than the existing fast

travel system, but still more fleshed out and immersive. I think that's just [music] an absolutely beautiful and amazing thing to put work into. I

really, really appreciated this among so many other things about Cyberpunk 2077 while doing this whole stream. And I

wanted to just sincerely say thank you to those folks for putting in the work that they did, which goes for all game developers, honestly, every single one.

Anyway, I made my way to the train station, rode the train down to one of the stops closest [music] to my destination, and then walked a while to get near the roller coaster. It

immediately became clear that this new neighborhood I was in was not as safe as the one that I lived and worked in. Why

is this roller coaster in like a decrepit land of of horror? It was in such a state of disrepair that it made my little alleyway look like Disney World. [music] and people were just

World. [music] and people were just constantly setting off bombs and shooting at each other. The closer I got to the roller coaster, the worse it seemed to get until eventually I realized that the dreams I had of a roller coaster ride simply were not

going to be possible because there was an armed gang threatening to shoot me.

And this, I guess, is why people just stay in their [ __ ] mega building and play video games and drink and go on the computer and use the VR headset cuz trying to do something adventurous in

Night City, somebody with a gun is just going to stand there and kill you.

Frankly, if I was role- playinging appropriately, my average workingclass guy probably would have given up trying to get to the roller coaster a lot sooner. So, I figured it would be

sooner. So, I figured it would be unrealistic for me to push through and I decided to cut my losses and just head back to the train station in defeat. It

was a bummer, but that's life sometimes.

And on the walk back, I ended up running into a lot of wholesome people who were making the best of living in this rotten place. I listened to this guy play

place. I listened to this guy play guitar for a little while. I found

someone else playing one of those metal UFO things and I actually ended up having a seat with this guy who lived out of a small shack on the side of the road and we talked for a bit about where I lived and worked and just about life

in general. Uh live around here work?

in general. Uh live around here work?

>> No,, no,, I, live, up, in, Japan, town.

Actually, you can hear that I actually laughed at myself in the moment at the start of that clip because I heard myself talking to this guy and it was just like so earnest. I wasn't streaming at this point and I think you can see it

on my face. I was literally just talking to him like it was a real human being and he was even sort of responding and it just struck me as so wholesome that I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

Eventually we took 1/8 of a shot of Cala Feliss together and headed off to catch my train up to the dance club. The train

dropped me off a few blocks away from Toten Tans and it took a little bit of wandering to find it because I hadn't studied the map enough but eventually I stumbled across it and headed inside to try and let loose a little bit before my

day off came to an end. The vibes in here overall are pretty great. There's a

dance floor where you can dance. Another

shout out to CD Project Red for adding that button. There's a bar for drinks.

that button. There's a bar for drinks.

There's a variety of lounge areas and even a precarious balcony you can step out onto to look out over the city at night. I even ran into one of our

night. I even ran into one of our regulars from the Ginger Panda throwing up over here. Wa! Wait

this is that guy. We did a lot of fun stuff at the club, but there were really two moments that stuck out to me. The

first one was after dancing to some techno music on the floor for a while they started to play a song that I didn't like. So, I went over to the bar

didn't like. So, I went over to the bar to grab a drink and catch my breath. And

then I decided to head out of the main area of the club and out onto that precarious balcony where I found two other people. One of them was just

other people. One of them was just chilling, enjoying the view, and the other one was having a panicked phone conversation. Now, if you've never spent

conversation. Now, if you've never spent time going out to bars or clubs or parties, I cannot tell you how spitting of a feeling this was. Going from a super loud environment with lots of strobe lights flashing to a relatively

quiet, calm area outside in a city is such a subtle real moment that I've experienced countless times in real life. And to see it in this context

life. And to see it in this context especially after having spent so many hours pacing back and forth inside of a restaurant was really captivating. And

then the other moment that really stuck with me was later in the night. I was

thinking about heading back home, but I decided to dance to one last song. And

when I got onto the dance floor, I ran into this guy who I decided to dance with. and his dancing animation was so

with. and his dancing animation was so enthusiastic. It was so engaged with me

enthusiastic. It was so engaged with me that I legitimately felt like I had a real moment with a real person at a loud club. Like a like one of those missed

club. Like a like one of those missed connections, you know? I've thought

about that guy every day since finishing this challenge. But all good things must

this challenge. But all good things must come to an end. So, I said my goodbyes and headed back out onto the street and walked towards the train station. On the

train ride home, I was basically completely silent and staring out the window. At this point, I had been

window. At this point, I had been streaming for about 13 hours, so fatigue was really setting in. But if you're going to hit a point of fatigue, having it happen right after a night out at the club is pretty fitting. By the time I

was getting home, the city was coming alive again and the sun was coming up.

But I still had just enough time to get my full 6 hours of sleep and head back into work the next day.

Good morning everybody. Welcome to day six. Back to work today. And

six. Back to work today. And

unfortunately, we learned that the city requisitioned our favorite vending machine last night. So we're going to have to come up with a new morning routine. Wait, where's our vending

routine. Wait, where's our vending machine?, Plus,, we're, in, a, little bit, of

machine?, Plus,, we're, in, a, little bit, of a rush on account of waking up late. So

we snagged a Nicola, one of those Hollow Bites pies and decided to just tough it out until the end of our shift for a proper meal. All my food service homies

proper meal. All my food service homies know what that's like. Good morning

everybody. We're back in the restaurant for our final two shifts, and I was unironically excited to tell my co-workers about my day off. I think

part of it was that I had actually grown a little attached to them and I was feeling parasocial, but it also had the added benefit of giving me something stimulating to do to pass the time.

Unfortunately, our number one listener Chloe, had the day off and Lucille, who you might remember from day one, had returned to work as our line cook. So

that's a bummer, but Armando was still here, so he would have to do now.

Funnily enough, the guy we ran into at Toteen Tance last night, the guy who was throwing up all over the place, did not come into the restaurant today. I guess

he must have stayed out a little bit too late. But there was this mysterious

late. But there was this mysterious woman sitting in the corner back here.

You look like you might have been at Toen Tans last night. Were you there?

>> Do, I, know, you?

>> Oh,, maybe, you, do., Maybe, we, met [laughter] each other at Toen Tans. Did

you stalk me all the way here? You rode

the bus home or what?

>> You're, not, going, to, tell, me.

>> Uh-uh.

>> N, uh-uh., You're, not, going, to, tell, me.

Got it. That's fine. I had entered a flow state with the NPCs by this point.

I was having full birectional conversations with them despite the fact that each of them only had two spoken lines. And I was basically able to do it

lines. And I was basically able to do it with every single one of them every single day, including one of my favorite recurring conversations on day six with one of our favorite regulars in one of our favorite seats. This is the what's

up in the big world lady from day one but today she's having an existential crisis in front of a steaming pile of dumplings. And I was trying to cheer her

dumplings. And I was trying to cheer her up when I accidentally made a disturbing observation about her elbows. Replacing

your elbows with fake elbows, that is weird cuz think about that. Then you

have real flesh. [snorts]

>> [sighs] >> Why, even, try?

>> I'm, not, trying, to, freak, you, out., I'm

really not. But you do have real flesh that you're moving, but it's not actually connected to the rest of your flesh. It's It's You're kind of telep

flesh. It's It's You're kind of telep telepathying like a piece of flesh that's physically now disconnected. Like

you're controlling a hand. I'm freaking

you out, aren't I?

>> Oh, god,, nothing, makes, sense.

>> The, energy, of, day, six, is, definitely different than previous days. I'm tired

enough that I'm fully immersed in the exercise, barely thinking about what I'm saying, just slowly becoming one with the ginger panda. I was sort of like Bootstrap Build, you know, from Pirates of the Caribbean where he was like part

of the ship, part of the crew. Love that

guy. Um, eventually to pass the time today, I decided to count all of the little buttons on these non-slip mats on the ground. The answer was 5,452.

the ground. The answer was 5,452.

And then I almost got into a little argument with Armando about his incessant chatter. You know, I'll be

incessant chatter. You know, I'll be honest, Armando. Most of the time, most

honest, Armando. Most of the time, most of the time, I'm not talking to you.

>> Yeah,, I'm, kind, of, in, a, rush, here.

>> Eventually,, 10:00, rolled, around, and everyone, including the lady having an existential crisis, [music] disappeared into nothingness, just like they always did. I wrapped up all my duties and I

did. I wrapped up all my duties and I said [music] goodbye to everyone. I

decided that as a reward for making it through a long day, instead of a vending machine burrito, I was going to treat myself, to, some, noodles, from, one, of the street vendors near my apartment building. a 1/8 sized portion of course

building. a 1/8 sized portion of course and then I headed in for an early bedtime to catch up on sleep.

Good morning everybody. Welcome to day seven of coming out of our apartment. I

had finally made it to the final day. It

was about 10 p.m. in real life at this point and I had been streaming for close to 15 hours straight. But despite my general exhaustion, I was definitely feeling a little nostalgic. I took a little extra time to absorb the elevator

ride and walk through my apartment lobby before grabbing my morning drink grabbing a snack for later, and heading off to work. My hope for today was that we would get to come across a lot of our favorite customers one more time, hear

some of those iconic voice lines, and that the energy of it being our last day would help the time go by quickly. But

really, my main concern at the time was whether or not the blue-haired line cook Chloe would return so that I could fill her in on my day off and say a proper thank you for helping me get through what was a long, frustrating, and

meaningful experiment. But

meaningful experiment. But unfortunately, when I opened the door to say hello to everyone, who the [ __ ] is that? A brand new line cook was working

that? A brand new line cook was working today. Not Chloe or Lucille. And it was

today. Not Chloe or Lucille. And it was actually the person who served me my noodles outside my apartment building last night. Now, obviously the way this

last night. Now, obviously the way this is working in the context of Cyberpunk is that the game has a set of line cook NPCs that they swap out randomly at any given line cook station in the game. And

we must have just gotten lucky that for every other day of work, we had only seen two of these models in our restaurant. But this moment illustrates

restaurant. But this moment illustrates something that I think is really amazing about both video games and the human brain, which is that in my head, I didn't really think to myself, "Oh, we got a random NPC. Too bad." I thought to

myself, I guess last night I must have told the noodle stand worker about my job and then she came in this morning looking for a new job and maybe Khloe called out today so that Armando decided to hire this new noodle stand lady on

the spot. Just by sheer chance of

the spot. Just by sheer chance of numbers and a commitment to the role, my little brain fleshed out a believable story, which just goes to show how good the human mind is at picking up on patterns amidst total random chaos.

Anyway, I processed that my favorite co-orker wasn't going to be here for my last day and decided to try and get to work. Returning customers today include

work. Returning customers today include our friend who we ran into throwing up at Toteen Tans the other night and I had a great conversation with him about what I was doing with my life after this job.

Where are you off to?

>> Oh,, you, know,, I, got, bigger, and, better things. Uh, my time in Night City's been

things. Uh, my time in Night City's been really fun. It was nice to see you at

really fun. It was nice to see you at the Toten Tans. I noticed you didn't come in yesterday, which is reasonable.

The lady in black sunglasses is back as well. Another recurring character from

well. Another recurring character from day one. The lady who followed us home

day one. The lady who followed us home from Toteen Tans yesterday is also back sitting in the exact same seat. But now

she's trying a new strategy where she acts all mad at me because her being flirty yesterday didn't work.

>> The, [ __ ], do, you, want?

>> But, the, real, victory, on, our, final, day, is over here at the existential staring at your hand table. This lady who has been with us most of our work days has come back again at the same table as

yesterday. only instead of being in an

yesterday. only instead of being in an existential crisis. Her original

existential crisis. Her original personality from day one, the first personality that really gave us joy during this experiment has been placed back into her body.

>> Yeah,, what's, up, in, the, big, world?

>> It, was, a, beautiful, little, full, circle moment and it almost made up for the fact that some of the other people we wanted to see today weren't going to make it in. As the day wore on, the novelty wore off and I started feeling

lazy and getting bored, similar to a real final shift at a restaurant. I

didn't really want to pretend to bust tables anymore. I didn't want to pretend

tables anymore. I didn't want to pretend to, sweep, at, the, end, of the, day, and, I didn't want to pretend to make small talk with our new line cook. She had

rude energy. The one new thing I noticed on this shift was that the jukebox over here wasn't centered with the tables or the pillars. It's like 10% too far to

the pillars. It's like 10% too far to one side, which is neat because it means that every single day I had come to work, I found new things to notice. I

never, ran, out., No matter, how, much, time, I spent walking back and forth. After

another hour of working, it was nearly 10 p.m. and it was time for one final

10 p.m. and it was time for one final round with all the customers before they disappeared into the void. I'll be

honest, saying goodbye to everyone here was a weird combination of relieving but also sad. I had successfully hijacked my

also sad. I had successfully hijacked my nervous system by forcing myself into such strict behaviors for so long that I was actually feeling kind of melancholy about all these weirdos. And there are a lot of lessons you could take from that

about the nature of getting immersed in a piece of art. But for me, I think my main takeaway is something I've always said on this channel. If you want to get more out of something, put more into something. This goes for games. It goes

something. This goes for games. It goes

for movies and other forms of art. But

it also goes for your relationships your health, and your life overall. It's

not always easy. Sometimes it's

incredibly tiring and frustrating and annoying and dumb and long and arduous.

But those feelings aren't actually that big when you're walking around a restaurant earnestly saying goodbye to a whole bunch of background lines of code that look and act like really weird human beings. Before I knew it, 10:00

human beings. Before I knew it, 10:00 rolled around and everyone was gone for the last time. I quietly did my closing duties and then just before the end of the shift asked Armando if he would do a

shot of Kaivera Feliss with me to celebrate my last day and he responded in the only way that he knew how.

>> Um,, okay.

>> We, took, it, together, sort, of, and, I, took one last look at the place I had just spent so many hours inside of before heading out back towards home to eat one last meal of noodles outside my

apartment complex. Little did I know

apartment complex. Little did I know the game had one final surprise for me.

Remember how I said that it seemed as though the lady who served me noodles last night ended up coming in to get a job at the ginger panda taking Khloe's place? Well, you're not going to believe

place? Well, you're not going to believe who ended up working at the noodle stand outside my apartment in her place.

>> No, [ __ ], way., Look, who's, at, the, noodle stand. Now, I'd like to tell you that I

stand. Now, I'd like to tell you that I sat down at this noodle stand, ate my noodles, and reminisced with Chloe about the long week I had just had. But

unfortunately, in my excitement, I accidentally hit the wrong button punched one of her customers in the back of the head, frightened her away, and caused the cops to know. But the

important thing here is that now we know she's still out there. Somewhere in

Night City, Chloe is there. And not just in my game, she's somewhere in your game, too. I'm Annie Austin. Thanks for

game, too. I'm Annie Austin. Thanks for

watching. [music]

I don't like the way you write my [music] songs.

Something you can everywhere [music] you been for me

on my side. It's [music] been too long for us to talk about [music] anything we have before.