Chapter 262 - 261: Maine
Chapter 262: Chapter 261: Maine
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It was six o’clock in the evening.
Sakura, the leader of a thousand-member Haruto fan group was busy rallying her troops. She was firing off messages across various platforms, urging the usually laid-back fans to tune in for the live premiere of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Episode 6 tonight, rather than waiting for the 7:30 AM rerun the following morning.
Shows airing on Tokyo TV1 usually had rebroadcasts during non-prime hours to accommodate those working overtime. However, the official ratings only truly cared about the premiere data. Given the "counter-offensive" Haruto had launched over the past two weeks against the critics who had trashed Edgerunners, the pressure on his fanbase was palpable.
If Edgerunners could firmly grasp the number one spot in ratings until its finale, it would be a slap in the face to all the skeptics and haters. It would solidify Haruto’s status as a titan who could stand toe-to-toe with the Big Three studios, regardless of his company’s size. Every future collaborator would have to treat him with the highest level of prestige. Conversely, if he were to fall behind now, his anti-fans would have enough ammunition to mock him for the next year. It would become a permanent stain on his record.
Sakura understood these high stakes perfectly, which was why she was working so hard.
Inside the fan group, the atmosphere was thick with tension.
"The situation looks grim, guys! That original racing anime Terminal Descent hit a 4.59% rating for episode six. That’s absolutely insane."
"Oh, please. What’s so special about a 4.59%? Didn’t Puella Magi Madoka Magica break into the 5% and 6% range by episode seven? That’s the real gold standard."
"Exactly, but that was Madoka Magica. We all love Haruto-sensei, but we have to be realistic. Madoka is likely the absolute peak of his career. I don’t think anything will ever match its cultural impact again."
"Who knows until the end? I’m betting on Edgerunners. It has that spark that could actually surpass Madoka if it plays its cards right."
"I think that’s a stretch."
"It’s not just a stretch; it’s impossible."
"Aside from the high budget and animation, I don’t see a single thing in Edgerunners that’s stronger than Madoka."
"Even if it doesn’t beat Madoka, are we really going to let it lose to a bicycle anime? Have some pride!"
"It hit 4.52% last week. As long as it breaks 4.60% tonight, we’re good. I refuse to give those haters the satisfaction of mocking us. That would be too disgusting to handle."
"I’m with you. I actually placed a 10k yen bet with a hardcore Haruto hater in another group. If the rating doesn’t hit 4.60%, I’m out five thousand yen. Come on, Cyberpunk, do it for my wallet!"
"You guys will bet on anything, won’t you?"
"Gamblers are a special breed. We’d bet on the direction of the wind if someone gave us odds."
"Hahaha! Part of me wants Haruto to win, but the other part of me really wants to see you lose everything. It’s a real internal conflict!"
The banter in the fan group continued until ten minutes before the 8:00 PM airtime. Suddenly, the chat slowed.
Sakura switched on her television, and tore open a bag of snacks as she sat through the final block of commercials.
Finally, the screen flickered, and a second later, theme song of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners roared through the speakers.
The episode opened with a rating of 4.44%, a formidable starting point. However, the real challenge was holding that number or pushing it higher. That depended entirely on the quality of the script. If the story was engaging, the audience would stay locked in; if it lagged for even a few minutes, casual viewers would switch channels or head to bed.
The plot picked up immediately where episode five left off. To extract vital data from the brain of the Arasaka executive, Tanaka, Maine’s crew had ambushed him through his connection with a specialized braindance director. The plan had spiraled into chaos, resulting in the director’s death. Because the director possessed a high-tier insurance policy, his death triggered a Trauma Team rescue unit that was currently tracking his location. The crew was forced to flee, dragging a half-conscious Tanaka with them.
The opening scene featured the crew’s leader, Maine. Due to his excessive reliance on heavy cyberware, he had begun to slip into a state of mental dissociation. He experienced a sudden, inexplicable flashback to his childhood, and when he snapped back to reality, he realized he had brutally attacked his own team in a daze.
His partner, Dorio, was bleeding from a head wound, and the crew’s lead netrunner, Kiwi, who had been submerged in Tanaka’s mind, had been sent flying by one of his punches. Half of her cybernetic face had been crushed. If Kiwi hadn’t been a highly modified cyberpunk, that single blow would have been a death sentence.
The team leader had nearly executed his own comrades.
"What happened? Are we under attack?" Maine asked, his expression a mask of confusion.
Sakura didn’t understand at first, but then it clicked.
Cyberpsychosis.
It was the series’ most haunting mechanic: if you rely on the "chrome" too much for too long, the machine eventually erases the man. There is no such thing as free power in Night City. For a man like Maine, who was more machine than flesh, he had finally reached the breaking point.
With Kiwi incapacitated, the backup netrunner, the heroine, Lucy, was forced to step up. She had to dive into Tanaka’s mind herself to find the intel they needed.
The pacing was relentless. There wasn’t a single wasted second.
The weight of the situation was etched into every frame.
Maine’s crushing guilt at hurting his friends, Dorio’s mounting terror as she watched the man she loved lose his mind, and the sudden crisis of trust within the crew. Their pillar was crumbling.
"Are you asking me if I’m going psycho?" Maine growled.
When David tried to offer a few words of comfort, Maine shut him down with a defiant stare.
"You think this is how it ends for me? You think I’m just going to fade out?"
There was a desperate pride in his voice. The only way for a cyberpunk to avoid the madness is to scale back, to replace the chrome with flesh and blood once more. But Maine had spent his whole life chasing power. To ask him to become "less" was to ask him to stop existing.
Sakura held her breath.
She was completely absorbed. She realized that cyberpsychosis was a shadow hanging over the entire cast.
’If David kept installing more gear to keep up, would he eventually end up like this too?’
With the city’s security forces closing in to rescue Tanaka, the crew had no time for caution. Lucy dived deep into the executive’s memories while David stood guard. Maine remained on edge, his mental state a ticking time bomb. The suspicion he felt toward his own mind was the most lethal threat of all, accelerating the very process he was trying to fight. The atmosphere was one of total, suffocating desperation.
Inside the virtual dive, Lucy discovered much more than she expected. As she unraveled Tanaka’s secrets and saw the full scope of his plans, her expression shifted from focus to absolute horror.
Suddenly, Tanaka’s brain short-circuited and exploded due to the intensity of the data breach. The bio-monitor on his body flatlined, instantly broadcasting his coordinates to the Night City Police and the Trauma Team. Within minutes, the building was surrounded by a small army.
The fan group chat exploded again.
"Wait, why did Tanaka just die? Was it an accident?"
"I bet Lucy did it on purpose. Whatever she saw in those files, she decided he couldn’t be allowed to live. What did she find?"
"Maine is falling apart this episode. He’s acting like a total amateur. The cool-headed leader from the first five episodes is just gone."
"Well, yeah! If you realized you were about to turn into a mindless, bloodthirsty monster, you’d probably lose your cool too!"
"Dorio was right. He should have listened to her and stripped some of the gear. Is it worth losing your soul just to be a ’big man’ on the streets?"
"In that world? Yes. If you put your guns down, your enemies kill you within the hour. Maine can’t go back to being an ordinary person even if he wanted to. He’s locked in."
"So his only path is madness? That’s so dark."
"Maine is such a great character, though. He’s been a father figure to David and saved his life multiple times. I can’t stand the thought of him going out like a common psycho."
"Please, Haruto Bastard, don’t kill him. Don’t do this to us."
"Bastard? How dare you! Call him Sensei!"
"I call him Sensei when the plot is sweet. If he breaks my heart, he’s a bastard until further notice."
In the anime, the situation turned lethal.
Trapped by hundreds of officers and Trauma Team soldiers, David used the supernatural speed of the Sandevistan to break through the initial line. He carried a dazed Lucy to the safety of the underground parking garage, intending to head back up to rescue Maine and Dorio.
But Lucy gripped his arm, her eyes pleading. She didn’t want him to go back. She knew the odds.
David was furious. "Lucy, you want me to just leave them there to die?"
"I just don’t want you to..." Lucy’s voice trailed off, her resolve wavering.
David looked at her, his expression a mix of sorrow and disappointment. "You know, Lucy... I guess you’re never going to say it to me, are you?"
"Say what?"
"That one thing. ’You can do it, David!’"
With a final, lingering look, David activated the Sandevistan and vanished from her sight, a blur of motion heading back into the fire.
On the top floor, Maine and Dorio were engaged in a desperate last stand against the police. But Maine was losing the battle within.
As he exchanged fire with the tactical units, the world around him shifted. The cold concrete and flashing sirens vanished, replaced once more by the golden, sun-drenched fields of his childhood memories.
Hallucinating during a high-stakes firefight is a death sentence. He could hear the roar of the guns, but he couldn’t see his targets.
Finally, Maine saw a movement and pulled the trigger with everything he had.
The hallucination shattered.
The golden fields evaporated, and Maine found himself staring at the woman he loved most in the world. Dorio had been caught squarely in his line of fire. He had just shot her through the head.
Dorio’s blood sprayed across Maine’s face as her body slumped to the floor.
Sakura’s hand trembled.
Her heart was hammering against her ribs.
The sheer, soul-crushing collapse on Maine’s face mirrored her own shock. Maine went into a frenzied, mindless rage, slaughtering the dozens of officers who rushed into the room, but the light had gone out of his eyes.
"Is this... is this all my fault?" he whispered, his expression breaking. As Dorio’s life faded, Maine’s sanity went with it. He began to laugh, a high as he stood there, drenched in the blood of his partner. The trauma had acted as a catalyst, and the cybernetic erosion of his mind went into overdrive.
Those five minutes were the most intense the series had produced to date. The art, the music, the pacing, and the raw emotional violence were on a completely different level compared to the earlier episodes. The sense of despair was so profound that Sakura felt like she was drowning in it.
’Who wouldn’t go mad after that?’ she thought.