Neon Requiem (2023)

Requiem for a Dream

In the year 2077, I found myself entangled in the throes of Night City, a sprawling concrete jungle that epitomized the very worst of corporate control and technological excess. A place where the air reeked of smog, desperation, and shattered dreams, Night City was the twisted lovechild of two mega corporations, Arasaka and Militech, who had pillaged what was once the United States, leaving in their wake a barren wasteland devoid of freedom, purpose, and hope.

Night City was their grand monument, a towering testament to greed, with spires that stretched for miles into the smog-choked heavens and lights so bright they drowned out the stars themselves. But the city was a spectral illusion, a facade hiding a world of pain and suffering. Amidst the teeming millions who called it home, isolation and hardship were the only constants, and the once-vibrant metropolis had become a graveyard for the human spirit.

My name is V. Just V. The name stands for nothing - not victory, vengeance, or valor - just like everything else in this forsaken city. I'm 27, but that number holds no meaning in a world where cutting-edge cybernetics can keep you looking and feeling decades younger, even as everything around you crumbles into dust. That is, if you're one of the privileged few who can afford to stave off the ravages of time.

Walking through the city's streets, I could feel the weight of the world bearing down on me, as if the omnipresent smog was more than just the byproduct of industrial pollution, but a shroud of despair that clung to everything it touched. The city's monumental architecture and ostentatious wealth seemed to mock the teeming masses that struggled to survive in its dark corners, like some twisted cosmic joke. Sometimes, as I stared up at the gargantuan arcologies that pierced the night sky, I would fantasize about tearing them down, brick by brick, until nothing remained but the ruins of a broken dream.

Arasaka Corporation loomed over Night City like a vulture, its monolithic tower casting a long, dark shadow that swallowed everything in its path. The very embodiment of corruption, it was Arasaka that had driven the world to the brink of ruin and now feasted on the carcass of our once-proud civilization. The futility of fighting against them gnawed at my soul, yet I couldn't resist the urge to strike back - to hack their systems, sabotage their machines, and defy their iron grip. It was a fool's errand, but it was all I had left to cling to in a world devoid of meaning.

They say that Night City is a city of dreamers, but that's just another lie they feed us to keep us compliant. This is where dreams come to die, choking on the ash and dust of a world gone mad. And I should know. My dreams died here, long ago, smothered beneath the crushing weight of a thousand hollow promises and a million broken hearts.