Friday Night Firefight - A Cyberpunk 2077 Isekai

Friday Night Firefight - Chapter 1

My first thought on waking up was: why the hell is it so bright in my apartment? That was quickly followed with: when was my apartment moved outside? Who turned New York City into a desert? Why am I naked? What is this mattress stained with? And finally: what the hell is going on?

The blue twin mattress I woke up on was covered in what I hoped was merely years of dirt and grime. I was out in the middle of the desert despite passing out last night in the relative comfort of my one-bedroom apartment. Okay, I'm going to be honest here. It's not even a one-bedroom. There's a small alcove for my bed set off from the rest of the apartment and I tell everyone it's a one-bed. Makes me feel a little more put together than I actually am. But my crappy apartment was a big step up from sleeping outside under the stars on a – I hope – dirt covered mattress, completely naked.

I sat up and took stock of where I was and what was around me, hoping that jeans and a t-shirt would magically appear next to me on the dirty mattress, and quickly noticed the gargantuan mountain of trash at my back. Climbing up from the mattress, trying not to notice the dirt that clung to me, I stared up at the mountain before spinning around and trying to figure out where I was. A couple wind turbines dotted the horizon, a somewhat broken and aged asphalt road stretched out ahead of me, and miles away was the tell-tale skyline of a massive city. But that's not what caught my attention.

Hovering above the city, like a flock of birds, were...I don't know what. They were too big and rigid to be blimps. And when was the last time anyone ever saw a blimp floating above a city? It was like someone took a small building and tipped it over on its side and flung it through the air. There were dozens of them, all flying around above the skyscrapers of the city. They were too big to be birds, too small to be airplanes.

What the hell was going on?

I picked my way over to the asphalt road, the desert floor hiding rocks and twigs that scraped my feet and made me dance-march over to the paved road. And that wasn't any better. It was scorching in the midday sun, so I stood off to the side on the slightly cooler sand.

Billboards jutted up into the sky and my eyes quickly scanned them, reading through the advertisements.

'Feeling kumquat today?' Nope. I definitely wasn't.

'Real Water. Only 99E$/Gallon.' That had to be some Instagram influencer product, maybe something sold by a Kardashian.

'Decker Tanaka & Rogers. We move things, so your business can grow.'

'Pure Overkill. RT-46 Burya.' Something about the Burya name twigged my memory but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. And what was with the E$ after the Real Water?

I walked along the road, heading towards the city. What else was I going to do? Someone had kidnapped me and smuggled me out into the middle of a desert, stripped me naked, and left me on the most disgusting and uncomfortable mattress outside of a frat house. Was it a prank? I tried thinking of any of my friends who had both the inclination and economic resources to pull off something like this and no one came to mind.

I passed a few more billboards as I made my way along the road.

'Now in King Size. Abydos. Let's Warm You Up!' Man, ads have gotten really sexual lately.

'Nicola. Taste the love.' Why did I want to read that in an annoyingly high-pitched voice?

'Sojagil Machistador. Explosion of Taste.'

'Introducing the new Aerondight. Substance and Style. Rayfield.'

Wait. Wait. WAIT. I knew that car. In the ad it was a sleek gold and black and looked nice and futuristic. But I knew it drove like an old boat and was completely impractical as a city car. Every time I drove it I'd glide across the lanes and accidentally slam into pedestrians. What are these memories?