Chapter 15: First Outbreak

### Chapter 15: First Outbreak

Since *Edge Runner* was serialized bi-monthly, each month featured only two chapters, causing the plot to progress very slowly. Additionally, the early plot of *Edge Runner* was indeed quite slow to heat up.

For the first month, the manga remained largely unnoticed in the reader popularity surveys.

By the third chapter, *Edge Runner* finally revealed the harshest side of Night City.

David, a poor boy, couldn't afford the upgrade costs required for school. Consequently, he and his mother, Gloria, were caught in a gang firefight on their way home.

After a car accident, the trauma team in Night City, indifferent to David's distress, chose not to help.

David had to take his mother to a cleanup clinic in Night City, hoping her life could be saved. However, the news he received was that his mother had passed away due to worsening conditions.

He didn't even get to see her one last time.

When Fan Siwei first saw the plot of the third chapter in the manga magazine, he was shocked.

"David's mother just... just died like that?"

He found it hard to accept.

It's not that the protagonist's mother can't die; in fact, many manga plots have the protagonist's parents in perilous situations.

Either they are killed by enemies, leading the protagonist to seek revenge, or they die to protect the protagonist, usually in a significant plot moment.

But Gloria's death in *Edge Runner* was neither of those.

She died after being caught up in a gang fight, and the trauma team didn't help. By the time they got to the clinic, it was already too late.

The protagonist didn't even get a chance for a dramatic final moment with his mother.

It was...

A stark, unexpected twist.

At this point, Fan Siwei hadn't yet noticed the peculiar pattern, but later on, such plots would become Lin Qingshan's trademark.

Sudden, unexpected deaths of main characters with no prior warning or buildup would leave readers feeling particularly unsettled.

Years later, Fan Siwei would look back at Lin Qingshan's debut work and realize, "So this is when he first started showing his quirks!"

But Fan Siwei still felt unsettled.

Gloria's death felt too mundane—just a regular person, living a regular life, then dying in a regular accident.

It seemed like a typical portrayal of an ordinary person in Night City.

People in Night City were like ants, easily squashed by the ruthless cityscape.

For the trauma team, David and his mother were just another problem. They told David, "Our priority is our clients; just leave these people to the city's disposal."

The cleanup clinic told David, "She was stable this morning, but her vital signs suddenly deteriorated. She has passed away. Would you like to hear about our payment plan?"

[Translator: sauron]

The wealthy bully who had tormented David said, "I heard your mother passed away. I know I should offer my condolences, but I really can't sympathize."

Money! Damn Night City, it's all about money!

Watching David being beaten up by the rich bully with advanced cybernetics and enduring verbal abuse, only to walk the streets of bustling Night City carrying his mother's ashes, left Fan Siwei feeling profoundly distressed.

The final scene, where David, driven by the bully's taunts, trembled with rage while recalling memories, was particularly painful for him.

When he saw David, with his new military-grade cybernetic "Sanweistan," confronting the black-market doctor, his eyes filled with determination, Fan Siwei felt a rush of satisfaction.

"This chapter ends here??"

Fan Siwei groaned in frustration.

Unknowingly, he had immersed himself in David's perspective. After experiencing David's frustration, he was eager to see David's comeback after installing the "Sanweistan" and his growth from there.

This is the effect of the narrative structure that builds tension before delivering a powerful turnaround, providing readers with a gratifying experience.

Fan Siwei didn't understand the mechanics behind it; he just found *Edge Runner* to be a promising new manga.

Although it still didn't match up to the two manga he was following, he had started to pay silent attention to this new work.

...

Meanwhile, Gu Qianli, who also read the latest chapter of *Edge Runner*, felt a similar sense of unease.

Unlike Fan Siwei, who was a high school student, she felt that David's plight and Gloria's sudden death were tragic.

However, she believed that David and Gloria's tragedy was a foregone conclusion in Night City.

A single-parent family, relying on the meager income of the mother, was hardly sustainable in a place like Night City.

A mere gang firefight, a daily occurrence in Night City, had plunged David and Gloria into despair. Even if Gloria hadn't died, they would have ended up on the streets eventually.

Gu Qianli was increasingly convinced that Lin Qingshan's perspective was not simplistic. *Cyberpunk 2077: Edge Runner* was unlike any previous sci-fi work.

While past sci-fi works often glorified future technologies, assuming they would improve human life, Lin Qingshan's *Edge Runner* offered a different perspective—perhaps not.

In a city like Night City, where capital controls everything and profit reigns supreme, advanced robots and AI only made human life more insignificant, resulting in a dystopian cyberpunk world.

Technological advancements didn't necessarily mean a better quality of life.

Gu Qianli felt as if she was not just reading an entertainment piece but a work of deep thought and substance.

"Although Qingshan seems casual, he truly is a genius," she thought, unable to hold back her admiration.

But then a troubling thought crossed her mind, "If this worldview continues to be followed, David won't end up dying, will he?!"

(End of Chapter)