**[Notification: Your apartment rent is overdue by one month and five days. According to the agreement dated 2076/6/4, our company will repossess all items in your apartment and deactivate your access card in twenty-five days. Please settle your account promptly.
—Sender: Hengda Property Management
Recipient: Lin Mo]**
**[Dear Mr. Lin Mo,
Company ID: 102512. Due to your unauthorized absence from work without notifying your superiors, resulting in a total of five no-shows over the past three years, we are terminating all your positions effective immediately. Furthermore, your absence led to a breach of contract, causing the company to incur a loss of 35,000 credits, which you are now required to repay.
The company has initiated foreclosure and repossession of all external prosthetics issued to you, along with freezing your personal accounts. Please repay the remaining debt of 26,000 credits within five days. If unpaid, debt collectors will be sent to your residence to settle the balance.
—Sender: Weixue Corporation
Recipient: Lin Mo]**
**[Hey man, the Braindance you ordered has been delivered to your place. Not gonna lie, this new Dream Reel is intense—three blonde-haired, red-eyed girls in different outfits. It's gonna be wild. You've got great taste, as always.
—Sender: Li Weike
Recipient: Lin Mo]**
**[Dear Mr. Lin Mo,
Your parents' ashes have been professionally handled and scattered in the central ocean, as per your request. As you know, coastal waters are contaminated, so we ensured a pristine area for them. Rest assured, they've found peace.
Skywide Funeral Services – Providing serenity for your loved ones in the afterlife.
—Sender: Skywide Funeral Services
Recipient: Lin Mo]**
The streets stank of decay. Trash piled up on every corner, the rancid smell of rotting food mixed with the acrid tang of pollution. In this urban hellhole, homeless vagrants clung to patches of dirt like discarded pieces of tech, each sprawled on a worn cotton mat or blanket.
Some wore digital visors, colorful holograms flashing across oily lenses—the only thing clean in their filthy, threadbare existence. They clung to the visors like the last chips at a high-stakes poker game, a desperate attempt to escape reality.
Lin Mo, dressed in a sharp but crumpled suit, walked through them, indifferent. The homeless parted instinctively, driven by the faint glimmer of authority his attire still projected, even though his corporate life was over.
He inhaled the city's foul air and quickened his pace, heading for his dilapidated apartment in the lower blocks. The door slid open with a mechanical hiss as he swiped his card.
Inside, the computer flickered to life, a series of notifications bombarding the screen. Each message was another reminder of his spiraling life.
He dropped the takeout box he was holding, sinking into the worn couch, every muscle screaming with exhaustion. Twenty-one years in this world had done nothing but deepen the sense of hopelessness that had followed him since his past life.
High-tech. Low-life. It was all too real.
The poor in 2077 couldn't even afford the basics—some didn't even have clothes. Meanwhile, the corpos lived in luxury, exploiting every last drop of value from those struggling beneath them. Sixteen-hour workdays were standard, and stimulants were a necessity to push beyond physical limits.
The five days he spent striking were the first days of peace he'd had in years. But even that was over now.
"Guess it's time to face reality," Lin Mo muttered, reaching under the table for a small box.
The blame? All his own. This wasn't his first time reincarnating, but instead of landing a cushy life of wealth, he was thrown back into this ordinary, grinding existence. Twice now.
Twice, and I'm still in this hellhole.
He couldn't even hate his parents for it; they had done everything they could. But their sudden death in a freak accident left him with nothing. No one to blame, no one to take revenge on—just fate being cruel as usual.
With no one left and no reason to keep fighting, he decided he'd enjoy what little time he had left.
He opened the box to reveal a sleek display screen and a small chip.
This was it—the Braindance. A device that allowed users to experience someone else's reality with all their senses. The Dream Chip? This one promised pleasure—three beautiful, blonde-haired, red-eyed women, ready to fulfill his every desire.
It was the last thing Lin Mo had spent his remaining credits on.
It reminded him of the UltraDream from the game Cyberpunk 2077—cheap thrills in a broken world.
This world... it had become the nightmare of Cyberpunk.
With practiced ease, Lin Mo inserted the Dream Chip, ready to lose himself in the experience. But then he noticed the box was heavier than it should've been.
"Wait, did they throw in something extra?" he muttered.
Curious, he inspected the box again and found a hidden compartment. Inside was a sleek, black, head-mounted device. It was futuristic—like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
And yet, it was strangely familiar.
No way...
It was the UltraDream device from Cyberpunk 2077. The exact one he used to mess with in his previous life.
"This... doesn't make any sense," Lin Mo whispered, baffled. There was no "Cyberpunk" universe here, yet this device had appeared.
Despite the confusion, curiosity got the better of him. He put on the UltraDream device, following the simple instructions written on a note inside.
The world went dark, and a sleek interface flickered to life in front of him, elegant lettering scrolling across his vision:
[Welcome to the Cyberpunk Life Simulation UltraDream.]
[Would you like to start your life simulation experience in the Cyber World?]
[If you choose yes, you'll relive your life in the Cyber World within minutes. If satisfied, you can activate the immersive simulation experience, where your true self will descend into the Cyber World to experience its customs and culture. Regardless, you will receive the rewards you deserve upon completion.]
[If you choose no, the UltraDream simulator will shut down permanently.]