Cold. Shaking.
When Leo opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of a mildewed tent ceiling he had never seen before.
He was completely baffled.
Where was this place?
How had he ended up here?
Closing his eyes, he tried to remember. He quickly recalled what had happened.
He had just posted an interim note on the Hedgehog Cat app.
Then everything went black.
The next thing he knew, he woke up here.
No freaking way...
He could cross dimensions just by posting an interim note?
Outside the tent, heated arguing broke the silence, piquing Leo's curiosity. He perked up his ears and listened in.
"McCoy, you knew the family's situation. You shouldn't have brought him back."
"So what? Was I supposed to just watch as he got snatched up by those Raffen Shiv and pretend not to know what kind of sick stuff they'd do to him?"
"He wasn't part of our family. He had nothing to do with us. We can't go saving every poor soul in this hellhole."
"Well, I couldn't help others, but since I ran into this kid, I couldn't just stand by."
"Fine, if you insisted… But he could stay here at most a week, and he'd be using your share of rations while he is in camp."
The argument stopped there.
Leo quickly lay back down on the cot, acting like he had just woken up and definitely had not overheard any of that.
A man of about thirty stepped into the tent. He was wearing a beat-up exoskeleton suit, scarred and dented, clearly the veteran of countless battles.
"You're awake."
Leo sat up, feigning the half-dreamy look of someone newly conscious, still confused.
"Where…am I?"
"My name's Sam McCoy. This is the Bakker family's camp. Don't worry, you're safe now."
Bakker family?
That was a new one to Leo. He had never heard of it.
Seeing his genuine bewilderment, the man didn't suspect a thing.
"Never heard of the Bakker family, huh? Makes sense. Wrapping your head around all the drifter families, tribes, and factions is too much for outsiders."
"Still, there's something else that might interest you more."
"Our camp's implant doc had to open up your skull to remove a bullet… You can take a look for yourself."
He handed Leo a mirror.
Leo glanced at the reflection and noticed that, though his head was wrapped in bandages, it hadn't diminished his looks in the slightest.
Holy crap!
His new self was insanely good-looking!
"Doc's a real wizard with implants, but how're you feeling? Got any dizziness, vertigo, nausea?"
Leo pressed a hand to his head. "I… I'm fine…"
"Good, good… So, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask who you are and what you were doing out in the Wastelands."
McCoy was clearly curious about this mysterious young man who had shown up in the middle of nowhere. The Wastelands were full of dangers—corporate convoys, drifters, Raffen Shiv. You didn't see many people wandering around alone.
And from the look of him, Leo didn't resemble a drifter or a Raffen Shiv.
Nor did he look like a corpo dog—he wasn't wearing their signature suit.
Actually, if anything, McCoy had a different guess: maybe Leo was someone from a place that was a few decades behind the rest of the world.
He got this idea from the camp doctor who treated Leo.
Leo's body didn't have a single implant, not even a neural slot.
It was already 2077. Even the most old-fashioned folks had a neural slot installed; without it, there was a ton you simply couldn't do.
McCoy had never seen such a "pure" human being in his life.
Leo didn't answer his question.
Seeing Leo's silence, McCoy just nodded in understanding. He didn't pry further. He patted the bedside.
"All right, rest up. I'll leave you to it."
…
A few days later.
Leo, with nothing else to do, wandered around the camp. In that time, he had learned that this place was a drifter camp belonging to the Bakker family.
He had never heard of the Bakker family or drifters.
When someone mentioned nomadic tribes, the first thing that came to mind was the Roma. But these people were nothing like that.
(Note: Roma are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group spread across many countries)
Their vehicles were heavily modified for off-road, and they wore cowboy hats, leather jackets, riding gear—armed to the teeth with all sorts of firearms…
That was definitely not any Roma he had heard of.
Only when they brought up Night City did Leo see the light.
Aha—turns out he was in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Back when the very first teaser trailer dropped, Leo—just like every other fan—couldn't wait to get his hands on the game.
He had avoided most later trailers, demos, or Night City Wire episodes, figuring he'd enjoy it more blind.
He'd even dusted off his old PS4, waiting for launch. Sure, the repeated delays were frustrating, but hey—he was fine with them polishing the game further.
When the game finally did come out, its reputation was all over the place online.
Once he got it, he definitely encountered plenty of bugs.
And on a PS4, that experience was extra painful.
He didn't even finish the Corpo prologue before giving up.
He put it aside for two years.
Word on the street was that most of the bugs had been fixed. He was just about to jump back in when he heard they were planning a paid DLC.
The bundle with the main game would be cheaper, so he decided to keep waiting. He'd waited two years; what was one more?
But instead of waiting for the DLC, he ended up here—in Cyberpunk 2077's world.
…
Leo stepped into the logistics area of the camp. The only mechanic there noticed him and made a mocking sound.
"Aha, look who finally crawled out of bed—our little 'lordling.'"
Leo ignored him and just looked around.
The logistics area wasn't big. There was the mechanic, a single workbench for repairing firearms, and piles of junk too ruined to salvage.
Seeing Leo brush him off, the mechanic scowled.
Drifters lived by family units, which inevitably made some of them hostile or unfriendly to outsiders.
Everyone in the family had to pitch in.
And the mechanic's job was one of the dirtiest and hardest.