Cyberpunk 2077 is a sequel to the second edition of the Cyberpunk board game Mike Pondsmith, published in 1990. The video game from the Polish studio CD Projekt RED is set in 2077 in the city of Knight City. For decades, corporations and groupings have been running metropolitan areas where technology is high and life is low. The main character of the game is called V. You can customize in detail the appearance of the protagonist, his background, skills and class. However, one thing remains unchanged: V is a criminal mercenary tasked with stealing an expensive and one-of-a-kind implant.

The mission is not going as smoothly as desired, and the protagonist has to implant a chip in his brain in order to transport it safely. To his surprise, the implant contained a digital copy of the famous musician and terrorist Johnny Silverhand, who lived more than 50 years ago.

Johnny Silverhand was one of the most popular musicians of the 2000s. He performed with the Samurai group and planned to pursue a solo career in order to continue to promote anti-corruption and anti-government messages. In 2013, his girlfriend Alt Cunningham developed the Soulkiller software that can download the mind of any netrunner to a drive. It was dangerous because it killed a source when used – the physical version of a person. The mega-corporation Arasaka kidnapped the girl to make them similar software, and Johnny went to rescue her. Unfortunately, he did not succeed. During the general panic, during the attack on the Arasaka tower, Alt used its own design. Johnny did not know about this, and therefore found only the dead body of his girlfriend, while she tried to shout to him from the digital space.

In 2023, Johnny, along with others, led the Militch assault team to end the Fourth Corporate War. Their target was the Arasaka tower and they wanted to destroy it with a small nuclear bomb. Johnny had another reason to return to Arasaki’s office: he wanted to find Cunningham, but there were many obstacles along the way. The largest of the latter was Borg (aka Adam Smasher) – once a man who is now more machine than flesh.

It is believed that Borg killed Johnny, although the musician’s body was never found due to the destruction of the Arasaki building by a nuclear bomb. Even decades later, people hope that Johnny Silverhand is out there, ready to lead the revolution and set this city on fire. Probably, in Cyberpunk 2077 we will learn more details of what actually happened in the tower, and whether the hero managed to find his beloved.