Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

His deeds have been known in the underworld for a long time, making him one of the legendary figures in Night City.

Along with the title of Night City Legend comes another thing: death.

Night City has never had any living legends.

Even the protagonist V in the game is the same.

No matter how hard the protagonist V tries, he will eventually die after becoming a legend, just like other legends.

David Martinez's final glorious moment was his confrontation with the most powerful cybernetic weapon, the Adam Hammer.

In terms of combat strength, the two sides should be roughly equal in the end. However, David Martinez's mind could not withstand the mental pressure brought by the mechanical prosthetic body, and he was seriously injured when he was in a daze.

In the past few months, Shinji Asami had specifically sought out Takeyusei several times, even though he himself felt that the story was indeed quite tragic.

The main characters were almost all killed, leaving only the female lead and another peripheral character.

When Shinji Asami was making this animation, he also had a general understanding of the story structure of the game Cyberpunk 2077 and knew that there were some ways to preserve thoughts in the network in this world. So he hoped that Takeyusei could give David Martinez or several other important characters the opportunity to be resurrected in another dimension.

It's clear that Shinji Asami has started to like this story and hopes to continue making anime works based on the cyberpunk world.

However, Zhu Youxing flatly refused.

The near-total annihilation of the main characters represents the cold ruthlessness of Night City. Any powerful person who enters will be brutally crushed. It is an invisible force that drives everything, and no one can escape its influence.

In the games I make, the protagonists never have a good ending, so how could the protagonists in anime possibly have a good ending?

The cyberpunk worldview is characterized by this cold, detached nature.

Although such stories are very tragic and can easily offend some people, most people still prefer to see stories that are optimistic, uplifting, or have happy endings.

But his own cyberpunk self doesn't think he would do such a thing.

In the end, Shinji Asami could only return disappointed and continue making animations.

When Shinji Asami left, Yusei Takeshi assured him that he could continue to direct the upcoming cyberpunk anime series. This time, Yusei Takeshi would not impose too many restrictions or provide a fixed story structure. However, Yusei Takeshi would review the script later to ensure that the storyline would not deviate from the main theme of the cyberpunk world.

Perhaps it was Zhu Youxing's last few words that spurred him to work much harder when making the animation.

It seems he genuinely likes this worldview, and he's already starting to fantasize about creating a captivating cyberpunk world for himself, just like other well-known cyberpunk works in this world.

After TV Tokyo's new director, Oki, reported to Takeyusei that the animation production was complete, Takeyusei immediately contacted Shinji Asami. Shinji Asami also rushed to Takeyusei's Electronic Entertainment building as soon as possible. He wanted to personally hand over the first complete version of the Cyberpunk Edgewalker anime series that he had produced to Takeyusei for review.

With his extensive experience in animation production, Shinji Asami is confident that this animation is definitely the best work he has ever produced in his career.

On one hand, he really liked the story and could fully immerse himself in its creation. On the other hand, Yuxing Electronic Entertainment was very generous with its funding, which allowed him to be more flexible in recruiting staff and using the latest production technologies.

Without financial constraints, his unrestrained creations yielded results that satisfied him.

After Shinji Asami handed the first completed version of the animation to Yusei Take, Yusei Take simply called a group of senior executives and several producers in charge of cyberpunk development to a separate office to watch it together.

The animation is not long in total, with each episode lasting about twenty minutes.

To enrich the story, this version of the Cyberpunk Edgewalker animated series consisted of eleven episodes.

The novel further depicts the protagonist's transformation and the growing relationship between him and the female lead.

This is an icing on the cake, but it also makes the whole story more complete.

The group watched it for an entire afternoon, without even skipping a single opening or ending theme.

Thanks to ample funding and a rich selection of music provided by Yusei Electronic Entertainment, the opening and ending themes are significantly different in each episode, using various clip art-like formats to provide a relatively simple introduction to the story and world of the entire animation.

This approach allows people to patiently watch the opening and ending themes while also helping them better understand the world, making it a win-win solution.

This can only be done if the financial cost is not taken into consideration. Shinji Asami has never fought such a wealthy battle in his life, so he is unwilling to waste a single second when making animation.

At first, the group, including Airi Hayazawa, were watching the anime in a relatively relaxed and cheerful manner.

In particular, the producers who developed Cyberpunk 2077 remained quite detached in the opening scene where the protagonist's mother dies and he returns home with her ashes in his empty eyes.

Hayazawa Airi and several others who weren't involved in the development of Cyberpunk 2077 began to fall silent.

One person had experienced the death of a loved one, and when he saw the protagonist's empty expression in the animation, he couldn't help but cry. Clearly, he was a very emotional person, and because of his similar experience, it brought back some sad memories.

This at least proves that the beginning of the animation was quite successful, easily drawing viewers into the emotional content of the story.

Zhu Youxing was quite satisfied with this.

Then, the protagonist's adventure begins in the first episode as he attempts to attach an illegal prosthetic body left to him by his mother.

At that moment, the protagonist, David Martinez, completed his first character arc transformation.

The pacing of the entire plot was perfectly arranged. Takeyusei himself only provided a story outline, and the rest of the story pacing was done by Asami Shinji himself.

He is indeed quite skilled in this area.

Zhu Youxing felt that having him continue to produce several series of animated works in the future would be a pretty good choice.

Chapter 1078 is about to be released, bringing another wave of popularity.

"Waaah, David..."

Sobbing.

Sobbing.

In the dark conference room, sobs could be heard.

Airi Hayazawa is the least secretive.

She has always been a very sentimental person.

When the final ending arrived, Airi Hayasawa watched as the protagonist died at the hands of the final enemy, and then the heroine Lucy boarded a spaceship to the moon. When she saw the protagonist's phantom running and jumping on the moon, Airi Hayasawa completely broke down.

Actually, Zhu Youxing felt a bit emotional when he revisited this story.

It has been more than 20 years since I last watched this animated film; that feels like a lifetime ago.

Even now, when I revisit this story, I still feel that it is truly wonderful.

Back then, Takeyusei felt that it was the best anime of the year in his mind.

"Asami-sensei, you're so cruel! Why did you create such a tragic story? Waaah!"

Airi Hayazawa is not young anymore, but touching stories transcend age.

It's not that she becomes more indifferent as she gets older; she's the kind of person who is not indifferent but also very sentimental.

What she can't accept the most is such a tragic story.

And most importantly, the main characters in this story are almost all wiped out, which makes it even worse.

Asami Shinji glanced at Takeyusei, who didn't react at all, and gave a bitter smile.

"Ms. Hayazawa, this is the story itself. Its purpose is to highlight the cold cruelty of the cyberpunk worldview. Under such a worldview, this ending is the most reasonable."

"But, but couldn't you be a little gentler? Asami-sensei, you're really cruel."

"This……"

He didn't even write the script for this story.

However, if he were really asked to write it, without considering any sequels, he would probably write something similar.

But now he's definitely taking the blame for Zhu Youxing's actions.

Zhu Youxing was currently engrossed in the story and paid no attention to what others were discussing.

He also thought that if this story were released, it might be able to bring back some of the popularity of Cyberpunk 2077.

It has been almost two months since Cyberpunk 2077 was released, and the hype surrounding the game will eventually fade. Players can't be satisfied with just one game.

Unless it's a game that requires a lot of grinding or is a competitive game.

The online mode of Cyberpunk 2077 could potentially develop in this way.

When Zhu Youxing came to his senses, he vaguely felt as if a pair of hostile eyes were watching him.

Then Zhu Youxing raised his head and looked back.

Hayazawa Airi was glaring at Takeyusei with an angry look on her face, as if Takeyusei had done something to wrong her.

"Zhuyou, so it was you who did this! No wonder everyone had such strange expressions just now!"

"what?"

Zhu Youxing hadn't yet realized what was happening.

"Did you write the story of the cyberpunk fringewalker?"

"correct."

"You wrote the story of almost the entire main character group dying?"

"That's right."

"Just as I thought! You were so heartless back in Final Fantasy VII, writing such a sad story, and then there was NieR: Automata, and now Cyberpunk too. Why do you like such sad stories? Can't you write some happier stories?"

Zhu Youxing shrugged: "Of course you can. Look at me, I've written stories about Mario, and stories with happy endings like Dragon Quest."

"But the story of Cyberpunk Edgewalker is too tragic. Is the ending of your Cyberpunk 2077 game similar?"

Zhu Youxing paused for a moment, then readily admitted, "Indeed."

"Then why do you enjoy writing so many sad stories?"

"Because the most dramatic and memorable moments are the ones that generate the most buzz."

"It's that simple?"

"It's that simple. Of course, we can't generalize. I'm just saying that some stories are destined to end in tragedy from the very beginning. If they don't develop in that way, the story itself will lose its inherent charm."

"Then tell me honestly, do you want to go down the same old path with the Final Fantasy VII remake and torture the players again?!" Airi Hayazawa demanded, her eyes wide.

Airi Hayazawa had previously played the older version of Final Fantasy VII, and was one of the hardcore players at the time, so she knew the entire story of Final Fantasy VII.

Alice's death saddened Hayazawa Airi for a long time. Later, Takeyusei personally promised her that there would be a chance for the story of Final Fantasy VII to continue, and those who had passed away might return to the players' sight.

At the time, Airi Hayazawa believed it, and later, after the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, the whole story did indeed take a different turn, and it seemed that it might really develop into a happy ending for everyone.

But now, after watching Cyberpunk Edgewalker, Airi Hayazawa is starting to doubt Yusei Take's promise.

"Don't worry about that. I'm very reliable in this regard. I would never ruin my own reputation. If I say there will be a happy ending, then there will be a happy ending."

Of course, tragic endings are inevitable, which has always been the core of the Final Fantasy series.