Resumen de la novela
Pure 2077 world view, no cross-border integration.
The story does not break up the official couple, the main characters are not invincible, and it is not a wish-fulfillment story.
The protagonist has only played the base game.
The protagonist gets hammered by a middleman, by a corporate operative, by a hacker, by AI, and by cyber surveillance.
Cyberpunk is dark; large corporations are giants, invincible. A single sentence from a team leader in a company can decide the life or death of a large group of people.
Is the Demon Lizard powerful? It's just an armored personnel carrier.
Is the Chimera any good? It's just a combat tank designed for special environments; it's not even as good as a light main battle tank.
Is the Hellhound mech powerful? It's just a security mech for a laboratory, only used to guard a group of laboratory personnel who have no combat capabilities.
Is Adam Hammer that powerful? He's just a security captain. Forget about Saburo Araizawa, Hanako Araizawa could fire him with a single word.
Was Bartmouth powerful? Was Morgan Blackhand powerful? They both went offline at the same time in the board game. The board wasn't even a faction's army or main combat equipment (there was military technology present, so the conflict couldn't be escalated, see the Sino-Indian border). Just a security team took down two legends.
In the game, V was able to kill his way through Arasaka Tower? That's because Arasaka Yoriken was fighting amongst himself, and V was just a tacitly approved weapon.
Furthermore, Night City is a neutral city, so we can't directly send company troops; all that comes are self-defense forces.
2077 uses the same storytelling techniques as The Three-Body Problem. A single probe, a security chief, and a small self-defense force are enough to overwhelm the legendary figures. This subtly hints at the company's terrifying power without needing to explicitly state it. If they really push you too far, the company might just use a mass accelerator to drop meteorites on you and crush you!