The David portrayed by Su Yan was completely different from any of his previous roles.
After being tempered by several productions and constant learning, Su Yan's acting had clearly improved.
Viewers like Yue Kaicheng no longer felt any sense of déjà vu from characters like Arima Kousei, 'Rurouni Kenshin', or Shen Buyan. It was still the same actor, but once the performance style changed, the viewing experience changed with it.
A high school boy in Night City.
A single-parent household. Financially strained. His mother's salary was completely spent, to the point that their home had even had its electricity cut off.
When Yue Kaicheng saw this, his eyelid twitched.
Power cut off?
That was such a niche concept.
Even though Xia Nation's technological level wasn't as advanced as in the show, it surely wouldn't cut off electricity the moment a bill went unpaid, right?
Damn capitalists—couldn't they even give one extra day?
And because there was no original game to help viewers understand the worldbuilding, the drama version of 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' added extra explanatory content.
David's school required a software upgrade for his implanted chip—an upgrade that cost a significant amount of money.
David didn't want to add to his mother's burden. His mother promised she'd find the money, but instead, he went to the black market to find a ripperdoc, planning to upgrade the chip software using a pirated version.
Yue Kaicheng watched these scenes with intense focus.
Having never encountered the cyberpunk genre before, his curiosity about this world was immense.
Inside skyscrapers, glamorous employees lived polished lives.
In alleyways, drugged beggars and homeless people wore dazed, blissed-out expressions.
On streets that looked clean and technologically advanced, people still got into fights over trivial disagreements—sometimes even pulling guns.
On his way to school, David passed a street where, on the second floor of a building, he saw the graceful silhouette of a silver-haired girl standing with her back to him.
His expression looked exactly like love at first sight.
Even though her face wasn't shown, Yue Kaicheng instantly got excited.
["Gu Qingyuan? That's definitely her—Lucy, right?"]
Having already checked the cast list on the official site, Yue Kaicheng's attention sharpened even further.
After several minutes of showing Night City through David's perspective, the story moved to the school.
David looked reluctant, almost slouching as if he didn't want to go in—but in the end, he had no choice but to enter the classroom.
Rich second-generation classmates looked down on poor students like him.
Classes were conducted by linking everyone's consciousness through technology, simulating learning in a virtual space.
Then—
The turning point arrived.
Because David hadn't paid for the official software upgrade and had used a pirated version, a virus invaded the classroom system, forcing classes to stop and burning out expensive school equipment.
David was made to call his guardian. A family already under crushing financial pressure sank even deeper.
At this point, Yue Kaicheng already felt suffocated.
Wasn't this supposed to be a hype, power-fantasy kind of show?
"I'm sorry." David said to his mother, guilt written all over his face.
"I told you to upgrade the official software. You tried to save money, and now we have to pay ten times the cost." his mother snapped angrily.
"We have money—it's just that payday hasn't come yet, so—"
"Mom… I've been thinking. I could drop out. Find a job or something." David said.
The car fell into silence. David couldn't continue.
"Then what have I been working so hard for?"
His mother's voice trembled. Tears welled in her eyes, making Yue Kaicheng's heart tighten.
"You're smart. You're talented. That's why I work so hard to send you to Arasaka Academy. I want you to study well—one day, climb to the very top of Arasaka Tower!"
The top of Arasaka Tower represented the pinnacle of Night City—the domain of the ruling Arasaka Corporation.
At this moment, Yue Kaicheng didn't yet realize what kind of foreshadowing that wish truly carried.
The conversation between David and his mother in the car was deeply uncomfortable to watch.
There was no melodrama—just natural performances on both sides.
David knew his mother's salary couldn't sustain his education, yet she still forced herself to work harder.
Even when they couldn't afford electricity, she still believed her son had talent.
She simply hadn't earned enough money to let him study without worry.
One defining trait of cyberpunk stories was that disaster could strike at any moment.
While David and his mother were still worrying about how to compensate the school for the virus-damaged equipment—
On the street, two completely unhinged gang members—so-called "cyberpunks"—pulled out guns and began shooting at each other across the road, with David's mother's car caught between them.
Rocket launchers. Submachine guns. Pistols. Molotovs. Explosives.
Everything came out.
The visuals were strangely beautiful.
Yue Kaicheng's mouth fell open.
Growing up in Xia Nation, a country governed by law, he couldn't imagine such open gang warfare in such an advanced city.
Were the police here completely useless?
So this was the cyberpunk worldview.
From this point on, the first episode took a massive turn.
David and his mother crashed because of the gang shootout. David suffered only minor injuries.
But his mother was critically wounded.
At that moment, the city's Trauma Team arrived.
"Trauma Team" meant doctors.
But in Night City, doctors were part of the service industry—and service meant payment.
No prepaid medical package?
Then you die.
The Trauma Team scanned David's mother's face with a computer.
"She's not a client. Don't bother. The municipal corpse transport will arrive later."
That single cold sentence sealed her fate.
They could have saved her—but for the poor, death was acceptable. There was no value in saving them.
David struggled out of the overturned car, using his injured body to carry his mother to a black-market hospital.
He couldn't afford a legitimate hospital. This was his only hope.
By now, Yue Kaicheng felt a chill in his chest.
What kind of worldview was this?
Did people in this world have no compassion at all?
Doctors could save someone, but chose not to, just because there was no prepaid plan?
In the original animation, the doctor, David, brought his mother to wear clothing belonging to an organ-harvesting gang from the game. It wasn't stated outright, but players understood.
In the Xia Nation TV adaptation, Su Yan didn't hide this.
All viewers could clearly see—
The black-market doctor was pretending to treat David's mother.
In reality, he was harvesting her organs.
He even handed David a payment notice outside the operating room, lying that his mother could be saved—but only if the money came quickly.
Yue Kaicheng clenched his fists.
His eyes reddened.
What kind of world was this?
Were all the people in this city like this?
Destroy it.
This city.
This world.
At this point, Yue Kaicheng finally understood why cyberpunk stories were niche.
Anyone who could accept this worldview needed serious emotional resilience.
David rushed home at top speed, hoping to find anything he could sell to save his mother.
But the house—due to unpaid bills and rent—had no power. He didn't even have authorization to open the electronic door.
Yue Kaicheng took a deep breath.
If he were David, he'd already be losing his mind.
The protagonist hadn't even broken down yet—that alone showed emotional restraint.
David forcibly broke into his own home.
In his mother's room, he found a piece of cyberware.
A military-grade implant his mother had secretly removed and hidden using her work privileges—from a cyberpsycho who had died.
So that was how she had supported his elite education.
Yue Kaicheng immediately understood what she'd meant earlier by "finding the money."
The story continued. David tried to sell the implant around the city to raise surgery money.
But because it was military-grade cyberware, no one dared to buy it—or offered insultingly low prices.
During this process, he ran into a rich classmate—the son of a school board member.
Because of the pirated software incident, and because they despised poor students like David, they cornered him.
Using combat chips implanted in their necks, they beat David brutally. They insulted his mother, claiming she must have been a prostitute to afford Arasaka Academy.
They threatened him to drop out, saying he was dragging down the school's standards—or they'd keep beating him.
At this point, Yue Kaicheng felt his stomach ache.
Could this protagonist get any more miserable?
Even if David wanted to fight back for insulting his mother—
They could buy combat skills with money.
How could he win?
If kung fu could be bought…
What about art?
Talent?
Could genius be bought, too?
With the right chip, was everyone a prodigy?
Yue Kaicheng more or less understood.
And the worst was still to come.
After everything, David returned to the black-market hospital.
Only to find—
His mother was already dead.
The woman who had worried about money with him just that morning was now less than three pounds of ashes in an urn.
What could David do?
Nothing.
No money. No mother.
David walked blankly through the streets, his silhouette paired with the background music, piercing the hearts of countless Xia Nation viewers.
On his way home carrying his mother's ashes, her phone kept receiving debt collection messages.
The irony was overwhelming.
Night City at night glowed with lights.
Bars were full of indulgence.
High-tech products benefited the rich.
And today, a boy had only tried to save money, leading to damaged school equipment, and then getting caught in a random gang shootout with his mother.
He only wanted to ease her burden.
Now, she was just ashes in a box.
Watching the lonely figure walking down the street, Yue Kaicheng couldn't help but tear up.
Putting himself in David's place, only one thought remained:
Destroy this world.
At that moment—
The rich classmate who had beaten David earlier called him to mock him.
"Your mother died for nothing!"
David's blank expression finally changed.
He grabbed the military-grade cyberware his mother had left behind.
If he couldn't sell it—
Then he'd use it.
He found a black-market ripperdoc, pointed at it, his voice heavy and resolute.
"Put it… inside me."
A surge of intense, rhythmic music erupted.
The ending theme of 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' Episode 1 played.
Yue Kaicheng, along with countless viewers, felt their rage fully ignited.
That's right.
How could his mother's death just end like that?
That black-market hospital had to be wiped out.
And that rich kid—calling to mock someone right after their mother died?
Normally, Yue Kaicheng was a mild-mannered man. But fully immersed in David's role, he had no other thoughts.
This world had no logic.
If the world were insane—
Then the protagonist might as well go insane with it.
The first episode of 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' focused mainly on laying the groundwork and shaping the protagonist.
Even the female lead, Lucy, hadn't fully appeared yet.
It was suffocating. Oppressive.
Without the final twist—David choosing to implant the military cyberware—the episode would have been nothing but relentless torment.
Now, however, nearly everyone who finished Episode 1 felt the same anticipation.
They wanted to see it.
Episode 2.
The moment the protagonist completely snapped.