It was too beautiful.
Romance, tragedy, and a suffocating melancholy overlapped in Shen Sihan's heart.
Her nose stung as she watched David's cyberpsychosis symptoms gradually subside.
"David… you still installed it—the cyberskeleton. I actually knew you would do this. I knew that once you did, you would die. That's why I told you not to come…"
Lucy's voice trembled, on the verge of breaking into tears.
"This is the only way I can protect you in this city. I couldn't protect Mom… or Maine… but I want to protect you."
David spoke gently to Lucy.
The two of them fell through the air toward the ground.
Their silhouettes were like meteors—brilliant and dazzling, but existing for only a fleeting instant.
At that moment, Shen Sihan's vision blurred with tears.
[Su Yan, you heartless bastard—this is how you stab us in the very last episode?]
This is the only way I can protect you in this city.
That was David.
"I don't want you to die. I just want you to live!"
Lucy cried.
"I want to help you achieve your dream. As long as I can make that happen, losing everything doesn't matter!"
David said with a smile.
At this moment, no further words were needed.
Countless viewers of 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' were completely broken.
A truly devastating work isn't something you can defend against just because you know it's supposed to be depressing.
Veteran Su Yan fans had already prepared themselves mentally for this episode.
But even so—
They still couldn't stop the tears.
At the plaza beneath Arasaka Tower—
David and Lucy descended from the sky. Even surrounded by countless police closing in, they showed no fear.
"We're back!"
"Charge—break through! Go!"
At this moment, the background music 'I really want to stay at your house' stopped.
Rebecca, smiling as she welcomed them back, was about to speak—
But suddenly, she turned in rage and fired into the sky.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dense gunfire rang out.
Then came a thunderous impact.
Rebecca's figure was swallowed up.
Shen Sihan's eyes widened.
Her heart instantly went cold.
On the ground lay Rebecca's body—crushed into the underground parking structure by Adam Smasher.
Reduced to a pile of gore.
Shen Sihan froze.
So did countless Shen Liqian fans, countless Kaori Miyazono fans across Xia Nation.
This…
What the hell?
Rebecca… died?
And died like this?
What kind of madness is this?
[Su Yan, are you even human?]
David immediately snapped.
He charged recklessly at Adam Smasher.
Meanwhile, the driver, Falco, quickly carried the still-immobile Lucy into the car.
Lucy and David only had time for one last glance—
This was farewell forever.
Lucy screamed, begging Falco to go back and save David.
But Falco said this was David's final order. He forcibly restrained Lucy and sped away.
"I'm sorry—we can't go to the moon together."
Facing the monstrous Adam Smasher, David smiled faintly.
In his mind appeared the smiling faces of his teammates—Kiwi, Pilar, Dorio, Rebecca, Maine…
David endured Adam Smasher's assault.
And fought him head-on.
The battle was a visual feast, effects pushed to the limit.
In the end—
No miracle came.
David fell.
But Adam Smasher, too, was gravely wounded by David's final attack—his life hanging by a thread.
Here, Su Yan gave the battle a dignified conclusion.
A subtle adaptation.
The story never explicitly stated whether Adam Smasher died.
But in the world of 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners', if you don't die on the spot, you're basically still alive.
At least in portrayal, the two were shown as evenly matched.
Otherwise, audiences would never accept a repeat of the anime, where David posed almost no threat to Adam Smasher before dying.
Lucy was taken out of Night City, beyond Arasaka's sphere of influence.
And then—
David had converted all his money in advance into a one-way ticket to the moon, asking Falco to give it to her.
At this point, Shen Sihan completely broke down.
[Su Yan, do you really have no conscience at all? The moon foreshadowing—used like this…]
The final image of Episode 10:
Lucy, wearing a spacesuit, is stepping onto the lunar surface.
Sunlight poured down—yet it felt completely different from what she once experienced in the braindance.
For a moment, it seemed as if a boy in a yellow hoodie appeared before her—
Smiling, turning back to say:
"The sun's so hot."
Lucy blinked—
And the boy's phantom vanished.
On the moon, only the girl remained.
The ending theme played.
After a long while, when the credits ended, a short teaser appeared—
The theatrical release announcement for 'The Garden of Words'.
But at this moment, Shen Sihan could only passively absorb the information.
July 31st—
Su Yan's film would be released nationwide.
Her heart felt hollowed out.
This feeling had appeared before—every time Su Yan's works ended.
She wanted to curse him.
But she knew this anger was temporary.
In a few days, when she revisited the story, she would understand:
This was a masterpiece.
From the very beginning, this story was never meant to end happily.
From the moment Lucy spoke of her dream—
From the moment David chose to become a cyberpunk—
Their fate was sealed.
Those who kill.
Those who live licking blood from blades—
This is how such lives end.
Just like Kenshin—after killing so many, if his fate had truly been peaceful seclusion with Tomoe, how could that story have depth?
David spent his entire life on one thing:
Fulfilling the dream of the girl he loved.
If she felt that Blue Earth had no freedom—only corporations, technology, and invisible chains—
Then even if only for a single second,
David would take her to the moon to experience true freedom.
When he was with Lucy, David said he would make her dream come true.
At the end of this story—
David fulfilled his promise.
Not a single word he said to Lucy was a lie.
Shen Sihan took a deep breath and turned off the TV.
She didn't know how she would sleep.
Or how she should evaluate this series.
Her mind replayed the story again and again, growing more and more hollow.
She wasn't sure she'd recover from this mood for half a month.
At the same time, the internet exploded.
Fans of Su Yan and 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' went completely berserk.
Across the four major streaming platforms, Episode 10 dominated trending charts.
"Rebecca-chan."
"Did Adam Smasher die?"
"Who is V?"
"What kind of movie is 'The Garden of Words'?"
All surged to the top.
[So David dying wasn't enough—why did Rebecca have to die too?!]
[Su Yan, are you even human? Is this something a human can write?!]
[I'm a Shen Liqian fan—tonight destroyed me. 'Your Lie in April' wasn't even this brutal!]
[Turned into paste… that's just cruel.]
[Who came up with the nickname Rebecca-chan?! I'm furious!]
[I'm going to explode from anger!]
[So did Adam Smasher really survive?]
[From the fight, it was like 60–40. But David fought, knowing he'd die. Adam Smasher should've died too—yet Arasaka could've saved him.]
[That's unfair!]
[Fairness in Night City? Background and power decide everything.]
[Could there be a Season 2?]
[What if Lucy becomes the protagonist, and V storms Arasaka, rescues a revived David, and reunites them?]
[Dream on. Everyone died—Maine, Kiwi, David, Rebecca. That's the point.]
[Then why did Lucy live?]
[Because everyone's sacrifice wasn't meaningless. But can the moon really save her from Arasaka?]
[I can't breathe—I cried too hard.]
[Su Yan, get out of here already! Stop pretending you're dead!]
[Season 2! Hurry! Let them reunite!]
[Is nobody talking about 'The Garden of Words'? It's starring Su Yan and Gu Qingyuan, releasing 7.31—it actually sounds interesting.]
[Not tonight. I need to mourn David.]
That night, fans completely flooded Su Yan's comment sections.
They cursed him relentlessly for killing so many characters.
A tidal wave of emotional value poured toward him.
Yet—
While fans cursed him,
'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' shot up to a 9.6 rating overnight.
Audiences might be emotionally irrational—
But when it came time to rate it, they couldn't bring themselves to score it low.
Because what Lucy, David, Rebecca, and Maine gave them was real.
Su Yan might not be human—
But 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' was undeniably a masterpiece.
This ending left everyone shattered.
Yet if you tried to replace it with any other ending—
Compared to Lucy seeing David's phantom on the moon—
Everything else would feel unbearably cliché.
So, fans could only curse Su Yan.
They couldn't curse the story.