One YouTuber Tried To Live A "Normal Life" In Cyberpunk 2077, And It Broke Him
We all think we want to live in Night City until we remember that without main character plot armor, it’s just a dystopia that smells like urine and burning chrome.
Usually, when I boot up Cyberpunk 2077, I am a cyber-god. I double-jump over buildings, hack brains with my mind, and drive cars that cost more than the GDP of a small nation. But YouTuber Any Austin (who is rapidly becoming the David Attenborough of video game suffering) decided to try something different.
He asked a simple question: Can you live a normal, boring life in Night City?
The answer is yes. The cost, however, is your sanity.
Austin went far beyond simple roleplay. He subjected himself to a torture method masquerading as a "challenge run." He committed to a full 7-day week (about 21 real-time hours) played in a single sitting. No quests. No violence. Just a job, a commute, and the crushing weight of capitalism.
The Wage Slave Protocol
To make sure he truly felt the pain of the working class, Austin set up some ground rules that border on masochism. He refused to fake the eating animations. He actually synchronized his real-life biological needs with his character.
Since in-game time moves 8x faster than real time, the math got weird.
Staring Into The Void (And Naming It Chloe)
The challenge itself is grueling. But the way the human brain tries to find meaning in nothingness is the truly fascinating part.
Austin spends hours standing in a small noodle shop called The Ginger Panda. There are no mini-games. There is no "serve customer" prompt. He just stands there. To keep from losing his mind, he starts observing the NPCs with a level of detail that is honestly terrifying.
He names the line cook "Lucille." When the NPC model swaps out the next day for a blue-haired woman, he names her "Chloe." Chloe becomes his work bestie. He invents entire conversations and emotional arcs based on glitches and idle animations.
At one point, he has a mental breakdown over a customer whose elbows glitch out of her body. He rants about "telepathic flesh." This is the kind of madness that only sets in when you have been awake for 15 hours staring at a low-poly dumpling texture.
The Tragedy of Day 7
The experiment ends with a twist that feels scripted. It isn't. It is purely the result of Cyberpunk's chaotic systems.
On his final day, Austin is heartbroken because Chloe isn't at work. He genuinely misses this collection of pixels. But on his walk home, he stops at a street stall and sees her. The game reused her character model for a different vendor.
In his exhausted, delirious state, he creates a narrative. She didn't disappear. She just got a new job! He runs up to "talk" to her.
But this is Cyberpunk. There is no "talk" button for random vendors. There is only a "Heavy Attack" button.
In his excitement, he accidentally punches a customer in the back of the head. Chloe cowers in terror. The police are called. His 7-day streak of being a law-abiding citizen evaporates in a millisecond because he tried to say hello to a friend who doesn't exist.
It is the perfect ending. It proves that you can try to live a normal life in Night City, but the city (and the game engine) won't let you.
If you have 40 minutes, watch the full video. It is a masterclass in storytelling. It might make you look at those background NPCs a little differently next time you speed past them at 100mph.
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