After clearing the enemies in god-mode using the Cyberskeleton, David was ready to retreat with Rebecca and Lucy.
At the very least... he had to cover Lucy and his friends as they made their escape.
Just then, David turned to Falco.
"Falco, I have a request..."
Rebecca escorted Lucy into the getaway car.
"Glad you're in one-piece."
Despite her words, she wasn't smiling.
After all, she and Lucy were... rivals in love.
But Rebecca added, "David will be happy."
If David was happy, she was happy.
Even though she competed with Lucy for his heart, she was genuinely relieved Lucy had returned safely.
Watching this unfold, Shuu Fumiya couldn't help but nurse a spark of hope.
"Man... David should just take Rebecca too. Rebecca-chan is too good for this world!"
Manga in this parallel world's Federation used to mirror the web novels of Aoyama's past life, where harem series featuring a stallion protagonist were highly popular years ago.
Of course, that trend was long dead now.
Many readers actively despised such indecisive behaviour.
But at this exact moment, every Edgerunners fan was praying David would take Rebecca into his arms as well!
However...
A sudden, deafening boom shattered the sky in the next panel.
Lucy and Rebecca both looked upward.
Rebecca, as hot-headed as ever, snarled.
"Don't interrupt me while I'm talking!!"
She raised her firearm and fired wildly into the sky.
But in the next instant, Adam Smasher descended like a falling meteor!
He slammed down directly onto Rebecca's petite frame!
Then, the panel repeated the impact from Lucy's perspective inside the car.
This was demonic!
The shockwave blasted the ground open, flipping the car and tearing up target concrete, reducing the area to rubble.
As the dust settled, Adam Smasher's suffocating, towering frame slowly emerged.
Beneath him lay Rebecca.
Her body had been completely crushed.
Only her upper torso and half her head remained intact, lying in a pool of blood.
"Rebecca!" David bellowed her name.
But Rebecca was dead. There was no response.
Shuu Fumiya and the readers frozen on this page were completely stunned.
Rebecca... got flattened to death by Adam Smasher's landing?
No way.
Such a sudden, casual death.
How could an incredibly popular supporting character die like this in the grand finale?
But she was dead. Struck from the sky without even a chance to fight back!
This show of power demonstrated just how terrifying Adam Smasher truly was.
He stepped out of the dust, turning his gaze toward David and Falco.
Both fighters activated their Sandevistan simultaneously, and a high-speed clash erupted.
But explicitly, Adam Smasher held the upper hand.
Just then, Lucy made her move, diving into the net to hack Adam Smasher's neural network.
"Yes! With Lucy's support, Adam Smasher is done for! David can definitely win!" Shuu Fumiya yelled in excitement.
However, Adam Smasher merely paused for a microsecond.
He spared a glance toward Lucy, and with a swift wave of his hand, the data stream attacking his system was completely shattered!
"What? That's impossible..." Lucy stammered in shock.
The backlash sent sparks bursting through her interface, knocking her backward.
Right as she fell...
A car skidded from the side and caught her.
The driver was Falco!
Lucy panicked immediately.
"Falco! David... David isn't in the car yet!"
"Falco!"
But Falco ignored her, slamming his foot onto the accelerator.
"I told you all... you're going to die!"
Adam Smasher roared, turning his heavy artillery toward Falco and Lucy.
But in that instant...
"Now isn't the time to be looking away!"
David activated his gravity module from behind, locking Adam Smasher in place!
"Damn you!"
Adam Smasher turned to glare at David.
He had to admit that while David was weaker, factoring in the Cyberskeleton made him impossible to ignore.
Just when readers assumed they were about to witness a final, epic clash...
Adam Smasher reached out, gripping David's Cyberskeleton framework directly.
With a violent tear, he ripped the anti-gravity module clean off!
"Without this module to lift you, you're just a kid who can't even support his own weight!"
He was right.
Without the anti-gravity tech, David's frame began to buckle and collapse under the skeleton's massive weight.
"With just this much, you thought you were special..."
"Don't make me laugh."
Adam Smasher delivered a devastating blow, completely crushing David.
The Cyberskeleton detonated alongside David's body, tearing the area apart in a deafening explosion.
In the retreating getaway car, Lucy witnessed the explosion from afar.
Overflowing with pain, she grabbed Falco's shoulder.
"Falco, go back!"
"I can't."
Falco spoke with steel.
"David requested this of me. If I turn back now, his death accomplishes nothing."
"I have the reward from this gig. He wanted us to split it evenly."
The frame lingered on David's iconic yellow jacket.
At that moment, everyone understood.
This was the favour David had asked of Falco earlier.
He with fully knowing used his own death to purchase Lucy and Falco's survival.
"And... he wanted me to tell you..."
The panel cut back to David.
Overpowered and beaten, he was receiving a brutal beating from Adam Smasher.
"I'm sorry... looks like we won't be going to the Moon together after all."
Simultaneously, Edgerunners began flashing back to previous characters and iconic scenes like a passing lantern.
Finally, David could no longer stand.
He lay flat on the ground and began to laugh.
"You are kinda fun," Adam Smasher muttered, looking down at David.
"You make a pretty interesting construct."
"Like I give a damn... you bastard," David laughed, addressing him with his final breath.
Adam Smasher understood.
He raised the heavy cannon on his arm and aimed directly at David's head.
"Then... goodbye."
A flash of white light consumed the panel, followed immediately by a splash of blood.
The artist didn't draw David's head exploding, but Shuu Fumiya knew: David was dead.
He sat staring at the page, completely paralyzed.
David... the main protagonist was really dead.
Plus Kiwi, and Rebecca. The entire crew was gone.
But Lucy and Falco were alive.
A bittersweet victory... if you could even call it that.
Suddenly, Shuu Fumiya's eyes widened.
"Wait, it isn't over? There's more?"
He forced himself through the heavy grief and continued reading.
The camera pulled away from Arasaka Tower, zooming out over Night City, across North America, and eventually leaving Earth.
The view landed on the Moon.
Shuu Fumiya guessed what it was, his eyes swelling with red.
A manned moon rocket passed over the lunar surface.
Inside sat dozens of passengers, and one of them... was Lucy!
{ Welcome to the Moon. Experience the lunar gravity like never before seen in any BD... }
Amidst the broadcast, she sat in her spacesuit, staring blankly out the window at the void.
After landing, scenes of the lunar baseline resort played, showing countless tourists enjoying the low gravity.
But Lucy walked away from the noise, moving into the empty, desolate lunar plains.
She noticed the burning sunlight and raised her hand to shade the warm rays.
As her gaze shifted downward from the sun...
"Incredible!"
David was standing right in front of her!
But he wasn't wearing a spacesuit.
Everyone knew instantly: this was Lucy's hallucination.
David couldn't be alive on the moon without gear.
"The sun is so warm!"
David smiled, looking back at Lucy.
Lucy looked at the boy standing in the sunlight, smiling so brightly.
She responded with a radiant smile of her own.
But in the next instant, the smiling David vanished into nothingness.
He left only the helpless Lucy, standing alone on the desolate lunar face.
She slowly opened her arms toward the blinding sun.
As if embracing David in her mind one last time.
---
"Holy crap!"
Shuu Fumiya snapped, tears blinding his vision.
He cursed at the screen, "Damn Adam Smasher! Damn Arasaka! Damn this Cyberpunk world! Damn you, old fox Aoyama!"
He couldn't hold it in anymore, grabbing tissues to wipe his streaming nose and eyes.
This was demonic.
The author actually managed to execute a double-cut punch to the heart.
He could have held back the tears, but not after that.
But the story wasn't strictly over yet.
Two final panels remained.
A buzz-cut male protagonist that Shuu Fumiya didn't recognise sat in a bar.
"Give me a 'David Martinez'."
The man addressed the bartender.
He raised the glass pushed toward him and said, "This one... is for the legend that Night City will never forget,David Martinez."
"Grand in life, glorious in death."
「The End」
---
Below, the advertising page displayed a separate announcement:
[Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners ANIME GREENLIT! Set for release early next year!]
[Derivate Game 'Cyberpunk 2077' Currently in Production! The Federation's First AAA Masterpiece with a 1:1 recreation of Night City!]
Shuu Fumiya closed the magazine and sat back, staring at the ceiling in heavy silence.
The weight of the story sat heavy on his chest.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]