"1,000 Beats a Second" book cover
1,000 Beats a Second is a readable shard in Cyberpunk 2077. It contains an excerpt from a romance novel of the same name written by Olivia Lockmore.
I couldn't believe my eyes. For a moment, I thought Jessica had changed them out for faulty Kiroshis while I was asleep. But no, that wouldn't have been like her. I blinked again. No change. There I saw them, clear as day, the open flaps of Jason's chrome skull. I saw the electronic brain that, up until now, had been hidden by perfect imitation syn-skin.
The son of FutureTech CEO, the boy of my damn dreams, Jason... He was an android. Shit...
I sat there stuck with a dumb expression on my face and Jason stared back with one of his own. I couldn't help but wonder now... were those beautiful eyes of his - the same that had pierced my soul - were they merely a mimicry controlled by some emo-algorithm? Had there never been anything real behind them all those times? ... Not once?
"Alex!...I-it's not what you think!" he pleaded with a strangely authentic note of panic in his voice. And I wanted to believe him. I really did.
"Hmph... Well, clearly it hasn't been," I replied in equal parts anxious and bitter. "Me and my rotten luck... The first and last guy I fall for and he turns out to be a goddamn motherboard on legs!"
"No, that's not--," Jason suddenly broke off and smiled awkwardly. "Wait, did you... did you say 'fall for?'"
My cardio implant began to beat more and more quickly. My face flushed. Had I been wrong? Could this body of bolts, wires, and plastic contain whatever is left of the real Jason Cadalez? If his father was able to design a synthetic heart for me, maybe he could do the same for his son's brain. The question is... why?
