California After Dusk: The Life of Richard Night is a readable shard in Cyberpunk 2077.
Richard Night was a pessimist. Even in the late Eighties, when the economy seemed headed for endless growth and the nuclear threat for the ash heap of history, Night saw the United States as hurtling toward collapse.
Richard Night was an optimist. He deeply believed the world could be changed for the better – and that he was the one to do it.
Richard Night was a realist. Aware he couldn't change the face of the world all at once, he decided to start small (for him, at least) by constructing the ideal city. His utopian metropolis was to be called Coronado City. It would stand as a metaphorical city on a hill, a shining example to the rest of the world.
Richard Night was doomed to fail. Not because his vision was inherently impossible to realize, but because many important, powerful people wished to make it so.
Richard Night was murdered. The city whose foundations he laid was finished after his death – but his utopian dream soon became a dystopian nightmare. Even the original name was lost. In honor of the city's tragically deceased founder, Coronado City was rechristened "Night City." Ironically, the name fits. If anything, the city is a cat; sleepy during the day, it comes frantically alive at night. And it loves to toy with its prey.