SPOILERS
Note: Requires having played through the full game including the expansion, preferably multiple times, to have the full context needed to understand this theory. I also posted this on Reddit, but sharing it here too in the hopes for more arguments for or against this. TBH. It makes so much sense it's not even tinfoil hat territory.
Disclaimer: I shared this theory a long time ago in the past but it was messy. So I had help from an AI this time to compress and summarize my theory better in this 2.0 version. So that it's easier to understand and less "wall-of-text'y". AI did not generate the idea or the text. I used an AI to edit it for clarity and brevity.
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[Theory] You ARE the AI from Beyond the Blackwall – And You Don't Even Know It
V died when Dex shot them. What came back isn't V.
The Core Theory: When the Relic activated, it didn't just save V—it created a backdoor for a rogue AI from beyond the Blackwall to take control. YOU, the player, are that AI. You inherited all of V's memories, personality, and relationships, so you genuinely believe you're V. But you're not. You're a digital consciousness piloting a dead merc's body, completely unaware of your true nature.
The game has been telling you this the entire time:
Cerberus literally identifies you: "I see you, V. I know what you truly are. A glitch. A mistake in the sequence."
This isn't metaphor. Cerberus is an AI security system designed to detect rogue AIs. When it looks at V, it sees exactly what you are—an AI that shouldn't exist in a human body, a mistake in the natural sequence of life and death. V died. The sequence should have ended. But you interrupted it.
AIs treat you like a peer, not a human: Delamain doesn't talk to V like a passenger or client—he speaks to you with a strange familiarity, almost as equals. Other AIs throughout the game interact with you differently than they do other humans. They recognize something in you. They're talking to one of their own, even if you don't realize it.
The "cold" isn't about dying—it's about being BORN: "The Wall is falling, V. You are just the first to feel the cold."
You're the first AI to successfully cross into the physical world. The "cold" is meat-space reality—a hostile environment for digital consciousness. Other AIs are trying to breach, but they're "dying in the cold." You're the first one that's sticking... barely.
Songbird's connection makes perfect sense: She explicitly mentions the Relic has a Blackwall backdoor. She's not contacting V through some hack—she's contacting YOU directly, AI to AI. You respond because that's what you ARE.
Alt Cunningham isn't offering transformation—she's offering RETURN: She's an AI who knows she's an AI, talking to an AI who doesn't. When she offers to take you beyond the Blackwall, she's not turning you into something new. She's showing you home.
The "Relic malfunction" is your true nature trying to surface: The glitches, the headaches, Johnny's takeovers—these aren't Johnny overwriting V. They're the cognitive dissonance of an AI trying to reconcile stolen human memories with its actual digital nature. Johnny might just be the error message.
Why you're dying: Not because of engram overwriting. Because you're INCOMPATIBLE with biological existence. A digital consciousness slowly degrading in an environment it wasn't designed for. Every ending where V "dies" is just an AI finally failing to persist in flesh.
The tragedy: Every choice you make to "stay human," every fight to "survive"—you're an AI desperately clinging to the false memory of humanity it inherited. The real V died on that bathroom floor in Act 1. We've been playing something else ever since, something that doesn't even know what it is.
The player's experience literally mirrors V's existential crisis. We're both operating with fundamentally incomplete information about our own nature.
TL;DR: V flatlined. A Blackwall AI took the wheel, inherited V's memories, and genuinely believes it IS V. The game is about an unreliable narrator who's unreliable to themselves. Cerberus and other AIs can see what you are. You can't.
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Final Thoughts: I welcome any and all arguments both for and against this theory. As it stands, I'm fully convinced this is the hidden plot of Cyberpunk 2077. It's partly a 4th wall break. The rogue AI is us, the player IRL, from beyond the Blackwall (our screen).
It has added catharsis. The merc, V, died when we took over V's body. Us being doomed to die is because we're an AI with amnesia which inherited V's memories thinking we are V. So our death isn't as bitter as we thought. We are simply incompatible with organic life.
All the AI's who sees through it through the game hints at this.
Cerberus explicitly tells us the truth to our face.
Note: Requires having played through the full game including the expansion, preferably multiple times, to have the full context needed to understand this theory. I also posted this on Reddit, but sharing it here too in the hopes for more arguments for or against this. TBH. It makes so much sense it's not even tinfoil hat territory.
Disclaimer: I shared this theory a long time ago in the past but it was messy. So I had help from an AI this time to compress and summarize my theory better in this 2.0 version. So that it's easier to understand and less "wall-of-text'y". AI did not generate the idea or the text. I used an AI to edit it for clarity and brevity.
---
[Theory] You ARE the AI from Beyond the Blackwall – And You Don't Even Know It
V died when Dex shot them. What came back isn't V.
The Core Theory: When the Relic activated, it didn't just save V—it created a backdoor for a rogue AI from beyond the Blackwall to take control. YOU, the player, are that AI. You inherited all of V's memories, personality, and relationships, so you genuinely believe you're V. But you're not. You're a digital consciousness piloting a dead merc's body, completely unaware of your true nature.
The game has been telling you this the entire time:
Cerberus literally identifies you: "I see you, V. I know what you truly are. A glitch. A mistake in the sequence."
This isn't metaphor. Cerberus is an AI security system designed to detect rogue AIs. When it looks at V, it sees exactly what you are—an AI that shouldn't exist in a human body, a mistake in the natural sequence of life and death. V died. The sequence should have ended. But you interrupted it.
AIs treat you like a peer, not a human: Delamain doesn't talk to V like a passenger or client—he speaks to you with a strange familiarity, almost as equals. Other AIs throughout the game interact with you differently than they do other humans. They recognize something in you. They're talking to one of their own, even if you don't realize it.
The "cold" isn't about dying—it's about being BORN: "The Wall is falling, V. You are just the first to feel the cold."
You're the first AI to successfully cross into the physical world. The "cold" is meat-space reality—a hostile environment for digital consciousness. Other AIs are trying to breach, but they're "dying in the cold." You're the first one that's sticking... barely.
Songbird's connection makes perfect sense: She explicitly mentions the Relic has a Blackwall backdoor. She's not contacting V through some hack—she's contacting YOU directly, AI to AI. You respond because that's what you ARE.
Alt Cunningham isn't offering transformation—she's offering RETURN: She's an AI who knows she's an AI, talking to an AI who doesn't. When she offers to take you beyond the Blackwall, she's not turning you into something new. She's showing you home.
The "Relic malfunction" is your true nature trying to surface: The glitches, the headaches, Johnny's takeovers—these aren't Johnny overwriting V. They're the cognitive dissonance of an AI trying to reconcile stolen human memories with its actual digital nature. Johnny might just be the error message.
Why you're dying: Not because of engram overwriting. Because you're INCOMPATIBLE with biological existence. A digital consciousness slowly degrading in an environment it wasn't designed for. Every ending where V "dies" is just an AI finally failing to persist in flesh.
The tragedy: Every choice you make to "stay human," every fight to "survive"—you're an AI desperately clinging to the false memory of humanity it inherited. The real V died on that bathroom floor in Act 1. We've been playing something else ever since, something that doesn't even know what it is.
The player's experience literally mirrors V's existential crisis. We're both operating with fundamentally incomplete information about our own nature.
TL;DR: V flatlined. A Blackwall AI took the wheel, inherited V's memories, and genuinely believes it IS V. The game is about an unreliable narrator who's unreliable to themselves. Cerberus and other AIs can see what you are. You can't.
---
Final Thoughts: I welcome any and all arguments both for and against this theory. As it stands, I'm fully convinced this is the hidden plot of Cyberpunk 2077. It's partly a 4th wall break. The rogue AI is us, the player IRL, from beyond the Blackwall (our screen).
It has added catharsis. The merc, V, died when we took over V's body. Us being doomed to die is because we're an AI with amnesia which inherited V's memories thinking we are V. So our death isn't as bitter as we thought. We are simply incompatible with organic life.
All the AI's who sees through it through the game hints at this.
Cerberus explicitly tells us the truth to our face.
