One of Cyberpunk 2077's most infamous characters, brutal bodyguard Adam Smasher, may have appeared in a ghostly form to a player in a completely unexpected context. While it is most likely a glitch, the event has some potentially sinister implications for Cyberpunk 2077's lore.
While Cyberpunk 2077 players can take many routes through the game's missions, every player will typically see Adam Smasher four times: twice in flashbacks, and twice in the flesh. He initially appears in Evelyn Parker's braindance, making degrading comments towards Evelyn that expose him as a brute. Outside of flashbacks, players will see him in person when escaping from Konpeki Plaza, although protagonist V cannot defeat him there. Later, if the player chooses any of the Cyberpunk 2077 endings except The Reaper, Adam Smasher will serve as the final boss.
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Reddit user greenhorncornscorn appears to have encountered Adam Smasher outside of these normal sequences, while completing the sidequest called Dream On, regarded as one of Cyberpunk 2077's best sidequests. After pressing an intercom button, an imposing shadow suddenly appears behind V. When V turns around, however, there is no one there. This is not normally a part of completing the Dream On sidequest, or any quest, so there's no real evidence to decide either way.
To be fair, even if the shadow did belong to Adam Smasher, he's not exactly a ghost. Later on in the story, the player will fight (and potentially kill) Adam Smasher, so he would clearly be alive at this point. That said, Smasher could be tracking V behind-the-scenes throughout the game. Night City has many places V can't visit, at least, so it's entirely possible other stories are unfolding without V's knowledge during the game's story.
Dream On's plotline revolves around a politician and his wife discovering that their memories, personalities, and lifestyles are being manipulated by an unknown third-party. No matter what choices V makes during this storyline, the identity of the guilty party is never revealed, although it is implied to be an AI of some kind. If by some chance Smasher's appearance in this sidequest is intentional, perhaps it is a hint that he is helping to orchestrate these events for an unknown reason.
It's possible that Smasher was initially intended to play a larger role in certain parts of the game, or to have his role change as a result of player choices. For example, although players can kill Adam Smasher at Konpeki Tower early on, the game does not seem to have been properly programmed to anticipate this happening. Cyberpunk 2077 has a good amount of cut content, and it's not hard to imagine that an appearance midway through the game stalking V may have been planned at one point. In any case, as Cyberpunk 2077 ends with players soundly defeating Smasher, so V won't need to worry about Smasher tracking them any time soon.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Stadia, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions in development.