ASUS ExpertBook Ultra Sets a New Benchmark for AI Business Laptops
Business laptops are a niche that suits only a few, but if there were one laptop you could do every single job with, it’s the ExpertBook Ultra. This laptop debuts Intel’s Panther Lake processors in India, and they pack serious performance not only in the CPU but also in the graphics department, with the Taiwanese laptop maker claiming GPU performance similar to the RTX 4050 on the ExpertBook Ultra, which weighs less than 1kg. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
Flagship All Around
Asus is pitching the ExpertBook Ultra as its most premium business laptop yet, and it’s easy to see why. It features an ultra-light design starting at just 0.99 kg and is built using magnesium-aluminum alloy. We took the Ultra for a spin at the launch event, and it looked beautiful. The finish shimmers in sunlight, making the whole experience even more premium.
Open the lid, and you’re greeted by a beautiful 3K Tandem OLED display that nails the colors and delivers deep blacks. But that’s not actually the highlight. The highlight is the 1400-nit peak brightness in HDR mode, which keeps the display legible even in direct sunlight. The nano coating also keeps the panel smudge-free.
Under the hood lie Intel’s latest Core Ultra Series 3 processors, along with an integrated AI engine (NPU) to handle on-device AI workloads. While we are yet to test the performance of the ExpertBook Ultra, Asus’s demos have set expectations very high, as their benchmarks show the laptop topping the charts among other laptops. The processor can be coupled with up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 2TB of M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD.
Graphics are handled by the Intel Arc B390, which Asus says offers performance comparable to the RTX 4050. The company also ran a series of benchmarks comparing the two in a variety of games. The ExpertBook Ultra is run by a 70WHrs battery with a claimed all-day battery life of up to 26 hours.
ExpertBook P Series Gets an Upgrade
Alongside the Ultra, ASUS has expanded its ExpertBook P series with new models like the P3 and P5, targeting a wider range of business users.
These laptops will deliver scalable performance and AI capabilities for professionals and small- to medium-sized businesses. ASUS says the goal is to provide flexibility across configurations while maintaining strong performance and reliability.
Pricing & Availability
The ASUS ExpertBook Ultra is now available for pre-order on Flipkart, starting at ₹2,39,990. Pre-order offers include extended warranty, accidental damage protection, bank discounts, and bundled subscriptions. Meanwhile, the ExpertBook P3 starts at ₹94,990, while the P5 is expected to launch soon with a starting price of ₹2,14,990
Business laptops are a niche that suits only a few, but if there were one laptop you could do every single job with, it’s the ExpertBook Ultra. This laptop debuts Intel’s Panther Lake processors in India, and they pack serious performance not only in the CPU but also in the graphics department, with the Taiwanese laptop maker claiming GPU performance similar to the RTX 4050 on the ExpertBook Ultra, which weighs less than 1kg. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
Flagship All Around
Asus is pitching the ExpertBook Ultra as its most premium business laptop yet, and it’s easy to see why. It features an ultra-light design starting at just 0.99 kg and is built using magnesium-aluminum alloy. We took the Ultra for a spin at the launch event, and it looked beautiful. The finish shimmers in sunlight, making the whole experience even more premium.
Open the lid, and you’re greeted by a beautiful 3K Tandem OLED display that nails the colors and delivers deep blacks. But that’s not actually the highlight. The highlight is the 1400-nit peak brightness in HDR mode, which keeps the display legible even in direct sunlight. The nano coating also keeps the panel smudge-free.
Under the hood lie Intel’s latest Core Ultra Series 3 processors, along with an integrated AI engine (NPU) to handle on-device AI workloads. While we are yet to test the performance of the ExpertBook Ultra, Asus’s demos have set expectations very high, as their benchmarks show the laptop topping the charts among other laptops. The processor can be coupled with up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 2TB of M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD.
Graphics are handled by the Intel Arc B390, which Asus says offers performance comparable to the RTX 4050. The company also ran a series of benchmarks comparing the two in a variety of games. The ExpertBook Ultra is run by a 70WHrs battery with a claimed all-day battery life of up to 26 hours.
ExpertBook P Series Gets an Upgrade
Alongside the Ultra, ASUS has expanded its ExpertBook P series with new models like the P3 and P5, targeting a wider range of business users.
These laptops will deliver scalable performance and AI capabilities for professionals and small- to medium-sized businesses. ASUS says the goal is to provide flexibility across configurations while maintaining strong performance and reliability.
Pricing & Availability
The ASUS ExpertBook Ultra is now available for pre-order on Flipkart, starting at ₹2,39,990. Pre-order offers include extended warranty, accidental damage protection, bank discounts, and bundled subscriptions. Meanwhile, the ExpertBook P3 starts at ₹94,990, while the P5 is expected to launch soon with a starting price of ₹2,14,990
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#ASUS #ExpertBook #Ultra #Sets #Benchmark #Business #Laptops
Flipkart on the first day of sale. The sale began at 12 PM IST on July 31. Lava said this was the fastest stockout for the Virat Series on a sale day. The company said the response reflects the growing number of consumers buying smartphones online. According to Lava, buyers are looking for dependable performance, a clean Android experience, and affordable smartphones. The strong demand for the Virat Series highlights this growing preference.
Virat V1 Specs
Lava Virat V1 5G includes a 6.75-inch HD+ display screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It contains a 6000mAh battery and the UNISOC T8200 chipset. The phone comes with 64GB of internal memory, expandable up to 1TB. This phone does not have any ads or bloatware; rather, it runs on the Clean Android 16 Operating System. It also has an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.
Another version of the Lava Virat V1 phone includes a 6.75-inch HD+ screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a UNISOC SC9863A chipset. The phone includes 64GB internal memory that is also expandable. The smartphone also carries an IP64 rating for added durability. Lava confirmed that it is working with Flipkart to restore stocks as quickly as possible. Customers who could not buy the smartphones during the first sale will get another chance once the devices are back in stock.
Flipkart on the first day of sale. The sale began at 12 PM IST on July 31. Lava said this was the fastest stockout for the Virat Series on a sale day. The company said the response reflects the growing number of consumers buying smartphones online. According to Lava, buyers are looking for dependable performance, a clean Android experience, and affordable smartphones. The strong demand for the Virat Series highlights this growing preference.
Virat V1 Specs
Lava Virat V1 5G includes a 6.75-inch HD+ display screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It contains a 6000mAh battery and the UNISOC T8200 chipset. The phone comes with 64GB of internal memory, expandable up to 1TB. This phone does not have any ads or bloatware; rather, it runs on the Clean Android 16 Operating System. It also has an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.
Another version of the Lava Virat V1 phone includes a 6.75-inch HD+ screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a UNISOC SC9863A chipset. The phone includes 64GB internal memory that is also expandable. The smartphone also carries an IP64 rating for added durability. Lava confirmed that it is working with Flipkart to restore stocks as quickly as possible. Customers who could not buy the smartphones during the first sale will get another chance once the devices are back in stock.
#Lava #Virat #Series #Runs #Stock #Flipkart #Sale #LiveLava">Lava Virat Series Runs Out of Stock as Flipkart Sale Goes Live
Lava’s newly launched Virat Series received a strong response on its first day of sale. The Lava Virat V1 5G and Lava Virat V1 went out of stock on Flipkart on the first day of sale. The sale began at 12 PM IST on July 31. Lava said this was the fastest stockout for the Virat Series on a sale day. The company said the response reflects the growing number of consumers buying smartphones online. According to Lava, buyers are looking for dependable performance, a clean Android experience, and affordable smartphones. The strong demand for the Virat Series highlights this growing preference.
Virat V1 Specs
Lava Virat V1 5G includes a 6.75-inch HD+ display screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It contains a 6000mAh battery and the UNISOC T8200 chipset. The phone comes with 64GB of internal memory, expandable up to 1TB. This phone does not have any ads or bloatware; rather, it runs on the Clean Android 16 Operating System. It also has an IP64 rating for dust and water resistance.
Another version of the Lava Virat V1 phone includes a 6.75-inch HD+ screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a UNISOC SC9863A chipset. The phone includes 64GB internal memory that is also expandable. The smartphone also carries an IP64 rating for added durability. Lava confirmed that it is working with Flipkart to restore stocks as quickly as possible. Customers who could not buy the smartphones during the first sale will get another chance once the devices are back in stock.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike.
In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night.
Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is.
As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts.
“I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike.
In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night.
Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is.
As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts.
“I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus.
#Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki">‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike.
In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night.
Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is.
As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts.
“I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus.
Coristine told the engineer that the role was geared toward supporting what would become Rampart, a tool released in late June to prevent personally identifiable information (PII) from leaving a user’s browser, particularly if they’re using something like a chatbot. In an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) podcast, Coristine described the project as a “side quest ” and told the engineer that the NDS team of about 30 people did not include a machine-learning engineer.
The tool is similar to OpenAI’s browser-based “privacy filter,” which can detect things like a personal email, address, or account number, and mask them automatically. But exactly how this tool is meant to be used in the context of government services is unclear. In the interview with TBPN, Coristine did not offer any particular examples, though he noted the tool is significantly smaller than OpenAI’s, making it potentially more accessible in lower-bandwidth environments.
“It feels very counterintuitive because in most instances, when you are asking for PII, you want PII,” says the engineer, noting that in government work, a user might need to provide PII like their social security number or address in order to access government benefits. “You don’t want that information redacted.”
In many cases, developers can choose to encrypt certain fields that an API sends to the backend of a website, and websites that use HTTPS connections to communicate with their backends also encrypt their requests.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to reinvent the wheel of government technology. Last year, as DOGE promised government efficiency through technology, its members fired technologists who were already working on exactly the kinds of projects it purported to want, even killing a flagship product in the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax filing tool. An OPM memo published last week instructed agencies to prioritize hiring technical talent.
“This does feel superfluous. My most optimistic speculation is that this is indicative of an organization that has no goals,” the engineer says, noting that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regularly supports the creation of tools to solve complex technical problems around issues like privacy. “Why are these guys who are so closely associated with the White House wasting tax money on this little hacker project?”
Coristine told the engineer that the role was geared toward supporting what would become Rampart, a tool released in late June to prevent personally identifiable information (PII) from leaving a user’s browser, particularly if they’re using something like a chatbot. In an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) podcast, Coristine described the project as a “side quest ” and told the engineer that the NDS team of about 30 people did not include a machine-learning engineer.
The tool is similar to OpenAI’s browser-based “privacy filter,” which can detect things like a personal email, address, or account number, and mask them automatically. But exactly how this tool is meant to be used in the context of government services is unclear. In the interview with TBPN, Coristine did not offer any particular examples, though he noted the tool is significantly smaller than OpenAI’s, making it potentially more accessible in lower-bandwidth environments.
“It feels very counterintuitive because in most instances, when you are asking for PII, you want PII,” says the engineer, noting that in government work, a user might need to provide PII like their social security number or address in order to access government benefits. “You don’t want that information redacted.”
In many cases, developers can choose to encrypt certain fields that an API sends to the backend of a website, and websites that use HTTPS connections to communicate with their backends also encrypt their requests.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to reinvent the wheel of government technology. Last year, as DOGE promised government efficiency through technology, its members fired technologists who were already working on exactly the kinds of projects it purported to want, even killing a flagship product in the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax filing tool. An OPM memo published last week instructed agencies to prioritize hiring technical talent.
“This does feel superfluous. My most optimistic speculation is that this is indicative of an organization that has no goals,” the engineer says, noting that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regularly supports the creation of tools to solve complex technical problems around issues like privacy. “Why are these guys who are so closely associated with the White House wasting tax money on this little hacker project?”
#National #Design #Studio #DOGE #Landing #Pad #Big #Balls #Recruitinginner loop,politics,government,doge,elon musk">The National Design Studio Became a DOGE Landing Pad. Now ‘Big Balls’ Is Recruiting
“I have no idea how they got my contact information,” says the engineer. Unlike other interviews for government jobs, the engineer says, there was no recruiter present—only Coristine was on the interview call. “Normally initial screenings are done over the phone, rather than video, to reduce bias in the process,” they say.
During the engineer’s NDS interview, they say, Coristine didn’t seem to know the skill set he was looking for. “I generally don’t know if this person is capable of evaluating a full-stack engineer,” they say, “because they themselves aren’t aware of the skill sets, tools, and things needed in this profession.” Coristine did not reply to a request for comment. (In January 2025, Coristine was one of several DOGE members who interviewed workers at the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services, who were required to defend their jobs and justify their projects. At the time, employees who spoke to WIRED described meetings in which the DOGE members were not familiar with their work.)
Coristine told the engineer that the role was geared toward supporting what would become Rampart, a tool released in late June to prevent personally identifiable information (PII) from leaving a user’s browser, particularly if they’re using something like a chatbot. In an interview with the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) podcast, Coristine described the project as a “side quest ” and told the engineer that the NDS team of about 30 people did not include a machine-learning engineer.
The tool is similar to OpenAI’s browser-based “privacy filter,” which can detect things like a personal email, address, or account number, and mask them automatically. But exactly how this tool is meant to be used in the context of government services is unclear. In the interview with TBPN, Coristine did not offer any particular examples, though he noted the tool is significantly smaller than OpenAI’s, making it potentially more accessible in lower-bandwidth environments.
“It feels very counterintuitive because in most instances, when you are asking for PII, you want PII,” says the engineer, noting that in government work, a user might need to provide PII like their social security number or address in order to access government benefits. “You don’t want that information redacted.”
In many cases, developers can choose to encrypt certain fields that an API sends to the backend of a website, and websites that use HTTPS connections to communicate with their backends also encrypt their requests.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to reinvent the wheel of government technology. Last year, as DOGE promised government efficiency through technology, its members fired technologists who were already working on exactly the kinds of projects it purported to want, even killing a flagship product in the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax filing tool. An OPM memo published last week instructed agencies to prioritize hiring technical talent.
“This does feel superfluous. My most optimistic speculation is that this is indicative of an organization that has no goals,” the engineer says, noting that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regularly supports the creation of tools to solve complex technical problems around issues like privacy. “Why are these guys who are so closely associated with the White House wasting tax money on this little hacker project?”
![‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/08/Brain-Alive-4.jpg "‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki")
![‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki](https://i0.wp.com/gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/08/Brain-Alive-4.jpg?ssl=1 "‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Creator’s New Manga Series Is a Love Letter to ‘Inception’ and Soulsborne Games
In the time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2‘s imminent arrival on Netflix this fall, I’ve been living it up, rewatching the anime and re-reading manga from the folks responsible for its first season being Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime of the Year.
While I’ve already waxed poetic about writer Bartosz Sztybor‘s Rebecca-centric prequel manga showcasing Night City as having plenty more stories to tell, season one creator Rafał Jaki has spun the block off the momentum of being one of Manga Plus’ first Western manga creators post-Edgerunners with an inventive new manga series that’s giving Inception meets Elden Ring. Coming off the heels of his refreshingly imaginative sci-fi series No\Name, in which folks’ powers were derived from the meanings of their given names, Jaki and artist Machine Gamu‘s newest series, Brain Alive—which he announced on his official X/Twitter account with a Google Drive link to read its first chapter for free—looks poised to carry that energy forward with a dark fantasy premise geared toward cinephiles and gamers alike. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01qvd0J-6Fc[/embed] In patented Edgerunners heart-shattering fashion, Brain Alive opens with a father named Daniel awakening from a car crash to the news that his wife didn’t survive and his son is in a coma. To keep his son company, Daniel reads him new volumes of the dark fantasy novel that inspired the Soulsborne video games they used to play together as a family. After falling asleep by his son’s bedside, Daniel finds himself stark naked inside a dungeon. Turns out, his dreams run on a kind of Kamen Rider ZETZ rule where he enters his son’s dreamscape influenced by his mind’s imaginings of their favorite video game series. But things are far from fun and games.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu Fortunately, if Daniel dies in the dream, he doesn’t die in real life. Any progress he makes in the dream follows a roguelike-meets-Soulsborne rule, with bonfire checkpoints featuring the dream-eating yokai, Baku, as a save state statue, and he returns a bit stronger as he retraces his steps in his son’s dreams. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t honk shoo-mimimi into his son’s dreams willy-nilly. He’s got a limited number of times he can go into his son’s dreams to make as much progress as he can and inch closer to saving his son’s life. Meaning, runs can’t be redone by closing his eyes and diving into his dreams multiple times a night. Think Persona 3 dungeon runs where, instead of planning dates and going to school in the interim of making doubly sure if you want to get your shit rocked in Tartarus, Daniel dedicates every waking moment to “git gud” at Soulsborne games to save his son’s life. Buddy can’t catch a break.
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As Soulsborne enemies are wont to do, everything from skeleton warriors and giant yokai to poisonous snakes wants to run the dozens with Daniel for keeps, leaving the weary father with nothing but his Soulsbourne techniques, like perfect dodges, attacking enemy weak points, and real-life sword lessons, to keep himself alive. It also doesn’t hurt that Daniel’s got the boon of a fire sabre with the spirit of his dead wife guiding him through his son’s lucid dark fantasy dreams. If the dead wife of it all isn’t the most Christopher Nolan-ism of all time, I don’t know what is. © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu © Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As is evident from its first chapter, Jaki owes a lot to both anime and the video games he’s played and helped bring into fruition in the stories he crafts. “I create in order to give back even a small fraction of what I have received from loving the work of other creators,” Jaki told IGN. “My hope is to provide someone else with that same moment of awe that I have experienced myself, offering a glimpse into another person’s mind and sharing thoughts and feelings.”
© Rafał Jaki/Machine Gamu As a wary fan of the diminishing returns of isekai-adjacent storytelling, what Jaki and Machine Gamu have put forward in Brain Alive‘s first chapter feels far from the derogatory sameness I’ve encountered from manga and anime that take gamified RPG rules for the sake of power fantasy wish-fulfillment while handwaving their many icky implications. It probably helps that Jaki is no stranger to expansive video game scripts, as the writer of Dark Horse’s The Witcher 3: Ronin comic and The Witcher: Old World board game. Like Former Destiny writer Frank Barbiere and Swamp Thing: Twin Branches artist Morgan Beem’s Image Comics series The Author Immortal (which I also strongly recommend folks check out), Brain Alive is a story with stakes and teeth I can’t wait to see pan out. You can read the first chapter of Brain Alive here ahead of its English release coming later this year, and Jaki’s first-ever manga series, No\Name, on MANGA Plus. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Cyberpunk #Edgerunners #Creators #Manga #Series #Love #Letter #Inception #Soulsborne #GamesCyberpunk: Edgerunners,Manga,Rafal Jaki")
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