Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Street Rat Starter Guide
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0. Introduction.
Before diving into the build guides for each life path, let's quickly cover the basic setting of Project Neo. If you're not into story stuff, feel free to skip straight to the build guides.
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3. Build Guides
Here's the real meat of it.
Project Neo has three main life paths, and your playable character gets corresponding perks for each one.
As mentioned earlier, the stories tied to each life path are things you'll naturally pick up while playing, so I'll skip those details.
3-1. Corporate
Cyberware synergy +25%
Recommended starting perk: Insight (eye constellation shape)
Recommended trait: Blue Blood
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3-2. Lineage
Mana Circuit provided
Recommended starting perk: Steadfast Heart (heart constellation shape)
Recommended trait: Prodigy
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3-3. Street Rat
Stamina +30%
Recommended starting perk: Quick Recovery (fist constellation shape)
Recommended trait: Irregular
Jin opened his eyes.
His whole body was drenched in sweat, sticky and uncomfortable.
He brushed back the bangs clinging to his forehead and peered through the gap in the blackout curtains. Faint fluorescent streaks of light seeped into the room.
Orange, yellow, red, teal, blue.
The neon signs toying with the streets.
Chaotic and disordered.
A massive kaleidoscope called the city.
Without bothering to pull back the curtains, the scene etched naturally in his mind, Jin sat up.
He groped along the wall until he reached the bathroom.
True to the cheap unmanned motel, mold clung everywhere. Under the flickering fluorescent light overhead, Jin roughly splashed water on his face.
After a barrage of slaps that would make Poseidon weep, he looked up at the mirror. A decently handsome guy in his early-to-mid twenties stared back with bloodshot eyes.
Today's the start of year two living in Downtown for one Jin.
"...I'm dying."
He'd barely slept all night.
Not nightmares, but the fever and body aches that came with his wrecked body healing.
Jin felt his right shoulder blade, right at the wingbone.
The spot where he'd taken a bullet yesterday.
But it was smooth as a lie.
Huh, all healed.
Jin nodded nonchalantly.
What an insanely oblivious attitude.
The bullet that tore into his shoulder was a 9x19mm hollow point—HP for short—with a cratered nose that sacrificed penetration for max kinetic energy on impact.
In other words, it didn't punch through. It shredded.
Jin had torn his infraspinatus and most of his rotator cuff.
Against human targets, most folks would go into shock or combat-ineffective.
Yet Jin kept fighting and fully recovered overnight. Calling his body beyond common sense wasn't exaggeration.
Of course, Jin didn't dwell on it.
The type of bullet that wrecked his shoulder yesterday? Whatever.
The last year for Jin had been a desperate struggle to survive. He trusted body-learned experience over book smarts.
Like how a normal blade wouldn't sever fingers barehanded.
Rules he'd internalized through blood, sweat, and tears.
And stacking those rules let him grow into a fighter who could handle five armed thugs without breaking a sweat.
Still a dayfly life, though.
"Hoo."
Jin sighed, his mood sinking a bit as he averted his hollow eyes from his reflection.
Or tried to.
If not for the translucent window popping up in the mirror.
Jin's face darkened sharply.
More than when he'd taken the bullet yesterday. More than pulling the trigger on the fallen men.
Not because he'd miscounted the day.
Bam!
His fist smashed the mirror without a second thought. Blood seeped between the thousands of shards, and his reflection in the broken glass twisted in rage.
"You fucking bastard..."
Jin snarled at the new quest window after a full year.
Congratulations? You toss a guy in the sewer and congratulate him?
I'll congratulate myself. Me, not you.
And that was yesterday.
Hard to hold back the anger.
For a man robbed of his entire 30-year life, a "congrats" from what might be the culprit—the status window—was worse than any insult.
Another emotion blazed up like wildfire.
One day, he'd smash that boxy monster to pieces.
A burning thirst for revenge.
So Jin vowed.
I'll take everything you give right now.
But the end...
The rush from the massive XP. The thrill spreading through his body. Jin clenched his bloody fist tight.
Area 47.
Downtown, hotbed of lawlessness and crime.
Even in streets rife with crime and violence,
a few safe zones existed.
One was the 24-hour diner 'Rum Pump Pump'.
Reason? Their burgers were insanely good, so the street folk agreed no fights around it—lest a stray bullet take out the owner.
Unfortunately, Jin had never tasted those legendary burgers.
Not for lack of cash. They just stopped selling them.
The owner who made those killer burgers died suddenly of a heart attack, protection be damned.
Apparently from rejection of a new implant. Not important.
Rum Pump Pump plummeted from Downtown gem to a dump slinging cheap slop overnight.
Yet the peace pact held weirdly firm. Even with the awful food, folks kept coming. A bizarre spot was born.
And here.
Jin, filling his morning belly at Rum Pump Pump.
Second-floor table in the far right corner by the window.
His favorite spot, next to ancient speakers over 20 years old.
Jin hummed along to some nameless retro tune leaking through the worn fabric grill, spearing a meatball with his fork.
Today's special: meatball spaghetti.
Lumps of artificial meat globbed roundish, dumped on half-assed noodles. Tasted like crap, naturally.
But it filled the gut. Better than starving by a hundred—no, a thousand, a million times.
Jin remembered hunger's agony.
First week dropped in this alien world.
Not the external violence, not the bone-chilling night streets. It was the primal scream from his empty stomach.
All day. Gnawing at his sanity bit by bit.
Turning man to beast in the end.
Just thinking back chilled his spine.
Made the meatballs taste like gourmet.
So Jin polished off the plate in no time.
With his belly full, the foul mood from the status window all morning eased.
Dahui, turns out you weren't stress-eating for nothing at the company. I get it now. But chowing down on another guy's sausage? That was too far. For real.
Recalling his cheating ex from another world now, Jin chugged the cola he'd ordered with the spaghetti.
As he cleared the sticky aftertaste and belched—
"...Got a minute?"
A gravelly voice. Jin turned.
Under the dim light, a guy in a deep hood stared this way.
Not surprised. He'd spotted him lurking earlier.
Skinny build. Bowlegs.
Weight shifted right.
If trouble, kick the left ankle first.
Jin sized him up mentally and replied.
"You here for me?"
"Yeah."
Jin's eyes narrowed slightly.
Didn't seem like he was picking a fight, all fidgety.
Plus, this was Rum Pump Pump.
"Sit first."
The guy took the seat opposite at Jin's nod. Fumbled awkwardly.
"Uh, hi. Nice to meet you. I'm..."
"Hold up. Before that."
Jin cut him off.
"Not eating that?"
"...Huh? Oh, this?"
The guy lifted the bag in his hand. A waffle peeked out. Jin's gaze locked on, following as the hand moved aside slowly.
"...Want it?"
"Thanks."
Jin snatched the bag quick.
Shoved a big bite of waffle in before more words, questioning with puffed cheeks as he chewed.
"So, what's the deal?"
"Want to hire you for a job."
"Hm?"
Jin tilted his head.
Misheard?
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"..."
"Saw you fight at the pub yesterday. You're a Solo, right?"
The guy asked back.
Back home, it'd be rude.
You're a Solo? No way a guy like you has a girl.
But Lost City was different.
Solo.
A badge of recognition for somewhat-known fighters.
Those whose strength was acknowledged,
who took jobs to build rep and value. Mercs or bounty hunters, basically.
Of course, Jin wasn't one.
Just a dayfly scraping by on daily brawls in a street where trouble found him standing still.
That dayfly thought.
Solo's no big deal?
Take a job, you're a Solo.
So he nodded.
"Yeah. Pretty much."
"...Huh?"
"Yup. Solo."
Jin said, taking a big chomp of the soggy waffle.
Downtown life hit year two today.
Scraped by a year homeless. Now a job chance.
As a Solo, he could eat three squares.
Way better than stripping beaten foes' undies for cash.
Jin reached that conclusion.
His waffle-chewing face brighter with hope than usual,
he grinned at the potential first client.
"One thing upfront: cash only."