This post is for 'complete newbies' who are new to Project Neo.
0.Introduction.
Before explaining the growth guide for each life path, I'll briefly touch on the background of Project Neo. For those who say, "I'm not interested in the story," feel free to skip directly to the growth guide.
...(omitted)...
3.Growth Guide
Here's the main growth guide.
In Project Neo, there are three main life paths, and playable characters can acquire corresponding benefits.
I'll omit the stories related to each life path as they were mentioned earlier, and many aspects will naturally be learned while playing the game.
3-1. Corporation
25% increase in cyberware compatibility
Recommended starting perk: Insight (eye-shaped constellation)
Recommended trait: Blue Blood
...(omitted)...
3-2. Family
Mana circuit provided
Recommended starting perk: Steadfastness (heart-shaped constellation)
Recommended trait: Unparalleled
...(omitted)...
3-3. Nomad
30% increase in health
Recommended starting perk: Fast Recovery (fist-shaped constellation)
Recommended trait: Irregular
Starting with these three for a Nomad is practically like being a zombie in the early stages. What even is a potion?
You can take hits from the beginning, and you're REALLY.REALLY.TOUGH.
Is this advantage limited to just the early game?
Not at all. The character is so robust that the overall game becomes more comfortable.
That's why it's the most recommended build for newbies.
Moreover, the late-game potential is also incredible, as Irregular has......
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Jin opened his eyes.
His whole body was drenched in sweat, making him feel uncomfortable.
Brushing aside the bangs sticking to his forehead, he saw faint fluorescent light streaming into the room through the gaps in the blackout curtains.
Orange, yellow, red, teal, blue.
The neon lights teasing the streets.
Chaotic and disorderly.
A giant kaleidoscope named city.
Without even having to draw back the curtains, the scene naturally formed in his mind as Jin got up.
Groping along the wall with his hand, he reached the bathroom.
In that mold-infested place befitting a cheap unmanned motel,
Jin roughly splashed water on his face under the weakly flickering fluorescent light.
After finishing the Poseidon-worthy face-slapping water baptism, he looked up at the mirror to see a moderately handsome man in his early to mid-20s with bloodshot eyes staring back.
This would be Jin, entering his second year of downtown living today.
"...I'm dying here."
He had been up all night.
Not because of nightmares, but due to the fever and body aches accompanying the recovery process of his battered body.
Jin felt around his right shoulder blade, precisely the area around the scapula.
The spot where he had been shot the day before.
But it was smooth as if nothing had happened.
Hmm, it's healed.
Jin nodded nonchalantly.
This attitude was remarkably indifferent.
The bullet that had pierced Jin's shoulder was a 9x19mm hollow point (HP), with the front of the bullet hollowed out like a crater, reducing penetration but maximizing the kinetic energy delivered to the impact point.
In other words, when hit, it doesn't penetrate but shatters.
In reality, Jin had suffered an injury where most of his rotator cuff, led by the subscapularis muscle, was ruptured.
Known for its man-stopping power, in such situations, most people would die from shock or become incapacitated.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Yet Jin not only continued fighting in that state but also completed his recovery overnight, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that his body had stepped beyond the boundaries of common sense.
Of course, Jin didn't think deeply about it.
The type of bullet that had shattered his shoulder the day before? Who cares.
For Jin, the past year had been a desperate struggle for survival. He trusted the experience learned through his body rather than systematized knowledge or written words.
For example, rules like ordinary blades won't cut your fingers if you grasp them barehanded.
These were his own rules, internalized through blood, sweat, and tears.
And as a result of accumulating such rules,
Jin was able to grow into a fighter who could easily take down five armed thugs without much difficulty.
Even if it meant living a day-to-day existence.
"Sigh."
Jin, feeling a bit depressed, sighed as he turned his gaze away from his haggard reflection in the mirror.
Or at least, he tried to.
If it weren't for the translucent window that appeared in the mirror, he surely would have.
(Complete!)「Adaptation」────────────
Congratulations.
You have survived for 1 year in the back-alley world.
Reward: Perk XP 1,000
──────────────────
Jin's face darkened rapidly.
More than when he was shot the day before, more than when he pulled the trigger on the heads of those who had fallen.
This wasn't because he had miscalculated the date by one day.
Bang!
The fist he swung without thinking shattered the mirror into pieces. As blood seeped between thousands of glass shards, the face reflected in the half-broken mirror was now contorted with anger.
"You bastard..."
Jin growled at the new quest window that had appeared after a year.
Congratulations? Throw someone into the gutter and then congratulate them?
If there's any congratulating to be done, I'll do it myself. Not you, but me.
And that congratulation ended yesterday.
It was hard to contain his anger.
To a man who had his entire 30 years of life stolen, the congratulations from the status window, which might be the root of all evil, was more terrible than any insult in the world.
Another emotion flared up like wildfire.
That someday he would smash that square monster to pieces.
A burning desire for revenge.
So Jin made a vow.
I'll take everything you give me right now.
But the end...
Feeling the exhilaration provided by the large amount of XP, and the thrill spreading throughout his body because of it, Jin tightly clenched his bleeding fist.
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Area 47.
Known as Downtown, it's a hotbed of lawlessness and illegality.
Thus, it's a street rife with crime and violence,
but even in such a street, there were a few safe zones,
and a 24-hour restaurant called 'RumPumPumPum' was one of them.
The reason being, the hamburgers sold here were so delicious that the street folks, worried that the owner might get hit by a stray bullet and die, agreed to avoid fighting around the store.
Unfortunately, Jin had never even seen those famous hamburgers.
Not because he didn't have money, but because they were no longer sold.
The owner who made those incredibly delicious hamburgers had reportedly died of sudden cardiac arrest, despite the protection.
The cause was said to be a rejection reaction from a newly implanted implant, but that's not important.
As a result, RumPumPumPum seemed to be on a downward spiral, changing overnight from one of Downtown's few delicious restaurants to just another ordinary outlet dealing in all sorts of cheap food, maintaining only its name.
Interestingly, even after this series of events, the agreed-upon peace was somehow maintained, resulting in the birth of a peculiar store where people's footsteps never ceased despite the terribly tasteless food.
And here.
Jin was having his morning meal at RumPumPumPum.
The far-right corner table on the second floor with a view of the outside.
Next to an old-looking speaker that seemed to be over 20 years old, it was Jin's favorite spot.
Jin hummed along to the nameless retro-style song coming through the worn fabric grille as he forked a meatball and brought it to his mouth.
Today's menu was meatball spaghetti.
It looked like artificial meat roughly rolled into balls, casually thrown onto hastily boiled noodles. The taste was, of course, terrible.
But the important thing is that he could have a meal.
It's a hundred, a thousand, no, ten thousand times better than starving.
Jin remembered the pain of hunger.
The first week after falling into this strange world.
What tormented Jin the most wasn't the various forms of violence inflicted from the outside, nor the cold of the night streets that penetrated to the bone, but the primal scream coming from his empty stomach.
All day long. Gnawing away at his reason.
A scream that ultimately turns a person into a beast.
Just thinking about it sends chills down his spine.
It's hard for the meatballs to taste any worse than that.
And so, Jin emptied his plate in an instant.
As his stomach filled, his mood, which had been sour all day because of the status window, gradually improved.
Daphne, you weren't just stress-eating from work for no reason. I understand now. But eating another man's pepper was too much. Really.
Jin, now a person from a different world, gulped down the cola he had ordered with the spaghetti as he recalled his cheating ex-girlfriend.
Then, as he was burping to clear his stuffy mouth,
"......Can you spare some time?"
A voice without much strength. Jin turned his head.
Under the dim light, a man with his hood pulled low was looking this way.
The reason he wasn't particularly surprised was that he had noticed the man lurking around for quite some time.
Thin build. Standing on one leg.
Center of gravity shifted to the right.
If necessary, aim for the left ankle first.
Jin, who had inwardly assessed the situation, replied.
"Do you have business with me?"
"Yes."
Jin's eyes narrowed slightly.
The man's hesitation didn't seem like he was here to pick a fight.
Besides, this is RumPumPumPum.
"Sit down for now."
At Jin's gesture, the man took a seat opposite him.
Then, with an awkward expression, he stammered.
"Um, hello. Nice to meet you. I'm..."
"Wait a moment. Before that."
Jin cut off the man's words.
"Are you not going to eat that?"
"......? Ah, this?"
The man slightly lifted the wrapper in his hand.
Jin's gaze fixed on the waffle slightly protruding from the outside.
Continuing to follow the man's hand as it slowly moved to the side.
"...Do you want it?"
"Thanks."
Jin quickly snatched the wrapper.
Then, before anything else could be said, he stuffed the waffle into his mouth and asked with puffed cheeks.
"So what's your business?"
"I want to give you a request."
"Hm?"
Jin tilted his head.
Did he hear wrong?
"To me?"
"That's right."
"......."
"I saw you fighting at the pub yesterday. You're a Solo, right?"
The man asked like that.
In Jin's hometown, it might have been considered rude.
You're a Solo, right?
With that personality and face, there's no way you have a partner.
But in Lost City, it's different.
Solo
It was a kind of passing necklace given to fighters whose names were somewhat known.
Those who have their personal strength recognized,
Raising their value by handling numerous requests.
In other words, mercenaries, or bounty hunters.
Of course, Jin wasn't one.
Jin was just a day-to-day survivor in this damn street where trouble finds you even if you're just standing still, scraping by with money earned from daily fights.
That day-to-day survivor thought.
Is being a Solo anything special?
If I take requests, I'm a Solo.
So he nodded.
"Well. Seems like it."
"...Huh?"
"That's right. Solo."
Jin said as he took a big bite of the damp waffle.
Come to think of it, today marks the second year of downtown living.
After surviving for a year without a home or a temple, now.
Finally, an opportunity to take on a request has come.
If I work as a Solo, I should at least be able to eat three meals a day.
It's much better to receive request fees than to search the pants of the guys I beat up.
This was the conclusion Jin had reached.
That's why his face, munching on the waffle, was more hopeful than usual,
He smiled at the man who might become his first client and said.
"I'll tell you in advance, I only accept cash."