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 cover Project NEO's background. Those who say "I don't care about story" can skip straight to the growth guide.
...omitted...
3.Growth Guide
Here's the main growth guide.
Project NEO has 3 major life paths, and playable characters can obtain corresponding benefits.
As the stories for each life path were mentioned earlier and many aspects become naturally clear while playing the game, I'll skip those details.
3-1.Corporation
Cyberware compatibility increased by 25%
Recommended Starting Perk: Insight (Eye-shaped constellation)
Recommended Trait: Blue Blood
...omitted...
3-2.Family
Mana Circuit provided
Recommended Starting Perk: Composure (Heart-shaped constellation)
Recommended Trait: Once in an Era
...omitted...
3-3.Nomad
Health increased by 30%
Recommended Starting Perk: Fast Recovery (Fist-shaped constellation)
Recommended Trait: Irregular
"Bro! If you start with those three for Nomad, you're practically a zombie in the early game. Who needs potions? Just take hits from the start. I'm telling you, it's super tough! And it's not just limited to early game either. Since the character is so sturdy, the whole game becomes more comfortable. I'm not recommending this for nothing. Even the late-game potential is good. Because of the Irregular trait's characteristics... Hey, don't hang up! I'm still explain-"
==
Dan opened his eyes.
His whole body was drenched in sweat, making him feel sticky.
Between the blackout curtains he looked at while brushing away his bangs stuck to his forehead, dim fluorescent light was seeping into the room.
Orange, yellow, red, turquoise, blue.
The neon signs' lights teasing the streets.
Chaotic and disorderly.
A massive kaleidoscope called city.
Leaving behind the scenery that naturally formed in his mind without even having to pull back the curtains, Dan got up.
Reaching the bathroom after feeling along the wall.
In that mold-covered place befitting a cheap unmanned motel,
Dan roughly splashed water on his face under the weakly flickering fluorescent light.
After finishing the water-slapping baptism that would make Poseidon weep, he looked up at the mirror, where a decently handsome man in his early to mid-twenties stared back with bloodshot eyes.
This would be Dan, now entering his second year of Downtown life.
"...I'm dying."
He'd been up all night.
Not from nightmares, but from the fever and body aches that accompanied his body's recovery process.
Dan felt around his right shoulder joint, specifically around the shoulder blade.
Where he'd been shot the day before.
But it was smooth as if nothing had happened.
Hmm, healed up.
Dan nodded nonchalantly.
It was an remarkably insensitive attitude.
For good reason - the bullet that had pierced Dan's shoulder was a 9x19mm hollow point (HP), with the front of the bullet hollowed out like a crater, trading penetration for maximized kinetic energy at the point of impact.
In other words, rather than penetrating, it shatters things.
In fact, Dan had suffered injuries including the rupture of most of his rotator cuff, led by the subscapularis muscle.
Given its stopping power, most people would die from shock or become incapacitated in this situation.
Yet Dan not only continued fighting in that state but completed his recovery overnight, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say his body had stepped outside the boundaries of common sense.
Of course, Dan didn't think deeply about it.
The type of bullet that had wrecked his shoulder yesterday? Who cares.
The past year for Dan had been a continuous desperate struggle for survival. Rather than systematized knowledge or written words, he trusted only the experiences learned through his body.
For example, rules like how ordinary blades won't cut your fingers even if grabbed with bare hands.
Rules of his own that were internalized through blood, sweat, and tears.
And as a result of those rules piling up.
Dan was able to grow into a fighter who could take down five armed thugs without much difficulty.
Though that didn't change the fact that his life was still day-to-day.
"Hah."
Dan, feeling a bit depressed, sighed and took his eyes off his hollow-eyed self in the mirror.
Or tried to.
If not for the translucent window that appeared in the mirror, he surely would have.
(Complete!)「Adaptation」────────────
Congratulations.
You have survived one year in the back alley world.
Reward: Perk XP 1,000
──────────────────
Dan's face darkened dramatically.
More than when he was shot yesterday, more than when he pulled the trigger on the fallen men's heads.
This wasn't because he had miscalculated the date by one day.
Bang!
A fist swung without thought shattered the mirror into pieces. As blood seeped between thousands of shards of broken glass, the face reflected in the fractured mirror was now twisted with rage.
"You bastard..."
Dan growled at the new quest window that appeared after a year.
Congratulations? After throwing someone into the gutter, congratulations?
If anyone's congratulating, it should be me. Me, not you.
And those congratulations ended yesterday.
It was hard to contain his anger.
To a man who had his entire 30 years of life stolen, congratulations from the status window, which might be the source of everything, was more horrible than any insult in the world.
Another emotion blazed up like a wildfire.
That someday he would destroy that square-shaped monster.
Burning vengeance.
So Dan made a resolution.
I'll take whatever you give me for now.
But in the end...
Feeling the rush from the large amount of XP and the thrill spreading throughout his body, Dan tightly clenched his bloody fist.
==
Area 47.
Also known as Downtown, it's a hotbed of lawlessness and illegality.
While it's a street rampant with crime and violence,
Even such a street had a few safe zones,
And a 24-hour restaurant called 'RumPumPumPum' was one of them.
The reason being, since the hamburgers they sold here were incredibly delicious, the street folks agreed to avoid fighting around the store, worried that the owner might get hit by a stray bullet.
Unfortunately, Dan never even got to see those famous hamburgers.
Not because he didn't have money, but because they no longer sold them.
The owner who made those incredibly delicious hamburgers died of sudden cardiac arrest, making the protection meaningless.
The cause was reportedly a rejection reaction from a newly implanted implant, but that's not important.
As a result, RumPumPumPum seemed to decline overnight from one of Downtown's few good restaurants to just another ordinary establishment dealing in all sorts of cheap food while maintaining only its name.
Interestingly though, even after these events, the agreed-upon peace was somehow maintained, resulting in the creation of a peculiar store where people kept coming despite the terribly tasteless food today.
And here.
Dan was having his morning meal at RumPumPumPum.
A corner table on the right side of the second floor with a view outside.
Next to an old-model speaker that looked over 20 years old, it was Dan's favorite spot.
Dan hummed along with some unknown retro-style song coming through the worn fabric grille as he brought a meatball stabbed with his fork to his mouth.
Today's menu was meatball spaghetti.
It looked like artificial meat roughly rolled into balls, roughly boiled noodles, and roughly thrown together. The taste was naturally terrible too.
But what's important is that it could fill his stomach.
A hundred, thousand, no, ten thousand times better than starving.
Dan remembered the pain of hunger.
The first week after falling into this strange world.
What tormented Dan most wasn't the various forms of violence inflicted from outside, nor the bone-chilling cold of the night streets, but the primal screams from his empty stomach.
All day long. Gradually gnawing away at reason.
Screams that ultimately turn humans into beasts.
Just thinking about it sent chills down his spine.
Making it impossible for these meatballs to taste any better.
Thus Dan cleared his plate in an instant.
As his stomach filled, his mood that had been ruined all day because of the status window gradually softened.
Sona, you weren't wrong to relieve your work stress with food. I understand now. But going as far as eating another man's pepper was too much. Really.
Dan took big gulps of the cola he'd ordered with the spaghetti, thinking of his cheating ex-girlfriend who had now become someone from another world.
Just as he was about to let out a burp after washing down his mouth.
"...Could you spare some time?"
A weak voice. Dan turned his head.
Under the dim lighting, a man wearing a deeply pulled-down hood was looking this way.
The reason he wasn't particularly surprised was because he'd noticed him lingering around for quite a while.
Thin build. Standing on one leg.
Center of gravity shifted to the right.
If necessary, kick the left ankle first.
After mentally assessing him, Dan answered.
"You have business with me?"
"Yes."
Dan's eyes narrowed slightly.
His hesitant manner didn't seem like he was looking for trouble.
Besides, this is RumPumPumPum.
"Sit down first."
At Dan's gesture, the man took a seat across from him.
Then he stammered with an awkward expression.
"Um, hello. Nice to meet you. I'm..."
"Wait. Before that."
Dan cut off the man's words.
"Are you not going to eat that?"
"...? Ah, this?"
The man slightly lifted the wrapper in his hand.
Dan's gaze fixed on the waffle slightly protruding from the outside.
Following the man's hand as it slowly moved sideways.
"...Want it?"
"Thanks."
Dan quickly snatched the wrapper.
Then before anything else could be said, he stuffed a big bite of waffle in his mouth and asked with puffy cheeks.
"So what's your business?"
"I want to give you a request."
"Hm?"
Dan tilted his head.
Did he hear wrong?
"Me?"
"That's right."
"..."
"I saw you fighting at the pub yesterday. You're a Solo, right?"
The man asked like that.
In Dan's hometown, it would have been considered rude.
You're a Solo, right?
With that personality, there's no way you could have a partner.
But in Lost City, it was different.
Solo
It was a kind of pass given to fighters who had made somewhat of a name for themselves.
Those who had their individual strength recognized,
Who raised their value by handling numerous requests.
In other words, mercenaries, or bounty hunters.
Of course, Dan wasn't one.
Dan was just living day to day with money earned from fighting almost daily in these damn streets where trouble would find you even if you just stood still.
That day-to-day survivor thought.
What's so special about being a Solo?
If I take requests, I'm a Solo.
So he nodded.
"Well. Seems like it."
"...Huh?"
"That's right. Solo."
Dan said while taking a big bite of the damp waffle.
Come to think of it, today marked his second year of Downtown life.
After surviving a year with no home or temple until now.
Finally, an opportunity to take on a request had come.
Working as a Solo would at least let him eat three meals a day.
It's much better to receive request fees than searching through the underwear of people you've beaten up.
That was the conclusion Dan reached.
That's why his face munching on the waffle was more hopeful than usual,
As he smiled at the man who might become his first client and said:
"Just to let you know, I only take cash."