The Let's Play Archive

Neuromancer

by fourhorns

Part 11




My apologies for the slight delay on updating, there was a problem in cyberspace zone three, turns out Con didn't have enough stamina to win any fights, so I had to find a way to get money and buy his bodyparts back. Turns out that you get paid for another week at Hosaka if you let that amount of time pass in game. Even in Vice's warpmode this takes hours...

Anyway, where were we! Con had just kicked some AI arse in zone 0 and was getting ready to snoop around zones one and two.

First thing we do is start messing about in zone one. In the Citizens for a Free Matrix base we find this jolly fellow:


I didn't figure the CFM were the kind of people who could afford an AI.



Hitting him with his weakness.


Oh, dear. That can't be good news.


Here's our shiny shiny reward for beating him.


CFM was a honeypot, makes sense.


Looks like Neuromancer and Greystoke aren't the best of friends!


Having beat his third AI, Con's combat skills are now all level 4. Every time you beat an AI, they get better, so the AIs need to be beat in a special order for you to progress. ICE breaking also increases as you go along the zones in cyberspace.


With these skills we can take on Hal and see what he's hiding inside his base.


Turns out he was too disturbed to keep any messages in his buffer, but he's hiding away some decent software.

EASTER EGG TIME START


I thought I have Con walk around and dig up info on this Neuromancer fellow, but it turns out there's just a small easter egg instead.





EASTER EGG TIME END START

Con goes messing in zone 2, which has Musabori Industries, Fuji and Hosaka. Hosaka had some nice warez Fuji was empty and boring, and Musabori's ICE was much too hard. He also wandered into Sense/Net and jacked in, but the ICE was really though. So... there aren't any plugs to get to zone 3, so Con needs to scrape his cash together and take a trip.


This is the busy Chiba City Spaceport. Two JAL shuttles are waiting on the launch pads. A ticket agent with a glued-on smile is waiting for you.


Freeside sounds good, we'll go there.


I'll spare you stewardesses speech, it's pretty funny but


Freeside Spacedock. A JAL shuttle is waiting in the docking bay. A ticket agent who looks like a clone of the Chiba ticket agent is waiting for you.



Once here, Con starts exploring and looking for a jack to zone three.



This is the Villa Straylight, home to the Tessier-Ashpool clan. A platinum bust of a human head sits on a pedestal, its cool ruby eyes staring at you with quiet menace. It speaks to you in a melodious voice generated from tiny organ pipes.

"In this room lies Death, my friend. This is the road to the land of the dead. Marie France, my lady, prepared this road, but her lord choked her off before I could read the book of her days. Stay and become a ghost, a thing of shadow in the land of the dead. Keep me company. Become a sphere of singing black in the extended crystal nerves of the universe of data, your conciousness divided like beads of mercury. Question authority, my friend, and date to remain in the shadowlands forever...."


That's... beautiful. But I'm getting the heck out of there. That's Con's stamina you see to the lower left, it automatically switches over when you enter this room and as long as you stay in here it drops, until you die.


The Bank of Berne, this looks promising.


You are outside Bank Gemeinshaft. A sign on the wall read, "WARNING. SECURED AREA. Unauthorized entry punishable by termination.

We can enter the vault, but we get terminated unless we give it a code, and we don't have one. What fun can a cowboy do in a bank vault anyway?


The Bank of Berne lobby. A secretary with a voice like a foghorn guards the entrance to the Manager's office. She snorts and frowns at you as if you're a speck of dirt that just blew in the door.


I promise that's why we are here.



We'll get closer, let her get a good look at that awesome hairdoo of ours.



That's it? She's just leaving us here?


The bank Manager's office. The Manager isn't here right now and the thick dust would seem to indicate that he hasn't been here for a long time. There is a cyberspace jack on one wall.

Never leave a cowboy with loose morals alone in your lobby!

Con jacks in and find himself in zone three, just where he wanted to be. Messing about in the zone, he discoveres the Bank of Berne, the Free Sex Union, the Turing registry, a place called Screaming Fist, and the Defense Advanced research Projects.


The Free Sex Union has a female AI with better manners than the ones we've met before, she introduces herself!


Sorry babe, but you might have information we want. We're gonna have to waste you.



Take that, you perv.


Woah, 8 bit eurotica!

Inside we find some personals and a Xaviera's advice coloumn. But most importantly, her AI message buffer.


Greystoke is starting to look like a bad guy here.


And Neuromancer is starting to look as if he likes having Cowboys around... we'll have to investigate this further.


Screaming fist has the software we've been lusting for, Easy Rider 1.0. We also get Armorall, which lets us replenish our sheilds in ICE combat.


The Defense Advanced Research Projects has a lot of information, none of which is worth posting.


This is the interesting base.


Score! Greystoke and Neuromancer are AIs! Con had a suspicion, but now it's confirmed.


Chrome appeared to be working on something before we wasted him.



Ooo... AI killing software? Neato!



Oooo, boy. We'll have to go visit that AI again, but not until our skills are up to date.


Last AI in this zone is Gold at the Bank of Berne.




Gold, you're dust. Gold dust. Virtual gold dust.


Probe 10, looks useful.





Oh yes... OH YES


OH YES! We just stole half a mill from the Bank of Berne reserve account! We can buy anything we want!


But more importantly, Gold's message buffer. Greystoke approves of killing cowboys, I'm starting to dislike that pesky little bugger.


And Neuromancer seems to approve of them.


Let's end this update on a happy note! Con's filthy stinking rich!

Next: More AIs bite the dust!