Part 4: Chapter IV: Neuromancer

IV: Neuromancer

Fuck. Alright, so after our MCPC fried out, I had to go back to Redmond Barrens to grind out some more nuyen to fix the damn thing. I kept almost getting wrecked on the missions by random thugs, so before I get my piece fixed, I'm going to buy a better gun. You can actually buy the best pistol in the game for only 500 Nuyen at Ares Weapon Emporium.







We also buy a Silencer, so that if we have to do any Corp runs then we don't have to worry about it. Our next two purchases are going to be some Cyberware (a Smartlink System) and then we're upgrading the gun with a Smartlink System.

The Warhawk holds less bullets then our previous gun, but it does 2 more damage, and has "brutal power" which is only beat out by a shotgun.



So I've decided to cut our gun's teeth on a Ghoul run, so I go to Gunderson, who offers us absolute Shit, and then we head over to the abandoned warehouse.





You basically walk around until some pop out. This time, we have 4 ghouls (The blue skinned ones) and a vampire (The one wearing a trench coat.)



A cool thing that can happen, is that the Ghouls will drop Nuyen themselves. The maximum amount of Ghouls I can kill in one mission is 20, Gunderson won't pay for anymore then that. So I walk around a bit and keep close to the entrance, to avoid getting trapped, or brutally murdered.



Sometimes in the "low income" areas, you'll get jumped when you try to enter certain buildings. This tends to happen more as you level your reputation.



Anyways, after a small scuffle outside, we enter again and pull up our Attributes screen to level up some of our abilities.



We don't have a lot of points, but I need my reputation at 6 in order to get into clubs free, which in turn means more money from runs. After we're finished here we head to Renraku to upgrade our board.







1) To/from Downtown

2) Renraku Computer System: This is a Corp so we stay the hell away from there, especially since Renraku is the strongest Corp in the game.

3) Weapon's World: This sells a bunch of crap, and even the useful stuff is over-priced

4) Wire-Masters: You can get quite a few implants here, but most of them are cheaper in Puyallup.

5) Merlin's Lore: The only spells that are exclusive here are Mana Blast, Mana Storm and Mana Zap. These are some really good attack spells, and we'll probably be taking whichever mage we hire over here to pick them up.

6) Microtronics: They sell midline decks, and some decent upgrades, but not any programs I'm after. We only stop here to get the cheap stuff.

7) The Frag Grenade It costs 25 Nuyen to enter here, and the only guy you can hire is a semi-shit hacker. We're only here for a new deck and some upgrades.





So we buy a new Deck, the Cyber Shack PCD-500, and a Masking Upgrade, then we head over to Puyallup to visit the Crime Mall, where everything is cheaper, and not made of pure shit.





1) Abandoned Building

2) Tarislar Garden Apartments: You're locked out from entering this place by an elf at the door.

3) Tarislar City Inn: Rest for 30 nuyen

4) Crime Mall: There are two "sections" here, you can either buy the best weapons in the game, or you can buy the best

5) Underground 93: This place is just there for flavor, you hand him some cash, and you get to see... an empty room. There was probably something that was planned to be here, but got cut. Theres a few other places where this is evident.

6) Ares Macrotechnology - This is another Corp, though much much easier to run then Renraku

7) Riannon's Magic Shop: Has a bunch of awesome spells for cheap, that are crazy illegal. This is a good place to get your shaman / mage kitted out for corp work.

8) The Wanderer: You can Meet the Johnson Vigore here, who will sell you a contact named Max, and he does some mid level work. It involves getting ferried all around the city though, so he's kind of shit with out a special item you can buy from the orks

9) Dr. Bob's Quickstitch Clinic: You get good Cyberwork done on the cheap.

10) Abandoned Building

11) Orc Gang Hideout - Here you can buy two contacts, and also a rag that gets you free Taxi rides.

12) Abandoned Building







At the Crime Mall, I upgrade from Deception level 2 to Deception level 3. With my deck all tricked out I head back to Downtown Seattle, to try and hack our way into a Datastore.

In the matrix, I finally reach a DS node, and try to slink my way in to steal some data.



SUCCESS!



Now I just transfer Data into my board until I can't fit anymore (right now my onboard memory is pretty small, I can't hold more then 1 or two files,)



I download that data to my board, and get out of there before I get kicked out. I don't want to replace my MCPC again.





Oh for fucks sake. Sometimes the files you download are completely worthless, it happens. So we go back into the matrix and keep trying until we get something decent.



On my way to another Node I ran into some Attack Ice, this thing set the whole place into active alert, and then started slinging fireballs at me. Sadly, I didn't win this fight, I still need to slap more money into my deck. I try for a third time and...





Alright! We got into a CPU which is perfect, this allows to teleport to any other Node in the system, Now we can always head back here to turn off any alerts. We can also Crash the System, which while does nothing here, in a Corp you can use it to unlock ALL the doors, and turn off every camera. It's a good, "Reset everything I fucked up." button.



Everything normally isn't connected to the CPU like this, but I'm not really complaining.



Now, this is more like it, this is really one of the cheaper files, but it's worth the effort. The matrix is really the only fast way to make money. I'll keep you guys updated as I do more Matrix runs for better gear, and my next update I'll be headed to the Penumbra District to buy a Body Guard.