Neuromancer: Urban Node Zero

In 2077, in Xinhai City.

Hovercars weave a dazzling web of light a hundred meters above the ground. Holographic billboards turn the glass facades of skyscrapers into giant screens, playing ads for genetic enhancement drugs and military-grade prosthetics. Beneath the neon lights at street level, wastewater streams along corroded pipes, mingling with the glow of holographic projections to create a bizarre, surreal scene.

Lin Mo huddles in a corner booth at the Rusty Nail Bar, a cheap synthetic cigarette pinched between his fingers. Through the haze of smoke, the lens of his left cybernetic eye flashes an intensely bright red.

“Warning: Retinal projection module failure. Data transmission delayed by 0.8 seconds.”

A cold mechanical voice sounds inside his ear. Lin Mo frowns and presses the temple beside his left eye. The cybernetic eye is a “souvenir” from a black-market brawl three years ago. He lost his left eye when gangsters beat him up for trying to save a girl he didn’t even know. A black-market doctor later saved his life and fitted him with this obsolete military-grade model.