Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 705, Floor 94 (7)

Beyond the deathly stillness of the Frozen Tundra and the raging chaos of the Lava Hell, the Neon City is one of the most bustling and eerie areas of the 94th floor. This area resembles a high-tech metropolis from a futuristic world, with skyscrapers rising one after another, piercing the clouds. The streets are bustling with traffic and pedestrians, and neon lights flash incessantly, illuminating the entire city in vibrant colors. The air is thick with the aura of technology and the clamor of prosperity. The temperature here is pleasant, and the environment comfortable, a stark contrast to the other areas of the 94th floor. But behind this prosperity lies endless disguise and conspiracy. Every corner may harbor danger, and every seemingly ordinary passerby could be an enemy in disguise.

The neon-lit metropolis has a remarkably regular topography, with streets crisscrossing like a vast network, dividing the city into multiple zones, each with its own unique function, such as commercial areas, residential areas, industrial areas, technology parks, and government office areas. The commercial areas are filled with towering buildings, shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants, and bars, flashing neon lights, and bustling crowds, seemingly prosperous and lively. However, in reality, every mall and restaurant here could be a secret enemy stronghold, and every employee and customer could be an enemy in disguise. The residential areas are relatively quiet, housing many seemingly ordinary residents in high-rise buildings. But most of these residents are in disguise, secretly monitoring the city's every move.

The industrial zone and science park are the core areas, filled with high-tech factories and experimental bases. The factories continuously produce various high-tech weapons and equipment, while the experimental bases conduct all sorts of bizarre experiments, such as cognitive modification, genetic engineering, and energy fusion. These areas are heavily guarded, riddled with surveillance cameras and fortifications, making it impossible for ordinary people to approach. The government office area is the ruling center of the entire Neon City, where a massive skyscraper called the "Neon Tower" stands.

The enemies in the Neon City area are quite different from those in other areas of the 94th floor. They are mostly high-tech enemies, skilled at using advanced equipment and stealth to attack. Their camouflage abilities are extremely strong, making them very difficult to identify. The main enemies in this area are "Urban Guardians" and "Stealth Agents." Both types of enemies are highly trained high-tech soldiers equipped with the most advanced high-tech equipment. They can move freely in the bustling city and also exert extremely strong combat capabilities.

The City Guardians are the main defensive force of the Neon City. They wear black, form-fitting armor equipped with advanced protective systems and monitoring equipment. Their heads are clad in black helmets with transparent visors displaying various data and information. They wield advanced energy weapons, including rifles and machine guns, equipped with stabilizers and large energy cores, allowing for sustained firepower to suppress the enemy. Their precision firearms are equipped with aiming aids and lock-on sequences for accurate long-range attacks. The City Guardians possess extremely strong defensive capabilities; their armor resists physical, elemental, and energy attacks, with an absurdly high resistance to energy attacks, almost to the point of immunity. Furthermore, the armor's protective system automatically repairs damage, maintaining optimal condition as long as energy is sufficient. Offensively, the City Guardians' attacks are silent and difficult to detect. In addition, some city guards are equipped with small mechs. Upon encountering a powerful enemy, they will summon these mechs and engage in combat. These mechs are equipped with more powerful weapons and defensive systems, capable of releasing energy shields, laser beams, and missiles, further increasing the difficulty of the battle. City guards are mostly stationed at street intersections, rooftops of skyscrapers, and entrances to industrial and technology parks. They will not attack players proactively, but will immediately attack if a player enters their warning range or exhibits abnormal behavior. They will also quickly notify nearby guards for coordinated operations, forming a tight defensive system. Although they are considered neutral units, some missions in this area require entering their guarded restricted areas to complete.

Stealth agents are the main hunting force in the Neon City. They wear specialized stealth combat suits, allowing them to blend almost completely into their environment, achieving invisibility. Armed with a sharp laser dagger and equipped with various tactical gadgets, they excel in stealth and assassination. Stealth agents possess exceptional camouflage abilities, capable of disguising themselves as ordinary passersby, shop assistants, customers, or residents, blending into crowds to silently approach the player before launching a sudden attack. They tear through the player's defenses with their laser daggers, inflicting massive damage. Simultaneously, they can deploy various high-tech gadgets to interfere with the player's movements, blinding them temporarily, rendering them temporarily unable to fight, and disrupting some of the player's equipment, preventing the normal use of certain skills. Stealth agents typically operate alone. They are extremely fast, have agile reflexes, and possess exceptional stealth capabilities, making them difficult to detect. Furthermore, they are highly intelligent, utilizing the urban environment to set various traps to lure players in before launching a fatal attack. Furthermore, stealth agents can hack into urban surveillance cameras and fortifications, infiltrate enemy secret bases and experimental sites to gather intelligence, and also sabotage enemy equipment and experiments, creating favorable conditions for the player. It's worth noting that these stealth agents are actually a special type of friendly unit; specific side quests or items are required to unlock the possibility of interacting with them.

Besides these two main enemies, the Neon City also has some scattered high-level enemies, such as "Advanced Researchers" and "Commanders." Advanced Researchers can control mechanical golems equipped with advanced weapons and defense systems, allowing them to fight in their place and further increasing the difficulty of combat. They can also utilize a large number of intelligent devices, sentries, and weapons, and may even use surrounding large-scale equipment for attacks. They are considered neutral units and can be encountered without special missions, but obtaining their assistance requires completing some side quests they offer or finding certain key items. Mech Commanders are the leaders of these high-tech enemies. They pilot silver medium or large mechs, which are more powerful than those of ordinary city guards, equipped with more advanced weapons and defense systems, such as large laser cannons, missile launchers, and energy shield generators, emitting powerful energy fluctuations. Commanders can command city guards to cooperate in combat, forming an unbeatable combat system. Their own combat power is also extremely strong, capable of releasing powerful laser beams and missile rain, causing massive damage to players within range, and can also release energy shields to defend against player attacks. These commanders piloting powerful mechs are mostly stationed on the top floor of the Neon Building and rarely take action themselves. However, once a player enters the core area of ​​the Neon Building, is spotted nearby, or poses a significant threat or damage to the Neon Building itself, they will personally take action and launch a frenzied attack on the player until the player is completely eliminated. This will also give the player a 'wanted' negative effect, which can only be removed by eliminating the commander who issued the wanted order or leaving the Neon City area.

In the neon-lit metropolis, besides formidable enemies, there are also neutral and friendly units. Their presence adds a touch of realism to this bustling city. Neutral units mainly consist of "city merchants" and "ordinary citizens." City merchants are a group of business owners operating various businesses throughout the city. Some run shopping malls and supermarkets, others restaurants and bars, and still others weapon and equipment shops and item stores. Players can purchase various resources from them using digital assets, energy batteries, weapons, and intelligence obtained within the city. Their prices are relatively reasonable, and they are more honest and trustworthy than the merchants in the Frozen Tundra and Lava Inferno regions. Ordinary citizens are ordinary people leading ordinary lives—going to work, coming home, shopping, and enjoying entertainment. They won't actively attack the player or seek help, but if the player harms them, it will trigger the city guards' alert, attracting a large number of enemies to attack. Furthermore, some ordinary citizens will provide the player with useful information, such as enemy camouflage techniques, the location of secret outposts, and the entrance to experimental bases, but this requires a certain level of affinity. They are considered standard friendly units.

Most regional events in Neon City are related to high technology and urban life, with no natural disasters, only special events that trigger randomly and have a significant impact on the player's exploration and combat. The most common regional event is "Martial Law," an extremely dangerous event. Whenever this event is triggered, all streets in Neon City are sealed off, the number of city guards increases dramatically, the surveillance system, which was not fully activated before, is fully operational, and city guards patrol the entire city, searching for the player's whereabouts. At this time, the player will be closely monitored by enemies no matter where they are. Once discovered, if someone has witnessed the player violating the city's laws beforehand, they will be besieged by a large number of enemies, and all transportation and communication in the city will be cut off. The player cannot move normally or contact the outside world. To survive, they must find a hidden place to hide, choose to surrender and spend time in prison, or try to escape from prison.

In addition to a city-wide curfew, the Neon City area also experiences several unique regional events, such as "Technology Explosions." These are extremely dangerous events, mostly occurring in industrial zones and technology parks. Due to failed experiments or equipment malfunctions, high-tech factories and experimental bases explode, generating massive shockwaves and energy radiation that inflict enormous damage on players within the affected area. They also trigger chain reactions such as fires and power outages, plunging the entire city into chaos. Furthermore, the explosions release large amounts of mechanical debris and experimental waste, which can harm players. Additionally, numerous unaffiliated mechanical sentinels appear after the explosions, indiscriminately attacking any unit that approaches, including players.

Unlike most areas, Neon City has no main quests. This isn't because it was designed that way; it's because Neon City is a disconnected node in the '94th Floor' questline. Strictly speaking, Neon City does have main quests, but they suffer from a serious problem. Due to some unknown system issue, none of the important NPCs and items for the quests can be found within Neon City. They're not only not in the city, but they might not even be in other areas of the questline. Some of these NPCs and required items are currently located even outside the '94th Floor' questline, such as in areas with large plazas where lower-level players reside. Currently, there's a necessary NPC for the Neon City main quest there.

The area where Neon City is located is also quite unique. In fact, Neon City is divided into two parts. Strangely, the lower city is a floating city in the sky, while the upper city is located 5 kilometers underground in the ice field and swamp area. The two cities are connected by a special teleportation channel, and the upper city cannot be reached by conventional means except through the teleportation channel. To reach the upper city, there are three ways: either complete a quest, find a key NPC and obtain the secret entrance to the upper city through a side quest, or rely on the player's own special ability to dig a tunnel. Moreover, the digging location must be either the ice field or the swamp area; digging across the relatively easy boundary line in the middle is impossible.

What's even more peculiar is that all the units and environments described so far only exist in the Lower City. The Upper City, located underground, remains shrouded in mystery, and everything about its interior is currently unknown. Due to the absence of many key NPCs and items in Neon City, theoretically, the Upper City should have little to no connection with players currently on the questline or in the vicinity. But things can always be different.

A powerful three-person team initially avoided other players, adopting a strategy of exploration, confirmation, and final action. Unlike other mid-to-high-level players, they initially respawned in the area where high-level and top-tier players respawned. They quickly assessed the situation and found a way to leave that area.

Now, they have arrived at the area where the '94th Floor' questline is located. Since they did not encounter the Ferdinand family, they are the only player team that has received the real '94th Floor' questline. And their respawn location is right at the entrance to the upper city of Neon City, at the end of a hidden underground waterway.