NEONOPOLIS

Neonopolis — XianGang, X.G. — a vast Ultra-Mega-Conurbation of 35 million souls: human and synth, minion and machine. Once the pride of The Red Corporation, the so-called “factory of the world,” Neonopolis rose on the backs of Republibots, programmed servitude, and the pursuit of wealth. But prosperity bred plague: money mindedness, a sickness of the spirit that hollowed out the masses, left them burned out, lost, or worse — victims of Zombie State Syndrome. Now synth patrols scan the streets, the towers watch with unblinking eyes, and the Mass Minion Transport ferries the afflicted to their workstations while the city’s heart flickers in neon and rain.

Outside the towers’ reach, the grey zones rot. Red Corporation agents slip across the Red Line, seeding corruption among Neonopolis’s fragile Management Class. In the labyrinthine grids — KZone, Sector 1456, places the law abandoned — the Moguls of Manipulation rule: slavers, traffickers, and dealers of synthetic flesh and chemical escape, fattening themselves in Puntopia’s dens of vice. Neonopolis staggers beneath its own weight, a dying dream of wealth and control, its neon glow casting long shadows where secrets and despair fester.