ACT 01 — NEON & DEBT
merx
30 days. One city. Don't lose everything.
ACT 01 — NEON & DEBT
30 days. One city. Don't lose everything.
The job disappeared the way jobs do now — not fired, just phased. The severance covered two months. The debt covered the rest.
They didn't leave the city. Leaving looked too much like losing. So they found another way to work it — six districts, thirty days, and a debt that doesn't wait for them to get ready. Not because they're desperate. Because someone decided they were finished, and they haven't forgiven that yet.
Act 01
You start $5,500 in debt and $2,000 short of covering it. Thirty days to close the gap. Six districts, each running their own markets on their own logic — what's cheap in The Rust doesn't stay cheap in Apex, and the window to move on it is smaller than you think.
Every trade costs time. Every district costs attention. Heat accumulates when you're sloppy — too many moves in one place, too little caution — and high heat means worse prices, harder exits, fewer options. Intel can tell you where the market's moving before it moves, but it runs on cash you may not have. You manage the math. The clock doesn't wait. It never has.
The Game
merx is a near-future trading game. You inherit $5,500 owed, $2,000 in hand, and 30 days to make it work. The mechanic is simple: buy low in one district, move it, sell high in another. The pressure is not.
The city runs on synthetic commodities — no labels, no provenance, no questions. Prices shift with supply, demand, and whatever's happening in that district today. Heat is the surveillance system's patience wearing thin: stay too visible for too long and the market closes around you. The near-future backdrop is set dressing. The debt is the game.
The City
Every district runs its own market. Prices differ, movement matters, and thirty days is not enough time to know all six.
Premium product, premium risk tolerance
Apex
Clean money, clean streets
Arcadia
Everyone moving, nobody watching too hard
Midgrid
Cargo moves fast and questions move slow
Port Nexus
Where the money moves before anyone talks about it
The Core
Everything costs less out here, including your safety
The Rust
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