After the First Continental War, the world, which was brought to a ceasefire by nuclear weapons, remains divided with tension between the Western/Japanese bloc and the Eurasian Union.
Although the Far Eastern nation of Neo-Japan was spared from the battlefield, it has rapidly reorganized its cities, economy, and society under the guise of post-war reconstruction. While outwardly prospering as a futuristic city, internally, disparities, surveillance, corporate control, and information warfare are progressing.
Under the banner of "Salvation through Technology," the government is promoting the cyborgization project. Cyborg technology has developed as a countermeasure for war wounded, disabled, elderly, and labor shortages, but in reality, the human body has become commodified, with constant suspicions of experiments on the poor and orphans, military applications, and neural data collection.
While cyborgization grants abilities beyond human capabilities, a class society has emerged where the wealthy rely on safe, high-performance cyborg bodies, and the poor are left with shoddy used parts. Illegal modifications, black market medicine, cyborg drugs, and illicit modules have formed an underground market, deepening the conflict between organic humans and cyborgized individuals.
The cyborg industry is dominated by three major corporations.
Kōrei Group is a Eurasian company supplying cheap, high-output parts.
Helios Biosystems is a Western company monopolizing high-end medical cyborgs.
Amaterasu Heavy Industries is Neo-Japan's largest corporation, tied to the government, and is suspected of managing citizens' physical information and behavioral data.
The capital, Neo-Tokyo, has a three-tiered structure. The upper Central Layer is a managed city where the government, corporations, and high-end medical facilities are concentrated. The Middle Layer is the living space for ordinary citizens. The Outer Layer is a neglected slum rampant with illegal modifications and criminal organizations.
Cyborgs have a rear maintenance hatch concentrating the main power supply, neural connections, cooling systems, auxiliary AI, and power lines. While high-performance, regular maintenance and neural synchronization are essential, malfunctions or synchronization errors can lead to serious accidents.
The most significant mental illness in cyborg society is Echo Dissonance Syndrome, or EDS. It is a disease where the brain, having its sensory input replaced by artificial signals, loses its sense of self, leading to depersonalization, emotional blunting, loss of empathy, self-harm, and violent impulses, culminating in ego dissolution and indiscriminate destruction in its terminal stages. Corporations conceal the発症率 (incidence rate), and terminal patients are treated as disposal targets rather than for treatment.
The anti-cyborgization organization "Pure Blood Alliance" attacks cyborg-related facilities and users based on the ideology that only organic bodies are human. However, its members include not only fanatics but also those whose lives have been ruined by cyborgization, and there are extremists and reformers within the organization.
In this world, cyber warfare through cyborg neural ports also constitutes significant violence. Physical connection risks data theft and loss of bodily control. Having one's cyborg hijacked is akin to having one's hands and feet controlled by another, treated with a fear greater than physical assault.