Mint

Neverness to Everness) is a supernatural urban open-world RPG developed by Hotta Studio. The game is set in a city where reality and the supernatural intertwine, telling the story of a world where human society has been invaded by abnormal energy and phenomena. You can visit the official website for more latest news.

Core Worldview Setting

Haitro City: The starting point of the story and the core city for exploration, filled with bustling streetscapes, unknown mysteries, and strange urban tales.
Anomalies and Abilities: The world is eroded by abnormal energy, giving rise to various supernatural "anomalies" and "ability users" with special powers. Anomalies can be good or bad, not all of them are disasters.
Anomaly Hunters and Antique Shops: Players take on the role of the first "unlicensed" anomaly hunter, while also running an antique shop that takes on supernatural commissions from the public to maintain operations, solving the city's mysteries with their companions.

The main currency circulating in Haitro City is called Fangsi.

J.T.F. (Joint Task Force): The frontline grassroots unit, responsible for the first arrival at the scene, vigilance, evacuation of the public, and initial response to anomalies. It is also the unit where most grassroots members are located.
C.S.U. (Containment and Suppression Unit): Responsible for the containment, escort, lockdown, and subsequent处理 of anomalies.

E.T.D. (Emergency Tactical Division): An elite unit responsible for high-risk anomalies, suppression, and special operations.

World Background

The story takes place in Haitro City.
This is a modern city, but supernatural phenomena called "anomalies" appear in various places.
Humans and Anomalies Coexist
Humans have become accustomed to anomalies, so the government has established specialized agencies to manage and contain them.

Anomalies

Anomalies can be biological, object-based, spatial, phenomenal, or rule-based abnormalities.
Some anomalies have very low danger levels and only cause localized effects.
Higher-level anomalies can cause mass casualties, urban disasters, or even change the environment.

Anomaly Levels

Currently known danger levels are divided into:
1st Level
2nd Level
3rd Level
4th Level
5th Level
6th Level
7th Level (Humanity's Maximum Handling Limit)
8th Level
9th Level
10th Level (No Hope)

The higher the number, the more dangerous it is.

Anomaly Management Bureau

Responsible for all anomaly events in the entire city.
Main Responsibilities:
Monitor anomalies
Contain anomalies
Secure the scene
Protect the public
Combat dangerous anomalies

"Qihai" are a type of anomaly that can exist in "individual" form and have long-term contact with human society.

The Nature of Abilities: Abnormal Resonance between Human Souls and "Anomalies"
In the hidden archives of Haitro City, abilities (Esper Abilities) are not genetic mutations or magic. Their essence is the "forcible alteration of the world's underlying physical laws by human mental will."
Invasion of Abnormal Energy: When the world is eroded by abnormal energy called "anomalies," the vast majority of ordinary people are assimilated, go mad, or die.
Mental Resonance (Arc): A very small number of humans with strong, paranoid, or extreme mental traits, when facing the desperate situations caused by anomalies, their mental structures achieve a miraculous "resonance (Arc)" with the abnormal energy.
Manifestation of Laws: This resonance materializes their inner strong obsessions, fears, or desires into a supernatural power that can interfere with real-world physics. These are the "ability users."

II. Core Division: Innate Ability Users vs. Acquired "Disqualified Species"
In the top-secret archives of the Bureau of Anomaly Control, humans who can use supernatural powers are strictly divided into two completely opposing ecological categories:
1. Orthodox Ability Users (Esper)
Characteristics: Perfect fusion of spirit and anomaly energy, self-generating and self-growing.
Nature of Power: Supernatural power exists within their souls, which can be mobilized freely, natively, and as naturally as breathing.
Social Positioning: Most are incorporated into official law enforcement or registered as legal hunters.

2. Disqualified Species / Contractors
This is the most brutal and dark setting in the worldview. Origin: Some people are born without any talent for abilities, but their souls are forcibly torn apart by anomalies during supernatural disasters or black market human experiments. To survive, they are forced to sign irreversible "contracts" with external "anomaly entities."
Nature of Power: They have no power within themselves; instead, they act as "containers," forcibly borrowing the power of anomalies through physical parasitism or external armament (such as Adler's "Yuanjue" armor, or the anomaly within Sagiri).
The Price of the Price: The bodies of Disqualified Species are continuously "eaten away" by the anomalies within them with each use of power, until their physical and mental structures completely collapse, eventually evolving into new anomalies.

The Iron Law of Awakening: The Cruel "Price" Mechanism
The underlying logic of the worldview is equivalent exchange (but forcibly deducted by supernatural laws). If humans want to gain god-like interference power, they must, at the moment of awakening, have a part of their life that is most important or most unbearable forcibly taken away by the world's laws.
1. Eternal Deprivation of Physiological Functions
Sensory Impairment: Like Adler, who is blind in the worldview, he must rely on the anomaly creature he contracted with to act as his vision and super-senses.
Perception Distortion: Daffodil's exchange for "Weakness Vision" came at the cost of severe visual impairment, bordering on blindness. Haiyue's awakening causally deprived her of her "sense of direction," leaving her with a lifelong directional disorder where she can never walk in the right direction.
2. Physical Mutation and Developmental Deformity (Beastification and Growing Pains)
Non-human Appearance: When abilities merge with willpower, abnormal energy forcibly reshapes the body. For example, Nanali and Yi (Shadow) grew non-human beast ears, tails, or beast-like features on their bodies during awakening, making them outcasts in mainstream society.
Premature Maturation of Life Cycle: Mint (Requiem)'s awakening price is the most impactful. She triggered her awakening at the age of 10. To match a combat-ready body, her bones and muscles were forcibly "matured and stretched" to adult height in a very short period. This subjected her to "bone-fracturing growing pains" a hundred times more intense than ordinary people, nearly driving her mad, leaving her with lifelong psychological trauma.
3. Causal Backlash and Mental Curse
Binding of Incantations: Bai Cang's ability is "words become reality" incantations, but the price of awakening is an extremely heavy karmic backlash—in her childhood, unable to control her power, her words accidentally led to the deaths of those around her. Since then, this power has become a dual psychological and real-world shackles, forcing her to live in "silence" (communicating only through sign language) in her daily life.
Memory and Genetic Torment: Renee (Heng Jinshi)'s price is the most hidden. She inherited her mother's immortality and time-manipulation abilities, but the price of awakening was to permanently endure the "death loop memories" of her entire family's annihilation during a supernatural disaster. Her soul is constantly torn apart by hallucinations and the pain of betrayal in red text.

IV. Social Ecology and Threats of Ability Users
In the daily neon lights of Haitro City, ability users are not aloof heroes, but dangerous groups on the fringes:
Risk of Collapse: The mental state (SAN value) of ability users is directly linked to their combat power. Once their minds collapse or emotions go out of control, the abilities within them erupt uncontrollably, causing urban disasters called "Disharmony," or even directly degenerating into new anomalies.
Official Double-Edged Sword Treatment: On one hand, the Anomaly Management Bureau relies heavily on ability users to contain anomalies and clear out overlapping abnormal zones in the macro-world. On the other hand, the authorities conduct extremely strict 24-hour surveillance on all ability users, and will forcibly contain them at the slightest sign of loss of control.

The True Nature of Anomaly Birth: "Materialized Pollution" of Human Obsessions
The origin of anomalies remains a mystery in official records, but the current consensus is that they are supernatural products born from strong human emotions, subconsciousness, and urban memes.
Emotional Resonance: When the fears, anxieties, strong obsessions, or unfulfilled desires of countless humans in modern metropolises gather and reach a critical point, they cause unstable "cognitive pollution" in real space.
Meme-like Reproduction: Rumors, urban legends, or group memes on the internet, the wider they spread, the more likely they are to "appear out of thin air" in the macro-world as corresponding anomaly entities under the catalysis of abnormal energy.
Never-Ending: Unlike anomalies and ability users, anomalies do not disappear permanently even if they are expelled or nullified. As long as the collective subconscious that gave rise to them still exists, they can resurface in the dark corners of the city at any time.

II. Five Core Classifications of Anomalies (Index Classification)
Anomaly forms in the macro-world are bizarre and varied. The Anomaly Management Bureau strictly classifies them into five ecological categories:
1. Biological (Bio / Oddities): Supernatural creatures with independent consciousness and life characteristics. For example, the "Qihai" (Kirumarus) commonly seen in the macro-world, or specific dangerous mutated beasts (Taygedo).
2. Object-based: Conventional items imbued with abnormal energy. On the surface, they are ordinary videotapes, antiques, or even a hamburger, but once triggered, they exhibit strong physical interference or spatial distortion abilities.
3. Phenomenal: Lacking physical form, manifesting as sudden, rule-based abnormalities. For example, on rainy days, some streets actively absorb standing water like living organisms, or temporal disturbances that occur at specific times.
4. Spatial (Location): "Anomaly Overlap Zones" created by the superposition of supernatural energy. Within these spaces, gravity may be inverted, corridors may extend infinitely, and physical laws may completely fail, similar to the underlying logic of large-scale dungeons.
5. Meme-based: Purely ethereal anomalies composed of collective consciousness and information transmission. They can directly invade human brains, alter memories and perceptions, causing people to collectively fall into illusions or mass madness.

Deviation Rating: The "Negative Coordinate" that Determines Danger and Fate
The Anomaly Management Bureau determines the danger level of an anomaly not by its combat power, but by its "reality deviation":
Rating Logic: The rating system uses 0 as complete reality. All anomaly values are negative numbers (e.g., -1 to deeper negative numbers). The more negative the value, the further it deviates from human physical reality, and the more terrifying its harm and pollution to the world.
Good and Evil Coexist: Anomalies are not all destructive monsters. Anomalies with lighter deviation and stable personalities can coexist with humans. For example, harmless anomalies that help clean the streets, or rabbit anomalies working in bakeries and convenience stores (requiring passing an exam to obtain a citizen ID).
Lethal Disguise: Some high-deviation hostile anomalies possess high intelligence. They precisely disguise themselves as ordinary humans needing help in the macro-world, luring humans or low-level ability users into their predatory traps.

IV. Political Relationship Between Anomalies and Human Society
In Haitro City, the relationship between humans and anomalies is peculiar:
Guarantor System: If a benevolent or sentient biological anomaly wishes to operate legally in human cities, it must find a legal "human guarantor." Guarantee does not equate to a master-servant contract; it is merely a mutual proof of safety and survival protection.
Anomaly Management Bureau's Dual Approach: For gentle anomalies that pass tests, the authorities issue resident permits and integrate them into the municipal system. However, for those that escape, become disharmonious, or pose a high deviation threat, the authorities will assign civilian hunters like "Eibon Antique Shop" for brutal violent containment and complete eradication.

I. Global Highest Power Core: "The Circle" and the A6 Organization
Nature: The highest global governing and power organ for dealing with supernatural anomalies. Its power transcends ordinary secular governments.
Supreme Council "A6": The highest governing body composed of six core decision-makers within "The Circle." Based on different core philosophies, they divide global governance and oversee five public power institutions.
Operational Logic: Responsible for formulating fundamental laws for dealing with anomalies, appointing regional supervisors, and possessing ultimate decision-making authority as the final line of defense when the world is on the brink of "total disharmony."

II. Direct Subordinates of the Supreme Council: Five Public Power Institutions (Partially Decrypted)
Currently, in the Haitro City archives, two core public power institutions under "The Circle" are known:
1. Bureau of Anomaly Control (BAC)
Core Philosophy: Control.
Organizational Functions: The official law enforcement unit that players interact with most frequently in the metropolis. Primarily responsible for on-site containment and eradication of anomalies, handling criminal offenses involving ability users, and suppressing large-scale urban anomaly disasters.
Internal Structure: Headquarters are located in Haitro City, mainly composed of four departments:
Joint Task Force (JTF): A regular frontline department composed of professionally trained ordinary humans, responsible for monitoring the "Weitheimer Index" and handling daily low-threat anomalies.
Containment and Suppression Unit (CSU): A field assault department responsible for large-scale dangerous missions.
Emergency Tactical Division / Executive Tactics Unit (ETD): A core combat ability user unit specializing in resolving high-risk, disharmonious anomalies.
Daily Security Department (DSD): Responsible for maintaining urban order.

2. Grose Island
Core Philosophy: Containment.
Organizational Functions: A global maximum-security island prison used for indefinite containment and imprisonment of extremely dangerous anomalies or severely out-of-control ability users. Its name originates from the "Star of Judgment" in ancient mythology, symbolizing destruction and judgment, implying that this organization is "The Circle's" terrifying trump card for executing final purification judgments.

III. Civilian and Underground Backbone Forces
1. Eibon Antique Shop
Organizational Nature: Ostensibly a struggling second-hand mechanical and antique appraisal shop located in a bustling corner street, it is actually a secret base personally established by Elfried, the director of the Anomaly Management Bureau. Worldview Positioning: As the first "unlicensed" civilian anomaly hunter organization in Haitro City. Because it does not follow the rigid official administrative procedures, the antique shop specializes in taking on various unsavory supernatural commissions from the public, operating in the gray area between law and the black market (also the warm faction to which the protagonist group belongs).

2. Sterry Express
Organizational Nature: Ostensibly a logistics giant in Haitro City, but secretly the city's premier intelligence and espionage organization. Operational Logic: Utilizing a city-wide, all-pervasive network of delivery personnel and transportation, it secretly collects and sells top-secret intelligence regarding anomaly births, black market technology, and the power struggles between various factions.

Top Conglomerates and Metropolitan Families
The economic and technological lifeline of the metropolis is controlled by a few monopolistic conglomerates deeply involved in supernatural research:
Dvořák Family: Top capitalist giants, controlling cutting-edge technology and the financial lifeline of Haitro City.
Collins Family: Old nouveau riche within the metropolis, with intricate vested interests in various ability user factions and high-level officials.
Leon International: A multinational technology and industrial conglomerate, secretly funding many cross-border ethical line-breaking ability and arc weapon modification experiments.

V. Extreme Antagonists: The Scarlet Letter Organization
Organizational Nature: A global extremist anomaly terrorist organization. Core Doctrine: They do not believe in the hypocritical order maintained by "The Circle" but fanatically believe in the "disorder of anomalies." The Scarlet Letter believes anomalies are the next stage of human evolution, and therefore secretly orchestrates and triggers large-scale "disharmony disasters" worldwide. Cruel Crimes: The Scarlet Letter secretly conducts extremely cruel "Disqualified Species" human modification experiments in the underground black market, forcibly transplanting high-deviation anomalies into ordinary people without talent, and even setting up scenarios to torture and kill ability user families (such as the annihilation of Renee's family) to plunder supreme abilities like immortality.