Deus Ex Diaries Part Thirty-Nine (Human Revolution)

This is my ongoing exploration of the Deus Ex Universe, in release order. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. I continue Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

After finding van Bruggen, and doing a couple of odd jobs, I had just escaped a kill squad sent in to assassinate him, and was on my way to Tai Yong Medical…

The nearby street was being guarded by Belltower, so I had to go around them. I made my way towards the shuttle station to get to Tai Yong Medical, but realised that I wouldn’t be able to help Faridah Malik. So, I turned around and headed to the LIMB clinic to speak to her contact — Anonymous X. Just outside the clinic was a woman asking how to get to Tai Yong Medical, despite being mere metres in front of the two-foot-high “Tai Yong Medical Shuttle Station” sign above two doors.

 

Entering the clinic, I bought two Praxis Kits, which used most of my money, before speaking to Anonymous X. Unlike the professionally dressed people they worked with, Anonymous X wore a plaid shirt over a t-shirt, and a cap with “#chan” emblazoned on it. For someone relying on code phrases and pseudonyms, he was less than subtle. I gave him the code phrase that Malik had told me, and I was told to head to the alleyway behind the clinic, so I left.

Outside, Anonymous X was suspicious that I was an imposter, but he gave me Evelyn Carmichael’s autopsy report. He wanted paying 1,000 credits, but I didn’t have enough so told him to bill me. It was probably a good thing I bought those Praxis Kits! I left Anonymous X and read the report, finding that Evelyn was not intoxicated when she died, despite her boyfriend Lee Hong saying otherwise. What’s more, she was pregnant, giving potential motive for Hong to kill her.

Calling Malik, I informed her about the report. She told me to go to Hong’s apartment and get some kind of evidence — he was an idiot, so there had to be something. Before heading over I assigned my three Praxis points. I went for Hyper-Oxygenation to sprint for longer, and Dermal Armor so I wouldn’t die as easily in a firefight.

En-route to Youzhao District, I came across some storage lockers. I had the code for one (7845) and opened it, finding some ammo and a safe. As there were police and Belltower, I stacked some boxes to hide me, then hacked the safe, finding more ammo. Using the box trick to remain hidden, I hacked into the other storage lockers where I found ammo, a nuke virus, and 105 credits. There was also another safe, but I forgot to open it.

Once I reached Youzhao District, I climbed up to the roof and went to Hong’s apartment, hacking my way in. It was empty, so Malik had me look around and hack the computer. According to emails, the Hong family had investments in LIMB as well as Belltower, but they were also threatening to cut Lee off if he didn’t stop “whoremongering”. There was an answering machine message from a woman telling Hong to meet her at HIVE. A baseball bat next to the front door, but it was unlikely to be the murder weapon. However, there was also a broken antique clock, and its time roughly corresponded to Evelyn’s death.

I went back to Kuaigan District and straight to the HIVE. Hong was upstairs on his own, and Malik wanted to record a confession through my comm link. So, I posed as a private investigator who wanted to protect Hong from his crime, for a price. I told him that the blood splatter was inconclusive, she wasn’t drunk, he used the antique clock to kill her, and it was because she was pregnant. I finished things off by telling him that Belltower covered up the crime, and Hong freaked out. He admitted everything in horrific detail, then I walked away and spoke to Malik. She wanted me to hack a security terminal, but there was a bouncer watching me. So, I shot him with my stun gun and hacked it.

Outside on the street, Malik met me, gave me a Praxis Kit, and told me to watch the outside of the club. For the enjoyment of everyone, Hong’s confession started playing in place of the thudding club music, with Hong’s ID showing on the walls.

Back at the shuttle station, I headed to Tai Yong Medical. I arrived at what I could only assume was a disused station, because there was a closed security shutter in front of me, and my only way inside was an emergency service door. I looted the lockers, finding little, before going inside. However, as I reached the end of the service corridor at the top of the stairs, an explosion rocked the walls. Hacking the door, I exited to find a frightened employee behind safety glass. His hazmat suit was damaged, the room was filled with gas, and he was begging for help.

Hacking a nearby door, I shut off the valve and found a pocket secretary in a nearby locker which had four security codes on it. I hoped it would be a big help, because people didn’t seem to like me hacking things in front of them. Inside the room I spoke to the employee I’d saved. He told me that saying his name would get me past a security guard who owed him a favour, so I exited and went to the control room nearby. As predicted, a security guard stopped me, but mentioning the favour made him ignore me — unless I were to hassle security from now on, then he’d come after me…

Once the guard and two other employees were ignoring me, I used the maintenance catwalk console, with code 5720, to move the catwalk. Then, I climbed a ladder outside the room and used the catwalk to reach the other side where credits and an ammo capacity weapon mod were in a locker. I combined it with my 10mm pistol, then entered a vent shaft. At the end was a drop that would kill a normal person — but I had the Icarus Landing System augmentation, which cushioned my fall.

After grabbing some stun gun ammo, I crawled out of the vent into a security room. The two men inside didn’t spot me as I quickly exited through the door on the left, then through a big door just past the security camera. At the top of some stairs was a security guard who spotted me just as I knocked him out. Curious about the pump room, I hacked the door and went inside. A locker had ammo and credits, and a second one had nothing. I hacked the gate on a security cage, finding more ammo in lockers.

I located an elevator and took it up while talking to Pritchard about what to expect from the security features of the Pangu. He suspected nothing much, but an elevator should take me up into the tower. I hacked a security cage — the second one was rated too high for my abilities — finding more ammo and credits. In the next room was a partially-electrified floor, but a vent around the corner at least took me into the other cage, which had PEPS ammo. Back in the vent, I headed the other direction, finding some more credits below a body before returning to the electrified floor.

It just so happened that some small boxes were laid around, so I used them to get to some lockers with ammo and credits, then to cover the electrified floor in such a way that I gained access to the upper level. There, I found the elevator I needed, but after moving a big box I found a smaller box which helped me into a ventilation shaft. I found the body from before, after dropping down to it, as well as a reload speed weapon upgrade which I attached to my revolver.

Returning to the elevator, I hit the button and Pritchard called me. I explained what I was looking for by coming here, and he said that it would be in the Data Core room, with very high security. It would be up from where I was getting off, but at least the next levels were public areas, so I didn’t have to sneak around.

The elevator stopped, but as it did I realised that I had Praxis points to assign. I decided to upgrade my hacking: Turret Domination, Robot Domination, and Capture 4. Exiting the elevator and the room it was in, I overheard someone complaining that they had lost their access pass, so I kept an eye out for it as I scoped out the area. Due to the number of guards, I decided to break into the security room via a ventilation duct in one of the storage rooms. I hacked the computer and disabled the camera, but I also figured that I might as well activate the security robot!

The robot rolled around shooting the guards while I grabbed the access card from a table, then broke into offices to read emails. The main concern seemed to be that Tai Yong Medical was using inferior quality parts, but mentioning that made the management cross.

Breaking into the next area, I found myself in another security room where I activated a second robot, killing even more guards! This was easy. Heading upstairs, I deactivated the alarm and followed the hallway to some stairs, which a sign said would lead to the Data Core. Just as I ducked behind a piece of machinery, a guard came walking towards me. Standing right next to me, and glancing at me multiple times, he finally turned and wandered off, so I knocked him out.

I hacked my way into a nearby office and checked the PC, seeing an email asking for financial information for several biotech companies with the implication that it required hacking. The next office was already open, so I grabbed some credits from a drawer, then hacked the PC. The owner’s colleague “windmill” (AKA van Bruggen) was clearly an antagonistic force in the company, because there was an email complaining about them, as well as an email from van Bruggen taunting the owner.

The third office was also open, but sneaking through it I found that it took me too close to an active security camera. I went back the way I had come and turned down another hallway, sneaking by the security room — only to come face-to-face with a security robot! Thankfully I was still sneaking, so it didn’t spot me, but as I turned the corner to gain access to the security room, one of the guards did.

To my credit, the guard only glimpsed me, so came to investigate where I knocked him out. I dragged him around the corner, out of view of the robot, then went into the security room to knock out the second guard. The computer had an email with a username and password on it, and there was some ammo and credits in the lockers. Using the security computer (with the password I’d found: “muonrule”), I deactivated the robot and turned off the cameras. Then, on a whim, I went around and knocked out the handful of other guards, before gaining access to the Data Core — or the laser grid guarding it, anyway…

Avoiding the moving beams, I kept to the left as I went around the corner and got a crate out of my way. I had spotted a door along the other wall, so moved another crate in the way to investigate; it was a security room. There were three guards inside, and when I opened the door they came to investigate. I shot them all with my stun gun then checked out the room, finding ammo and credits. Hacking the security computer, I disabled the camera, but there was no way to disable the beams…

Jumping in the elevator, I headed up to the Data Core. Transmitting van Bruggen’s evidence to Sarif, we saw Zhao Yun Ru, the owner of Tai Yong Medical, talk to Namir, the mercenary who had led the attack six months ago. They had apparently kidnapped the scientists, deactivating their location trackers thanks to “Montreal” and an “Eliza”. Sarif told me to get to Zhao’s penthouse, as we needed more information…