After taking the plunge into the Virtual Construct, Noa is advised to 'get some air' by Ryder while he works on their joint project to rescue Noa's dad. Leave Ryder's apartment, walk around and talk to people in Bright Town for a while, then come back. Ryder has a memory from Abner to watch that lays out what Monomind wants from him.
At this point your next destination is MonoCity 01, the home of Monomind. First, though, you can - and probably should - inspect a place that was, up until roughly this point, too difficult for Noa to tackle. That won't be the case if you could get through the Virtual Construct.
Bright Town River
A (currently) optional area in the northeast of northern Bright Town, Bright Town River is a run-down slum that's teeming with powerful enemies. You can access this place at almost any point in the game, but the foes running around here are so powerful that you'll want to get Noa's level to the high teens - possibly as high as 20+ - before you try to run through. (You can also just turn off random battles, but where's the fun in that?)
You'll run into the following baddies as you explore Bright Town River:
- Sassy Bio Punk - 2,500 HP. Weak to Electroware. Uses Wibblefists to inflict Wetware damage. Nothing special.
- Sassy Cyber Punk - 2,500 HP. Weak to Wetware. Uses Cyberfists to inflict Cyberware damage. Also nothing special.
- Tough Cyber Drone - 3,000 HP. Weak to Wetware. Uses Railgun to hit for 150+ points of damage. Tough, but straightforward.
- Tough Punk - 3,000 HP. Hits hard and resists physical damage. Any damaging Software should work nicely.
- Tough Synth-Hound - 800 HP. Weak to Electroware. Buffs other enemies, and given their low health should be eliminated first before they can cause trouble.
The Bright Town River will take you down into a culvert shortly after you enter. Follow it east, then north and back out of the culvert. You can't open the box on the far right just yet, but once you're on the upper ground in the north you can backtrack to the west to open a second box, this one containing 1,000 credits.
A break in the path on the next screen will force you north. Follow the path around the edges of the culvert until you're forced back down into the culvert. To the north and on your left is a rubble bridge that will lead you to the other side of the culvert. Ignore the rubble for a moment and look a few steps north and to your right. Partially hidden is a box containing a Mega Filter Chip, a handy piece of Hardware for fending off enemy Software attacks (especially if you come through here early in Jack Move).
Cross the rubble bridge. Head south from the west end of the bridge and you'll wind up back on the previous screen, where you can open the box to find Teff's Lost Goods. These are part of a Secondary Objective that you may or may not have found earlier. We'll get back to these. North of the bridge you'll find a box containing a Super Health Packet.
East of this last box you'll find a door. There's an arrow in front of it, so in theory you can go through, but... not yet. This bunker will only open when you reach the end of Jack Move and are on your way to the final challenges of the game. We'll come back here later.
Head back to Bright Town once you're done with Bright Town River. You'll find Teff and his buddies in The Strix, and in exchange for Teff's Lost Goods they'll give you a Ware Firewall. This is a very handy piece of Software that will boost your defenses against all three types of Software attacks. Ware Firewall comes in very handy when fighting the final boss.