Tony Xu's academic papers may as well be in binary to me. I've been told by very clever people that they're very impressive, but I'm more impressed in practical results. He plays the absent-minded professor character well, but when push comes to shove he knows exactly what the score is.
—Central
Tony Xu, known as Dr. Xu, is an agent employed by Invisible. He can be selected at the start of the game in either his on-file or archive variation.
Dr. Tony Xu was a brilliant researcher who rose to prominence at the University of Hong Kong. He was caught after one too many “exploratory” trips into K&O servers, and spent time in a detention center as a result.Too much of a liability for any self-respecting University, Xu was unemployable upon release. He joined Invisible to gain personal protection while continuing his research.
Inventory: | Neural Disruptor Modded Shock Trap | ![]() | ![]() |
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Augment: | Subdermal Tools | ||
Skill: | — | ||
Age: | 42 | ||
Tagname: | Black Market Academic | ||
Hometown: | Hong Kong[1] | ||
Years of service: | 3[2] |
As a graduate student, Tony Xu's reputation for success was matched only by his reputation for taking “academic shortcuts”. His family connections saved him from outright expulsion, but word spreads quickly in the ivory tower. Undeterred by scandal, he earned his Doctorate in record time and moved on to lucrative freelance security contracts.
Inventory: | Neural Disruptor Tony's Modded EMP | ![]() | ![]() |
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Augment: | Thermal Generator | ||
Skill: | — | ||
Age: | 23 | ||
Tagname: | The Professor |
Inquisitive, generally upbeat, easily distracted. A prankster and keen on messing with others. Though he is formally polite, he often responds in a joking manner, especially to insults or criticism. He appears ideologically neutral and maintains that he's not responsible for how the corps may have used his scientific contributions. He is also a fan of sci-fi TV series and familiar with 19th century opera. Dr. Xu used to place shock traps on his office door at university and repeatedly got into trouble over that and various “academic shortcuts”. A troublemaker who, while not outright malicious or sadistic, holds normal rules in low regard and is motivated by his curiosity and desire for amusement, even at expense to others. Based on the events that led to his arrest, he seems highly intelligent but sorely lacking in good judgement.
These can also be found on the agent banters page.
Born approximately in 2032 to a wealthy family, Dr. Xu advanced quickly in his scientific career and already had his Doctorate at the age of 23, albeit not without some scandal. During this time (early 2050's), he also worked closely with Alex McTeague, later known as Sharp, and together, they created the Thermal Generator augment which Dr. Xu installed on himself, meaning he and Sharp have known each other for twenty years. His exact field is hard to pin down, as he has worked both in engineering augments and in network security and creating black market software, but is most likely engineering-related or perhaps multidisciplinary.
Dr. Xu's scientific career at his university came to an end with his arrest on July 13th, 2065, when he was apprehended during the latest in a series of intrusions into a secure K&O data warehouse. Dr. Xu was able to negotiate his way out of the initial harsh sentence and spent the next 5 years and 3 months working, while incarcerated at the Holm Correctional Facility and Work Center, to pay off the debt incurred by his offense. Upon release (2070), he was unable to regain employment at his old university - or any self-respecting university, for that matter. Approximately one year later (2071), he was employed by Invisible, Inc., where he was able to continue his research and gain some protection from the corps.
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