Central City

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Central City (中心城)
Alias(es)	Jibei Province Central City
Type	Coastal metropolis and World Ring defense node
Affiliation	Great Shun; administered through the Jibei Province Government Affairs Hall and Municipal Council
Occupation/Role	Regional information, industrial, security, and Convergence Zone defense hub
Status	Operational; connected to the Skyline network 1494 1496
Primary Field Organism	Fu Mu
Active Consciousness Entity	Pōsuō
First Appearance	141

Background / History

Central City became a destination for civilians seeking advancement, though entry was difficult and civilian-background arrivals could encounter resistance from entrenched interests 141 229 230. Its resources, academies, companies, and opportunities far surpass those of surrounding cities such as Yangzhi 359 622.

The Lower District was planned alongside the Upper District during the city's construction, but its development was never completed. After the last maintenance team withdrew thirty years before the events of the story, it became an unmanaged underground settlement for undocumented residents, gangs, cults, and illicit corporate experimentation 404.

For years, Central City was known for frequent street violence, gang conflicts, contraband trading, illegal Implant Body sales, organ smuggling, private armed groups, and corporate disputes. After the Government Affairs Hall strengthened public-security administration, crime fell noticeably and City Patrol became more disciplined and visible 973 948.

Appearance

Central City is a dense coastal metropolis of silver-gray skyscrapers, elevated roads, sea bridges, biological infrastructure, and overwhelming light displays. Its buildings vary greatly in height, while a prominent elevated bridge curves toward the sea and fades into mist 231.

• Towering structures dominate the skyline, with many rooftops and intermediate levels planted with greenery 231 237.
• Roads, protective walls, skyscrapers, advertisements, and traffic are rendered in multicolored light through the citywide information environment 232.
• The Cross-Sea Skybridge connects the urban area to an offshore island housing the Parliament Building 256.
• Extensive industrial zones, transport canals, railways, highways, docks, and offshore biological testing grounds surround the city 652.
• The city’s apparent order and color can conceal its harsher underlying reality, particularly for residents dependent on its information systems 232 234.

Districts and Areas

District / Area	Description
Lower District	An immense, abandoned underground slum beneath the city. Its population is uncounted and may rival that of the Upper District; contraband, experimental Implant Bodies, cult activity, gangs, and fugitives are concentrated there 404.
Weiguang District	Central governmental area containing the Jibei Province Government Affairs Hall, one of Central City’s tallest buildings 822.
White Bird District	A highly secured island district where major-company executives and branch heads reside. It contains forest parks, high-end recreation, extensive patrols, biological weapons, and armed airships 391.
Shen Wei District	The city’s greenest district, with urban hills and parks. Some formerly wealthy areas declined into gang and criminal gathering points 290.
Southern Industrial Zone	A factory-heavy area of concrete structures, metal buildings, transport rails, and separate field-organism networks rather than a unified information system 678.
Jiyang District	A coastal district with a seawall and military presence; it provides a more direct overseas route than detouring through fringe cities 463 701.

Governance and Information Network

Central City’s authority is divided between the Government Affairs Hall and the Municipal Council, a dual arrangement inherited from Great Shun’s early years 701. The Council historically maintained substantial influence through ties to major companies, while the Government Affairs Hall oversees key administrative and security functions 578 701.

Following the Sunrise Operation, the Government Affairs Hall seized the Municipal Council Building and arrested key personnel connected to the Council’s abuses. The Municipal Council was subsequently retained in a restructured form rather than abolished outright 912 917 953.

Pōsuō

Pōsuō is Central City’s Active Consciousness Entity. It directly serves government and public departments, processes enormous information flows, and can independently make optimal judgments as conditions change 234.

• Inactive consciousness entities distributed throughout the city process routine information but act only within granted permissions 234.
• Major companies maintain their own Active Consciousness Entities for communications, commerce, security, defense, and access to Convergence Zone passages 234 657 701.
• World Tokens provide residents with access to field information, city services, advertisements, navigation, and communications 234 269.

Fu Mu

Fu Mu is the massive field organism beneath Central City. Half of its body exists in Field Space, causing the surrounding area to take on a semi-field form 1495.

• Fu Mu serves as the hub of Central City’s information field and contains rifts across Jibei Province 503 1495.
• Its connection to the Convergence Zone provides one outward exit from the semi-field environment 1495.
• Fu Mu undergoes division and reproduction every fifteen years, creating severe field fluctuations and threatening urban communications and defenses 503.
• During a major maintenance operation, city equipment was assessed as capable of sustaining roughly sixty percent of information and communications without Fu Mu 1495.

Access and Perception

Entry normally requires official identity documents and passage through guarded checkpoints. Unregistered entrants can attempt alternate routes, but doing so entails significant risk 231.

Lao Qi gives first-time entrants a Yin Yang Instrument mask, also called a World Token. When worn, it exposes Central City’s chaotic and overwhelming underlying information reality; many newcomers cannot withstand the sensory load 231.

• The city’s public visual environment is heavily mediated by light, shadow, World Token functions, and Bio-Field information 232 234.
• A Handling Bureau-issued World Token can filter much of the city’s intrusive visual information 269.
• Special station passages connect Central City to the Convergence Zone. They are continuously guarded and may be used only by authorized personnel with prior Convergence Zone experience 451.

Security and Defense

Central City is a crucial World Ring node. Rifts are sealed, isolated, or drawn into Central Cities because unchecked breaches could allow extraterrestrial entities to enter the human world 620 1495.

• City Patrol handles ordinary public-security incidents, while the Handling Bureau investigates anomalies and serious threats 527 621.
• During Fu Mu’s instability, the government prepared district emergency teams, search squads, manual surveillance, temporary field-organism communications, and a Sky Joint Defense System 527.
• The city maintains dedicated routes from stations to the Convergence Zone so combat personnel can reinforce its defense rapidly 451.
• Active Consciousness Entities can counter and suppress anomalies, though remote and chaotic districts are often neglected until an anomaly becomes too dangerous to ignore 621.
• The Municipal Council once used the Active Consciousness Entity Guardian Spider as a form of coercive security: its eggs were distributed across important sites and could hatch into indiscriminate attackers if the main body was threatened 911.

Major Incidents

Event	Chapters	Outcome
Chen Chuan’s first entry	231–232	Chen Chuan enters through the checkpoints and witnesses the city’s concealed, information-saturated reality through the Yin Yang Instrument.
Fu Mu division crisis	503, 520, 527, 577–585	Fu Mu’s reproduction destabilizes citywide field operations, prompting emergency deployments, corporate security requisitions, and conflict with Ferris Wheel Company.
Municipal Council confrontation	779–781	The Council attempts to turn public opinion against Chen Chuan and deploys armed force, including a Monster Airship, before retreating in fear of his strength.
Sunrise Operation	912–918	Chen Chuan destroys Guardian Spider, government forces secure the Municipal Council Building, and the Council’s former leadership is arrested.
International Investigation Group visit	943, 953	The Investigation Group endorses Central City’s security and defense measures, ending immediate international scrutiny of its governance.
Skyline integration	837, 973–974, 1494–1496	Central City becomes part of the Skyline information network, allowing real-time communication and resource support with other connected Central Cities.
Fu Mu information-system maintenance	1495–1496	Governor Jin Guogang orders a two-day maintenance period and uses Skyline support, company equipment, and field-biological devices to keep the city functioning.

Skyline Project

The Skyline Project seeks to connect Central Cities’ information, materials, technology, and field resources. Its supporters argue that connected cities can respond more efficiently to field-creature failures, rift threats, and resource shortages 504 837.

Central City’s participation faced political resistance because greater inter-city coordination weakens the independence and interests of local councils and powerful companies 504 817. Once connected, however, Jibei Province could communicate in real time with other Skyline cities and draw on shared equipment and personnel during emergencies 1494 1496.