Black Gate City

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Black Gate City (黑门城)
Alias(es)	Black Gate City's Will; “He”; Big Sister Black Gate 7 257
Species/Race	Sentient city / City Will
Affiliation	Its native inhabitants and Outsider community, though its relationship with Outsiders is transactional 49
Occupation/Role	Living city, territorial authority, source of Points, Pacts, and stored Enhancement Elements
Status	Active; undergoing rapid expansion after being nourished by fallen Mysterious Sources 296
First Appearance	Chapter 7 (revealed as a living City Will)

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Territorial expansion	239	An abandoned town is formally incorporated as a new district of Black Gate City through real-world documentation.
Second-tier city	257	Considered a second-tier city by Outsider standards, despite possessing an estimated foundation worth millions of Points and several S-Class weapons.
Beyond T0-level mental field	296	Originally “at most level two”; the deaths of numerous Mysterious Sources nourish the city with mental power, causing geometric expansion and the formation of a mental field exceeding T0 level.

Background / History

Black Gate City presents itself to natives as an ordinary, bustling metropolis of streets, high-rises, neighborhoods, neon-lit districts, and public transportation. Its true body is an enormous biological structure: flesh stretches between a dark-red sky and earth, blood vessels extend into the distance, and buildings are effectively organs within a living entity 7 82.

The city sustains the natives’ perceived reality. Natives departing by train believe they are taking ordinary trips, yet their trains are absorbed into flesh at the city’s edge; outside lies only the dead Mist Sea and biological transport routes. The city supplies detailed memories of these imagined journeys when they return 82.

Outsiders are not treated as true residents. The City Will protects natives, but largely ignores conflicts, killings, and invasions involving Outsiders; their dealings with it are measured in Points rather than loyalty or belonging 49. This detachment left Black Gate City vulnerable during the Black Gate Mist Incident, when the Hell Organization and Mist Sea pirates killed many Outsiders, including the former chairman 49.

After the Old Chairman’s death, Xiao Xiao inherited the Chairman's Pact and became Black Gate City’s new chairman. The ritual connected him to the City Will through the veteran knights, while the Old Chairman’s spirit warned him that the city concealed dangerous truths 153.

Under Xiao Xiao, Black Gate City resisted the Hell Organization, drove it to declare the city a Hell forbidden zone, incorporated new territory, hunted a lesser Mysterious Source, and expanded its influence through wish-granting altars across other cities 193 239 256. Its later conflict with the City of Rest exposed both the depth of its concealed power and the danger of attempting to restrain its will 262 276.

Appearance

Black Gate City ordinarily appears as a dense modern metropolis, with crowded streets, high-rises, older residential areas, neon-lit commercial zones, and neglected districts such as Downtown’s Abandoned Factory Street 4 96. Its visible urban surface conceals a vast organism.

• Buildings and streets are manifestations of a flesh-and-blood body 7 82.
• Thick blood vessels and nerve-like tissues connect the city to the Mist Sea beyond its borders 82 206.
• The city edge reveals dark-red mist, enormous flesh masses, tentacles, and biological “flesh trains” 82.
• Its body can melt, contract, heal, and reorganize into buildings, roads, lights, and pedestrians 230 249.
• The city contains distinct territories including the Old City, Seventh Street, East District, Downtown District, and newly incorporated districts 49 96 239.

Personality

Black Gate City is possessive, secretive, and selective in its protection. It treats natives as part of itself, preserving their ordinary perceptions and allowing them enough independent logic and creativity to experience their lives as real 83. By contrast, it regards Outsiders as external participants whose value is reduced to Points and transactions 49.

Its will can be unresponsive or opaque even to its chairman. It keeps hidden areas, plans, and items beyond Outsider access, including matters connected to the Black Forest Biological Laboratory, the Black Goat Club, and the Platinum Ring it left with Yang Jia 200 276. Its secrecy becomes increasingly significant after Xiao Xiao gains enough authority to question it directly 276.

Abilities & Functions

City Will and Native Illusion

Black Gate City maintains the apparent normality of urban life while concealing its biological reality.

• Creates and maintains natives’ memories of ordinary travel, sunshine, entertainment, and life beyond the city 82.
• Allows natives independent-seeming reasoning and creativity rather than reducing them to simple puppets 83.
• Can clean scenes by absorbing corpses and discarded human husks into itself 7.
• Protects natives, but generally does not intervene in Outsider conflicts 49.

Biological Body and Environmental Control

The city’s architecture is part of an immense physical organism.

• Buildings, roads, ground, and urban scenery can dissolve into flesh and reconstruct themselves 249.
• Damaged sections of the city can heal, returning melted biological structures to their ordinary urban appearance 230.
• Its boundaries connect to the Mist Sea through blood vessels, flesh, and nerve tissue 82 206.
• It can perform flesh-and-blood transfer, relocating people back to the city’s main area through a reorganization of terrain and scenery 249.

Points, Pacts, and Enhancement Support

The City Will conducts its relationship with Outsiders through Points and Pacts.

• Goodwill is earned by helping heal the city, such as eliminating harmful creatures; losing all accumulated Points risks incurring the city’s malice 8.
• The Chairman’s and Knight Pacts connect Outsiders to the city and allow its leadership structure to function 153 161.
• Xiao Xiao’s Lord Pact permits him to distribute special characteristics to followers and leave the city 161.
• Black Gate City can support Enhancement Element growth, though its reserves eventually become insufficient to further enhance entities such as the Butcher and Hellhound 257.

Weapon Museum and Wish Mechanism

Black Gate City possesses a substantial collection of special weapons and Enhancement Elements.

• Its Weapon Museum contains an estimated six or seven S-Class items, dozens of A-Class items, and countless lower-ranked items 257.
• Its known foundation is estimated at millions of Points 257.
• The city’s wish mechanism rents S-Class Enhancement Elements for a song’s duration in exchange for 20,100 Points 256.
• Wish-granting altars established in other cities serve as potential anchors for Black Gate City’s expanded influence and Xiao Xiao’s future descent through flesh transfer 256.

Territorial Assimilation

Black Gate City can expand beyond its original physical boundaries.

• An abandoned town became a new city district after it was legally defined as part of Black Gate City in the real world 239.
• This expansion allowed a battlefield outside the city to be brought within Black Gate City’s territorial range, enabling the hunt for a Mysterious Source 239.
• The city’s territory can be extended through wish-granting altars placed in other cities 256.

Resistance and Vulnerability

Despite its scale, Black Gate City can be harmed or constrained.

• A Mysterious Source is reluctant to descend directly into Black Gate City because of the city’s power 239.
• City of Rest’s Godslaying Blade can trap a Mysterious Source and functions as a thorn driven into the City Will, making movement agonizing 262.
• Powerful invaders can resist the city’s rejection through overwhelming mental strength 262.
• During the City of Rest raid, the city was restrained by the Godslaying Blade while enemy forces searched its body for Mister Du, Yang Jia, and Mister Ye 262.

Facilities and Internal Sites

• Weapon Museum — Repository of Black Gate City’s special weapons and Enhancement Elements, including several S-Class items 257.
• Old Chairman’s Small Building — Former chairman’s residence and a major archive for the Noah Project and the city’s hidden history 254 256.
• Black Forest Biological Laboratory — A major city landmark whose operations are known to Outsiders, though its deeper purpose remains inaccessible to them 200.
• Black Goat Club — A native-side organization tied to secrets the City Will does not freely permit Outsiders to investigate 200 225.
• Wish-Granting Altars — Facilities through which other cities can rent Black Gate City’s S-Class Enhancement Elements 256.

Relationships

• Xiao Xiao — Chairman who inherited the Old Chairman’s Pact and later began parasitizing Black Gate City; their relationship grants him extraordinary access but does not remove the city’s secrets 153 275 276.
• Yang Jia — Veteran Outsider who teaches Xiao Xiao to respect the City Will; the city deliberately leaves the Platinum Ring with her, creating a connection crucial to Xiao Xiao’s survival 49 276.
• Old Chairman — Previous chairman whose Pact, safe, and unfinished plans shaped Black Gate City’s later leadership 71 153.
• Mister Ye — The Old Chairman’s assistant and a key administrator of the city’s affairs, Noah Project research, and defenses 230 256.
• Outsiders — Transactional residents who gain Points and Pacts from the city but receive little direct protection from it 49.
• Natives — Protected inhabitants whose ordinary reality and memories are maintained by the City Will 49 82.
• Hell Organization — Hostile force responsible for the Black Gate Mist Incident and a later invasion; it ultimately recognizes Black Gate City as a Hell forbidden zone 49 193.
• City of Rest — Rival city that attempted to restrain Black Gate City’s will, assassinate its key figures, and seize its resources 262 265.
• Mysterious Sources — Entities that threaten the city but can also become fuel for its explosive growth after being defeated within its territory 239 296.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Revelation of the Living City

Yang Jia reveals that Black Gate City is alive after Xiao Xiao witnesses it absorb bodies and receives a vision of buildings as organs and people as blood vessels 7. Xiao Xiao later sees its true exterior at the city edge and learns that natives’ departures are fabricated experiences maintained by the City Will 82.

Black Gate Mist Incident and Outsider Fragmentation

The Hell Organization’s earlier raid devastates the city’s Outsider community. The City Will does not protect them, forcing surviving groups such as the Red Eyes Club, Silver Bullet, Serpent Sisters, and Old Zhou Under the Bridge to rely on their own alliances 49.

New Chairman and Hell Organization War

Xiao Xiao inherits the Chairman’s Pact, gaining a formal connection to Black Gate City 153. During the Hell Organization’s wager and invasion, he uses his Lord authority to order the city’s Outsiders into hiding, then organizes a citywide counterattack 183 189. The conflict ends with the Hell Organization withdrawing and designating Black Gate City a forbidden zone 193.

Territorial Expansion and Mysterious Source Hunt

Black Gate City absorbs an abandoned town into its territory, allowing Xiao Xiao’s forces to move the battlefield of a Mysterious Source hunt inside the city’s jurisdiction 239. The resulting battle brings immense attention to Black Gate City and establishes its growing influence among other cities 254.

Wish-Granting Expansion

The city begins renting S-Class Enhancement Elements through wish-granting altars. While presented as a commercial mechanism, the altars also establish Black Gate City’s influence and potential descent points throughout the wider world 256.

City of Rest Conflict

City of Rest dispatches Grand Knights to restrain Black Gate City, recover the corpse of a lesser Mysterious Source, assassinate Mister Ye, and investigate Yang Jia 262. The invaders use the Godslaying Blade to wound and restrict the City Will, but Little Four’s hidden power kills Grand Knight Yin Qing and exposes Black Gate City’s concealed strength 262 263.

World-Scale Expansion

During the later war against vast numbers of Mysterious Sources, their deaths nourish Black Gate City’s body. The city expands at a geometric rate and develops a mental field stronger than a T0-level city 296.

Trivia

• Black Gate City is regarded as second-tier in size, with at least ten to twenty cities considered comparable in scale 257.
• It has two known “taboos”: one openly recognized and another hidden from even Xiao Xiao’s full understanding 263.
• Although initially seen by outsiders as weak and easily bullied after the Black Gate Mist Incident, its reputation changes rapidly under Xiao Xiao’s leadership 256.