Unified Bureau

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Unified Bureau (统辖局)
Affiliation	Astronomical Society
Occupation/Role	Governing body of the Astronomical Society; maintains order across the current realm and coordinates border security
Status	Operating at a minimum level while undergoing long-term reorganization and division following the War of All Realms 1655 1656
First Appearance	Chapter 17

History

Ninety years before the events of Chapter 40, the International Astronomical Society was established to counter threats beyond the borders, with participation from Dongxia, Rome, the Russian Union, the American Commonwealth, and the First Dynasty of Egypt. The Unified Bureau emerged as the Society's ruling body, composed of political dignitaries and major monopolistic groups from multiple countries. Its members competed for influence through proxy conflicts even after global-scale war ceased. 40

Before Heaven's fall, the Unified Bureau operated alongside Utopia, the Continuance Institute, and the Technical Department. Utopia set the overall blueprint; the Unified Bureau distributed the resulting knowledge and technology to the current realm. 106

After Heaven fell, the Unified Bureau stepped out from behind the scenes to manage the Astronomical Society and the current realm through the crisis. It expanded its influence, incorporated outside organizations and members, shared parts of its authority, and replaced the Director position with the Central Decision Room structure. 1473

Organization and Mandate

Central Decision Room

The Central Decision Room functions as the Unified Bureau's de facto highest department. Its major decisions involve Astronomical Society departments, commissioners of the Five Powers, and envoys of the Five Great Lineages. 1035 1042

Its complexity is both a weakness and a safeguard: members may represent departments, regions, factions, or overlapping interests, making consensus difficult but enabling the organization to govern a vast and diverse territory. 1342 1466

Order of Unification

The Unified Bureau's foundational principle is order: placing people, organizations, cities, and nations under a common system of rules. This framework is intended to reconcile incompatible interests and preserve the current realm as a whole. 1466 1475

Its procedural rigidity allows branches to continue functioning even if central leadership is destroyed, but the same system reduces individuals to replaceable parts and can demand severe sacrifices to preserve its function. 1567 1655

Ascendant Regulation

Under the Twelve Tables, Ascendants are exempt from compulsory military service. No organization other than the Astronomical Society, acting on a resolution of the Unified Bureau's Five Permanent Members, may forcibly conscript them, illegally detain them, or conduct inhumane experiments on them. 41

Ascendant crimes receive increased penalties, and their incarceration is uniformly assigned to the border. 41

Operations and Resources

• Border emergency response — Inspectors can activate a highest-alert function that connects directly to the Unified Bureau's Special Situations Response Office when confronting a B-class-or-higher border hazard. Severe cases may reach the Ten-Man Committee. 19
• Border countermeasures — The Bureau can authorize large-scale containment measures, including satellite-orbit adjustment and a physical lockdown of a ten-kilometer area under Border Countermeasure Regulation Article 9. 19
• Intelligence and surveillance — Its branches can conduct inspections of sealed items and maintain extensive records, identity systems, observation networks, and security procedures. 943 1510
• Punitive authority — The Unified Bureau employs Black Letters and Numbered Curse Bullets against unauthorized or dangerous Ascendants. Numbered Curse Bullets were designed as decisive weapons for field operatives and draw curses from the Silver Sea. 1649 1654
• Wartime mobilization — During the Outpost Restart operation, it organized over one hundred teams, dispatched more than triple the required personnel, and structured teams to reinforce one another after completing their assignments. 1037
• Realm-scale logistics — It supported Huai Shi's advancement by opening the Rainbow Bridge and redirecting rain from Reality, and later coordinated the transfer of the Moon to Hell as a battlefield asset. 1110 1611

Internal Factions

The Unified Bureau is not politically unified. Long-running divisions include the border faction, current-realm faction, Sovereignty Faction, Totalitarian Faction, representatives of the Five Powers, major Lineages, military interests, and departmental blocs. 1466 1475

These conflicts became severe enough to trigger the Regeneration Plan, a ten-day internal struggle involving thirty-three investigators from major Bureau departments. Participants competed to prove the effectiveness of their proposed systems and determine the organization's future structure. 1473

Regeneration Plan Reforms

The Plan concluded with a gradual reorganization scheduled over four to five years:

• Border management would be strengthened.
• The current realm would make concessions to secure support from the Five Powers and major Lineages.
• The Central Decision Room would remain, but its position in the hierarchy would be lowered.
• The Director of the Unified Bureau position would be restored.
• The Four Great Legions would receive an additional eleven percent of resources, alongside greater access to deployable technology. 1534

Destruction Factor Incident

Following the War of All Realms, the Piper surrendered itself to the Unified Bureau through a prearranged backdoor, implanting the accumulated calamities within its soul into the organization. The Silver Sea judged the Unified Bureau capable of destroying the current realm, classifying it as Destruction Factor: Unified Bureau. 1647

The corrupted order began to solidify and pervert Bureau personnel and regulations. Staff mutated into Faceless Ones compelled to repeat commands such as “Return to Unity” and “Return to Order.” 1647 1649

To prevent a recurrence, the Unified Bureau entered a minimum-operational state. Its leadership agreed to a reorganization and division expected to take more than forty years, while management authority over various domains was to be ceded to permanent member states and the Five Great Lineages. 1655 1656

Relationships

• Astronomical Society — The Unified Bureau serves as its ruling core and largest operational component. 17 1466
• Utopia — Former partner and continuing political rival; Utopia provided the grand blueprint while the Unified Bureau carried out distribution and governance. 106 1607
• Continuance Institute — Cooperates on border infrastructure, research, emergency containment, and major calculations, while remaining financially and operationally self-sufficient. 106 1138
• Phantom Agency — Internal supervisory and intelligence agency of the Unified Bureau; it lacks direct armed forces by design to prevent supervisory, executive, and judicial powers from merging. 1475 1502
• Five Powers and Five Great Lineages — Major stakeholders in the Unified Bureau's decision-making, mobilization, and later decentralization of authority. 1042 1613 1656
• Heaven Organization — The Unified Bureau joined Utopia and the Continuance Institute in establishing this organization to execute the Heaven Project; it accepted that the Bureau may cease to be necessary if the project succeeds. 1681

Notable Quote

“Everything for the world.”
—Standard closing used after approving an emergency border-countermeasure request 19