Inner City

Biodata

Layout and Appearance

• Walls: Tall, weathered fortifications patched with metal, concrete, wooden planks, and sheet metal. Bunkers and machine-gun towers stand along them 2 156.
• Streets: Asphalt roads, sidewalks, and sewers distinguish the Inner City from the Outer City's dirt roads, though its streets still have litter and exhaust fumes 157.
• Buildings: Irregular high-rises, enormous billboards, and neon signs give the district a crowded, improvised appearance. The Floating City overhead makes it feel darker and more oppressive 2 157.
• Districts: District 8 in South City is a leisure area with restaurants, entertainment venues, and casinos. Top-tier families maintain spacious manors in North City 161 394.

Entry and Residence

• Outer City workers queue at the gates for jobs inside, usually entering in the morning and leaving in the evening because living in the Inner City is expensive 156.
• A Junior Partner certificate serves as a temporary entry pass, permits short stays at certain inns, and allows its holder to carry weapons. Tao Yu's Partner entry costs 10 Wish Power when he uses it 155 157.
• Intermediate Partners gain Inner City qualifications and can bring their families. Housing must be rented or bought; Liu Yi quotes 1,000 Wish Power per month for the cheapest single room 154.
• Tao Yu later rents an apartment there and moves his family in for better security and opportunities 239 248.

Society and Security

Inner City residents generally have better equipment and resources than Outer City residents. At Awakening Day, several Inner City youths arrive with full combat gear and mechanical prosthetics, sharply contrasting with Outer City participants carrying old or homemade weapons 3. That advantage does not make Inner City residents equal among themselves: its own hierarchy is pronounced, and ordinary residents treat Intermediate Partners as successful figures 111 164.

• Quest halls provide Partner work. Their networked surveillance makes them among the safer public areas; serious crimes there draw pursuit by the Inner City Security Team 157 159.
• Private security protects high-end communities, Company strongholds, and guild bases. By contrast, areas without surveillance—especially isolated blind spots—are used by gangs and other groups to settle disputes 159.
• Outer City laborers face widespread discrimination. Mentally unstable people, amid the proliferation of “Joy,” pose a particular danger to workers such as Tao Lan 161.