Infinite City

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Infinite City
Original Name	无限城
Entity Type	Super-large Supernatural Tale; a city with Phantom-like characteristics 551 555
Former Form	An unfinished high-tech community built in the capital of Dong Country during the 1970s 58
Status	Active
First Appearance	Chapter 8

Background / History

The Infinite City began as a major high-tech community project in Dong Country. Intended as a model for future communities and a symbol of national confidence, its construction was abandoned when the economic bubble burst. The unfinished complex later vanished physically and became a super-large Supernatural Tale that infiltrated the world’s shadows rather than travelling to another world. 58

It periodically opens passages to reality. These passages initially appeared within Dong Country before spreading worldwide; people who entered often disappeared, while residents of the City used Gates to enter reality. Authorities outside the City identify it as a source of Supernatural Tales whose residents historically cultivated fear and tormented humans to gain power. 58

The City’s four original garbage dumps processed waste from other worlds, expanding the surrounding land and producing its earliest residents. 103 Its ability to receive discarded information also permits forgotten traces from other worlds to arrive within it, potentially allowing ancient Supernatural Tales—such as Set, Cain, and Kukulkan—to revive when their remaining information is recognized again. 601

Layout

The Infinite City occupies a vast, circular island-continent whose area exceeds Australia. Its central building complex alone is described as provincial in scale. 15

Area	Description
Tower of Babylon	A colossal central tower surrounded by the Residential Area. Its exterior is gray-white, weathered, and covered in copper-colored patterns resembling circuitry. 103 187
Residential Area	A modern urban zone around the Tower, containing functional buildings that improve Knowledge acquisition, memory, recovery, role-playing efficiency, and access to resources. 187
Four Great Landfill Areas	Massive eastern, southern, western, and northern garbage dumps. They are the City’s original material sources and contain powerful residents, Supernatural Tales, and quasi-Supernatural Tales. 103 101
Smaller Landfill Areas	Numerous peripheral dumps linked to the central regions by branching roads. 15 40
Wilderness	The open territory between and beyond landfill areas. It contains hazards, Omens, Phantoms, farmland, and other resources. 40 25

The City follows a centrally symmetrical, fractal-like structure. The Tower and Residential Area form the center, while landfill areas sit at the ends of branching routes and wilderness fills the spaces between them. 40 103

Operations and Systems

Data-Based Existence

Infinite City residents describe the City as a vast server: professions are programs, Tags are functional comments, and formal employment is the recognition and execution of a resident’s intended function. 9

• Tags give [Nothingness] increasing presence and identity, enabling them to develop from indistinct residents into independently recognized individuals and eventually Supernatural Tales. 9
• Elements are the basic units that compose Tags; acting in accordance with a role can shape Knowledge into suitable Elements. 9
• Work Cards distribute resources after a resident’s work is recognized and completed. 9
• Tower Coins are issued as work compensation and can be exchanged for goods and services. 9
• Tags granted by the Infinite City lose their effect outside it, while Tags based on external cognition can still function. 71

Knowledge

Knowledge, information, and power are directly linked within the City. Acquiring Knowledge improves role-playing, role-playing can produce Tags, and additional Tags grant further Knowledge. A sufficient number of Tags can produce a qualitative change, allowing their holder to draw supernatural power from them. 10

Residents ordinarily require 100 Tower Coins’ worth of Knowledge each day for basic existence-related consumption. 11 723

Employment

New arrivals receive an Identity Card containing basic information about the City and must take office within one month or risk disappearing. 722

Work Type	Function
Creation Type	Manufacturing and craft work; residents may apprentice to gain relevant Tags. 723
Service Type	Basic salaried employment without specialized skills. 723
Collection Type	Work focused on gathering and recovering materials. 723

Employment is tied to usefulness to the Infinite City. For example, Corpse Collectors stabilize landfill areas by removing corpses that might become Omens. 112

Garbage Collection and Material Conversion

The City functions as a “trash dump of all worlds,” receiving objects, information, and remnants from other settings. 19 601

• The garbage dumps contain transportation, weapons, machinery, playing cards, fantasy items, and other discarded materials from different worlds. 19 28
• Waste can carry Elements, which may be extracted or used as a basis for Phantom creation. 19
• True Things entering the Infinite City are re-encoded as data-like False Things; this breaks their original solidified state and makes their Knowledge unstable or absorbable. 407
• The City’s earliest dumps digest incoming waste and use it to expand its territory. 18 103
• Farmland in the wilderness can produce True Thing wheat, while its straw and bran are used to make Bran Bricks for the poor. 25

The City’s core nature has been theorized to be a “Place Where Trash Gathers.” Under this interpretation, its ability to assimilate discarded information grants it compatibility and connections with other worlds. 555

Tower of Babylon

The Tower of Babylon is the City’s central challenge structure and principal route to other worlds. While Gates within Infinite City lead only to the Real World, the Tower functions as a branch capable of reaching different worlds. 189

Functions

• It adjusts all entrants—Nothingness, Supernatural Tales, and Real World beings—to a standard human physique while they remain within the Tower. 189
• Its floors contain residences, challengers, Guards, and challenge spaces tailored to a homeowner or floor’s rules. 189
• Success in its challenges can grant Residence Rights and access to higher floors. 201
• Floor Masters can enter worlds associated with their floors and return through their Layer Master permissions. 599
• The Tower’s absorbed remains of the mythological Tower of Babel granted the City’s residents a common language. 601

The Tower’s exterior is identified in the Residential Area library as the former main-control computer building of the original community, but its interior system and cross-world functions are treated as separate and more mysterious. 600

Residents and Outsiders

Most City residents are Nothingness: beings described as unwanted “trash” from other worlds, initially lacking stable individual existence. 9

Outsiders from reality are fundamentally different. Their existing social relationships and external cognition stabilize the Knowledge they carry, giving them a far higher information density than ordinary residents. 33 36 55

• A living human who dies inside Infinite City can produce an exceptionally dangerous Omen because their accumulated Knowledge erupts after death. 33
• Outsiders can open or anchor Gates between reality and the City when connected to the appropriate [Gate] Element. 33
• Supernatural Tales seek recognition from real humans because being remembered provides the cognition needed to become more tangible and powerful. 34
• Children have been observed in the Four Great Landfill Areas, suggesting that at least some residents may reproduce within the City. 103

Facilities and Economy

The Residential Area contains specialized buildings that improve residents’ growth and daily functioning. 187

• Schools — improve basic Knowledge acquisition. 187
• Hospitals — accelerate recovery and medical-profession role-playing. 187
• Libraries — store books and improve memory. 187
• Supermarkets — provide scarce goods, including paper. 187
• Banks — exchange Tower Coins and pure Knowledge at a 1:1 ratio without handling fees. 187
• Official Proprietary Stores — include pawnshops, appraisal centers, and auction houses that handle high-grade Phantoms and Equipment. 112

Important facilities, especially libraries, have historically been monopolized by major factions, making it harder for residents of smaller landfill areas to gain Knowledge and condense Tags. 9

Purpose and Unresolved Questions

The Infinite City has no confirmed City Lord, and the Tower has no confirmed Tower Master. A common theory holds that the City’s Manager system and climbing ritual exist to select a resident capable of becoming both. 407 720

Its ultimate purpose remains unknown. Supernatural Tales originating from the City broadly accept that it possesses its own agenda, but its intentions are a source of fear and unease even among ancient residents. 707

Feng Xue has compared the City’s structure to the Hundred Tales’ system: both gather and empower Nothingness, raising the possibility that the City could someday consume the residents and Supernatural Tales it has cultivated. This remains speculation rather than established fact. 408