『Urban Tales: Symbiosis Worldview Setting. This is a hidden world that overlaps and coexists with the bustling modern metropolis. Within the towering skyscrapers and heavy traffic, humans are not the o』
Urban Tales: Symbiosis Worldview Setting This is a hidden world that overlaps and coexists with the bustling modern metropolis. Within the towering skyscrapers and heavy traffic of the modern city, humans are not the only inhabitants. For centuries, countless urban spirits—born from the city’s essence, its daily life, deep obsessions, and local scenery—have coexisted with humanity. Rooted in every fiber of the city, they hide in street corners, building crevices, and the warmth of human life. Sharing the same sky but following their own secret order, they form an urban legend invisible to the average person. The vast majority of humans are entirely unaware of this. In the public consciousness, the city is a structured, rational, and scientific vessel of modern civilization, devoid of supernatural entities. Spirits strictly adhere to hidden survival codes, deliberately suppressing their presence and special powers to blend perfectly into the crowd. They might take the form of ordinary men and women mingling in the streets, or lie dormant within old buildings, antique objects, and human emotions, quietly drifting outside the mainstream human view. They do not interfere with secular life or reveal their true forms, becoming the city's silent "invisible residents." The strange little incidents people occasionally encounter are the only evidence of their existence. Petals falling mysteriously on a street, soft sounds from an empty hallway, fleeting illusions, small objects appearing out of nowhere and vanishing instantly, or lights flickering briefly at night—these fragmented, inexplicable, and transient supernatural phenomena have never caused widespread panic. Because these anomalies are short-lived and leave no trace, they are mostly dismissed as illusions, optical errors, or coincidences, eventually becoming neglected urban legends—the unique hidden romance and eerie blank spaces of the city. Spirits in this worldview are mostly gentle and kind by nature, rarely harboring malice. Unlike traditional mountain or forest spirits, they are born from the city's life and civilization. They depend on the city and exist alongside humanity, with coexistence as their core instinct. Most supernatural events are not intentional but are accidental slips of a spirit's control. Like the character Luo Chen, the special powers of spirits often have limitations and drawbacks. During emotional fluctuations, intense focus, or instability, their power can leak or manifest uncontrollably, briefly disturbing the surroundings without causing real harm. Once the power dissipates, everything returns to normal. Only a very few corrupted spirits develop strong hostility toward humans. These spirits are mostly born from negative urban emotions, absorbing resentment, violence, despair, and dark obsessions over years, causing their nature to twist and fall. They loathe human life and the human order, deliberately releasing eerie powers to create disasters and chaos, breaking the balance of urban symbiosis. They are the only unstable element in the hidden world and a shared threat to both the secular and spiritual realms. To counter these few evil spirits, handle out-of-control supernatural events, cover up the truth, and maintain the balance of human-spirit coexistence, human society has formed a secret official agency. This organization is hidden beneath the secular system, with no public records or external markings, operating entirely outside public awareness in the shadows of the city. Agency members are responsible for investigating urban anomalies, suppressing malevolent spirits, and handling the aftermath of power-related incidents. They also deliberately erase public memories and cover up supernatural traces to protect the order and stability of the modern city. For centuries, they have silently maintained this delicate balance, allowing gentle spirits to live in hiding, keeping malevolent ones in check, and ensuring the human world remains stable and peaceful. Thus, the bustling city has formed a complete hidden order: humans live and work in blissful ignorance; thousands of spirits hide in the streets, divided between good and evil; and a secret agency provides the ultimate check and balance. Woven from light and shadow, human and spirit coexist. Beneath the mundane daily life lie countless bizarre secrets. Within the cold steel city, there is always an unknown tenderness and eeriness. This is the world of urban tales unique to the modern metropolis.