CENTER CITY

Center City sits between East Point and Capital West—the second largest of the three remaining American cities. The surrounding territory was once called Centerland, a nineteenth-century urban region built between the former Inland Seas and the Central River watershed.

Official records date the city to 1837. By 2070, its population is fixed at 4,799,999. The number repeats across every available civic report. No revision appears in the archive.

STORE CORP arrived in the early 2000s and reorganized Center City around finance, trade, industry, technology and telecommunications. Employment surged. The population doubled. A headquarters became an operating system.

Today, goods, information, access and authority pass through the same corporate center. It is why Center City is called the Five Star City—and why the stars appear on everything from employee records to civic signage.

Center City is maintained with almost ceremonial precision. Littering is aggressively enforced. Trust & Safety signage is embedded in the streetscape. Assurance and deterrence are treated as the same public service.

Beneath the city runs the largest known reserve of light paths: infrastructure for power, data and movement, active at every hour. The city is bright by design. What the light reveals—and what it erases—depends on who controls the grid.