Blame!

Setting Blame! is set in "The City", a gigantic megastructure occupying much of what used to be the Solar System. Its exact size is unknown, but Tsutomu Nihei suggested its diameter to be at least equal to Jupiter's orbit, or about 1.6 billion kilometers (a detail suggested in the manga by having Killy cross an empty, spherical room roughly the size of Jupiter, suggesting that it had housed the planet before its disassembly). According to the prequel manga NOiSE, the City began as a much smaller structure erected on Earth by the robotic "Builders". Humanity controlled the Builders through the Netsphere, an advanced computer network whose access was restricted to human use only, and authenticated by a genetic marker known as the Net Terminal Gene. Anyone who attempted to access the Netsphere without the marker was eliminated by an automated security force known as the Safeguards. However, a terrorist cult known as "the Order" released a retrovirus that deleted the Net Terminal Gene from all humans, thus cutting off their access to the Netsphere and their control over the Builders. Without specific instructions, the Builders began to build chaotically and indefinitely, while the Safeguards' programming degraded into a mandate to kill all humans without the Net Terminal Gene, whether they wanted to access the Netsphere or not. By the time of the events of the manga, the City has come to resemble a series of layered, concentric Dyson spheres, filled with haphazard architecture and largely devoid of life. These layers compose the supporting scaffold of the City, known as the Megastructure; the underside of each layer periodically illuminates the overside of the one below to provide a day–night cycle. The Megastructure is extremely durable, with only a direct blast from a Gravitational Beam Emitter being able to penetrate it. Travel between layers is challenging, both due to the City's chaotic layout and the risk of provoking a Safeguard response; due to the size of the City, it is also extremely time-consuming, despite such amenities as elevators that can reach relativistic speeds. The buildings on each layer are largely uninhabited, although scattered human and post-human tribes, rogue Builders, hostile Safeguards, and Silicon Life can be found throughout the entire City. Plot Killy, a silent loner possessing an incredibly powerful weapon known as a Gravitational Beam Emitter, wanders a vast technological world known as "The City". He is searching for Net Terminal Genes, a (possibly) extinct genetic marker that allows humans to access the "Netsphere", a sort of computerized control network for The City. The City is an artificial structure of immense volume, separated into massive "floors" by nearly-impenetrable barriers known as "Megastructure". The City is inhabited by scattered human and transhuman tribes as well as hostile cyborgs known as Silicon Life. The Net Terminal Genes appear to be the key to halting the unhindered, chaotic expansion of the Megastructure, as well as a way of stopping the murderous robot horde known as the Safeguard from destroying all of humanity. Along the way, Killy meets and joins forces with a resourceful engineer named Cibo. Their quest is indirectly supported by the City's Authority, which is unable to stop the Safeguard from opposing them. Together, Killy and Cibo meet a young girl named Sanakan and a tribe of human warriors called the Electro-Fishers. Killy's cybernetic abilities are restored after he is attacked by a high-level Safeguard, which turns out to have been Sanakan in disguise. She transforms into her Safeguard form and attacks the Electro-Fishers' village when discovered. Killy and Cibo defend the Electro-Fishers by bringing them to the cylindrical megastructure of Toha Heavy Industries. Here they meet Mensab, an AI independent from the Administration, and her guardian Seu, a human. The megastructure is ultimately destroyed due to attacks by Silicon Life and Sanakan, but Mensab is able to give Cibo a sample of Seu's DNA. Killy and Cibo next come to a region of the City ruled by a group of Silicon Life, where they ally with a pair of "provisional Safeguards" named Dhomochevsky and Iko. Seu's DNA is stolen by the Silicon leader, Davine, who uses it to access the Netsphere. Dhomochevsky sacrifices his life to kill Davine, but not before she downloads an extremely powerful Level 9 Safeguard from the Netsphere which manifests in Cibo's body. The Cibo Safeguard destroys the entire region. 14 years later, Killy's body repairs itself from the attack and he continues his journey. He meets a human whose physical body is dead and whose consciousness is preserved in a device resembling a USB stick, and takes her with him. Upon eventually finding Cibo again he discovers that she, having lost her memory, was eventually rescued by Sanakan, who is now allied with the Authority against the rest of the Safeguard. Cibo's body is incubating a "sphere" which contains both her and Sanakan’s genetic information. Ultimately, Cibo and Sanakan both die in a final confrontation with the Safeguard, but Killy survives and preserves the sphere. The digital consciousness Killy picked up earlier is seen in human form in the Netsphere, recounting Killy’s quest to other entities an unknown amount of time in the future. She is told that Killy’s journey to the outside of the City will be longer and harder than anything that came before. Killy finally reaches the edge of the City, where he is shot in the head and incapacitated, but a flood of water carries him to the surface of the City where stars are visible and the sphere begins to glow. In the final page, Killy is seen fighting in the corridors of the City again, alongside a small child wearing a hazmat suit. == Media ==