For the next couple of days, Nick went to sleep directly after training and stood up deep in the night.
Then, for the first couple of hours after waking up, Nick waited on top of a neighboring building while watching Dark Dream's warehouse.
It was finally time.
Wars and conflicts between Manufacturers could happen for any reason.
Sometimes, it was as major as an assassination, but other times, it was simply because one Extractor looked at another one with shifty eyes.
But most of the time, it was simply small things that spiraled out of control.
In a certain way, there was no enmity between Cycle and Dark Dream.
Both of them were just working on their Specters.
It was just that Ardum had acted like an asshole towards Wyntor, but to be fair, Wyntor acted like an asshole back.
And then came the entire spy business.
Under normal circumstances, something like this would be easily resolved by confronting the other Manufacturer and demanding payment from them.
The other Manufacturer would apologize deeply, say that this was an order given by a rogue manager, and pull all members back.
Of course, that was a lie, but that didn't matter.
In the political game, only the surface counted.
As long as there was no concrete proof, the public wouldn't be happy with seeing one Manufacturer attacking another.
Additionally, when it came to big Manufacturers with over a hundred employees, it was also important that everyone perceived themselves to be fighting a defensive war.
The other company was the one antagonizing and attacking them!
They were just defending themselves!
But if a Manufacturer ordered their Extractors to attack someone they perceive to be innocent, things could become very troublesome.
One had to remember that these were companies, not countries.
These were employees, not soldiers.
If a Manufacturer decided to act like a tyrant that attacked any other Manufacturer just for existing, many of their Extractors would quit and join another Manufacturer.
Because of that, it was important to show proof that going against another Manufacturer was justified.
In a way, this also counted for Dark Dream.
If Wyntor just randomly ordered Jenny to assassinate the wife of some Extractor, things would become very troublesome.
Maybe, Jenny would even run to the wife and tell her everything.
After that, the other company would take her with them.
Wyntor would demand them to hand her over while denying everything, but they would keep protecting Jenny and making her one of their employees.
Giving assassination orders was always very risky without being able to provide a very compelling reason.
Luckily, Dark Dream had their reason.
All three Extractors had seen how much of an asshole Ardum was, which was already more than enough for them.
Then that entire thing with Pator appeared, and now, there was even another spy.
Wyntor didn't need to fear his employees abandoning ship.
They were all unified against Cycle.
But what about Cycle?
They had six Newbies and two Johns, including Ardum, and only Ardum had ever come into direct contact with Dark Dream.
Their spy had also seen Dark Dream, but they had not come into contact with them.
The remaining six employees had never seen anyone from Dark Dream.
What if a war suddenly broke out between these two Manufacturers?
Well, without a good reason, Ardum's employees wouldn't feel great risking their lives fighting some random people they had never heard of.
This meant that Ardum would need some time to prepare a good lie to get their people to follow him into war.
If he didn't have one, some of his employees might transfer to Dark Dream.
'From what Wyntor said, Ardum probably doesn't expect his spy to die,' Nick thought as he watched the ceiling of Dark Dream from a neighboring house.
'Ardum is too arrogant and thinks he has everything under control.'
However, Nick was still a bit skeptical.
After all, while Wyntor was extremely intelligent, he could also be wrong sometimes.
What if Ardum just acted like a dumbass to fool Wyntor into lowering his guard?
'For now, it doesn't matter. Wyntor is the CEO, and I just have to trust in him. I just have to wait for the spy to appear.'
The spy had been coming fewer and fewer times.
They were probably cautious due to the guards that Wyntor had hired.
'I wonder what they are even looking for,' Nick thought. 'I don't see what Ardum would gain from looking into our warehouse after so long.'
'I mean, I get it in the beginning since he probably just wanted to know what it looked like, but what's the point of keeping watch? He's seen everything already,' Nick thought as he scratched the back of his head.
'Is there a different reason for sending the spy?'
'What if they are actually not a spy?'
'I mean, I've never seen them. I just feel their presence from time to time.'
Nick kept thinking about that for a while, but in the end, he just shrugged.
'It's Wyntor's problem, not mine. I just need to deal with the spy.'
A couple hours passed.
Nick was extremely bored.
'Oh?' Nick thought as his body stiffened.
Nick just saw something white silently landing on the roof of Dark Dream.
It was shortly before 5 a.m. at this moment, which was when the shift of the guards changed.
One could say it was the perfect opportunity for someone to do something.
Nick took out a pair of binoculars that Wyntor had given him and looked at the white thing on top of Dark Dream.
'Someone wearing a white cloak,' Nick thought.
The person on top of Dark Dream wore a white cloak that made it difficult to see them under the constant light of the sun.
Then, Nick saw the person fidgeting around with something, but he couldn't see exactly what it was due to the huge cloak.
'Well, whatever it is, it can't be good.'
Nick took a deep breath.
He didn't look forward to it.