Nick looked at Futuma from afar with furrowed brows.
Should he accept or not?
There was definitely a major risk associated with this decision.
Would someone who was only interested in money and power be trustworthy enough to tell them some secrets?
With enough money, Futuma could maybe even be bought to become a spy.
Having a team leader as a spy would be devastating.
In fact, Nick didn't want to hire Futuma at all.
He simply didn't like him.
Compared to Nick, Futuma was only interested in his own gain.
It was almost like Futuma had no morals, which was in stark contrast to Nick, whose entire purpose in life was to make the world a better place.
However, Nick knew that things weren't that simple.
Jonathan and Kiara had told Nick about Futuma.
In Cycle, Futuma garnered a lot of respect from everyone.
In fact, almost all of the Extractors had seen Futuma as their Chief Zephyx Extractor instead of Stephen.
Whenever there was a major decision, the Extractors looked at how Futuma reacted before they gave their own answers.
From what the two of them had said, Futuma was the epitome of reliability, and he even pushed back on some policies that would have been detrimental.
Futuma was definitely a capable leader.
Having him as a team leader would be a tremendous asset to Dark Dream.
For a while, Nick just silently looked at Futuma as he evaluated his options.
"Fine," Nick said after several seconds.
"What do you have to offer?" Futuma asked.
"A position as the only team leader. When we expand in the future, there will be other team leaders as well, but you will be our first," Nick said.
"What about the money?" Futuma asked.
"You get 10% of all the Zephyx you produce yourself and 5% of all the Zephyx your team produces, including yourself," Nick said.
Wyntor and Nick had already talked about what Nick's team leaders would earn in the future.
When they finally hired a team leader, Nick's share of the profit would drop from 10% of what every Zephyx Extractor produced to 5%.
However, Nick's amount of work would also drop since he would only need to give orders to the team leaders instead of to the individual Zephyx Extractors.
Hypothetically, if there were five teams of five Extractors, Nick would only need to give orders to five people but would gain 5% of what 25 Extractors produced.
And since Extractors got 10% of what they produced, it would be like Nick was earning as much as 12.5 Extractors, while the team leaders earned as much as 3.5 Extractors since they were also working with Specters themselves.
The difference in earnings was monumental, but the amount of money the normal Extractors earned was still absolutely top.
By hiring Futuma, Nick's workload would drop even more, and he would only need to search for new Specters.
Although, he also needed to work with one Specter to increase his own level.
When Futuma heard Nick's offer, his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Apparently, he genuinely hadn't expected such a good offer.
A second later, Futuma's brows furrowed, and he looked at the ground.
"Do you accept?" Nick asked after a bit.
Futuma looked at Nick again and nodded. "I presume you don't have a contract ready."
"I don't," Nick said.
A moment later, Futuma took a rolled-up piece of paper out of one of his pockets and unrolled it, showing it to the distant Nick.
"What is that?" Nick asked with furrowed brows.
"Insurance," Futuma said. "I'm not going to walk into Dark Dream without having signed a valid contract. I'm not a great fan of putting my life in someone else's hands."
"This piece of paper is a protective order. After signing it, if I die before we negate the protective order or before it is fulfilled, Dark Dream will have to pay a hefty fine of about 500,000 credits."
"Naturally, as soon as I have signed my employment contract, the protective order will be null and void."
"I want you to sign this on behalf of Dark Dream. Without this, I won't go near Dark Dream," Futuma said.
Nick looked at the distant Futuma with furrowed brows.
"I'll need to read this first," he said.
Futuma rolled the protective order up again and held it out in front of him.
A moment later, Nick jumped down from the building and walked up to Futuma.
Naturally, Nick was still careful about Futuma.
He wouldn't lower his guard until Futuma signed his actual employment contract.
After some seconds, Nick reached Futuma and grabbed the protective order.
Nick took a couple of steps back to be at a safe distance and glanced at Futuma warily.
While Nick started reading with much difficulty, he also kept glancing at Futuma.
Of course, Futuma got annoyed by Nick's constant vigilance and took several steps back.
Then, he turned around with his hands lifted up to show that he wasn't luring Nick into some sort of trap.
"Is that better?" Futuma asked. "Can you focus on reading now?"
Nick furrowed his brows as he glanced at the distant Futuma.
He didn't like Futuma's attitude, but he was right.
It did lower Nick's vigilance.
Nick returned to reading, but then, he glanced at Futuma again.
Futuma was turned away, not looking at Nick.
Then, Nick's eyes narrowed, and a gleam appeared in them.
DZZZZZZT!
Suddenly, Nick's Barrier shone in an aggressive blue light, and Nick felt like all of his power was being sapped away!
Immediately, Nick jumped to the side with all of his power.
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!
Nick saw several scalpels, scissors, knives, and saws hitting the ground after they flew past the spot where he had just been.
A poisonous green Aura emanated from all the small tools and weapons, and the metal of the streets around them started to rust.
If Nick hadn't been ready for a sudden attack, he would have died!
Luckily, he had noticed just in time that his ability hadn't reactivated after Futuma had turned around.