"And that's that," a blonde woman wearing the city's uniform said with a smile.
The emblem on her uniform identified her as a Veteran working for the city, and right now, she was standing in front of one of Dark Dream's Containment Units.
"Thank you," Nick answered with a smile.
"Dark Dream really lucked out this time," she said. "I'm not sure what you paid, but it must have been a lot. I thought the city would keep that one for all eternity."
"Well, I can only say that we are happy with how things turned out," Nick said with a chuckle.
The woman also chuckled a bit. "Anyway, have fun. I wish we could have this one. Oh, with we, I mean Gemini."
"Thank you," Nick said before leading her out.
The Veteran left, and Nick went back into the building.
The Veteran had just delivered the two Specters that the governor had promised Nick.
Naturally, one of them was Monica, and the other one was one of equivalent value to Monica.
Dark Dream now had five Adolescents and a total of nine Specters.
Nick remembered how he and Wyntor had captured the Dreamer inside the sewers and how they had kept it inside a Containment Unit in a warehouse.
Now, Dark Dream actually had a huge building with nine Specters.
'Well, time to get to work!' Nick thought as he walked to the third floor.
Trevor and Jenny were already waiting in front of a Containment Unit, and Nick nodded at them.
"You ready?" he asked.
The two of them nodded.
"This should be easy, but we still have to be careful," Nick said as he walked into the Containment Unit.
Jenny and Trevor followed after him.
The door closed behind them, and the three of them were now eye to eye with a young woman with blonde hair.
The woman seemed bored and apathetic, but she didn't seem too strange otherwise.
Just by looking at her, nobody would believe that she was an Early Adolescent, a Specter.
Monica just leaned on one of the walls.
Jenny and Trevor waited near the entrance.
Jenny had her gun in her hand, and Trevor had already taken out his spear.
Monica acted like the two of them didn't exist and just looked at Nick.
"Scared?" she asked with a bored but dark tone.
"Just careful," Nick said. "We don't know each other yet."
Monica just looked at Nick in silence for a while.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Nick asked. "I want to come to an agreement with you."
"For?" she asked.
"What else? Zephyx extraction," Nick said.
"Why would you need an agreement? I can't escape anyway. I don't even want to escape," she said.
Trevor and Jenny didn't believe her.
Every Specter wanted to escape since they couldn't grow as quickly inside a Containment Unit.
However, Nick believed her.
He was quite sure that Monica didn't want to escape.
Envy wanted to kill her, and the safest place was inside a Containment Unit right now.
After all, Envy would send a Specter, and the worst place a Specter could be in was a Containment Unit.
"You were with the Riker Strikers for a while," Nick said. "You have seen how the gangs in the Dregs operate."
"It is much easier for both sides when we come to an agreement."
"If I just force everything on you, you might decide to kill an Extractor at some point out of protest, and then we would be forced to do other things."
"In the end, all of us would lose out."
"So, why not come to an agreement right now?" Nick asked.
Monica's expression didn't change.
In fact, her expression hadn't changed ever since she had been captured several days ago.
She felt just like the Dreamer, with the only difference being that she could actually talk.
If the Dreamer could talk, it would probably talk very similarly to Monica.
"Fine," Monica said with a bored tone. "Explain to me what you want."
Jenny and Trevor watched with interest.
This was the first Specter they could actually have a conversation with.
Sure, the Bleeding Lady could also talk, but she wasn't much of a talker.
She generally just said that she was going to kill someone.
She wasn't much for thoughtful conversations.
"As a Manufacturer, we are interested in three things," Nick said.
"First of all, we want Zephyx so that we can sell it and earn a lot of money."
"Second, we want our Extractors to become stronger."
"And third, this might surprise you, but we also want our Specters to become stronger."
Monica's expression didn't change.
"Why?" she asked with boredom.
Monica had heard about Manufacturers, but she had never talked to any Extractor, and she also didn't know how Manufacturers operated.
She genuinely had no idea why a Manufacturer would want to increase the power of a Specter.
Yet, since she couldn't feel emotions, her question seemed like she just wanted to argue, even though she genuinely just wanted to know why.
Luckily, Nick had a lot of experience with Specters and knew what Monica meant.
"If you are stronger, you produce more Zephyx, and the Extractors that work with you also benefit more," Nick said.
Monica's expression didn't change. "For profit, you are willing to increase the power of your natural predator?"
"Yes," Nick said with a smile.
Monica looked at Nick for a while.
This wasn't actually as bad as she had anticipated.
"What do you have in mind?" she asked.
"Usually, we confiscate 90% of the Zephyx you produce, but I am willing to go down to 80% for you," Nick said.
"However, I am only doing this because I am trusting in the fact that you won't kill any of my weaker Extractors."
"If one of my Extractors dies, it will be back to 90%, and maybe we will even sell you to another Manufacturer, and I can guarantee that they are not as nice as us."
Monica's expression didn't change.
She just looked at Nick for a while.