After Julian left, Nick returned to working with an improved mood.
His talk with Julian helped Nick forget about all the troubles and the stress.
Sure, Envy was probably still searching for him, but for now, there was no sign of any of Envy's servants being anywhere close to the city.
Who knew? Maybe it would take another decade for them to turn up.
Julian said not to worry, and Nick believed in Julian.
There probably wasn't much to worry about for now.
The day passed without any incidents, and eventually, it was time for Nick to go to sleep.
For a change, it was surprisingly easy to fall asleep today.
Nick just didn't feel as worried as usual, and he fell asleep rather quickly.
"We hate you!"
"You don't deserve your wealth!"
"You don't deserve your power!"
Nick was on top of a small mound of corpses, and a mob of people were clawing at his feet in hatred.
Nick held a bar of gold in his hands, and he looked at the people below him with worry.
The people of the Dregs.
They hated him.
They wanted to kill him.
They despised him.
Nick looked into the distance.
There, he saw several fat people sitting on mountains of gold.
These rich people sometimes extended their hands towards one of the people of the Dregs and shook them until a piece of gold fell out, which landed on their mountain of gold.
After that, the person was thrown back to the ground, after which they stood up and ran towards Nick with aggression.
The mountains of gold were so high that the people on the ground couldn't even see the rich people on top of them.
The only things they witnessed were their empty pockets, Nick sitting on a mound of corpses, and Nick holding a gold bar.
Obviously, Nick was killing everyone and gathering their wealth.
They hated Nick!
He deserved to die!
Nick was terrified as hundreds of people clawed at his feet.
"I'm sorry!" Nick shouted.
"I want to help you!"
"Please, just give me a bit!"
"I will improve your lives!"
Yet, the people just kept shouting for his death.
Nick gritted his teeth, tore a piece off his gold bar, and threw it into the crowd.
The people glanced at the cold piece.
Then, they noticed that the gold piece in Nick's hands was bigger than the one on the ground.
"You're greedy!"
"You don't deserve your wealth!"
The people ignored the gold on the ground and clawed at Nick's feet again.
One of the rich people climbed down from their mountain, grabbed the piece of gold on the ground, and returned to their mountain.
Nick tore more and more off his gold bar and threw it into the crowd.
Yet, the crowd always found a reason to attack Nick.
Eventually, Nick threw incredible amounts of gold at all the people in the Dregs, and all their pockets were filled with gold.
While the crowd kept attacking Nick, more and more rich people grabbed poor people to shake their money out of their pockets.
The poor people became more and more injured by the continued shaking, and the more injured they became, the more they hated Nick.
They despised Nick!
They hated him!
They wanted to kill him!
Nick's fists began to shake.
He was so furious!
Why were they this stupid?!
Were they animals?!
Could they not see the true cause?!
What had he done to them?!
Why did they hate him?!
Did he deserve to be hated that much?
Nick started to hate the people as well.
CRACK!
Nick rammed a gold bar into someone's skull, killing them.
The corpse fell onto Nick's mound of corpses, making it a bit bigger.
The crowd of people only became angrier.
Their clawing intensified, and Nick was pulled down from his mound.
An army of hate-filled expressions approached his face and bit into his flesh.
"AH!"
Nick shouted as he suddenly shot up from his bed.
He was covered in sweat.
His eyes were teary.
His heart was racing.
For a while, Nick just looked downward.
"It was just a dream," Nick said.
And yet, it didn't feel like a dream.
Nick felt like what he had just experienced was real.
After regaining his bearings, Nick went back to sleep.
But as soon as he fell asleep, the same dream appeared.
Eventually, he shot up again after a short cry.
Later, the dream reappeared a third time.
After that, Nick couldn't fall back asleep again and decided to start the day early.
The day went by as usual.
When it was time to sleep again, Nick had the same dream.
And again.
And again.
Days passed.
Nick became unfocused.
He was constantly tired.
He felt like the world was weighing on his shoulders.
Small problems looked like huge problems.
Whenever Nick saw someone from the Dregs, the images from his dreams seemed to overlap with them.
He saw the creatures of his dreams in the people.
They hated him.
They despised him.
For no reason.
He was trying to help them, but they still secretly hated and despised him.
No matter what he did, he could never become a part of them.
Couldn't they see that he was trying to help?
Why did they hate him?!
"Hey!"
Nick was taken out of his thoughts as he heard something.
He looked around but couldn't find the person that spoke to him.
"Hey! Hey, buddy! Down here!"
Nick furrowed his brows and looked at the floor.
Right now, Nick was standing on top of a grate, and through the small slits, he could see something.
A rat.
"What?" Nick asked.
"You've been having some troubles recently, eh?" the Parasite whispered through the grate.
Nick took a deep breath and just continued walking.
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't just walk away," the rat shouted.
Nick ignored the rat.
The Parasite was a plague upon this city.
If he could, Nick would kill the Parasite right here and now.
"I know how to get rid of your nightmares!"
Nick stopped walking.
"Interested?" the Parasite asked, and Nick could hear the grin in its voice.
Nick took a deep breath and walked back to the grate.
"I know what to do," the rat said. "I also know what's happening to you."
"What?" Nick asked coldly.
"Well, I'm not just going to tell you," the rat said.
"I want something in return."
Nick furrowed his brows.
He knew exactly what the Parasite wanted.