?Nick finally found out what undercity work was.
So, it was putting grips onto the underside of the city.
The more Nick thought about it, the more sense it actually made.
They would need to expand the city again at some point, and they couldn't just attach a single layer of steel. That would be far too unstable.
The floor of the outer city was made of three layers, and all three layers added together were about a meter thick.
The upper layer was made of the big metal plates that the people walked on.
The middle layer was made of big and robust steel beams.
The lower layer was made of the same metal plates as the upper layer.
Originally, the entire floor of the Outer City was made of these layers, but the floor of the Dregs deteriorated over the years.
Parts of the Dregs had only had a single layer of metal plates and grates.
But that didn't matter anymore.
The Dregs were destroyed.
Another reason why the city might want some grips on the bottom of the city was that some people might be able to catch themselves if a part of the floor broke.
They didn't need to be able to climb back up to survive.
They just needed to hang on for a while so that other people could save them.
Lastly, the stability of the city had changed.
The Inner City wasn't any more or less stable than before, but the same thing wasn't true for the Outer City.
In the past, many supporting pillars kept the Outer City stable.
Sadly, over 80% of them had vanished, which was one of the main reasons why so much of the city had collapsed.
Most of the Outer City was hanging onto the support of the Inner City, and due to the lever principle, the further one went from the Inner City, the more dangerous it got.
How much strain did a metal plate put on the city's support when it was an entire kilometer away from the closest support?
This meant that the city needed to create diagonal supporting beams.
Those were beams that connected to the bottom of the big pillar and the underside of the city but further away from the central support.
Bridges used these kinds of support beams very often.
The city was currently cut off from the outside world, and the first order of business was to reestablish the connection.
To do that, the city needed to expand again.
And to expand, the city needed more support.
And that support needed to be constructed on the city's underside.
And to start construction on the city's underside, people first needed to be able to traverse the underside.
Aka, the grips.
Everyone looked at the sacks they had received.
Most of them had already known what waited for them, but there were still some open questions.
"Why are we being sent?" one of the Extractors asked with a bit of fear. "Can't the normal people do this?"
The older man looked at the Extractor neutrally. "And how are the normal people supposed to survive the red mist?"
The Extractor's eyes widened.
He had completely forgotten about that!
Right, the entire underside was covered in the thick red mist!
"And how are we supposed to survive that?!" the same Extractor asked in fear.
"You have Barriers," the man said calmly. "If you don't have one, you can borrow a standard one with a 2:1 conversion rate."
"This is madness!" the Extractor shouted. "Our Barriers won't hold for several hours! Why aren't the Veterans or Experts doing this?!"
An annoyed expression appeared on the older man's face.
"Because it's too dangerous," the man said.
Silence.
The faces of several Extractors turned white.
The older man gestured forward, and all the guards pointed their guns at the Extractors.
These were not just normal guns.
Additionally, even though a level two Extractor could probably block over five shots with their Barriers, the sheer number of guns ensured that they would die.
"The physical strength necessary to survive and work down there can only be achieved by level two Extractors," the older man said. "However, it's not truly safe. If a plate collapses, even a level three Extractor will fall to their death."
The older man didn't say anything else, but his unspoken message was clear.
The level two Extractors were not worth as much as level three Extractors.
Someone had to do it, and the Johns had been chosen for this job.
The Extractors obviously weren't happy, but the city didn't care about that.
They had to work, or they would be executed.
Several more questions were asked by multiple people, but those mostly pertained to the undercity work.
Eventually, all the questions had been answered, and the older man left after ordering his assistants to lead the Extractors to their workplace.
The assistants led the Extractors through the entrance of the Inner City.
Naturally, the Extractors followed without any complaints.
The city was not messing around.
After they entered the megastructure, they were led into hallways in the megastructure's walls.
They followed the hallway for around 300 meters before they stopped in front of a big hole.
In front of them was a hole that was around five meters wide.
When Nick saw the hole, he felt his heart rate increase.
The hole was in the middle of a bigger room, and Nick could see an ominous red glow coming out of it.
It was almost like the hole led right into hell.
Yet, there was no red mist, strangely enough.
In the room were three guards, and all three of them wore the uniforms of Veterans.
The leading assistant told the Extractors to follow him before he jumped into the hole.
He also assured everyone that they were not in danger yet.
Nick took a deep breath, and together with a couple other Extractors, he jumped into the hole.
Since the assistant had said that they were not in danger yet, Nick dared to look down.
There was a metal plate about five meters below him, and everyone easily landed on it.
Then, Nick looked around.