?Nick just kept on working, trying not to think about the bad parts of his life.
Whenever his mind wandered to the Spartans or his employees, Nick told himself that he had to be careful while working and not get distracted.
If he got distracted, he might actually die.
It took Nick about 25 minutes to empty the second sack of grips, and he turned around again.
'Do the others really have so many issues with the grips?' Nick thought.
'The assistant is willing to let me leave early after just putting three sacks of grips onto the ceiling. If I add the time it takes me to recover my Zephyx, fixing three sacks of grips to the ceiling barely takes me three hours. Not even, actually.'
'And our shift is supposed to go on for a total of six hours.'
The answer was: yes, it took everyone else that long.
First, not everyone was a Peak John. There were many Late Johns, a couple of Mid Johns, and even a few Early and Initial Johns.
Their Zephyx was used up much faster than Nick's.
On top of that, not everyone had an expensive Barrier.
A Mid John with an average Barrier could barely survive for ten minutes inside the red mist.
Additionally, their physical strength wasn't as high as Nick's.
They couldn't just push the nails into the metal with their hand.
They actually needed to use the hammers, and using the hammers in this position was very awkward, difficult, and time-consuming.
The average worker here only fixed 1.5 to 2 sacks of grips to the ceiling after six full hours.
Nick went past the spot with the strange grips and quickly reached the central support again.
He saw a couple of people recovering their Zephyx.
'Should I recover my Zephyx as well? I'm still at around 70%,' Nick thought.
Nick thought a bit about it.
Then, he grabbed one of the white breads, shoved it into his mouth, grabbed another sack of grips, and returned to work.
The bread would increase his Zephyx recovery while working.
It should easily be enough.
By now, Nick only needed 30 seconds to fix a grip to the ceiling.
Nick went past the part with the strange grips and quickly reached the end of his ladder.
Then, he continued working.
Ding.
Nick stopped moving.
Just now, he had heard something hitting some metal from the bottom of his ladder.
Nobody was supposed to be on his ladder since he was working here right now.
Crk!
Nick heard metal getting bent and torn, which made him furrow his brows.
Crk! Crk! Crk! Crk!
More and more metal was being torn out, and surprisingly, the sound became more distant.
'I don't like this,' Nick thought with furrowed brows.
By now, the tearing of metal had stopped.
Nick decided to turn around and go back early.
Nick changed his position so that he was now "ascending" towards the bottom of the ladder.
He traveled for a couple of seconds, and then…
Nothing!
Nick's arm was touching a hole in the ceiling.
A grip was supposed to be there!
Nick used his legs to balance and searched for the next one.
Also gone!
That was when Nick realized what had happened.
'Somebody is trying to kill me by trapping me here!' Nick thought. 'The sounds from earlier were them tearing my grips out of the wall!'
'I can't jump forward since the force of my jump would break the grips I am currently holding.'
'If I shout for help, people might not arrive in time, and I would probably also end up killing several other Extractors, which would put me in trouble.'
Nick moved his arm to his big sack and searched for grips.
'Seven left. I don't think that's enough to build a bridge back,' Nick thought.
'Additionally, the workers beside me haven't built as far as me, and the distance between ladders also increases since we are essentially traveling out from the middle of a circle.'
'Did they get here by jumping from another ladder to this one near the beginning, where the ladders are closer together?'
'Then, they probably moved forward and accidentally hit their hand on the space with the weird grips.'
'That made them abort their plan and destroy my ladder there instead of coming closer since I might have heard them.'
'Quite an ingenious plan,' Nick thought.
At that moment, the image of the tall man that Nick had punched shot through his mind.
'Is it him?' Nick thought.
Nick narrowed his eyes in anger.
'Sadly for you, I don't need the grips!'
The next moment, Nick turned into fog and shot forward.
Since he could adhere to the ceiling, moving like this wasn't difficult.
However, there was a reason why Nick hadn't turned into fog here before this moment.
Nick shot forward with all of his speed, and as soon as he came in contact with a grip again, he materialized.
Nick's face had turned white, and he looked insanely exhausted.
When Nick was in his fog form, his Barrier didn't work, which meant that the red mist was injuring him.
Additionally, Nick's defenses were insanely low in his fog form.
He had barely been inside his fog form for two seconds, and he had already lost over 50% of his Zephyx!
Naturally, as soon as he materialized again, his Barrier reactivated.
A moment later, Nick shoved his legs through the metal, giving him a very stable hold.
Then, he "stood up" and took out one of his spears.
Nick's eyes were closed, but he could envision the area in front of him.
Throwing a spear without vision wasn't anything new to Nick.
An instant later, he threw his spear forward.
BANG!
Nick heard the sound of his spear hitting something hard in the distance.
"AAAAaahahahaha!"
The next moment, a scream appeared before turning into laughter.
The good thing was that no other laughter was ringing out.
The people in this shift had already experienced several deaths, and they had learned not to look around.
Then, Nick went back to grab the grips and walked forward.