?While Nick was fixing the holes, he kept thinking about the person who had just tried to kill him.
Right now, the ever-present black hole in his chest was covered by a red film of anger.
Anger was a very good distraction from pain.
After around half an hour, Nick managed to create a ladder leading around the damaged part.
The metal plates where the old grips had been were just too damaged and unstable, which was why Nick had made a way around them.
Finally, Nick returned to the center and told the assistant that he was done.
"Let me check," the assistant said before quickly moving down Nick's lane.
Around 30 seconds later, he came back and nodded at Nick.
"Good work. You can leave. We'll see each other again next week," he said.
At that moment, Nick furrowed his brows. "Next week?"
"Yes," the assistant said. "Do you think this was the only time you were working here?"
"Yes," Nick said, "the order said so."
The assistant also furrowed his brows.
Then, he held his hand out.
"Show me."
Nick took the order out and handed it over.
The assistant read through it, and his eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Huh," he said.
Silence.
"If I had known, I wouldn't have made that offer to you," he added before sighing.
"But well, we had an agreement. It's my fault for not reading through your order carefully."
Then, he handed the order back to Nick.
Nick pocketed the order, nodded at the assistant, and went to the underground's exit.
The two guards standing beside the exit immediately pointed their guns at Nick as he approached.
"He can leave," the assistant shouted from a distance.
The guards put their guns down and nodded at Nick.
Nick nodded back and jumped out of the hole.
When Nick came out of the underground, his eyes had to adjust to the different light again.
This was the longest Nick had been away from the sunlight in his entire life.
The familiar rays of the sun calmed Nick down, and he released a sigh.
Sadly, Nick's mind very quickly became tense again as he was reminded of the attempted murder on him.
'Was it only one guy, or is a group behind this?' Nick thought as he walked towards the exit of the megastructure.
As Nick continued walking, he noticed that the guards kept glancing at him warily.
He was quite sure that it wasn't because of him specifically but because of his identity as a level two Extractor.
He remembered that the guards had already been quite firm when Nick had shown up for the first time.
Something like this hadn't happened in the past.
The guards generally seemed like relaxed protectors, but ever since the Crimson Sea appeared, the guards seemed like soldiers whose job it was to suppress the people.
'But it's probably only for Johns,' Nick thought. 'All the Johns are being sent to work in an extremely dangerous location, and there have probably been instances where some of them tried to resist.'
'They are probably wary of all level two Extractors, fearing that they might act out.'
As Nick left the megastructure, he saw the guards looking at him warily.
Nick didn't engage in any conversation with them.
A couple minutes later, Nick arrived at the bottom of Dark Dream and looked up.
The two Veterans guarding Dark Dream were leaning against the wall.
One of them noticed Nick and woke up the other one.
"Back so early?" one of them asked.
Nick nodded. "I did a good job and was allowed to leave early."
The two guards looked at each other in confusion.
They were supposed to be here for six hours.
Should they stay here for a couple more hours, or could they leave?
Nick could tell what they were thinking about.
"You can leave," Nick said. "Thanks for keeping a lookout."
The two guards shrugged, said their goodbyes, and left.
Nick jumped to Dark Dream's entrance and looked through it.
He could still see rubble and blood.
For a while, he didn't know what to do.
He wanted to relax a bit since the last three hours had been quite stressful, but whenever he tried to calm down, the memories returned.
The fact that he was responsible for the city's current state.
Trevor's face.
Cryon's face.
Jonathan's face.
Kiara's face.
'Right, I need someone to work with the Lover now,' Nick thought as he tried his best to distract his mind.
'Kerry worked with it before. If she's still alive, she might agree to work with it.'
'What if nobody wants to work with it?' Nick asked himself.
Silence.
'I guess that would mean that we couldn't gain any Zephyx from it.'
'Should we sell it, then?'
Nick shook his head.
'I should continue cleaning the building first.'
A moment later, Nick returned to cleaning the building.
Within a couple of minutes, he was occupied with working again.
A couple of hours passed.
At around 11:30 p.m., someone appeared in front of Dark Dream's entrance.
When Nick saw the person, he immediately became nervous.
It was a tall young man with disheveled brown hair and eyebags below his eyes.
He looked extremely tired and exhausted.
"Wyntor," Nick said.
Wyntor looked at Nick, and Nick could see his red eyes.
"How are the Specters?" Wyntor asked.
"All good," Nick said. "The Bleeding Lady is stressed and needs some food soon, and the Dung Heap is rolling around in hunger, but there isn't much I can do about that without some food waste. Otherwise, everything's alright."
Wyntor released a sigh and walked into Dark Dream.
As he walked past Nick, he threw a glance at him.
"We need to talk," Wyntor said as he went onto the staircase.
Nick took a deep breath and walked after Wyntor.
He had expected that this would happen.
Wyntor knew that Nick had been inside the Spartans' building yesterday, and he also knew of Nick's capabilities.
Wyntor definitely knew that Nick was the reason why the Crimson Sea had broken out.
Nick had no idea what Wyntor had planned.