?"Fine," Nick said as he stood up.
Then, he turned around and walked towards the door.
Albert kept glaring at him from his chair.
Nick opened the door, stopped, and glanced at Albert one last time.
"Go!" Albert shouted.
Nick turned around and left the house.
Now, Albert was alone again.
"Ungrateful brat," he grumbled to himself as he made another cup of coffee. "That's why I don't have children! They're nothing but trouble!"
Meanwhile, Nick slowly walked away from the house, his eyes filled with conviction.
Nick's resolve had been strengthened by talking to Albert.
'Morality is not objective,' he thought.
'Things that are wrong in one place might not necessarily be wrong in another place.'
'And since morality is subjective, the worth of one's morality is equal to the number of one's lives, namely one.'
'If 49 people were to be sacrificed for 51 people, maybe the majority would believe it to be wrong since not everyone is the same.'
'However, if it is ten to a hundred, the chances of it fluctuating are minuscule. In almost every case, a majority of people would vote for the minority of people to get sacrificed for the majority's survival.'
Nick turned around and looked at Albert's distant house.
'The more people survive, the more moral it is.'
'If I sacrifice a thousand people for the survival of over 10,000, I will have been right in my actions.'
Nick turned away from Albert's house and continued walking.
'I have already sacrificed over a thousand people.'
'I have already taken out a loan, and the interest is scarily high.'
'I can't fail now.'
'If I fail now, I will be a monster.'
'But if I succeed, I will be a savior.'
Nick's eyes narrowed.
'I can't lose!'
'I can't allow myself any distractions!'
'Right now, I am an absolute monster, but if I do it right, I won't be anymore.'
'I can redeem myself!'
'It will just be very, very hard and will take a long time.'
After talking with Albert, Nick's guilt had lessened quite a bit.
He still felt bad about killing him, but…
'I'm sorry, Albert, but for the good of the city, you have to be sacrificed.'
'I have already sacrificed over a thousand people.'
'One more won't make a difference.'
After a while, Nick reached the exit of the upper layer.
He put the clothing for visitors away and put his old clothing on again.
Even though the clothing for the visitors was much more comfortable, Nick liked wearing his own clothing far more.
After he put on his old clothing, Nick looked at the entrance to the upper layer again.
'Less than a thousand people are allowed to live in this utopia.'
'There were more people living in the Dregs than people living here.'
'And yet, one person living here could sacrifice just a bit of their wealth to vastly improve the lives of the people in the Dregs.'
'I don't think that all one thousand of them are pure monsters. At least one of them would be willing to give a bit of their wealth for the poor.'
'But they can't.'
'The greediest part of these people would make the lives of the less-greedy part hell.'
'And in the end, humans are more interested in their own gain.'
'Would they sacrifice their lives for a thousand people?'
'No.'
'The moral minority of people want to help the less fortunate, but the rulers of this city won't allow them.'
'But if they get an opportunity to vocalize their opinions without any repercussions, they will show their support.'
'In the end, it's all about Kugelblitz and Anatomy.'
'They are the enemy!'
Nick stepped out of the wooden locker room.
"Oh, already back?" the Specialist asked Nick.
Nick looked at her and nodded.
"How was your talk with Albert?" she asked.
"We had a little argument," Nick answered. "If you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."
"Sad to hear," she said with a friendly voice. "Come by again, okay?"
"Sure," Nick said before he jumped onto the rails.
About a minute later, Nick reached the lower layer of the Inner City again, and he walked out of the southern exit.
He reached Dark Dream pretty quickly.
Nick felt like quite some time had passed, but in truth, not even three hours had passed since his talk with Julian.
After he entered Dark Dream, Nick greeted the employees he met on the way and went to Julian's office.
He opened the door without knocking.
There was no point in making his presence known since Julian's presence was all over the building.
Julian's human body was currently talking to someone in another room, but that didn't matter.
Julian's office was still inundated with mouths.
Nick calmly walked to the chair in the middle of all the mouths and sat down.
"It's done," he said. "I visited Albert."
"Yes, I can feel it," Julian said. "Well done. That goes a long way in proving your loyalty."
Nick looked at the mouths with determined eyes.
"Talking to Albert made me realize that I did the right thing."
"I want to help the majority of people, and with you leading the city, more people will survive than now."
"Yes, you will consume Experts, Specialists, and maybe even Heroes, but the number of lives you are going to take will be fewer than the number of lives those Experts, Specialists, and Heroes are taking."
"I want to help you in achieving control over the city," Nick said with determination.
The mouths in the room chuckled.
"You would be fine with me killing powerful people as long as it meant that the weaker people would survive?" he asked.
"A rich person's death and a poor person's death is not different," Nick said.
"So, why would a powerful person's death and a weak person's death be any different?"
The mouths chuckled again.
"Lucky me, I suppose," they said.
Nick remained silent for a couple of seconds.
"Julian, there's something I want," he said.
"Oh? What is it?" Julian asked.
"I am physically strong, but there are many things I don't know."
"I don't know how Zephyx works exactly, and I also don't know how to properly negotiate with others."
"I don't know how I can discern if someone is trying to manipulate me or not."
"If I want to achieve my dream, I need to rectify these mistakes."
"Julian, can you please teach me these things?" Nick asked.
The mouths didn't say anything for a while.
Then, they suddenly chuckled.
"Sure, why not?"