?Julian was known by the CEO and CZE of Ghosty's Lab, but they hadn't met him yet.
Julian had made it a point to never come into contact with Ghosty himself.
Ghosty was an extremely old genius.
Ghosty alone had revolutionized the way Manufacturers worked and contained Specters.
Someone like that was bound to be unfathomably intelligent.
As long as Julian couldn't guarantee winning a mental battle against Ghosty, meeting him would be a horrible idea.
While the CEO of Ghosty's Lab was only an Expert, Julian also avoided meeting him.
The CEO was close to Ghosty, and if Ghosty suddenly noticed a change in his friend, he might grow suspicious.
A normal person might not grow suspicious when a previously closed door had opened without their notice, but a genius would definitely notice. The genius might even notice the door handle being in a different position than normal.
Influencing anything around Ghosty was risky, and Julian knew that which was why he avoided him.
Luckily, and ironically, manipulating Kugelblitz was easier for Julian.
The difference was that Ghosty's Lab was owned by two powerful people, while Kugelblitz was owned by many.
Kugelblitz's CEO was a strong Specialist, and they owned 30% of the company. Naturally, Julian avoided them.
Aria Light, their Chief Zephyx Extractor, owned 20% of the company, and Julian also avoided her.
However, Vernon Melfion, who owned 20%, was only a strong Expert. Julian had already met him, and the two were friends.
The remaining 30% of Kugelblitz was distributed among random Extractors and rich people of the upper layer.
About 70% of those considered Julian their friend.
This meant that if Kugelblitz decided to do something to Dark Dream, they would face quite some opposition.
Sure, the majority could overrule the minority, but that was never a good idea unless it was an emergency.
Offending Vernon and the shareholders might result in them selling their shares, which would be troublesome for Kugelblitz.
Because of that, Kugelblitz definitely wouldn't go after Dark Dream.
A single little Dark Dream wasn't worth the internal drama.
Sadly, Julian also had zero control over Anatomy.
Anatomy was run differently from all other Manufacturers.
For example, Anatomy didn't really have a CEO.
Anatomy was led by a trio, with Mundus being the unofficial leader.
Mundus Stairwell owned 40% of Anatomy and was their Chief Zephyx Extractor. Naturally, Julian didn't dare to meet him since Mundus was Anatomy's only Hero.
Zarren Harrow owned 30% of Anatomy and was one of their two Directors. He was a powerful Specialist, and Julian never met him before.
Sadly, Ariel Cerillion, their second Director who also owned 30% of Anatomy, was also a powerful Specialist.
Compared to Kugelblitz, all of Anatomy's owners were also powerful and active Extractors, making it extremely difficult to manipulate or control them.
Anatomy was the biggest danger to Dark Dream because of that.
While Julian also had no control over Ghosty's Lab, Ghosty's Lab wasn't aggressively expanding by any means necessary.
Ghosty's Lab was essentially indispensable due to its incomparable contributions to technology.
Anatomy was different.
Anatomy didn't have any specific or special things that it contributed to the city.
They just had a lot of powerful Extractors and a lot of Specters.
They didn't contribute much to science.
They didn't have something as special as Solace's network of light.
They didn't have as much sway in the government as Kugelblitz.
If the chance presented itself, Kugelblitz would consume Anatomy without a second thought.
The only reason why it hadn't happened yet was that fighting against Anatomy would strain the entire city.
The governor couldn't possibly put his city in such insane danger, which meant that the governor would help Anatomy.
Suddenly, it was no longer four Heroes against one but three against two, with the strongest Hero in the city fighting for Anatomy.
Kugelblitz either needed an insanely good reason to attack Anatomy, or they needed to assassinate the governor before doing it.
Naturally, Anatomy knew that which was why they were violently clawing for any kind of power they could get.
Luckily, thanks to Julian, Anatomy wouldn't have an easy time against Dark Dream.
Anatomy had six Specialists, but everyone would notice if one of their Specialists did something suspicious.
But the same thing wasn't true for their Experts.
One Expert alone could kill everyone in Dark Dream except for Julian on their own.
Julian alone couldn't keep hold of an entire Manufacturer on his own.
So, as long as Anatomy could kill Nick and most of his employees, they could take Dark Dream for themselves.
If they kept killing Dark Dream's employees, no powerful Extractor would want to work for Dark Dream anymore, and at some point, Anatomy could just complain to the city about Dark Dream's lack of strong Extractors.
Naturally, killing Nick was the best way to reach that goal.
But they couldn't do it inside the city.
A Specialist's senses were terrifyingly sharp, and attacking Nick anywhere close to Dark Dream's building was suicide.
As long as Dark Dream's employees didn't move far away from their place of work, they were safe due to Julian.
Luckily, just like every other Manufacturer, Dark Dream was now under immense pressure.
All the Specters had been obtained by the other Manufacturers, and the more time passed, the more powerful they grew.
If Dark Dream ever wanted to walk out of their shadows, it needed to capture more Specters.
And since Dark Dream couldn't get any Specters from inside the city due to the overwhelming power difference, it could only look out of the city.
Specters existed outside the city, in the outer world.
However, Julian couldn't go there.
If he did, Anatomy might decide to assassinate Extractors inside Dark Dream.
He had to stay here.
If they wanted Specters, they needed to buy them or capture them from outside the city.
Sadly, due to the scarcity of Specters, their prices skyrocketed.
Dark Dream couldn't buy any of them easily.
Even more, there was another issue.
Dark Dream didn't have an Adult.
The fact that Nick became an Early Veteran after two years without an Adult was already shocking and raised a couple of eyebrows.
Usually, a Veteran needed an Adult to progress in power, which was why it was strange that Nick managed to advance.
Naturally, Nick couldn't tell them that Julian had helped him with his own Zephyx.
Instead, he said that he had simply worked with a crazy number of Peak Adolescents.
If Nick managed to become a Mid Veteran without Dark Dream having an Adult, everyone would know that something fishy was going on, and Julian's secret would be unveiled.
This meant that Nick's power progression was stuck.
As long as Dark Dream couldn't get an Adult, he couldn't advance anymore.
Because of that, Dark Dream was forced to look outside the city.
They had to get an Adult from there, or at least a couple of weaker Specters, which they could exchange for an Adult.
And since Julian couldn't leave the city…
That only left Nick.
He had to leave Julian's presence and go into the outside world.
Otherwise, Dark Dream would stagnate until it eventually collapsed.