Nick walked past the guards and entered the Inner City.
He and Julian had talked just a couple of minutes ago, and Julian had just sent him to schedule a meeting with the governor.
Due to Anatomy, Julian still couldn't leave Dark Dream.
Nick walked past all the happy people in the Inner City and approached the central administration building.
This building was the hub for citizens who wanted to talk to the city's administration.
Nick walked past the two Johns guarding the door and entered.
Inside, Nick saw two counters manned by two normal people employed by the city.
Right now, both counters were busy.
From what Nick could hear, one of the people was talking about marriage while another one was talking about a land dispute.
In front of the city, everyone was equal.
Normal people and Extractors both had to wait.
At least, that was how it was portrayed outside.
Nick had to wait for five minutes for one of the counters to become free, and he approached.
The middle-aged lady behind the counter looked at Nick with a very polite smile, which was rather funny since she had talked to the people before Nick with a bored and annoyed tone.
Of course, she had seen that Nick was a Veteran, and she didn't want to offend someone this powerful.
"Welcome, how may I help you?" she asked with a friendly tone.
"My name is Nick Nick, and I'm the Chief Zephyx Extractor of Dark Dream," he said.
The woman's eyes widened.
A Chief Zephyx Extractor!
She had never talked to one of those!
Chief Zephyx Extractors basically all lived in the upper layer of the Inner City, which had its own administration office.
Someone working for the administration office down here never got to talk to someone with such a high status.
"And I need to schedule a meeting with the governor," Nick added.
The administrator's eyes widened again, and she took a deep breath.
There were people who asked about meeting the governor, and of course, none of them got one.
However, this was a Chief Zephyx Extractor!
Could he get a meeting?
Frankly, she wasn't sure.
Offices like this worked with processes and set rules.
And the process for asking for a meeting with the governor was a flat refusal.
Someone living in the lower layer of the Inner City couldn't be important enough to meet the governor.
But this was a CZE!
"Could you please wait a moment?" she asked as she stood up. "I need to consult my superior."
Nick just nodded.
The administrator left and entered a different office.
Over a minute passed.
Eventually, the administrator and someone else walked back.
It was a smaller man with black hair, and he wore the uniform of a John working directly for the city.
"Hello, my name is Johanson Mithras, and I'm the department head," the man said. "You are Dark Dream's Chief Zephyx Extractor?"
"I am," Nick said with a nod.
"Good," the man said. "Are you asking for a meeting, or is Dark Dream asking for a meeting?"
"Dark Dream," Nick said.
"Just to be sure, you have the authority to represent Dark Dream?" he asked.
"I own 40% of Dark Dream," Nick said, "and I was sent by the person owning the other 60%."
"Julian, right?" the man said with a smile. "I know him!"
Nick only nodded without elaborating.
"Alright, that should qualify for a meeting," Johanson said. "Excuse me, but I haven't done this process before. It might take a while."
"No problem," Nick said.
Nick waited in silence as Johanson looked through several sheets of paper.
Minutes passed.
"How urgent is it?" Johanson asked, still searching through sheets of paper. "On a scale of one to five, where one is not urgent at all, and five represents an imperative security risk to the public."
Nick furrowed his brows.
"I would say three," he said. "I'm quite sure that the governor would want to meet us sooner rather than later."
"Us?" the man asked.
"Dark Dream's CEO, Julian Nergiar, wants to meet him inside Dark Dream's building. Due to some matters, he can't leave the building right now."
Johanson seemed uncertain. "I'm not sure if that is going to work."
"Just tell him that Julian wants to meet him," Nick said. "He will come."
"Well, okay, but I can't promise anything," Johanson said. "I will send the request up to the upper layer. Sadly, I don't know how long that will take to be processed. It could be minutes, but it could also be days."
"I will send someone to Dark Dream when we know more, okay?"
"Sure," Nick answered.
The two of them said their goodbyes, and Nick went back to Dark Dream.
When Nick entered Dark Dream, he noticed an absence of mouths on the walls.
Naturally, Julian knew that the governor would appear at some point, and having his mouths all over the walls was a bad look.
Nick told Julian about what he had discussed with the administrator and returned to work.
There was nothing to do except wait.
Luckily, just two hours later, they already got their answer.
A tall man with black hair stepped into Dark Dream's building.
When he entered, he seemed a bit annoyed by the fact that the building was angled towards the side.
That seemed quite unsafe.
He walked up to the receptionist, who looked at him with widely opened eyes.
Was that the governor?!
The governor was here?!
The receptionist didn't even say her practiced line and just looked at the governor in shock.
"Julian wanted to meet me," the governor said with a neutral tone.
"Markus! You came!"
The governor, Markus Julius, looked towards the staircase.
Julian stood there with a smile plastered on his face.
Markus had met Julian a couple of times, but they had never really had the time to have a proper conversation.
One of them had always been in a rush.
"Julian," Markus said in greeting.
The governor wasn't offended by Julian using his first name.
Outside of big meetings, the governor was fine with Specialists and Heroes calling him by his first name.
"Please, come up to my office. I have some good news."
The governor raised an eyebrow.
Good news?
That was rare.