Sadly, there wasn't much Nick could do about that since every Manufacturer was required to do that.
The only positive aspect was that neither Nick nor Julian needed to join guard duty due to their executive positions.
After all, Dark Dream needed to be able to run.
Assignments of guards were done in intervals of one month, and the first shift of guards would soon start.
Nick decided to send Clayton, Petra, and Jason for the first month.
According to what Nick had heard, working for the city was considered boring, which was often preferable to dangerous.
Most of the time, the guards only needed to walk around, stand in front of entrances, and do a couple of errands.
Sometimes, they also just needed to stay inside a room and be ready for any kind of emergency, which rarely happened.
Even more, working for the city meant working for ten hours a day, only five days a week.
Apparently, the Extractors got two free days per week, which was crazy.
Because of all these things, many Extractors preferred working for the city instead of Manufacturers.
Sadly, becoming stronger was impossible since none of the temporary guards would work with the city's Specters.
However, only the temporary guards had such an easy life.
The people who actually dedicated their lives to working for the city didn't have it as good.
They had to work more, and their responsibilities very often forced them into positions that were hostile to some powerful Manufacturers.
Guards rarely died, but it still happened.
Even more, below the surface, a lot of dark dealings were going on.
Clayton, Petra, and Jason would be sent to work with the city after Dark Dream moved into their new building.
The governor talked about a couple more topics, but they were not as relevant as the previous ones.
Eventually, it was time for Kugelblitz to talk.
The main thing they talked about was the blood tax.
Apparently, since the shortage of metal had ended, the amount of blood they were receiving had dropped sharply, and they needed a new way to gather blood.
They had already added a way for someone to pay their normal taxes in exchange for their blood, but not many people accepted that.
People seemed to not like the idea of giving their blood in exchange for money.
Funnily enough, this was exasperated by a rumor which stated that a human's soul was connected to their blood and that losing blood equated to losing part of one's soul.
Naturally, this rumor also came from the False News.
The governor kept shooting down all of Kugelblitz's proposals, but Kugelblitz just wouldn't let up.
The amount of Zephyx the Crimson Fungus was producing had dropped a lot, which slowed the advancements of their Heroes.
After all, the Crimson Fungus was the only source of power for all of the Heroes.
Right now, it was barely enough for Kugelblitz's Heroes, which meant that there wasn't much the governor could absorb.
Of course, the governor knew that this was bullshit.
Yes, Kugelblitz didn't have access to as much blood as previously, but they still had access to a lot.
It should be enough for all of them to advance at a comfortable pace.
However, he couldn't just call Vernon's bluff.
These were internal matters of Kugelblitz, and if he forced himself into these matters, other Manufacturers would push back.
After all, if the governor forced himself into Kugelblitz's matters, what stopped him from forcing himself into their matters?
Almost all Manufacturers wanted the government to be involved as little as possible in their matters.
The governor and Vernon argued for quite a while, and in the end, not a lot of progress had been made.
But that was to be expected.
This was a negotiation, and these negotiations always took a long time.
Kugelblitz wanted to squeeze the people dry of their blood, and the governor didn't want that to happen.
However, if the governor didn't relent in some aspects, only the Heroes belonging to Kugelblitz would have access to the Crimson Fungus.
Within a couple of years, the Heroes might not even need to unite to kill the governor…
Aria Light on her own might just be enough.
This was a brutal negotiation, and nobody expected any results from today's meeting.
Today's meeting was essentially just the baseline for any future negotiations.
Anatomy brought up a couple of topics, but none of them needed a lot of deliberation.
Ghosty's Lab once more announced some new equipment.
Gemini was asking a couple of questions, which led the conversation in a direction that suggested supporting stronger Manufacturers was better for the city than supporting weaker ones.
Of course, they were talking about finances.
While Gemini had led the conversation to the topic very naturally, everyone in the room, except for the three normal people, were experienced business people, and they could all tell what was going on.
Gemini was trying to make it harder for Solace and Dark Dream.
Solace's recent advancement had probably scared them, and they wanted to keep their lead.
However, the governor very quickly shut that topic down.
He would not consider financially supporting one Manufacturer favorably without something equally valuable in return.
Unfortunately for Gemini, they didn't have any leverage when negotiating with the governor.
They were not Kugelblitz, and they were not Anatomy.
Solace just talked about their newly advanced Specter and their expanding network for light and heat.
Nick just talked about Dark Dream's approaching relocation.
There was nothing else that Dark Dream needed to talk about.
And with that, the yearly meeting was over again, and everyone left.
Except for Nick.
After everyone left, Nick talked for a while with Ramona and Hera.
They were very close to each other, and this was a good opportunity to talk about a couple of details regarding their cooperation.
Eventually, Nick also left.
Within the next month, nothing of note happened.
And finally, it was time for Dark Dream to move.
They would finally move from the Outer City into the Inner City.