"Everyone is converted?" Nick asked Julian with furrowed brows.
Julian nodded. For once, he wasn't wearing his trademarked arrogant smirk.
"Two days ago, Anatomy's leadership called every Extractor in for a meeting. The Extractors believed that they would be let go since everyone has already seen where Anatomy is headed."
"But after they called everyone, they suppressed all of them and brought them to the Sea King one at a time," Julian explained.
"So, it finally happened," Nick said with a dark voice. "No more human employees are left in Anatomy."
"Not quite," Julian answered, eliciting a raised brow from Nick. "There are five human Specialists left. These five and the three Heroes are still left."
Nick remained silent for a while.
"Has the governor made his decision?" he asked.
"He already made a ruling," Julian said.
Nick listened intently.
"He ruled that Anatomy didn't have the necessary number of Extractors to take care of so many Specters and that Anatomy had to rectify that issue within the month," Julian said.
"So, he's actually going against Anatomy?" Nick asked.
Julian snorted. "What have I taught you about human nature, Nick?"
"That humans are inherently selfish and that it is easy to control them if I use that selfishness," Nick said.
"Right," Julian said as he leaned back in his chair, "and what's the option that would bring the governor the most benefit?"
Nick furrowed his brows. "Short term or long term?"
"Short term, obviously," Julian said with a disgusted chuckle.
"Staying neutral," Nick said.
Julian nodded. "He has not joined hands with either of them."
"But then," Nick said, "why did he order Anatomy to hire normal people again, and why is there no mention of the forced conversion of their current employees?"
"He didn't," Julian said.
"He didn't what? Tell them to hire more people or didn't mention the conversion?" Nick asked.
"Both."
"Both?" Nick asked in surprise.
"He didn't mention the conversion in any way, and he didn't order Anatomy to hire more people."
"He told Anatomy to rectify the issue, and Anatomy is planning on doing that."
The next moment, Julian took out a stack of papers and threw them on the table. "We got that from Anatomy just a couple of minutes ago."
Nick grabbed the stack of papers and looked through them.
The more he read, the wider his eyes became.
"Is this…?"
"A full list of every Specter Anatomy owns," Julian said, "except for their Fanatics and the Sea King."
"Ten Hatchlings, 32 Adolescents, Nine Adults, and five Elders," Julian said.
"Nine Adults?" Nick asked with furrowed brows. "That's also how many we have."
"Don't forget that they gave us three of them," Julian said, "and I also believe that Anatomy gave Metal Works City even more than they gave us. They used to own over 20 Adults and over 10 Elders."
Nick looked through the list of Specters some more.
"Why did they give us that list?" he asked.
"They gave this list to every Manufacturer. Their intentions should be obvious," Julian said.
"They want to sell them?" Nick asked in skepticism.
Selling Specters was generally viewed as a bad financial decision since they were assets that continued to produce money while being held.
They essentially made money out of nothing.
"Every Specter weaker than the Fanatics," Julian said.
"How much?" Nick asked.
Naturally, Nick was very interested in purchasing these Specters.
Sure, horrible things were happening, but there wasn't really anything he could do about this.
Might as well strengthen Dark Dream.
Julian laughed in a sinister manner, and Nick raised an eyebrow.
"They're selling it for a price that we can't pay," Julian said.
"They want Extractors in exchange for the Specters," Julian added.
Nick's eyes widened.
They wanted Extractors?!
Of course!
If they got some Extractors, they could make even more coral people, and they would grow even more powerful!
"Two Hatchlings for one Veteran."
"One Adolescent for one Veteran."
"One Adult for three Veterans or one Expert."
"One Elder for eight Veterans or two Experts."
"Those are their prices," Julian said with a chuckle.
Nick remained silent for a while.
Naturally, giving Anatomy these Extractors meant dooming them to a fate worse than death.
This offer was not attractive for Dark Dream.
First of all, they had too few Veterans compared to how many Specters they had.
Dark Dream needed Veterans more than Specters right now.
Additionally, Nick wouldn't accept this offer even if they had a surplus of Veterans.
One reason was that this could influence the fate of the city.
He was willing to pay credits since an influx of credits wouldn't change a lot, but an influx of manpower could give Anatomy just what it needed to win.
And the other reason was that Nick refused to do something like that to his employees.
He was fine with killing problematic ones, but he wouldn't be okay with giving them to the Sea King.
Maybe he felt like that because he himself came very close to that fate.
Or maybe he just considered torture and cruelty to be a no-go.
People could call Nick a killer or murderer, but they couldn't call him a torturer.
However, whether or not that was better was left to the individual.
Nick remained silent for a while.
"Did the governor comment on this?" he asked.
"What do you think?" Julian asked.
"Of course not," Nick answered.
Julian just chuckled a bit.
Nick looked at the stack of papers.
"He's not even pretending anymore," he said. "He might as well directly shout from the rooftops that he is corrupt."
"Is he?" Julian asked with a smirk.
Nick just threw an annoyed look at Julian. "Isn't he?"
"I think you're misunderstanding him," Julian said. "He's not corrupt."
"He's just leaving the fate of the city in the hands of the people."
Nick raised an eyebrow.
"You see, if Anatomy still has Specters left over in a month, every additional Specter will be confiscated by the city, and Anatomy won't be paid for those."
A malicious and arrogant smile appeared on Julian's face.
"As long as none of the Manufacturers throw coal into the fire for warmth, their house won't burn down."
"As long as everyone puts the need of the community above their personal wealth, things won't look so bad."
Julian chuckled.
Nick just scowled in disgust.
He wasn't disgusted at Julian.