Whenever Specters were moved from one Manufacturer to another, it couldn't be kept hidden.
While the identity of the Specter could be kept hidden, the fact that a Specter was moving couldn't since every Specter would be moved via a Specter Cage.
The guards and the powerful Extractors would notice such a Specter Cage.
So, it was quite clear which Manufacturer accepted Anatomy's offer.
After one day, who had accepted Anatomy's offer?
Nobody.
No Specters were moved during this day.
What about the second one?
Also nothing.
The third?
Nothing.
Every Manufacturer had received the offer, but none had accepted it yet.
Would they actually all decide to sacrifice a bit of their profits for the good of the city?
Obviously, Dark Dream wouldn't accept it.
The city also wouldn't accept it.
While Solace was still separate from Dark Dream, they were too closely connected.
Hera and Ramona knew Nick and Julian, and they also knew that Nick would be the one making the decision whether to buy or not, like most of the time.
For some reason, Julian seemed to leave running most of the company to Nick.
Hera and Ramona knew that Nick wouldn't accept such an offer.
He might seem cold, emotionless, and strict, but his Extractors were treated extremely well.
He never forced them to do anything.
He didn't even intimidate or threaten them into doing something.
Obviously, Nick put a lot of value on his Extractors, and accepting such an offer would ruin the image he had created.
Originally, the two of them were on the fence about this matter.
However, Nick's firm refusal of the offer and his conduct made Solace decide against purchasing a Specter.
Just like Dark Dream, they would refuse the offer until the very end.
It was just not worth straining their relationship with Dark Dream.
That left Gemini, Ghosty's Lab, and Kugelblitz.
They were the only ones that could possibly purchase a Specter.
As it stood right now, Anatomy only had around 150 coral people.
Kugelblitz also had around that many Extractors.
However, Kugelblitz had over 50 Experts, which was crazy.
They had almost 80% of all the Experts inside the city.
Anatomy had a couple of Experts as coral people, but they didn't have 50.
Yet, they had around a hundred Veterans, double what Kugelblitz had.
But if Ghosty's Lab were to help Kugelblitz, the number of Veterans would become even again, and they would lose in the Expert department.
Of course, these numbers would only become relevant in an open battle.
In these secret skirmishes, the number of weaker Extractors didn't matter.
In an open battlefield, however, three Peak Veterans with fitting abilities could take down a Mid Expert.
For example, Clayton, Petry, and Jason were all Peak Johns right now, and if they used their abilities simultaneously on a Mid Veteran, the Mid Veteran would run out of Zephyx within a few seconds.
Naturally, combining abilities like that required a lot of training with each other, and it wasn't that easy to accomplish.
But Anatomy didn't need that.
Anatomy had the Sea King.
Anatomy had the coral people.
All coral people were controlled by the same being, the Sea King.
The coral people were like many little fingers that the Sea King could move.
If the Sea King ordered it, every single Coral Person all over the city would lift their hand at the same time and point at the same spot.
They were one being.
They were one organism.
This meant that they could perfectly combine their abilities.
Even more, since a being of much greater power was perceiving the surroundings and giving orders, Veterans could even react to an attack from a Specialist.
Of course, the Veteran wouldn't be fast enough to actually avoid the attack, but the order to move would have been given in time.
It was like a slug that saw a big foot slowly coming down on it.
It would see the foot and try to move, but it wouldn't be able to evade.
This made these coral people extremely dangerous in an open conflict.
As it stood right now, Anatomy was a genuine threat to Kugelblitz, even though they didn't have as many Experts.
As long as they didn't get any more coral people, things still looked good.
The Manufacturers also knew that.
As long as nobody gave in to greed, Anatomy most likely won't launch an open attack.
One week had passed, and nobody accepted the offer.
Yet, Nick still didn't feel any hope.
'An individual human can be kind and benevolent, but a group of humans will always aim to grow so fat that they will die under their own weight,' Nick thought with disgust.
'Giving the masses the power will always result in short-term gains at the price of long-term losses.'
Another week passed.
Nobody accepted the offer.
Only two weeks were left until the governor would confiscate all of Anatomy's weaker Specters for the city.
Half of the time had passed, and Anatomy was still stuck with all of their Specters.
They hadn't gained a single Extractor.
A couple more days passed.
No one accepted the offer.
Only ten days were left.
No one accepted the offer.
Nine days were left.
No one accepted the offer.
Eight days were left.
Nick still wasn't hopeful.
He knew humanity too well.
Seven days.
Six days.
Five days.
After 25 days, no one had accepted the offer yet.
Ramona and Hera became hopeful.
Would the war be avoided?
Nick still wasn't convinced.
Humanity was disgusting, and he knew that everyone was only waiting for the last few days.
Four days.
Nothing.
Three days.
Nothing.
Two days.
Still nothing.
The morning of the last day arrived.
Tomorrow, all of the Specters for sale would be confiscated by the city.
Everyone looked with nervousness and excitement at the situation.
"Hahahaha."
Julian laughed from beside Nick as they stood outside of Dark Dream's building, looking up at the middle layer.
Nick didn't answer.
He wasn't surprised.
'Humans…'
Several Specter Cages were coming out of Anatomy…
'Are disgusting.'
And entered Kugelblitz.