Vernon sat at a table and looked down with a solemn expression.
Beside him sat Aria, who stared into space with a neutral look.
Wilfred weakly sat beside her, wearing a peaceful smile as he sipped from a cup of tea.
Six more directors from Kugelblitz sat beside them at the same side of the table.
Ghosty and Herman Reichert sat at the bottom of the table. Both of them seemed neutral.
This was inside the biggest meeting room that Ghosty's Lab had.
Naturally, they were all waiting in silence.
Some time later, someone knocked on the door and entered without waiting for an answer.
The governor walked in.
"Hello, everyone," the governor said neutrally as he walked to the head of the table.
"Hello, and thank you for coming," Wilfred said with a polite smile as he stood up to greet the governor.
The governor looked at Wilfred with a neutral expression. "It's been a while, Wilfred. I wish the circumstances were different."
'Do you?' Vernon thought with annoyance that didn't show on his face.
"Well, there's not much we can do," Wilfred said with a helpless smile. "Anatomy managed to take advantage of our weaknesses and outplayed us."
The governor nodded wordlessly and sat down at the head of the table.
Then, the governor looked around the room.
"Vanessa and Jornis are not here?" the governor asked.
"We are not here to fight," Aria said, "and they are not owners of Kugelblitz. There's no reason for them to be here."
Naturally, Vanessa and Jornis were Kugelblitz's other two Heroes.
Technically, Kugelblitz only had three Heroes. The fourth one had been the governor since he was an honorary member of Kugelblitz.
When the governor heard that, he just looked at Aria with a neutral expression.
Of course, the governor wasn't sure if he should believe that.
Was Kugelblitz really intending to just keel over and capitulate?
Or were Jornis and Vanessa planning some kind of ambush on Anatomy's headquarters?
"Fine," the governor said.
Then, everything became quiet again.
Naturally, none of the people inside the room were calm, even though most of them appeared to be.
Even the ones that were controlled were nervous.
While the directors were not directly controlled, they were indirectly controlled by having to act in the wishes of the owners who lived in the upper layer.
The owners had told them that they wanted to hand Kugelblitz over.
The directors were not the biggest fans of that.
After all, if the owners lost ownership of Kugelblitz, they would be out of a job.
Sure, they didn't need any more money, but having a job was also something to take pride in.
Of course, Ghosty and Herman were nervous because this meeting was happening inside their building.
If a fight broke out, their company would get destroyed.
Lastly, the governor feared that he had to get involved in a fight.
He did not want to fight anyone.
Some minutes passed.
Then, someone knocked on the door, and it opened.
Everyone looked over and saw two people entering.
Mundus stepped in first, followed by Zarren.
Ariel was not with them, but that was to be expected.
Even in this situation, she had to guard the Sea King to ensure its loyalty.
"Glad to see you two," Wilfred said with a weak smile as he stood up to greet the two.
For some reason, Wilfred kept looking at Mundus with intense focus.
The other members of Kugelblitz also greeted the two of them, except for Vernon and Aria.
There was no reason to act polite anymore.
Everything was going to be over soon.
"Mundus," the governor said with a nod.
Mundus nodded back at the governor while handing out halfhearted greetings to the others.
Eventually, Mundus and Zarren sat down opposite Kugelblitz.
It was two against nine.
While the two of them were sitting down, Zarren shot a quick glance at Ghosty, who just smiled back confidently.
Amongst everyone present, Mundus and Zarren were probably the calmest right now.
They knew that the governor would follow them, but that wasn't the entire reason.
They had also been in contact with Ghosty.
As the soon-to-be overlords of Crimson City, Anatomy was unassailable, and Ghosty's Lab naturally realized this.
Ghosty and Anatomy had already come to an agreement about everything.
They would leave Ghosty's Lab alone, and in return, Ghosty would not help Kugelblitz in any way.
While Ghosty's personal power wasn't tremendous, his soft power was on the same level as the governor.
Ghosty's Lab made almost all of the Containment Units and gadgets for Specter containment and hunting.
His technologies were interwoven in almost every object of relevance.
Nobody knew if Ghosty had some kind of failsafe hidden in some of them.
Angering Ghosty could very quickly end in disaster.
"Let's start with the negotiations," the governor said.
"Of course," Wilfred said.
Then, he turned to look at everyone at the table. "We have all gathered here to discuss our merger with Anatomy. Naturally, we have already talked about everything beforehand, and I'm now going to talk about our offer."
Wilfred looked at Mundus. "We have decided to offer 60% of Kugelblitz to Anatomy."
Nobody was surprised about that.
"However," Wilfred said with an embarrassed smile, "we couldn't agree on a fitting price. Because of that, we are not going to act as a unit but as individuals."
Mundus' eyes narrowed, and a small gleam appeared in the governor's eyes.
This was unusual.
In these kinds of negotiations, a company had to act as a unit.
Letting everyone sell their shares individually in such a big meeting was very unusual.
"Fine," Mundus said, not showing any meaningful reaction. "We are interested in owning 60% of Kugelblitz. Who will keep the remaining 40%?"
"Aria and Vernon," Wilfred explained.
Nobody was surprised.
"The directors and I have already dedicated our shares to the merger. The only thing we have to discuss are the prices."
Mundus looked at Wilfred without amusement.
Wilfred just smiled back. "Allow me to go first."
"I am willing to exchange my 30% of Kugelblitz for 10% of Anatomy," he said.
Aria and Vernon didn't show any outward reactions, but they both wanted to snort.
As it stood right now, Kugelblitz was still worth more than Anatomy.
They had far more Specters, and they also had more powerful Extractors.
A fair valuation would be 10% of Kugelblitz for 20% of Anatomy.
And yet, Wilfred was willing to offer 30% of Kugelblitz for 10% of Anatomy.
That was ridiculous.
Sadly, that was also expected.
"That's a fair offer," Mundus said with a nod before looking at Zarren.
Zarren understood and nodded as well. "I'm willing to exchange 10% of my 30% of Anatomy for your 30% of Kugelblitz," he said.
Wilfred smiled brightly and performed a quick and polite bow. "Thank you. We have a deal!"
Wilfred sat back down and gestured to the director sitting beside him.
The director took a deep breath and stood up.
"The owners I represent have agreed on exchanging their 5% of Kugelblitz for 2% of Anatomy," he said.
That was a bit more expensive than what Wilfred asked for.
Mundus furrowed his brows and remained silent for a couple of seconds.
"That's the limit of what we're willing to accept," he said, "but we still accept."
The director bowed politely. "Thank you."
Then, the next director stood up.
"The people I represent would also like 2% for their 5%," he said.
Mundus accepted the offer again.
At the side, Vernon and Aria became more nervous.
This meeting was ending too quickly!
They needed to buy time for Nick!
Right now, Nick was probably just starting with his infiltration!
The next director stood up.
"The people I represent want 5% for their 5%," he said.
The atmosphere shifted.
Vernon and Aria looked over at the director in surprise.
The director had asked for an equal trade!
Even Wilfred seemed shocked.
"Spencer, we decided on a majority of shares for a minority of shares," he said.
Spencer, the director, just smiled. "And that will still hold true. Anatomy has already received 40% of Kugelblitz for 14% of Anatomy. If the remaining shareholders just trade equally, Anatomy will own 60% of Kugelblitz for 34% of Anatomy."
Wilfred just looked with shock at Spencer.
Where had that come from?!
Mundus narrowed his eyes at the director, who was only a John.
Yet, the director didn't seem to be nervous at all.
In fact, he seemed quite confident.
"We can't do that," Mundus said. "That's too much."
"Do you have a counteroffer?" the director asked.
"5% for 3% is as far as I am willing to go," Mundus said.
Spencer sighed. "I'm sorry, but I can't accept that offer in good conscience. I have a duty as a director to uphold my clients' best interests."
For the next ten minutes, Aria and Vernon watched in wonder as Spencer negotiated with Mundus.
"Fine, you'll get your 5%," Mundus said with suppressed anger. "Just hope that you don't regret it."
It was all too clear what Mundus meant.
Mundus might decide to get rid of the director after the merger.
Spencer just smiled and sat back down.
Then, the next director stood up.
"5% of Kugelblitz for 7% of Anatomy."
The atmosphere shifted again.
Mundus and Zarren narrowed their eyes.
Meanwhile, Aria and Vernon were surprised.
Was this what Nick had meant?
Before they had started their mission, Nick had said that he had a way to buy time during the negotiation.
Had Nick somehow managed to influence the shareholders?!
Two kilometers lower, in an office inside Dark Dream…
Julian chuckled.