After Simon left, Nick turned back to the city.
Crimson City.
Finally, he had the power to fix it.
'Crimson City's current weakness is its lack of authority. Almost all the guards are borrowed by the Manufacturers. That's the first thing I have to fix. If the government can't have power, the companies can't be forced to follow the law.'
Nick took a deep breath.
'But first, I have to deal with Dark Dream.'
Naturally, Nick had already made a plan about how to deal with Dark Dream.
Nick walked back into the city, wearing Dark Dream's uniform.
Just walking through the city like this hadn't been possible just a couple of days ago.
Anatomy had constantly been ready to take over the other Manufacturers, and Dark Dream had been one of their targets.
Walking around the city would have left Nick open to assassination attempts.
But right now, no Manufacturer had the time to deal with Dark Dream.
They were all too busy recovering from the battle with Anatomy.
Kugelblitz was thinking about digesting Anatomy since they had received all of Anatomy's Specters.
Well, at least the ones that they managed to recapture.
Since Anatomy had been almost emptied of Specters, Kugelblitz barely got ten Specters, and they weren't even very powerful.
Ghosty's Lab would soon get a visit from someone from Aegis that would persuade Ghosty to leave, leaving them without a leader.
Gemini probably wouldn't want to cause any trouble right now.
Solace was Dark Dream's ally.
This meant that Nick could walk around the city without fear.
'Wonder how long that will last,' Nick thought. 'As soon as I implement my reforms, plenty of people will want to kill me.'
Nick walked through the Outer City and entered the Inner City.
After walking a bit more, he arrived in front of Dark Dream.
There were a couple of Extractors waiting in front of the entrance.
Usually, Dark Dream didn't put guards up, but with Nick gone and Julian being a Specter, Dark Dream was at its weakest, which made them put guards in front of the entrance for now.
As soon as the Extractors saw Nick, their eyes lit up, and Nick could see joy appearing in their eyes.
"Boss!" one of them shouted, running over to him. "You're back?" he asked with hope.
Nick nodded. "For now. I'm going to work for Aegis in two months and take up a different position."
The hope in their eyes died down.
Boss was going to leave.
"Don't worry," Nick said, seeing their disappointment. "I already know what to do with Dark Dream. No, you guys will not become unemployed, and no, you won't have to fear assassination attempts all day. I think everyone will be quite happy."
The two Extractors smiled. "We trust you, Boss. You made Dark Dream into what it is today."
Naturally, the two Extractors did not want to acknowledge Julian.
When they heard that Julian was a Specter, they all felt like their world was breaking down.
Their CEO had been a Specter?!
They had been working for a Specter this entire time?!
The best thing they could do was to ignore Julian's existence.
But that manner of thinking was also relatively new since Julian died just two hours ago or so.
Before then, they had believed that Julian was wrongly accused.
Only when Julian died and his hold over the city vanished did they realize that he was actually a Specter.
So, in a way, the realization that they had been working for a Specter was still relatively new.
And that was when Nick appeared again, reigniting their hope.
They still had their Boss!
He would fix things!
"I can't tell you about the plan yet since it's confidential, but I can probably make the announcement within the month," Nick said.
"We understand. We trust you," one of them said.
Nick nodded. "Where are Jenny and Taren?"
"They're in their offices. It's not the right time to work with Specters since they are the only authority figures currently in Dark Dream. Well, until now," the Extractor said with a smile.
"Alright," Nick said. "I'm going to talk to them."
Nick walked into Dark Dream, and on his way to his two team leaders, he had to talk with many Extractors, who were happy to see that he was back.
On the highest floor, Nick knocked on a door.
"Come in," a demotivated male voice said.
Nick opened the door and saw Taren sitting behind his desk.
Taren looked up, and when he saw Nick, his eyes widened.
"Boss!" he shouted, jumping up from his chair.
Nick nodded. "We have something to talk about. Meet in my office," he said, walking out of Taren's office.
Usually, such words would make Taren nervous, but his relief and happiness to see Boss return outweighed that.
"Sure!" Taren shouted, almost running out of his office.
Nick knocked on another door.
"Come in," a solemn female voice said.
Nick opened the door and saw Jenny.
When Jenny saw Nick, her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Boss?" she asked.
"Come to my office. We need to talk about Dark Dream," he said.
"O-of course," Jenny said, quickly getting out of her chair and walking over to Nick's office.
The three of them entered Nick's office and closed the door.
"Are you back for good?" Taren asked.
Nick shook his head. "No, I'm just here for about two months before I have to take up a new position with Aegis."
When Nick had left about a day or so ago, they had been uncertain about his future.
Would he come back?
Would he work for Aegis?
Well, it was official now.
Nick was going to leave.
Naturally, the two of them knew that this was a good thing for Nick, but it was also a bad thing for Dark Dream.
"Don't worry," Nick said. "I already know what we are going to do with Dark Dream."
The two of them listened.
"Since Julian is no longer here and since I have to take up a different position, Dark Dream only has seven Veterans. Worst of all, everyone except Irwin is also a new Veteran."
Jenny and Taren frowned.
They were both Early Veterans, while Irwin was a Peak Veteran.
For all intents and purposes, Irwin should become Dark Dream's leader after Nick left.
The two of them had known Irwin for many years now, and Irwin was well on his way to creating his Shell.
Maybe one or two more years, and he would become an Expert.
However, while Irwin was powerful and dependable, he didn't seem like a leader.
He always performed amazingly in his job, but he was more of a follower than a leader.
In terms of personality and skill, Jenny was the best fit to lead Dark Dream, but she was still too weak.
Dark Dream had nine Adults, and Jenny could only work with half of them due to her low level.
This was troublesome.
Additionally, with Julian gone, Dark Dream lost its shield.
They were now open to assassinations, and the government could also use the laws to confiscate several of their Adults since they didn't have enough strong Extractors.
"It pains me to say it, but I can't give ownership of Dark Dream to either of you or Irwin," Nick said.
The two of them were not surprised.
"However, I'm also not going to leave you just like this or hand over ownership to a bunch of businessmen from the upper layer."
Nick leaned back in his chair.
"I'm proposing a merger with Solace," he said.
The two team leaders thought about it.
Naturally, it wasn't easy to accept that.
Dark Dream would essentially stop existing and get incorporated into an already existing Manufacturer.
It was a hard pill to swallow.
However, they also couldn't see another way.
This was the best thing for Dark Dream.
Dark Dream had worked closely with Solace for many years.
Their Extractors could go to Solace for new abilities and vice-versa.
They went on excursions with Extractors from Solace.
The Extractors of both Manufacturers also already knew each other.
Solace also had around 25 Veterans, making the big number of Adults Dark Dream owned not an issue.
Solace would essentially explode with power, allowing them to openly contend with Gemini.
In fact, except for their number of Experts, Solace would eclipse Gemini in every other aspect.
Their numbers of Newbies and Johns would reach a comparable level to Ghosty's Lab.
Their numbers of Veterans and Experts would be a slight bit lower than than those of Gemini, but they would still be on an equal footing.
However, the number of Adults they had would be a lot higher than that of Gemini, which meant that Solace would very quickly gain more Veterans than Gemini.
This merger would essentially set up Solace to become the third strongest Manufacturer in the city since Anatomy no longer existed.
They would only be below Kugelblitz and Ghosty's Lab.
The two of them thought about that proposition for a long time.
It was a bit sad to let go of Dark Dream, but belonging to such a strong Manufacturer that they loved working for was also quite exciting.
"It sounds like the best way forward," Jenny said.
Taren sighed. "I agree. I don't want to lose Dark Dream, but I don't see a better way."
Nick nodded. "Then, it's decided."
"This is Dark Dream's end and the rebirth of Solace."