After saying a couple more things, Aria and Nick retreated back into the megastructure.
Aria looked at Nick with furrowed brows. "You were quite aggressive."
"I'm the bad guy," Nick said. "You're the good one. I will be making most of the policies that the elite hate. I will be their enemy, not you."
"Why do you have to be like this?" Aria asked with a bit of annoyance. "I thought we agreed on working on this together."
"And we will be," Nick said, "but I need the elite to hate me. If they realize that you support me in many of my decisions, you will also be a target."
"They know of my background, and they know that I am only an Initial Expert. In their minds, getting rid of me is not associated with an awful lot of risk. Getting rid of you requires them to unite the entire city and get Kugelblitz as an ally."
"Instead of gathering everything for one ultimate and devastating attack, they will only invest a little at a time. I am going to use the very thing that holds me in its grasp."
"The sunk cost fallacy."
"They will keep investing and investing a little at a time, believing that they just need to add a bit more to take care of me."
"And before they know it, they will not have enough resources anymore to be a threat to you."
"At that point, our rule is secure," Nick explained.
"Nick, that might work on the people of the Outer City, but the people of the upper layer have decades of experience in these things," Aria said.
"Aria, how intelligent was Julian?" he asked.
Aria furrowed her brows. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that even the most intelligent and scheming person can die to greed and arrogance. Being underestimated is one of the most powerful blessings," Nick answered.
Aria remained silent for a while.
She could see where Nick was coming from, but she didn't think it would be so easy.
She remembered how Nick had said that he would be betting with his life, and he hadn't lied about that.
Nick made himself the target of the elite.
Aria hadn't been sure if Nick would actually go through with his extreme mindset, but when it happened, she felt a bit nervous.
"You're risking your life," she said.
"I have to," Nick said. "Things only got this bad because Markus wasn't willing to risk his life."
"We have both done things that are against the law," Nick said.
Aria didn't answer.
"In this city, there is a game of politics, economics, and scheming. Either the people act by the rules, or they try to break the rules without being noticed."
"I am going to eradicate this game."
"I am not going to be a player."
Nick and Aria had already talked quite a bit about their upcoming plans.
In fact, for the past week, they had done basically nothing else.
However, there were things that Nick didn't talk about.
For example, how he was planning on dealing with opposition to their new policies.
"Quite a speech."
Nick looked to the side and saw a middle-aged man approaching.
He was wearing the uniform of a Zephyx Extractor working for the city.
The emblem on his uniform identified him as a Specialist.
"But I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't introduce us," he said with some feigned annoyance.
"We still need to move your Specters," Nick said. "After we're done, we're going to announce it."
The man laughed.
"I can already tell that this city will not remain calm for long. They just recovered from the incident with Anatomy, and now this is happening."
"To think that I would be working for the city," the man said.
The man was Herman Reichert, the former CEO of Ghosty's Lab.
Nick had talked to Ghosty for one specific reason.
The biggest weakness of Crimson City was its lack of loyal Extractors.
The vast majority of Crimson City's forces were borrowed from the Manufacturers, which made it difficult to enforce the laws on them.
Nick wanted to rectify that first.
And after negotiating with Ghosty for a while, he got his wish.
Without Ghosty, Ghosty's Lab had a precarious future.
However, Ghosty didn't want to give Kugelblitz even more power.
Kugelblitz had not proven to be very reliable in the past.
So, it was decided that Ghosty's Lab, together with all their Extractors and Specters, would join the city.
80 Newbies.
170 Johns.
55 Veterans.
15 Experts.
Two Specialists.
Over 150 Specters.
Together with the people who already belonged to the city, Crimson City's government now had about 100 Newbies, 210 Johns, 70 Veterans, 25 Experts, and five Specialists.
All of these people were as loyal as could reasonably be expected.
Some of them would still be corrupt, but it was a huge improvement over how it had been before Nick took over.
Crimson City's forces eclipsed Gemini and Sky Dream to a considerable degree.
Kugelblitz was the only danger since they still had more Experts, Specialists, and Heroes.
However, Aria had already told Nick that a couple of Specialists from Kugelblitz would soon join the city.
They had worked under Aria for decades, and a couple of them were willing to follow.
Of course, only if they were compensated accordingly and received access to Specters.
Since it wasn't announced yet that Ghosty's Lab was absorbed by the city, they were not yet willing to join.
Crimson City only had had a single Fanatic up to this point.
With Ghosty's Lab joining, they would have two, but that would only sway one or two Specialists to join.
Many Specialists were interested in joining the city on a base level since they were reaching the end of their path.
Becoming a Hero was very difficult since Kugelblitz only had a couple of Fanatics and one Demon, which were shared amongst all of them.
Logically, many Specialists were interested in joining the city to get a foot in the door with Aegis.
If they could join Aegis, their future would be boundless.
Nick and Aria went back to the upper layer and entered the old Governor's office.
They hadn't touched a lot in there yet since they were too busy with other things.
Soon, one shocking policy change after the other would take place.
Aria wanted Nick to progress slower, telling him that the city needed time to adjust.
Even more, if things changed too quickly, a lot of pressure would be put on the wealthier ones, making them more likely to attack.
However, Nick just answered that this was exactly why he wanted things to progress quickly.
Nick told Aria his plan, and when she heard that, she had to release a nervous sigh.
Nick was really willing to go all in.
This would be very, very different from how Markus ran the city.
Aria wasn't sure if things would really improve in this way.
Nevertheless, she had said that she would try Nick's approach.
Nick had spoken to the Champion of Light, and the Champion of Light was willing to trust him.
Aria wanted to give him a chance.
If things truly got out of hand, she would intervene.
Of course, she wasn't accepting every single policy Nick made.
A couple of Nick's policies had to be scrapped since Aria was very much against them.
And Nick conceded on these points.
He said that he would work together with Aria, and Aria had proven that she was willing to work with him.
If Aria was completely against something, Nick would not force the issue.
She was already giving him a lot of freedom and leeway, and Nick could see that.
This was about as good as it could realistically get.
The next day, Dark Dream's Specters were moved to Solace's old building.
For a couple of days, Sky Dream needed to contain all their Specters in that building.
The building was over maximum capacity, and they had to store Containment Units outside the building.
However, for just a couple of days and with enough guards, this was acceptable.
Next, heavy construction started around Dark Dream's old building in the middle of the lower layer.
The pillar was being widened, and a long line of houses leading to one of the walls was demolished.
Naturally, the occupants of the houses had received appropriate compensation.
Over the next couple of days, a long and wide hallway was created leading from the central pillar towards one of the edges of the megastructure.
The hallway was suspended, allowing people to pass under it.
The edge was where the old headquarters of the Spartans was located.
The headquarters were renovated, and the hallway connected both sides.
Over a couple more days, the old building of the Spartans was expanded.
It started to stretch out of the megastructure and became the most imposing building in the Outer City.
With Extractors, building something like this didn't take a lot of time.
Within one month, construction was completed.
Dark Dream's old building was connected to the old building of the Spartans, which was additionally expanded into the Outer City.
The guards could easily and quickly pass from the center of the Inner City to the Outer City.
Finally, when construction was complete, the first of many shocking events for Crimson City happened.
Ghosty's Lab was dissolved, and all their Specters were moved to the new building at the lower layer of the Inner City.
Just like that, the second most powerful Manufacturer, one that had existed for about 150 years, was dissolved.