"Excuse me, what did you just say?" Jornis Zealow, the new CEO of Kugelblitz, asked in shock.
Vanessa Korint, Kugelblitz's new Chief Zephyx Extractor, looked at Aria with just as much shock.
Mindy Wunder, Gemini's CEO, looked at the table with furrowed brows.
Her sister, Cindy Wunder, Gemini's Chief Zephyx Extractor, glanced at her sister.
Ramona Illium, Sky Dream's CEO, looked like she had just heard that her business was going to be seized by the city, and Hera looked just as shaken.
Well, their businesses wouldn't get seized, but a huge part of their profits would!
This was insane!
At that moment, Hera remembered Nick's words.
Nick said that he would create policies that made it seem like he was going after Sky Dream specifically but that he was actually protecting them.
If she hadn't heard Nick's words, she would never believe that Nick didn't specifically target them.
Just like he said, Sky Dream was the Manufacturer that suffered the most under this policy.
By far!
Everyone was inside the new city headquarters in the middle of the lower layer, and they were all looking at Aria, their Governor, in shock.
Aria had just dropped a bomb.
"I am going to repeat myself," Aria said calmly.
"Starting from six months from now, the taxes every Manufacturer has to pay is equivalent to the number of contained Specters they own in relation to the total number of Specters all private Manufacturers have contained in percent, with a minimum of 30% of taxes."
"The first five Specters do not count towards the raise in taxes, but if you own a sixth Specter, it will increase."
"For example, if there are 100 Specters contained in the private Manufacturers all over the city, and you have five Specters, you will pay 30% taxes. If you have six Specters, you will pay 31% taxes. If you own seven of the 100 Specters, it will be 32%. If you own 100 Specters, it will be 125%."
"The total number of Specters owned by private Manufacturers right now is around 150. The Specters the city owns are not counted in the total," Aria explained.
Silence.
The people had to digest what they had heard first.
In the past, the taxes had basically been fixed after a Manufacturer reached a certain size, which was true for all the Manufacturers present.
50%.
That's what it had been.
50% of the profits would be given to the city.
But with this new policy…
Kugelblitz would need to pay about 58% in taxes.
Gemini needed to pay about 45% in taxes.
And Sky Dream would need to pay almost 70% in taxes.
Kugelblitz got an increase.
Gemini got a decrease.
And Sky Dream got a huge increase.
"Why?!" Jornis asked loudly in his imposing and deep voice. "Were 50% not enough for you?"
The two from Gemini remained silent.
They benefited from this change.
Ramona and Hera were still confused as to why Nick would do something like that.
"Kugelblitz," Nick said evenly from beside Aria.
Jornis looked at Nick with narrowed eyes.
"Here," Nick said, making Jornis furrow his brows.
Nick looked around the table.
"Anatomy. Doesn't exist anymore."
"Ghosty's Lab. Doesn't exist anymore."
"Gemini. Here."
"Sky Dream. Here."
"The Spartans. Don't exist anymore."
"Cycle. Doesn't exist anymore."
Nick remained silent for two seconds.
"If we view the old Solace and Dark Dream as one Manufacturer, even in the past, we went from seven Manufacturers to three."
"This city only has three Manufacturers."
"Dark Dream was the newest Manufacturer that managed to gain any kind of traction, and that happened over 15 years ago."
"Since then, four Manufacturers vanished, but no notable new ones appeared."
"Aegis does not like monopolies, and this city is heading towards a monopoly."
Nick stood up and looked at the present people.
"I've been Dark Dream's Chief Zephyx Extractor for about 15 years, and I know what things are going on beneath the surface. I'm not like Markus, who has been in his ivory tower for decades, forgetting what it means to be part of the private sector of business in the city."
"And, frankly, I'm done with all of your hidden schemes to take each other down."
"Just a couple of months ago, everything was heading towards a monopoly with Anatomy, which was a failure of the old government since it should have never reached this point, to begin with."
"But this is a new government now, and I am not going to let things reach this state again."
Nick looked at the two from Kugelblitz. "You still get all of the meat in the soup, but you have to leave the broth for everyone else."
Jornis looked at Nick with furious eyes.
This mere Expert!
This Expert was talking to him, a Hero, like he was some regular employee!
"Are the Specters of subsidiaries included in the overall taxes of the parent company?" Vanessa asked.
"Yes," Nick answered.
Vanessa frowned.
Her first thought had been to create several subsidiary Manufacturers, which would take all the weak Specters, leaving Kugelblitz with the strongest Specters while having to pay little taxes.
But that didn't work, apparently.
"What about the city?" Jornis asked. "Why is the city not included in the total number of Specters? That seems unjust."
Everyone looked at Nick.
The city was no longer the old city.
Just one year ago, the city barely owned 40 Specters.
But now, the city had absorbed Ghosty's Lab, the Manufacturer with the highest number of Specters.
With the addition of Ghosty's Lab, the city now had around 250 Specters.
One had to remember that Ghosty's Lab had an unimaginable number of Hatchlings and Adolescents while also having the most Adults.
If one included the city's Specters in the total number of Specters, the number would rise from 150 to 400.
The city owned over 60% of all the Specters.
"We can do that," Nick said. "I didn't bring it up since I know that you would not want that."
Jornis raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"We can include the city's Specters in the total," Nick said. "However, the tribute that Aegis demands still needs to be paid, and with your suggestion, the city itself would need to pay fewer taxes than it already does."
"If you want the city's Specters to be included, we have to raise the minimum from 30% to 50% to keep the tribute payable."
Several pairs of eyes widened.
"50%! How can you justify that?!" Jornis shouted.
"Because 90% of the Zephyx created by the city's Specters is sent to Aegis," Nick said.
Silence.
Nick leaned back.
"The new Governor and I combined earn barely 10% of what Markus decided to pay himself," Nick said.
"As the Liaison, I earn less than as the Chief Zephyx Extractor of Dark Dream."
Nick looked at everyone.
"And why?"
"Because Aegis comes first, and if I do not lead by example, I can't expect you to follow."
Nick stood up and looked at everyone with a serious expression.
"Aegis is humanity's shield, and we can't keep cowering behind it while trying to eat everyone else behind the shield because we're not happy with the girth of our already swollen bodies."
Nick sat back down again.
Kugelblitz and Gemini were not happy with Nick's words.
Not even the slightest bit.
They earned their profits!
They crawled out of the mud and managed to climb to their current positions!
They worked for decades to achieve what they had, and now, some random youngster that got the luck of the draw was deciding on taking it from them!
Aria remained silent during all of this.
She had planned this together with Nick, but Nick said that he wanted to be everyone's target.
He was supposed to be the bad guy.
So, she let him be the bad guy.
Jornis wanted to protest again, but Vanessa put a hand on his shoulder to silence him.
Jornis looked at her with annoyance, but when he saw the crafty light in Vanessa's eyes, he decided to remain silent.
Vanessa looked like she found something interesting.
"The taxes are only based on the number, not the power or productivity of the Specter, right?" she asked.
Nick looked at Vanessa.
'Finally, someone got it,' he thought.
"Correct," Nick said. "A Manufacturer that has ten Hatchlings pays the same percentage of taxes as a Manufacturer that has ten Fanatics."
At that moment, everyone realized where this was going.
Everyone did some math in their heads, and they realized something.
This change actually favored the powerful!
For example, 90% of Kugelblitz's revenue came from their Fanatics and the Crimson Fungus, but those Specters only made up 15% to 20% of their total Specters.
So, if Kugelblitz got rid of all Specters weaker than Fanatics, they would keep 90% of their revenue while having to pay less than 40% of taxes.
That new rule actually increased Kugelblitz's profits!
Well, assuming they got rid of their weakest Specters.
At that moment, Hera and Ramona also realized why Nick said that he was protecting them with this policy.
Destroying and absorbing weaker Manufacturers would actually decrease the profits of powerful Manufacturers since having many weak Specters would increase the taxes.
Kugelblitz wouldn't want to touch Sky Dream since their taxes would shoot through the roof.
In fact, they would even want Sky Dream to continue existing!