The atmosphere in the upper layer changed drastically after Nick left.
No one had cleaned the three corpses, and since there were barely any guards in the upper layer, none of them were about to.
The few guards in the upper layer were all stationed in specific locations from which they were not allowed to leave.
This was due to the people living in the upper layer.
They were surrounded by a thick wall of steel, and the only entrance was guarded.
Why would they need guards in here?
In fact, why would they want guards here?
Most of the guards were lower people, in their opinion.
They didn't have the same status as the members.
But now, with the corpses lying in the middle of the road, they wished that there were some guards there.
Most of the people in the upper layer remained at home today.
They were frustrated.
They were afraid.
They were helpless.
What were they supposed to do?
What could they do?
None of their powers seemed to work on Nick.
Nick could just walk into the upper layer, kill a couple of innocent people, and walk out again.
He and the Governor were the ones making and enforcing the rules.
If they didn't want to prosecute themselves, no one would.
Only Aegis could.
However, none of the people could get in touch with Aegis.
The only way to get into touch with Aegis was the city console, and one also needed credentials to use it.
Naturally, none of the people in the upper layer had the credentials, and even if they did, they couldn't get past the guards.
In the past, they might have tried bribing the guards to let them through, but things were very different now.
Finding a corruptible guard was extremely difficult, and even just asking could already mean their death.
No one dared to try.
After a day, most of the people gathered in a public space to discuss the current situation.
Some of them said that they should continue the protest.
The Liaison couldn't kill all of them.
Yet, that opinion quickly got a lot of pushback.
Even if it were true that Nick couldn't kill all of them, none of them would want to be among the few that were killed.
Even if there was just a 10% chance that they were the ones getting killed, they still wouldn't be willing to take the risk.
Yes, they loved their wealth, but they wouldn't want to risk their lives for it.
Many of them had believed that they would, but when the decision was actually in front of them, they couldn't bring themselves to.
Of course, there were still some who were willing to do it, but they were in the minority.
Not even ten people.
With fewer than ten people, these brave businessmen couldn't even make an attempt.
On top of that, many of the new members of the upper layer straight up refused to partake in any of these matters.
These new members had "inherited" the businesses of the dead members, and due to them giving up their right to privacy, they weren't willing to do anything that might upset the government.
These new members knew the best how expendable they were.
All of them had been experienced businessmen living in the middle layer, and while inheriting the businesses had been a bit stressful, they just needed to keep the operations going and analyze a couple of things.
At some point in a company's growth, it became so big and autonomous that it basically ran itself.
The new members had seen how easy it was to inherit a flourishing business, and they were intelligent enough to realize that there were plenty of people living in the middle layer who could do the same.
Nick had finally done it.
After many incidents, he had managed to split up the upper layer.
They were no longer united.
Everyone was frustrated, but almost no one dared to actually do something against Nick.
In the following days, the upper layer put pressure on Mr. Zero to do something.
He was the only one with enough power to do anything.
Yet, Mr. Zero said that there was no good opportunity to get rid of Nick.
Of course, since Mr. Zero was Kugelblitz, this was a lie.
Kugelblitz could easily create an opportunity.
But Kugelblitz didn't want to get rid of Nick right now.
While their revenue had fallen a bit, their profits were higher than ever due to the tax change.
Sure, the loss of the Fiend of Darkness was bad, but their profits were still quite a bit higher than before Nick had taken on the role of Liaison.
Now, the upper layer truly felt lost.
Not even Mr. Zero was willing to do anything.
In the end, there was nothing they could do but bow their heads and do what Nick told them to do.
The production and sale of products reached their old levels, and the money was flowing in again.
The people in the upper layer also agreed on a payment plan for the nature preservation program.
They had given up.
They were done.
They were helpless.
Even two weeks after the event, the mood in the upper layer still hadn't improved.
They hated this!
But what were they supposed to do?
They couldn't leave the city since they would just die.
They would need Extractors to escort them to another city with all their wealth, and even if they accomplished that, there was no guarantee that the other city wouldn't just kill them and steal all their wealth.
The only other way was to assassinate Nick, but that also required a powerful Extractor.
But all the Extractors worked for Manufacturers or the city, and none of them wanted to get rid of the government right now.
The upper layer had no access to any Extractors to use in an assassination.
For the first time, the economically most powerful people in the city felt truly helpless.
As for the Manufacturers, when they heard that Nick had just randomly killed innocent people in public, they grew worried.
Would Nick also attempt that with them?
Naturally, that would be much riskier, but most of the Manufacturers weren't powerful enough to resist the guards.
The city had 22 Experts and nine Specialists!
Not even Gemini or the three big new Manufacturers could fight against nine Specialists.
Because of that, over 90% of the Manufacturers became very wary.
They didn't even dare to publicly comment on the matter.
They acted like they hadn't seen anything.
The only Manufacturer that made a public statement was Kugelblitz.
They denounced the Liaison's actions.
However, they did not announce any actions they would take against the government.
Naturally, everyone living in the upper layer could see what this was.
Virtue signaling.
Kugelblitz wanted to seem just and empathetic on the surface to uphold their image.
But these were all just empty words.
They wouldn't do anything.
Even if it happened again, they wouldn't do anything.
They might publicly speak again, but the next time, it would probably be much quieter than before.
While Kugelblitz had the power to fight the city, it really didn't want to.
Not without Aria's support.
Aria, on her own, was already a terrifying threat.
Kugelblitz did not want to fight the government.
Even if they won, they would lose several of their Specialists and maybe even Heroes.
With so few Specialists left, their profits would fall drastically.
And on top of that, there was also Aegis.
How could they possibly talk themselves out of the accusation of revolting against the government when they were the only ones powerful enough to do anything inside the city?
As of this moment, no one was left who could resist Nick's policies.
The ones with the true power didn't want to oppose Nick, and the ones that had the desire didn't have the power.
For now, the government was stable.
But not for long.
About two months after everything had blown over and just a couple of weeks before the next Manufacturer meeting, a miracle happened.
Someone had covertly reached out to the shady groups of the upper layer.
They were willing to help!
And the best thing was that they had the power to do something!
The party said that they were very unhappy with the Liaison's policy changes.
They hated what the upper layer had turned into.
The upper layer used to be a peaceful environment where laughing kids could run around without any worry while being one with nature.
They viewed it as pure and beautiful, and they hated that the Liaison had ruined this for everyone.
The party was willing to assassinate Nick.
However, they wouldn't do it for free.
50 billion credits.
This was not something that only a single person could pay for.
Yet, the upper layer was so desperate that the money had been gathered within less than a week.
The group handed over ten billion as a contracting fee, and the other party nodded.
"Give me two weeks."