Back in the abandoned alleyway, Nick glared at the rat in his hand.
"I wasn't focusing on this minion earlier," the rat said with a justifying tone. "If I had known that you captured one of my minions, I would have immediately tried to talk to you."
Nick just kept glaring at the rat.
The rat just looked nervously at Nick.
"We're buddies, right? Remember how I saved you from killing yourself? Remember when I told you what you can do about Julian's influence? Remember when I told you how to infiltrate the Spartans? Come on, we're on the same team here," it said.
Nick just kept glaring at it.
The rat seemed quite nervous.
The Parasite still had issues coming to terms with the new Crimson City.
The last time the Parasite had been in Crimson City was before the Crimson Sea broke out.
That had been around 14 years ago.
Back then, Nick had been a Peak John.
Except for his position as CZE of Dark Dream, he had been a nobody.
Their hard and soft powers had been worlds apart.
But now, things were very different.
Now, Nick had the power to eradicate the Parasite's influence in Crimson City with a couple of words.
Just putting out a bounty of 100 credits on rat corpses would be a devastating blow to the Parasite.
Every creation of a minion needed Zephyx, and the Parasite needed corpses to regain Zephyx.
With one normal human corpse, the Parasite could create over 100 rats, but even such an efficient conversion had its limits.
If Crimson City were filled with suicidal people, it would still be worth it to fight through the bounty.
But that wasn't the case.
The Parasite had never had such huge issues in convincing people to kill themselves.
It had already tried to convince every single beggar to kill themselves.
A couple of them had done so, but that was it.
There were no more beggars to convince.
As for the normal people in the Outer City…
Why would they want to commit suicide?
Sure, not everyone was super happy, but committing suicide required more than just feeling a little blue.
So, the Parasite had started to manipulate people.
It gave incorrect advice to the few people who were willing to listen, causing them to lose all their belongings.
The sudden devastation of losing everything would make them prime targets.
Additionally, the Parasite had even forcefully torn some people apart by swarming them with rats.
But that was always extremely risky due to the high perception abilities of the Extractors around the city.
Crimson City had already become the least profitable location for the Parasite.
A bounty on every rat would turn coming to this city into a net loss.
The Parasite hadn't wanted to talk to Nick earlier since it knew Nick very well.
It knew that if the two of them were to talk, things would most likely turn out very badly for the Parasite.
The Parasite viewed Nick as a contradictory person.
Ruthless and merciful.
Egoistic and altruistic.
Shrewd and naïve.
Negotiating with an idealistic fool was almost impossible.
"Hey, can you maybe let me go?" the rat asked awkwardly. "It feels nice that you're hugging me this tightly with your hand, but I don't think this is the right- AAHH!"
Nick squeezed his hand more, and some of the rat's bones creaked.
"Here's my offer," Nick said coldly.
"You fuck off, and I don't kill your main body."
The rat had an uncomfortable smile on its face.
"That's quite a convincing offer, but I think we can refine that a little bit," it said.
Nick just glared at the rat.
"How about you give me five corpses per month, and I'm not going to come to the city anymore?" it asked.
"Fuck off or die," Nick repeated.
"Nick, that's not how negotiations work," the rat said.
"Fuck off or die," Nick said again.
The rat's smile vanished. "That's an empty threat, and you know it," it said with annoyance. "I'm present in six cities. There are over ten Heroes that want to see me dead. So, stop trying to intimidate me with such baseless threats."
Nick didn't seem impressed. "I don't need to kill you to kill you. I just need to find your main body. As soon as I know where you are, I will just send Aria. Or maybe I just ask Aegis directly. You're quite a big threat to several cities."
The rat groaned. "Nick, seriously, stop trying to intimidate me. You're not scary," it said. "No one is going to find my main body. If I were that easy to find, I wouldn't be here, would I?"
Nick still didn't seem impressed. "You know about my ability."
"I dealt with Julian."
"I dealt with the False News."
"I dealt with Kugelblitz."
"I dealt with the entire upper layer."
"I killed a Mid Specialist who tried to kill me."
"I am not confident in claiming that I am the most powerful Early Expert in this world, but I am confident in claiming that I am the best in staying undetected."
"I just have to wait until you find a victim and follow your rats back, and who knows, maybe I will go to another city first and follow you from there? After all, you would be careful while going back from this city."
"And even if I fail and get found out, what stops me from simply trying again from another city on another day?"
"Are you willing to increase security measures across all of your harvests significantly from now until forever?"
The rat glared at Nick.
Nick's ability to stay hidden had always been terrifying.
Sure, the Parasite could probably find him if he tried to follow it, but it would need to look extremely closely during every delivery.
Just due to Nick's ability and combat style, he was more dangerous to the Parasite than any of the other Governors who wanted to see it dead.
"Didn't you overlook something?" the rat asked with a grin. "There's something that you just said that's very interesting."
"I know what ability you have."
"I know that you have the ability of the Null, and I know that you can turn into mist."
"If people found out, countering you would be easy."
"How about placing a powerful mine? It's not sentient. If it senses you, your ability won't deactivate."
"How about explosions based on calculations and probabilities of where you should be?"
"How about sending a couple of people to just look at you while others attack you?"
"How about just placing some kind of tracer on you?"
"I can send my rats to tell everyone in this and every neighboring city about your ability."
"Within the next five hours, over 30,000 people will know about your ability."
"Do you really think you are in a position to negotiate?" the rat asked.
"Yes, I do," Nick said without hesitation. "Go ahead. Tell everyone."
Nick's eyes narrowed, and a deep well of anger and hatred seemed to be buried in them.
"But if you do, I won't rest until you are dead."
The rat glared back. "You're just bluffing," it said.
Nick looked at it.
The rat looked back.
"Are you stupid?!" the rat shouted in aggression. "You would destroy your future just for some random people you don't know from a random city?!"
"Would you?" Nick asked with a dark tone.
The rat kept glaring at Nick.
They were in a situation of potential mutually assured destruction.
If one of them struck, both of them would die.
Naturally, none of them wanted to die.
"You really want to throw your life away for this city?" the rat asked with a dark tone.
"I've been doing that for almost five years now," Nick answered in the same tone. "I put my life on the line every single time I've implemented a change in the city."
"I am not living for myself anymore."
"I am living for others."
"I live for Aegis."
"I live for humanity."
"And if I kill you, I will have helped humanity greatly."
"So, one last time."
"Fuck off or die."
CRKSH!
And Nick crushed the rat in his hand.
Nick threw the smashed corpse onto the ground and cleaned his hand.
Then, he walked back to the entrance of the megastructure.
"Liaison, please, wait a moment!" someone shouted.
Nick turned around and saw one of his captains. "Yes?"
"Could you please specify your order regarding the rodents a bit more?" he asked.
"The Parasite is back. Kill every rodent in the city. Wait with the bounty for now. We have plenty of guards who are just standing around and doing nothing. Send them on rat-hunting patrols," Nick ordered.
The captain nodded. "Affirmative!"
Nick walked back to the city's headquarters.
By the end of the day, over 2,000 rats had been killed by the guards, and even more rats were found fleeing from the city.
The next day, not a single rat was found inside the city.
In the distance, a lonely rat glared at Crimson City.
'I might not be able to deal with you without dying myself,' the Parasite thought.
'But there are parties who can.'
Then, the rat scurried away.