Over the next two weeks, the Technician made Nick go through a couple more experiments, and in the end, they came to a conclusion.
Yes, doing good did not interfere with the Zephyx produced by causing suffering.
Even when it happened at the same time, it didn't interfere.
If, for example, Nick were a medical professional and he would deal with serious injuries to save someone's life, he would still produce Zephyx if the process of dealing with that injury was quite painful.
Naturally, Nick would be saving someone's life, and the patient would be grateful the entire time.
Yet, they would have still suffered, and Nick's Specter Core would have still produced Zephyx.
After Nick had learned all of this, he had become relieved.
He had believed that he wouldn't be able to help humanity anymore with his new state of being, but that wasn't true at all.
Sure, there were still some issues, but this had been the biggest issue, and it had been solved.
The Technician and Nick had already come up with some plans about how Nick could produce enough Zephyx to keep advancing.
However, they were still nowhere near done experimenting on Nick.
While this issue had been dealt with, two other issues still needed to be solved.
First, Nick needed to regain access to his abilities.
Second, they didn't know how Nick's advancement between levels worked.
How would he gain new abilities?
Usually, an Extractor's Zephyx Synchronizer, when the Extractor was ready to advance, was in a volatile state, and the Extractor could will it to copy the closest Specter's ability.
But the closest Specter to Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer was his Specter Core.
Any outside Zephyx from any other Specter would not be able to enter the Specter Core, which meant that it couldn't touch Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer.
So, how was Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer supposed to gain new abilities?
Right now, it seemed impossible.
However, there was always a way, and Nick had the support of the most intelligent and oldest researcher in the world, the Technician.
The Technician hadn't been this invested in a project for over a thousand years.
Depending on the result, this might transform all of humanity.
The Technician gave Nick all of his attention.
By now, Nick had gotten used to the Technician, and the two of them were talking quite casually.
The Technician also wasn't a person who constantly demanded respect.
One day, during a seemingly random experiment, the Technician suddenly started frowning.
Nick raised his eyebrow as the Technician pulled the wires from Nick's body with annoyance.
"We gotta go," he said as he walked to the door.
"What's up?" Nick asked, standing up from the table.
"Helia has been a pain in my ass for a month now," the Technician said as he led Nick up the stairs. "She wants to know about the cities and several other research projects, and she is constantly complaining about their progress."
Naturally, the Shields talked to each other via voice transmission.
Nick hadn't noticed it, but the Technician had probably been talking with the Left Arm quite regularly.
'But then, why isn't he just explaining everything?' Nick thought with furrowed brows.
"Because we don't talk often," the Technician answered as if he had just read Nick's mind.
Nick used to be surprised whenever the Technician did this, but after a while, he got used to it.
A researcher who had lived for over a thousand years had talked to so many people and had such a fast mind that they could very often guess with quite a lot of accuracy what someone was thinking about just based on their expression and context clues.
"She only contacts me when she needs something, and I don't want to waste my time by giving useless reports to her," the Technician explained as the two of them approached the central Extractor shaft. "She keeps supervising me like I'm some kind of baby."
He might not be able to read minds word for word, but he could guess what was roughly going on in someone's mind most of the time.
"She only contacts me when she needs something, and I don't want to waste my time by giving useless reports to her," the Technician explained as the two of them approached the central Extractor shaft. "She keeps supervising me like I'm some kind of baby."
The two of them jumped into the Extractor shaft and moved upward.
"Why are we here, exactly?" Nick asked.
The Technician jumped through one of the doors of the Extractor shaft.
"I'll just introduce you and talk about all the possibilities now so that we don't have to do this again," the Technician said as he opened the door to the Hall of Remembrance.
Nick furrowed his brows, but before he could ask…
"Not a lot," the Technician answered. "I was very vague."
Nick's eyebrows rose.
The Technician turned around and pointed his finger at Nick with an annoyed expression. "Shut it!"
Nick just looked at him with a neutral expression.
Finally, the Technician sighed and rubbed the side of his head in annoyance. "Yes, yes, I get it. I know, I know."
Then, he groaned in frustration before approaching the Left Arm's office.
Sadly, Nick couldn't stop his thoughts from occurring.
'If you were more dutiful in reporting, she wouldn't constantly ask for a report.'
The Technician didn't react.
He already knew all of that.
But it was just so annoying!
He just wanted to focus on his research and his work.
Couldn't everyone just leave him alone so that he could create new technologies and advancements in peace?
Nick knew these kinds of people very well.
They were amazing at what they did, but they were very often not very dutiful when it came to seemingly unnecessary things.
Stuff like finances, marketing, legality, popularity, procedure, and so on.
Naturally, due to their high intellect, they very often noticed when these things occurred and knew about these flaws of theirs very well.
But it just wasn't important enough to waste a lot of focus on.
The Technician opened the door to the Left Arm's office without knocking and just entered.
Nick carefully entered after him.
When he saw the intimidating Left Arm standing in the middle of the dim office, Nick bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Left Arm," he spoke.
As always, the Left Arm had an expression that made it seem as if she were looking at a criminal.
"James," she said with her cold voice as she looked at the Technician. "Please, tell me why this is so important."
"Just look at him!" James said as he gestured to Nick. "He has a working Specter Core surrounding his Zephyx Synchronizer!"
"I see that," the Left Arm spoke in a flat tone. "Yes, that is indeed very interesting, but I don't see how this is taking up your time to such a degree that three Agent promotions and 15 city bankruptcies are still waiting. The future Agents and the cities are waiting for you, and the procedures can't continue without your approval."
The Technician rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Don't you see how big this is?! These little things are nothing compared to what might be in front of-"
"Might," the Left Arm interjected coldly. "That is the right word. Might. It is not certain."
The Left Arm narrowed her eyes as she glared at the Technician. "Even if this guy were the future savior of humanity, he wouldn't be able to solve anything within the next couple of decades, and if you continue ignoring your duties, Aegis might not exist after the next couple of decades."
"Manage your things and do your duty so that Aegis can run smoothly until the time that your hope has a chance of paying off. We have to be alive to experience the fruits of hope."
The Technician grimaced.
In a way, he looked like a toddler who didn't want to eat his veggie cubes.
"Can't somebody else deal with this stuff?" he asked with a voice devoid of hope.
The Left Arm just looked at him with an icy glare.
"No," she spoke slowly.
The Technician slowly took a deep breath.
Then, his Barrier activated, and several pictures flashed on it before vanishing.
Five seconds later, the Barrier deactivated.
"Okay, done," he said. "Can I go back to researching now?"
Nick rolled his eyes.
'Five seconds,' Nick thought. 'This guy made all of this trouble for just five seconds of work.'
'Walking to the ground floor took already more than five seconds.'
However, Nick wasn't surprised.
Many of these kinds of people were quite eccentric.
"Tell me everything you found out about this new possible way of Consumption," the Left Arm ordered.
"Oh, sure!" the Technician answered as his mood immediately improved.
As soon as he got to talk about his research, his demeanor started to glow like a child that had just found a new toy.
The Technician started to talk endlessly about what he had learned and what he thought would happen.
"What about the best possible scenario?" the Left Arm asked, interrupting the Technician.
"Well," the Technician said. "If we somehow manage to allow the Zephyx Synchronizer to attain new abilities, we would technically not be limited by the power of the Specters we possess."
"Nick could potentially become a Peak Shield, and if everything goes well, he could even be the first human to reach the ninth level."