Nick looked at the person, who wasn't chaotically flailing around.
She was a woman who seemed to be in her early 20s, but that didn't say much.
According to the Zephyx, Nick could feel that she was in the earlier stages of the Veteran level.
She could also be 50 while still looking this young.
Yet, despite just being freed from a gigantic Snake Specter's belly, she still had something that Nick didn't.
Clothes.
"I just want to ask you a couple of questions," Nick said carefully after he noticed the woman's horrified expression.
Not surprising at all, Nick's words didn't help in calming the Extractor down.
"I'm scared," she said after a bit.
"I can see that, but as I've said, I just want some answers to a couple of questions, and you can go," Nick said with an uncertain tone.
'Why did she say that she was scared? Seems pointless.'
After that, surprisingly, she seemed to calm down. "I can reason with you, right?" she asked.
Nick raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Was there any doubt about that?"
The Extractor's fear seemed to intensify again. It seemed like she was scared that she had somehow insulted Nick, even though insulting a Specter was basically impossible.
"There are Specters that can talk but can't be reasoned with," she answered.
Nick naturally knew that.
"Alright, so, can I ask my questions now?" he asked.
The next moment, the woman looked at the three other people, who were slowly calming down.
"Who are they?" she asked.
Nick furrowed his brows in annoyance. "Victims of the rock snake. Just like you."
"Rock snake?" she repeated. "Was that the Specter that captured us?"
Nick was starting to get frustrated.
"Yes, so, can-"
"Where are we?" she asked.
Nick took a deep breath, which felt strange since the air just entered his "lungs" before leaving again without being changed in any way. After all, Nick didn't really have a normal metabolism anymore.
"That would have been my first question," Nick answered.
"How would I know? I was inside a rock snake for weeks or even months. I don't know where we are," she answered.
Nick got annoyed for a moment before he realized that she was actually right.
How would she know?
Nick looked at the other three, who had calmed down by now.
'They probably also wouldn't know.'
"Gather up," Nick shouted to the others. "We need to talk."
The other three could immediately tell that Nick was a Specter.
Many Specters had powers that allowed them to hide their malevolent auras from humans, but Nick was not one of them.
Naturally, their fight or flight instincts immediately kicked in, but they also knew that there was no point in resisting.
Nick felt far too powerful to them.
They nervously glanced at each other before approaching.
"Alright, maybe some of you haven't realized it yet, but I was the one that killed the Specter and freed you," Nick said.
The four of them looked at each other with a bit of confusion.
"Why?" the woman from earlier asked.
"Because I need some answers," Nick answered. "I just need a couple of answers, and I will be gone."
Nick's answers confused the Extractors.
This was strange.
A Specter that just wanted answers?
Was this some kind of weird trick to gather Zephyx?
Did this Specter grow more powerful by asking questions?
Would they need to answer questions until they died of old age?
"I presume nobody of you knows where we are? Do the surroundings look familiar to you?" Nick asked.
The people looked around.
Grey and brown mountains.
"I've seen some brown mountains before," one of them said.
That was when Nick realized that there was actually no point in asking if they recognized their surroundings.
Who didn't see grey and brown mountains before?
They were almost everywhere in the world.
"Where do you come from? I just need the names of the cities," Nick said.
This question made the Extractors nervous again.
"Wash Basin City," one of them said.
"Wash Basin City?" Nick repeated with furrowed brows. "Is that real? It doesn't sound real."
The person seemed to become nervous when Nick singled him out. "We have a Demon Possession Specter in the form of a huge pool. That's why the city has the name."
"Do you know what continent that city is on?" Nick asked.
The man looked at the other Extractors nervously before turning back to Nick.
"What's a continent?" he asked.
Nick blinked once. "Do you know what an island is?"
"No," the man answered.
"What about the weather? Is it cold or hot?"
"There's rain about once a week, and the temperature is about the same as here. The Sun always shines onto the city."
"Do you know where the nearest Aegis stronghold is?"
The man looked around at the other people, who just shook their heads.
"Aegis as in a shield?" he asked.
"As in the organization Aegis. You know, the strongest organization of humanity," Nick repeated.
The people just looked at each other with surprise.
"No," one of them said.
Nick took a deep breath.
'I can't be mad at them,' he thought. 'When I was a John, I also didn't know what Aegis or a continent was.'
'At least, I think I didn't. My past feels kind of blurry.'
"What about you?" Nick asked as he turned to another person. "Where did you come from?"
"Stark Halt City," he answered.
Nick didn't ask about the weird city name.
"Do you know where it is?" Nick asked.
"It's surrounded by a wasteland. There are a couple of crevices and a couple of smaller mountains," the man answered.
'That doesn't really narrow it down,' Nick thought.
Nick asked the remaining two people, and just as expected, they didn't have anything that Nick could use to find out where he was.
The only thing of note was that all four came from different cities, which meant that the Specter was probably moving from city to city to avoid getting found out after abducting somebody.
"How did that rock snake even capture you?" Nick asked as he looked at the three Johns. "Since when are Johns allowed to leave cities?"
The three of them looked with confusion at each other. "Why wouldn't we be allowed to leave cities?"
Now, Nick was confused. "There are tons of powerful Specters outside. One would assume that most people wouldn't be allowed to put themselves in such danger."
"I mean, yeah, there are a lot of Specters in the wild, but my city doesn't have such draconian laws," one of them said. "Plenty of people live and work outside of the city."
This shocked Nick quite a bit. "And that's safe?" he asked.
"It's not," the guy answered. "People get kidnapped by Specters all the time, but you just have to live with it. If you want to earn a living, you have to put your life on the line."
The man talked about it as if there were no issues, and Nick almost became horrified.
To these people, this was probably just normal life, but Nick knew that this was definitely not normal.
'Why would the Governor allow something like that?'
'Wait, is this to lure Specters to the city so that the Manufacturers can more easily catch them?'
'Are they fishing for Specters?'
"Alright," Nick said after a bit. "We can go search for the nearest city. I will accompany you. As soon as we arrive, you can enter."
Naturally, Nick's words made them suspicious.
This sounded impossible.
Why would a Specter let them go just like that?
What was in it for the Specter?
"Let's walk towards the south," Nick said.
The people became nervous.
When would the other shoe drop?
When would the Specter turn around and cause them immense suffering?
Would Nick suddenly kill them?
Sadly, there was nothing they could do.
Nick was simply too powerful.
In the end, they followed him.
While they were walking after him, Nick furrowed his brows in frustration.
He could feel Zephyx coming from them, which meant that they were suffering due to Nick right now.
Nick had tried his best to calm down their fears, but nothing seemed to help.
In a way, the Zephyx Nick felt coming from them was disgusting to him.
These were innocent and helpless people, and they were suffering because of his presence.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do.
He could only hope that they would find a city soon.
The five of them continued towards the south for quite a while.
During that time, they did not find another Specter.
"There's a human," Nick suddenly said.
The other four looked around but couldn't find the human.
"He's a Late or Peak Veteran. Do you wish to be seen by him? You are free to do so, but you know the risk," Nick said.
The people looked around in confusion.
"Risk? What risk?" one of them asked.
"Getting killed for profit," Nick said.
Two of the people turned white in horror.
"But that's illegal!" one of them shouted.
Nick furrowed his brows and looked at the guy.
'Are they truly this naive, or are these cities just very different from Crimson City?'
"So, I assume you want to meet him," Nick said.
The four looked at each other before nodding.
"Fine."