Nick kept watch in the room for several days.
The CZE came and went several times since he had to run the entire company.
The CEO barely left, which was unusual.
Usually, CEOs of Manufacturers were constantly in meetings.
These meetings were important for completing trades, keeping relationships healthy, and establishing agreements.
A good CEO could do wonders for a company.
When Julian had been Dark Dream's CEO, he had managed to establish amazing trades, essentially getting a ton of expensive stuff at 70% of the normal price or even for free.
He even unlocked trades with elite companies that usually wouldn't trade with Dark Dream.
However, all of that was a lot of work.
One couldn't just stay inside their office all day and expect other people to do favors for them all the time.
Well, Julian could, but he was special.
'The fact that he is barely leaving his office means that his company's survival does not hinge on the money they produce or their trades,' Nick thought.
'That is only possible in two cases.'
'One, this company is an unassailable monopoly that doesn't need to cater to others.'
'Two, this is not an autonomous company.'
'While they are the only ones producing the chocolate, this still doesn't make them a monopoly in a way. They should still be attackable.'
'So, it can only be the second option, which confirms my initial guess.'
'They are not the true rulers of the city. They are just the ruler's fingers.'
'This entire company only exists as a front.'
'Everyone outside believes that the chocolate is made here, which makes them the target of anyone trying to usurp the chocolate trade in the city.'
'All enemies will congregate here, and when they try to do anything to Happiness Through Taste ;), the actual leader will know who the attacker is and deal with them.'
Nick narrowed his eyes.
He had kept watch over the CEO for almost an entire week, and he heard a lot of interesting secrets.
Yet, there were two parts that still remained secret.
One, who was their backer?
Two, how was the chocolate produced?
One would expect that the CEO would talk about the production of the company's primary product at least once in a week.
'It's almost like the production is not up to them,' Nick thought. 'Yet, they want everyone to believe that it is up to them. After all, food enters the building, and chocolate comes out.'
At the moment, there was a big meeting happening between the four leaders.
The CEO, the CZE, the CIO, and the CCO.
The Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Zephyx Extractor, the Chief Information Officer, and the Chief Customer Officer.
The Chief Information Officer was the only woman in the leadership, and she was responsible for all the equipment and the building.
The Chief Customer Officer was the man who was responsible for the corporate culture and customer satisfaction.
Nick looked at the four of them.
'If this company is only an appendage of the true ruler, one of them has to be a representative,' he thought.
Nick looked at the CEO.
Naturally, the CEO would be the prime suspect since he ran the entire company.
However, the CEO barely left his room. He just kept planning and crunching numbers the entire day.
Nick had over a decade of experience in running a company, and he could tell that the CEO looked busier than he actually was.
He was essentially doing unimportant things the entire day while appearing like he was working.
He was barely doing anything.
If Nick ran the company, he would sack the CEO and just dump the workload onto the other three.
They would still be able to deal with all their tasks easily.
'Additionally, the other three don't seem to respect him. They are following his orders, but they are not really acting like they are his inferiors.'
'Except for the CZE,' Nick thought as he looked at the other man. 'He actually seems to respect the CEO quite a bit.'
Nick looked at the older man and the middle-aged woman. 'But they don't.'
'Whenever the CEO says anything, they just look at him in boredom.'
'It almost seems like they are annoyed by him.'
'But when they look at the CZE, they seem neutral.'
'It would appear that they respect the CZE more than the CEO, and I'm pretty sure I also know why.'
'They know exactly that the CEO is not doing anything, while the CZE is actually doing stuff.'
'I don't think the CEO is the representative of the true ruler. He's not in contact with the ruler, and the CIO and CCO don't respect him enough.'
'I also don't think it's the CZE. He's a bit too subservient to the CEO. While this is technically how the relationship between a CEO and a CZE is supposed to be, it doesn't make sense in this case.'
'That leaves the CCO and the CIO. One of the two of them is most likely the representative of the ruler.'
'Or it could also be both.'
After a long meeting, everyone left the room.
The CCO and CEO went one way, while the CZE and CIO went another way.
Nick had to decide whom he should follow.
However, the decision wasn't difficult.
The fact that the CZE didn't look at the CEO, the same way as the CIO and CCO did, meant that he was most likely the only leader that didn't know what was truly going on.
'He probably doesn't even know that this is not an autonomous company.'
Nick followed the CCO and CEO out of the office.
The CZE and CIO went back to the main part of the building, while the CCO and CEO went further into the grey part of the building.
The two of them walked down several flights of stairs until they reached a door.
The CEO stepped forward and activated his Barrier.
His Barrier shone in different lights a couple of times.
Ding!
A Barrier covering the door in front of them was deactivated.
'A Solid Barrier,' Nick thought with narrowed eyes.
Solid Barriers and Liquid Barriers had different advantages and disadvantages.
The issue was that every normal person would make a Liquid Barrier here.
But it was a Solid Barrier.
This gave Nick a couple of ideas as to what could be going on.
The CCO and CEO stepped through, and Nick followed them.
After they stepped through the door, they reached a big hall and continued walking.
This was also quite suspicious since they didn't reactivate the Barrier on the door.
Reactivating such a Barrier barely took a second.
It was even less work than closing a door.
This meant that they kept the Barrier deactivated on purpose.
The hall was filled with inactive Containment Units.
By the looks of things, this was a storage room.
'But why would a storage room be inside an area that only the four leaders could access?'
Next, the two of them stopped in front of a Containment Unit.
The CEO stepped to the control console and typed in a couple of things.
A moment later, a loud alarm rang out through the storage hall.
Nick knew this alarm.
'They are opening the Containment Unit.'
It was important to note that they were not opening the employee entrance but the main gate.
This meant that a Specter could walk in and out of the Containment Unit.
A minute later, sure enough, the big gate of the Containment Unit opened slowly.
As soon as it opened, Nick could see something interesting.
One of the walls was missing.
The Containment Unit touched one of the walls of the wall, and the wall of the Containment Unit, touching the wall of the building, was missing.
And, apparently, the wall of the building itself also had a big hole.
The hole led into a dark cavern.
The cavern split in two after just ten meters, making it impossible for anyone to see where it as leading to without entering the darkness.
One hallway of the cavern led to the left, while one led to the right.
However, the cavern wasn't empty.
There were several full carts of food stored in this part of the cavern.
"As always," the CCO said with an even voice.
"Of course," the CEO answered, his voice sounding a slight bit nervous.
'Just as expected,' Nick thought. 'The CCO is the representative.'
'And if my suspicion is correct, he should also be…'
Then, the CCO stepped forward.
Into the darkness.
Without any light.
'I knew it,' Nick thought.
The fact that there was a solid Barrier earlier made Nick suspect that one of the two of them was a Specter, and since the CEO had shown his Barrier meant that it couldn't have been him.
Nick looked at the CCO in a new light.
'The guy responsible for this horrendous abomination that is their corporate culture is a Specter.'
'Why am I not surprised?'
'He probably feeds on the misery he creates by forcing people to follow such ridiculous rules.'
Next, the CCO took hold of one of the carts and pulled it down one of the hallways.