Nick moved the corpse of the CEO to the side of the room and walked towards the place where the tall Specter used to be.
Then, he waited.
Just as expected, a couple of minutes later, the door to the Containment Unit opened.
Almost immediately, Nick's ability deactivated, and he came face to face with the Governor.
As soon as the Governor noticed Nick, her eyes narrowed, and a wave of Zephyx expanded throughout the cave.
She had been startled.
Naturally, her perception quickly swept over the cave system, and she found the destroyed cart of food and the corpse of the CEO.
However, she did not find the CCO nor the pregnant Specter.
She looked at Nick with narrowed eyes. "What happened? Who are you?"
Of course, she could tell that Nick was a Specter. Due to the nature of his Zephyx, it was extremely easy for her to tell that he was one.
Usually, when an Extractor saw a wild Specter, they would try to capture it or run, but for the Governor, it was different.
After all, she had been working with Specters for literal years.
"Gluttony's presence has been eliminated from Black Mine City," Nick said evenly. "I killed the pregnant Specter, the CCO, and the CEO of Happiness Through Taste ;)."
The Governor had difficulties believing Nick's words.
The Specter in front of her was, at most, a Mid Fanatic. How could this Specter kill the pregnant Specter?
However, it was a fact that the pregnant Specter vanished.
The Governor knew that there were three exits in the cavern.
One led to her headquarters.
Two led to Happiness Through Taste ;).
The pregnant Specter could not hide from peoples' perception, and it was big enough that anyone would notice it.
Back then, they needed to transport it in a Specter Cage to get it into the city.
If anyone had moved a big Specter Cage through the city, the Governor would have noticed.
Her perception also didn't find any new exits.
So, the only sensible explanation for the Specter's vanishing was that it was killed.
The Governor didn't let it show on her face, but she was nervous.
If it came out that she worked with one of the Corruptors, she would be killed!
However, she also realized that Aegis most likely didn't know.
After all, this was a Specter in front of her, not a human.
Maybe there was a way out of this.
"Quite brave of you to appear in front of me," she slowly spoke. "Or should I say, stupid?"
Nick didn't answer.
"I was a hostage of the pregnant Specter," she explained with narrowed eyes. "I was forced into compliance on the threat of my life!"
"Now, you've killed the pregnant Specter and have freed me. If you were a human, I would be thankful."
"But you're a Specter. You only want to force me into servitude again!"
"You might have found a way to deal with the pregnant Specter, but you will find that forcing me to follow your orders won't be easy!"
Nick didn't look very impressed.
The Governor pulled out a gun, which she pointed at Nick.
"You're lucky I haven't killed you yet!" she spoke.
Nick slowly lifted his right arm.
Then, a piece of paper manifested in his hand.
He threw the piece of paper forward without a word.
The Governor's perception read through the piece of paper in an instant, and her eyes widened.
This was a transcript of all of her talks with the CCO in the last couple of months.
Then, Nick conjured more pieces of paper.
Balance sheets.
Numbers.
Sales.
Zephyx production.
The Governor became more and more shocked.
These numbers were accurate to two digits after the decimal point!
This was not guesswork!
Numbers with such accuracy could only come from the people who generated these numbers and oversaw the city's processes.
Naturally, these numbers were delivered to the Governor, and she stored them in a secure location inside her office.
The fact that this Specter could produce all of them easily meant that it had managed to read through these documents!
But Nick wasn't done.
A moment later, he started to conjure more sheets of paper, but this time, there were images on them.
Images of the Governor inside her office.
There were several of them, and the images depicted the Governor in different acts.
Two of them even depicted her masturbating.
She recognized all of them.
She no longer felt confident.
Instead, she felt terrified.
This Specter must have been watching her for weeks!
But how?!
How was this possible?!
The truth was that Nick had done just that, but it hadn't been easy.
Heroes had strong perceptions.
The biggest reason why the Governor hadn't noticed Nick was that she felt so safe inside her headquarters.
In short, she was relaxed and careless.
The Governor regularly came to the pregnant Specter to absorb her Zephyx.
One had to remember that the pregnant Specter produced Zephyx when people ate its chocolate, not when it converted food into chocolate.
This meant that the Specter essentially produced Zephyx constantly without pause.
The Governor came into the Containment Unit daily for about three hours to collect her Zephyx for the day before leaving.
These visits were how Nick managed to go in and out of the cavern.
As the Governor kept looking at the sheets of paper, she grew more and more afraid.
Somebody had been watching her for several days, at least!
They had been inside her office.
They had been walking behind her.
They had seen her when she had been goofing off.
She was a Hero!
She could perceive anything in a several-kilometer-wide radius!
This was her city!
This was her base!
This was her room!
The thought of someone constantly watching her and being in the same room as her felt violating.
It was terrifying!
"Can you be honest now?" Nick asked coldly.
The Governor's emotions ran wild, and her Zephyx became chaotic.
She looked at Nick with an unstable expression.
It looked like she was about to attack.
And that was also what she actually wanted to do.
Yet, as soon as she wanted to pull the trigger of her gun, her terror intensified.
Her instincts were telling her that she was committing a grave mistake!
She knew she was more powerful than this Specter, but she felt like any attack she launched would be stopped.
It felt hopeless.
This Specter in front of her felt unassailable.
Nick just kept looking at her.
Her arm shook.
Then, she slowly lowered her gun.
"Why are you here?" she asked, trying to sound confident.
"Depends on what you will decide," Nick said. "I am an agent from Lord Wrath."
The Governor took a deep breath.
She had expected something like that.
"Lord Wrath wants this city. Lord Wrath is not interested in starving People. Lord Wrath wants healthy people so that they may go to war and kill each other for the things they believe in."
"Lord Wrath will take this city one way or the other. Your decision will simply determine in which way Lord Wrath will conquer the city."
"You have two choices in front of you."
"One, you try to kill me, and you will die. Your success, in that matter, isn't relevant. My Lord has all of the information I have just handed to you, and if he doesn't hear from me soon, this information will be sent to Aegis."
"Aegis will execute you as a traitor, and it will send a group to investigate the city and to uproot Gluttony's hold."
"When that happens, Lord Wrath will simply wait a couple of years and return. Aegis does not have enough resources to supervise this city for several years."
"Your other choice is to comply. While us Specters are not allowed to serve more than one Corruptor in our lives, humans are not part of that rule."
"You are livestock to us," Nick spoke coldly. "You are like a chicken. You produce eggs every day, and so long as you keep making eggs, we will not get rid of you. Even if, for some reason, Lord Wrath's influence were to be eradicated from this city, the next Corruptor will also not kill you."
"As long as you comply."
"As long as you stay a good little chicken, you will profit from our cooperation while not getting killed by any of the Corruptors."
"You will support Lord Wrath in ruling this city. You will turn this into a city that Lord Wrath desires."
"Theoretically, you have a choice."
"Practically, you only have one choice."
"Choose."
Silence.
The Governor looked at Nick.
She was trying her best to keep her expression neutral, but she failed at that.
Nick could see the fear in her eyes.
The Governor had not been very afraid of the CCO.
The reason was that the CCO's power had not been his own.
His entire power had been reliant on the pregnant Specter.
But this time, it was different.
Even though Nick felt weak to her, he had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had the power to sneak up on her and assassinate her.
"How do I do that?" she asked after a while.
Nick kept looking at her.
"I will teach you."
"I will show you how to create a city in Wrath's image, and I will also show you how to increase the city's production of Zephyx to keep Aegis at bay and happy."
"With my teachings, you can eventually become an Agent."