"Stay back! I will shoot!" one of the guards in front of Happiness Through Taste ;) shouted as he pointed his guns at the people.
Several of the people in the crowd had already been injured, but that didn't seem to deter the others.
In fact, they only grew more aggressive.
For now, nobody had been killed.
While the Extractors from Happiness Through Taste ;) fought against Specters from time to time, they had never fought against other Extractors.
After all, the other Manufacturers never touched them.
There was no reason to fight.
Because of that, none of them had ever killed a human before, and they didn't like the thought of being forced to.
They would do it if it was necessary, but they wanted to use up every other option before pulling the trigger.
The shouts became louder.
The pressure increased.
BANG!
A Barrier appeared around one of the Extractors guarding the building shortly before the sound of a gun being fired reverberated throughout the surroundings.
The guards immediately focused on a John with a rifle.
The guard that had been fired on was shocked.
Then, he became terrified.
Then, all of his terror turned into rage.
He grabbed his spear and threw it.
BANG!
The spear shot through the John's Barrier, punched through the John's head, and nailed him to a wall.
Silence.
The first person had been killed.
Everyone looked at the corpse.
Meanwhile, the Veteran who had just been attacked gritted his teeth.
"Everyone back!" he shouted aggressively, waving another spear around. "I will do it again if you don't back off!"
His colleagues took deep breaths, but they quickly backed him up.
"Back off!" they shouted.
The crowd retreated a couple of steps.
But they didn't disperse.
Instead, they became silent and started to whisper amongst each other.
This seemed to be a good thing, but the guards could tell that it wasn't.
The whispering felt… malicious.
It was like the crowd was planning how to get into the building.
The guards watched as some of the people in the crowd sneakily pulled their weapons.
The atmosphere became heavy and strained.
And then…
"Governor!" someone shouted.
Everyone turned to the side and saw a younger woman with black hair landing beside the crowd.
For some seconds, she looked at the crowd.
Nobody dared to talk to her.
An instant later, several city guards appeared behind her.
They were Specialists and Experts.
"Everyone gathered here is under arrest," the Governor declared.
The eyes of the people in the crowd widened in horror.
Everyone?
She was capturing everyone?
But most of them didn't even do anything!
They just stood there!
Sure, there were a couple of them that attacked the guards, but the majority were just watching.
But the people could see that the Governor was determined to go down that path.
Yet, that didn't reflect the Governor's true feelings.
She also believed that capturing everyone was a bad move.
A moment later, the image of the terrifying Specter shot through her mind.
She was only doing this under his orders.
The Specter told her what would happen.
He told her that somebody from Happiness Through Taste ;) would arrive to speak to her to ask for her help.
He had also predicted the mob of people.
And finally, he had also told her how to deal with them.
"You will capture every single member of the crowd, and you will divide them into different cells based on their power," the Specter had said.
When she heard that, she became nervous.
Yes, she was the ruler of the city, but doing something like this felt like she was making the entire city her enemy.
Making thousands of people one's enemy felt terrifying, even if they were far weaker than her.
"Arrest them," she ordered the city guards behind her.
Naturally, her city guards were also not happy with that development, but they didn't let it show.
With professionalism, they went forward to arrest the people.
The people complained.
"This is unfair!"
"I didn't do anything!"
"Help! I'm being assaulted!"
"This is tyranny!"
"You can't do this! I'm innocent!"
"I didn't do nuthin wrong!"
The first captives were brought away by the powerful guards while the Governor kept overlooking the crowd.
The Governor kept glaring at them with icy dominance.
Yet, that didn't reflect her thoughts.
Deep inside, she was scared.
Yes, she was powerful, but there was still something that she dreaded.
She hoped that the Specter's next words would not come true.
Sadly, that hope died as soon as she saw a Veteran charging out of the crowd.
The Specter's words rang through her head.
"Some people will try to flee," it said.
"And you will kill them."
The Governor had only killed three people in her life, and all of them had been of similar power to herself.
This was just a Veteran.
This was not someone who could pose a danger to her.
But now, she was supposed to kill them?
She didn't want to kill them.
BANG!
The Veteran exploded into a cloud of gore.
But she had to…
If she didn't comply, she would be next.
That Specter felt far too dangerous and powerful.
She didn't even think about refusing its orders.
'Why did you have to run, you idiot?' she thought with gritted teeth.
'I didn't want to be a killer, you know?'
"Nobody moves," she spoke coldly.
'I just wanted to be stronger.'
'I felt stifled in this small city. I just wanted to become an Agent and get out of here.'
The crowd froze.
'So what if I worked with a Specter for a bit? How else was I supposed to become stronger?'
Suddenly, several people ran away in terror.
The pressure of a Hero's rage was too much for some of them to handle.
The Governor saw the scattering people, and a mask of unending rage appeared on her face.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG
'You would've done the same!'
Several clouds of gore appeared.
All the people who had tried to run away were killed.
'You all would've done the same!'
Nobody dared to move.
The Governor had just killed seven people!
'You also would've chosen your own power over the happiness of others!'
'That's normal!'
'That's human!'
'You are the ones forcing me to kill you!'
'You are the ones hurting me with this guilt, regret, and doubt!'
'You're not better than me!'
'You're just as horrible as me!'
The Governor silently glared at the crowd in unending hatred.
Nobody knew what she was thinking about.
They only knew that they should not move.
Sometime later, the guards returned.
They quickly grabbed the next batch of prisoners and left.
After a couple of round trips, the crowd was gone.
"Governor, we made 137 arrests," a Specialist told her.
The Governor took a deep breath.
"Keep watch over them," she said.
Then, the next words of the Specter shot through her mind.
"Chances are," she continued, "they will start to attack each other."
The guards seemed worried.
"Governor, what are your orders? How are we supposed to deal if they truly start fighting?" the Specialist asked.
"Anyone that initiates physical violence will immediately be executed with prejudice," she spoke.
With these words, she had caused the death of tens of people.
Yet, this didn't feel nearly as bad as killing some humans with her own hands.
Making a choice that would end in the death of a hundred people was easier on the mind than choking one person to death.
The guards were not the biggest fans.
"Governor, are you sure? There has to be another way. We could restrain them and wait for them to- "
"I gave an order," the Governor answered, not letting the Specialist finish. "Anyone who initiates violence will be executed."
The guards were surprised.
They had known the Governor for a long time, and they would have never thought that she would make such a decision.
Sure, she wasn't the friendliest, but she always seemed rather diplomatic with her orders.
In fact, detractors might even say that she was playing it safe and that she was trying not to anger anyone living in the city.
But this was definitely not playing it safe.
A moment later, the Governor looked at the building of Happiness Through Taste ;).
"I want a full investigation of Happiness Through Taste ;)," she ordered. "All of their Specters will be confiscated and contained by the city. Any Manufacturer that wants access to the Specters needs to negotiate with me personally."
"If any Specter goes missing, I will seek repayment from the people involved by collecting their heads."
"I want every single Extractor from this company in Containment Units, and I want all of them interrogated."
"I want to know what's been going on in this company and where this chocolate comes from."
"I want all of these walls torn down!"
Then, she turned around and glared at her guards.
"I want this to be done by the book," she spoke in a threatening tone.
"And if I find anything… ANYTHING… that seems suspicious…"
In the Governor's mind, the image of the terrifying Specter seemed to smirk.
"I will not hesitate to collect heads!"