The pile of corpses was fed to the Specters.
The following day, letters were sent to the families of the executed people, telling them about their loved ones' fates.
This day, a wail of despair echoed throughout the edges of the city.
The wealthy citizens of Black Mine City wouldn't forget this day for decades.
And yet, this event was only barely comparable to what was happening in the middle of Black Mine City almost every single day.
The anguish of 150 families losing a member was barely comparable to the anguish of the starving people in the middle of the city.
But the powerful people of the city didn't care.
The pain of the poor people didn't help with their pain!
Within the day, the rich people banded together and started to revolt.
When the other rich people saw what had happened, they realized that the same thing could also happen to them.
Because of that, they joined the effort and worked together with the families of the victims.
The rich people banded together as one unit. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
For once in their lives, they were united against a common enemy.
The Governor!
The Governor was the one who had executed their loved ones!
However, before the rich people could properly start their revolt, someone else started to join them.
Swirling Abyss, the most powerful Manufacturer of the city, and Vertigo Box, the second most powerful Manufacturer of the city.
Originally, the two of them didn't intend to join the revolt, but they had also received outrageous messages.
Some of their members had been part of the crowd that wanted to enter Happiness Through Taste ;) that day.
Naturally, these members had been arrested.
The two big Manufacturers had been fine with it since it was only a temporary arrest.
But today, they had received the message that almost all of their Extractors from the mob had been executed!
Apparently, they had started brawls in prison!
Almost 100 Extractors were killed.
54 Johns, 37 Newbies, and 6 Veterans.
Every single John and Newbie that had been captured had been executed, while only half of the Veterans returned!
The surviving Veterans were deeply traumatized and were extremely unstable.
All of their focus was on trying to hold themselves back from becoming too aggressive.
The Manufacturers had to isolate their Veterans after they were let out due to security concerns.
Additionally, several of their own Veterans also had to be isolated, and even their Experts became nervous and easily infuriated.
Naturally, they knew where all of this came from.
The chocolate.
Everyone had been eating this chocolate without a second thought.
They knew it made the consumers addicted, but they didn't really care about it.
After all, it wouldn't just vanish, and the people consuming the chocolate were Extractors.
Extractors should be able to handle a bit of withdrawal.
Yet, the effects were far stronger than expected.
While only about 10% to 20% of the Johns and Newbies were arrested, the remaining 80% to 90% shared their fate.
Some of them had started to attack each other and had to be put down.
Some of them had been contained, but when there was nothing else to attack, they started to attack the walls until their bodies became too injured to survive.
Extractors who were forcefully restrained just started to scream and writhe so hard that their muscles broke their own bones.
There had been only six Newbies and two Johns who hadn't partaken in the chocolate, and they were essentially the only survivors.
Naturally, this enraged the Manufacturers.
They were angry at the city for legalizing the trade of such a dangerous commodity, and they wanted to use this as a weapon in future negotiations with the city.
But then, they heard that the city even executed some of their Veterans!
The Veterans didn't need to die!
They just needed to be restrained for a couple of days!
The city didn't have the permission to just kill their Veterans!
The value of a Veteran was many times higher than the value of a John.
After all, Veterans were much rarer than Johns since only a few people had the guts to undergo Zephosis.
Even more, the execution of many of the rich people also made it much more difficult for the powerful Manufacturers to do shady dealings.
All of this and the upcoming revolt put together made Swirling Abyss and Vertigo Box decide to join.
This was the best time to put pressure on the government.
Within less than a day, over 1,000 people gathered in front of the city headquarters.
Put together, these people owned over 80% of the city's most valuable companies.
On top of that, the CEOs and CZEs of Swirling Abyss and Vertigo Box were part of the group.
However, it was important to note that there was a certain distance between the two companies.
The two companies knew that Happiness Through Taste ;) had been backed by a powerful backer, but they hadn't been sure who it was.
Yet, the prime suspects had always been each other.
Vertigo Box believed that Swirling Abyss was secretly the creator of the chocolate, while Swirling Abyss believed that it was Vertigo Box.
Both of them were ready to be ambushed by the other side.
But, for now, it seemed like the other side acted like they were also enraged.
Swirling Abyss and Vertigo Box could be compared to Kugelblitz and Anatomy from Crimson City.
Their power was almost even.
Both of them owned a Demon, and both of them had more than one Hero.
Vertigo Box had three Initial Heroes, while Swirling Abyss had two Initial Heroes and one Early Hero.
The only thing that made Swirling Abyss just a bit stronger was the fact that they had an Early Demon, while Vertigo Box only had an Initial Demon.
Nevertheless, a fight between the two of them could go either way.
"Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!" the group of rich people shouted in unison in front of the city headquarters.
The guards watched nervously.
They really didn't want to offend any of these people.
Even more problematic were the four men from Swirling Abyss and Vertigo Box.
Luckily, they only waited silently.
Minutes passed while the entire city seemed to stay still.
None of the businesses were open.
Eventually, the gate to the city headquarters opened.
The four men from the two big Manufacturers narrowed their eyes as they saw the Governor coming out.
The mob of angry people paused for a moment before resuming with new fervor.
"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!" they shouted.
However, the Governor just ignored the people.
Instead, she focused on the four men from the two Manufacturers.
"Enter," she commanded, turning around and walking inside.
Some of the mob became silent since they believed that the Governor was willing to negotiate with them, but others realized that she was not negotiating with them but with the powerful Manufacturers.
The Manufacturers were also extremely rich, but their interests were very different from the interests of the families.
Even more, the people were here for justice, not for benefits!
They wanted to avenge the rich people who had been unjustly killed.
Some of the people grew more aggressive, but the guards just kept shoving them back.
Yes, their economic and political powers were incredible, but their physical powers were nonexistent.
They could complain all they wanted, but the doors wouldn't open for them.
Meanwhile, the four leaders of the two big Manufacturers walked into a meeting room with the Governor.
The four of them were ready to negotiate.
Compared to the people who were still outside, the four people in here were not interested in retribution.
They didn't exactly care that some of their Veterans were killed.
They wanted to use this as an opportunity to pressure the government into granting them more power.
All of them sat down, and the Governor looked at them for a moment.
As they looked at the Governor, they noticed that she was a bit different from usual.
All of them were on a first-name basis, and the Governor was usually quite friendly to them.
But today, she seemed distant and strong, but she also seemed somehow nervous.
It was a strange mix and unlike herself.
"What do you want?" the Governor asked with an annoyed tone.
Some eyebrows rose in surprise.
That was not the tone they had expected.
"Several of our Extractors have been killed," the CEO of Swirling Abyss spoke. "The reasons listed in your letter are not enough, and we demand justice for- "
"Drop the fancy talk," the Governor said coldly. "I want to know what you want. What are you after?"
Once more, the present people were surprised.
Was this still the Governor they knew?
While the Governor did her best to keep a poker face, she was actually nervous deep inside.
She could fight one of them, but if two of them banded together, she would already be at risk of dying.
These two Manufacturers had six Heroes!
If they wanted to kill her, they could do just that!
If it were up to her, she would not speak to them like this.
Yet, the dark cloud inside one of the boxes in the room kept whispering to her.
It kept telling her what she should say and what she should do.
The two Manufacturers kept trying to get through with the political game, but the Governor kept shutting down the discussion.
"You know what?" the Governor said with annoyance after a while. "I don't know which one of you two made the chocolate, and frankly, I also don't care."
"I don't want to deal with this anymore. So, how about you deal with these things?"
"I will nullify the anti-war clause. You two can go at each other's throats all you want. That's what you want, right? More power, right?"
"So, why don't you go eat each other?"
"I'll just say that I don't want any of the citizens to be involved in your battle. If one side causes too many casualties, I will help the other side."
"Now, if you will, I have a revolt to deal with."
"You two go eat each other or whatever."
And then, the Governor walked out of the room while the other four people looked at her in shock.