The age of cooking had arrived!
It started with somebody putting a bit of salt on a baked potato.
When the neighbors of the person tasted the potato, they realized that this potato was much better than theirs!
They wanted to know the secret, but the person wouldn't tell them.
However, the person was willing to exchange two tasty potatoes for three boring potatoes.
Alternatively, they were also willing to accept one credit for five tasty potatoes.
Cooking had been a dead art in Black Mine City.
Some of the richer peoples had finer cuisine, but that cuisine was just food bought from the caravans, which had been smoked and dried to preserve it for longer.
Cooks barely existed, and the couple of cooks that existed had almost no way to come up with better cooking methods.
But now, since everyone had access to food, many more people found ways to innovate.
The city had been starved of flavor for decades.
Just a little improvement in flavor felt like a fundamental breakthrough.
Cooks stole and bought recipes from each other before combining them with their own and selling their creations.
Some people decided to make a lot of money by selling simple food on a large scale.
These people made mess halls.
Some people decided to craft fine dishes that were sold at a smaller scale.
These people created restaurants.
Some people cooked for only a small group of elite individuals.
Private chefs.
The restaurants and mess halls needed people to keep track of the sales.
Accountants.
Some people decided to streamline the process of selling to restaurants and mess halls, buying the best ingredients and selling them in packages, making it far more efficient for them to buy what they needed.
Wholesalers.
But now, the food needed to travel further distances since it had more stops, which made things more confusing and harder to manage. Naturally, someone also took that job.
Logistics.
As the food industry became more advanced, the cooks needed better and better equipment.
The tool-manufacturing businesses that already existed in the city branched out and created a whole new line of tools.
Cookware.
Naturally, that needed more people to create, which was why they hired many more people.
Very quickly, some of the most popular restaurants and mess halls got attacked by spies and thieves, which were after their secret recipes.
Luckily, there were people willing to put their lives on the line for good payment.
Security guards.
At some point, the restaurants and mess halls started to mess with each other by putting pressure on officials.
That was when a new group of people, adept at arguing and investigating, came into play.
Lawyers.
But now, with so many people busy doing their job, it was difficult to raise a child.
Fortunately, there were people willing to deal with that.
Nannies and teachers.
Some restaurants realized that they could ask for more money if they seemed richer and more prosperous.
The demand for designers and architects shot through the roof.
But now, the city needed even more people to build the houses and furniture.
Builders and carpenters.
This was how society worked.
As long as the money increased and the people kept being willing to spend their money, more and more space for jobs appeared.
Over several months, Nick saw the city transform drastically.
From a mass of starving people, many groups of different people appeared.
Food was no longer an issue.
This allowed people to focus on other things.
Colors were appearing in the city, and the people began to become louder and happier.
However, almost nothing was completely positive or negative.
Good things came with bad things, and bad things came with good things.
Due to extreme starvation for decades, most people couldn't resist the urge to keep eating without end.
Many people couldn't handle the sudden access to almost unlimited food. They ate too much, which put pressure on their bodies and made their hearts stop.
The people that survived continued eating, and relatively quickly, they became quite fat.
Within a year, it had become normal to be overweight.
Being overweight now counted as having normal weight.
This was not healthy.
However, being quite overweight was still healthier than being severely underweight.
Being overweight caused troubles in the future, but being severely underweight caused troubles in the present and the future.
At least the people weren't working themselves to death.
Since basically everyone was fat now, everyone felt more lethargic and less motivated to move.
This kind of led to a more relaxed attitude at the workplace.
It was normal to sit down and pant in exhaustion for five minutes every hour.
Almost everyone was doing it.
After an entire year, the original food companies had shrunk drastically.
Since they couldn't get access to the caravans anymore, they were forced to buy from the city.
However, who would possibly buy food from them when they could get it for cheaper and at the same quality from the city directly?
A few food companies ran out of business, but a couple of them managed to switch from selling raw food to becoming restaurants and mess halls.
While the center of the city underwent a drastic change, the edge of the city also changed.
Some businessmen decided to invest in local food.
They dug huge caves into the mountain and experimented with growing food that didn't need a lot of light.
Since the city was inside a mountain, growing food wasn't easy since it took up a lot of space.
Back then, it hadn't been worth it to invest in something like that.
But now, being able to create food locally had insane potential.
One had to remember that almost all the food came from caravans, and since the caravans were traveling towards many cities, they only delivered foods that stayed edible for a long time.
If someone were able to grow food locally, they would have access to far better ingredients.
Of course, turning something like that into reality would take a while, but it wasn't impossible.
They just needed a way to convert food gotten from a caravan into local food.
They just needed some animals that ate food from the caravan.
All in all, the city's economy was exploding, and the city had far more access to credits to purchase Zephyx.
At the same time, the price of Zephyx was falling.
At first glance, this seemed strange.
If the economy was better, people were ready to pay more money for things, which should increase the price for Zephyx, right?
So, why was it falling?
The reason was that the Zephyx engineers produced far fewer materials made of Zephyx.
After all, the number of Veterans and Experts had dropped by over ten percent.
While the city was experiencing a sharp rise, Vertigo Box and Swirling Abyss were at each other's throats.
They were secretly in a bitter war, which was mostly fought outside the city.
Whenever they did something inside the city, some powerful guards would arrive and take both sides into custody before they could determine a winner.
It was almost like the guards knew exactly where the battles would take place beforehand.
After the fifth time, both Manufacturers were sure that this was not a mere coincidence.
Somehow, the Governor knew exactly where the fights took place.
In the end, they decided to fight outside the city.
Many Extractors died, and since it wasn't illegal for the two Manufacturers to kill someone from the other big Manufacturer, they didn't need to keep their loot secret.
After killing another Extractor, the victor could openly wear and use the equipment of the dead Extractor.
Something like that had been impossible in Crimson City since it was illegal to kill Extractors.
With fewer Extractors, the need for equipment was not as high anymore.
This meant that the Zephyx engineers didn't purchase as much Zephyx, which meant that the city could get more Zephyx for less money.
It had been 24 months since Nick first arrived in Black Mine City.
Right now, the city was undergoing a huge glow-up while the Manufacturers were constantly fighting each other.
Normal citizens were finally coming into contact with the concept of happiness.
They had a lot more to lose now.
"The seed has germinated," Nick said. "It is ready to be harvested."
"Finally!" Wrath spoke with gritted teeth as it looked with hatred at the city.
"I will send my servant to the city. You will get her into the city and utilize her power to create more conflict! I want eternal war in this city!" Wrath demanded.
"Yes, my Lord," the Governor said.
Nick just nodded while looking at the city.
"Expect my servant by tomorrow."
Then, the Greater Relay deactivated.
The Governor took a deep breath while Nick looked at the city.
Nick remembered what the city looked like when he had arrived for the first time.
Everything had been filled with immeasurable suffering.
Now, people were leading normal lives, although with more body weight.
'This is already much better than when I arrived,' Nick thought. 'I saved the lives of thousands of people. I am another step closer to redeeming myself.'
Nick glanced at the Governor.
'Although, I have to increase their suffering a little bit again to secure my opportunity to help even more people.'
'Wrath needs to be somewhat satisfied so that he sends me to the next city. Otherwise, he will just kill me.'
'I just need to integrate Wrath's servant into the city's ecosystem.'
'It won't be easy, but I have seen how it worked in Mark Wild City. It's still much better than the previous state of constant starvation.'
Nick looked at the city's exit.
'This is a good opportunity to send a message to Aegis about my current status.'