Eventually, the biggest Manufacturer compromised.
They bought all the remaining companies that sold water and directly sold water to the market.
This got rid of the original 100% profit margin of the water sellers, essentially halving the original price of water.
This made water more accessible than it was originally, but 30% of people still couldn't afford it.
But the next message from the terrorist just said that this didn't fulfill their demands.
That message pushed the stressed CFO over the edge, and he commanded that they would be selling no more water to anyone!
The Heroes around him tried to tell him that this was a really bad idea, but the CFO didn't care.
He had been living in fear for months!
He had enough of this terrorist!
Within five hours, Nick retaliated.
"They did what?!"
Bad news upon bad news.
So many pieces of bad news!
First, the consoles of all the Containment Units housing Demons were utterly destroyed.
These Containment Units were indestructible by anything weaker than a Fallen or Protector, but the same thing wasn't true for the consoles.
With the consoles destroyed, it became impossible to interact with the Containment Units.
This meant that the Manufacturers couldn't access their Demons!
The only accessible Demon was the Water Pillar since it resided in the middle of the city due to its size and non-aggressive nature.
Even worse, this hit every Manufacturer!
But that wasn't the end.
Next, alarms broke out everywhere.
The doors of several Containment Units were opening!
Fanatics and Elders were being released!
Of course, due to security reasons, all Containment Units needed over three minutes before opening their main doors, which gave the Manufacturers enough time to stop the process.
Not a single Specter was released.
Yet, the alarms didn't stop!
Every couple of minutes, another Specter was about to be released!
This continued for hours!
Working with Specters was deemed too risky under these circumstances, and all the Extractors were put on watch duty.
Yet, the Containment Units still kept receiving the command to open!
Someone could keep the console in their eyes the entire time, and somehow, it would still activate the release command!
Stress.
The Extractors were under immense stress.
It was a horrifying thought that some unknown power entered the room in which they were staying, did something horrible, and just left again.
The only thing stopping that malevolent force from killing them was its own disinterest in their deaths!
The other Manufacturers immediately became aggressive towards the biggest Manufacturer, specifically its CFO.
They were being pulled into this conflict!
They didn't even sell water!
In the end, the CFO was forced to relent, and he reinstated the selling of the water.
With that, the chaos ended, and no more Specters were being released.
After a short moment of relief, the other Manufacturers put more pressure on the CFO.
They had had enough!
They were done with this shit!
"Fulfill the demands, or so help me the Champion, I will do something!"
The CFO was still resistant, but after the shock of what happened, he was ready to negotiate.
In the end, he agreed to fulfill the demands, but the other Manufacturers had to pay to make up for the loss in profits.
Due to the desperation, the other Manufacturers immediately agreed.
They didn't even think about it.
They were talking about a couple million credits per month.
For a normal person, that was a lot of money, but for Manufacturers with Heroes, this was barely a couple of hours of profit.
They were more than happy to spend the credits if that finally meant the end of this absolute chaos!
However, it was important to point out that they knew that they were getting the raw end of the deal.
The CFO was taking advantage of them, and they knew that.
And they would remember that.
As soon as the deal was signed, the second-biggest Manufacturer pulled out from the alliance against the terrorist.
If the biggest Manufacturer decided to be such an ass about things, they would not help them.
The third biggest Manufacturer followed.
In the end, only the Governor and the biggest Manufacturer were left.
Some hours later, cheap water "flooded" the city.
Finally, the people could buy cheap water again!
Over the next few days, nothing happened.
No message arrived.
No one was killed.
A month passed.
Nothing.
Then, the biggest Manufacturer slowly increased the water price again.
Nothing happened.
The water price increased some more.
Nothing happened.
Was it gone?
Was the terrorist gone?
Another two weeks passed.
Yes, it was gone!
The price returned to the original one.
The people had no access to water again.
Yet, nothing happened.
Another month passed.
Yes, the assassin was gone!
Finally!
They were free!
And then, reality hit them.
They had gotten careless!
The CFO had been assassinated!
The thing the terrorist had threatened had happened!
The first time the CFO had been left alone, he had been killed!
The assassin had never left!
Naturally, there was a message on the CFO's corpse.
"If you had kept the price down, you would still be alive."
An Initial Hero had been killed.
Terror broke out among the Manufacturers again.
The terrorist was strong enough to kill a Hero almost immediately without being noticed!
Naturally, the water price was immediately lowered to the demanded price again.
Sadly, the Governor still refused to call Aegis.
And then…
Nothing again.
Weeks passed.
A month passed.
No new message.
After six months, one of the remaining Heroes of the biggest Manufacturer suggested increasing the price a little to keep up with the changing economy, but the other two immediately shut that down very aggressively.
DO. NOT. TOUCH. THE. WATER. PRICE!
Obviously, the water price wasn't changed.
And like this, Gluttony's influence had been banished from the city.
Nick had looked at the Water Pillar a couple of times, and he found out that it was actually a Possession Specter.
Possession Specters rarely had any kind of intelligence, and Nick doubted that it was one of Gluttony's servants.
Its values just so happened to align with Gluttony and Famine.
As long as things stayed like this, Nick's job was done.
Most of the time, Nick was focusing on training his Zephyx Manipulation and conjuring.
He was only checking up on the city every couple of days.
While the matter with the water had now finally been dealt with, the city was not yet done changing.
Over the next months, the other Manufacturers got progressively more annoyed at the money they had to pay the biggest Manufacturer for the loss of revenue in the water trade.
They were not involved in the water trade at all, but they still paid for that.
Eventually, the other Manufacturers pulled their funding back.
The biggest Manufacturer was livid since the other Manufacturers broke an agreement.
The biggest Manufacturer complained to the Governor, but the Governor just deflected everything.
The Governor did not want to get involved in any of that.
If this were the past, the Governor would have backed up the biggest Manufacturer.
However, something crucial had changed.
One of the biggest Manufacturer's Heroes, the former CFO, had been killed.
On top of that, they had lost a couple of Specialists, including a Peak Specialist.
The biggest Manufacturer had been hit the hardest.
The second-biggest and third-biggest Manufacturers were working together very closely now.
Their shared enmity for the biggest Manufacturer had made them allies.
This created a formidable force, and a battle between the two sides would no longer have an obvious conclusion.
The Governor was the key factor in this conflict.
The side he chose would win.
Because of that, he received many new privileges.
As long as he kept being neutral, he would be in control.
A full year had passed since the CFO had been killed, and the terrorist hadn't shown themselves again.
The city was quite sure that the terrorist was gone, but they still didn't dare to touch the water price.
The terrorist was no longer the focus.
Now, the focus was on the weakness of the biggest Manufacturer.
The other two Manufacturers wanted to use this chance to push them from their throne.
The conflicts between the Manufacturers ramped up, and the mood between them soured.
Nick watched as the Manufacturers fell into a state of conflict.
The second part of Nick's job was somewhat done.
Nick had gotten rid of Gluttony's and Famine's influence and had introduced Wrath's and War's influence.
However, this city didn't need one of Wrath's servants to influence it.
Naturally, the city was not as heavily under Wrath's influence as a city with one of its servants, but it still leaned towards Wrath.
This was a net positive.
The influence profit for this city was almost identical to the influence revenue since there was no influence cost.
Just to be on the safe side, Nick decided to watch over the city for another year.
He wanted to make sure that nothing strange happened before he went to the next city.
WHOOOOM!
But then, something very strange happened.
While Nick was focusing on his training outside the city, his ability deactivated.
At the same time, the Sun became brighter.