The first city Nick went to was called Meat Cube City, which was named after its most powerful Specter, the Meat Cube.
The Meat Cube grew more powerful by absorbing meat, no matter where it came from.
Naturally, there were different ways of working with that Specter and different ways one could get the meat.
For example, the Meat Cube could be handled the same way as the Corpse Mountain in Crimson City. If the city just threw all of the dead people into it, things wouldn't be horrible.
However, this was a city controlled by Lust.
It did not require a lot of creativity to find how Lust and meat production were connected.
While, on the surface, Meat Cube City acted like a normal city, its darkness reached deep.
Aegis could deal with starving and dehydrating people. As long as the cities delivered their tribute, Aegis wouldn't get involved.
However, if Aegis found out what was actually happening in this city, Aegis would very quickly replace the local government.
Meat Cube City had around 9,000 people in total of which about 4,500 were women, of which around 2,500 were adults, of which 1,500 were currently pregnant.
Yes, 60% of all adult women in the city were currently pregnant.
If one looked at the city from the outside, one would think that the city was about to undergo a population boom.
The future looked bright.
Didn't it?
Sadly, this wasn't the case.
Living in the city was quite expensive, but almost all the women had quite good lives.
That was due to their high social status in this city.
That was because women could grow meat that didn't cause irreparable damage to their bodies when removed securely.
Men couldn't produce meat.
Technically, it was illegal to "donate meat" to the biggest Manufacturer due to the ethical concerns.
However, the guards blatantly ignored the law.
They didn't care, and they were not supposed to care.
About seven months after conception, a "meat donor" would visit the biggest Manufacturer.
There, she would come into contact with a Specter that grew more powerful by ending pregnancies.
The reason why it generally happened after seven months was because the "meat" would be quite big while not being big enough to endanger the donor's life when removed.
After the life of the growing meat had been ended, the donor would go to the meat remover, who would compress the donation into a long flesh stick, which ensured easy and safe removal.
Finally, the donation would be thrown into the Meat Cube, while the meat donor would be handsomely rewarded.
Women living in the city had quite a lot of amenities.
They had regular baths, didn't need to hunger, had a good house, didn't need a job, and so on.
Of course, only the women who secretly donated meat from time to time could afford such luxuries.
Most men had a lower standing than the meat donors in Meat Cube City.
They had to work a brutal number of hours while still living worse than the meat donors.
These 3,000 adult men essentially did almost all the work for all 9,000 people in the city.
However, they were not on the lowest level.
On the lowest level were the women who refused to donate meat.
Just like the men, they needed to work hard, but due to biology, only the strongest of them could keep up with the physical stress put on their bodies.
Even more, most of them were treated like shit by the men.
Far too many men were envious of the women's ability to just "print money".
In their minds, the women were idiots for their self-destructive behavior.
They clearly didn't suffer as much as them since they always had a way out, while the men didn't.
Of course, all of these statements were very generalized, and there were plenty of men who viewed these women as noble while viewing the meat donors as absolute monsters.
Sadly, despite all of this, the chances of being able to have a kid for these kinds of people were extremely small.
There were plenty of men who were willing to "steal some meat" from the mothers and fathers.
The vast majority of poorer people refused to procreate because of that.
The danger was just too high.
However, it was important to note that these were just a couple of small complaints in a city with a population that was relatively happy when compared to other cities.
Almost 50% of all inhabitants lived in relative luxury, while another 30% lived okay.
This was nowhere near as bad as Black Mine City or Water Pillar City.
Of course, that was also only true if one looked at the living people's happiness.
As for the suffering of the sacrificed "meat"…
Well, there was a reason why the city did its absolute best to keep all of this secret.
They were producing a crazy amount of Zephyx this way, and the Governor's reputation was stellar.
It was only a matter of time until he was called into Aegis to become an Agent.
After all, he was giving Aegis 40% more Zephyx than the minimum it asked for.
Of course, the reason why the Governor was giving Aegis so much Zephyx was so that it didn't go to his city to "look at and optimize things".
When Nick saw what was going on, he grew quite angry.
Although, he always grew angry when he entered a new city.
This time, it was just that his anger encompassed a bigger number of people.
Usually, Nick's anger only encompassed a couple hundred elite people at most.
But this time, he was angry at over 3,000 people.
'I don't care if society strongly incentivizes you to act this way,' Nick thought coldly. 'You have your own mind, your own hands, and your own will.'
Nick remembered a couple of times he had done some quite bad things under Wyntor's and Julian's orders and grew angrier.
He didn't need to do these things!
Yet, he had still done them!
'Yes, I am a monster, but that doesn't NOT make you monsters as well!'
Nick looked at the biggest Manufacturers of the city and the Governor.
Then, he started his infiltration.
Nick had become quite good at these things, and he already knew how to deal with this.
For the first couple of days, Nick inspected the city and gathered intel.
He quickly realized that the city was above average in Zephyx production but below average in Extractor power.
It seemed like the biggest Manufacturer essentially had a monopoly, with the second-biggest Manufacturer only having three Experts.
They didn't even have any Specialists.
The biggest Manufacturer only had two Heroes, but both of them were Early Heroes.
Surprisingly, they didn't even have ten Specialists.
It seemed like the number of Fanatics they controlled was very low.
This was a city that fully relied on the Meat Cube as its support, which was rare.
For example, if the Crimson Fungus in Crimson City suddenly got destroyed, the city would still have the Plague Eagle as a Demon while also having almost 20 Fanatics.
The Zephyx output would drop, but the city would still be able to pay the tribute, albeit with a bit less luxury.
However, if the Meat Cube died here, the city's entire economy would collapse.
Over 60% of the produced Zephyx came from the Meat Cube, which was shocking.
The Governor was also only an Early Hero.
From what Nick had found out, the Governor used to be the CZE of the biggest Manufacturer in the city.
The old Governor "died to a Specter".
Aegis did not find out what exactly happened to the old Governor and quickly appointed a new Governor.
Back then, there had still been two major Manufacturers.
Well, after the new Governor took over, that quickly changed.
The city dramatically changed over the decades until it became what it was today.
After learning all of this about the city, Nick searched for Lust's agent.
It was important to find out who worked for Lust.
Otherwise, if Nick dealt with Lust's influence but Lust's emissary survived, the city would just revert to its old state.
After spying on every important person for about two months, Nick could finally confirm who the emissary was.
It was the Specter that grew more powerful by killing unborn babies.
Just like in Black Mine City, that Specter had the power to control the Meat Cube.
Surprisingly, the Meat Cube was not a Possession Specter but a Physical Specter with the intelligence level of a relatively dumb mammal.
Lust domesticated it and told it to listen to the other Specter.
This was similar to Black Mine City, except that both Specters were publicly known as Specters.
They were essentially hiding in plain sight.
However, that wasn't everything.
The Governor was also in on it, and compared to Black Mine City, he wasn't antagonistic to the current emissary of Lust.
They worked together.
After learning all of this, Nick came up with a very simple plan.
It was actually pretty easy to deal with all of this.