The door opened, and Nick slowly turned his head to look at the person who was entering.
It was the stronger of the two Heroes of this Manufacturer.
The stronger one had told the other one that Nick would be his problem to deal with, and yet, he was now the one that came in here.
However, that actually made sense.
"Hey, I'm the Chief Zephyx Extractor of Eternal Rest. Can you understand me?" the guy asked.
Nick looked at the man for a couple of seconds.
"Yes," Nick answered.
The man sighed in relief. "That makes things easier. Do you know how Manufacturers work?"
"I do," Nick answered.
"Great!" the CZE said with positive surprise. "That means I don't have to explain everything to you."
Nick didn't answer.
"Just so we are clear. Are you working for any of the Corruptors?" the man asked.
"No," Nick answered.
The man looked at Nick for a while. "Are you sure? It wouldn't be bad if you did."
"I have heard of the Corruptors," Nick said. "But I have never come into contact with them, and I plan to keep it that way."
"Oh? How come?" the man asked.
Nick looked at the CZE.
"Because I don't want to lose my freedom," Nick answered.
The CZE had a funny expression on his face as he very noticeably looked around the walls of the Containment Unit.
"Well, so much about that," the CZE commented.
Nick didn't answer.
"Alrighty then, how can we work with you?" the CZE asked.
Finding out how to work with an intelligent Specter was far easier than finding out how to work with a dumb Specter.
After all, he could just ask the Specter.
"Give me 20%," Nick said.
The CZE was taken aback a bit. "20%? That's a lot!"
"I want 20%," Nick said.
The CZE shook his head. "I can't do that. The most we do is 15%, and that's for a Specter that has been with us for decades and is very cooperative."
"20%," Nick answered.
The CZE sighed.
BANG!
Then, he pulled out a long lance and destroyed Nick's lower body.
Nick fell over but didn't react.
"Remember that you are no longer free to refuse our requests," the CZE said. "I am trying to make things easy for both of us."
"20%," Nick answered.
The CZE's expression became cold.
Then, he took out a big bucket and dumped parts of Nick's body into it.
The bucket shredded Nick's body and released a cloud of Zephyx.
"We can also just do this," the CZE said.
This entire thing only caused Nick a little bit of pain.
He already had a very high tolerance for pain, and after he turned into a Specter, over 90% of all the pain he could feel had vanished.
This allowed Nick to easily remain stoic and neutral while literal body parts of his were blown off.
"The garbage bin method," Nick answered.
The CZE raised an eyebrow. "You know about it?"
"I do," Nick said. "It produces not even 20% of what I could produce normally. I could ask for 70% of all Zephyx I produce, and you would still earn more money by accepting my deal."
"I know what I am worth."
The CZE furrowed his brows.
Then, he remained silent for a while.
"How do you produce Zephyx?" he asked. "I have to know if it's worthwhile."
By now, Nick's body had regrown, and he stood up.
"Torture," Nick says. "As long as I can torture people, I can produce Zephyx. The more powerful the person, the more Zephyx I produce."
The CZE looked with a bit of interest at Nick.
Then, he sighed.
"Alright," he said as he fidgeted with his Barrier a bit.
The next moment, his Barrier activated and shrunk.
The CZE held out his left arm, holding it out of the Barrier.
"Go ahead," he said.
Nick walked towards the arm and summoned his blades.
Then, Nick started to skin the arm of the CZE.
The CZE was quite a bit more powerful than Nick, but with a sharp knife, a normal human could also skin a cow.
The CZE gritted his teeth, and Nick started to produce Zephyx.
It felt a bit weird when the majority of the Zephyx was "pulled" out of Nick's body.
It felt a bit like 90% of the air one breathed would vanish in one's throat.
The only difference was that there was no panic associated with it.
After about a minute, the CZE pulled his mutilated arm back.
"That should be enough," he said, trying to suppress his anger.
Then, he wordlessly walked out of the Containment Unit.
Half a minute later, he came back in.
"You get your 20%," the CZE said. "I already changed the settings."
Nick wordlessly nodded.
"You know what happens if you kill any of my Extractors."
"Yes," Nick said.
"Good," the man said.
Then, he walked out of the Containment Unit again, leaving Nick alone.
Silence.
Nick just kept looking towards the door without any reaction.
He remained like this.
He was a Specter now, and he had to act like a Specter.
Luckily, he could still practice his Zephyx Manipulation in his mind.
He just had to reduce the number of physical tests to a minimum.
Nick essentially spaced out while aimlessly looking at the door.
A couple of hours later, the door opened again.
This time, it was the weaker Hero who entered.
"From now on, you are going to work with the Extractors by torturing their body parts," the man said. "You are not allowed to attack their Barriers. If even one of my Extractors gets attacked, we will not work with you anymore for a long time."
"I know," Nick answered.
The Extractor nodded and held out his right arm.
Nick wordlessly approached, took out his blade, and started to slowly cut the arm.
Nick had learned a bit about biology, and he knew a couple of good spots that would create a lot of pain.
This Extractor managed to keep his arm held out for over five minutes before pulling back.
Then, the Extractor just left the Containment Unit without saying anything.
Extractors didn't need to talk to Specters since there was no point.
Politeness and friendliness didn't influence a Specter in any way.
For about 15 hours, Nick spaced out.
Then, a new person entered his Containment Unit.
It was a Peak Specialist.
The Specialist seemed a bit nervous but not fearful.
He was probably just a bit worried about the pain.
Wordlessly, the Peak Specialist held out one of his arms.
'Seems like working with an arm is now the standard procedure,' Nick thought.
Then, Nick started to do his thing with the arm.
After just ten minutes, the Extractor pulled his arm out and left the Containment Unit.
Five minutes later, another Peak Specialist appeared.
Ten minutes later, they left again.
For about three hours, Nick worked with Specialists of different levels.
Then, nothing happened for six days until Nick had to work with the same Specialists again for another three hours or so.
Nick decided to watch how things went for three weeks.
The pattern was always the same.
'Seems like they have all been assigned to work with me.'
'This is truly a city ruled by Sloth.'
'If I ever had such a Specter in Dark Dream, I would have worked that thing constantly.'
'It is so easy to work with me, and there's basically no limit.'
'I'm essentially free money.'
'Based on the time, they probably all have a quota that they have to produce with me per week. I would assume that they get through their quota on the first day so that they can relax for the remainder of the week.'
'My ability also hasn't deactivated outside of these hours of work.'
'Seems like there are no Extractors that check if I am still in the Containment Unit or not.'
Nick looked around the Containment Unit.
'Although, this is a Containment Unit for a Demon. It would be very strange if a Late Fanatic broke out of this.'
'Well then, I worked with everyone I had to work with for today.'
'Time to gather a bit of intelligence.'
The next moment, Nick turned into mist and flew to the ceiling.
There were tiny holes, barely two millimeters wide, that allowed air and light to pass through the walls.
The holes were extremely fortified and even harder to destroy than the majority of the wall.
And yet…
Nick just passed through the holes easily.
The power of the Containment Unit didn't matter.
There was a very good reason why Nick hadn't turned into mist while being chased by the Heroes.
If he had turned into mist and had still been caught, they would know that he was a Force Specter, and they would have put him into a Containment Unit for Force Specters.
Generally, no Manufacturer put Physical or Possession Specters into Containment Units for Force Specters.
These Containment Units cost tens of times more than normal ones due to all of their extra functions.
Nick had been 99% sure that he would be thrown into one for Physical Specters, and he had been right.
And even if he had been thrown into one for Force Specters, Nick had a plan B to get out of that one as well.
Nick floated out of the tiny holes of the Containment Unit and entered the hallway.