Could Nick force someone to do more when they were following all the rules?
No.
After all, they were doing everything that was required of them.
Was this situation damaging to humanity as a whole?
Yes.
The happiness of about 6,000 people in exchange for a bit more help for Aegis…
These were 6,000 people, and their loss of happiness would help Aegis just a little bit.
It didn't feel right.
This was a conundrum.
Choosing either side was bad.
'Well, it's true that it would have dire consequences if every city acted like this one, but that's simply not reality,' Nick thought.
'Cities are like people. They have different strengths and weaknesses.'
'They even have different personalities, in a way.'
It took Nick a while to get to a solution, but he believed that it would work.
'When you have an employee who isn't great at what they are doing, keeping them in their current position is not a good idea. However, firing them is also bad. Just because they are bad at one thing doesn't mean they are bad at everything.'
'You should search for a good position for that employee.'
'A position where their strengths matter and their weaknesses don't.'
Nick made his plan and left Skygarden City.
However, instead of immediately proceeding with the plan, Nick decided to spend two months learning from the contained Adversary.
Becoming more powerful and learning about ancient technology was the highest priority right now.
Working for Aegis and delivering results was just something he had to do.
His goal was all of humanity, not just a couple of cities.
After two months of learning, Nick went back to Aegis' headquarters and directly met with the Left Arm.
"Report," the Left Arm ordered as soon as Nick entered.
"I have found a city that's been controlled by Sloth," Nick said.
"Have you dealt with it?" the Left Arm asked.
"I want to talk with you about that," Nick said.
The Left Arm just looked at Nick with an unamused expression. "People living in Sloth's cities are almost always quite happy with their situation, but you can't let that blind you. Sloth is humanity's enemy, and weakening Sloth is of a higher priority than improving the lives of a couple thousand people."
Naturally, the Left Arm knew Nick and could immediately tell what his issue was.
"But they are following the rules and are doing what we want them to do," Nick said.
"They are not following the rules," the Left Arm answered immediately. "They are working for a Corruptor. Working with a Corruptor is forbidden."
"I have an idea," Nick said.
The Left Arm furrowed her brows.
If this were anyone else, she would tell them to follow her orders and deal with Sloth's influence.
However, Nick was humanity's future.
If the current era ended, it would be up to him to shape humanity.
So, despite being sure that she knew she was right…
"Alright, tell me your idea," she said.
"Cities are like employees," Nick said. "They are employees who work for Aegis. We protect them, and in return, they contribute to our efforts, correct?"
The Left Arm didn't answer since she didn't need to.
"I think we should not be looking at individual employees who perform badly but think about the positions they are in," Nick said.
"Every city has to contribute Zephyx, and they also deliver new members for Aegis. This is what they are supposed to do."
"However, not every city is good at that. We are investigating cities that are not up to the standard of their position, and we fix them so that they fulfill our standards."
"But what if we make a new position?"
The Left Arm furrowed her brows, but she didn't interrupt Nick.
"If we say that every city represents an employee, we are essentially forcing everyone to do the same thing, despite their strengths and weaknesses being different."
"What if we take advantage of their strengths instead of forcing them to work in a way that makes their weaknesses more pronounced?" Nick asked.
"Your argumentation makes sense," the Left Arm said, "but you are talking in simplified analogies. Speak in more realistic and concrete terms."
"Well," Nick said, "right now, Skygarden City is barely producing any Extractors, and they are working with a pitifully small amount of Specters. They are essentially producing zero soldiers that Aegis can use."
"But what if, instead of asking them to make soldiers, we ask them to create weapons for our soldiers?"
"More concrete terms, please," the Left Arm said with annoyance. "Get to the point."
"Specters," Nick said. "They are killing almost every Specter they find because they don't want to work with them. But just because they don't want to work with them doesn't mean that nobody wants to."
"What if we treat Skygarden City as a Specter procurer? Since they don't want to work with the Specters, we can give them an incentive to catch them and then just take them for ourselves."
"Of course, we won't be using the Specters ourselves. Instead, we just transport them from their city to a different city. The Manufacturers in other cities will happily work with the Specters, which means more Zephyx production, which means more powerful Extractors."
The Left Arm looked at Nick with furrowed brows. "Intercity Specter trade is illegal due to the risk. We only allow it in exceptions."
"You are the rule maker," Nick said. "You can change the rules. Not taking advantage of such cities equates to wasting money."
"Additionally, and maybe more importantly, Sloth is using our rules to weaken humanity. This is the way Sloth hurts us. It is essentially using a loophole."
"But if we fix the loophole, Sloth will lose its weapon, and it is even helping humanity."
"Of course, Sloth's influence can't become too strong.We need a proper ratio between the two different kinds of cities for it to work. As long as we don't let it take overhand, Sloth is actually helping us."
"Sloth's export of Specters will increase our power, which we will use to deal with other Corruptors."
"It benefits, but we also benefit."
"At least… with how things look now," Nick said as he came to the important part of his plan.
"Sloth is humanity's enemy. That is an unchangeable fact."
"While Sloth would most likely be content with this new dynamic, Death and Pestilence won't be. They will realize that Sloth is helping humanity instead of damaging us, and they will force it to work differently."
"At that point, Sloth will be forced to take a more direct approach, and it will lose the tactic it has used for the longest time. We are essentially forcing Sloth to abandon its strengths and work with its weaknesses."
"Its damaging effect will lose all its power. In that case, we don't need to dedicate any manpower to its territory anymore, giving us more manpower for other territories. Either it continues being useless, or it becomes more aggressive and loses its most powerful weapon."
"This could make Sloth vulnerable, and it might make mistakes."
The Left Arm remained silent for a bit.
"The idea isn't bad, but we are missing the manpower to oversee such exchanges," the Left Arm said. "We can't send so many Heroes to transport Specters between cities. Every time a Hero travels from one city to another is dangerous due to wild Demons and Fallen."
"What about the caravans?" Nick asked.
"We already did that in the past," the Left Arm said. "Caravans are in just as much danger, and many dangerous Specters broke free. That's the very reason why intercity Specter trade was made illegal."
Nick didn't give up. "Sounds like expected losses if we are speaking from a company's perspective. You can't make money without losing some. You use money to make more money,and as long as the losses are not higher than the profit, it still works."
"What is worse, tens of cities killing 90% of all the Specters they see or a couple of Specters breaking out in the middle of nowhere?"
"I would agree with you if Sloth didn't exist, but it does exist, and that's the entire issue."
"If Sloth changes its modus operandi, we can still make intercity Specter trade illegal again."
"This entire change in policy is just to deal with Sloth's weapon."
"As soon as Sloth changes how it operates, it has to retroactively change the way all of its cities operate. The changes will be noticeable, and we will find out which cities it controls very quickly."
"We are forcing Sloth into a corner with that change."
The Left Arm remained silent for quite a while.
"I'll have to talk with the Champion and the other Shields about this. Your idea sounds feasible, but we have to crunch the numbers and make a concrete plan if we want to turn this from an idea into reality."
Nick felt relieved when he heard that.
"I'll deal with it," the Left Arm said. "For now, ignore Sloth's territory. You should focus on a different territory for now. The Technician will tell you if anything comes from this."
"Thank you, Left Arm," Nick said.
The Left Arm Just nodded, and a moment later, Nick left her office.
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