While the Shields were talking about the policy Nick had suggested, Nick left the headquarters again to contribute.
Sadly, he couldn't focus on the Adversary for now since the Champion was putting so much pressure on him.
Nick decided to avoid Sloth, and he still wanted to avoid Envy due to his insane number of abilities.
So, he decided to focus on Lust for now.
If he could weaken Lust significantly while Sloth was slowly being forced to change the way it operated, Aegis could weaken the Specter presence in the Grand Continent significantly.
Nick looked through a couple of database entries and found an interesting city.
'There are a lot of people in that city,' Nick thought as he saw the number of inhabitants.
Over 40,000.
That was insanely high for a city.
'It also pays a lot of Zephyx.'
'That's suspicious,' Nick thought with narrowed eyes.
Cities that voluntarily paid more than necessary with the tribute were extremely rare, and quite often, they did that to stop Aegis from investigating them.
After all, Aegis desperately needed Zephyx, and they mostly investigated cities that paid a smaller tribute.
In a way, this could almost be seen as a soft bribe.
After flying for a while, Nick reached the city.
'Based on the layout, this is one of the cities that essentially uses humans as a shield.'
Some cities in the world didn't have major fortifications and just expanded like crazy, leaving the poorest people near the edge of the city so that they might be targeted by the Specters.
It was like a school of fish that found strength in numbers.
The city was massive, and the closer one was to its edge, the more horrible the buildings became.
The center was filled with beautiful and tall buildings, while the edge was made of horrible heaps of rusty metal.
Nick looked at the city for a while, and it didn't take long for him to find something that was very strange.
'That's weird.There are a lot of children running around near the edge of the city.'
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Nick looked at the center of the city.
'There are almost no children there.'
Near the edge of the city, Nick saw several teenagers sitting in a group.
Surprisingly, every teenager was carrying a baby on their back.
As Nick looked closer, he found something else that was strange.
'Almost all the teenagers are male, and the babies are also almost exclusively male. What's the reason behind that?'
Nick decided to investigate.
This time, he decided to just overhear conversations instead of starting them.
"Does anyone have food for my sacrifice?" a thin male teenager asked casually.
"Just go to the wetnurse," another teenager said.
As an answer, the thin teenager just smirked.
"My sacrifice is old enough to eat solids!" the thin teenager said with a laugh.
"You sure?" another one asked, taking a look at the baby on the teenager's back. "Doesn't look old enough to me."
"It's fine," the teenager said.
"I don't have anything to give you," another teen said. "Go get it yourself."
After the thin teenager didn't get any spare food, he walked away from the group and approached the center of the city.
A while later, he entered a store, and when Nick saw the inside of the store, he narrowed his eyes.
There were over a hundred newborns in there!
Even more, most of them were crying and thin.
However, everyone seemed to be used to the noise and just conversed very loudly.
"A female," the teenager said, putting five credits on the counter.
The clerk approached one of the thin babies and put it on the counter.
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The teenager grabbed the screaming newborn by the legs and carried it out of the store like it was a chicken.
As soon as he left the store, he went over to the side of the road.
BANG!
And just slammed the newborn's head on the wall.
The baby died immediately.
The teenager walked back to the group, showed the dead newborn with a smirk,and said that he brought food.
The next couple of minutes were difficult for even Nick to witness without a reaction.
The newborn was prepared and promptly consumed.
The "sacrifice" on the teenager's back was force-fed despite its protests.
'What the fuck,' was the only thing Nick could think after witnessing all of this.
'This might be the worst city I've ever been to.'
'What is going on here? How could a city fall into such a state?!'
Nick went to the center of the city to investigate, and after a couple of hours, he saw how something like that could happen.
A wagon with over 200 newborns came out of the building of the biggest Manufacturer.
The wagon went to a couple of different stores in the outer area of the city to replenish their "stock".
After investigating for a couple more hours, Nick finally understood the twisted logic behind this city.
Apparently, the strongest Specter of the city was called the Baby Factory, and it became more powerful by birthing children.
Men of the city were paid to donate sperm to the Specter, after which the Specter would produce a newborn within a couple of minutes.
The babies born this way couldn't absorb Zephyx and didn't have Zephyx Synchronizers, making it impossible for them to become Extractors in the future.
Additionally, all of the babies couldn't learn to feel empathy or love.
The spawn of the Specter was put into shops.
Then, the children that somehow managed to survive bought them.
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Females were mostly used for food, while males were used as sacrifices.
In this context, a sacrifice represented a way to get rid of a Specter.
The person would just throw the sacrifice at a Specter and flee, hoping that the Specter would go for the easy prey instead of the hard one.
If the male baby managed to survive for long enough, it would no longer be treated as a sacrifice and could join the other children and teens.
The child would be indebted to the teen or child that fed them and kept them safe, and they would need to repay the resources that had been invested in them.
The main reason why male sacrifices were preferable over female sacrifices was the rate of survival and productivity.
Males tended to be stronger, which meant they could earn more credits.
Meanwhile, there was a great chance that a female sacrifice would be raped and subsequently killed.
Murder was not illegal in the outer city.
However, even if someone managed to grow up in the outer city, they would never be allowed in the inner city.
All the babies born by the Baby Factory were seen as dangerous and non-human.
There was a wall separating the inner from the outer city, and one was only allowed to get past the wall if they could prove that they could interact with Zephyx.
'As fucked up as it is, the Baby Factory is essentially creating a defensive wall of humans.'
Nick couldn't begin to think about everything that was wrong with this city.
'This is the most textbook example of a city controlled by Lust.'
'I have to see who is involved in this.'
Usually, Nick would prepare everything and spend a couple of months with the Adversary before dealing with the city, but this time, he wouldn't do that.
This was just too fucked up.
With Nick's new equipment, he had more options to deal with Specters.
He could now capture and transport them to Aegis, but he definitely would not keep this Specter alive.
Its potential for causing suffering was just too high.
The first thing Nick did was to find the Governor.
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He found him relatively quickly, and when there was an opportunity, Nick used one of his Barrier's new privileges.
Nick's Barrier synchronized with the Governor's Barrier, and just a bit later, Nick's Barrier had access to all identity markers in the Governor's Barrier.
Next, Nick went to the city's console and read through the Governor's search history.
'He's been looking at a lot of legal stuff and investigations. Seems like he desperately doesn't want to get investigated.'
'I'm 90% sure he knows that the Baby Factory is a servant of Lust.'
'He knows what he's doing is wrong, but he does it anyway.'
After checking the Governor's records, Nick entered the Governor's mansion.
Yet, no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find a Greater Relay.
If Nick could find a Greater Relay, he could accidentally reveal himself to Lust and go undercover with a new identity to cause a lot of damage.
'There's a chance that he is using a Greater Relay that's somewhere else, but I don't want to follow him around for weeks until he contacts Lust the next time. I don't want this to continue for longer than it needs to.'
Nick read through the personal records of the Governor for a while and learned a lot about the city.
He also found the Governor's schedule.
'That should be enough.'
Finally, Nick searched for the Governor again and followed him for a while.
When the Governor was alone, Nick appeared behind him.
BANG!
And killed him.
"Sir?"
The door opened, and a beautiful young woman entered.
"It's nothing," the Governor said. "Wait outside."
Naturally, the woman had entered because of the strong vibrations she had felt when Nick killed the Governor.
"I'm sorry," the woman said before leaving the room again.
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The Governor, Nick in disguise, narrowed his eyes.
'Now to find out who else supports this.'
Then, Nick left the room.