The "Governor" walked out of the room and looked at the woman, who was waiting in front of the door.
"What's next on the agenda?" he asked with a casual attitude.
The woman's Barrier activated.
"You have a meeting with Distant Sky in about an hour," the woman said.
Nick nodded. "Cancel the meeting. Something happened, and I need to call an emergency meeting with the Heroes."
The secretary looked a bit surprised, but she did as she was instructed. "I will send someone to Distant Sky. When do you wish to hold the emergency meeting?"
"As soon as possible. Preferably, in the time slot that just opened up," Nick said.
"I will try my best," the secretary said before politely bowing and leaving.
Nick went back into the room he had just come from and prepared himself.
Nick looked through the unfinished paperwork and did his best to finish it.
While Nick knew a lot about the city, he didn't fully know the name of every single company and what they did.
Although, based on the mandatory company descriptions in the forms, the actual Governor also didn't know.
'There's no point in having a secretary as a Hero,' Nick thought. 'The mind of a Hero is so fast that no secretary could possibly make one's life easier.'
The fact that the Governor had a secretary anyway was an indication as to what kind of person he was.
He just wanted to appear important and not deal with any unimportant people.
After Nick dealt with the paperwork, he waited for his secretary's return.
'I could've done this much faster myself.'
Eventually, the secretary returned.
"The emergency meeting will be held in 25 minutes in room 7.47," she said.
"Thank you," Nick answered, and the secretary left again.
25 minutes later, Nick left his office and went to the meeting room.
The Governor was someone who always came slightly late just to show how important he was and to let everyone else wait for him.
As Nick stepped into the room, he saw five people.
Four of them were Heroes, while one of them was just a Peak Expert.
Two of the Heroes were from the biggest Manufacturer, while the other two were from the second biggest.
The Expert was the CEO of the second biggest Manufacturer.
The two Manufacturers were essentially of equal power. The only thing distinguishing their power was that one of them owned the Baby Factory.
"Emergency meeting. Quite unusual," one of the Heroes commented in a joking tone.
"Trust me," Nick answered casually as he moved to his chair, "I wouldn't have called for it if it weren't so important."
"Oh no," another guy spoke sarcastically, "is there another Fanatic in the city somewhere?"
"Henry, this is serious," Nick said with a slightly reprimanding tone. "We're dealing with an actual serious matter right now."
"It's probably not so bad," the first Hero added casually.
It was quite evident that the atmosphere the old Governor aimed for in the meetings was casual.
He was quite buddy-buddy with all of the people here.
"What is it?" a third Hero asked. "What's got you so worried?"
Nick sat down and sighed deeply.
"We have been selected for a random inspection," Nick said.
The atmosphere became a bit tense but not as tense as Nick had expected.
"By who?" the third Hero asked.
"By Aegis, idiot!" the first Hero answered with annoyance. "Who else can investigate us?"
"Oh!" the third Hero said in surprise. "That's bad! Right?"
The first two Heroes threw a glance at the fourth Hero, who just looked down with a casual smile as if nothing was going on.
The third Hero was his colleague.
"I get that it's important," the Expert said, "but don't you think you're overreacting?"
"I rarely get to call emergency meetings," Nick said. "I thought this would be a good opportunity."
The Expert leaned back and sighed. "You had me seriously worried there."
"How can you feel worry?" the first Hero asked.
"It's a phrase," the Expert answered casually. "No, I obviously can't be worried, but people talk like that."
Nick did his best not to furrow his brows since the actual Governor rarely did that.
The next moment, he activated his Barrier and ordered it to interact with the Expert's Barrier.
Nick could feel the waves coming from the Expert's Barrier, which told him that he had one.
And yet, when Nick ordered his Barrier to interact with the Expert's Barrier, nothing happened.
'He doesn't have a Barrier,' Nick thought.
Naturally, there was only one reason why an Extractor wouldn't use a Barrier.
They were not actually an Extractor but a Specter.
Compared to Nick, this Specter didn't have access to custom-made Specter Barriers.
'They are quite open about his true identity,' Nick thought. 'He's the CEO of the second-biggest Manufacturer, but even the biggest Manufacturer seems to know.'
'They are not enemies. They're probably not even competitors.'
A hidden monopoly.
"I assume we're going to use the plan you made for that occasion?" the first Hero asked Nick.
"Do you even know the details of it?" Nick asked with a raised brow.
The Hero snorted. "No."
"Oh! I know!" the third Hero shouted excitedly.
"Then, why don't you tell us?" Nick asked.
The third Hero grew excited and started to recite a list of things everyone had to do to get past the inspection without issues.
It was a good plan.
Apparently, the city even had fake orphanages for exactly this situation.
The plan essentially detailed how the city could appear like they were not suffering from the obvious overpopulation.
While the plan wasn't bad, it couldn't hide such a gigantic issue this easily.
That was until the third Hero talked about the last step of the plan.
"And finally, eliminate 80% of the proxy-humans living in the outskirts," the third Hero said with pride. After all, he had managed to recite the entire plan from memory!
When the third Hero said that, Nick paid very close attention to everyone in the room to gauge their reactions.
The first Hero narrowed his eyes.
The second Hero's expression hadn't changed.
The third Hero was excited because he got to recite the plan from memory.
The fourth Hero's smile dropped, and he looked to the side, seemingly lost in his thoughts.
Naturally, the Specter showed no reaction.
"You seem worried, Marvin," Nick said to the first Hero.
"I'm not sure about the plan," Marvin said.
"Oh boohoo, Magnanimous Marvin is at it again," the second Hero said with a ridiculing tone.
Marvin threw a reprimanding glare at the second Hero, who was supposed to be his colleague and was supposed to back him up.
Henry, the second Hero, realized that his joke had been inappropriate and just smiled in embarrassment.
The nickname of Magnanimous Marvin was an inside joke in the company, and Marvin didn't mind it, but referencing it in an emergency meeting with outsiders was not appropriate.
The third Hero wasn't the only dumbass in this meeting.
"What's your issue with the plan?" Nick asked.
"Killing so many proxy-humans will put quite a strain on the Baby Factory. It won't produce a lot of Zephyx for the next months," Marvin explained.
Naturally, a big factor in the Baby Factory's growth was the suffering that overpopulation caused.
Without overpopulation, there would be a lot less suffering.
"Do you have an alternative?" Nick asked.
"We could move around 30% of the proxy-humans to the inner city for the duration of the inspection," Marvin said.
Everyone in the room looked at him with concerned or confused expressions.
Nick looked especially closely at Marvin.
'He's nervous,' Nick thought. 'He shows signs of having a fight or flight reaction.'
'If this were truly just about money, he wouldn't be this nervous. After all,everyone in this room is after money.'
"Several months?" the fourth Hero asked. "The Baby Factory will get back to the old load of proxy-humans within a week. We just have to incentivize people more. The economic impact is minuscule."
Marvin looked at the others.
He couldn't see any supportive glances.
"You're probably right. Sorry, I got lost in the details," Marvin said. "You have to spend money to make money."
'As expected,' Nick thought. 'It seems like not everyone is on board with how the city operates.'
'This Marvin guy wants to change things, but he's not getting support from anyone else.'
'Sadly, he lacks the courage to put his life on the line for the things he believes in.'
'But not agreeing with how the city is run is already an upgrade from the others.'
'I should gather more information on this Marvin guy. It's possible that he wants to change the city from the inside.'
After about an hour, the meeting ended, and everyone left.
Well, almost everyone.
Nick asked Marvin to stay and escorted him to his office.
He would put Marvin to the test.