'I can't deal with the Envious Researcher for now. Without the Champion's help, it's impossible.'
'As frustrating as it is, I have to focus on the Fallen working for the Trio of Destruction for now.'
Nick flew through the unending wasteland that was the Great Triangle to search for Specters.
He had to contribute to Aegis more and increase their power.
'This new servant of War's is too careful. Its servants don't even have a way of contacting it. Apparently, it directly speaks to their minds from time to time and never says anything about itself.'
'It just tells them what to do and leaves.'
'Most likely, it's traveling through the underground and contacting them from below the cities.'
'That makes it almost impossible to find it. I could only find Pride and Lust because they were willing to come to me after they repeatedly interacted with me remotely.'
'If I can't interact with this new servant, I can't lure it out and deal with it.'
'If there's no way forward, I should consider a different way.'
'This new servant is constantly searching for even more servants in the wild. While I can't guarantee that it will contact me, I can deal with the other Specters.'
Nick imagined a fisherman fishing in an ocean filled with fish.
Nick was one of the fish and wanted to be caught by the fisherman, but the fisherman kept hooking all the other fish.
'It's a lot of work, but…'
Nick imagined his fish-self killing all the other fish until it was the only one remaining.
'A rich person paying a million credits in taxes is a big help, but a thousand people paying a thousand credits each is just as valuable.'
'It's time to go for quantity instead of quality.'
'If I significantly improve the cities, Aegis will follow.'
'Let's get to work!'
Nick knew where all the cities in the Great Triangle were by now.
He didn't know how each city was or how it operated, but that didn't matter.
He only had one goal.
Catching Specters!
Nick went to the first city and hid himself.
Then, he started the arduous task of reading the thoughts of Newbies and Johns.
He found a lot of disgusting minds, but he didn't have the time to deal with these people.
Despite being corrupt and disgusting, these people still contributed by working for a Manufacturer.
'Number one,' Nick thought as he found something interesting in the mind of one of the Johns.
He immediately traveled to a seemingly abandoned shack near the edge of the city.
He stealthily entered the underground and found a leech chained to a wall.
The John was using this Specter to interrogate his underground rivals and learn information about them.
The Specter was only an Initial Adolescent, but it was something.
Nick grabbed the Specter with his mind and levitated it.
Levitation was not difficult to learn, but just like every other self-made ability, it was supremely weak.
But with a four-level difference, that didn't matter.
The Specter shot through the roof, flew through the sky, and hit the building of a big Manufacturer.
The guards became panicked when they saw a Specter hitting their building, but they immediately went to suppress it.
'Number one, done!'
Nick immediately resumed information gathering.
Half an hour later, a gigantic rock shot through the ground in the middle of the city and landed in its center.
The next moment, screaming mouths opened on the rock, and it unleashed a terrifying roar that put all the normal people in a trance.
Yet, the Specter was quickly suppressed by a bunch of Extractors.
This had been a Mid Adult.
Naturally, the people recovered quickly.
Nick wouldn't have thrown the Specter into the middle of the city if it had the ability to cause mass death.
An hour later, the head of an Extractor exploded in the middle of the street, causing panic.
However, the panic only intensified when the headless body stood up again.
Everyone realized that this was a Specter, and just like the other ones, it was suppressed.
The Extractors couldn't believe what was going on!
Why were so many Specters getting revealed like this?!
BANG!
The head of a Specialist exploded, and the headless body tried to run away.
BANG!
A bone turtle burst out of a huge house.
A gigantic bird filled with tentacles fell from the sky.
Five more Specters were exposed within the next hours.
The entire city was in an uproar.
What the fuck was going on?!
Then, things became silent for a while.
BANG!
A gigantic tree made of organs from outside the city took to the sky and fell onto the city walls.
The Manufacturers all recognized that tree.
This was an Early Demon that openly lived outside the city.
Getting to it was almost impossible due to its extremely powerful gas.
The Heroes immediately besieged it, but they were surprised when they saw a Zephyx Suppressor wrapped around the tree.
That confirmed it!
Some kind of extremely powerful Extractor was cleaning up the city!
They had to be from Aegis!
But Aegis always confiscated any Specters they captured!
Why did this Extractor throw the Specters to them?
Would Aegis claim them later?
The Heroes quickly put their own Zephyx Suppressors around the tree.
And then…
The original Zephyx Suppressor vanished.
They accused everyone else of stealing it, but none of them admitted to stealing it.
Naturally, Nick had taken his Zephyx Suppressor back.
He still needed it.
Over the next couple of hours, over 20 Specters from the surroundings were thrown at the city, and all the Extractors waited to suppress them.
Money was literally falling from the sky!
At some point, no more Specters appeared, but in the next moment, the Extractors saw a collection of black cubes flying away from the city.
"That has to be the Extractor!" one of them shouted.
With wonder, they watched the black cubes vanishing on the horizon.
Nick carried all the Specter Cages to Aegis's headquarters, and the guards looked at him with shock and surprise.
"That's all for the Crimson Sea," Nick said, walking through the big gate.
These Specters were too dangerous to work with.
After dealing with the dangerous Specters, Nick made a stop in the research and development department and grabbed a frankly ridiculous supply of suppression gear.
Nick stepped out of Aegis' headquarters.
'Time for the next city!'
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