Samar stepped out of the Specter Cage and looked at her new surroundings.
Officially, she died during a mission in Crimson City.
Crimson City went on a hunt for a powerful Specter with the help of a special Agent.
Several people saw her die to the Specter.
However, the mission succeeded, and Crimson City managed to capture a Peak Demon.
Sadly, since Crimson City wasn't powerful enough to make use of the Peak Demon, it sold the Specter to Aegis for several years' worth of tributes.
The Special Agent survived, naturally.
It had taken Nick a couple of days to set everything up, but this way, there were no loose ends.
To keep everything as clean as possible, there had to be a mission. After all, Samar had mentioned a mission to the Left Arm.
The mood between them was… strange.
Both of them knew that Samar essentially wanted to kill Aria.
However, she only wanted to do that since Aria was the only lead to her father's death and refused to tell her the truth.
Now that she knew the truth, there was no more reason to go after Aria.
The tense mood was interrupted as the doors opened and Ghosty walked out.
When Samar saw Ghosty, her eyes widened.
"Ah, Samar. Nice to see you," Ghosty said. "It feels good to see another familiar face."
Ghosty noted that Nick hadn't disguised himself.
"I presume you are well-acquainted with our friend?" he asked.
Samar's mood soured when she heard the word friend.
"I know enough," she said with a dark voice.
Naturally, Nick told her what happened with Wyntor.
Sadly, there were several gaps in his memories due to his Consumption.
In the end, Samar agreed with Nick.
Nick and Wyntor had just been two children who made mistakes.
But that didn't mean that she forgave Nick.
Nick killed her little brother when he didn't deserve to die.
Yet,Samar was also intelligent enough to see Nick's value to humanity.
She did not agree with his methods, but she couldn't deny their effectiveness.
So, she decided to join Nick's mission despite her hatred for him.
She did not forgive him.
She did not want to interact with him.
She didn't want to be near him.
But for humanity, she was willing to ignore him and tolerate his existence.
"I am glad to be working under you," Samar said to Ghosty. "I've always admired your dedication to science."
Samar had been a bit of a fangirl of Ghosty's when she had been younger.
She even used to have a crush on him.
Sadly, the life of an Extractor tended to be lonely, and all desire for friendship and romance had been asphyxiated.
Ghosty and Samar shared some pleasantries.
"Good job," Aria transmitted to Nick. "Samar is a brilliant girl."
"I can tell," Nick answered. "She almost feels like a young version of the Left Arm."
"The Left Arm is the backbone of Aegis. With time, Samar might become the backbone of humanity."
Nick wasn't exaggerating.
Samar was still young, and she had the talent to become a Protector.
With enough advancements in the field of biology, humanity might even find a way to increase the amount of Zephyx a human could absorb.
That could allow Samar to become a Shield in the future.
She was willing to sacrifice her personal vendetta for the good of humanity, and that was not something everyone could do.
Nick's team was taking shape.
None of their members were mediocre.
After bringing Samar to the secret base, he left to catch a couple of Specters.
He needed a big group of Specters with different levels of power.
The team was about to grow even bigger, and Nick couldn't keep kidnapping strong Extractors.
Young people were the future, and since this mission would span decades or even centuries, young people were necessary.
Over the next year, Nick recruited 40 more people.
Almost all of them were Johns or Veterans.
The reason why Nick got people of this level was his ability to read minds.
Secrecy was the highest priority.
Nick read the minds of every recruit to make sure that there were no issues with them.
Having a family was already an issue since Nick couldn't possibly allow family members to stay with the recruits.
Another issue was too much aspiration.
Yes, the recruit needed to have the will to become stronger, but if someone was too greedy for status or recognition, they wouldn't fit into the team.
Nick also captured twenty additional Specters with different levels of power.
In the end, the team grew to almost 50 people and around 25 Specters.
The Zephyx production increased significantly, and the variety of topics that were being researched also increased.
Then, for the next four years, Nick decided to read the Technician's research notes.
He needed to act like he was doing the Envious Researcher's job.
He didn't read everything and just focused on the general gist of everything.
Nick was not a researcher.
He was an assassin and undercover agent.
Knowing enough to understand technology was sufficient.
Nick planned to spend the next five years listening to the captured Adversary.
With his newfound knowledge of technology, he could also steer the conversation with the Adversary in a more productive direction.
Many of the things the Adversary explained were already known to humanity.
If they could just skip that, they would save years.
Yet, before Nick could go back to listen to the Adversary, he needed to deal with a significant issue.
The Fiend of Darkness.
The Fiend of Darkness was still in Aegis' stronghold, and while it wasn't unusual to pay it a visit every decade or so, repeated visits might elicit suspicion. ṝаŊꝋΒĘṠ
However, with the growing number of members, they also needed more regular access to the Fiend of Darkness.
'I need to get the Fiend of Darkness,' Nick thought.'And I must make it seem like it wasn't the target.'
Nick looked in the direction of the stronghold.
Then, he took a deep breath.
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