While Nick searched for more biologists, he got an idea.
'Sloth might be the solution,' he thought. 'People living in Sloth's city are generally worry-free. Maybe there's something there.'
Nick took a break from recruiting biologists and decided to visit a couple of Sloth's cities.
However, the more cities Nick visited, the more troublesome things seemed to become.
'Seems like Sloth has already adapted to the new policy,' Nick thought.
In the past, Sloth's city had almost all been relatively advanced and peaceful.
But now, most of them were different.
Sloth had dealt with Aegis' new policies by going more extreme.
Instead of being more comfortable with their lives, the people lacked energy and were demotivated.
They hated their lives, but they just didn't have the energy to try to change them.
They sat on their asses, looking at the wall, and lamented how bad their lives were.
Hopelessness.
That was the best word to describe these cities.
The people actually had the power to change their lives.
As long as they got a job and went out more, they could improve their lives.
But they just didn't have the energy.
Whenever they thought about doing anything, they yawned and became tired.
It was so difficult.
It was much easier to just sit here.
Tomorrow would be another day.
Tomorrow, they could solve this issue.
But then, tomorrow arrived, and nothing changed.
They were just as tired and demotivated as the day before.
What about the Extractors?
The cities still needed to survive and defend against Specters, right?
That was the biggest issue.
The cities barely had any Extractors.
Even more, since the Grand Continent was mostly isolated from Aegis due to the destroyed strongholds, they also couldn't ask for help.
The cities were essentially defenseless.
Shockingly, most cities didn't even have Heroes,and some of them didn't even have Specialists.
Any random Demon or Fanatic could tear this entire city apart.
But no Fanatics or Demons appeared.
The reason was Sloth.
These cities belonged to Sloth, and they were protected by Sloth's servants.
Any Specter who tried to cause chaos in the cities was very quickly persuaded to go somewhere else.
Some of them became Sloth's servants, while others were told to go towards the west or to the east.
The cities lost most of their Specters.
In a way, these cities were the safest places on Earth since no Specter dared to attack or kill anyone in them.
However, a miasma of decay, weakness, and hopelessness engulfed these cities.
It was like everyone in there was just waiting to die.
Sloth had really done it.
It controlled over half of the Grand Continent and made it useless to Aegis.
The cities couldn't pay their tributes.
They were not catching and selling Specters.
They were not producing any powerful people who would join Aegis in the future.
The Grand Continent was a black hole.
No resources came out.
However, while this change was horrible for Aegis, Sloth also had to make some sacrifices.
With fewer Extractors, Sloth could only harvest Zephyx from regular people, and those produced much less.
There were still some strong Extractors left from before these changes took effect, but they were rapidly vanishing.
Sloth was probably only producing 20% of the Zephyx it had been producing in the past.
However, Aegis was getting zero from the Grand Continent.
Sloth had essentially cut off a finger of itself to cut off one of Aegis' hands.
Even more, solving this issue had become extremely difficult.
'If I kill Sloth's servants, the wild Specters will come in and kill everybody.'
'There are plenty of weaker Demons who want to graduate from consuming cities to consuming Agents.'
'Within less than three years, these cities will be razed to the ground by the wild Specters.'
'Aegis would need to put one or two Heroes in every city, but that would weaken Aegis as well.'
'This is troublesome.'
Nick took a deep breath.
'However, I'm not here to solve this issue right now. I need to find a way to help the people in the research base. The cities might have changed, but there might still be some remnants from before this huge change happened.'
Nick looked through several cities.
And after some days, he finally found something of note.
It was an herb that some people cultivated.
The herb had a relaxing effect, but it also dulled the mind.
It made it difficult for the people to focus, but it also kept the existential dread at bay.
Surprisingly, the people using this herb generally had it better than the ones who were not using it.
While this herb dulled the mind, its calming effect actually allowed the people to change something about their lives.
However, that only worked in cities filled with hopelessness and despair.
In any normal city, constantly consuming that herb would damage their lives.
After all, everyone else would have their full faculties, and they were eager to make something of themselves.
Consuming this herb would bring short-term bliss in exchange for long-term happiness and success.
It made it easier to come to terms with the problems, but it made it harder to solve the problems.
'Nevertheless, this herb might be a good starting point for this theoretical medication. If we could extract the calming effect, this could solve our problems.'
Nick took note of how to take care of these herbs and took them with him.
However, he left a huge stack of credits behind.
These were enough credits to last these people for their lifetime.
Nick brought the herbs back to the underground research base and introduced them to Ghosty.
It became very clear that this herb was not a very good solution to the issue in its current form.
While it could deal with anxiety,it essentially made the person using it useless.
They were supposed to research things.
They were supposed to make significant progress.
Allowing someone to consume this herb would eliminate the problem, but it would also technically remove them from the research team for the duration.
"Well, it's better than nothing," Ghosty said.
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