Kill the Sun

"Okay," Monica said.

As a Specter that had lived amongst humans for quite a while, Monica was very good at gauging someone's personality.

Knowing how someone thought and acted made it easier to get their valuables, which was what Monica was after.

In her mind, Nick was someone who stood by his principles.

Someone like him either didn't like lying or was horrible at it.

Her instincts told her that Nick was honest.

Well, as honest as humans came.

"Good to hear," Nick said. "So, how can we improve your power?"

Nick usually needed to try stuff until he found the optimal way to work with a Specter.

But with Monica, he could just ask.

"Valuables," Monica said. "Anything that humans consider valuable, I can consume to become stronger."

"Can you give me some examples?" Nick asked politely.

"Credits, gems, weapons, food. If a human can own it and would feel pain from losing it, I can consume it," Monica said evenly.

Nick furrowed his brows.

"What about food waste?" he asked.

Nick wanted to make sure that there was no overlap with the Dung Heap.

"No human would care about food waste since it can't be eaten nor traded," Monica explained. "So, no."

"What about loved ones?" Nick asked.

"No," Monica said.

"Pets?"

"No."

"So, only objects?" Nick asked.

"Yes," Monica answered.

"What about sentimental value?" Nick asked.

"What do you mean?"

"For example, if the mother of a young child dies and the young child only has a drawing of his mother. The little child doesn't want to lose the drawing since this object is the last thing left by its mother. Therefore, this object holds a lot of value to the child but is worthless to others," Nick said.

Surprisingly, Monica didn't immediately answer.

"I don't know," she said.

"You don't know?" Nick repeated in surprise.

Trevor and Jenny were just as surprised.

"I don't know," Monica repeated.

Nick furrowed his brows. "Can we try?"

"Yes," Monica answered evenly.

Nick nodded and turned to Trevor.

After giving Trevor some instructions, Trevor left.

A couple of minutes later, Trevor came back and gave Nick something.

A blanket.

Nick took a deep breath when he saw the blanket.

This was the blanket that had been on Horua's bed about two years ago.

Nick had kept it.

"Try this," Nick said as he put the blanket on the ground.

Monica looked at it and extended her arm towards it.

The next moment, the blanket slowly turned into dust and flew towards Monica's hand.

The dust became smaller and smaller until it vanished when it touched Monica's hand.

Monica remained silent.

The other three also remained silent.

"No," Monica said. "No difference."

"So, you are only interested in objects that are valuable for a great number of people," Nick said.

"Yes," Monica answered.

"Is there some kind of diminishing return?" Nick asked.

"If there is, I haven't noticed," Monica said evenly.

Nick nodded.

"Then, we're going to test that," Nick said. "I'm going to get some money and come back later."

Monica didn't say anything and just kept leaning on the wall.

Nick left and got about 100,000 credits in cash from the company card.

He was willing to use up all of this to properly test Monica's power.

Nick went back to Monica and grabbed 10,000 credits.

This was the first time Monica had ever seen so many credits at once.

Since Monica had been working in the Dregs, she was never around a lot of money.

At most, she got around 2,000 credits per day.

But now, someone was handing her 10,000 credits.

Maybe it actually wasn't so bad to be captured.

If she got 10,000 credits every day, she might grow even faster than before she had been captured.

Monica absorbed the credits just like she had absorbed the blanket.

It only took a couple of seconds.

A moment later, the eyes of the three Extractors opened wide in surprise.

They could actually feel the Zephyx in the air increasing!

They hadn't felt that from any of their Specters before!

Naturally, the Zephyx in the air reduced again since it was absorbed by the Containment Unit.

Nick walked out and checked the Zephyx storage.

And when he saw the Zephyx, his eyes widened in shock.

'50 grams!' he thought.

'She just turned 10,000 credits into 50,000 credits!'

Nick's mind was going crazy.

'There has to be a downside! If not, she could produce more Zephyx than the Crimson Fungus!'

Nick took a deep breath and walked back in.

He gave her another 10,000 credits and looked at the storage again.

Nick's eyes shone.

'25 grams,' he thought. 'Half as much as the first 10,000.'

'So, if I give her another 10,000 credits, it will reduce to about 12.5 grams.'

Nick handed Monica another 10,000 credits and checked again.

'Sure enough, 12.5 grams,' he thought as he scratched his chin.

For the next couple of minutes, Nick gave Monica less and less money and always checked the amount of Zephyx she produced.

After all of his observations, he went to Wyntor to talk with him.

While it was definitely Nick's job to decide how the Extractors worked with the Specters, he wanted to know what Wyntor thought about this.

Wyntor was far better at the financial aspect of the company.

After talking to Wyntor, Nick performed more tests on Monica.

And eventually, they knew what to do.

Every day, Monica would receive 33,000 credits from the company card.

The 33,000 credits would be converted to about 90 grams of Zephyx, which would amount to 90,000 credits of revenue.

This meant that Monica would give the company a profit of about 57,000 credits per day.

Even more, it was extremely easy to work with Monica, and she didn't even want to escape.

On top of that, she could also give an ability.

She was the perfect Specter!

In the end, Nick decided on a fitting but ironic name for her.

From now on, Monica's codename would be the Money Sink.