Kill the Sun

?"That's bad," Nick said absentmindedly.

Jenny narrowed her eyes in rage and turned back to look at Nick.

"Do you know what I mean?" she asked.

"Yes," Nick said as he looked back with a neutral expression. "He jumped into the red Specter and died, right?"

Jenny's eyes became filled with fury, but instead of saying anything, she just kept quiet and continued going towards Dark Dream's new location.

Jenny had known Nick for over four years now, and she had always believed him to be reliable, dependable, nice, and empathetic.

Yet, people only showed their true selves when they were in desperation.

A loving mother might hold her child in front of her when a threat appeared.

A strong man might run away and leave his family behind.

A strict mother might protect her child with her own body.

A weak man might fight a seemingly immortal foe to buy time for his friends and family.

And Nick?

He was always nice, strong, and dependable, but as soon as things became terrible, he just wallowed in self-pity.

And when one of his closest friends died, he just gave a nonchalant response like he had just been told about the weather tomorrow.

Jenny had believed that Nick cared about them.

But obviously, he didn't.

She thought that Nick was different from all the other Manufacturers.

In her career, she had heard a lot about other Manufacturers, and she always despised how cold and apathetic they were.

She had always been happy that Dark Dream was different.

But now, she only felt like a clown.

Different?

Of course not.

Dark Dream was just like all the other Manufacturers.

They were only interested in profits.

Maybe she should reconsider the offers from other Manufacturers she had declined in the past.

Nick silently followed Jenny for a bit.

Eventually, the two of them arrived near the Inner City.

Dark Dream's building was sitting on top of three other buildings, and it was currently leaning against the megastructure.

Luckily, Containment Units didn't break easily, and Aria had been careful when putting down the building.

In front of the building was a group of people.

There were 13 Extractors and around 20 normal people.

"I gathered all the Extractors," Jenny told Nick in a professional tone. "There might be more that survived, but these are the only ones we could find."

13.

There used to be 24 in Dark Dream.

Nick absentmindedly looked at the people.

A lot of the people he was familiar with weren't there.

For example, Jonathan and Cryon were missing.

Yet, Nick just didn't think about them.

How were they any different from the thousands of other people he had just killed?

What was the point of all of this?

"What about the Specters?" Nick asked emotionlessly.

"I didn't see any breaches, but I didn't look closely," Jenny said with a polite tone. "There are several Specters in the building that can kill me, and I believed it would be foolish for me to enter on my own."

Nick just absentmindedly nodded and jumped towards the entrance of the building.

"I'll check," he said.

The employees looked with worry at Nick, who entered the building.

They were uncertain about their futures.

Walking through the building wasn't easy since it was leaning against the megastructure, making the floor very uneven.

When he entered the lobby, Nick saw a couple of blood splatters, and a moment later, he saw a corpse.

It was one of the clerks.

Her back was at an unnatural angle, and her body leaned on the wall.

When the building had been falling, it had spun a bit.

Most likely, the clerk had died during that.

Nick looked at the body for a bit before going to the staircase and walking to the second floor.

On the second floor, Nick immediately saw a huge hole in one of the Containment Units.

However, he wasn't very worried.

Nick walked over and climbed through the hole.

The "bottom" of the Containment Unit was covered in rubble, but there was one thing that was different.

Several white arms were trying to push the rubble away, but they weren't strong enough.

This was the Containment Unit of the Screaming Coffin, and it was the least durable one in the building.

Nick went to one of the rooms at the side of the floor and retrieved some rope and some equipment.

Then, he jumped into the Containment Unit and freed the Screaming Coffin from all the rubble.

Of course, as soon as the Screaming Coffin was free, it tried to consume Nick.

Nick just tore all its arms out and put plenty of rope around it.

Finally, Nick just put the Screaming Coffin on his back and carried it like a backpack.

Next, Nick entered one of the other Containment Units and checked for holes.

Luckily, there were none.

The only thing he found was a pair of glasses lying in the corner of the Containment Unit, which was to be expected.

The Can's Containment Unit also didn't have any issues.

The Dung Heap was quite upset and sloshing around, but there were also no holes there.

After that, Nick went to the third floor.

The floor was covered in blood.

The distant wailing of a woman echoed throughout the floor.

The next moment, Nick could see a white silhouette slowly coming from around the corner.

It was a bleeding woman, and she seemed quite upset.

Nick just walked towards her calmly.

"Did your home break?" Nick asked.

The Bleeding Lady just looked at the floor, still crying.

"Let me see," Nick said.

Then, Nick went to the Bleeding Lady's Containment Unit, and sure enough, one of the support beams had rammed through the walls of the Containment Unit.

"Ah, I see," Nick said.

Then, he walked to another one and pressed a couple of buttons on the console.

"This will be a bit loud. Don't worry. It's supposed to be this loud."

Nick pressed one button, and the entire floor started to resound with a loud alarm.

The Bleeding Lady seemed to get more agitated, but Nick just looked at the Containment Unit that was slowly opening.

A bit later, the Containment Unit opened, and Nick pointed inside.

"Here you go. You can paint it red if you want," Nick said.

The Bleeding Lady just shook a bit.

And then, she slowly walked into the new Containment Unit.

A moment later, Nick just closed the Containment Unit again and resumed his tour.