Kill the Sun

Nick and Wyntor kept climbing floors.

The next couple of floors were for Extractors again.

Then, there were two more floors for normal personnel.

And finally, Wyntor stopped in front of one of them.

"This one is for meetings, managers, and owners," Wyntor said. "There are only two more floors above this one, and they are only for maintenance. This floor is essentially the last one of relevance."

Nick nodded.

The two of them had been climbing so many floors.

This building was absolutely gigantic!

Wyntor opened the door, and the two of them entered the hallway.

This hallway looked identical to the first one, which surprised Nick a bit.

Wasn't this where all the important people from the company stayed?

'I thought it would look more extravagant,' Nick thought.

As the two of them walked through the hallway, Nick looked at the signs again.

Meeting room, another meeting room, another meeting room, storage, meeting room…

Area manager.

"What's an area manager?" Nick asked.

"A level five Extractor responsible for several level four Extractors, which are responsible for several level three Extractors," Wyntor explained.

"There are five area managers. Two of them are responsible for all the level three Extractors via ten level four Extractors. The other three are responsible for only the level four Extractors."

"The remaining level five Extractors don't have any personnel responsibility and directly work with the level five Specters."

As he listened to Wyntor, Nick looked at the door with wonder.

A level five Extractor!

He had never seen one in his life!

This was someone who was even stronger than Albert, Julian, and the two women at Kugelblitz's entrance!

Next, Nick saw the office of another level five Extractor.

The sign said Specialist, which was the unofficial title.

Since this was not an area manager, this level five Extractor was working with Fanatics.

How scary were Fanatics?

Nick had no idea.

Clink.

Nick heard the sound of a closing door and looked forward.

A young man with blue hair closed one of the doors and walked down the hallway towards the two of them.

Nick took a deep breath.

A real Specialist!

There were less than 30 of those in the entirety of the city, and over two-thirds of them worked for Kugelblitz!

The man raised an eyebrow when he saw the two of them.

"Oh, Wyntor," the man said casually. "Here to see your dad?"

Wyntor smiled politely. "Yes, how have things been?"

"The usual, the bitch is being a bitch again," the man said.

Wyntor laughed loudly and politely.

Nick looked at Wyntor.

He had never seen Wyntor act this way before.

Wyntor always had a very polite but confident Aura around him.

But now, Wyntor looked like a child who tried their best to be polite to a visitor.

He was so different.

"And who is that?" the man asked, looking at Nick.

"That's my Chief Zephyx Extractor, Nick," Wyntor answered politely.

"Oh, eh, hi," Nick said.

Then, Nick's hand moved forward.

SLAP!

And Wyntor immediately slapped it down before it could even attempt to extend towards the Specialist.

Nick blinked in shock.

The Specialist saw all that, and his eyebrows rose.

If Wyntor hadn't gone through years of training about how to properly conduct himself, he would have turned completely red in the face.

'That's what I get for not telling Nick,' he thought.

"Oh, I see," the Specialist said with an amused chuckle. "You're from the Outer City, right?"

"Ah, yes, sir," Nick said carefully.

Nick had no idea how he should address the person in front of him.

"You might not know, but don't offer your hand to any Expert or stronger. They might get offended by that," the Specialist explained.

Nick's eyes widened in shock. "Why?" he asked.

"I'm sure Wyntor will explain it to you," the Specialist said before turning to Wyntor. "Anyway, have fun."

"Of course, thank you, and good luck!" Wyntor said.

"Thank you and good luck," Nick echoed Wyntor.

The Specialist just waved a bit as he walked down the hallway.

A moment later, Nick looked with confusion at Wyntor, who only sighed.

As they continued walking down the hallway, Wyntor explained the thing about handshakes.

"So, when I offered my hand to the two women earlier, I was telling them that I considered myself to be on their level?" Nick asked in shock.

"Yes, but that's not incorrect. As a Chief Zephyx Extractor, it's not inappropriate to put yourself on the same level as an Expert. I didn't tell you since I wanted you to assert yourself in front of such powerful people," Wyntor explained.

Nick furrowed his brows. "You don't think that I would do that if you had told me?"

"I'm not sure," Wyntor said. "Nick, can we talk about this later? This is not exactly the right moment for this discussion."

Nick took a deep breath but nodded.

Wyntor was right.

This could wait.

They continued walking in silence, but while they were doing so, Nick remembered a couple of things.

'Right, Dark Dream is only a means to an end for Wyntor.'

'Wyntor started Dark Dream only to get enough money to buy enough shares of Kugelblitz to get his inheritance.'

'I think he needed about 20 million credits.'

'And if he sold Dark Dream to another Manufacturer, he could probably get that.'

'Maybe even more.'

Nick looked at Wyntor from behind.

'Is he going to sell Dark Dream soon?'

Then, Nick thought back to his interaction with Wyntor.

Several times, Wyntor had deliberately kept information from Nick to achieve some kind of goal.

This could be considered as manipulating him.

Wyntor also kept himself away from all the employees most of the time.

Did Wyntor actually truly care about Dark Dream?

Nick wasn't sure anymore.

The day before, he would have said yes, but now, he didn't know.

Some seconds later, Wyntor stopped in front of an office.

Nick looked at the sign beside the door and took a deep breath.

Vernon Melfion, Senior Director.

Then, Wyntor knocked on the door.