Kill the Sun

Since Dark Dream only had two people who could work with this thing anyway, Nick decided to spend about four hours in there.

The Containment Unit had a clock near the ceiling, and Nick just glanced at it from time to time to see how long he had been in here.

Although, he had to be careful not to look at the clock for too long.

After around an hour, Nick noticed that he kept losing his focus from time to time, and by now, the Attention Seeker was only a meter in front of him.

Another hour later, it was standing directly in front of Nick.

By now, it had come within striking distance.

But instead of becoming afraid, Nick raised an eyebrow in interest.

If he wanted to, he could just walk around the Specter and go to the wall on the other side of the Containment Unit, putting several meters between them.

But he decided against it.

Instead, Nick just kept looking forward.

And for the next two hours, the Attention Seeker didn't move.

How come?

Did Nick suddenly start paying more attention?

No, actually.

He was just as distracted as before, but that didn't matter.

The Specter took up so much of Nick's peripheral vision that looking away from it basically required Nick to turn his head, and he wasn't so distracted that he would do that.

In a way, being closer to the Specter made it easier for Nick to work with it.

Sure, it felt a bit more threatening, but it made working with it much easier.

"Gimme a sec. I have to check the clock," Nick said.

Then, he moved his head to the side and looked past the Specter at the clock.

Within a second, he went back to his old position.

"Alright, we can continue," Nick said.

Silence.

Naturally, the Specter didn't answer.

Instead, its eyes just looked into Nick's eyes.

A couple of minutes later, the four hours Nick had planned for this session were up.

'Time to head out,' Nick thought. 'But first…'

Nick slowly pushed his right arm forward.

A moment later, he felt the squishy feeling of his hand touching a bunch of exposed eyes, but he just pushed more.

The Attention Seeker seemed to float backward as Nick pushed.

It was almost like it was a human-shaped balloon.

When Nick pushed it to the middle of the Containment Unit, he walked backward toward the exit.

He opened the door without looking at it, stepped through, and closed the door in front of him, cutting off the eye contact.

Nick was quite good at this since he left in a similar way whenever he was done with the Talker.

'Alright,' Nick thought after leaving. 'Let's check the Zephyx.'

He walked over to the small door hiding the Zephyx containers and opened it.

When he saw the Zephyx, his eyebrows rose in positive surprise.

'103 grams for about four hours of work,' Nick thought. 'That's a bit less than the Talker, but within the same ball park. Although, I have to keep in mind that the Talker is a level higher. If the Attention Seeker advances, it will definitely produce at least the same amount if not more Zephyx than the Talker.'

'It's also quite easy to work with. I could even plan a couple of things while working with it.'

'Honestly, I prefer working with it than with the Talker.'

'Its ability is also excellent for Bruisers.'

The Attention Seeker's ability made others look at the ability user through many subtle means.

A feeling of threat.

A feeling of being the weak link.

Weird lights appearing in one's peripheral vision when one wasn't looking at the ability user.

A feeling of interest.

Strange sounds.

In short, as long as one didn't focus on the ability user, focusing on anything became quite difficult.

After all, one's focus was always pulled back to the ability user.

Because of that, planning assaults on other members of a group was very difficult due to the constant distraction.

The best way to deal with this issue was to kill the ability user, and this kind of attention was exactly what a Bruiser wanted.

Sure enough, the Adults that Dark Dream had received were far more useful than the Adolescents.

The Attention Seeker was a great Specter and very useful!

'I can probably give Irwin a 12-hour shift with this guy, send him to the Peak Adult, give him a full day of rest, and repeat. I don't want to work with the Peak Adult before I'm a Peak Veteran myself. Working with that thing is very dangerous, not only for me but also for Dark Dream.'

Nick looked towards one of the two western Containment Units.

That was where the Peak Adult was located.

However, Nick decided to work with that one last.

For a good reason.

Working with it basically represented not being able to work with anything for the next 24 hours.

'I can think about this one later. First, I should look at the Mid Adult,' Nick thought as he looked towards one of the two eastern Containment Units.

'If Anatomy didn't lie, this one is a Mid Adult that is going to become a Late Adult within the next year. As long as that statement holds true, I don't need to work with the big one until I'm a Peak Veteran.'

'I just hope that they were honest. After all, we demanded a Late Adult during negotiations, but they didn't want to give us any of the ones they had.'

'Instead, they offered us this amazing dual bundle.'

'Two Specters that are very similar to each other.'

'The light and the dark.'

'The good and the bad, and both of them give abilities that are very complimentary with each other.'

'At least, that's how they phrased it.'

'They said the complementary partner is the Early Adult. I didn't know the identity of the Early Adult during negotiations, but I know now that it is the Attention Seeker.'

'So, this one is supposed to be very similar to it.'

'And according to the documentation, it is.'

'I just hope it advances soon.'

Nick walked away from the northeastern Containment Unit and went towards the neighboring one.