Kill the Sun

"Sir, the food delivery is here," the cute girl from the front desk said after entering Nick's office.

Naturally, as the Chief Zephyx Extractor, Nick had his own office on the top floor.

"I'll come," Nick said after standing up from his chair.

The two of them walked down the stairs and entered the first floor.

On the first floor, Nick saw a guy dressed in a sharp suit.

'He doesn't look like a food delivery man,' Nick thought.

"Hello, nice to meet you," the guy said, offering his hand to Nick. "My name is Braun, and I have a delivery of a bit more than 240 kilos of food waste."

Nick nodded and shook Braun's hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Nick, the Chief Zephyx Extractor. No offense, but you don't look like someone who delivers food."

Braun laughed. "I completely understand," he said. "That's because I am the middleman. I gather all the food waste from many different food providers and sell it."

'So, he's a merchant,' Nick thought. 'That's more in line with how he dresses.'

A bit later, Braun led Nick outside and showed him a cart.

Two men were standing in front of the cart, and compared to Braun, they looked dirty and muscular.

On the cart, Nick saw a steaming and stinking pile of garbage.

Eggshells, rotten eggs, bones, insects, rancid meat, rancid cheese.

Yet, there were no maggots crawling in the pile, which meant that it was fresh garbage.

Nick nodded after looking at the pile.

"Thank you. Can I use the cart to transport it?" he asked.

"You can keep the cart," Braun said. "When I come with the next delivery tomorrow, you can give me the cart from today."

Nick nodded. "Sounds great. Thank you."

"Of course," Braun said.

After a bit more talking, Braun handed Nick a sheet of paper with all the food waste and the amount written on it.

Nick read through it and signed.

Then, Braun quickly said his goodbyes and left.

Nick didn't need to pay him since Wyntor had a contractual agreement with Braun.

Braun would simply take the sheet of paper and get his money from Dark Dream's bank account.

Nick pulled the stinking pile of garbage into Dark Dream and walked to the stairs.

That was when he realized that he had an issue.

How would he get 240 kilos of waste up the stairs?

Nick could lift that, but the cart was so big and cumbersome, making it difficult.

Eventually, Nick managed to get the cart onto the staircase and closed the door behind him.

His ability activated.

Then, Nick easily lifted it over his head and ran up the stairs.

He put it down on the second floor and opened the door.

'Well, that works,' Nick thought.

BANG!

BANG!

The walls of the Dung Heap's Containment Unit were still shaking.

Nick walked into the locker room in front of the Dung Heap's Containment Unit and readied himself.

Slowly, Nick opened the employee door.

WHOOOM! WHOOOM! WHOOM!

Immediately, the alarm rang.

While the Containment Unit could isolate Specters from going through the opened employee entrance, it used up Zephyx to do that, which was the reason for the alarm.

Nick watched through a blue forcefield as the Dung Heap tried to get through the opened employee entrance.

The Dung Heap completely covered the ground of the five-by-five-meter Containment Unit, and it was nearly two meters high at its peak.

And it looked strange.

It looked like a rancid and decaying pile of garbage, but Nick couldn't even identify a single specific piece of garbage.

It was like looking at a mass of people and not being able to point out a single face.

Right now, the Dung Heap was swaying back and forth like a viscous liquid.

With each sway, it gathered strength and rammed the force field of the opened employee door.

Surprisingly, even though Nick was looking at the Dung Heap, his ability was still active.

Apparently, the Dung Heap couldn't see or hear.

Nick quickly grabbed some handfuls of garbage and chucked them into the Containment Unit.

BANG!

The garbage ball exploded on the other side of the Containment Unit and fell onto the Dung Heap.

"Stop complaining! I got your food right here!" Nick shouted before throwing in another handful of "food".

RUUUUUUUH!

At that point, a low rumbling noise came from the Dung Heap, and it started to shake a bit.

It slowly stopped moving, and the alarm of the Containment Unit stopped.

Nick chucked a couple more balls of garbage into the Containment Unit before he grabbed the cart and lifted it.

Earlier, the Dung Heap had essentially blocked the majority of the employee entrance, and if Nick had dumped the entire cart there, the Dung Heap would have tried even more to get out since the garbage would have been just past the barrier.

The next moment, Nick pulled the cart back before shoving it forward.

SPLASH!

A huge pile of garbage fell from the cart.

RUUUUUUU!

The pile shook again while releasing its deep vibrating sound.

'I guess it's happy,' Nick thought.

Next, the surface of the Dung Heap started to move, and the pile of garbage was spread across the entire Containment Unit.

'It seemed to have calmed down,' Nick thought.

Then, Nick lifted the cart and walked into the Containment Unit.

As his feet stepped onto the Dung Heap, he felt like he was walking on a humongous and fat person.

There was a lot of give, but he didn't really sink.

The Dung Heap was one entity.

It just looked like a huge pile of trash.

When he was inside the Containment Unit, Nick dumped the cart onto the Dung Heap.

Naturally, after Nick had stepped onto the Dung Heap, his ability deactivated, but the cart had become much lighter by that point.

In just a couple of seconds, Nick emptied the cart and walked out again.

The Dung Heap released a couple more deep murmurs while moving the trash around.

After exiting, Nick closed the door and put the cart at one end of the locker room.

Then, he released a sigh.

'It seems easy enough to manage,' Nick thought. 'It hadn't been fed for several days, which made it problematic, but I think it won't be an issue starting from tomorrow.'