Kill the Sun

"We're here to meet Mr. Nick," a smaller blonde man said to the receptionist of Dark Dream. "We're the team from Solace. He should be expecting us."

"Of course," the receptionist said politely. "Please, give me a short moment. I'm going to get him right away."

The next moment, the receptionist walked off towards the stairs.

The three people standing in front of the desk watched the receptionist leave.

They didn't say anything and just waited, their expressions neutral.

About a minute later, they saw someone coming back with a tall man filled with muscles.

Naturally, that was Nick.

The three of them had already seen Nick before, but only one of them had interacted with him before.

"Hey, Carl," Nick said with a nod to the smaller blonde man. "I presume we're going to go right now?"

Carl nodded back.

Carl wore the uniform of Solace, and he didn't seem to carry a weapon.

However, his lack of a weapon didn't mean that he was harmless.

Far from it.

After all, he was the second Expert from Solace and the only other Expert besides their CZE, Hera Marion.

However, since he had only become an Expert about four years ago, he was still at the Initial level.

Advancing within the Expert Stage took a lot of effort and time.

Carl was Solace's vice-CZE, and he was responsible for gathering new Specters for Solace.

Nick and Carl had talked a couple of times in the past.

"Yes, we're going soon," Carl answered with a neutral voice. "Let me introduce the team first."

Then, Carl pointed at a tall but thin man with long black hair. The man looked rather wild with his long and unkempt hair, and there was a certain coldness in his eyes. On his back was a rifle that was nearly as long as him.

Nick could immediately tell that this was a very experienced fighter, but that was to be expected.

From what Nick had heard, these three were Solace's main force when it came to capturing Specters.

They were responsible for capturing almost 20% of Solace's Specters.

"This is Irwin, our Sniper and Senser. He's a Peak Veteran," Carl said. "Since you were adamant that our abilities are to remain confidential, I can't tell you more."

"Hi," Irwin said with a distant and neutral voice.

Nick nodded.

Then, Carl pointed at a brown-haired man of average size. The man carried two guns in his holsters, and he looked at Nick with a skeptical raised brow.

"This is Mark, our Manipulator, and he's a Mid Veteran," Carl said.

"Hey," Mark said with a nod.

Nick nodded back.

Then, Carl turned to his two teammates and pointed at Nick. "This is Nick. He's a Mid Veteran, and he's a Senser, an Assassin, and a Runner."

When the other two heard that, grimaces of disbelief and skepticism appeared on their faces.

Somebody that could fill all of these roles?

Yeah, right, sure.

These things that Carl mentioned were roles certain people were able to fulfill during a group mission.

The role system was used by all the other Manufacturers within Crimson City.

Dark Dream hadn't adopted this role system yet since they had only had a single mission into the outer world.

There was not much point in categorizing everyone.

In general, there were ten roles.

A Bruiser was somebody who was good at engaging enemies directly without dying to a quick attack.

Clayton, the tall guy from Dark Dream with his huge shield, counted as a Bruiser.

A Bruiser had the job to buy time for the remaining members of the team.

Even though his lack of a weapon and his small stature made it seem different, Carl was actually the Bruiser of this team.

A Sniper was, as the name suggested, someone who could take an enemy out from a long range.

Jenny would be a good example of a Sniper from Dark Dream.

A Manipulator was somebody who could affect the battlefield without directly causing a lot of damage.

Fields of darkness, pulling enemies closer from a distance, pushing enemies away, distorting the surroundings.

These were examples of what Manipulators used to manipulate the battlefield.

An Assassin was somebody who could very quickly reach an enemy and kill them.

A good example was Nick.

A Senser was somebody who had an ability that allowed them to sense the surroundings and scan for threats.

Nick was a good example since he could sense if somebody could see him or not.

A Runner was somebody who was extremely good at escaping.

This might seem unimportant, but this job could be the most important one in certain situations.

If a Runner managed to escape, the assault on the team would be unveiled, and the attackers would be prosecuted.

After all, attacking other Extractors was highly illegal.

Most of the time, if a Runner managed to escape, the assaulting party would immediately flee.

If a powerful guard or the governor appeared, they would be caught alive, and everyone would know which Manufacturer was responsible for the attack.

Another role was the Healer.

As the name suggested, Healers had the ability to either rejuvenate somebody's vitality or rejuvenate somebody's Zephyx storage.

That one person from the Spartans who had been in the team attacking Nick back then was a good example.

Back then, she had helped one of her team members recover their Zephyx.

A Suppressor was somebody who could exhaust and suppress an enemy.

Three of Nick's teammates from the last excursion, Clayton, Petry, and Jason, were good examples.

All three of them had the ability from the Money Sink, allowing them to absorb an enemy's Zephyx.

Suppressors were essential when it came to fighting Force Specters.

An Informant was somebody who could extract information out of somebody with their ability.

Jenny, for example, could count as an Informant.

She had the Dreamer's ability, and with it, she could look into the dreams of somebody.

The last role had the charming name of Whatever, and it acted as anything that couldn't be classified by the other nine.

Most Extractors could only fulfill one of these roles, but there were also a couple that could fulfill two.

When somebody said that they could fulfill three, they were most likely exaggerating or lying.

Nick could fulfill three of these roles, but that was hard to believe for others.

If somebody's skillset was this diverse, chances were that they were not good at any of them.

In fact, none of Nick's three new teammates believed him.

However, they kept quiet.

After all, Nick was Dark Dream's CZE, and it was important not to ruin the relationship between the two Manufacturers.