Kill the Sun

In the end, Nick assigned Jenny and many Late Johns to the Gambler.

The reason why Nick assigned Jenny to the Specter was the great amount of Zephyx the Gambler produced.

One had to remember that, in terms of revenue, the Gambler was producing a crazy amount of Zephyx.

When an Extractor worked with a Specter, they didn't absorb Zephyx according to the profit but according to the revenue.

Because of that, the Gambler increased the strength of an Extractor tremendously in a very short period of time.

Sadly, there was an upper limit on how much Zephyx someone could absorb per day.

That was why Nick had assigned so many different people to it.

Like this, none of the Zephyx would go to waste.

In a way, the Gambler was the perfect Specter to increase the power of many Extractors.

Nine people would reach their daily upper limit of Zephyx they could absorb, and all of them were Late Johns and Peak Johns.

As for the ability the Gambler gave, it was quite interesting.

It was in the category of Senser abilities, but it wasn't really useful for a Senser.

The Gambler gave someone the ability to feel if the odds of something were pretty bad.

That sounded incredible on paper.

Wouldn't someone be able to foresee whenever one was evading to the wrong side during a battle?

Wouldn't someone be able to make the perfect decisions when it came to strategy?

What about giving orders?

Wow, so many possibilities, right?

Sadly, people who believed this to be crazy powerful had no experience in how real life worked.

The feeling one got from the ability was quite subtle, and it grew weaker the less time there was to decide and the more disconnected a matter was from someone.

One wouldn't even be able to notice the subtle feeling during a fight.

One wouldn't be able to notice it when it came to deciding what someone else should do.

One couldn't use it for any choice that was more than a couple of seconds in the future, like planning an assault or similar things.

On paper, the ability was amazing.

Sadly, in almost every case that would give a big payoff, the ability just so happened to be useless.

But it wasn't completely useless.

It often worked as a warning if someone was about to be attacked.

It also made it easier to avoid saying something that might offend someone else.

It also helped someone avoid dangerous locations.

That was the truth of the matter.

Of course, people would still say that the potential of this ability was incredible.

Sure, it started out relatively weak, but it would become extremely strong later.

That might be possible, but people who relied on something like that were mostly na?ve.

Getting someone to that point of payoff required a lot of investment, and in these matters, it was impossible to invest in oneself.

One needed someone else who protected them, gave them money, gave them resources, and so on.

Of course, a couple of huge Manufacturers might decide to invest in someone like that.

But then, there was another issue.

The thing they invested in was one person.

After millions or billions of credits of investment, that person might finally be able to return the investment…

Just to get killed by somebody.

And all the investment vanished.

In the end, it was just too risky.

Nick decided to give a couple of new employees the ability, but he wasn't planning on using them in an excursion outside.

He viewed them as employees that would only work within Dark Dream.

Finally, Nick had dealt with the three new Specters.

Dark Dream officially had 17 Specters now.

Dark Dream had grown a lot, but it was still vastly inferior to Solace and the other Manufacturers.

Even if they doubled the number of their Specters, they would still be inferior.

Additionally, Nick was still missing a Late and/or Peak Adult.

If he didn't get one, he couldn't rationalize advancing past Late Veteran.

It was extremely difficult to get powerful Adults.

Specters like that were worth a lot of money, and even if someone had the money, no one was willing to sell them.

Dark Dream had to get new Specters the hard way.

Within the next couple of months, Nick took Irwin on several excursions in secret.

Irwin showed Nick around the outside, and Nick started to get very familiar with the wider wilderness.

Sadly, going too far away was still not an option.

The problem was the other cities.

Entering another city's territory would almost certainly result in Nick's death.

Even moving along the edges of the territory was already extremely dangerous since people from other cities could appear there, and these people were Experts, at the very least.

Nick and Irwin were stuck looking around an area with a radius of about 70 kilometers.

Sure, that was a huge area, but the senses of Experts and Specialists were terrifying, and they could sense Nick from kilometers away.

This meant that Nick and Irwin had to travel with absolute caution.

Luckily, they managed to capture a Specter within the next three months.

Sadly, it was a Mid Hatchling Possession Specter.

It was a rust-filled hammer, and it gained power by bludgeoning people.

Working with it was extremely difficult, and it barely gave off any Zephyx.

It didn't give any abilities, and it couldn't grow more powerful.

But it was still worth something due to it being a Specter.

Sadly, as it stood right now, the Rusty Hammer just kept a Containment Unit busy without doing anything.

Maybe they could sell it to someone else in the future.

Dark Dream was in a horrible spot.

They had to compete with all the other big Manufacturers in the outside world, but they didn't have a comparable force.

Dark Dream could only grow very slowly.

But then, four months after they had gained the Blaze, the Blood Cat, and the Gambler, an opportunity arrived.

A very powerful and unusual guest arrived in Dark Dream.

"I wish to talk to your Chief Zephyx Extractor," a tall man said with a neutral voice.

"O-of course!" the receptionist answered with a shaky voice while trying to keep a smile on her face. "I'll get him right now, Mr. Stairwell."

Mundus Stairwell, Anatomy's Chief Zephyx Extractor, just nodded.