?271 Chapter 271 – Frustrating
The atmosphere inside the meeting room was solemn, and the four people in attendance were silent.
Just now, Nick had told Wyntor, Jenny, and Trevor about what had happened yesterday evening.
For the remainder of yesterday, Nick had stayed with the guards.
After the assailants had left, Nick had followed one of them.
He would have liked to follow the leader, but Nick decided that security was more important than a potential high return for high risk.
Because of that, Nick had followed one of the other two.
But then, he had been put in front of another choice.
Should he kill the guy right away and keep his body as evidence or follow him?
Since someone with that power almost certainly lived in the Inner City, Nick decided to kill the person immediately. After all, he wouldn't be able to stalk and kill the guy in the Inner City since he didn't have any proof.
Even more, Nick was certain that the enemy had already prepared for an eventual failure of the mission, which meant that everyone probably had alibis.
Because of that, Nick decided to use the lack of witnesses to his advantage.
He killed the guy, brought his corpse to the guards, and told them that he had killed the guy during the battle, not after it.
Naturally, that was a lie, but the only way to disprove that was for the perpetrator to come forward and say that Nick was lying.
Obviously, the enemy wouldn't do that.
After delivering the corpse to the guards, the guards immediately became active and started to investigate everything.
However, Nick knew that the investigation wouldn't produce any concrete results.
Skirmishes happened from time to time between Manufacturers, but almost all of them were kept secret.
After all, most of the time, both sides had something to hide, and if the guards got involved, the victim's secrets might come to light, which could become troublesome.
Additionally, they most likely wouldn't find much.
Yet, Dark Dream was about as honest as possible.
They didn't hide any Specters, and they didn't hide any of their people.
The only shady thing they were doing was to trade with the Parasite from time to time.
Because of that, Dark Dream wasn't afraid of involving the guards.
After several hours, the guards had finished a list of every powerful Extractor that had been in the Outer City during the attack.
There had been surprisingly many.
It turned out that the market for Newbies had been open on this evening, and there had even been a couple of events.
Over ten Veterans had been in the Outer City during the attack, and since the guards had nothing to go on, they couldn't make an arrest.
After all, only one of the ten Veterans had been part of the attack.
They couldn't arrest all of them.
Even more, due to Nick belonging to a Manufacturer and even being the Chief Zephyx Extractor, things became troublesome.
What if the guards gathered the Veterans, and Nick told them that one of the Veterans of an enemy Manufacturer had attacked him, even though they hadn't been involved at all?
Sometimes, it was more profitable to let the attacker go while taking down someone innocent.
For example, what if Dark Dream decided to blame someone like the Chief Zephyx Extractor of the Spartans? That would completely destabilize the Spartans and might even result in them losing their footing.
Naturally, as the victim, Dark Dream would most likely get a couple, if not all, of their Specters.
It was always risky to believe the victims when the victims were executives and the perpetrator was one of their rivals.
After spending the day and night working with the guards, Nick came back to Dark Dream and immediately called a meeting.
When he was done relaying all the information, the room fell silent.
Trevor looked at Nick with narrowed eyes.
Naturally, he wasn't angry at Nick but for Nick.
Jenny could only grit her teeth in frustration.
Wyntor was looking at the table with furrowed brows, deep in thought.
"How did you do it?" Trevor asked with concern after a while.
"Do what?" Nick asked neutrally.
"Win against so many powerful people," Trevor said. "You said that there were ten Peak Johns and even a Veteran. Not only were you outnumbered eleven-to-one, but they also got the drop on you."
"No matter how much I think about it, I can't imagine someone getting out of such a situation alive," Trevor said.
Jenny also looked at Nick.
Naturally, she also wanted to know.
"I can't tell you," Nick said. "It's related to my power."
Even after all these years, neither Trevor nor Jenny knew about Nick's power.
Only three people in the entire city knew about it.
Wyntor, Albert, and Julian.
The people from Ghosty's Lab only knew that his power was strange, but they didn't know the specifics.
"Is your ability that powerful?" Trevor asked.
Wyntor shot an annoyed glance at Trevor. As the CEO, he also had a vested interest in Nick's power remaining a secret.
However, Wyntor didn't reprimand Trevor since he was still busy trying to figure out several things.
"In the right circumstances, it is very powerful," Nick said, "but in the wrong circumstances, it is almost useless. That is why it is so important for me to keep the circumstances a secret."
"If someone knows how my power works, it might become completely useless," Nick explained.
Trevor could only sigh.
"Sorry for asking such personal questions, Boss," Trevor said. "It's just that it's so frustrating."
Nick raised an eyebrow as Trevor continued speaking.
"We constantly see you doing things that are unimaginably difficult and dangerous."
"You dealt with Cycle on your own while we were only looking on, cowering inside the warehouse."
"You captured the Fog while we were just waiting."
"You brought the Glasses and the Money Sink to Dark Dream after some kind of incident while we were only doing our day-
"And now, you survived an overwhelmingly powerful ambush while we were resting at home."
"I just feel like I'm superfluous."