Chapter 512 – A Surprise
For a couple of days, things remained calm.
However, this was just the people of the upper layer preparing to make their move.
And one week later, they became active.
Reports of rumors were brought to Nick's attention.
People in the Outer and Inner Cities started to believe that Nick was a Specter in disguise.
Naturally, these rumors were unfounded and easily disprovable, but that didn't matter.
The people believed them anyway.
'You're finally becoming active, huh?' Nick thought.
'I was waiting for that.'
"Aria, what do you think was my relationship with Julian?" Nick suddenly asked out of nowhere.
Aria was a bit taken aback.
Then, she frowned.
She had put Julian out of her mind ever since he had been executed.
However, deep inside, she had still been suspicious of Nick.
"I'm not sure if he truly fooled you," Aria said. Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates
"He didn't," Nick said, surprising Aria.
She had expected Nick to deny knowingly working with a Specter.
"I knew that he was a Specter ever since he became Dark Dream's CEO."
Aria had doubts, but hearing it straight out of Nick still shocked her.
Nick had colluded with a Specter.
Then, Nick proceeded to tell Aria about Horua and what Wyntor had done to him.
After that, Nick told Aria about his bargain with Julian and why he had done so.
Naturally, Aria's opinion of Nick fell into the abyss.
Kugelblitz had done many illegal things, but they had not colluded with Specters.
Specters were humanity's enemy!
However, she didn't voice her opinion.
Nick told her that Simon already knew about it and that the Left Arm must have received her report from him already.
The fact that over eight months had passed since then meant that Aegis wasn't planning on doing anything about that.
"You could have destroyed Crimson City," Aria said.
"But I didn't," Nick said. "Julian has been executed, and I'm now Crimson City's Liaison."
That didn't do much to improve Aria's opinion of Nick.
"Why are you suddenly bringing up this topic?" she asked with annoyance.
"As a Specter with control over half of the city, there were many things that Julian knew that no normal human could know," Nick said.
"Send a squad of our assassins to keep watch over Leiman Gerlon," Nick said. "I want a list of every person entering and exiting from his house. Keep the surveillance up for two weeks. It is important that the assassins don't get noticed. Because of that, I only want Peak Experts or stronger in the squad."
"Why?" Aria asked with furrowed brows.
"It's going to be a surprise. I'm the bad guy. Let me act like one," Nick said calmly.
Aria wasn't happy to hear that.
She also didn't trust Nick anymore.
However, she was stuck with him now.
Additionally, the policies he had come up with seemed to actually benefit Crimson City.
The people were confused about what Nick was doing with the stone.
Nick threw the stone in his hand up and down a couple of times.
Then, his eyes focused on Leiman.
BANG!
Nick threw the stone with all of his power at Leiman.
Leiman had not expected an attack, and the stone hit him right in the chest.
The stone turned into powder, and Leiman was pushed back a couple of steps.
The people around Leiman were shocked beyond belief.
The Liaison had publicly attacked an innocent man!
He hadn't even accused him of anything!
He had just attacked!
"What's the meaning of this?!" several of them shouted in protest, stepping between Nick and Leiman.
Meanwhile, Leiman's expression was just filled with shock.
"Quiet!" Nick shouted, using his Zephyx to drown out all the noise.
The people immediately shut up.
Then, Nick turned to Aria. "Do you understand now?"
Aria looked with shock at Leiman.
That stone had been thrown with so much force that even a Peak Expert would have some bruises.
Yet, the skin showing through the hole in the clothing in the middle of the man's chest didn't even turn red.
But that wasn't even the most important part.
The most important part was that his Barrier hadn't activated!
Something like this was classified as a dangerous attack by any Barrier, no matter how cheap or expensive.
"Why didn't your Barrier activate?" Nick asked calmly.
Leiman looked at Nick with shock.
He tried to think of a way out of this situation.
"I'm not wearing it," he quickly answered. "I forgot that I put it away earlier."
Nick just looked at him evenly.
"You don't even seem angry at the fact that I just attacked you with a stone. Instead, you calmly answer my question. That's quite unusual, wouldn't you think?" Nick asked.
"Of course I'm angry!" the man shouted. "What's the meaning of this?!"
Nick remained silent for two seconds before he took hold of another stone.
Then, he looked at the other people.
"Everyone will step away from him. Anyone that refuses will be executed for colluding with a Specter," Nick ordered.
Everyone's eyes shot open, and they reflexively jumped away from Leiman.
A Specter?!
The word Specter terrified every human who wasn't an Extractor.
"I'm not a Specter!" the man shouted in protest.
A small smirk appeared on Nick's face, and he turned to Aria, who looked at Leiman with narrowed eyes.
"Aria, may I introduce you?" he asked.
Aria didn't answer.
Nick gestured to Leiman.
"This is the False News."