Chapter 546 – Absolute Power

Chapter 546 – Absolute Power

A couple of days later, the Containment Unit for the Plague Vulture had been completed, and it was transported into it.

Due to the size of the Containment Unit, the city decided to build it in the Outer City.

Getting the Plague Vulture through the megastructure would be too big of an unnecessary project.

So, a gigantic black cube, almost 100 meters in dimension, appeared in the Outer City, becoming the biggest building beside the megastructure.

Constructing this Containment Unit had been extremely expensive, but it was worth the investment.

A couple days later, the Plague Vulture was fully analyzed, and the results were promising.

It became more powerful by rotting organic matter.

In a way, it was like the Dung Heap, just better.

The Dung Heap only accepted food, while the Plague Vulture could use any organic matter.

However, there were still big differences in Zephyx production based on the matter given to the Plague Vulture.

Inedible plants barely gave any Zephyx.

Edible plants gave more.

Animal corpses gave even more.

Human corpses were even better.

...and living humans were the best.

However, Nick and Aria would not send living humans to the Plague Vulture, unless they were some sort of horrible criminal.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was barely any crime in the city anymore since the power and strong surveillance of the government made committing crimes unreasonably risky.

In the end, the Plague Vulture barely produced 20% of what the Crimson Fungus produced, but that included the Blood Donation System.

Without the Blood Donation System, the Plague Vulture produced about 80% of what the Crimson Fungus produced.

That was more than satisfactory.

Some of Kugelblitz's Specialists started to covet a position in the city guards, but they wouldn't switch just yet.

Specialists working for Kugelblitz could basically choose which Specter they wanted to work with.

After all, Kugelblitz didn't have enough Extractors for optimal Zephyx production.

For now, staying in Kugelblitz was the right decision in their mind.

Vanessa and Jornis felt the pressure ramp up as soon as the city caught a Demon.

With time, the city would start to produce Heroes.

This meant that the gap in peak power between Kugelblitz and the city wouldn't keep widening.

So, if Kugelblitz couldn't win against the city now, they would never be able to win against it.

The two of them played with the thought of attacking the city, but deep inside, both of them knew that they were only dreaming.

They wouldn't go through with it.

Things were different now.

The city was in charge now, and Kugelblitz had to adapt if it wanted to keep existing.

More time passed, and soon, only six months were left before Nick had to change positions.

In six months, Aegis would investigate Crimson City and judge whether or not it was a good idea to expand the Liaison program.

Every major change had already been put into practice.

As Nick looked at the city, he no longer felt disgust and pity.

The Dregs, as a part of the city, had essentially vanished.

There were still a couple of homeless beggars walking around, but their numbers were in the double digits.

The city had given these people all the opportunities for a stable life, but these couple of people just couldn't grasp them.

The city was willing to help people, but only people who were willing to help themselves.

Having something like 30 beggars among 13,000 citizens was acceptable.

Naturally, if Aegis decided to expand the program, Nick would need to prove himself in an unfamiliar city to show that this hadn't been a fluke.

For that, Nick needed to come up with strategies.

Most of the time, when he was thinking about such strategies, he just looked at the city from the megastructure.

Yet, today, Nick noticed something.

Nick saw something running from one corner of an abandoned street to another.

As Nick saw that, data from the last couple of months appeared in his mind.

The population of beggars stayed roughly the same, but many normal citizens were still becoming beggars.

Naturally, the suicide rate amongst beggars was quite high, but it shouldn't be THAT high.

Also, why were so many citizens becoming beggars in the first place?

There didn't seem to be a connected cause.

Devastating death in the family here.

Overinvestment there.

Insanity.

Addiction.

These things hadn't seemed very suspicious.

But now, Nick knew what was going on.

Nick narrowed his eyes and jumped off the megastructure.

His eyes had already locked onto his target, which was scurrying around in the Outer City.

Within a couple of seconds, Nick landed on the street.

Without waiting an instant, he darted towards an abandoned alley and extended his hand.

"Screh!"

A screech came out from the thing in Nick's hand, and Nick pulled it deeper into the abandoned alley.

Inside the alley, Nick held his hand in front of him and glared at the thing in his hand.

It was a rat.

The rat kept screeching and trying to bite Nick's hand, but that naturally didn't accomplish much.

"You think you can fool me?" Nick asked with a dark tone.

The rat just kept screeching in panic.

"I know that it's you, Parasite," Nick said. "Do you think I just randomly grab rats I find off the street and interrogate them?"

The rat just kept screeching in panic.

"Fine, if you don't want to bargain, I will order a sweep."

"Every rat inside the city will be purged."

"No exception."

The rat kept screeching.

"When we're done, you won't even be able to negotiate with me anymore since all your minions will die before getting to me."

The rat was still in panic.

Nick looked at the rat for a bit longer.

"Suit yourself," he said before walking out of the alleyway, rat still in hand.

Nick walked to the entrance of the megastructure, and several guards saluted in greeting.

"New orders," Nick said. "The Parasite is back. Every rodent inside or outside of the city will be killed. If the problem persists, we are going to put a bounty of 100 credits on every rat corpse. The Plague Vulture should be happy about the corpses."

The guards were surprised but saluted in confirmation.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa."

Nick pulled his hand up and looked at the rat he was holding.

"Nick, calm down," the rat said. "Let's talk first, okay?"