The "Governor" walked out of the room and looked at the woman, who was waiting in front of the door.
"What's next on the agenda?" he asked with a casual attitude.
The woman's Barrier activated.
"You have a eting with Distant Sky in about an hour," the woman said.
Nick nodded. "Cancel the eting. Sothing happened, and I need to call an ergency eting with the Heroes."
The secretary looked a bit surprised, but she did as she was instructed. "I will send soone to Distant Sky. When do you wish to hold the ergency eting?"
"As soon as possible. Preferably, in the ti slot that just opened up," Nick said.
"I will try my best," the secretary said before politely bowing and leaving.
Nick went back into the room he had just co from and prepared himself.
This was the Governor's office, and it wouldn't be unusual if the Governor remained there for an hour or so.
Nick looked through the unfinished paperwork and did his best to finish it.
While Nick knew a lot about the city, he didn't fully know the na of every single company and what they did.
Although, based on the mandatory company descriptions in the forms, the actual Governor also didn't know.
'There's no point in having a secretary as a Hero,' Nick thought. 'The mind of a Hero is so fast that no secretary could possibly make one's life easier.'
The fact that the Governor had a secretary anyway was an indication as to what kind of person he was.
He just wanted to appear important and not deal with any unimportant people.
After Nick dealt with the paperwork, he waited for his secretary's return.
'I could've done this much faster myself.'
Eventually, the secretary returned.
"The ergency eting will be held in 25 minutes in room 7.47," she said.
"Thank you," Nick answered, and the secretary left again.
25 minutes later, Nick left his office and went to the eting room.
The Governor was soone who always ca slightly late just to show how important he was and to let everyone else wait for him.
As Nick stepped into the room, he saw five people.
Four of them were Heroes, while one of them was just a Peak Expert.
Two of the Heroes were from the biggest Manufacturer, while the other two were from the second biggest.
The Expert was the CEO of the second biggest Manufacturer.
The two Manufacturers were essentially of equal power. The only thing distinguishing their power was that one of them owned the Baby Factory.
"Ergency eting. Quite unusual," one of the Heroes comnted in a joking tone.
"Trust ," Nick answered casually as he moved to his chair, "I wouldn't have called for it if it weren't so important."
"Oh no," another guy spoke sarcastically, "is there another Fanatic in the city sowhere?"
"Henry, this is serious," Nick said with a slightly reprimanding tone. "We're dealing with an actual serious matter right now."
"It's probably not so bad," the first Hero added casually.
It was quite evident that the atmosphere the old Governor aid for in the etings was casual.
He was quite buddy-buddy with all of the people here.
"What is it?" a third Hero asked. "What's got you so worried?"
Nick sat down and sighed deeply.
"We have been selected for a random inspection," Nick said.
The atmosphere beca a bit tense but not as tense as Nick had expected.
"By who?" the third Hero asked.
"By Aegis, idiot!" the first Hero answered with annoyance. "Who else can investigate us?"
"Oh!" the third Hero said in surprise. "That's bad! Right?"
The first two Heroes threw a glance at the fourth Hero, who just looked down with a casual smile as if nothing was going on.
The third Hero was his colleague.
"I get that it's important," the Expert said, "but don't you think you're overreacting?"
"I rarely get to call ergency etings," Nick said. "I thought this would be a good opportunity."
The Expert leaned back and sighed. "You had seriously worried there."
"How can you feel worry?" the first Hero asked.
"It's a phrase," the Expert answered casually. "No, I obviously can't be worried, but people talk like that."
Nick did his best not to furrow his brows since the actual Governor rarely did that.
The next mont, he activated his Barrier and ordered it to interact with the Expert's Barrier.
Nick could feel the waves coming from the Expert's Barrier, which told him that he had one.
And yet, when Nick ordered his Barrier to interact with the Expert's Barrier, nothing happened.
'He doesn't have a Barrier,' Nick thought.
Naturally, there was only one reason why an Extractor wouldn't use a Barrier.
They were not actually an Extractor but a Specter.
Compared to Nick, this Specter didn't have access to custom-made Specter Barriers.
'They are quite open about his true identity,' Nick thought. 'He's the CEO of the second-biggest Manufacturer, but even the biggest Manufacturer seems to know.'
'They are not enemies. They're probably not even competitors.'
A hidden monopoly.
"I assu we're going to use the plan you made for that occasion?" the first Hero asked Nick.
"Do you even know the details of it?" Nick asked with a raised brow.
The Hero snorted. "No."
"Oh! I know!" the third Hero shouted excitedly.
"Then, why don't you tell us?" Nick asked.
The third Hero grew excited and started to recite a list of things everyone had to do to get past the inspection without issues.
It was a good plan.
Apparently, the city even had fake orphanages for exactly this situation.
The plan essentially detailed how the city could appear like they were not suffering from the obvious overpopulation.
While the plan wasn't bad, it couldn't hide such a gigantic issue this easily.
That was until the third Hero talked about the last step of the plan.
"And finally, eliminate 80% of the proxy-humans living in the outskirts," the third Hero said with pride. After all, he had managed to recite the entire plan from mory!
When the third Hero said that, Nick paid very close attention to everyone in the room to gauge their reactions.
The first Hero narrowed his eyes.
The second Hero's expression hadn't changed.
The third Hero was excited because he got to recite the plan from mory.
The fourth Hero's smile dropped, and he looked to the side, seemingly lost in his thoughts.
Naturally, the Specter showed no reaction.
"You seem worried, Marvin," Nick said to the first Hero.
"I'm not sure about the plan," Marvin said.
"Oh boohoo, Magnanimous Marvin is at it again," the second Hero said with a ridiculing tone.
Marvin threw a reprimanding glare at the second Hero, who was supposed to be his colleague and was supposed to back him up.
Henry, the second Hero, realized that his joke had been inappropriate and just smiled in embarrassnt.
The nickna of Magnanimous Marvin was an inside joke in the company, and Marvin didn't mind it, but referencing it in an ergency eting with outsiders was not appropriate.
The third Hero wasn't the only dumbass in this eting.
"What's your issue with the plan?" Nick asked.
"Killing so many proxy-humans will put quite a strain on the Baby Factory. It won't produce a lot of Zephyx for the next months," Marvin explained.
Naturally, a big factor in the Baby Factory's growth was the suffering that overpopulation caused.
Without overpopulation, there would be a lot less suffering.
"Do you have an alternative?" Nick asked.
"We could move around 30% of the proxy-humans to the inner city for the duration of the inspection," Marvin said.
Everyone in the room looked at him with concerned or confused expressions.
Nick looked especially closely at Marvin.
'He's nervous,' Nick thought. 'He shows signs of having a fight or flight reaction.'
'If this were truly just about money, he wouldn't be this nervous. After all,everyone in this room is after money.'
"Several months?" the fourth Hero asked. "The Baby Factory will get back to the old load of proxy-humans within a week. We just have to incentivize people more. The economic impact is minuscule."
Marvin looked at the others.
He couldn't see any supportive glances.
"You're probably right. Sorry, I got lost in the details," Marvin said. "You have to spend money to make money."
'As expected,' Nick thought. 'It seems like not everyone is on board with how the city operates.'
'This Marvin guy wants to change things, but he's not getting support from anyone else.'
'Sadly, he lacks the courage to put his life on the line for the things he believes in.'
'But not agreeing with how the city is run is already an upgrade from the others.'
'I should gather more information on this Marvin guy. It's possible that he wants to change the city from the inside.'
After about an hour, the eting ended, and everyone left.
Well, almost everyone.
Nick asked Marvin to stay and escorted him to his office.
He would put Marvin to the test.
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