Nick duduk di atas sebuah bangunan tinggi. Saat ini, dia mengenakan jubah putih yang tampak nyaris identik dengan jubah yang dikenakan oleh mata-mata yang telah dia bunuh sebelumnya. Kali ini, Nick-lah sang mata-mata.
Sekitar seratus meter jauhnya, terdapat bangunan tinggi lain, namun yang satu ini berbeda karena memiliki jendela asli yang terbuat dari kaca sungguhan. Kaca adalah material yang sangat langka dan berharga, dan satu-satunya tempat yang biasanya memiliki kaca adalah di Inner City. Namun, bangunan ini punya jendela asli. Nyaris tidak ada bangunan lain di Kota Luar yang menggunakan kaca asli. Ini berarti bangunan tersebut milik perusahaan yang meraup banyak uang. Tentu saja, perusahaan itu adalah Cycle.
Meskipun Cycle tidak memiliki banyak karyawan, mampu meraup keuntungan 100.000 kredit atau lebih per bulan di Kota Luar adalah jumlah yang sangat fantastis. Harus diingat bahwa semua orang di Kota Luar hanya bisa berbisnis dengan sesama penghuni Kota Luar. Paling banyak, hanya ada 50.000 orang yang tinggal di sana. Jadi, meski sebuah bangunan dengan kaca asli tidak terjangkau bagi hampir semua perusahaan, Perusahaan Zephyx bisa membeli yang seperti itu.
Selama sehari penuh, Nick terus mengawasi gedung Cycle. Stephen telah tewas, sementara Jonathan dan Kiara beralih ke Dark Dream, yang berarti Cycle seharusnya sedang dalam masalah besar. Nick berada di sini untuk mencari kesempatan menghabisi mereka.
Tugasnya adalah memastikan apakah benar-benar tidak ada lagi Extractor yang tersisa dan mencari peluang untuk melenyapkan mereka. Menurut Jonathan, hanya tersisa dua Extractor lagi selain Ardum. Seorang pria tinggi berpedang panjang bernama Futuma, dan seorang wanita botak yang membawa tongkat besar bernama Selina. Lucunya, Nick tidak melihat keduanya sepanjang hari ini, yang berarti mereka mungkin untuk sementara tinggal di dalam kantor. Mengingat situasi saat ini, hal itu bisa dimaklumi.
Selama beberapa jam berikutnya, hanya segelintir orang biasa yang keluar masuk gedung. Lalu, akhirnya sesuatu yang menarik terjadi. Nick melihat pria tinggi berpedang panjang melangkah keluar dari pintu masuk, dan dia menyipitkan matanya.
'Ini pasti Futuma,' pikir Nick.
Tanpa menoleh, Futuma memilih arah dan berjalan menjauh dari Cycle. Cara berjalannya tampak santai, seolah tidak ada masalah apa pun. 'Haruskah aku mengikutinya?' pikir Nick. 'Kemampuanku masih aktif, yang artinya dia belum melihatku.'
Tentu saja, ada kemungkinan ini adalah jebakan. Lagipula, Nick pernah memasang jebakan yang sama dua hari sebelumnya. Setelah ragu sejenak, Nick memutuskan untuk membuntuti Futuma. Selama kemampuannya aktif, tidak ada seorang pun yang bisa mendeteksinya.
Futuma terus berjalan ke arah selatan, dan Nick terus membuntutinya. Beberapa menit kemudian, Futuma berjalan keluar dari Kota Luar dan mencapai pinggiran Dregs. Saat melihat itu, Nick menjadi lebih waspada dan mengerutkan kening, matanya mengawasi sekeliling. Futuma pasti tahu bahwa tempat ini adalah lokasi sempurna untuk menyergapnya. Jadi, kenapa dia sengaja datang ke sini? Apakah ini benar-benar jebakan? Tapi tidak ada yang bisa mendeteksi Nick! Kemampuannya masih aktif.
Nick harus menutup hidungnya dengan lengan untuk menahan bau busuk yang menyengat. Sesaat kemudian, dia terpaksa menahan batuk. 'Ada apa ini?' pikir Nick saat menyadari bahwa ini tidak wajar. Memang Dregs sangat bau, tapi tidak pernah sepekat ini. Bahkan saluran pembuangan tidak sebau ini! Rasanya hampir seperti…
'Dung Heap!' sadar Nick.
Jonathan dan Kiara pernah bilang mereka tidak tahu siapa pun yang memperoleh kemampuan dari Dung Heap. Mereka pernah mendengar seseorang meningkatkan kemampuannya melalui Dung Heap, tapi belum pernah melihat langsung Extractor yang mendapatkannya dari sana. Misalnya Stephen, dia telah meningkatkan kemampuannya lewat Dung Heap. Sama seperti Kiara dan Jonathan, Stephen mendapatkan kemampuannya dari Bleeding Lady, tapi dibanding mereka, dia sudah menjadi Extractor level dua dan kemampuannya sudah meningkat. Dengan menggunakan Dung Heap, luka berdarah yang dia hasilkan memiliki efek racun tambahan.
Namun, meskipun mereka tahu Dung Heap bisa meningkatkan kemampuan, mereka tidak tahu kekuatan murni apa yang bisa diberikan oleh Dung Heap. Selain itu, mereka juga tidak tahu kemampuan apa yang dimiliki Futuma karena dia selalu merahasiakannya. Nah, sekarang Nick tahu jawabannya. Bau busuk itu benar-benar mengerikan, dan bernapas menjadi sangat sulit bagi Nick. Terlebih lagi, efek kemampuannya menjadi semakin kuat seiring dengan udara yang dihirup Nick.
"Aku tahu ada seseorang di sini."
Saat itu, Futuma angkat bicara. Nick mengerutkan kening sambil berusaha menjaga napasnya. Mengaktifkan kemampuan seperti itu di area yang begitu luas pasti menghabiskan banyak Zephyx, dan Futuma adalah Peak Newbie, sama seperti Nick. Selama Nick bisa bertahan, dia seharusnya bisa tetap tersembunyi sampai Futuma terpaksa menonaktifkan kemampuannya.
'Dia hanya menggertak,' pikir Nick. 'Jika dia tahu aku di sini, kemampuanku pasti sudah dinonaktifkan.'
Hening.
"Kau pikir aku menggertak?" tanya Futuma ke arah sekeliling dengan nada datar.
Nick tidak menjawab.
Hening.
"Rupanya kau tidak tahu kenapa Cycle benar-benar disebut sebagai Cycle," ujar Futuma. "Kemampuan Dung Heap adalah sebuah siklus. Kemampuan itu keluar dariku dan kembali lagi. Tapi ketika seseorang menghirupnya, kemampuan itu tidak bisa kembali, yang berarti Zephyx internalku pulih lebih lambat. Begitulah caraku tahu kau ada di sini."
Nick sat on top of a tall building.
At this moment, Nick was wearing a white cloak, which almost seemed identical to the one that the spy had worn when Nick had killed her.
This time, Nick was the spy.
About a hundred meters away was another tall building, but this one was different since it even had actual windows made of actual glass.
Glass was an extremely rare and valuable material, and the only place one would usually find glass was in the Inner City.
Yet, this building had real windows.
Almost no other building in the Outer City had real glass.
This meant that this building belonged to a company that earned a lot of money.
Of course, that company was Cycle.
Even though Cycle didn't have many employees, getting a profit of 100,000 credits or more per month in the Outer City was ridiculously high.
One had to remember that everyone in the Outer City could only do business with others from the Outer City.
At most, there were 50,000 people living in the Outer City.
So, while a building with real windows was unaffordable for almost every company, Zephyx Manufacturers could buy something like that.
For the past day, Nick had kept watch over Cycle's building.
Stephen had died, and Jonathan and Kiara had switched to Dark Dream, which meant that Cycle should be in a lot of trouble.
And Nick was here to find an opportunity to actually end it.
His job was to see if there were truly no more Extractors remaining and to find an opportunity to assassinate the last of them.
According to Jonathan, there were only two more Extractors left, excluding Ardum.
A tall guy with a long sword, called Futuma, and a bald woman with a big staff, called Selina.
Funnily enough, Nick hadn't seen either of them within the last day, which meant that they were probably living inside the office for now.
Given the current situation, that was understandable.
Over the next couple of hours, only a couple of normal people were entering and leaving the building.
And then, finally, something interesting happened.
Nick saw a tall man with a long sword walking out of the entrance, and he narrowed his eyes.
'This must be Futuma,' Nick thought.
Without looking around, Futuma chose a direction and walked away from Cycle.
The way Futuma was walking made it seem like nothing was wrong.
'Should I follow him?' Nick thought. 'My ability is still active, which means he hasn't seen me.'
Naturally, it was possible that this was a trap. After all, Nick had set up the same trap two days earlier.
After a bit of hesitation, Nick decided to follow Futuma.
As long as his ability was still active, nobody was perceiving him.
Futuma kept walking towards the south, and Nick kept following him.
A couple of minutes later, Futuma walked out of the Outer City and reached the edge of the Dregs.
When Nick saw that, he became more nervous and furrowed his brows, looking around.
Futuma had to know that this was a perfect spot to ambush him.
So, why would he come here on purpose?
Was this truly a trap?
But no one could perceive Nick!
After all, his ability was still active.
Eventually, Futuma stopped in the middle of a run-down street where nobody was living.
And then, he just stopped moving.
He just looked forward without doing anything.
Nick looked around, his face scrunching up in discomfort.
Was there anybody following him?
Nick couldn't see anyone else on the rooftops or the streets.
The stench of the Dregs entered Nick's nose, and his facial muscles tensed in disgust.
As he looked around, Nick became more nervous and paranoid.
Why was Futuma just stopping in the middle of nowhere?!
This had to be a trap!
But his ability was still active!
Nick had to put his arm over his nose to cover the terrible stench.
A moment later, Nick had to suppress several coughs.
'What the hell is going on?' Nick thought as he realized that this wasn't normal.
Sure, the Dregs stunk a lot, but it had never been this intense.
Not even the sewers smelled this disgusting!
It was almost like…
'The Dung Heap!' Nick realized.
Jonathan and Kiara had said that they didn't know of anyone who had gained an ability from the Dung Heap.
They had heard from somebody advancing their ability through the Dung Heap, but they had never seen an Extractor directly getting one.
Stephen, for example, had advanced his ability through the Dung Heap.
Just like Kiara and Jonathan, Stephen had gained his ability from the Bleeding Lady, but compared to them, he was already a level two Extractor, and his ability had already advanced.
By using the Dung Heap, Stephen's bloody cut had gained an additional poison effect.
Still, while the two of them knew what the Dung Heap could do to elevate an ability, they didn't know the pure ability the Dung Heap could bestow.
Additionally, they also didn't know what kind of ability Futuma had since he kept his abilities secret.
Well, Nick now knew the answer to both questions.
The stench was absolutely horrifying, and breathing became quite difficult for Nick.
Even more, the effect of the ability was becoming stronger and stronger the more Nick breathed.
"I know somebody's here."
At that point, Futuma spoke.
Nick furrowed his brows as he tried to keep his breathing in check.
Activating such an ability over such a great area had to use up a lot of Zephyx, and Futuma was a Peak Newbie, just like Nick.
As long as Nick could hold out, he would be able to keep himself hidden until Futuma had to deactivate his ability.
'He's bluffing,' Nick thought. 'If he knew I was here, my ability would have deactivated.'
Silence.
"Do you think I'm bluffing?" Futuma asked his surroundings evenly.
Nick didn't say anything.
Silence.
"You don't know why Cycle is truly called Cycle, apparently," Futuma said.
"The Dung Heap's ability is a cycle."
"It leaves me and comes back."
"But when somebody breathes it in, it can't come back, which means my internal Zephyx recovers slower."
"That's how I know you're here."
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