Kill the Sun

Nick and Wyntor kept ascending towards the next layer, and Nick knew exactly where they were going to end up.

As soon as they passed by the layer, Nick was greeted with… an entrance?

The two were now in a station for Shweebs.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a lot to see.

The station was only about a hundred meters long, and about 20 meters away from the rails was a normal entrance.

It seemed just like any other entrance to a warehouse, just bigger.

That was it.

Nick was a bit disappointed that he couldn't view the entire building of Kugelblitz.

'I guess the entire building is incorporated into the megastructure,' Nick thought. 'That's why I can only see an entrance.'

Nick looked away from the platform and saw that the rail continued upward.

That was probably where the upper layer started.

As Wyntor's Shweeb reached the end of the station, he slowly came to a stop.

Shockingly, Nick didn't bump into Wyntor's Shweeb.

The next moment, Wyntor's Shweeb opened, and he stepped out with practiced ease.

That was when Nick noticed a man walking up to Wyntor's Shweeb with a polite smile.

Wyntor nodded and walked past.

The man nodded back and entered Wyntor's Shweeb.

The man drove the Shweeb into an adjacent rail, which led to a huge gate with many small rails coming out.

A small part of the gate opened, and the man drove Wyntor's Shweeb into it.

'Is that where they store all the Shweebs?' Nick thought.

Dunk! Dunk!

Wyntor knocked on Nick's Shweeb and gestured for him to come out.

Nick nervously opened the door and tried his best to get out naturally.

Sadly, he just wasn't used to driving something like this, and his exit could be called awkward at best.

"Bumpy ride, huh?" Wyntor commented.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" Nick said with an almost panicked expression.

"It's fine," Wyntor said with a small chuckle. "I was expecting something like this. If I didn't have faith in the Shweeb's resilience, I wouldn't have let you drive behind me."

Nick still felt embarrassed, but he just answered with a nod.

"Excuse me."

Nick looked over and saw a man walking up to Nick with a polite smile.

"Yes?" Nick asked.

"I need your name," the man said.

"Eh, Nick."

The man nodded. "And your last name?"

Nick blinked a bit. "I don't have a last name."

The man also blinked in confusion, not knowing how to deal with this.

"He really doesn't have one," Wyntor said from the side. "He's my Chief Zephyx Extractor. Just book him as that."

"Of course, Mr. Melfion," the man said as he walked past him.

He also performed a polite bow in front of Nick, who just nodded back.

By now, Nick had gotten a bit used to people acting like this in front of him.

After all, he was a Chief Zephyx Extractor, and Dark Dream had plenty of clerks who acted exactly like this.

The man entered Nick's Shweeb and drove it through the big gate as well.

A moment later, Nick and Wyntor walked over to the entrance of Kugelblitz.

There were two women standing at either side of the entrance, and surprisingly, they both wore the uniforms of the city forces.

One would expect that Kugelblitz would have their own guards, but apparently not.

The city was guarding the entrance.

Yet, when Nick saw their emblems, his eyes widened in shock.

Those were Experts, level four Extractors!

They were as powerful as Julian and Albert!

Yet, they only stood in front of Kugelblitz's entrance!

"Mary, Winona, it's your turn?" Wyntor said with a smirk.

"Ha ha," the one to the right said with a sarcastic tone. "Laugh it up, Wyntor."

"Don't mind if I do," Wyntor said with a chuckle.

The woman to the left echoed Wyntor's chuckle, which made the woman to the right throw a side eye at her.

"We're here for the yearly meeting," Wyntor said after a bit.

"Oh, right. That's today," the one to the left said. "No one else has arrived yet. You're a bit early."

"I want to show Nick around a bit," Wyntor said, gesturing to Nick, who was diagonally behind Wyntor.

The two women looked directly at Nick with interested expressions, which made Nick feel a bit awkward.

"That's him, huh?" the one on the right commented.

"Sure is," Wyntor said.

Then, he pulled Nick forward and gestured to the right one. "That's Winona."

"And that's Mary," he said, gesturing to the left one.

"Eh, hi, nice to meet you," Nick said, extending his right arm for a handshake.

The two women looked at the outstretched hand and blinked in surprise.

But after a second, Mary stretched her own hand forward with a smile and shook it. "Nice to meet you!"

Winona furrowed her brows, but she also shook Nick's hand.

This was so bizarre to them.

A handshake is usually a form of greeting between two relatively equal parties.

The fact that they were shaking hands with an Initial John was very strange.

After all, they were Experts.

They were thousands of times stronger than normal humans.

They could jump a distance of over an entire kilometer without a running start.

If they put their minds to it, they could probably jump from one end of the Dregs to the other.

And yet, this Initial John was on a similar level to them.

Sure, just based on Nick's power, his status was barely higher than a normal clerk's, but the position of Chief Zephyx Extractor was extremely prestigious.

For example, the Chief Zephyx Extractor of the Spartans, who was just a Veteran, had a slightly higher status than just a normal Expert, even though their strength couldn't compare.

Technically, Nick's status was comparable to a normal Expert's.

Yet, it still felt so weird to them.

But on the other hand, it also improved their perception of Nick.

After all, Nick was bold enough to initiate a handshake with Experts.

When someone initiated a handshake, it meant that they were either on a similar level as the other person or higher.

An employee never offered their hand to their boss.

Their boss always offered their hand first.

Initiating a handshake meant either lowering oneself to speak at eye level with the other person or being at a similar level by default.

The fact that Nick offered his hand showed a lot of courage and boldness.

'Why did they look at me like that?' Nick thought. 'Isn't that how people in the Inner City greet each other?'

Nick had no idea.

He just thought that everyone greeted each other like this.