Kill the Sun

Eventually, Nick was woken up by Jenny.

"Hey, how do you feel?" she asked.

Nick took about a second to process the words Jenny had just uttered.

"I dunno," he answered with slurred speech.

Jenny's expression became more worried.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure," Nick said as he slowly stood up.

Suddenly, Nick felt like his head was killing him.

There was this droning and pressure in his head, and when he stood up, he felt like he was about to fall over.

Nick felt like his eyes were forced open by some kind of force, but there was nothing there.

Nick's heart beat quickly, and he realized that he was covered in sweat.

"You don't look good," Jenny said with worry.

"It's fine," Nick said with an unusually loud voice.

Jenny was taken aback by Nick's outburst.

"Sorry, sorry," Nick quickly said with an embarrassed smile. "That came out more aggressive than intended."

"It's just… forget it," Nick said as he walked towards the exit.

"You can tell me," Jenny said, looking as Nick passed by her.

"It's fine," Nick said with a dismissive wave.

"No, it's not," Jenny said with an urgent voice. "If there is anything I can do, tell me!"

Nick stopped walking and turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

Right now, Jenny looked urgent and almost desperate.

She looked like she really cared about this issue.

The muscles in Nick's face tensed up.

"Okay, if you really want to know…" Nick said.

Jenny listened intently.

"I feel like you're a bit too forward with your concern for me," Nick said neutrally. "Let my problems be my problems. We are colleagues. That's it."

Nick looked into Jenny's eyes.

Jenny felt more nervous when she heard Nick's cold voice.

That wasn't what she wanted to hear.

She wanted to help Nick with his issues.

Trevor had managed to help Nick, and Wyntor was also helping him.

And she?

She hadn't done anything!

She just wanted to listen to Nick's worries and help him deal with them emotionally.

That's how it was with her and her partner.

Whenever one of them had issues, the other one would listen to them and help them deal with the issues.

Maybe one of them would cry, and everything would be better after that.

Yet, Nick had rejected Jenny's help very clearly.

"You seem too eager to help others," Nick said. "Sometimes, the biggest help is not helping."

Jenny still looked uncertain.

"Okay, sorry," she eventually said.

Nick nodded and walked out of the room.

In Nick's mind, Jenny seemed like someone who was way too eager to help someone with something that didn't need any support.

As Nick walked out of the Containment Unit, he thought about all the things he would help Horua with today.

He had a lot of things to do, and Horua needed help with all of them.

"Nick, I need you real quick."

Nick looked to the side and saw Wyntor standing at the entrance to his office.

"Sure," Nick said, walking into Wyntor's office.

Wyntor sat down, and Nick closed the door.

The next moment, Wyntor took out a briefcase.

The briefcase was made of silver metal and wasn't very big, but Nick could see Wyntor's arm strain when he lifted it.

"Open it," Wyntor said as he pushed the briefcase to Nick.

Nick looked at the briefcase with a raised eyebrow and slowly opened it.

When it was fully opened, a silver sheen was reflected on Nick's face, and his eyes opened widely in shock.

In the briefcase were four silver braces, two for Nick's wrists and two for his legs.

The two braces for Nick's wrists also had long and rounded blades on them.

Except for the color, they looked almost exactly like the ones Nick had shown Wyntor yesterday.

"These are for me?" Nick asked.

Wyntor nodded wordlessly.

Nick slowly moved his hands forward and lifted one of them.

'Heavy!' Nick immediately thought.

One of the braces for his wrists weighed over 20 kilograms!

That was absolutely insane!

Yes, Nick was very strong, but casually carrying 20 kilograms on a wrist was still quite straining.

"I ordered them for you to be just right when you reach the Peak of the first level," Wyntor said. "It makes no sense to give you weapons for the Late first level just for them to become obsolete in a week or two."

"With some training, you should be able to walk around with them casually, and you can also use them relatively well."

"However, they only show their real powers when your ability is active," Wyntor said.

The next moment, Wyntor turned around and looked away from Nick.

Almost immediately, the cuff in Nick's hands became very light.

Naturally, the cuff hadn't changed in weight. It was just Nick's ability activating.

Nick moved the cuff around a bit, and he liked the weight quite a lot.

It felt great!

Wyntor turned around again, and the cuff returned to being quite heavy.

"For now, you have to deal with the weight," Wyntor said, "but that should also help you get used to them."

Nick nodded. "How strong are they?"

"Your body will turn to ash before you have to worry about them," Wyntor said neutrally. "Your wrist will break into pieces before even a scratch appears on them."

Nick took a deep breath.

"How expensive were they?"

Wyntor released a sigh.

"A favor," Wyntor said.

"A favor?" Nick asked.

Wyntor nodded. "I didn't buy them for money but for a favor."

Nick gulped.

That probably meant that they were too expensive for the current Dark Dream.

Nick felt guilty and ashamed when he imagined how much Wyntor must have paid for his weapons.

He just wished that he could repay Wyntor.

Ironically, that was exactly what Wyntor thought while purchasing these weapons, but the other way around.

He just hoped that they could serve as a small repayment for what Nick had done for him.

"But I didn't sell that favor for cheap!" Wyntor said with a smirk.

Next, Wyntor stood up and grabbed something very heavy from below his desk.

BANG!

The entire table shook when Wyntor finally put another heavy briefcase on it.

This one was much bigger and obviously much heavier.

"I told you that I also want you to train in a weapon of my choosing."

"Well, here it is," he said, shoving the briefcase forward.