Chapter 32 – Stages

"Good," Albert said with a sigh. "Anyway, how about I tell you about some general things regarding working with other Specters?"

"Sounds good," Nick said.

The next moment, Nick and Albert walked over to the side of the warehouse and sat in some chairs.

For the next three hours, Albert taught Nick about general techniques for working with different Specters.

The more Nick heard, the gloomier he felt.

Apparently, there were quite a great number of Specters that simply gained power by killing people, and they only produced Zephyx that way.

These kinds of Specters were either amazing or almost worthless.

It all depended on the moral flexibility of the Manufacturer and their standing in the community.

As the de-facto owner of the city, Kugelblitz didn't use any unsavory methods like this, but there were a couple of Manufacturers that did just that.

Naturally, Kugelblitz acted like the righteous authority and tried to uncover the obvious practices of the Manufacturers, but behind closed curtains, they were most likely paid off to look the other way.

These other Manufacturers mostly got their Zephyx from dying people.

An old person has a horrible disease that will eventually lead to their death?

Hey, want to earn a ton of money for the family you're leaving behind? You just gotta die a bit earlier.

And apparently, there were always enough sick people, even though Albert said that the hygiene and cleanliness in the Inner City was brutally high.

Albert even went as far as to say that getting sick in the Inner City without outside influence was nearly impossible.

Albert didn't directly say it, but he suspected that the Manufacturers were using shady methods to spread these diseases, but none of that had been proven yet.

Naturally, Nick was not really worried about all of that but about what he would do if he captured such a Specter.

Killing someone just for a bit of money?

That felt unacceptable to him.

Sadly, the only other option to get Zephyx out of these kinds of Specters was to use the bargain bin method, and when Albert mentioned the bargain bin method again, he actually chuckled in embarrassment.

Under Nick's stunned gaze, Albert told him that Wyntor actually didn't own a shredder like the one Albert had shown him.

Apparently, the cheapest method to shred parts of Specters was buying a huge shredder that cost Zephyx to operate.

Its price was two million credits, over four times as much as the Containment Unit the Dreamer was currently in.

Wyntor didn't have the finances to purchase something like that.

When Albert had said that they would just grind the Dreamer down, he had lied.

"So, if the Dreamer refuses, we are essentially stuck?" Nick asked.

"Well," Albert said as he scratched his chin. "Not exactly."

"If, for some reason, the Dreamer completely refuses to work with you, you can still sell it."

"The Dreamer is not a newborn Specter. I think it is in the Mid, if not Late, Hatchling Stage. That's worth quite a bit."

"Hatchling Stage?" Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh yeah," Albert said. "That's what we Extractors call the different levels of the Specters. The official designation is simply level-based. Level one, two, three, and so on, but we Extractors decided to come up with an unofficial one."

"Hatchlings are level one Specters."

"Adolescents are level two Specters."

"Adults are level three Specters."

"Elders are level four Specters."

"Fanatics are level five Specters."

"Wow, wait," Nick said. "Why are they suddenly called Fanatics? Everything up to this point seemed to follow an age progression."

Albert chuckled a bit. "Mainly because level five Specters and stronger have this thing where some people start worshipping them due to their power and influence. For example, the Parasite has a secret cult, and all the Manufacturers are trying their best to get rid of it since the cult kills people and delivers corpses to the Parasite."

"Anyway, level six Specters are Demons. We call them like this due to their extreme power and danger."

"Level seven Specters are Fallen."

"Level eight Specters are called Adversaries. Mainly because they pose the biggest problem to humanity as a whole."

"Really?" Nick asked. "What about the level nine Specters?"

"First of all, there are fewer level nine Specters than level eight Specters."

"Second, the five level nine Specters are already an integral part of our lives, which we can't escape from. Their existence determines the baseline of humanity as a whole."

"So, in a bizarre way, the level nine Specters are not humanity's enemies but the judges of humanity's prosperity."

"In contrast, we can still somewhat resist the level eight Specters, and the level eight Specters are doing their very best to suppress humanity."

"If you view humanity as a big company, you could view the level eight Specters as the chief executives and the level nine Specters as the owners. The owners very rarely come into contact with the employees, and they are rarely noticed by the employees, but when they arrive, even the chief executives have to be beyond respectful."

"In comparison, the chief executives are the ones making all the decisions and dictating how everyone feels. So, while the level nine Specters are more powerful, they do whatever they want, which means, in a way, they are not the collective enemy of humanity."

"It's a bit weird to explain."

"It's like, one is a huge monster, and the other is a natural catastrophe. You can't really view a natural catastrophe as an enemy or fight it, you know?"

Nick scratched his chin.

"Oh, by the way, what are level nine Specters called?"

"Eternal," Albert answered. "They are just called Eternals."

Nick nodded. "Is there something similar for Extractors?"

Albert nodded.

"Level one Extractors are called Newbies."

"Level two are called Johns."

"John?" Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.

Albert laughed. "Yes, John. Level two Extractors are the most numerous and most average. They used to be called John Doe, but it was shortened to just Johns. The most common and generic Extractors get the most common and generic name."

"Johns," Nick repeated. "You're serious?"

"I'm absolutely serious," Albert said with a suppressed chuckle.

"If everything works out, you will also become a John one day."

Nick just blinked once.