Chapter 39 – Card

Nick wore a red and black shirt with several pockets, and his pants were formfitting and black.

All in all, Nick looked quite sharp and competent.

It was quite difficult to connect the current Nick to a person from the Dregs.

He basically looked like all the other Zephyx Extractors, which was a good thing since almost all Zephyx Extractors exhibited this aura of authority, status, and power.

The only thing pulling down was his chaotic haircut.

"You look great!" Albert shouted with a thumbs-up.

Wyntor also nodded. "Please keep the uniform clean and wear it when you have to work. Every Zephyx Extractor only gets one set."

"How am I supposed to keep it clean?" Nick asked as he walked closer.

"You wash it," Albert said.

"With water?" Nick asked.

Meanwhile, Wyntor raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yes, with water," Albert said.

"But water is for drinking. Why would I waste a good barrel of water just to keep my clothing clean?" Nick asked like he had just heard the dumbest thing.

"Nick," Albert said with a deadpan voice. "You earned something like a thousand credits just now. A barrel of water doesn't even cost you five credits, and you can even wash your clothes several times with one."

"Albert," Wyntor said before Nick could answer. "Why wash it with water? I thought Extractor uniforms are made to be washed with Cleanser."

"The guy doesn't even want to waste water," Albert said, pointing at Nick with his thumb. "You want to try to convince him to use something a hundred times as expensive as water to wash his clothes?"

"Also, it doesn't really matter. When you get a cleansing shower in here, the problem will resolve itself anyway."

"Hm, I guess it makes sense," Wyntor said.

"What's a Cleanser and a cleansing shower?" Nick asked.

"The blue bath before you take the green bath," Wyntor answered. "That's filled with Cleanser. It's the blue liquid. A cleansing shower is a small room that pours Cleanser all over you. Every Manufacturer has a couple of those since some Specters can become stronger by coming into contact with matter from the outside."

"Since Cleanser isn't very expensive for Manufacturers due to their insane profits, they just force everyone that enters or exits a Containment Unit to take a cleansing shower beforehand as a precaution."

"We won't be any different since it's a negligible expense for an increase in security."

Nick nodded a couple of times. "Oh, okay. Sounds fancy."

"Anyway," Wyntor said as he walked closer to Nick with a smile. "I just saw the five grams of Zephyx you produced. That's a lot!"

Nick smiled brightly when he heard that. "Are we able to remain in operation indefinitely now?"

Wyntor furrowed his brows as he evaluated some things. "Kinda."

"Kinda?" Nick asked.

"Well, if we were to remain on this level, we could continue indefinitely, but that's not our goal, is it?"

Nick raised his eyebrows in unsure concern. "I guess not?"

"No, it isn't," Wyntor said with a firm tone. "The bare minimum we want to achieve is to earn 50 to 100 million credits so that I can buy a small part of Kugelblitz. If we were to operate in this manner indefinitely, that would take decades."

"We need more profit. We need to optimize Zephyx production with the Dreamer and expand our scope of operations."

"Catching Specters, containing Specters, employing people, paying rent, buying Containment Units, and so on all costs money, and one Dreamer just isn't enough to pay for all of this."

Nick raised an eyebrow in concern.

He understood that Wyntor wanted to become an heir to his family, but he also couldn't understand why someone would need that much money.

They were already earning a thousand credits per day.

Nick could literally do everything he wanted with that much money.

"Okay, we can do that," Nick said after a bit.

"Good," Wyntor answered with a smile. "Now, you've had a long day behind you, and I think you deserve a break."

"Naturally, I want to produce more money with the Dreamer, but I think it's important that you get a couple of days to yourself."

"Why don't you take the next three days off to recover?"

"Maybe go look around for some houses in the Outer City?"

"Maybe meet some friends?"

"Maybe go buy something?"

"In short, relax," Wyntor said, putting his hand on Nick's shoulder.

The next moment, Wyntor took out a small card and pushed it into Nick's hands.

Nick looked at the card and noticed that it looked very similar to the card that the guard had used to pay for Nick's bath.

"It's yours," Wyntor said.

Nick looked at the card with wonder.

"If you want to buy something, just hand it to the seller, but be careful which shops you frequent. Some of the sleazier shops might decide to exchange your card for a counterfeit."

Nick Just continued looking at the card. "How much is it worth?"

"10,000 credits. See it as a hiring bonus," Wyntor said. 

Nick's eyes shot open.

10,000 credits!

What was he supposed to do with that much money?!

Nick reflexively tried to hand the card back to Wyntor, but Wyntor just shoved it back into Nick's hands. 

"It's yours, Nick," Wyntor said. "You're my Chief Zephyx Extractor, and today, you made 5,000 credits for the company. Within two weeks, my and your personal wealth will increase by another 10,000 credits as long as you keep working diligently."

Nick looked with uncertainty at Wyntor and then looked at his card.

Yes, what Wyntor said made a lot of sense, but Nick still felt strange about just accepting 10,000 credits.

Logically, he knew that he would earn the company much more, but emotionally, he felt like he didn't deserve that much money.

"Well, it seems like everything's going well here," Albert said from behind them. "I think it's time for me to leave."

Wyntor turned to Albert and gave him a respectful handshake. "Thank you again for your help today."

"No problem," Albert said.

Then, Albert turned to Nick. "See you at some point, Nick."

Nick was taken out of his thoughts and looked at Albert. "Oh, yeah, thanks again, Albert! Without you, this wouldn't have been as easy."

"I know," Albert said with a smile. "See ya!"

Then, Albert walked out of the warehouse.

A couple minutes later, Nick also left the warehouse.

Wyntor had essentially thrown him out of the warehouse, telling him that he should relax for the next three days.

Nick just absentmindedly walked away from the warehouse.

He just kept looking at his card.