Kill the Sun

Wyntor knocked on the door, but he didn't even wait for an answer and entered anyway.

Nick took a deep breath and followed Wyntor.

"Ah, Wyntor, glad you're here."

Nick heard the voice of a relatively young adult, which surprised him.

The voice sounded like it came from somebody between the ages of 20 to 35.

Wasn't this Wyntor's father?

A moment later, Nick saw a man sitting at a desk.

The man had blonde hair and looked to be in his late twenties.

Nick wasn't attracted to men, but even he could tell that this was probably the most beautiful man in the city.

He had perfectly white and smooth skin, and his hair was thick and voluminous. It almost looked like his strands of hair didn't cling to each other but hung individually from his head.

He looked athletic, but his build leaned more towards stamina and speed than raw power.

'That's not Wyntor's father, right?' Nick thought in shock.

"Hey, Dad," Wyntor said neutrally.

He didn't seem happy or sad.

He just seemed very nonchalant and normal.

'Wait, so that's actually Wyntor's father?!' Nick thought.

A moment later, Mr. Melfion stood up and walked around his desk.

He put his hand on Wyntor's shoulder and looked at Nick with a friendly smile. "You must be Nick, right? I've heard plenty about you."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Melfion, sir," Nick said as he did his best to recover from the shock.

Mr. Melfion just laughed. "No need to be so formal and uptight. You're my son's friend! Just call me Vernon."

Nick took a deep breath. His anxiety reduced, but he was still nervous.

Even though Vernon had said that Nick didn't need to be formal, he still didn't want to make a mistake.

"Thank you… Vernon," Nick said with an awkward long pause.

Vernon just smiled and held his hand out for a handshake.

Nick reflexively grabbed the hand and shook it.

Vernon's hand was surprisingly firm, but he wasn't using any power.

As soon as Nick touched the hand, he immediately knew that Vernon was vastly more powerful than him.

'He's definitely a Zephyx Extractor and not a weak one!' Nick thought.

"Did you find your way here all right?" Vernon asked.

"Dad, I'm here all the time," Wyntor said.

Vernon just smiled with embarrassment. "Oh wow, sorry. I accidentally slipped into corporate speak. It kind of comes with a new person being in my office."

Vernon threw a quick smile at Nick.

Surprisingly, that made Nick calm down quite a bit.

Of course, he knew that Vernon was a human like everyone else, but when one sat in front of incredible power, it was difficult to remember that fact.

Sure enough, Vernon was just a guy like any other.

He just controlled the biggest force of Zephyx Extractors in the city, owned enough money to buy the Outer City, and could tear Nick apart with two fingers.

But he was just a man.

"Did you show him around?" Vernon asked Wyntor.

Wyntor nodded. "I told him about the floors."

"You should've taken him to the training floor. I bet he would have loved seeing that," Vernon said.

Then, he turned to Nick. "Are you interested in seeing the training floor for Newbies and Johns? If you want, you can also stay for a while after the meeting and get familiar with it."

In truth, Nick was actually really interested in the training floor.

How did Kugelblitz train their powerful recruits?

"Thank you for the offer, but I have to return soon. I have a lot of work waiting for me at Dark Dream," Nick said.

"Of course, I forgot that you are a Chief Zephyx Extractor. I understand. Some other time, okay?" Vernon added.

"Sure," Nick answered with a nod.

After working for Dark Dream for nearly two years, Nick was no longer new to the corporate world, and he knew that Vernon was only being polite.

If Nick actually accepted that offer, Vernon would probably be a bit annoyed but would show him around anyway, just to be nice.

Or he would just tell Wyntor to do it.

"By the way, Nick," Vernon said, "have you thought about moving to the Inner City?"

"Oh, no, not yet," Nick said. "I also don't think I want to move there."

"How come? Do you like the bustling outside?" Vernon asked with a smile.

Wyntor didn't say anything and just walked to some kind of apparatus sitting on top of a small closet.

"It's more about Dark Dream being in the Outer City," Nick said. "I don't like being too far from my workplace, and I grew up in the Outer City."

Wyntor pressed a couple of buttons on the apparatus.

CRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The apparatus made a loud grinding noise, and Nick looked with shock at the apparatus Wyntor was using.

Why was that thing so loud?!

"That's just the coffee machine," Vernon said with a chuckle. "It's loud, but the coffee is worth it! Wyntor, make one for Nick as well!"

"Sure," Wyntor said casually. "You also want one?"

"I had mine already," Vernon said.

Wyntor just nodded.

The next moment, Nick saw brown liquid coming out of the machine and entering a cup.

"You're going to love this," Vernon said with a smirk. "No one has left my office hating my coffee."

Nick looked with confusion at the brown liquid coming out of the apparatus. "What's coffee?"

Vernon seemed a bit excited when Nick asked that question.

"An entire life without coffee," Vernon mused. "You are going to think that you wasted your entire life after drinking this!"

Nick just blinked a couple of times, not sure how to answer.

"Coffee is a beverage made by filtering water through ground-up and toasted coffee beans. It has a strong and bitter taste, but the caffeine in it wakes you up and brings color and excitement back into a dreary morning filled with work!"

"You see, the way this machine operates…"

Nick just kept looking at Vernon in silence as he kept going on and on about coffee, its effects, how it was produced, how the machine worked, and so on.

Nick had not expected that he would be listening to a lesson about some beverage when he had entered Vernon's office.