Kill the Sun

Nick took a deep breath and opened the door leading to the Peak Adult.

Nick was still a Mid Veteran, which meant that he was quite a bit weaker than a Peak Adult.

Additionally, there was nowhere to hide inside a Containment Unit, making Nick even more nervous.

If that thing attacked, Nick would actually be in danger.

However, according to the documentation, it should not attack.

When Nick opened the door, he looked inside and saw a dead tree in the middle of the Containment Unit.

The tree barely had any roots and looked like it was close to falling over.

It was barely two meters tall, and it only had a single branch coming out from its trunk.

However, the tree was actually not the Specter.

This tree was just something that the Specter owned.

The Specter had been found with that tree, and when they tried to take it away from the Specter, it started attacking.

In the end, it was determined that letting the dead tree stay with the Specter was the best idea.

As long as it had its tree, the Specter wouldn't be nearly as aggressive.

On top of the single branch of the tree, Nick saw it.

A black crow.

That was it.

It was just a black crow.

Crows used to appear in Crimson City in the past, but the appearance of the Crimson Sea had effectively killed all of them and made it impossible for new ones to appear.

While the outside world was mostly dead, there were some occasional birds flying from one city to another.

Birds were probably the only animals that could somewhat traverse the outside world, but if they wanted food, they needed to go to a city.

When Nick appeared, the crow turned its head to look at him.

It turned its head very calmly and slowly, and when Nick saw its eyes looking at him, he felt like his heart had just stopped.

Fear exploded inside his heart, and he felt like he was about to die.

Nick was involuntarily reminded of the first time the Dreamer had noticed him in the sewers.

It was the feeling of being looked at by one's greatest predator.

Cold sweat broke out all over Nick's body, but he didn't move.

A couple of seconds passed.

Finally, the crow looked away again and focused on a random point on the wall.

Nick took a deep breath.

'That should be it,' he thought.

Nick walked over to the entrance of the Containment Unit and very carefully opened it.

After stepping out, Nick closed the door and checked over three times to see if it was really locked.

Nick's heart rate spiked, and he very slowly and carefully opened the small door leading to the Zephyx containers.

When he saw the Zephyx container, Nick took another deep breath.

'980 grams! Almost an entire kilo!' Nick thought in shock.

'980 grams of revenue without any financial investment. That's insanely profitable!'

Nick left the Zephyx container in there and carefully closed the door.

Finally, he slowly walked towards the stairs and climbed them.

While Nick was walking towards his office, he felt extremely vigilant and nervous.

Only when he entered his office and closed the door did he somewhat calm down.

'And now, I have to remain here for the next 24 hours,' Nick thought.

Nick thought back to the crow.

'It produces a crazy amount of Zephyx, but it takes someone out of commission for 24 hours in return. Additionally, working with it is extremely dangerous.'

If Nick had to rate his Specters on a scale of one to ten when it came to how dangerous it was to work with the Specter, the Bleeding Lady would be a three. She could attack an Extractor, but that rarely happened, and it was quite easy to see when she got mad.

The Money Sink and the Dreamer were ones since they didn't even want to attack anyone.

The Talker would probably be a seven or something similar. The guy would definitely attack, and one had to be quite good at going out of the Containment Unit before that happened.

The Attention Seeker was probably a two or something like that. Sure, it could attack, but it wouldn't get more than one attack out before someone definitely looked at it.

And the crow?

That was a full ten.

Working with it was extremely dangerous.

So, what did it do?

The name of the crow was the Tragedy, and it gained power by stealing luck.

Anyone who entered the Tragedy's Containment Unit would lose all their luck, and only bad luck would happen to them within the next 24 hours.

Naturally, in a world filled with Specters and greedy Manufacturers, having bad luck could very quickly prove fatal.

If Nick randomly walked around outside, one of the metal plates below him might break.

In reflex, Nick would look down, and he might accidentally look at a small part of the Crimson Sea peeking through the ground.

Alternatively, Nick might walk across a powerful hidden Specter that was searching for a new victim.

Maybe a powerful Specialist from Anatomy or Kugelblitz would come across Nick just when Nick went into a lonely alley, and with no witnesses around, they might decide to kill him.

Naturally, walking around outside the city would be even worse.

Because of that, Nick couldn't possibly leave Dark Dream during that time.

But even inside Dark Dream, problems could occur.

If Nick worked with another Specter, it would be like asking for trouble.

Maybe the Talker wouldn't find the conversation stimulating enough and immediately attacked.

Maybe Nick would think of an especially interesting thought while working with the Attention Seeker and lose his focus for a while.

Maybe Nick would fall for one of the Annoying One's tricks.

Maybe Nick would lose all his bets while working with the Gambler.

Maybe Nick would accidentally kill the Blood Fish while punching it.

Maybe the Conspirator just so happened to talk about a conspiracy that perfectly aligned with Nick's beliefs.

Maybe Julian would get nervous while looking at Nick and ask himself if he was underestimating Nick.

No matter what Nick did, it would turn into a tragedy.

Hence, the name.

So, the only thing Nick could do was to stay in his office, not interact with anyone, and maybe just train a bit.

That was all he could do for the next 24 hours.

Luckily, the effect only lasted for 24 hours.

Nick couldn't imagine having only bad luck for his entire life.

That sounded absolutely horrible.

How would anyone be able to survive that?