Kill the Sun

Of course, things didn't improve over the next couple of years.

The issue with Anatomy just kept getting worse and worse, and yet, no one really seemed to try to stop them.

Sure, Kugelblitz was having a couple of covert battles, but the losses on both sides were not as brutal as one might think.

They were more like small skirmishes instead of actual battles, which was strange.

Didn't Kugelblitz realize that they were going to get destroyed by Anatomy at some point if they didn't do anything?

"It's the shareholders," Julian told Nick one day. "The 30% that are owned by random people do not want to risk losing all of their investment, and Wilfred is also on edge."

Wilfred Langley was Kugelblitz's CEO and owned 30% of the company.

He was a CEO who mostly worked in the back and left most of the company's duties to Aria and Vernon.

Wilfred was also only a weak Specialist.

"From what I could tell," Julian said, "Wilfred refuses to take any fights that pose a significant risk to Kugelblitz. He only allows Extractors to attack if they have a 90% chance of success without any casualties. As long as the prognosis is not a flawless victory, he won't allow anyone to attack Anatomy."

"And since the normal shareholders are only interested in keeping their investment safe, they also won't commit to any big actions."

"Of course, not all shareholders share the same opinion, but it's still enough that it is essentially 50% against 50% when it comes to the war. Kugelblitz has a 60% rule, where a decision has to get 60% of the votes to be approved, essentially making it impossible for Kugelblitz to go all-out against Anatomy."

Naturally, Julian knew all of this since he had many friends amongst the shareholders of Kugelblitz.

'So, Anatomy gets to do all of these things because Kugelblitz's power is scattered amongst several people with their own selfish interests,' Nick thought. 'If Aria or Vernon owned 60% of Kugelblitz, Anatomy wouldn't be able to grow this quickly.'

Of course, this reminded Nick of the city in general.

The Manufacturers were also allowed to do whatever they wanted essentially since all of the city's forces were scattered.

'One human can be kind, but a group of people will only be interested in their own good,' Nick thought. 'Giving corporations power in the government will only be detrimental to the people.'

The image of the governor appeared in Nick's mind.

'And that's all because you let them,' he thought with disgust. 'You're so afraid of losing your privileged and safe position that you let this chaos continue!'

'Why didn't you immediately join Kugelblitz as soon as things got a little out of control? Did you think that it would become easier in the future?'

'Or are you already secretly on Anatomy's side?'

Whenever Nick thought of the governor, disgust and revulsion bubbled inside of him.

'The governor's weakness is the reason why this city is such a nightmare for the normal people!'

Of course, Nick wasn't referring to physical weakness but mental weakness, the inability to act decisively during a crisis.

'Sadly, there's nothing I can do for now. I can only continue strengthening Dark Dream.'

And so, three more years passed, and Nick was now 33 years of age.

During these three years, things only got worse.

Anatomy only had 20% of its original employees left.

However, they had gained over 100 coral people, and all of them were Veterans or stronger.

During the past few years, Anatomy even managed to capture ten Specialists from other cities!

It was so bad that Stone Crystal City even officially complained to Crimson City.

If they didn't stop this rampant attack, they would refuse to trade with them, and they would attack every single person from Crimson City on sight.

They would even send their Heroes into Crimson City's domain to kill their weak Extractors!

Obviously, this would be horrible for Crimson City.

And yet, the governor did nothing!

He just reprimanded Anatomy.

He didn't even give them a sanction or fine to pay!

By now, Nick was quite sure that the governor was on Anatomy's side.

There was simply no other explanation for his actions.

Naturally, many other people also believed that, and Kugelblitz faced another internal war in the form of a vote.

Ban the governor from working with the Crimson Fungus?

Once more, the opinions were split, but this time, surprisingly, the other way around.

The random shareholders and Wilfred wanted to ban the governor, but Aria and Vernon voted against it.

According to Aria and Vernon, as soon as they threw the governor out, he would fully fall into Anatomy's camp.

Additionally, they said that they believed that the governor was still neutral in this conflict.

Again, the vote didn't go through, and nothing changed.

The governor still enjoyed preferential treatment from both sides.

So, once more, a sudden paradigm shift was avoided, and the future continued its slow descent into the abyss.

Yet, there was one positive thing that happened this year.

The Crimson Sea had been fully covered!

After around a decade of work, the city had finally managed to expand to its old size, and since the entire city was constructed with new stainless steel, there were no holes in the ground anymore.

There was no more red curtain surrounding the city!

There was no constant fear about looking down anymore!

The city looked very similar to its appearance from before the Crimson Sea, except that its outer layer wasn't made of rusty sheets of metal.

The entire city seemed beautiful and clean.

Yet, below the surface, things were still the same.

There were still no sewers.

Well, the people shat into pipes that dumped all of their excrement into the Crimson Sea, technically making it a sewer or cesspit, but it wasn't really a sewer.

And yet, the people did not feel better in any way.

With the rising threat of Anatomy, the people almost wished back the time when the Crimson Sea had just broken out.

At least back then, they knew what would be waiting for them.