Nobody noticed the confrontation between Julian and the Prison.
However, the confrontation had a lasting effect on Crimson Fungus City, even though the effect wasn’t very strong.
The caravan never reappeared again.
One month later, the people were waiting for the caravan’s arrival.
But it never came.
In the end, they guessed that something must have happened to the caravan.
The city made less Zephyx as a result, which was bad for the economy.
However, the people in the Outer City and the Dregs were happy.
While they didn’t know what happened, the people in the Outer City noticed that the prices of mixed meat cubes had sunk.
So, they bought more of those, and since they tasted better than the veggie cubes, they preferred them.
But that left more veggie cubes, which reduced their prices by a bit.
The end result was that the food in the Dregs had become marginally cheaper, which made the people in the Dregs quite happy.
While all of this was going on, Nick just kept working at his job.
He had not noticed that Envy’s powerful servant had already arrived and left.
Once more, Nick was stuck in the limbo.
At some point, Envy or one of its servants would come for him.
The paranoia and fear never left.
Luckily, the paranoia and fear were not as strong anymore after Julian had said that Nick didn’t need to worry.
Time continued to pass. 𝑖𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Soon, another year had passed.
Nick was now 21 years old, and he recently managed to become a Peak John.
During that year, the people of Dark Dream also became much stronger.
Including Nick, there were now eleven Johns in Dark Dream.
Nick was a Peak John.
Jenny and Trevor were Mid Johns.
Jonathan, Constanze, Marvila, Larry, and Kiara were Early Johns.
Cryon, Kerry, and Taren were Initial Johns.
On top of that, Dark Dream had seven Peak Newbies, and three of them would also soon become Johns.
Aside from that, Dark Dream had hired six new employees.
Three of them were Late Newbies, and three of them were Early Newbies.
Nick decided that he would always hire new people in groups of three.
He had noticed that working with the Blood Hawk and Blood Horse was most efficient with three people.
If there were only two people, the number of complaints increased drastically.
Sadly, Dark Dream only managed to get one more Specter this year.
The newest Specter was a strange one.
It was a Possession Specter called the Can.
It looked like a rusty can made of metal, and the fact that Dark Dream managed to get this one was extremely lucky.
One day, one of the Investigators of Dark Dream walked home and saw a can on their way home.
In boredom, they just kicked it.
Tragically, their angle was slightly off, and they basically hit the ground in front of the can, which resulted in their big toe being broken.
Luckily, they could still walk and work.
Some days later, another Inspector was coming home, and they also saw a can.
At that point, they remembered that one of their colleagues had broken their toe while kicking a metal can and laughed.
What if that also happened to them?
With a laugh, they kicked the can.
CRK!
Yet, when they kicked the can, it got stuck in a rusty part of the ground, and the Inspector felt like they hit a pillar of metal.
Naturally, their big toe broke.
In the end, they just looked at the can in absolute shock.
“I refuse to believe that I’m that bad at kicking!” they shouted in anger.
Then, they grabbed the can and walked toward Dark Dream.
After waiting near the entrance for a while, the Inspector grabbed the first Extractor that came out, which was one of the Peak Newbies.
The Inspector said that the Extractor should kick the can.
Naturally, the Extractor was confused and asked what was going on.
The Inspector said that two Inspectors had broken their toes while kicking a can and that they refused to believe that they broke their toes on an ordinary can.
This had to be a Specter!
The Extractor didn’t believe them, chuckled, and kicked the can.
BANG!
Tragically, they missed their kick and hit the hard building, breaking their toe.
“Ah! You see?! I knew it!” the Inspector shouted.
The Extractor just looked with shock at the can.
Then, the two of them waited in front of the entrance for the next Extractor.
The next Extractor that came out was an Initial John, and they asked them to kick the can.
The Initial John was perplexed, but after hearing that three people had already broken their toes, they also became suspicious.
Nervously, the Initial John kicked the can.
BANG!
The Initial John perfectly hit the can, and the can fell over.
The other two looked with surprise at the fallen can.
But then, the Initial John started to grab their feet in pain.
“What the fuck is this thing made of?!” they shouted in horror.
They removed their shoes, and everyone could see a bloody toe.
Everyone just looked with shock at the toe.
The Extractor had perfectly hit the can.
Yet, their toe broke.
The toe of an Initial John broke after kicking a random metal can.
That settled it.
This had to be a Possession Specter!
They immediately threw it into the last free Containment Unit on the second floor and stationed an Extractor in front of it.
The next day, they reported to Nick, and Nick inspected the can.
He kicked it lightly, but nothing happened.
Then, he used more and more force.
The can acted like a normal metal can, except for the fact that it didn’t get dented by Nick’s kicks.
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, Nick gritted his teeth.
Just now, the can had become insanely tough!
Yet, the can also hit the wall of the Containment Unit with a ton of force, and it also received a big dent.
After removing his shoes, Nick looked at his bleeding toe.
Luckily, it wasn’t broken.
This meant that the can was weaker than a Peak Adolescent, but stronger than an Initial Adolescent.
New novel 𝙘hapters are published on 𝙡𝙞𝓫𝙧𝙚𝓪.𝒄𝒐𝓶