After opening the door, Nick looked at the other end of the Containment Unit with an uncertain expression.
In one of the corners of the room was a perfectly white and fluffy little dog.
Funnily enough, the dog had been pretty dirty all the time while it had been in the Dregs, but as soon as it arrived here, all the dirt vanished.
'Most likely a camouflaging ability,' Nick thought as he took another deep breath.
The Puppy was lying on the ground and whimpering silently.
The sound made Nick feel like his heart was being torn apart.
The poor thing.
Was it in pain?
However, Nick kept his mind under control and kept telling himself that this was a Specter.
The Puppy might be fluffy, white, cute, adorable…
He had to stay in control.
Nick wanted to do nothing but walk over to hug and comfort it.
He just wanted to tell it that everything was going to be okay.
But Nick kept himself in check.
The Puppy slowly turned its big and wet eyes to look at Nick.
Nick took yet another deep breath and remained stationary.
The Puppy whimpered a bit and slowly started to walk closer.
Then, it stumbled over its feet and fell over with an adorable little yelp.
But it quickly stood up again and moved towards Nick while its tail was wagging slowly and carefully.
There was hope, begging, and loneliness in its eyes.
Nick took another deep breath.
'For now, I should see how much Zephyx it produces the normal way,' Nick thought.
As soon as Nick thought about spending time with the Puppy, he started to feel excited and giddy.
Yet, he kept telling himself that this was a Specter and that he had to be careful.
Nick kneeled down and slowly extended his hand.
The Puppy came closer and sniffed it.
Finally, it rubbed its head on Nick's hand in happiness.
Nick felt like his heart was melting.
It was just so adorable!
Nick slowly picked it up and held it in his arms.
Then, Nick walked to one of the walls, sat down, and combed the Puppy's fur with his fingers.
The Puppy gave off some sounds of happiness and closed its eyes in pleasure.
Nick felt calm inside.
It was so difficult for him to feel calm in his life.
The entire finality and pointlessness of his future still weighed heavily on Nick, and whenever he had a quiet moment, his mind automatically went back to thinking about these things.
There generally was no such thing as calm for Nick.
Either he was doing something, or he was worrying about something.
But here, with the Puppy, Nick felt calm.
He felt content.
It was so nice to be with it.
At that moment, the door opened, and Nick looked over with surprise.
"Boss?" Jenny asked after she opened the door.
"Yes?" Nick asked.
"You asked me to get you after eight hours," she said.
"Yes, I did," Nick said, still petting the Puppy.
Silence.
"Eight hours are over," she said.
Nick's eyes widened in shock.
What?
Hadn't he just sat down?
"Are you serious?" Nick asked.
"Yes, boss, I'm serious," she said with an urgent voice. "It's been eight hours."
Nick took a deep breath and looked at the Puppy.
The Puppy looked at Jenny with curiosity and happiness.
"I gotta go," Nick told the Puppy before he slowly put it to the ground.
The Puppy begged for Nick to stay with its whimpers.
Nick felt terrible for leaving the Puppy alone, but he knew that it was just a Specter.
After some promises to come back, Nick left the Containment Unit, and Jenny closed the door behind him.
When Nick was in the locker room, he took a deep breath.
And that was when he felt his insides shake.
Nick was all too familiar with this feeling.
He had felt this feeling many times while he had been living in the Dregs.
It was the feeling of not having eaten anything for a long time.
It was a feeling of weakness and loss of control as his limbs started to shake.
On top of that, Nick felt a headache coming on.
Luckily, it wasn't nearly as strong as when the Puppy had whimpered.
"Boss? Everything okay?" Jenny asked.
"It's fine," Nick said. "I just feel weak. It's the effect of the Specter."
"If anyone on your team works with it, another person MUST force them to leave. While I was in there, it felt like only ten minutes had passed."
"You have to instruct your people and make absolutely certain that they don't spend more than the allotted time with it," Nick urged.
"I will tell them, Boss," Jenny said.
About four months ago, Nick had made Jenny the team leader of the one and only team of Zephyx Extractors.
Nick wanted to make Trevor the team leader, but Wyntor said that Trevor had to be on the down-low since he would one day become their spy and underground agent.
A team leader was too conspicuous.
Because of that, Nick made Jenny the team leader.
And she had done an excellent job until now.
Her team liked her, and there had been no incidents.
"Let's check how much Zephyx we produced," Nick said as he walked out of the locker room with uncertain steps.
Jenny followed Nick.
After retrieving the container, Nick raised an eyebrow.
"About nine grams," he said. "Not bad. I think we got a good one this time."
"That's quite a lot," Jenny said.
Nick nodded. "I want to test something. Larry is still a Mid Newbie, right?"
Jenny nodded.
"I want him to work eight hours with the Puppy tomorrow. I will instruct him on what to do."
"I suspect that the amount of Zephyx produced is not dependent on the Puppy's level but on the Extractor's level. I want someone on a lower level than me to work with it. Of course, I will stay beside him for the entire duration," Nick said.
Jenny nodded. "I will tell him to go to your office tomorrow."
The next day, Larry worked with the Puppy for eight hours, and just as expected, it only produced about four grams of Zephyx.
The day after that, Nick tested how much the whimpering Puppy produced.
The result was abysmal.
After getting quite injured, Nick didn't even find a single gram of Zephyx in the container.
Some days of experimenting later, Nick finalized the method of working with the Puppy.
The Extractor just had to spend a couple of hours petting it.
The maximum amount of time was set to six hours. Otherwise, the Extractor wouldn't recover by the next work day.
Additionally, only Peak Newbies were allowed to work with the Puppy.
Lastly, the next person scheduled to work with it had to force the person inside to leave punctually at all costs. If they refused, the team leader or Chief Zephyx Extractor had to be informed immediately.
This was the first time that Nick had figured out how to work with a Specter truly on his own without any help.
And it worked.
By now, Nick had become fully used to being the Chief Zephyx Extractor of Dark Dream.
And Dark Dream was making a shitload of credits.
