Nick traveled forward a bit, and a couple of seconds later, he noticed another hole.
One of the grips had been torn out of the ceiling again, but this one was different.
The others were torn out straight, basically just creating four long crevices near the edges, making them look rather symmetrical.
This one, on the other hand, was uneven.
Nick touched more of the ceiling in front of him.
Another grip was missing.
He leaned forward and found that a third one was missing as well.
Then, he stretched forward to the limit and found a grip.
He tested it out a bit and noted that it was still very stable.
Nick let go of the grips near his feet and used the distant grip to swing him to the other side.
'That explains things,' Nick thought with a smirk.
He could imagine what had happened.
The perpetrator had been walking back to the center when Nick's spear hit them.
Since Nick couldn't put a lot of power into the throw, the spear couldn't destroy the Barrier and was diverted to the Crimson Sea.
However, the spear's kinetic force was so strong that the grips the perpetrator was holding were torn out of the ceiling.
They started to fall, screamed, spun in the air, saw the Crimson Sea, laughed, and fell into the Crimson Sea.
'It was the voice of a man,' Nick thought. 'It was probably that tall guy from earlier.'
That also explained why the tall guy didn't blow up his little conflict with Nick.
He didn't want to ruin Nick's life by damaging his own reputation.
No, he wanted to kill Nick without damaging his own reputation.
At least, that was what Nick thought had happened.
Some seconds later, Nick reached the end of the ladder and dropped down.
He was immediately greeted by several guards glaring at him with their guns pointing at his face.
The assistant was behind the guards and also glared at Nick.
"We saw someone falling from your lane. Explain!" the assistant demanded.
Nick wasn't surprised.
The place with the funny grips was at the halfway mark of Nick's ladder, and the place from which the guy fell was near the first 20%.
He was probably not even five meters away from the platform when he fell.
"They tried to kill me first," Nick said without any guilt. "I only repaid the favor."
"What happened?" the assistant demanded.
"I was building my ladder when I heard several noises of tearing metal," Nick said. "I turned around to check and found several grips on my ladder missing. I had no way back. I'm certain that these grips didn't just fall out randomly."
"How did you manage to get back?" the assistant asked.
"My ability, which I will not reveal," Nick said.
The assistant looked at Nick for a while longer.
"Wait here. Don't let him leave!" the assistant ordered.
The next moment, he jumped up and quickly moved down Nick's lane.
Naturally, the assistant was also a Zephyx Extractor.
Nick just looked at the guards in front of him.
Over two minutes passed.
And then, the assistant came back and landed on the platform.
He looked at the guards and motioned for them to put their guns away.
"The story checks out," the assistant said.
"We also heard the sounds of metal you were referring to. Additionally, I found the place with the missing grips, and I also found the ladder being continued behind it."
"Lastly, there was no reason for anyone to be on your ladder. He probably didn't worry about coming out of your ladder since nobody pays attention to who comes from which ladder."
"I am comfortable with dropping this issue," the assistant said.
It was not surprising that the assistant managed to reach the place where Nick had been left to die.
Since he had gotten this job, it most likely meant that he had some kind of ability that allowed him to traverse the underside of the city without the grips.
However, Nick wasn't really paying attention to the assistant.
Right now, Nick was looking at someone with a surprised expression.
Near the central support, someone was eating from a piece of white bread.
It was the tall guy!
'But, didn't he die just now?' Nick thought in shock.
'I heard a man's scream, and he's the only one with a motive!'
'But then, how can he be here?!'
As Nick looked at the man, the man glanced back.
Nick couldn't tell what the man was feeling or thinking.
He was just glancing at Nick with a neutral expression.
There was no smile, anger, sadness, or whatever.
'Was it one of his friends?' Nick thought.
'Was it someone else?'
'What is going on?'
"Go fix your ladder."
Nick was taken out of his thoughts and looked back at the assistant, who was holding out another sack of grips.
"Fix the two big holes in your ladder, and you can go home," the assistant said.
The guards had already gone back to their usual positions.
Nick threw another glance at the big man, who was consuming the white bread.
At that moment, the man furrowed his brows.
Nick wasn't sure what the man was thinking about.
"Sure," Nick said as he absentmindedly grabbed the sack of grips.
He also grabbed a new bag of nails and went back to his ladder.
'Who tried to kill me?' Nick thought.
'The Spartans have been my only enemies, but they have been destroyed, and I am certain that they don't know that it was me who destroyed their headquarters.'
'It's also not some kind of powerful Extractor since only Johns are working here.'
'I also don't think it's some kind of old enmity or whatever since everyone is still busy adjusting to their new lives. It would be very strange if anyone chose this moment to get rid of me.'
'Who was it?'
'Who wants me dead this time?!'
Sadly, Nick couldn't think of anyone.
The only two suspects were the tall man and the woman from the Spartans, but none of them could have been it.
The tall man was still alive, and the voice of the person who fell down wasn't nearly girly enough to belong to the woman.
Nick had no idea who would want him dead and why.
