Kill the Sun - Chapter 656

Chapter 656 – Meat Cube City

The first city Nick went to was called Meat Cube City, which was named after its most powerful Specter, the Meat Cube.

The Meat Cube grew more powerful by absorbing meat, no matter where it came from.

Naturally, there were different ways of working with that Specter and different ways one could get the meat.

For example, the Meat Cube could be handled the same way as the Corpse Mountain in Crimson City. If the city just threw all of the dead people into it, things wouldn't be horrible.

However, this was a city controlled by Lust.

It did not require a lot of creativity to find how Lust and meat production were connected.

While, on the surface, Meat Cube City acted like a normal city, its darkness reached deep.

Aegis could deal with starving and dehydrating people. As long as the cities delivered their tribute, Aegis wouldn't get involved.

However, if Aegis found out what was actually happening in this city, Aegis would very quickly replace the local government.

Meat Cube City had around 9,000 people in total of which about 4,500 were women, of which around 2,500 were adults, of which 1,500 were currently pregnant.

Yes, 60% of all adult women in the city were currently pregnant.

If one looked at the city from the outside, one would think that the city was about to undergo a population boom.

The future looked bright.

Didn't it?

Sadly, this wasn't the case.

Living in the city was quite expensive, but almost all the women had quite good lives.

That was due to their high social status in this city.

That was because women could grow meat that didn't cause irreparable damage to their bodies when removed securely.

Men couldn't produce meat.

Technically, it was illegal to "donate meat" to the biggest Manufacturer due to the ethical concerns.

However, the guards blatantly ignored the law.

They didn't care, and they were not supposed to care.

About seven months after conception, a "meat donor" would visit the biggest Manufacturer.

There, she would come into contact with a Specter that grew more powerful by ending pregnancies.

The reason why it generally happened after seven months was because the "meat" would be quite big while not being big enough to endanger the donor's life when removed. Nôv(el)B\jnn

After the life of the growing meat had been ended, the donor would go to the meat remover, who would compress the donation into a long flesh stick, which ensured easy and safe removal.

Finally, the donation would be thrown into the Meat Cube, while the meat donor would be handsomely rewarded.

Women living in the city had quite a lot of amenities.

They had regular baths, didn't need to hunger, had a good house, didn't need a job, and so on.

Of course, only the women who secretly donated meat from time to time could afford such luxuries.

Most men had a lower standing than the meat donors in Meat Cube City.

They had to work a brutal number of hours while still living worse than the meat donors.

These 3,000 adult men essentially did almost all the work for all 9,000 people in the city.

For the first couple of days, Nick inspected the city and gathered intel.

He quickly realized that the city was above average in Zephyx production but below average in Extractor power.

It seemed like the biggest Manufacturer essentially had a monopoly, with the second-biggest Manufacturer only having three Experts.

They didn't even have any Specialists.

The biggest Manufacturer only had two Heroes, but both of them were Early Heroes.

Surprisingly, they didn't even have ten Specialists.

It seemed like the number of Fanatics they controlled was very low.

This was a city that fully relied on the Meat Cube as its support, which was rare.

For example, if the Crimson Fungus in Crimson City suddenly got destroyed, the city would still have the Plague Eagle as a Demon while also having almost 20 Fanatics.

The Zephyx output would drop, but the city would still be able to pay the tribute, albeit with a bit less luxury.

However, if the Meat Cube died here, the city's entire economy would collapse.

Over 60% of the produced Zephyx came from the Meat Cube, which was shocking.

The Governor was also only an Early Hero.

From what Nick had found out, the Governor used to be the CZE of the biggest Manufacturer in the city.

The old Governor "died to a Specter".

Aegis did not find out what exactly happened to the old Governor and quickly appointed a new Governor.

Back then, there had still been two major Manufacturers.

Well, after the new Governor took over, that quickly changed.

The city dramatically changed over the decades until it became what it was today.

After learning all of this about the city, Nick searched for Lust's agent.

It was important to find out who worked for Lust.

Otherwise, if Nick dealt with Lust's influence but Lust's emissary survived, the city would just revert to its old state.

After spying on every important person for about two months, Nick could finally confirm who the emissary was.

It was the Specter that grew more powerful by killing unborn babies.

Just like in Black Mine City, that Specter had the power to control the Meat Cube.

Surprisingly, the Meat Cube was not a Possession Specter but a Physical Specter with the intelligence level of a relatively dumb mammal.

Lust domesticated it and told it to listen to the other Specter.

This was similar to Black Mine City, except that both Specters were publicly known as Specters.

They were essentially hiding in plain sight.

However, that wasn't everything.

The Governor was also in on it, and compared to Black Mine City, he wasn't antagonistic to the current emissary of Lust.

They worked together.

After learning all of this, Nick came up with a very simple plan.

It was actually pretty easy to deal with all of this.