Kill the Sun

Nick looked with surprise at Wyntor.

He had thought that Wyntor would maybe give his ticket to him, but when it actually happened, Nick was still surprised.

Nick felt bad accepting something so expensive.

"You just earned us a ton of money," Wyntor said, not looking at Nick. "Just take it."

Nick hesitated, but in the end, he just accepted it.

After all, he also didn't really want to die from his injuries, and despite his current demeanor, he was in quite a lot of pain.

When Nick took the ticket, Wyntor nodded. "Just follow the signs. I'll wait for you in three hours. That's usually how long these baths take. I've had my fair share of them in the past."

'He had his fair share of them?' Nick thought.

Nick doubted that Wyntor had taken a three-hour bath for every minor injury he had ever received, which meant that Wyntor had probably been heavily injured multiple times before.

"Sure, thank you, Wyntor," Nick said.

The next moment, a smile appeared on Wyntor's face. "Have fun," he said again as he walked through one of the doors.

Nick looked at the ticket in his hand with anxiety.

4,800 credits.

He held 4,800 credits in his hand right now.

The most money Nick had ever held in his hands had been 500 after he had finished a quite unsavory job.

4,800 credits was a lot!

Eventually, Nick looked around and found some signs hanging from the ceiling.

Nick's reading comprehension was still weak, but with enough time, he could understand what he was reading.

After wandering around for about three minutes, Nick finally found the entrance to the full-body recovery baths.

Nick slowly opened the door and looked into the room.

It had a couple of lockers and racks for clothing.

"Come in!" a woman shouted with a friendly tone.

Nick awkwardly walked into the room.

He had never been in such a place before.

When the woman in the room noticed Nick's appearance, a pained and apprehensive smile appeared on her face.

Nick just showed her his ticket.

"Right this way, sir," she said with a forced smile as she gestured to one of the doors. "Do you prefer to undertake the cleansing bath with or without clothing?"

"Cleansing bath?" Nick asked. "I thought this is a full-body recovery bath."

The woman just smiled awkwardly. "Sir, it is customary to take a cleansing bath before undertaking a recovery bath. We need you to be clean for the recovery bath to work properly."

"Oh," Nick said. "I'd like to keep my clothing on, then."

"Of course, sir," the woman said as she opened one of the doors to the side. "Please, step inside."

Nick felt out of place, but he followed the woman's instructions.

The room Nick entered was quite small, and he could see five light blue baths.

"Please," the woman said as she gestured towards one of the baths.

Nick awkwardly stepped forward and slowly lowered his body into the bath.

The blue liquid, which didn't feel like water, got pushed out of the bath but was quickly drained.

SSSSSSSS!

The next moment, the water around Nick started to bubble and released sounds akin to boiling water.

It was quite loud.

At the side, the woman's eyes opened widely in shock.

"Wow," she involuntarily commented.

"Oh?" Nick uttered.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just surprised," the woman said. "I've never heard the cleansing bath become this loud before."

"This isn't normal?" Nick asked.

"No, it isn't," the woman said. "The cleansing bath is filled with a liquid that gets used up when it comes into contact with dangerous impurities. The more impurities it comes into contact with, the more liquid gets used up, and when the liquid gets used up, it makes this hissing noise."

"But it's never been this loud before."

"If I may ask, what happened?" she asked.

"I fell into the sewers," Nick said.

"Fell into..." the woman said before she trailed off.

She couldn't imagine falling into the sewers.

How would that even happen?

She had never even seen the sewers in her life.

Naturally, since the normal Outer City didn't have rusty metal grates as their flooring, the woman had never seen or smelled the sewers.

Because of that, she also had no idea just how dirty the sewers were.

However, when she saw Nick relaxing, she decided to stop asking questions.

Right now, except for his heavy injuries, Nick felt great.

"Your body has been cleansed," the woman said. "Do you prefer a quick cleansing shower for your head, or are you fine with taking a quick dive in the bath?"

"I'll take a quick dive," Nick said.

The woman nodded. "About a minute in total should be enough. You can take multiple dives, of course."

Nick nodded back, took a breath, and went underwater.

For the first time, he was actually happy to be submerged in liquid.

Nick couldn't describe just how great this felt.

After a minute, Nick surfaced again.

"Please, step out," the woman said.

Nick did just that, and when he could finally take a good look at his appearance, his eyes widened.

He had never been so clean before in his entire life!

All the stains in his clothing were gone, and his skin felt so smooth!

However, not everything was great.

Nick saw that his skin had started to swell in multiple places.

Apparently, his wounds were already starting to get infected and swollen.

A moment later, Nick heard a shocked gasp, and he turned to the woman.

"I'm sorry," she said with genuine worry and pity. "I'm so sorry."

Nick wasn't sure what she meant.

Since Nick was now clean, the woman could actually see Nick's injuries properly.

Broken bones, destroyed nails, and bleeding cuts all across his body.

It was like Nick had fallen down a staircase made of swords.

"Please, follow me," she said with a slightly urgent voice as she opened the next door.

Nick did just that.

In the next room, he saw 15 green baths, but compared to the previous baths, there were also several pieces of external equipment.

For example, there were breathing masks beside a couple of the baths.

Nick also saw that people were in four of the baths.

"Please, in here," the woman said as she gestured to one of the baths.

Nick walked over and slowly entered the bath.

As soon as he was fully submerged, he started to feel warm.

The next moment, a breathing mask was put on his face, and a hand gently pushed him into the bath.

It took some getting used to, but eventually, Nick managed to acclimate to staying below the surface.

The feeling the bath gave him was so great and warm that Nick felt himself drift away.

And just a couple of minutes later, Nick fell asleep.