CHAPTER 79 - Troubles
Upon returning to The Last Drop, Li Lin discussed the upcoming plans with Vander and had a playful moment with Powder.
As he was about to leave, Sevika, who had been smoking outside, called him. "Sevika? What's up?"
"I want to talk about Vander," she said, flicking her cigarette away and crushing it underfoot.
Li Lin recalled that he had wanted to advise Vander earlier but was stopped by Sevika. "You didn't let me finish earlier..."
Sevika lit another cigarette, gesturing towards the tavern. "By now, you should have noticed."
Li Lin looked inside through the murky glass windows.
Vander, who had just served drinks to the customers, returned to the bar. Powder, excitedly playing with a rabbit plush, along with Vi, Claggor, and Milo, were enjoying their filled glasses of juice.
In his gentle gaze, there was only kindness and affection left.
If one didn't know beforehand that this middle-aged man with a full beard was the leader of the Undercity and a former leader of the Day of Ashes, it would be hard to imagine.
"Since Vander picked up Vi and Powder on the Day of Ashes and later adopted Claggor and Milo, he has completely lost his former sharpness," Sevika said, exhaling smoke and shifting her gaze away. "I don't know why you want to help the Undercity, but I agree with one thing—you should let Vander unify Zaun and become the sole authority."
"Your idea is excellent, and I initially had hope for him too. However..." She sighed slightly. "He has a new goal now; he won't lead us as he did before."
"So, what you're saying is..."
Inside Infinite Armor, Li Lin's eyelids twitched, and he roughly guessed what Sevika wanted to say.
"Go find Silco."
...
...
Time passed swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, it was spring of the following year.
Over the past two or three months, more and more people in both the southern and northern districts of Piltover had taken to bicycles. Even many well-off Zaunites had purchased this novel means of transportation.
Although bicycles were categorized into different price ranges based on their production quality, the most expensive ones cost only a dozen silver wheels. This price could buy only three Hextech batteries.
The cheapest ones sold for only two silver wheels, an amount affordable for the average working class, even if it meant scrimping for a month or two.
Affordable, convenient, and a new and stylish product—no one could resist such a means of transportation.
Just the profits from bicycles brought Li Lin considerable wealth.
Not to mention the first batch of mechanical wristwatches he had put into production and publicly sold to the major families. Within half a day, they were sold out.
Carried out in Li Lin's name, this money was securely stored in the safest bank vault in the Yellow Road Subterrane of Piltover, with a password known only to him.
In addition, led by the Kiramman family, many families, including Medarda, Ferros, Salo, and Hoskel, jointly invested in the first thermal power plant in Piltover, which was under construction in the outskirts of the city.
Because Zaun had abundant coal mines, coal-powered power generation was the best choice at present.
However, the control of the Sun Gates was in the hands of Jago, the head of the Medarda family. If they wanted to develop hydroelectric power, they needed his consent.
The Kiramman family was currently negotiating with the Medarda family on this matter.
During this time, Li Lin wasn't idle.
In addition to supervising the construction of the tidal power station in the Depths of Zaun , during his free time, he researched auxiliary electronic chips for use inside his power armor.
Before that, he had introduced the wired telephone from Earth.
With just a seemingly ordinary metal device and a wire, people separated by several rooms could communicate with each other.
And this was just the initial version, causing Cassandra and Tobias to be amazed at Li Lin's inventiveness for quite a while.
After explaining the usage of the telephone and his plan to popularize it throughout the Twin Cities, Cassandra immediately used the Message Transmission Tube to contact investors from other families.
Hearing that this invention was once again from Li Lin, especially for the Medarda and Ferros families, they agreed to invest without hesitation.
Soon, the first telephone exchange was under construction, and the first batch of wired telephones entered production.
It wasn't just Li Lin who achieved remarkable success during this time; Jayce and Viktor's research also made breakthroughs.
Firstly, Jayce, who had been researching the Hex Gates, could now use a few Hextech energy crystals to teleport small objects a short distance.
Although the distance was only over ten meters, and the teleported object was limited to the size of a palm, it was enough to prove that his idea was feasible.
Therefore, the Kiramman family and the Piltover University increased their investment in him.
He even gained the attention of a prominent investor from the Ferros family, a distinguished individual named Yabus Ferros.
On Viktor's side, through his improvements to fully automate mechanical devices and the integration of Hextech energy crystals, he successfully developed Hextech robots that were more intelligent than chemtech robots , albeit not as advanced as Li Lin had envisioned.
However, considering Piltover's overall technological level stuck in the steam power era without intelligent chips, Viktor's invention was a breakthrough for the times.
As a result, Viktor was officially recognized by the academy, shedding his assistant role to become a lecturer at Piltover University.
While his inventions could have directly earned him a professorship, his age and experience fell short for the time being.
Nonetheless, Viktor was content.
The chime of the clock in the Undercity rang for the second time, marking the end of Piltover's midday break at two o'clock in the afternoon.
Li Lin donned the Infinite armor and descended into the depths using a public Hexdraulic Conveyors.
As his reputation had become well-known among major families, they vied for his favor, even issuing orders to build elevators and refusing to accept any payment from him.
After about an hour, the elevator stopped at the upper level of the Undercity, also its final destination.
The middle and lower levels of the Undercity were mostly occupied by mines, garbage heaps, and sewage areas.
Those who ventured there were only miners and scavengers, and they couldn't afford the elevator fee. The families that built the elevators didn't want to waste money needlessly.
Li Lin walked alone from the elevator, heading straight to the northeast where the Tide Power Plant was under construction.
He hired Huck as a foreman and a few robust chemtech augmented brawlers to protect the construction site.
Of course, Huck couldn't read blueprints or understand what a power station was. Li Lin sought him out simply because he was Vander's henchman and was familiar with the Undercity.
And his task was only to watch over the construction site to prevent construction materials from being stolen by daring scavengers and Undercity orphans.
As he arrived at the construction site shortly, the scene before him caused his brows to furrow involuntarily.
A group of at least fifty individuals, armed with knives, swords, and firearms, surrounded his construction site, constantly hurling profanities and curses.
Among them were reinforced individuals enhanced by chemtech augments.
If it weren't for Li Lin's precautions, such as erecting reinforced walls and iron gates around the construction site, this clearly hostile group would likely have already breached it.
Relying solely on a frail and hunched Huck and the hired muscle, they were completely incapable of handling this situation.
Which chem-baron was behind this?
Li Lin's heart sank. His gaze instantly turned cold, and he quickened his pace towards the iron gate of the construction site.
Seemingly recognizing his Power Suit, dozens of thugs immediately aimed their weapons at him, displaying fierce expressions.
Before Li Lin could speak, Huck's anxious and terrified voice echoed from inside: "Mr. Li Lin! You finally came..."
"Don't worry, leave the rest to me."
Li Lin reassured Huck slightly, then turned to face the group of individuals. His gaze finally locked onto a robust man, seemingly the leader.
The man's entire body bore marks of Chemtech modifications, and a verdant alchemical potion coursed through conduits into his body. In his right hand, he tightly gripped a specially modified katana.
"I am Muneyama Keita. You're Li Lin, the one investing in this construction, right?"
Muneyama Keita took a few steps forward, pointing his custom-made katana at Li Lin with an arrogant tone.
"This is the territory of Baron Takeda, the Chem-Baron of this area. If you want to work here, you need to pay a protection fee of 100 Golden Hexes to us first!"
(End of the Chapter)
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