Cyberzaun, Machinarium

"Long time no see, Mr. Vander. I'm sorry my gift scared you."

Vander nodded and motioned for Inol to sit down. He looked at the little ones who had been standing aside for a while, thought about it, and decided not to let Wei take them out. It was time to let them interact with each other.

"Business is good lately?"

"There's no improvement. Most people in Piltover just want some excitement and buy some new gadgets. Compared to my prosthetic limbs, they prefer to go to Liwek's workshop to customize them."

"I see you are bored to death. I've told you several times before that it's okay for you to make some small things and sell them to Piltover to make some money and start a family soon. Don't always think about your military factory plan. But now look what happens. This thing should not appear in Zaun." Vandel rarely became serious in front of the child.

Enoch put the suitcase aside and was silent for a moment. "Who stipulated that there can be no guns in Zaun? If you want guns, you have to smuggle them? Who stipulated that? The Alchemist Baron? Or Piltover?"

Fandel did not answer directly. The tacit understanding with Piltover was not something worthy of praise.

"I remember telling you that there will be no good results if you continue to fight. If you use a stick, others will use knives. If you walk around the streets with a gun, the law enforcers will use cannons on every Zaun person. Once a conflict occurs, there will be no reconciliation. In the end, one person will definitely fall."

"I don't understand, nor am I good at these compromises and negotiations, but I know that not having and not using are two different things." Enoch didn't understand. Every time they talked about this topic, Vander was always so sensitive and firm.

"I didn't mean to provoke the law enforcers on the street. I just think Zaun should strive for a better environment. Not only has Piltover made a lot of money by occupying the Sun Gate, but why is it also trying to steal the minerals that the Zaun people have worked so hard to mine?"

“Zuan has to learn to stand up on his own”

Vandel pinched his head in pain, "I know you want to make a big move, which is why I rushed across the bridge with my brothers, but have you ever considered how much you will lose? Others trust me, so I have to be responsible for them."

Doesn't he want to make life better? But holding weapons will intensify conflicts and things will inevitably slide into the worst state. This is not speculation, but real personal experience.

"I've lost"

Fandel looked up and stared at Enoch, who raised his hands.

"I crawled out of the gutter. People call me 'Little Finger' because I am very good at moving my fingers through a pile of alchemical waste, digging out some scraps, and then making something useful." Enoch looked at the metal lines on the back of his hand and thought of his life in the first few years after arriving in Zaun.

"Sometimes I wonder, if I were not from Zaun but from Piltover, would I have become the darling of Piltover with my abilities? Would I have become an Evolution Day figure? Instead of rummaging through the chemical recycling waste yard day and night for a little bit of possible gold hex."

"No one is crazy enough to chop off their hands and replace them with mechanical prostheses."

Chapter 4 A resounding name always attracts people

The conversation ultimately came to nothing. Vandel finally did not agree to Enoch's suggestion to distribute the weapons he produced to Zaun. Perhaps he did not want large-scale bloodshed to occur in Zaun, or perhaps he did not want to break the tacit understanding with Piltover. In the end, he just let Enoch go back, and he didn't even look at the boxes he brought.

However, Wei and his small group had a good impression of Enoch. In their opinion, Enoch was obviously a very "Zaan" character.

So, the next morning, before Enoch could open the door normally, he heard Wei banging on the door.

"Open the door, Ino, and tell us what good stuff you got yesterday"

"Some personal works, such as the thermal axe, the electric whip, and a few simple drawings." Enoch welcomed them very much. People with straightforward personalities can get along well anywhere.

"You've come just in time. The things I promised you yesterday have been adjusted. Take them and try them out."

"Wow, this thing is pretty good." Wei excitedly installed the wrist strength enhancement device, and as the device started to spray and charge, he waved his fist and made a few boxing poses to try out his skills.

"I owe you this, Little Finger." Wei nodded with satisfaction. "I'm going to do something big with this thing, and your share will definitely be needed."

"As long as you are happy," Enoch smacked his lips, "By the way, don't call me Little Finger anymore. This nickname sounds more and more unlucky."

"Ha, I understand." Wei hugged Enoch's neck and said, "Instead of calling you 'Little Finger', how about calling you 'Brother Finger'?"

'It's getting worse'

........................

After getting the gloves, Wei is obviously more energetic than before. Unlike before when she only stayed in Fulgrim's Tavern and the middle square, she now often wanders around the dance corridor. A few times, she took people across the bridge to Piltover when no one was paying attention.

As for Enoch's shop - Losrian Technology is about to be renamed Wei's Base No. 2 - according to a familiar pink-haired girl, "You don't have many people here anyway, so we're here to help. Also, I'll protect you in the future."

This really left Enoch speechless. Wei and the others usually came here to sit when it was almost evening. They had never met the few wealthy Piltover clients, but instead helped Enoch clean up.

After a long period of contact, Enoch gradually became familiar with the entire small group. Milo was a bit of a loudmouth and never thought before speaking, while Craig was the most stable one among the four. Sometimes Enoch would entrust Craig to help deliver goods to the bottom city.

The one who surprised Enoch the most was Baobao, a little girl who often hid behind Wei. She seemed to have a natural sensitivity to machinery. Enoch simply taught her some mechanical principles, and she made a clock with a music box to tell time.

If it weren't for the personalized graffiti, Enoch even thought it could be collected as a commodity - this thing eventually fell into Wei's hands, "This is my sister's first work, so of course it counts as my collection" "Also, don't bully my sister."

Since then, Baobao often came to Enoch, asking some questions about alchemical explosions from time to time, and using some scraps to make some "little monkeys".

"I can help," Bomb added a custom paint job to his bomb as usual. "Now let's see how Milo can laugh at me."

By the way, ever since Bakugo showed his talent in mechanics, "Annoying Mello" has been downgraded to "Stupid Mello".

................................................

"May the gears turn forward, gentlemen. How can I help you?" It's a new day again. Evolution Day is approaching. The festive atmosphere in the Dance Corridor is getting stronger and stronger. Business is getting better. Enoch is calculating how much money he can get from the people of Piltover this time.

"You probably hope that the haze won't enter your house. It seems that you get along well with the people of Piltover. Look at the decoration, I thought we were in Piltover." The man was wearing a red suit and was tall and thin. The most eye-catching thing was his scarlet left eye.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Hilco. I'm from Bocheng and I run a pharmaceutical business in the dock area." After closing the door, the man who called himself Hilco sat in the high-backed chair specially prepared for guests in the store with his hands crossed, as if he was the owner of the place.

"I'm here to discuss future business with you, Enoch 'Little Finger' of the Dance Corridor."

"Losrien welcomes all friends, Hilco... Baron." Enoch lowered the door curtain and activated the charging of the mantis blade to ensure that the damage could cut the opponent in half.

This attitude shows that this person is not a good person.

"I am not the Alchemist Baron. Like you, I am a Zaun who crawled out of the Undercity. It's just that we have both made some achievements in our respective fields."

As he spoke, Hilco took out a cigar from his jacket pocket and handed it to Enoch.

"No thanks, I'm not interested in that stuff"

"It's understandable. We all want to do what interests us, but in Zaun, people like us may not have so many choices." Hilco looked Enoch up and down, lingering on his hands for a few extra seconds.

"Whatever we do, we have to see if Lady Piltover agrees. If she doesn't like us, she will immediately send law enforcement officers to come down and yell at us, which will eventually ruin the livelihood of the Zuan people."

"This is what I understood when I followed Fandel to Piltover."

"Are you a survivor?" Enoch asked

"To be exact, we are losers. The last time we attacked Piltover, we were just passionate and wanted to discuss an explanation with the councilors. Obviously, we were not well prepared."

Enoch frowned. The pain from the last attack on Piltover was not so easy to dissipate. Few people even mentioned it in places like Fulgrim's Tavern. And this Hilco... didn't seem to be affected by the failure.

Or rather, that failure affected him more than anyone else.

"Of course, Upper City was indeed frightened. The past few years have been much better than before. Everyone is immersed in their own little lives, calculating how much they can earn every day. It seems that everyone has forgotten that they are still wearing a dog leash around their necks by Piltover."

Hilco took a deep breath, and the smoke he exhaled made his scarlet left eye look even more terrifying.

"I'm deeply sorry for what you've been through. I can personally donate 10,000 gold hexes to your cause." Enoch felt like something was seriously wrong.

Damn it, he just managed to gain a foothold in the Dance Corridor, why did he get into so much trouble? Listen to what he said, about Piltover and the Enforcers, he wouldn't want to irritate the nerves of both sides again.

Enoch now really hopes that Hilco will take the money and leave, as he is not suitable for struggle.

"Gold is a fickle friend. Everyone loves it, but what Zaun lacks is not money, but power." Hilco leaned forward. He could see that the sly guy in front of him didn't want to continue the topic which sounded more and more dangerous.

But look at the drawings and ideas he provided to Vandal.

"Littlefinger" is not a peaceful guy. He is different from the little guys in Fulgrim's Bar who are only concerned with playing gang games. He has a longer-term goal and he sees the danger of Piltover.

"Zaan can do without weapons, but it cannot be without weapons... You said this to Vander, right?" Hilko admitted that he liked Enoch a little bit. He saw a bit of Vander and his own shadow. He was ambitious, but also knew the rules.

"I'm here to help you, Mr. Enoch. I have a factory in the dock area. Perhaps you can realize your design there."

"I'm very interested in your proposal. Why don't you tell me about it? Let's start with the most basic Kalash-Nebery personal defense system."

"I remember you were very fond of this design."

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Chapter 5: The Fox's Visit

Enoch sat up suddenly from his chair. To be honest, he felt a little embarrassed when he suddenly heard about the so-called personal defense system.

He did prepare an ultimate patchwork plan full of plagiarism, nonsense, and data falsification.

But that was designed by Enoch just after he climbed out of the chasm, in order to find a way to get sponsorship and a shelter. Except for the real drawings of the weapons, the whole plan was promoting crisis theory.

Basically, every paragraph tries to bring Piltover into the story. The whole story is filled with: "Piltover is dangerous", "The Piltover people will continue to exploit the Zaun people", "Piltover will use production machinery to replace the Zaun people and take away the last job opportunities in Zaun", "Piltover is constantly violating human rights".

In the first few years, Enoch sold the "Piltover Threat Theory" so wildly that half of the people in the alley were wondering what the Piltover guys had done to him.

You know, although Zaun and Piltover did not get along, the attack on Piltover that just happened had calmed both sides down a lot - half of the most radical people in Zaun died on the bridge, and the rest were pacified by Vandal. Piltover was also afraid that social unrest would affect logistics operations, so it slightly loosened the rope that was tightening on Zaun.

Later, when Enoch saved enough money to buy a shop in the Dance Corridor near Piltover, Benso came once to test the waters and persuade Enoch to look forward and live a good life.

The old drunkards in Fulgrim's Tavern even opened a private betting - betting on when Littlefinger would carry a bag of explosives and die together with the Piltover people.

Although the plan just mentioned made Enoch feel as embarrassed as if his classmates had read his QQ space messages in his previous life, he was still secretly happy to hear others praising him. He even felt a little bit of recognition.

Obviously, Hilco had thought seriously about Enoch's plan and knew what he was talking about.

Compared to the chainswords, beam sabers, apocalypse tanks, CMC power armor and other fancy things that Enoch once boasted about to others but were extremely in line with the aesthetics of Zaun, both the AK series automatic rifles and the pump-action spray guns based on the Nebery M3 were too simple, but more suitable for Zaun.

The former is simple in design, durable and easy to repair; it shows extremely strong stability in various extreme environments, and its firepower far exceeds the mainstream lever rifle currently in service in Piltover.

The latter has a variety of ammunition types and is more suitable for the narrow terrain of Zaun. Most importantly, the lower limit of the use of pump-action weapons is extremely low, and basically only half a day of training is required to achieve stable results.

But no matter how these two weapons adapt to the Zaun environment, there is one problem that stands in the way of everyone who is interested in them.

"Vandel won't agree to that unless you just want a few for your personal collection." Enoch sat back down. "This thing is more eye-catching than you think."

Hilco sneered: "I don't want to comment on Vander's code of conduct. I just want to talk about you now."

"You have extraordinary talent. Look at your works. You can easily complete designs that Zaun's tinkers dare not even think of. In your eyes, Piltover's inventions are no secrets."

"You have the power to change the world, but you choose to stay in this little room, making a living by doing small repair jobs.

What you lack is not something as simple as investment or a processing plant. To tell you the truth, the alchemy barons are very optimistic about your work. As long as you are willing to bend down a little, you can get everything a Zaun person can imagine. "

"What you lack is motivation. Fandel protects the Black Alley very well. It is a suitable garden for the little guys under him. But you are different. You are now living in an upper-class neighborhood in Zaun and leading a decent life, but don't forget that you crawled out of the chasm. Your fangs and claws are not so easy to sharpen."

Hilco stared at the silent Enoch. He knew that all he needed to do was light a flame, and then Enoch's hidden heart would burn like wildfire.

“There is a monster hidden in each of us. Sometimes it is greedy and aggressive, and sometimes it takes a rest. But remember, don’t let your monster die completely.”

After a long silence, Enoch finally spoke. His eloquence, which was usually good at selling, became unusually awkward. "What do you want to do after all this talk? My studio is enough to produce my designs. I don't need any investment."

"I want to talk about your inner thoughts. We are all very dissatisfied with Zaun under Piltover's supervision, so why can't we stand up for Zaun?"

Enoch was surprised. "You want to attack Piltover?"

Hilco stood up and admired the mechanical design hanging on the wall. "What I want is the respect of Piltover."

"No matter how loudly we complain in the Underworld, Piltover won't listen. If we want the councilors in the Upper City to know the suffering of the Underworld, we have to confront them head-on."

"It's not that I choose to go against Piltover, but with the 'help' of Piltover, Zaun has no other choice."

"That's enough. If you don't need me to fix anything for you, please go back." Enoch gestured to see him off.

"I'm just a tinker. I shouldn't get involved in big events like Piltover. I'm not interested. If you have anything to say, go talk to Vandall."

Enoch walked to the door and opened it, thinking about sending the plague god away quickly. "We all listen to Vander in this area. It's useless for you to tell me... Damn it, I'm not even an adult yet."

As Hilco walked out, he inserted a card into Enoch's shirt pocket. "In the city, anyone who can support himself is considered an adult."

"If you've figured it out, come find me here. I have a guy who studies biological agents. Maybe you two can get along. One more thing, I suggest you go to the rift from time to time. You've been staying in the dance corridor for too long. You smell like a lackey of Piltover."

"I live for myself and don't need you to tell me what to do. I respect Fandel. He saved me and I won't betray him."

Hilco didn't care. He just took out a hat from somewhere and put it on his head. "It seems that my guess was right. You haven't been down there for a long time. Normally, the people of Zaun don't express their dissatisfaction like this. They would have used fists a long time ago."

"I hope you can take some time to think about it carefully. I am always here to welcome you."

........................

"Have you talked to that young man you like? Where is he?"

"We talked about it, but he rejected me for now,"

"It's normal. Look at your face. Who would like to listen to you nagging?"

“Everyone will hesitate at the crossroads, but all I am waiting for is a gentle push from the outside.”

Ps:

Thanks to Klinbia for the monthly ticket