Two Cities, I build mecha in Picheng

Chapter 41 Shimmer is our hope (Happy New Year's Eve!)
Black Lane Boundary Quay, the middle of the old cannery.

The scorching flames echoed in the factory along with the sound of hammers beating metal objects. Several punks were forging sawtooths, long swords, machetes and other combat weapons in front of a furnace.

And not far from the forging furnace, a roaring instrument was pouring purple luminescent liquid into small glass test tubes, and then carefully packed into wooden boxes by several other people.

Silko, who passed by here, took a bottle of potion from the box, and called for Vander's men to follow him to the iron bridge on the second floor.

At this time, although Vander had woken up from a coma, his left eye was hit hard by a monster, and his consciousness is still a little dazed.

"Do you know what this is?" Silko held the purple potion and shook it in front of Fandre's only open eyes, "Power."

He uttered a word slowly.

"The strength of our people from the bottom city... With it, we have the ability to compete with the people from the upper city."

"Just, with this?" Fandre's tone was very weak, "A broken bottle of alchemy potion?"

"I named it Shimmer. Even a faint light will be our hope for survival...and you have just seen how powerful it is."

Shirko asked his subordinates to throw Van der beside him, then put his hands on the handrail and looked at the people busy in front of the production of low-light machines downstairs.

Fandre spat out a mouthful of blood, "Heh, even if you raise a group of monsters, you can't beat Piltover... This was the case a few years ago, and it's even more so now."

"I don't need to fight, I just need to scare them."

Hilt's expression was indifferent, and he glanced at Deka who was spitting out purple blood on the second floor, and joked about his bald tattooed subordinates.

"You will kill a lot of people... What are you trying to do? Just to save face?"

"What I'm trying to do is respect!" Shirko emphasized his tone, "I'm still looking for opportunities, and I'm looking for everything that the upper city refuses to give us!"

"You have received the respect I gave you, and the respect of the whole black alley...but you are just not satisfied." Fandre retorted, resisting the dizziness of his head.

Upon hearing this, Silko became furious and pointed angrily at Fandre who had collapsed on the ground.

"We once had a common vision, Van der, we all dreamed of freedom! This is not just for the black alleys, but also for the people of the entire bottom city to unite!"

He slowly squatted down, becoming more and more excited as he spoke:
"Why are we inherently inferior to those in the upper city and should be squeezed by them? Why should the garbage from the upper city be discharged to the lower city? Why should those industrial facilities that produce smog and toxic gases be built in our homes, To poison and erode our people?!"

Many complex emotions flashed across Silko's face, "Have you forgotten the ideal we once promised to make Zaun rise?"

Fandre remained silent, as if recalling the vows he made with him and a bunch of brothers back then.

All for Zaan...

but……

Is that really the right path?

After so many people died without any impact on the upper city, he was always confused.

"I used to trust you so much..." Silko's eyes showed a trace of pain, "And you? You betrayed me."

In Zaun's toxic river, polluted with alchemy and chemical waste, a burly man grabbed a smaller man by the neck and pushed him into the water.

If that thin man hadn't touched the dagger in the dagger holster of the strong man's belt before he died, and severely scratched him...

At this moment, there would be no such person as Shirko.

Van der recalled this unforgettable scene, and a strong sense of guilt arose spontaneously, "I have never been able to forgive myself for the things I did to you, you were my brother..."

Shirko's breath was stagnant, and then he sighed: "No, I think you still don't understand."

He pointed to his scarlet left eye, "Can you imagine that feeling? Can you imagine that your body is polluted by dirty water, and even your nerves are eroded by the poison in the river...

"I just hated what you did to me, but as time passed, this hatred subsided, and I realized a truth in my heart.

"There is only one way to defeat a mighty foe, and that is to be reckless and become the embodiment of their fear."

Hilco paused, gritted his teeth and continued: "I did hate you, but I respected you from beginning to end, until you joined forces with the people of Piltover, willingly serving as lackeys, and completely forgot the suffering we have suffered! "

"I didn't have a choice at the time..." Van der responded weakly.

"Even if it is, but now you have it." Shirko raised the glimmer in his hand, his face gradually returned to indifference, "You and I can finally realize our original dream, brother."

He puts more emphasis on "brother" once.

"You don't understand at all... Hextech is not something we can compete with!"

Van der still had only a hint of fluke, wanting to awaken his brother's conscience.

"Those brothers who once fought against us in the upper city, when they fell in front of you one by one and were ruthlessly massacred by the law enforcement officers, didn't you have any regrets in your heart? Regret that you led them to resist and let them die in vain..."

"For the sake of resistance, for our future, this sacrifice is inevitable, Van der!"

Silko snorted coldly and stood up, beckoning to a subordinate on the side of the iron bridge.

The subordinate slowly pushed open the iron sliding door.

In the room, a seat with welded metal handcuffs and anklets was placed in the center.

"Silk, if you want to kill or cut, I can do whatever you want, but I beg you, let the dark alley go..."

This humiliating plea made Shirko furious, "Would you rather die for your ideals than fight for your ideals?!"

"Heh... I'm no longer the old me..." Fander chuckled, with bitterness and helplessness in his words.

"Then let me awaken your true nature."

Shirko looked away and nodded to the bald tattooed men who came to them.

The bald, tattooed man grabbed Van der's arm, dragged him to a side room, and fixed his hands and feet to the iron shackles on the seat.

"Should we use Shimmer for him now?" After tying it up, the bald tattooed man stood up and asked Silko.

"No, using twilight will restore his injuries and greatly strengthen him, and then no one will be able to stop him." Shirko shook his head, "And, his subordinates will definitely come back to save him..."

Before Shirko finished speaking, he heard a loud bang from the gate of the factory, followed by successive gunshots and a series of screams.

"What happened?" He frowned, feeling a bad premonition in his heart.

Immediately afterwards, a man with a broken arm and half of his body covered in blood staggered to Shirko, and said very weakly:

"Yes, there is a mechanical monster that brought Van der's men in..."

　Happy New Years Eve!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)