The First Sound of Night

"What could possibly be going on? They're not turning on each other, are they?"

Sevika couldn't see that far, but she stopped paddling, hesitating whether to go forward.

Jinx glanced at her in surprise. Instead of mocking her, she seemed a bit bored:

"A few robots glowing blue appeared and, in a few swift moves, killed everyone defending the artillery post."

"Are they the people coming to meet us? Robots? It must be Butler."

Sevika grinned, continuing to paddle and guiding the boat under Piltover's towering walls.

The two jumped off the boat, stepping onto the rocks beneath the wall. Sevika turned her head to Jinx and couldn't help but ask:

"Can you get up there by yourself?"

"This kind of wall? I can do it!"

Feeling Sevika's gaze, Jinx immediately shed her hesitation, her eyebrows slightly raised, a confident smile on her face.

She took a deep breath, pushed off forcefully with her legs, and leaped three meters high, her hand gripping a corroded gap in the city wall. Her other hand reached up, gripping another recessed part of the wall tightly, pulling herself up. Her feet didn't seem to look for footholds, relying solely on her hands to climb, looking very unprofessional.

Sevika watched Jinx's unorthodox climbing style, her brows furrowed slightly, but she said nothing. She, too, leaped high.

Thump!

Her left mechanical arm slammed into the wall, then her right hand took over from her left. Her feet also cooperated, finding leverage, before her mechanical arm continued to chip at the wall and climb.

As the two climbed higher, Jinx found it increasingly difficult.

She still had some physical strength, but she realized there were no more footholds above her.

She had been stuck in a recess for a long time, unable to find the next spot to grip.

At this point, Sevika, who had been climbing steadily, was catching up to her, and her light voice drifted up from below:

"If you can't hold on, I'll carry you. If you all climbed like that, Zaun would have conquered Piltover ages ago."

Jinx snorted, expecting her to start nagging and belittling her again. To her surprise, Sevika explained, uncharacteristically:

"Butler sent me here precisely so you could get up. This city wall was built to prevent us from sneaking in and launching attacks. Below it are countless bodies and bones piled up by our ancestors."

Tightening her grip on the rock in her hand, Jinx pursed her lips and stubbornly said:

"I can do it myself. I don't need your help!"

Looking up, seeing the top less than 10 meters away, she took a deep breath, her gaze filled with unprecedented determination.

She never wanted to be looked down upon again, never wanted to be someone who couldn't accomplish anything!

Gritting her teeth, she pulled with her left hand, leaping upward. Her right index finger slipped into a gap in the wall no wider than a finger, her skin scraping raw without her noticing.

Jinx's eyes darted left and right, desperately searching for the next foothold.

But before she could make her next move, she felt her fingers slip, and she began to fall.

Her face showed a hint of panic. She tried to adjust her posture for the fall, but before she had dropped far, she felt her ankle grabbed, and she was yanked upward, left dangling upside down in mid-air.

"Hold on tight. It's about 20 meters down. Do you want to prove you can't die from a fall?"

Sevika forcibly lifted Jinx, making her lie on her back:

"Don't push yourself too hard. Can you stop acting like a child?"

"I'm not a child!"

Jinx grabbed Sevika's shoulders, keeping herself from falling, and retorted through gritted teeth.

"Hmph, still saying you're not a child. After all these years, when have you not acted impulsively?"

Due to the weight on her back, Sevika's climbing speed slowed, but she continued to ascend steadily:

"When Boss took me in, I was just like you, always thinking I could do anything. But reality told me that in his eyes, I couldn't do anything right."

Jinx wanted to say something mocking, but the words caught in her throat.

"Except for that one time, I don't know what I was thinking, but I risked my life to shield him from an explosion, and my left arm was completely destroyed. That's when I felt like I was useful in his eyes again."

"That day…" Jinx's face showed sadness.

"Yes, the day Vander died, the same day you were abandoned by your sister and cried your eyes out." Sevika's eyes held a memory, but her hands and feet kept moving.

"I don't have a sister!" Jinx's face was filled with anger, her hands gripping Sevika's shoulders tightly.

"See, there you go again, angry like a child, with all your emotions plastered on your face. Your experience is similar to Boss's, but do you know where you differ from him?" Sevika asked with a grin.

"Differ? I don't have his tact?" Jinx's face showed defiance.

She felt her management skills weren't as good as Silco's, but in terms of strength, she was definitely stronger.

"The difference is that you don't dare to face the past. You're called Jinx now, and you've always known where your name came from—your sister calling you 'jinx' (disaster) over and over. Boss is much better than you; he dares to tell you his own story every time."

"He was almost drowned by Vander; he's told that story eight hundred times." Jinx made a face, her eyes betraying boredom.

"Exactly, he dares to tell it 800 times. Do you dare to tell it once? To anyone, even to yourself?"

"Of course I wouldn't... Ha ha ha…"

As she spoke, Jinx's expression changed dramatically.

From initial arrogance to indifference, and finally, a complex laugh.

"Alright, enough with the sentimentality. We're here."

"Remember this, kid: we all have our value. My value is carrying out every order the boss gives. Your value is something you need to find for yourself."

"That day, because you blew up the airship, he yelled at me. But after meeting Mr. Mage and Butler, I understood. I'm just a lowly person. No matter what I do in their eyes, if it's not good enough, it's just not good enough. But you're different. Silco sees potential in you, so I will too, even if you really are useless!"

Sevika adjusted her position, and her mechanical arm pushed hard, swinging her body high enough for her right hand to reach the edge of the city wall.

Finally, she used the momentum to pull Jinx up onto Piltover, hiding behind a coastal defense cannon.

"They were all dealt with easily, but they must be reacting now. We don't have much time."

Sevika looked at the Enforcer bodies strewn across the ground, all with fatal wounds, some even with large indentations in their bodies.

"That's violent. I remember we were supposed to do the demolition here, and this spot is quite a distance from the designated location…"

She walked to the other side of the city wall, her gaze penetrating the bustling Piltover, settling on a tall tower within the city. Her expression wasn't looking too good:

"You've got to be kidding me. It's at least a kilometer from here to that tower."

"I can do it!"

Jinx's face was cold as she slung her rocket launcher onto her shoulder and walked beside Sevika.

"Are you sure? We only get one chance," Sevika asked, doubt on her face.

"Being a bodyguard, that's your specialty. Explosions, that's mine!"

Jinx pointed at herself with her free finger, her eyes holding an unknown color—like enlightenment, like relief, like liberation. Her finger twitched, then she firmly pulled the trigger.

BOOM!!!

Trailing thick smoke, the rocket, amplified by a Hex Gemstone, streaked across the sky with lightning speed.

A kilometer's distance, gone in an instant.

The rocket collided with the tower, and the explosives inside detonated. A massive fireball engulfed the tower, and an earth-shattering sound echoed throughout Piltover.

This sound was the first of the night.

Thanks to "One Page Loss" for the 500 reward.

Currently, during the new book period, there are two stable updates daily, at 12 PM and 7 PM. I'm accumulating more drafts now, and also clarifying the outline. The Twin Cities story will be around 200,000 words, and subsequent arcs will radiate from Noxus to other regions. For now, a lot of time is being spent setting the background timeline for each hero. In this book, most characters are set in the same period, with varying ages. The story will unfold from Ryan's perspective, portraying their individual stories. I'm trying my best to faithfully represent each character, but due to limitations in writing ability, there might be some shortcomings that will require time to refine and corrections from readers.

Thank you to all readers for following along! Thank you for your support!