Good Luck, Summoner

"Li Ke, this is the last time I'm warning you."

"If you can't pay back what you owe, then you'd better get ready to fight in the ring for the Ci Mu Gang. I really don't have time to keep dealing with you. How many extensions have I given you by now?"

Li Ke got up from the wooden plank bed and rubbed his head, staring blearily ahead. The tall, thin man in front of him was still talking.

"We did grow up together, but money is money, and friends are friends."

"That's all I have to say, Li Ke. Think it over." The man paused. His tone softened, losing its edge, and he said sadly, "Li Ke, the days when Black Alley belonged to us are over. Join them. There's nothing wrong with that. We're all just trying to survive. Black Alley isn't Black Alley anymore."

After saying that, the man didn't wait for Li Ke to respond. He turned, took a couple of steps, and opened the door. Before leaving, he tossed a bag onto the table. It clinked as it landed.

Li Ke finally came out of his daze. He rubbed his throbbing temples and looked around, bewildered.

The cramped sheet-metal shack was only a few square meters. Apart from a wooden plank bed, a small table, and a few items of clothing on top of it, there was nothing else in the room.

"Zaun."

"Malson. The Ci Mu Gang."

As his memories gradually cleared and the migraine-like pain faded, Li Ke's mouth fell open.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"I'm in Zaun? Piltover's above? This is Runeterra?!"

He shot to his feet and stared down at his hands.

"I—I was at home playing Riven, wasn't I? How is this possible?"

"Did I get transported to another world?"

"I've been transported to Runeterra?"

"And of all places, I ended up in Zaun?"

The curse slipped out before he could stop it. Li Ke could barely keep his emotions in check.

As the memories finished settling in, Li Ke gained a whole new understanding of the "real Zaun."

It was nothing like the online jokes about being a Mama Hunter from Zaun. The real Zaun, especially at this point in time, could only be described as dangerous and chaotic. No—that wasn't enough. Maybe "hell" was a better word.

At least, for a young man who'd received nine years of compulsory education and grown up with well-rounded values, life in Zaun was damn inhuman. This place was an abyss, a bottomless pit. Almost no one who fell into it ever managed to climb back out.

But Li Ke adapted remarkably quickly. First, he picked up the bag Malson had left behind. Inside was a pouch of coins. There weren't many, but they were enough to get him through the next few days.

"Malson..."

Li Ke's expression turned complicated.

Thinking back to what Malson had said, Li Ke couldn't help sighing. His predecessor had hated Malson, thinking he'd abandoned their ideals and forgotten Vander. But in truth, Malson had done more than enough. If not for him, Li Ke would've been captured by those Ci Mu Gang thugs and thrown into the Sump to scavenge through trash.

No one chose to become a Sump scavenger unless they had no other option. Wastewater from Piltover flooded Zaun's underground. Toxic fumes rose from metal runoff and industrial waste; without protective gear, they could kill you in minutes.

"Phew."

Li Ke pushed open the door and stepped outside. He lived in a huge sheet-metal shack, one of many ramshackle homes crammed into an alley. Holding onto the rust-covered railing, he made his way down the unstable metal stairs, which creaked with every step. At the bottom, he walked out of the alley and saw Zaun.

The gray-green smog was acrid and foul. Li Ke couldn't help holding his breath. Without the flickering neon lights, he would've had a hard time seeing the path ahead.

Worse, the smog was filled with tiny metal particles. Breathing it into his lungs brought a scorching, unbearable sensation.

How did the Zaunites survive in an environment like this?

Had they all evolved a second pair of lungs?

Li Ke couldn't help wondering.

But what he needed to think about now was how to make money. As Malson had said, this was his last chance. If Li Ke couldn't repay the gang, he had only two options: become a Sump scavenger, or end up as a corpse in pieces, picked up by Sump scavengers after losing a fight in the ring.

Taking a deep breath, Li Ke tried to find temporary work in Zaun, following what he remembered.

At night, Zaun's streets grew even more chaotic. Ever since Vander's death, Black Alley had descended into madness. Silco had taken over and introduced all kinds of nightlife.

That nightlife hadn't made Black Alley any better. It had only made the place more disorderly. On the streets, you could see drug addicts getting high and old drunks who'd been thrown out of bars, now being groped by a gang of thugs at the roadside. Beneath the flashing neon signs, scantily clad women called out loudly to passersby.

Li Ke walked back to his shack along one such street.

There was no need for a lock or a key. Just leave the door wide open. A lock would only make the place a target for the gangs. Leaving the door open and letting them come in and rummage around would put them off. There was nothing worth finding anyway.

So this was life in Zaun.

Li Ke lay on the wooden plank bed, staring blankly.

He really did adapt quickly. In less than half a day, he'd accepted everything that had happened. Even so, he still felt uneasy.

Being a transmigrator and knowing a little about the future had done him no good at all. In Zaun, might and money ruled. Violence and chaos held sway. There was nowhere for wisdom and technology to take root.

Could he really survive in a place like this?

He'd spent the entire day looking for work and hadn't found anything suitable. There were no steady jobs left in Zaun. Violence had taken over everything, industry was in decline, and the whole place was sliding back into savagery.

The timeline he'd arrived in was that of War of Two Cities—the main universe timeline, as the designers had made clear. He'd arrived a few years after Vander's death, when Silco had officially taken over Black Alley and begun consolidating control over Zaun.

The future held a war between Piltover and Zaun. Li Ke remembered Jinx firing a rocket at the end of Season One. No need to say more: Zaun could only expect brutal retaliation from Piltover.

Piltover's retaliation? There was no way Zaun could withstand it.

High technology against melee weapons, the rich against the poor. Li Ke couldn't imagine how Zaun could win that war.

Maybe he should just get out of here early.

Run to Demacia. If there was one country in Runeterra that treated ordinary people best, it had to be Demacia. It was powerful and didn't exploit the lower classes. Ordinary people had little chance to rise in society, but at least they wouldn't be forced to serve as cannon fodder and sent off to die on a battlefield, right?

Li Ke knew his own limits. He had no idea how an ordinary person like him, armed with only some stories about heroes and a few bits of future knowledge he'd picked up online, could survive in this chaotic, dangerous world.

As he thought about it, Li Ke gradually grew drowsy.

Lying on the bed, Li Ke closed his eyes.

He hoped more than anything that when he woke up, he'd discover that everything he'd experienced that day had been a dream.

He fell asleep.

In his dreams, Li Ke vaguely heard some indistinct voices.

The voices grew louder, then clearer.

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[Entering Soul Blossom--]

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[Good luck, Summoner.]