During this time, Li Ke really had moved in with Jinx. During the day, he went out looking for work, and actually managed to find a job hauling cargo at the docks. The owner of the merchant ship was from Ionia. Seeing that Li Ke had a friendly face and none of the outlandish tattoos Zaunites usually sported, he thought Li Ke looked just like an Ionian and hired him to help out.
But it was, after all, a merchant ship from outside Zaun. Li Ke only worked there for two days before the owner left with his cargo. Fortunately, thanks to his strength—which didn't match his appearance—Li Ke received an extra reward from the owner. It was enough to keep him and Jinx going for a while longer.
Aside from that, Li Ke also took a good look at the Golden Finger he'd brought with him.
Of course, he didn't dare descend into Soul Blossom again. Instead, he carefully studied how to get more chances to descend. Inside the Soul Blossom space, he spotted a new box that looked like an Energy Bar. Once the white bar filled up, he would get one chance to descend.
When he'd first discovered it, Li Ke hadn't known how to replenish the bar. The strange thing was, though, that it was slowly filling up. The progress was painfully slow, but it was definitely increasing. That meant the bar replenished itself while Li Ke was in the Material Realm.
But what had he done to make it replenish?
After investigating for a while, Li Ke discovered that it was emotions.
The Energy Bar in the Soul Blossom space filled up by absorbing the emotions of people in the Material Realm. Human emotions that welled up from the depths of the soul—sadness, joy, anger—all replenished its energy.
This discovery filled Li Ke with excitement. The Soul Blossom Golden Finger was the key to whether he could live safely in this world. Now that he'd found a way to replenish his chances to descend, all he had to do was avoid Thresh, and he could keep growing stronger in the Material Realm.
So he kept investigating. Then Li Ke noticed something strange.
The emotions other people gave off seemed to fill his Energy Bar... far less than when he was just lying at home.
He'd spent an entire afternoon outside, passing by and encountering hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Though he hadn't gotten close to them, he'd made a point of approaching those with intense emotional fluctuations. But the bar had filled up far less than when he'd gone home and watched Jinx.
Seriously, why was that?
After thinking it over and looking at Jinx, whose emotions seemed to spill out so easily, Li Ke decided it was probably a privilege of being mentally ill.
In any case, it was a good thing.
Late at night, Li Ke stood at a stall in a lively little market on the outskirts of Black Alley. He pulled a few coins from his pocket and placed them on the table, then looked up at the shirtless figure in front of him. The vendor wore an apron below the waist and had green skin, like a fat tadpole fish. A... human?
"Jellick, give me one serving of Berry Sauce Whitefish and one serving of Spicy Bog Frog," Li Ke said.
"Gahihihih." The humanoid creature let out an incomprehensible sound and laughed as he raised his cleaver and chopped down on the cutting board, slicing open a sea fish.
Li Ke waited quietly.
The Muddy Frog meat he'd bought at the restaurant before had just been boiled in plain water. Apart from its fishy taste, it had no flavor at all. But Jellick's Muddy Frog was different. Vi herself had vouched for it: this was the best Muddy Frog stall in all of Zaun.
Li Ke still couldn't get used to the greasy texture of Muddy Frog, but he could stomach Jellick's cooking.
And Jellick's food didn't just taste better than the restaurant's; it was a lot cheaper, too.
Li Ke had barely any money to begin with, so he had to be careful with it.
"Guhahahai!" Jellick finished cooking and packed the food into two large lunch boxes, then handed them to Li Ke.
Li Ke reached out to take them. When he felt the bottoms of the containers, his palm came away covered in grease. His mouth twitched at the sensation.
Whatever. There was no point expecting Zaunite food to be clean and hygienic.
It was all fucking full of chemicals and additives!
"Thanks, Jellick." Li Ke waved to him.
Jellick looked up and laughed, then waved back.
Carrying the food, Li Ke headed home.
A few minutes after he left the stall, a woman with her hands in her pockets appeared in the market. She wore a hat and a red jacket, and walked ahead with a hunched posture. Behind her was a tall, slender woman who looked a little timid.
"Hey, what are we doing here?"
Watching Vi up ahead, Caitlyn couldn't hold back any longer.
She strode forward and caught up with Vi, then spoke to her in a low voice.
"Just follow me." Vi didn't answer Caitlyn. She walked straight to a stall and sat down.
"Jellick."
"Ghiaaa?" Jellick turned around. When he saw Vi, his small eyes lit up on his round, plump face.
"Gahali!"
"Yeah, it's me. I'm back. Hurry up and make me something good. Also... there's something I need to ask you." Vi rubbed her stomach as she spoke.
"You have no idea how much I've missed your food!" Vi said with a smile.
Even if the king of the heavens himself showed up, she was still going to eat at Jellick's first today!
Who knew how much she'd missed this delicious food while she was in prison?
Caitlyn stood nearby, utterly baffled. She looked at the grime on the counter, then at the stall's interior. The pretty enforcer from the Upper City felt the corner of her mouth twitch.
Was this... food?
Was this what people in the Bottom City ate?
Li Ke carried the lunch boxes into the alley, but as soon as he stepped inside, his eyes narrowed.
Two unconscious people were lying at the foot of his building, beside the stairs.
His front door was open, and a loud commotion was coming from inside.
Seeing this, Li Ke steadied the lunch boxes, then nimbly stepped over the people on the ground and climbed the stairs.
"I knew this day would come," Li Ke muttered to himself.
He'd been expecting Silco to come knocking for a long time.
After all, Zaun was Silco's backyard. And the graffiti Jinx painted all over the area around his home was like a beacon attracting fireflies. It was only a matter of time before Silco's people found them.
Li Ke soon reached the door and looked inside.
The place had been trashed. The only two pieces of furniture Li Ke owned—the plank bed and the wooden table—were both broken. Inside, a woman had Jinx pinned against the wall by the throat. Jinx was cursing her out at the top of her lungs.
"Hold still. Do you think I want to take you back?" Sevika lowered her head and barked at the struggling Jinx.
If she had a choice, she wouldn't want to take Jinx back at all!
She was only doing it because Silco had ordered her to.
"Then let go of me, you big idiot!" Jinx yelled. She even opened her mouth to bite. Watching her, Li Ke nearly lost it and almost burst out laughing.
Jinx had opened her mouth and was biting Sevika's mechanical arm, her little white teeth scraping against it with a grating crunch.
Well, she did have strong teeth.
"Ahem."
Li Ke made a sound.
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