Silco said nothing. He drew his hand out from under the table and rested it on top, rubbing his gaunt chin with three fingers as he watched Li Ke in silence.
"Silco—I mean, Uncle—do you really think you can make Zaun independent and self-governing?"
Li Ke began by asking Silco a question.
Silco fell silent and met Li Ke's gaze. Seeing the earnest expression on Li Ke's face, he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, then spoke.
"To be honest with you, Li Ke, I don't know if I can make Zaun truly independent. But compared to leaving Zaun in Vander's hands, I think I have a better chance of succeeding."
The divide between the two cities was now like the distance between heaven and earth. There was simply no comparison.
And now, with the Hex Gates connecting the entire world, Piltover had officially become the jewel of global trade. Ships came and went constantly. In the past, Piltover had hired large numbers of Zaunite workers, but lately, many Zaunites had lost their jobs.
Factory owners, rolling in money, had switched to assembly lines and replaced manual labor. And the merchants streaming in from all over the world brought in more through taxes alone than all of Zaun's income.
The gap was growing wider and wider. At times, even Silco couldn't help feeling that the future was bleak, but he remained determined to press on.
He had no way back. If he backed down now, he really would become a sinner in Zaun's eyes. He understood that better than anyone.
He even knew that after his death, whether he succeeded or failed, no one would erect a statue in his honor. Zaunites would never respect him the way they respected Vander. But so what?
"Shimmer is our only trump card. With Shimmer, we can at least make the Upper City wary of us and win ourselves a voice. Without it, we wouldn't even have the right to sit at the table with the people of Piltover."
"But you must have heard the voices outside, too, Silco. Everyone's afraid of you now, and they've secretly formed groups to resist you. You say you're doing this for Zaun, but aren't your actions only making it more chaotic?"
"They're just making a little trouble." Silco answered unconcernedly. He picked up the drink on the table and downed it in one gulp, then set the glass down and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His voice turned grave.
"They've forgotten the past. They've forgotten who brought them this far. Vander wasn't the only one responsible. I played my part, too."
"But they've all forgotten. In their eyes, Vander is this city's great hero, while I'm a traitor. But none of that matters. I don't care what people think of me. In fact, it's better if they're afraid of me." Silco looked calmly at Li Ke and continued.
"Kindness won't earn you respect, Li Ke. Fear will."
Li Ke had a headache.
Silco wasn't an idealist. He was a realist. In his mind, the unrest and infighting in Zaun were acceptable, even deliberately encouraged, if they helped him achieve his goal.
If Zaun stayed quiet and made no waves, why would Piltover ever pay attention to it?
All you had to do was look at the forums to see what people thought of Silco. Some said he was truly working for Zaun, while others called him a drug dealer. Opinions of him were sharply divided.
But in the show, Silco really had used Shimmer to win "self-governance" from Piltover. Li Ke thought the arrangement looked flimsy and unreliable, since Piltover could overturn it at any moment. But over the centuries since Zaun had split from Piltover, Silco had been the only one to accomplish this.
He really had won Zaun a little dignity.
So Li Ke suddenly realized that gently persuading Silco to give up and work with him would be incredibly difficult.
Perhaps only Jinx could make Silco change his mind.
So Li Ke took a deep breath and said to Silco, "But have you ever thought that what you're doing now is no different from what the people of Piltover do to us?"
"You let low-quality Shimmer products flood the black market, exposing ordinary people to Shimmer and driving countless families to ruin. Have you ever thought about them? You keep saying you want to resist Piltover, but what you're doing now is no different from what the people of Piltover do to us."
"Even now, their wastewater has done less damage than you have. Sure, Zaun has grown richer over the years, but where the hell have all the money and power gone? Straight into the hands of gangs and the Alchemical Barons!
You people at the top and in the middle may be living better, but what about the ordinary people at the bottom? You say Vander made plenty of mistakes, but when he was in charge, everyone could get by.
Back then, we had to steer clear of the Skinny Guys and watch them swagger around our turf, but we didn't attack each other over a single silver coin. We didn't kill people we knew over a vial of medicine, either."
Silco fell silent and poured himself another drink. He downed it in one gulp again, then set the glass on the table and closed his eyes.
After a long while, he murmured, "These are necessary sacrifices."
"Sacrifices? What gives you the right to make them sacrifice themselves for your cause?"
"If I don't do it, do you think their lives will get any better?"
"At least they won't be worse than they are now," Li Ke said with certainty.
Li Ke knew better than anyone how harmful Shimmer was. In his memories, within just a few years of Silco taking power, all the people he'd once known in the Black Alley had changed beyond recognition.
Some died, some went mad, and some vanished without a trace. Others, like Malson, had no choice but to join a gang to survive, only to turn around and hurt the people around them.
"Stop. Shut down half the Shimmer factories for now. You can keep having your Doctor research Shimmer, but you can't sell it anymore. I don't care what you do with it among your own people in private, but if I see Shimmer circulating on the black market again, I'll destroy your factories. Every last one."
As he spoke, Li Ke picked up an ornament from Silco's table. It was made of iron and weighed at least ten pounds: a huge beast's head. Keeping his eyes on Silco, Li Ke began squeezing it with both hands.
The beast's head kept changing shape in his hands, until at last it became an iron ball no bigger than his fist. Li Ke's expression remained blank, but the veins bulged in his bare arms beneath his short sleeves as he crushed the ball with all his strength.
"Crack—"
The iron ball split apart. Li Ke looked at Silco and placed the two pieces on the table. "I've realized there's no way you and I can work together. We have different beliefs. So this isn't a proposal to cooperate anymore. It's a threat, and I'm making it unilaterally."
Silco leaned back, looking at the two halves of the iron ball on the table. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Even a bomb might not have been able to deform the thing. But Li Ke had reshaped it with his bare hands, then broken it in two.
This was something even the Shimmer-modified people under his command couldn't do.
He took a deep breath, and his gaze shifted.
There was no fear in his eyes, only a question, written all over his face: How did you do that?
"Well, that's that, then."
Li Ke finished speaking and looked at Silco, who was still staring at the iron ball.
Li Ke watched him and spoke.
"Silco."
"Zaun won't become independent under you. It'll rise under me."
"We'll see."
Taking Isha with him, Li Ke left the Fugen Tavern.
A place he both knew and didn't know.
After Li Ke and Isha left, Silco looked at the iron pieces on the table. He picked one up and ran his fingers over the fractured surface, his expression uneasy.
"Fine. We'll see."
Silco muttered to himself.
Before you continue