After eating, Faen, Zeri, and the others started a new day.
Generally speaking, Faen would roam various chemical factories in Zaun as the Azure Demon every night. But chemical factories couldn't be eradicated completely. In fact, excessive destruction would harm the interests of Zaun workers themselves.
Especially Faen's high-intensity policing not only attracted the attention of Chem-Barons but also attracted the attention of some opportunists. Especially in the last two outings, Faen had found some workers deliberately exaggerating the vices of these Chem-Barons and inducing Faen to attack them.
"I investigated them briefly, basically can confirm they are fence-sitters who steer with the wind."
Having finished breakfast, during the chat time before officially starting work, Faen talked about some changes in the workers after distributing the leaflets:
"Admittedly, a large amount of joy has emerged in Zaun during this time, but accompanying these joys are also those originating from a large number of opportunists. For these opportunists, resisting the tyranny of Chem-Barons together is a bit difficult, but there are plenty of opportunities to make a fortune in our name."
Hearing Faen's words, Soona adjusted her sitting posture slightly. With the change of movement, the two soft masses resting on the table also underwent obvious deformation.
As a true adult, Soona was more perfect in body, mind, and even values. Precisely because of this, Soona knew very well how serious the problem Faen mentioned was.
"That is to say, corruption has appeared before our organization is even established..." Soona said with a headache, "This doesn't sound like good news."
"It's okay. Although I believe in the power of Zaun workers, I have never believed in people's integrity and wisdom."
Hearing Soona's words, Faen leaned back in the chair and said calmly: "Humans were born in ancient times, competing with beasts for limited resources before developing civilization. Naturally, like beasts, humans have engraved authoritarianism and herd mentality in their genes. The ignorance and paranoia of the group will drown the clear logic of the individual, which was proven as early as the Rune Wars era thousands of years ago."
Hearing this, Soona nodded thoughtfully.
The Rune Wars era was to today's Runeterra what World War II was to Faen's previous life. Even if they hadn't learned about that period of history in detail, growing up in such an environment, people would still passively learn related information.
And Zaun... or the original Old Zaun as the trade hub of Runeterra, was coveted by many people. Although few Zaunites today have the precious leisure time to understand that history, for those with ambitious aspirations, this would still reach their ears in various forms.
Among them, wise men killed by mobs due to betrayal, framing, and slander were not rare.
Although having a headache about the relationship status between Faen and her daughter, this didn't mean Soona would question Faen's thoughts and philosophy. Like now, realizing Faen seemed to have made a decision, Soona asked, "What do you plan to do?"
"I don't have that much time to take it slow." Faen said, "So I will carry forward my strengths, using violence to deter those villains with ulterior motives."
"You want to kill them?" Hearing this, a trace of hesitation appeared in Soona's eyes, then she said, "But violence cannot suppress the growth of greed in people's hearts."
"But it can inhibit it." Faen wasn't surprised by Soona's hesitation, but said frankly, "Zaun's general environment is here. No matter what kind of reform, it cannot bypass the violence that objectively coexists with this land. Making an example of someone is necessary. What's important is whether we can find professionals to handle Zaun-related matters after making an example."
Saying this, meeting Soona's gaze. Feeling the hesitation in Soona's eyes, pausing, Faen sighed: "Auntie Soona, I know you can't bear it. But please also be considerate of me. I am a political idiot. Zaun's environment is so complicated, I can only think of two governance plans in total."
"Which two?"
"De-urbanization and de-ruralization." (Referencing extreme historical policies like Pol Pot vs pure anarchy, implying chaos/extremes are his only known alternatives without help).
Although she didn't know what Faen meant, from the tone conveyed when Faen said these words, Soona felt this might not be a good thing.
Somewhat helpless, but Soona also knew Faen was telling the truth.
"Actually, I know you are right." Soona's will was somewhat depressed, and even the muscles on her body dimmed slightly. But this depression didn't last too long. Soon this Protein Queen pulled herself together and said:
"Do it your way... Being able to provide a reform plan proves at least you are more reliable than me. I, this so-called adult, instead need to rely on an outsider youth like you to make up my mind to face this land that gave birth to me and raised me..."
"You are just resisting in your own way." Faen comforted.
"Am I?" Soona smiled somewhat self-deprecatingly.
"Aren't you?" Faen looked into Soona's eyes and asked back, "If you really despaired of Zaun and lost all confidence, how could Zeri be so full of vitality? Full of enthusiasm and determination?"
Hearing this, Soona looked at Zeri. Hearing Faen's words, Zeri looked at her mom, then reached out to make a big peace sign, as if saying: 'Faen is great, right!'
Blinking, a smile appeared at the corner of Soona's mouth. She nodded and looked at Faen, sighing:
"I guess I know why Zeri is so obsessed with you... You are indeed good at comforting people."
"Thank you for your compliment." Faen's reaction was calm and natural: "It's just that in my hometown, this is more considered as a relief of minor sufferings by an extremely pessimistic person."
Hearing this, stunned, Soona then laughed dumbly.
"Meaning you can see those future sufferings? That's really a euphemistic way of saying it."
Apart from memories of his past life and other sensitive things, Faen rarely deliberately hid his secrets. Similarly, Faen usually faced his desires frankly—it was just that in this process, he would also respect the other party's choice. Just like treating Zeri.
This attitude was also one of the reasons Soona was willing to choose to trust Faen.
Amidst talking and laughing, the family chatted about some domestic trivia. As breakfast time ended, several people immediately devoted themselves to the next work.
Perhaps because she just got fully replenished? So today Zeri seemed energetic. Progress was rapid in the process of trying to connect with the new equipment. The equipment, which was already mostly completed, was soon finished with the final concluding work under Zeri's efforts.
"Finally finished!!" Looking at the equipment in front of her, Zeri felt a strong excitement while being tired. After all, this was her new equipment—and equipment made with high-purity Hextech Crystals as the core!
One must know, even in the entire Zaun, people who could own such a set of equipment were few and far between—because the higher the purity of the Hextech Crystal, the corresponding requirements, or mental load, it would produce on the user when used.
"Giving you this, in a sense, is really a blessing in disguise."
Looking at the completed set of equipment, even Soona couldn't help sighing: "Under normal conditions, for an ordinary person to load even one Hextech Crystal requires a large amount of auxiliary equipment to reduce mental pressure. And this set of equipment uses four high-purity Hextech Crystals, yet only uses less than one-third of the load-reduction modules compared to ordinary people... Even if replaced by a battle-hardened Noxian reckoner, wearing this set of equipment would make them pass out on the spot in at most ten minutes."
Saying this, Soona looked at Zeri, who had already excitedly put it on, and said: "Obviously, while the mental pressure of the joy factor tortures you, it is also exercising your mental endurance... How do you feel now? Is the pressure high when the full set of equipment is activated?"
"This is nothing!" Hearing this, Zeri said excitedly, "Not even half the mental pressure of the joy factor yesterday!"
This made Soona's expression a bit weird—the pressure of so many crystals is like nothing? So what exactly did you guys do yesterday?
While speaking, Zeri had already rushed out with a whoosh! The Hextech equipment overload core on her body, mainly in fluorescent green, left light trails and phantoms in space. Running like a happy dog, it could be seen that Zeri was indeed very happy.
Faen could also understand Zeri's excitement.
The core of Zeri's new equipment was the Hextech Overload Core · Emotion Resonance Motor on her back. Its circuits connected Zeri's spark gun, the electric jacket on her body, as well as bracers, kneepads, and combat boots through the protective gear on Zeri. It could perform dynamic combat according to emotions in different states.
When spirits are high, the spark gun forms a regional electric net after hitting the target. When concentration is focused, the spark gun forms an electric pulse with sharp penetrating power. In a calm state, the electric jacket on the body forms a static field shield. In nervous and fearful states, it greatly enhances movement speed and physical fitness, leaving a large number of afterimages during movement. In normal state, it can create electric field phantoms, place electromagnetic teleportation anchors, etc.
Of course, apart from emotional changes, these abilities can also be released actively. It's just that because arc magic is directly linked to Zeri's emotions, forced release would cause multiple times the physical consumption.
Apart from these remarkable abilities, other aspects like using electric sparks to sprint on walls, glide, and so on... any one of them taken out would be enough for people in the undercity longing for a foothold to fight over.
Looking at Zeri running happily like a joyous puppy, Faen turned his gaze to the equipment Soona built for him in front of him.
This was a set of protective gear named 'Grasp of Flowing Water'. It didn't have too many fancy embellishments but was wrapped around Faen's arms like sports bandages. The core was the energy generator located at the back of the hand, with a Hextech Crystal embedded in each hand.
Because of the unique structure of the bandage, wearing it on the body would not affect the flexibility of arms and fingers at all.
In the process of combat, the bandages could directly strengthen Faen's punches, slow down the impact Faen's arms bore, and weaken the muscle load generated by power aggregation during attacks and the reaction force generated after hitting, thereby allowing Faen to complete more reckless continuous onslaughts.
The energy generator located at the back of the hand could form an energy barrier as needed to resist enemy attacks in emergencies.
"Actually, this hasn't brought out the full potential of these two crystals yet." Watching Faen's familiar fist-clenching movements, Soona walked over with her arms crossed and said, "If you need it, we have enough time to give it stronger lethality."
"That would be putting the cart before the horse." Hearing Soona's proposal, Faen didn't agree but said peacefully, "What I pursue is never destructive power, but whether it truly suits me. Stronger destructive power also means it needs more enhancement modules for energy aggregation, transmission, and explosion. This will affect my own strength and flexibility..."
Pausing, Faen winked at Soona and said a sentence that all Ionians would say: "So, what I pursue is balance."
Faen had a clear understanding of his state and future path.
If it were before meeting Ashlesh, Faen would nod and agree to Soona's proposal without hesitation. Because the enhancement brought by Hextech equipment would be far more important than the partial flexibility lost.
But now...
As a half-human, half-spirit-realm life form, Faen knew very well that his power came from the joy he could harvest. And the ability he used now... to put it bluntly, Faen was even worried these Hextech equipment would malfunction in water.
This sounded a bit ridiculous because Hextech naturally has waterproof performance—its own energy transmission process is magic power. Just planning the energy lines in advance would prevent malfunction in water.
But the problem was, the water controlled by Faen also contained spirit realm components. This energy scour from the spirit realm was like a highly contagious virus to Hextech crystals that were also magic-based; ordinary Hextech equipment simply couldn't withstand it.
Under these circumstances, the Grasp of Flowing Water could instead rely on its simple structure and direct effect to avoid corresponding influences.
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Saying this, Faen looked at the sky and said, "Then we're setting off now."
"Mmhmm, go ahead, Azure Demon." Looking at the prepared Faen, Soona nodded with a smile: "Protect my daughter well."