Skye, Viktor's best friend, and mutual admirer.
Born a Zaunite, nominally Viktor's female assistant, but their actual bond started long before Viktor disappeared, when they played in the same canyons of Zaun.
Viktor had been in poor health since childhood, so he didn't have many friends. Under these circumstances, Skye admired and looked up to Viktor since childhood, considering his resilience as the source of her inspiration. And Viktor also adored this girl who didn't care about his physical frailty but recognized his rich spiritual world.
However, both of them had rather reserved personalities, so they felt grateful to each other but never dared to pierce that final layer of window paper to confess their feelings.
But even so, the two were the closest of friends—at least much stronger than the romantic plotline between Jayce and Mel in Arcane.
The final result was that she turned into dust during one of Viktor's illicit experiments. However, after Viktor achieved a leap in life level brought by runes, Skye reappeared in Viktor's spirit realm to accompany him. It wasn't until Viktor completely abandoned his humanity at the end that she was permanently written out.
But at the current point in time, Skye was still alive, and in a much better state than in Arcane. After all, in this timeline, Piltover's development was much faster than in the Arcane timeline.
In other words, the exploitation of Zaun was much more intense.
Hearing Skye's words, let alone Viktor and Jayce, even the Enforcers ordered to come monitor... to protect Viktor looked sideways slightly, not discussing too much about Skye barging in here.
Looking at Jayce, although they were just arguing, they were best friends after all. Calming down and thinking carefully, having spent some time together, Viktor also knew Jayce's character—a kind Piltovian, yet very fitting of the not-so-stereotypical stereotypes.
His discrimination against Zaun was real, but mostly derived from hearsay. But for truly capable people, he never held prejudice due to their background. He would even feel admiration for those scholars from Zaun because of his discrimination against Zaun, thinking they emerged from the mud unstained.
Generally speaking, for this kind of person, you just need to let them personally experience Zaun's living environment and social atmosphere once, and they will understand.
And with Jayce's character... if it was really Jayce who arranged the Enforcers to come monitor him, then let alone coming to the workshop now, he would probably be taken to the Piltover Wardens for investigation before even leaving his apartment. Instead of being full of surprise and disbelief like now upon seeing the Enforcers, seemingly puzzled that Piltover would actually treat a senior scholar like him this way.
Thinking this, after a moment of silence, Viktor asked proactively: "What is the response from the Wind of Change?"
Hearing Viktor's inquiry, Skye on the side nodded, then quickly took out the brief transcript of Zaun's response she had copied.
Glancing over it roughly, a trace of surprise appeared in the eyes of Viktor and Jayce.
No other reason; the wording and style in this response were extremely fierce. Even saying, it wasn't to respond to Piltover's ultimatum, but to notify Piltover a message—
"In the past few decades, Zaun has suffered countless exploitations from Piltover. From now on, Zaun will become the Zaunites' Zaun, and Zaun will be governed by Zaunites themselves. And Piltover has harbored the Chem-Barons who caused Zaun's foul atmosphere and are now fugitives. Piltover is limited to returning all Chem-Barons to Zaun within twenty-four hours, otherwise Zaun will take drastic measures."
Seeing the last sentence, looking at the phrase "Zaun will become the Zaunites' Zaun", Viktor's heart couldn't help pounding a few times. And when seeing the latter sentence limiting Piltover to hand over the Chem-Barons, a trace of surprise also revealed in his eyes.
"Pfft... Ha!"
A disdainful laugh came from the side. Hearing this sound, Viktor and Jayce looked at the Enforcer on the side.
Feeling the gaze of the two, the Enforcer rubbed his face, then revealed an awkward but polite smile, then continued to stand aside 'protecting' Viktor.
After a moment of silence, Jayce on the side shrugged, his expression somewhat subtle and awkward as he said: "Uh... honestly, Viktor. I think these guys in Zaun might just be a bunch of pure lunatics."
"What do they want to do? What are they trying to do? Do they really think having that guy named Faen is enough to destroy Piltover? And even if they do, then what? It's not like you don't know, Piltover's interest relations are far more complex than they appear on the surface. Let alone other city-states, just House Medarda of the Piltover Council alone is from Noxus, otherwise why could House Medarda swallow all trade shares related to Noxus..."
Hearing this, Viktor on the side also fell into a brief silence, but then said: "They know this matter too."
"Hmm?"
Hearing this, Jayce cast a puzzled look at Viktor, while Viktor just said quietly: "Think back to the Twin Cities model Faen gave us before... do you remember? The final conclusion drawn from that model. I don't know what results you got through calculation, but in my verification, an intense violent conflict will break out between the Twin Cities sooner or later."
"So what? So he dragged the entire Zaun here to die? Smashing headfirst to death against Piltover's outer wall? And you are still here supporting him?" Jayce's face was full of disbelief.
But Viktor shook his head: "I don't believe a person who can bring out the Twin Cities model would be a reckless fool without wisdom. And responding the first moment Piltover issued the ultimatum undoubtedly represents that Zaun had expected this long ago, and had already determined related plans early on."
Saying this, Viktor's eyes gradually lit up.
"Although I don't know what exactly Faen's purpose is, I believe there must be a reason for them doing this. Otherwise, they wouldn't have made such a response immediately."
Saying this, an expectant look also appeared in Viktor's eyes: "Let's just wait and see how it goes."
Just as Viktor and others were waiting to see, on the other side, having issued Zaun's response, Silco and others also started to set up the venue in the mid-level square.
Considering the previous Zaun riots, Silco and others appearing in the mid-level square now immediately aroused the high vigilance of Piltover Enforcer troops almost instantly.
Piltovian merchants and residents originally located near the mid-level square were forcibly relocated. A large number of Enforcer troops quickly arrived at the mid-level square and began constructing defense lines on the border separating the two cities.
But somewhat surprisingly to Piltovians, those Zaunites didn't show any intention of preparing for battle after arriving at the mid-level square. On the contrary, upon seeing the Piltovians' reaction, those Zaunite workers just built devices similar to a concert stage with a face of complete indifference.
Although it seemed like nothing, this still attracted high attention from related personnel in Piltover. Even Vi's visiting behavior was temporarily terminated—Vi's identity was rather special. As Vander's former adopted daughter, when necessary, Vi's identity could play a huge role that she herself couldn't even realize. However, precisely because of this, it had to be used carefully.
On the other side, although having a relatively clear understanding of Faen's power, knowing what Faen was going to do next, Silco couldn't help but feel somewhat amazed and nervous.
"That guy... your son-in-law, is he sure he wants to do this?"
Silco looked at Soona, who was crossing her arms with a physique even bulkier than himself, and said: "This is not a joke... I'm not very familiar with Faen. How well do you think Faen has prepared?"
Hearing this, glancing at Silco, Soona shrugged and said: "Your words are like asking a frog how powerful the shark in the sea is... You ask me how well Faen is prepared. Even if he doesn't prepare, I'm not his match. How could I tell whether he has prepared or not?"
"...True." Hearing this, Silco also nodded, then sighed and said: "Things having reached this point, apart from believing, I have no other way."
"The worst is just turning back to how it was when you ruled Zaun, what's there to worry about." Soona shook her head indifferently, then as if remembering something, the corner of her mouth curved slightly, saying with great interest: "Compared to this, you should have seen Piltover's response, right? How does it feel?"
Hearing Soona's enthusiastic inquiry, Silco also recalled Piltover's response to Faen's response. For a moment, even a guy with deep bitterness and hatred like Silco couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth, then quickly regained his calm and said:
"Actually, in a sense, I can still understand why they would think this way. After all, it wasn't until I truly saw Janna that I knew so many truths about Zaun."
Saying this, Silco also glanced at the Storm Mark on the back of his hand, then looked at the Piltover defense line not far away. After a moment of silence, a brisk smile rose at the corner of his mouth.
The next day, as the twenty-four-hour time limit given by Faen drew closer, under Piltover's full attention and complete guard, new movements also appeared in Zaun.
Chem-tech airships flew out from the depths of Zaun one after another, carrying huge screens in people's bewildered sights. And the footage on the screens... a live broadcast?