Transmigrating: Starting in the Cyberpunk World

"Those sons of bitches!"

Sevika cursed angrily, raising a fist to knock a charging thug to the ground before following up with a War Stomp, sending the young man into an instant, silent slumber.

Although she had sensed the danger immediately and organized the factory's security personnel to resist, the enemy's numbers were overwhelmingly superior.

Having held out until now, the situation was beginning to tilt irreversibly in the opponent's favor.

"What do we do, Boss? The brothers are about to break."

The subordinate beside Sevika said, wiping blood—whose, he didn't know—from his face.

In truth, that they had managed to hold out this long had already exceeded both sides' expectations.

If Benson hadn't organized the workers to come as reinforcements, Sevika and her crew would have collapsed long ago.

You could call Zaunites greedy, cunning, vulgar, or lowly, but the grit in their bones had always been there.

Seeing their livelihoods about to be smashed, the workers couldn't sit still; they grabbed hammers and wrenches and rushed to join the fight.

Unfortunately, compared to this group of professional thugs, the workers' combat effectiveness was still slightly too low to turn the tide of battle.

"Retreat into the factory!"

Sevika glanced at the current situation and made a decision.

Hearing this, her subordinates dragged the wounded back into the factory as best they could.

Sevika stayed at the rear to buy them time.

Although she suffered many injuries for it, she eventually succeeded in slamming the factory's heavy iron doors shut.

She just didn't know how much longer they could hold out like this.

"That woman really is Vander's most valued subordinate; she's quite difficult to deal with."

Seeing the situation in their favor, the leading factory owners finally showed themselves. Looking at the sealed factory before them, they gnashed their teeth in hatred.

Their group had mobilized over a hundred thugs and even equipped them with weapons and gear supported by Noxus, yet they had been stuck for half the day without being able to settle this.

Was the opponent's resilience too strong, or were their own people too useless?

"Just set a fire and burn them all to death!"

A smarty-pants spoke up, drawing looks from those around him as if he were a fool.

The purpose of their operation was the various production equipment and raw materials in the factory; if they burned it all down, what then?

Then what had they spent all this effort for?

"Forget I said anything."

The smarty-pants also realized his mistake and silently retreated to the back of the crowd.

"What are you waiting for? Pry this door open!"

At the lead factory owner's command, the thugs swarmed forward, working hard against the factory doors.

Soon, the doors began to wobble.

Seeing this, Sevika steeled her heart. She used a crowbar to flip open the lids of the chemical raw materials, kicked them over, then brought over an oil lamp and spoke to her subordinates.

"Take the others and evacuate through the basement."

Seeing her actions, everyone understood.

Things had come to this; there was no better way. At the very least, they couldn't let the enemy profit.

A moment later, the iron doors crashed down.

The thugs poured in, but were quickly stopped by the thick, pungent smell of chemicals, looking at Sevika not far away in terror and uncertainty.

"What are you doing, Sevika? Don't be foolish, Vander is still in our hands!"

The lead factory owner also realized the situation was bad and hurriedly pushed aside the thugs to shout a warning.

"You have the nerve to mention Vander? Don't forget who brought you up from the scrap heaps of the bottom level."

Sevika knew the factory owner before her; in fact, she was familiar with most of the people present.

To put it bluntly, this was an internal rebellion against Vander.

"He brought it on himself! We're clearly all Zaunites, yet Vander insists on trusting that kid from Piltover!"

The lead factory owner screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to mask his own guilt.

However, at that moment, the originally dark sky suddenly lit up, and this sudden change drew everyone's attention.

Even those inside the factory could see clearly what was happening through the massive glass panels on the top floor.

A rune array ten meters in diameter suddenly formed, expanding from a single point. Before the dazzling runic patterns could be clearly seen, a spatial oscillation spread outward.

Like a ripple on water, it calmed in an instant.

The original rune array vanished in a blink, replaced in their vision by a golden, glowing humanoid metal figure.

Forgive these Zaunites who hadn't seen much of the world; they had no idea what an iron suit or a mecha was. The concept simply didn't exist in their minds.

Their first thought upon seeing this orichalcum rune suit was...

This thing must be worth a fortune.

Only then did nervousness and unease set in.

How could this thing stand in mid-air? What on earth was it?

"Positioning teleportation error deviation 3.16 meters... energy loss meets calculated expectations..."

Kael's voice rang out from beneath the mask. Though slightly distorted, Sevika could still recognize it.

"Kael? What strange thing has this kid tinkered together now?"

Sevika's tone sounded somewhat disdainful, but this was actually a habitual discrimination Zaunites held toward Piltovans; in truth, her heart had long been shaken by this scene.

It was just that Sevika wasn't well-educated—she was a drifter—so the shock she felt was more sensory than a challenge to her worldview.

The Hextech positioning technology designed by Jayce was extremely useful. Kael had directly borrowed it as a reference and combined it with his own Ark Rune technology to create the Ark Rune Portal.

Crossing the river by feeling for Jayce was indeed a very correct choice.

As for the principle behind it, it was actually quite simple.

It involved overlapping two different spatial nodes and then breaking through them to achieve the result of teleportation.

Of course, a little bit of Rune Power was indispensable.

One had to rely on this power, which could transcend space-time dimensions, to create such an incredible feat.

However, compared to a Hexgate, Kael's Ark Rune Portal placed too much pressure on the user.

Without wearing the orichalcum rune suit and using the spatial membrane on the surface to resist, an ordinary person would turn into an unspeakable mass of flesh the moment the teleportation succeeded, unable to withstand the spatial distortion.

Even Kael, with the strength of ten Kael and comparable to a living legend, would likely be heavily injured.

At the very least, one would need the physique of an adult dragon to fully withstand the twisting force brought by the teleportation.

Of course, would using magic to resist work?

To be honest, Kael didn't know, but he was certain that other magic would cause severe interference with the Ark Rune teleportation. The final result would either be a massive error or total failure.

Even though they were all magic in essence, there were distinctions in attributes and categories between different magics, just like the Five World Runes.

But on this Runeterra, they might all eventually be categorized under the same type of World Rune.

"What do we do?"

A smarty-pants asked in a low voice.

The newcomer didn't look friendly. With such a grand entrance, their group might not be able to take him on.

The lead factory owner didn't dare to act rashly for a moment.

He had close ties with Noxus and knew that there were existences in this world who transcended the mundane—those who could be a one-man army.

The way Kael appeared was far removed from the mundane, no matter how one looked at it.

Compared to Noxus, this "backwater" of Zaun was a magic wasteland, very poor in transcendent power.

Originally, before the Great Collapse, faith in the wind had spread across this land. Besides the noble class, temple priests also ruled Zaun.

Back then, believers could occasionally witness miracles.

However, after the Great Collapse, almost all the temples fell into ruin. Today, Zaunites have even forgotten the deity they once worshipped.

This was because, in order to save Zaun by blowing away the leaking alchemical toxic gas, that Wind Spirit had nearly exhausted all her power. Even her consciousness had fallen into a long slumber; how could she still perform miracles to maintain her original faith?

Consequently, Zaunites, who were constantly on the edge of life and death, could not possibly place their limited energy and belief in a "non-existent" deity.

Without the support of spiritual faith, the condition of that Wind Deity naturally fell into a vicious cycle.

The only thing worth celebrating was that although the Wind Deity ascended through faith, she was not born from it. She was originally a spirit born from the wind, an incarnation of nature.

Although losing faith had a huge impact on her, to the point where she lost the ability to interfere with the physical realm and could only be trapped within the deity's realm, she was at least still alive and had long since awakened.

After committing the data from the first teleportation to memory, Kael looked down at the thugs below.

His gaze, passing through the visual perception module, reflected a cold light. It was a projection of Rune Power, which for ordinary people, was an immense psychological pressure.

"Your Excellency..."

The lead factory owner bit the bullet and stepped forward to try to negotiate.

However, Kael ignored him, merely raising his hand slowly. The runes and gears beneath the orichalcum rune suit's shell transformed like biological joints and meridians, extending as part of his body.

The arc pulse cannon that should have been in the palm had been improved and reforged by Kael into a Rune Pulse Cannon.

Around the circular pulse muzzle, which was the size of a ping-pong ball, a large number of ant-sized runes were engraved.

A so-called pulse is a shock produced by a brief change in a physical quantity within an extremely short time.

Both arc pulses and rune pulses are based on this principle.

It's just that the "physical quantity" that changes and the method of control are different.

The resulting shockwaves are also very different.

When the muzzle of the Rune Pulse lit up, the group below felt a premonition of disaster. That oppressive feeling of impending doom seemed to solidify under the pulse muzzle, heating up as the brightness increased.

Even without knowing what was about to happen, driven by fear, some people either scattered and fled or launched attacks at Kael above.

However, whether it was crossbow bolts or firearms, they couldn't hurt Kael at all; even leaving a mark on his suit was a distant dream.

The energy loss reflected on the ark rune reactor was roughly at the fifth decimal place, virtually non-existent.

Two seconds later, the Rune Pulse finished accumulating energy.

The massive impact force turned into a visible spatial shockwave, like a circular bubble blown in seawater, instantly sweeping the crowd below into it.

What kind of bloody scene would this spatial wave present when reflected on a human body?

It's hard to describe with words because most educated people have never seen it. If one had to describe it, it would be like throwing a person into a cement mixer.

However, Kael was not very satisfied with this result. The power of the shockwave dispersed too severely. According to his original design, the Rune Pulse should have resulted in total crushing.

Like a palm slapping down on a fly.

In fact, the best pulse effect should be the arc pulse seen on the Mark suits, which can output stably and continuously at low frequencies to provide flight power, and also deliver high-frequency, short-duration impacts.

The problem, however, was that rune pulses were much harder to control than arc pulses.

To the point where Kael had to consider using other, more stable ways to provide kinetic energy for the suit; otherwise, every flight would cause a series of spatial oscillations.

If that happened, he expected it wouldn't be long before he saw a certain blue-skinned bald guy appear before him to recite lines.

His current ability to hover was actually another effect of the "spatial membrane." If a certain output power was maintained, he could be buoyed by the surrounding space.

This also significantly reduced Kael's burden.

The orichalcum rune suit was indeed a bit too heavy.

"It seems I need to continue adjusting the constraints and output methods for the Rune Pulse."

Kael looked down at the result he had created and muttered to himself, walking down from the air step by step.

Sevika also walked out at the same time. Although she was trying her best to control her expression, the tragic scene around her, like the aftermath of a hurricane, still made the muscles in her face twitch.

"I hope I'm not too late?"

Kael said, the mask sliding upward to reveal his face.

"How do you want to handle these people?"

After seeing that it really was Kael, Sevika's heart finally settled. She looked at the wailing guys around her and asked.

Such a freakish guy—fortunately, he was on their side.

"Try to interrogate them first to see if we can get news about Vander. The rest can be handled according to your local rules."

Kael said casually.

Local rules—that meant a one-way trip to the grave.

Sevika nodded upon hearing this; she liked this decision.

However, after questioning several of the leading factory owners in a row, they couldn't get any information about Vander from them, only that he had been taken away by Noxians.

"I'll leave this place to you for now. I still need to find Vander."

Kael said, taking a few steps back. Under Sevika's somewhat confused gaze, a familiar rune array appeared once more. After the floating light dissipated, Kael's figure also vanished.

"Heh, this is quite interesting!"

Sevika muttered, turning to deal with the mess.

What she didn't notice was that after Kael left, a gentle breeze followed closely behind.

Vaguely, it seemed as if the cry of a bluebird could be heard.