Transmigrating: Starting in the Cyberpunk World

Vi pouted, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair with her legs crossed to show her dissatisfaction.

They agreed to act together, and this was the result?

Among the few people present, only Powder and Ekko probably felt any sense of participation. As for the others, they were in a state of intellectual deficit, only able to stare wide-eyed at the precise instruments and equipment before them.

"Simply incredible!"

Ekko screamed in excitement as he watched Kael being teleported back through space.

"Kael, what's the deal with these Ark Rune? Can you teach me?"

Ekko looked at Kael earnestly and asked cautiously.

"If you're interested, you can come to my workshop with Powder in the future."

Kael said as he patted Ekko's head.

In his eyes, Ekko's talent was no worse than Viktor's.

After all, being able to display his talent in an environment like Zaun meant that with his careful refinement, there was no telling what kind of surprising performance he could deliver.

Even just a Z-Drive resonance would be enough to make it worth the investment.

Kael's creativity was different from native geniuses like Ekko; it was a collision and combination of knowledge systems from different worlds.

How high he could climb, for now, largely depended on who would serve as his stepping stones.

Therefore, accepting and cultivating a genius like Ekko was quite necessary for Kael.

"Is that really okay?"

Ekko was beyond excited, his eyes filled with admiration as he received Kael's affirmative answer.

This made Powder, who was standing nearby, unhappy.

A child's possessiveness is quite blunt.

Her two blue eyes stared fixedly at the other, hoping Ekko would be sensible and not try to steal Kael from her for no reason.

However, Powder was disappointed. Ekko very consciously assumed the role of an apprentice, his subjective initiative surging as he immediately picked up a pen and paper to help record information.

The competition is starting already?!

Powder couldn't help but want to hiss.

"Expand the spatial positioning, capture the rune release signals... We don't have much time; we need to find Vander as soon as possible."

Kael spoke, and beside him, Ekko and Powder scrambled to get to work.

Also belonging to the Ark Rune series, the rune weapon Kael had previously given Vander could act as a beacon to a certain extent. The group that kidnapped Vander certainly wouldn't know this.

As long as he could determine the approximate location, Kael could teleport himself there once again.

Sure enough, before long, Kael successfully captured an Ark Rune signal from the lower levels of Zaun.

He didn't recall ever losing his rune weapons in the lower areas; without even thinking, he knew they had been taken down there along with Vander.

Unfortunately, the Ark Rune on these rune weapons weren't specifically designed by Kael to serve as spatial beacons, so the signal he captured was quite weak.

As a result, precise teleportation would be difficult.

"Prepare for another spatial teleportation."

Kael closed the mask on his face, stepped forward a few paces, and stood in the center of the rune array plate.

The green wind that had just arrived in Piltover sensed something again. Its direction of travel suddenly changed, swirling in mid-air before heading back toward Zaun once more.

That faint, indeterminate cry of the green bird now carried a sense of deep helplessness... The place where Vander was being held was one of Silco's former safe houses.

Only, after he had been sealed in a tin can, all of his legacy was taken over by the Chemists.

Without Silco's protection, life for the Chemists was harder than before. Not only were supplies short, but their space for activity was becoming increasingly restricted.

While not exactly hunted by everyone, they couldn't easily show their faces.

It was in this environment that the Noxians extended an olive branch to them.

The relationship between the Chemists and Noxus had always been close.

In the past, many Chemists had fled to Noxus, and their lives there were fairly good.

However, why hadn't all of these Chemists chosen to go to Noxus?

Besides being unwilling to leave their homeland, the main reason was that the soil of Noxus lacked the nutrients to nurture alchemy.

It wasn't just the environment, but also various cultural factors.

Almost all breakthrough alchemical technologies were born in the city of Zaun.

Those who chose to become Alchemists basically had a personal pursuit of alchemy and rarely left Zaun due to material conditions.

This was actually one of the reasons why this Noxian Sergeant had to intervene personally. His original mission in Zaun was to maintain contact and business with the Chemists.

If he stood by and watched the Chemists be wiped out by Vander's side, what awaited the Noxian Sergeant would be the headsman's axe.

As a Noxian, he knew all too well how Noxus treated a failure.

As for attacking Kael's factory in an attempt to obtain the formula for the shimmer series of potions, that was just to add a significant achievement to his record.

Since he was already personally involved, why not do a bit more?

Only, the Noxian Sergeant hadn't expected that except for the beginning, not a single part of his plan would go as expected.

Over a dozen adult thugs couldn't even catch four or five children.

Without leverage, how could he coerce Vander into cooperating?

This guy's bones were too hard; the Noxian Sergeant had already tried to beat him, but it had no effect.

Not only that, even the operation to attack the factory had mysteriously failed, and to this day, not even a word had been sent back, the meaning of which was self-evident.

Nothing more than the whole team being wiped out.

This made the Noxian Sergeant very anxious, and he had already begun to prepare for the worst in his heart.

Vander was restrained in a chair, his expression somewhat dejected and weak because his body had been injected with the Chemists' slow-acting poison. However, even so, he still saw some clues and said with a smile,

"It seems your plan isn't progressing very smoothly."

"Just a bit of a setback. At least I still have you, don't I?"

The Noxian Sergeant grabbed Vander's hair and said in a fierce voice.

"Don't think too highly of things. An old man like me isn't as valuable as you think."

Vander chuckled.

Based on his understanding of Kael, thinking he could use himself to threaten the other was thinking a bit too much.

The Noxian Sergeant let go, no longer paying attention to Vander. Speaking one more word to such a stubborn rock was a waste of his time and energy.

"How is the cracking of the rune weapons going?"

The Noxian Sergeant found the Chemist at the workbench, looking at the parts scattered on the table, hoping to hear some good news from him.

"You can't ask an Alchemist to crack rune weapons in such a short time. Please, when I was in the academy, there wasn't even a course on runes, okay?"

The Chemist's tone was very helpless, but his eyes were full of energy, likely because he had injected himself with some stimulant.

That feeling was like encountering a new game you couldn't put down, wanting to beat it all night without sleep.

Runology was much more profound than alchemy.

A glimpse through a keyhole reveals but a fraction of the whole.

If he hadn't already spent half his life on alchemy, this Chemist would really have the urge to change careers.

"Then may I ask, how is the work on cracking the shimmer series of potions going?"

The Noxian Sergeant asked through gritted teeth.

"Uh, still a little bit off."

"How much is a little bit?"

"About ten percent left."

Hearing this, the Noxian Sergeant became even more furious, because this progress had been stuck there without any change.

Also seeing the meaning in the Noxian Sergeant's expression, the Chemist hurriedly explained.

"The key was never the shimmer potion itself, but the stabilizer added to it. You promised to get me the production equipment before I guaranteed I could reverse-engineer the potion formula."

"..."

The Noxian Sergeant had nothing to say, because that was indeed the case.

But even if he really did get the production equipment for the Chemist, he actually wouldn't be able to crack it, because Kael's production equipment was all mechanically encrypted.

If you didn't have mechanical skills on Viktor's level, don't even think about cracking Kael's mechanical encryption.

The result of a forced disassembly would only be the complete destruction of the equipment.

During the gap in their standoff, the ground suddenly vibrated slightly.

"An earthquake?"

The Noxian Sergeant suddenly felt a sense of groundless unease.

"Probably."

The Chemist shrugged his shoulders.

Not a day went by peacefully in the lower levels of Zaun. A bit of noise from time to time was normal, whether it was a mine collapsing or some chemical vat exploding. You just got used to it.

He was still very confident in this hiding place.

Apart from Silco, few knew about it. If it were to be discovered, Vander would have cleared it out long ago. Its survival until now was proof of its safety.

Hearing this, the Noxian Sergeant could only suppress his emotions.

Meanwhile, Kael had already teleported to the lower levels of Zaun.

To find Vander, he had temporarily hand-crafted a sensing device that could capture Ark Rune signals within a certain range.

"They're hidden quite deep."

Kael glanced at the weak signal information on the display and knew he would have to spend some more time.

There was no distinction between day and night in the lowest levels of Zaun; gloom was the eternal hue here.

The rune array that had just lit up attracted the attention of many, but by the time they quietly rushed over, Kael had long since left. Everything quickly returned to calm, with occasional rustling sounds.

It was unclear if they came from rats or some Zaunite.

This area had something of a Dark Forest feel to it.

In such an environment, exposing one's presence often immediately attracted malicious gazes.

Silco's death had brought no change to the lower levels. This wasn't hard to understand; Vander's current resources and energy were limited, and he needed to invest in building up the middle and upper levels first before he could consider the bottom.

While Kael was searching, a green wind arrived quietly, gently wrapping around his suit.

Before Kael could even realize it, a young woman's voice, like wind brushing past his neck, brought a soft warmth and a tingling, numbing sensation, as if giving his brain a massage.

Comfortable~.

"A first meeting, please do not be afraid, child of Piltover. I am the avatar of the wind. You may not have heard my name, but in the long past, people called me Janna."

"..."

Kael was a bit dazed.

Janna, wasn't that the spiritual entity of Zaun, the demigod in people's mouths?

How did she suddenly find him?

"You seem to have heard of my name?"

As a demigod of the Spirit Realm, even if Janna couldn't directly read hearts, she could see the ripples of emotion and interpret some information from them.

"Yes, Your Excellency. I have read many ancient books of Zaun, which contain rumors and stories about you."

Kael explained.

This wasn't a lie.

Since he was going to live in the twin cities, he had to learn about the local big shots to make it easier to pay his respects later.

"Few children are willing to explore the history of the past nowadays."

Janna's voice sounded a bit more cheerful.

For Her now, being remembered and understood was indeed something worth rejoicing over.

"But I didn't expect you to really exist."

Kael said with some emotion.

The point he hadn't expected wasn't Janna's existence, but that she would suddenly find him.

According to Kael's original deduction, even if Janna hadn't emerged from her slumber, she probably wouldn't be able to interfere with the material realm.

"I am indeed not in the material realm."

Janna explained.

"Then how are you able to speak with me?"

Kael immediately became interested and asked.

"That is because you have touched upon the Spirit Realm."

"...Because of the runes?"

Kael looked down at his suit and immediately found the answer to his question.

Runes were a power that spanned dimensions.

Kael could use runes to observe other dimensions, which also meant that beings in other dimensions could use them to observe him.

Fortunately, the Spirit Realm of this Zaun territory had long been designated by Janna as her divine domain. Even though She was so weak, other spirit entities still didn't dare to overstep.

This indirectly helped Kael avoid the greatest potential danger.

One must know, not all spirit entities in that region were as peaceful as those in Ionia.

In an environment like Zaun, if Janna hadn't been suppressing the Spirit Realm, there's no telling how many demons and evil spirits would have been attracted by now.

"Yes, child. I never thought that humans could master runes in this way."

Janna said with a sigh.

This feeling was like waking up and moving from the agricultural age into the information age.

When Kael first wore the orichalcum rune suit, he had already attracted Janna's attention. However, before She could find him, he had already taken off the suit.

"However, child, you must also be aware that runes are even more dangerous than you know. They are already affecting you."

Janna's tone changed, and she reminded him with concern.

Even though her voice sounded like that of a young woman, it gave off a strange sense of elder-like care.