Finn really wanted his money back—the fee he had paid to find out Lux's background was an astonishingly large sum.
But unfortunately, the other party had no sense of "refund if the job isn't done," or as Mr. Shadow himself put it, "the information that she entered Piltover's the prison is worth that much."
"Worth my ass!" Finn slammed his hand on the table, "Maybe she just went in to visit someone—don't try to fool me with such meaningless news!"
As Finn spoke, the thugs around him revealed their weapons.
Because he had suffered a great loss at Ino's hands last time, Finn had spent a fortune to acquire several sets of Rune Steel Armor from the black market; although they were old models discarded by Demacia, and incomparable to Lux's high-quality goods, they could at least prevent him and his thugs from being helpless when facing a mage.
Facing the menacing thugs, Mr. Shadow finally put away his cheap smile.
"In our line of work, your eyes must be sharp, you need to know who you can provoke and who you can't—I don't care if that little girl went to visit someone, I only know she entered Piltover's the prison, and I can't follow her. Listen, Finn, this is just a private job, a job to earn some gold hex, I can't risk my life for your private job."
"Then spit out the money."
"Too late—I'm not some Dark Alley bitch who can easily spit out anything… Don't get excited, how about I give you a suggestion, seeing as your gold hex satisfied me for a night?"
"A suggestion?" Finn narrowed his eyes, "Let me hear what kind of suggestion Mr. Shadow can offer."
"Don't hog everything, Finn." Mr. Shadow seemed like a true shadow, perfectly conforming to his seat, "The title of Chem-Baron sounds intimidating, but everyone knows what you really relied on to get where you are today!"
"Silco told you to say that?" Finn gritted his teeth, "Thinking of your master even when taking private jobs, what a loyal dog!"
"How boring, Finn." Mr. Shadow pouted, "You should know what I mean. I didn't ask you why you wanted me to follow that little girl, but that doesn't mean I don't know anything. Still, don't hog everything—Silco isn't a stubborn Vander, think more for yourself."
After saying this, Mr. Shadow, like a flowing shadow, silently slipped off the chair and, in the blink of an eye, was already at the door.
The thugs all looked at Finn, awaiting his command.
After a moment of thought, Finn gripped his lighter and silently shook his head.
"Let him scram!" Finn lit a cigarette, "I hope he dies on those women's bellies tomorrow!"
"I'll take that as a good wish, same to you!" Mr. Shadow laughed loudly, "And I wish you a rolling fortune!"
… … … … … … … …
Though unwilling, Finn still found Silco.
This matter seemed to be beyond what he could handle alone—Lux's background was too significant, and she also seemed to hold an astonishing project. From the current perspective, Finn alone might not be able to fully secure it.
Since he decided to cooperate, Finn was straightforward and laid everything out—after all, his factory had the strongest production capacity in Zaun, and even if he didn't hog everything, he could still take a bite out of this big cake. From this perspective, he was somewhat fearless.
With this thought, Finn briefly recounted the entire incident to Silco, of course, from his own perspective.
"So, you really want to know the specific background of that little girl?"
Silco was a thin, one-eyed man. One of his eyes was destroyed when he charged towards the Sun Gates with Vander, and was later replaced with a pure black prosthetic eye.
As Finn spoke, this single eye stared at him unblinkingly, making him involuntarily break into a sweat—but in reality, Silco's office was cool, and throughout the process, Finn nervously fiddled with his lighter, failing to light it several times, and not a single drop of sweat appeared on his back.
Now, Finn had finished speaking, and Silco finally withdrew his gaze. Relieved, Finn finally lit his lighter, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag.
"The more I know, the more I gain—I have a lot of people under me to feed!"
"Feeding your cattle and horses won't cost much gold hex." Silco scoffed, "So, don't play games with me here. How did you get her information?"
"She came from Vander." Finn didn't play tricks on this question, "Parted ways with Vander on bad terms—understandable, that Vander fellow is always so stubborn."
"Vander is indeed a fool." Silco nodded, and before Finn could even sigh in relief, he quickly added the next sentence, "And now you are trying to pick up something a fool didn't want, and you want to drag me along?"
"What do you mean, Silco?" Hearing this, Finn frowned, "You're not interested in this? That's fine, lend me a few reliable men, not a kidney-deficient consumptive like Mr. Shadow…"
"You don't even know the identities of those two little girls, and you've already imagined a big drama." Silco finally couldn't hold back anymore and showed Finn a sarcastic smile, "What, do you think they are a young lady and a maid from some Councilor family, wanting to come to Zaun to find a good and cheap partner for their family business?"
"Aren't they?" Although Finn's heart sank, his face remained calm, "What, do you know their background?"
"A little bit." Silco stretched his shoulders, then comfortably leaned back in his large chair, "They are not some Piltover young ladies—those two arrived in Piltover ten days ago… by ship, likely from the Western Shurima route."
"How is that possible?" Finn suddenly stood up, "They know my background—and they even mentioned components for a composite tidal power engineering machine!"
"Hahaha, how foolish." Hearing Finn's confident words, Silco seemed to have heard the funniest joke, "That composite tidal power engineering machine you mentioned is simply an open course at the Science and Progress Academy on evolution day. As for them knowing your background… Vander knows it too!"
Hearing Silco's words, Finn's entire face darkened.
He desperately hoped this was false, that Silco was just trying to suppress him, that Silco wanted to cut a larger slice of the cake with sweet words.
But unfortunately, from the current situation, all of this might be true.
The next moment, Silco stood up like a gentleman and handed Finn a hot towel.
Then, he squinted his single eye, watching Finn wipe the sweat from his face, as if watching a clown removing his makeup.
Klein's small class · Zaun's Human Resources:
Although living conditions are harsh, in the eyes of the Piltover people, Zaun's human resources always seem inexhaustible—there's a bad regional discrimination joke that says exactly this: if you see the same Zaunite in the same factory for three consecutive years, it doesn't mean the factory works too slowly