"Mmh..."
Caleb shifted Kai'Sa a little on his back.
Other than her steady breathing, he could not make out anything else.
"She really is dead asleep..."
Caleb muttered to himself and started wondering what Kai'Sa actually weighed.
"When I get back to the Twin Cities this time, no matter what, I'm building myself a giant mech..."
Caleb really was unlucky. The one who had come back to the outskirts of the Twin Cities with him just so happened to have gotten no sleep last night either.
Still, it was a good thing Yuumi was here. Otherwise, if they had gone back at a crawl, they would have had to chew through dry rations for a lot more days.
Caleb was already starting to miss Zaun's clean, perfectly sanitary little street snacks.
No matter what, they beat swallowing tasteless rations with plain water.
Caleb could have taken food out of the system, but the problem was, how was he supposed to explain it then?
He had no interest in getting tangled up in pointless trouble.
Several points of light flickered on in the far distance, like the little glowing bugs unique to Zaun, the firelights.
Firelight bugs not only glowed often at night, they were also unmatched in both reproduction and adaptability.
Put it this way, anywhere in Zaun that could support even a single tree, you could find firelights there.
But Caleb's eyesight was far too sharp not to realize that what was speeding toward him was not a cluster of firelights.
It was a whole group from the Firelights.
And the one in front, with that head of white hair, was obviously Ekko.
Watching the Firelights rush toward him in a hurry, Caleb could not help curling his lips into a smile.
Looks like this city really had accepted him after all.
The hoverboard scraped viciously against the ground, making a teeth-grinding shriek.
The one in the lead even spun around, and its green exhaust flare nearly blasted Caleb in the face.
"You looking for trouble?" Caleb laughed and kicked Ekko in the butt.
"You're the one looking for trouble!"
Ekko answered by punching Caleb right in the chest, and not lightly either, he was even wearing the iron glove.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Ekko had really put some force into that one. It was obvious he had built up a lot of resentment toward Caleb.
"Oh? So what's this... you brought a girlfriend back with you?"
Once Ekko's gaze shifted away from Caleb's face, he naturally spotted Kai'Sa on Caleb's back.
"Cut it out!"
Caleb immediately kicked at him again without any politeness.
"You all came out here to pick me up, don't tell me every last one of you rode over here on hoverboards."
Caleb sounded annoyed.
"Of course we prepared one for you too... a hoverboard."
Ekko grinned wickedly and pulled a hoverboard out from behind him. Caleb just rolled his eyes.
Caleb's hoverboard skills were honestly decent enough. He had practiced when he was in Zaun.
And the balance that came with his enhanced body was not something an ordinary person could compare to.
But the Firelights were obviously far more experienced than he was.
No need to think about it, they were clearly planning to laugh at him.
"You think I'm scared of that?"
Caleb stepped onto the hoverboard in one smooth motion. The exhaust flare behind it burst brighter, and he shot forward at high speed.
"Oh, right, what's up with this cat around you?"
Ekko asked curiously.
"It's still circling around you."
Even with Caleb pushing his hoverboard to maximum output, Ekko still looked completely relaxed.
No matter how good Caleb's balance was, no matter how impossible it was to knock him off a hoverboard, he still could not compare to the technique and experience Ekko had built through long periods of high-risk riding.
"A yordle's cat. We got held up in Shurima a little longer this trip."
Caleb answered casually. Back in the game in his previous life, Ekko and the cat had been the combo he hated most.
The way they killed him had been no different from slaughtering a pig, and no matter what he did, he could never deal with them.
Anyway, Yuumi was bound to meet people from the Twin Cities sooner or later.
Watching Caleb's hair getting whipped all over by the wind, Ekko leaned in with a grin.
"So that really isn't some girl you picked up in Shurima?"
"Get lost, get lost, get lost!"
This time when Caleb reached out, he hit nothing but air.
He almost lost his balance too, though after wobbling twice he managed to steady himself.
"Can't catch me."
Ekko made a face at him, then slid off ahead.
"Seriously..."
Caleb shook his head helplessly.
Basic dodging, turning, riding along wide open roads, none of that was a problem for him.
But if they were in Zaun's tangled maze of terrain, moving at full speed while constantly drifting through turns, then in front of Ekko, Caleb was as simple as a blank sheet of paper.
There was no helping it, Ekko was just absurdly gifted.
...
When he pushed open the office door, the expected cloud of dust never came.
"Looks like somebody's been cleaning this place pretty often."
Seeing the room almost looking brand new, Caleb felt a little emotional.
The expensive hardwood furniture had not been replaced, though, and Jinx's graffiti was still on it.
Caleb gently lowered Kai'Sa onto the sofa nearby, then returned to that office chair.
The familiar softness against his back made him stretch lazily.
"Alright, it's just the two of us, stop pretending."
Caleb spoke in a calm tone.
During that flight just now, with the hoverboard moving that fast, even Kai'Sa's heartbeat had sped up a little.
Once Caleb noticed, he had decided to spare her the embarrassment and not expose her in front of everyone.
"How did you know?"
Kai'Sa's huge doe eyes opened silently as she asked in a soft voice.
She had actually been in a pretty good mood before, right up until that noisy group came crowding around them.
And then Caleb went racing down the road that fast.
It had definitely left her in a bit of a mood.
"I didn't know." Caleb shrugged and smiled.
"You..." A blush spread across Kai'Sa's pale face as she angrily raised one hand.
"Hey, don't start that, this room cost a fortune."
Caleb immediately stopped her dangerous move.
That plasma was no joke.
"Governor."
With a creak, a humanoid figure made entirely of metal walked into the room.
"Viktor?"
Caleb stared for a moment before daring to say it.
"It's me." Even Viktor's mechanical voice carried an unmistakable trace of excitement. Then he glanced at Kai'Sa lying on the sofa. "Then maybe I should head back out first?"
"No, no, no, no, no."
Caleb hurried over and grabbed hold of Viktor.
If Viktor knew, then Blitzcrank and Jayce would know. If Blitzcrank knew, then Warwick and Zac would know. If Jayce knew, then Mel and Heimerdinger would know...
And once that started, it would never end...
"What is it?"
Caleb looked at Viktor's mask and sighed.
Then again, that was true enough. He had only just gotten back, he had barely even warmed the seat before the two of them came looking for him.
And these were, at the very least,
a top-tier scientist and the head of the biggest gang in Zaun.
How did they have this much time on their hands?
"Oh, these are the recent progress reports on some of Zaun's projects. Take a look."
Viktor's third arm handed over a stack of documents.
"Oh, nice, no problem." Seeing that the stack was not too thick, Caleb immediately brightened.
"There's more." Viktor could read his expression at a glance.
"Come in." Viktor waved his hand, and two huge hands reached in through the doorway.
Whoosh...
Papers spilled all over the floor.
Kai'Sa was practically about to be buried under them.
Leaving Caleb standing there completely dumbfounded.
Blitzcrank's slightly bulky frame poked in through the doorway.
"Facial recognition in progress. Calculation complete. Match rate: 99.9 percent."
"So she really isn't your girlfriend?" Viktor whispered by Caleb's ear.
"Oh, get out of here and go make yourselves useful somewhere else, would you?"
Caleb was genuinely stunned by that one. He hurriedly shoved the two of them back out the door.
After slamming it shut, he turned to look at Kai'Sa lying on the sofa and asked,
"What exactly are you grinning at?"
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