Another few hours passed.
The sky gradually darkened as evening approached.
Levi finally let out a long sigh and closed the notebook. He and Janna had worked together to fill dozens of pages with their writing.
Right at that moment, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from outside the door. The footsteps soon stopped at the entrance, and a moment later, a black-haired girl wearing glasses unlocked the door with a key.
"Brother, I'm back."
The girl was Levi's younger sister, Lina.
Because their ancestors were Eastern immigrants from Ionia, she shared Levi's beautiful black hair and dark eyes. Her facial features and skin were also much more delicate and refined than those of the native Zaunites.
Unlike her scruffy brother, Lina wore her hair in a simple, quiet, thick ponytail. Dressed in the standard uniform of the University of Piltover, she was completely clean from head to toe, without a single stain.
The tailored women's blazer and knee-length skirt, paired with white stockings, black leather shoes, and gold-rimmed glasses, made her look more like a proper young lady of Piltover than a little Zaunite girl who had followed her apprentice brother here to make a living.
"Lina!"
Levi grinned and pulled her inside, mimicking the feelings from his memories.
The original Levi had loved his sister dearly. Before he died, he had initially felt a sense of release, but the thought of his sister being left with no one to care for her made him struggle to gasp for air once more.
"Brother, where did you get this pet bird?"
Lina noticed the petite bluebird resting on Levi's shoulder.
However, she seemed to be in a bad mood. Not even the adorable Janna could pique the young girl's interest.
Without waiting for Levi to answer, her brow furrowed slightly as she complained.
"Brother, did you go through my trunk? Why are my books and notebooks out here? You can barely read, so what are you doing with these things? The school only gave out a few free notebooks, and I only have one fountain pen. I still need them for class."
Lina muttered her complaints, but Levi wasn't angry at all.
"You must be tired after a full day of classes, right?"
"Lina, let's eat first."
Saying that, he carefully set up a chair to act as a dining table and pulled a lunchbox from under the bed.
"Today we have your favorite—"
"Raw marinated Gromp!"
Levi opened the lunchbox with a great sense of ceremony, but what was revealed wasn't some glowing culinary masterpiece. Instead, it was a large lump of meat marinated in a bizarre assortment of colorful spices, looking very much like a questionable street stall concoction.
The Gromp was a magical creature that lived in the sewage ditches of Zaun.
Although its appearance was atrocious and it was deeply despised by the upper-class citizens of Piltover, its taste was surprisingly good. It was a beloved delicacy among Zaunites and one of the few meats they could actually afford.
When the original Levi had returned from his overnight shift, despite being exhausted and sleepy, he had seen a vendor selling Gromp meat on the street. He had waited in a long line just to pack a box to bring back for his sister.
"Gromp?!"
For some reason, Lina's brow furrowed even deeper.
"Brother, didn't I tell you I don't want to eat this kind of stuff anymore!"
"It's exactly because we keep eating these weird things that those Piltovans look down on us! They call us 'trench rats who will eat anything'!"
"..." Levi finally stopped smiling.
He didn't lecture her, but simply handed his sister a fork.
"Mr. Landlord came to collect the rent today."
Lina: "..."
Her pent-up resentment caught in her throat, leaving her completely speechless.
Levi then asked quietly, "Did you get bullied at school again?"
"Yeah..." Lina's eyes grew a little moist.
"I'm sorry, Brother..."
"Tell me about it. It's not good to keep it bottled up."
"It's that eldest daughter of House Ferros! Relying on her bullshit family to back her up, she causes trouble for everyone all day long. It's one thing for her to insult me, but she also called all of us Zaunites garbage-eating trench rats. She said we're stinking outsiders who only came to Piltover to beg..."
"Her mouth is full of dog shit, that motherless bitch—cough, cough!"
Lina let out a satisfying string of Zaunite profanity, only to awkwardly cover her mouth afterward.
"Hahaha." Levi laughed softly and ruffled his sister's hair. "Don't pretend when you're in your own home."
"You see—no matter how much you dress it up, you're still a Zaunite."
"Yeah..." Lina lowered her head, blushing.
She didn't say anything else, simply taking the fork and digging into the Gromp.
Her table manners were quite elegant at first, but as she kept eating, her true nature revealed itself, and she began tearing into the Gromp with her bare hands.
"Brother." After a while, the girl finally raised her head, realizing something. "Did the landlord say anything when he came for the rent this time?"
"He won't just call the Enforcers to kick us out, will he? If that happens, we'll have to go back to Zaun."
"Don't worry. Mr. Bill promised it won't come to that," Levi comforted her, his expression unchanging. "Just focus on your studies. I'll take care of the money."
"Okay..." Lina nodded.
She looked like she was about to continue eating, but after a moment of hesitation, she spoke up again.
"After dinner, I'm going back to the school."
"There's an interview assessment tonight. If I pass—Brother, did you know? I could be accepted into Professor Jayce Talis's research group as a key trainee."
"Members of the research group receive extra stipends..."
"Brother, we'll have money then!"
"Professor Jayce..." Levi recognized the name. This was indeed a massive opportunity.
Jayce Talis, the founder of Hextech, was currently the hottest scientific star in Piltover.
Even when Levi went downstairs to buy a pack of cigarettes, he could spot over a dozen different promotional posters of Mr. Jayce.
He truly hadn't expected this.
If it had been before his transmigration, hearing the name Jayce would have only made Levi think, 'A mere Jayce dares to show off?' He would have sneered, played with his monitor turned off as a handicap, and taught the opponent the true meaning of 'Ionia shall not fall'.
But now that he had transmigrated, Jayce had become an unreachable big shot. It was truly lamentable.
Regardless, this was a tremendous opportunity.
If Lina could become Jayce's student, the siblings would never have to fear being chased back to Zaun by the Enforcers again.
"But it won't be easy, right?"
"Eh?" Lina's forced smile stiffened.
Levi patted her head again and said, "Just do your best tonight. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
"Even if you fail, we haven't lost anything."
"Mhm..." Lina was momentarily speechless, biting her lip tightly before nodding firmly. "Mhm!"
"You go ahead and eat." Levi slowly stood up, sidestepping his sister to squeeze toward the door. "I'm heading off to my night shift."
"Right now?" Lina asked, reluctant to see him go. Her schedule completely clashed with her brother's; this brief period in the evening was the only time they saw each other every day.
"Yeah, I'm going to see if Mr. Ivern is around."
Levi worked at a Hextech audio factory, and Mr. Ivern was his boss.
In the original owner's memories, this boss, who maintained a strict and imposing presence in front of the workers, was actually a good man with a cold exterior but a warm heart.
A good man who sympathized with Zaunite workers—a rare breed indeed among Piltover's business owners.
"If possible, I'll ask Mr. Ivern for an advance on next month's salary. He should agree to it."
Although that amount wouldn't be enough to cover the rent, it would at least allow him to beg the landlord for a little more time, preventing them from being kicked back to Zaun by the Enforcers tomorrow.
"What about next month?"
His sister asked, still worried.
"Don't worry, I can handle it," Levi said confidently. He was, after all, a knowledgeable person from Earth. As long as he could buy some time, he would naturally figure out a way to make money.
"Do well on your defense tonight, and don't worry about things at home."
With that final piece of advice, Levi pushed the door open and walked out, taking the bluebird Janna resting on his shoulder with him.
"Hey, Brother, aren't you going to eat?" Lina called out, but the door had already closed before she could stop him.
She thought for a moment, then slowly set the lunchbox down.
Crouching, she dug a bag of salt out of the storage box under the bed. She sparingly sprinkled a layer of coarse salt over the remaining half of the Gromp meat before carefully closing the lid and placing the lunchbox back on the bed.
"Brother, I couldn't finish it. Eat it when you get back from your night shift, or it will go bad."
Lina picked up the notebook Levi had been using earlier, carefully tore a scrap of paper from the last page, and left a note for her brother.
After leaving the note, she casually stuffed the notebook into her satchel.
Just as she had said, she never had enough notebooks.
Even though Levi had already written something in this blank notebook, she still had to take it to school to use as scratch paper for her interview defense tonight.
"Wait..." Just as Lina stuffed the notebook into her bag, a belated realization struck her.
"What exactly did my brother write?"
"Doesn't he normally never read?"
Filled with curiosity and confusion, she finally opened the notes Levi had left behind.
The first thing that caught her eye was a dedication:
"For you, Mr. Levi."
The handwriting was firm and powerful, with distinct strokes. It didn't look at all like something her unrefined brother would write.
'When did my brother's handwriting get so good... And this dedication, why did he write it to himself?'
Lina was puzzled, but then she saw the preface that followed the dedication:
"The Goddess Janna truly exists."
This was an absolute bombshell right from the start.
"The author has had the honor of conversing at length with the Goddess Janna on several occasions. Blessed by the Goddess with enlightened wisdom, I have begun to learn and master a revolutionary ideological tool for understanding the world."
"Huh??" Lina was completely dumbfounded.
Her brother was actually claiming he had seen Janna with his own eyes? The legendary patron deity of Zaun, the Storm's Fury, Janna?
What a joke!
Janna was obviously just a fairy tale meant to trick children!
Even if she were real, so what?
They called her the patron deity of Zaun, but with Zaunites living in such miserable conditions, she had never seen this goddess clock in for work a single day!
"Oh no, could my brother have been scammed by some religious charlatan?" Lina worried deeply.
However, as she read just a little further down, she discovered:
"The author must first clarify to everyone: Janna truly exists, and she is indeed a god."
"But gods are not omnipotent. A god is simply a powerful magical creature, fundamentally no different from a human being."
"Huh?" Lina was confused again.
The beginning had sounded so mystical, so why was the god being described like this now? If a god was written to be just like a human, would anyone still fall for the scam?
She saw that Levi had written next:
"Janna bestowed her divine grace upon the author not to use my voice to promote herself, but to sow wisdom among the people and share her thoughts and ideals."
"As the Goddess of mercy and equality, the protector of millions, her spirit has continuously drifted above Runeterra for the past several millennia."
"She has observed the development and evolution of human history, analyzing the past, present, and future of society. Finally, after a long period of study and reflection, she has formulated a set of cognitive tools to help us understand and transform the world."
"The author here simply summarizes this as Janna Thought, or Jannaism."
"Herein, I shall attempt to use Janna's ideology to briefly outline and analyze the history of Zaun and Piltover over the past 7,000 years—"
Reading up to this point, Lina's curiosity had been deeply piqued.
Janna's ideology? A god wasn't out there swindling believers, but had instead come to act as a philosophy teacher? This was certainly something new!
She continued flipping through the pages.
She saw that Levi had used very eye-catching, plain language that anyone could understand to write a striking title for his essay:
*Where Did Zaun Come From?*