"Shake! Shake! Wobble! Shake..."
Boom!
A huge explosion rang out as the test tube burst in Van's hand, blowing a cloud of green smoke into the air.
"Hey! Don't you think your technique is a little too reckless?!"
Ekko instinctively ducked and covered his head, even as he shouted the complaint.
He had already lost count of how many explosions Van had caused by now. The way this guy did chemistry was inhuman.
Thankfully, Torvan's brand-new private laboratory had been set up in an abandoned basement beside the Last Drop. Otherwise, in the middle of the night, there was no telling how many people they would have woken up.
"What's the big deal? It's not like it was some catastrophic explosion."
Van looked down at the hand that had been holding the tube. It was torn up from the shattered glass, flesh ragged and bloody, and smeared with the green liquid he had made.
"Anyway, I only know a bit about machinery. I don't understand any of this stuff. Why'd you drag me here?"
"What kind of great inventor doesn't get their hands dirty?... Clean this up, little man."
"Heh..."
Van studied the wound on his hand as it slowly started healing at a visible rate under the effects of the green liquid.
This was something he had extracted from the green slime he had once created, then diluted and mixed with Shimmer in a certain ratio.
"At this point... I guess it still isn't stable, but it counts as a success?"
Van grabbed a clean towel and wiped the blood off his hand.
"You hurt yourself again? One of these days you're seriously going to die by your own hands!"
"I won't. If something's dangerous, they tell me."
"They?"
"Mm-hm."
Van tapped a finger under his eye and lifted his broken brow.
"The things only these eyes can see."
"Heh. Mysterious as ever..."
Ekko quietly started sweeping up the bloodied glass shards from the floor. He shot Van a worried look, but seeing that he seemed to be in a surprisingly good mood, he held his tongue.
"This slime has an extraordinary kind of... vitality. Or maybe it's more accurate to say it almost feels alive..."
Van turned back to inspect the liquid labeled ZAC resting in a dish.
Even after being diluted that much, whatever had been extracted from the slime still carried absurd healing properties.
Of course, even the simple act of dilution had already been enough to give Doctor Singed a headache.
Just like he could never understand how Van had managed to research ZAC purely with his own eyes, without a proper process of trial and error.
Knock, knock, knock!
"Huh? Who's that in the middle of the night?"
"That has to be someone you scared with all that noise!"
"No way. That little pop wasn't even louder than a firecracker."
Van cleared his throat with a bit of guilty awkwardness. If someone had actually come to complain about them disturbing the peace in the middle of the night, that would be embarrassing.
"Little man, go get the door."
"What?! Me?"
"You're my finest assistant."
"I'm your only assistant!"
"I'll take you to Jericho's for a meal."
"Uh... ha. Fine, then."
Ekko put down the broom and ran upstairs to answer the door while Van went back to fiddling with the green liquid.
He looked at his hand again, now almost fully healed, and smiled in satisfaction.
He still hadn't achieved his goal of improving Shimmer, but by sheer accident he had stumbled onto something else that was interesting.
Of course, considering how difficult this stuff was to extract, the next successful batch would probably come down to luck.
"Uh... Van?"
Ekko's head suddenly poked out from the stairwell, his expression strange.
"What?"
"No wonder we were knocking on the tavern door forever and nobody opened it. What exactly are you two doing down here in the middle of the night?"
Sevika appeared behind him in the stairwell, leaning against the railing.
"I've got tavern business to deal with during the day. If I want to run experiments, nighttime's all I've got."
Van glanced at her, poured the remaining green solution into a smaller bottle, slipped it into his pocket, and headed up the stairs.
"Ekko, clean this place up a little, then go get some sleep... We'll talk outside."
...
...
Screeech—
Van's massive battle axe dragged along the ground, the metal scraping loud and harsh through the not-quite-silent night as he and Sevika walked side by side down the street.
"Where exactly are we going?"
"Silco's meeting with the heads of the different districts. He specifically said he wanted you there."
"A meeting? In the middle of the night?"
"Silco doesn't want to make too much noise about it."
"Uh-huh..."
Van glanced at the battle axe in his hand, then at Sevika's newly fitted mechanical arm, and got the picture.
Before long, in a dark corner of the street, they found Silco waiting with his men gathered around him.
He was adjusting his hair and straightening his tie as if he were on his way to some elegant party.
"Let's go."
Silco said nothing more and led his people out of the alley toward a tall building ahead.
Van recognized it.
It had once belonged to an ambitious Shuriman businessman who had tried to establish a high-end restaurant in Zaun.
Unfortunately, the truly wealthy had never had any interest in lingering in Zaun. The place had gradually been abandoned, and eventually it had become another den for the gangs.
"This is a fine building."
Silco looked up at it and spoke in a calm voice.
"It would be even better if it were taller."
"Heh..."
Van let out a faint, contemptuous laugh while quietly taking in the surroundings.
Silco's group seemed to be the last to arrive. The ground-floor hall was already crowded with people.
Even though it was packed, each gang still kept a little distance from the others, with the whole place feeling ready to explode at any moment.
"You're a little late."
A young man with tattoos painted across his scalp was standing guard by the elevator. The moment Silco arrived, he reached out and opened it for them.
"They've all been waiting for you."
"Including your boss?"
The young man said nothing. He merely stepped into the elevator with Silco.
Van and Sevika followed right after him.
The young man gave Van a long look, then glanced down at the huge axe he was dragging before quietly stepping a little farther away. Then he shut the elevator door.
Only after it had fully closed did he finally speak in a low voice.
"Anyone with any real sense already knows who runs the Undercity now."
"Oh? And does that include you?"
Silco gave the young man a sideways glance, then looked away again.
He knew that look well.
It was the look of dissatisfaction, the look of ambition.
"My name is Finn, Mr. Silco."
"I don't like remembering too many names," Silco replied. "Especially nobodies."
Finn was left speechless.
Just then, the elevator doors opened as usual. Silco ignored him completely and walked out.
[End of chapter]