"Mr. Jayce Talis. I've heard a lot about you."
Van wiped the counter, took out two glasses, and gave Ekko a look. Ekko understood at once and went off to busy himself elsewhere.
"Hello, Mr. Van. You've changed a lot."
Jayce was already tall himself, but Van now stood a head taller than him. For a moment, Jayce could hardly connect him to the boy from six years ago.
Jayce walked up to the bar and was just about to sit when Jinx dropped into the seat in front of him first, forcing him to awkwardly move somewhere else.
"You, on the other hand, look exactly the same."
Van first poured a glass of orange juice, stuck a straw into it, and pushed it in front of Jinx.
"What would you like to drink, Mr. Jayce?"
"Uh, anything is fine…"
Van nodded, then took out his tools and began mixing a drink.
Although he was the boss now, Van still treated bartending as his main job and had become extremely good at it.
"Right, let me introduce myself properly. My name is Torvan, owner of the Last Drop."
Van shook the mixer with a rhythm all his own. His movements looked almost exactly like the way he handled chemical experiments.
"Got it, Mr. Tor."
"Allow me to correct you. My name is Torvan. Tor isn't my surname. Surnames are rare things for Zaunites…"
Van poured the mixed drink into the glass in front of Jayce and pushed it forward.
"Of course, you can just call me Van. You've helped me quite a bit, after all."
"Helped you?"
"Yes. The business card you gave me back then. Just putting it on the table made negotiations much easier. Knowing Mr. Jayce Talis is quite the status symbol, isn't it?"
"Haha, you're giving me too much credit…"
Jayce tasted the strong drink Van had mixed, clicked his tongue twice, and found the flavor surprisingly good.
"Nice work."
"Thanks… So, what brings Piltover's golden boy down to the Undercity?"
"I did come here to clear my head, but I'm also here to try my luck."
"How so?"
"I've hit a problem in my research. My partner and I have been stuck on it for a while."
Jayce set down his glass and straightened his posture.
"That research of yours… Are you still working on it?"
"Hm? What research?"
"The one about the arcane… or rather, Hextech."
"…You mean that huge new thing Piltover built?"
Van raised his broken brow in confusion.
"When did I ever research that?"
"The devices I bought from you back then matched a lot of my own research ideas. You were studying the arcane, weren't you?"
"…"
Now Van understood.
"That was a misunderstanding. I was studying a strange crystal, but… I lost the thing."
"That's odd. I clearly sensed an arcane signature similar to Hextech from that large robot outside."
"Robot? Which one? Blitzcrank?"
"Yes… To be honest, I found it hard to believe at first. But if it was you, I believe you could make something similar."
Van cast an unfriendly look at Jinx beside him. Her eyes darted away, and she deliberately sucked loudly on her straw.
Seeing that, Van understood most of it and sighed helplessly.
"Looks like this is a misunderstanding, Mr. Talis…"
"Just call me Jayce."
"All right, Jayce… I really haven't done that kind of research in a long time."
"Fair enough. It's fine."
Jayce smiled and did not seem too disappointed. As he had said, he had only come here to try his luck.
"Still, maybe you could try again. You seem very talented in this area. I want to apply this technology to more everyday uses, to help ordinary people at the bottom… But the instability of arcane energy is a major obstacle."
"Everyday uses?"
Seeing that Jayce did not seem to be lying, Van grew interested.
"I thought Piltover only used this thing to make money."
"That's not true… Haha. The councilors had their demands, and I didn't have much choice."
"Can I see it? The crystal."
Jayce hesitated. After all, this counted as one of Piltover's core technologies.
But it was only one look. No matter how much of a genius someone was, they could not possibly understand everything from a glance.
Besides, his original vision had always been to put Hextech in everyone's hands.
With that thought, Jayce took a faintly glowing stone from his pocket.
At once, Van saw a world completely different from what ordinary people saw: blue points of light around the stone, and strange, obscure symbols circling it.
This was the first time Van had seen the thing from such a close distance. Such a small object, yet it contained an extraordinary power he could barely understand.
"I don't have a very good impression of it…"
Van reached out, wanting to examine the arcane patterns more closely, and Jayce handed it to him without much hesitation.
Hum.
A strange low sound rang out. The Hextech gemstone seemed to stick to Van's palm, and visible blue ripples spread out at once. A violent surge of arcane energy rushed along Van's arm and invaded his body.
"Ah!!!"
Van screamed. A fierce swelling pain burst from his palm, ran up his arm, spread to the right side of his chest, and then flooded his entire body.
A faint blue glow shone from Van's whole body. The pupils in his eyes were completely replaced by light.
What he did not know was that the eye-shaped crystal fragment hidden beneath his clothes, embedded in the right side of his chest, was giving off even stronger fluctuations.
At the sight, everyone in the tavern, including the Firelights, stood up at once.
"Van!"
Ekko rushed toward Van, only to be knocked back by the invisible ripples of arcane energy.
"How could this…"
Jayce stared at the scene before him, lost and helpless. Before he could react, something kicked the back of his knee, forcing him half down onto the floor.
Click.
A strange-looking large-caliber pistol pressed against Jayce's temple. Jinx glared at him and spoke through clenched teeth.
"What the fuck did you do?!"
"I… I don't know why this is happening…"
Jayce looked stunned. He could no longer care about the gun against his head and hurriedly stood up, trying to take the Hextech gemstone back from Van, only to be completely blocked by the arcane energy.
"Whatever trick you pulled, stop it right now! Or else…"
Hearing Van's hysterical screams, Jinx gritted her teeth in panic and pulled back the pistol's hammer.
Jayce heard the gun cock beside his ear, but he had no solution at all.
"I've never seen anything like this. I don't have any—"
Bang!
The tavern doors were violently smashed open. A huge robot appeared in the doorway, steam spreading across its iron back, electricity crackling around its body, and its eyes turned yellow.
"Entering! Alert mode!"
Blitzcrank swung its left mechanical arm and hurled it toward Van.
"Rocket Grab!"
[End of chapter]